The Flaming Heart of the Empire

_

“U-um yes, Master” His words made her a little nervous, she felt like she was in trouble. The shifter took the seat across from him, fidgeting nervously with her sleeves to try and calm her nerves.

“Did….did I do something wrong?” She was hesitant to ask but it felt like she’d done something wrong and was about to be punished. 

“You didn’t,” Kouen replied, understanding she must have been expecting a lecture or punishment of some kind “I simply had some questions for you, about what you are willing to discuss about your childhood on the southern continent.”

“Ayana, I need to speak with you. Please, sit down.”

now accepting curious anons

_

“Yes sir.” She nodded, folding her hands in front of her and looking away from the map to her hands. 

“I would guess for a long time, but I don’t know exactly for how long or how many of us were left….as far as I know we were the only ones like us. I dont know if the others are still alive. I might be the only one left.”

Aya knew very little about her history or her race because she was so young when she was taken from her family. She knew she would break down if she let the emotionless wall down, so she resolutely refused to let it crack.

To have such knowledge weigh on the mind...Kouen knew it would break anyone. Yet to see the blank expression on her face bad behind her eyes...

“Perhaps you are, perhaps you aren’t...” he mused, trying not to let how much this affected him show on his face “we are done for the day, Ayana. You may return to your chamber, if you wish. If I have need of you, I will summon you.”

_

Realizing her emotions had been showing on her face, the slave squashed down the pain and the urge to cry. Expression going fairly blank to block out the grief. 

“You don’t need to apologize to me, Master. You didn’t do anything wrong…its just a translation. I tend to the library.. it’s just part of my job.” 

Her family didn’t survive. She would never see them again. She….she was all alone. 

“Yes….I would guess so. I don’t remember much….I was small.” She gestured to around what her height was when she was taken, for Kouen it would look like the size of a two or three year old child.  “A few of us were small, we were taken. Everyone else in my village must have been killed….the torran people probably left this before they moved on.” 

Aya walked back over to the map just a yard or so away, looking up at it before pointing a little ways inland from the great rift. 

“We were somewhere here.” She said, moving to the side so he could see where she was pointing, deep in the jungles of the dark continent. “Before the humans came”

Seeing the height she gestured to, how small she must have been...less than five years old...

He stood and walked closer, looking at the map.

“People lived there?” Kouen mused, trailing off as he remembered the little he knew of that region.

Absolutely devoid of people, outside of a few Torran settlements.

He was able to put it together easily, and the anger he felt was unlike any he had felt before.

To wipe out an entire race, purely for profit...if any of those slavers were Kou, then they would answer to him.

It's TMI Tuesday! Ask my muse anything and they'll have to answer truthfully.

“He is loyal, brave, and true, and the only one to hold my heart. If anything were to happen to him, then I’m not certain what I would do.”

_

This spar had felt especially nice after the night both had spent. As if it helped forget the bad part of it but keep in mind the positive that came out of it.

As usual he was dripping wet from the sweat, but he had a very pleased expression on his face. Sharrkan smiled as he felt the loving squeeze and replied, “Thank you, I’m glad I’m still as good. The outcome is never guaranteed with me~”he chuckled.

“And now time for a nice shower.” He had never hidden to Kouen the fact he hated staying too long in sweaty clothes and feeling all sticky. 

At the mention of the showers, Kouen smirked a tiny bit.

“As always, the showers are free to you,” he declared “as reward for your training with me. I will see you after we are both cleaned up.”

As a prince, he couldn’t really go around in sweat-soaked clothes, could he?

_

She was unsure what to think of that look he gave her, nodding when he told her to let him know how he did.

Though the more he read, her face slowly fell. Staring at the scroll with wide, grief filled eyes. It took her a minute when he paused to speak.

“Its…its a warning and a memorial. It says ‘The cruel outsiders came, those one with nature are gone. Do not linger, as the outsiders could be back. Do not intrude on…on the space of our fallen friends and pray to Solomon their…stolen children return’ ” Her throat felt tight as she translated, though he didnt say it right it was close enough for her to figure out what it said. 

Kouen could see and hear her change, the grief and pain.

As a native speaker, she was from the continent, and to have been brought into slavery...

It was easy to put two and two together.

“My apologies,” he told her “had I known where this was from, I would not have asked you to translate it.”

_

“Uh…..this may not be my place….but…i speak Torran. I can’t read it, but its my uh….born language.” She meant first language but couldn’t remember what the correct word to use was. “I was taken from there.”

She moved just close enough to glance down as the transcription, obviously recognizing it as torran but otherwise not having a clue what it said.

When she said that she could speak Torran, that it was her native tongue, Kouen looked up and saw Ayana with new eyes. He had no clue of her origins, and it was surprising she could even remember it, if her accent speaking his language was anything to go by. Perhaps a previous owner helped keep the memory of it alive for her.

“Most of us who are afforded lessons in Torran can only hope we know what we’re reading and saying,” he muttered, not bothering to hide the papers since she said she couldn’t read it “since we learn only from other non-native speakers.

“I’ll read this aloud, to the best of my ability,” Kouen continued “let me know how I do, and what it means, please.”

_

“We’ve been married almost a month and you’ve been stuck with paper work since the wedding.” She squeezes his hand but still smiles at him.  “En, even you need a break every once in a while. And no, stopping for the night to sleep is not counted as a proper break. You’re going to drive yourself insane. And I know the sooner you get it done the sooner we can take that trip for our honeymoon. But please, for me, take a break.”

“Ah, just one second,” he muttered, giving his signature on the papers in front of him with a small flourish “there, done. Now I am completely at your mercy, my queen.”

She could do most anything, and his tired and mentally-fried self would thank her for it.