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Nya was in the Monastery’s library, complaining to Wu and by extension Misako about her mother.
“Perhaps you should talk to your brother. Kai might be able to help,” Wu told her, still looking through the piles of scrolls.
What she hadn’t considered in her frustrated rambling was the possibility for either her parents or her brother to overhear. Unfortunately for her, it was the latter.
“Kai? Kai wouldn't understand. He probably likes being waited on. I bet he loves being treated like a baby,” Nya claimed.
What the current Master of Water didn’t expect was another voice to join the conversation.
“That’s not true,” Kai’s voice told her. Nya turned to see her older brother approaching her from the doorway.
“Kai! I-“ she got cut off.
“Nya, do you know how old we were when our parents were taken by Krux and Acronix?” The current Master of Fire didn’t give her any chance to finish her sentence.
She had a rough idea but wasn’t actually certain. As soon as he had started speaking, Nya knew two things: that she had screwed up big time and that she was about to get a very long speech.
“Eight and five years old,” Kai answered for her. His tone was deathly serious. “I was a third-grader and looking after a five-year-old !” he exclaimed.
She’d known that they had been young but didn’t realise it had been that young.
“You have no idea what it’s like having to take care of someone at an age when you should still have someone taking care of yourself. What it’s like to have to handle all the adult things that your parents should be handling,” Kai told her. “And I’m glad that you don’t,” he added, sincerely.
The siblings hadn’t noticed that Misako and Wu had stepped out of the library while Kai had been talking.
“Kai…” Nya trailed off. What was there for her to say?
“So, while you might be annoyed by mum’s nagging, I…am glad that we are getting time to spend with our parents,” Kai told her. “Even now that we’re both adults,” he added.
“And before you say that I wouldn’t understand wanting to send our parents away: I do. But you just need to be patient, it’s been so long since they’ve last been in constant contact with us; they’re trying, Nya,” the elder sibling told her before leaving the library. Once more, he didn’t give her a chance to say anything.
Nya was left alone in the library. Left alone with her thoughts to have a realisation. Rather a few realisations.
The first one was that her brother wasn’t really as hot-headed as he tries to appear. The second was that Kai had missed out on a lot of his childhood for her. And the third was that she would never have had the first two realisations if she hadn’t been so quick to speak.
What does she do now? While Nya had been complaining to Wu earlier, she had effectively insulted her brother…who had overheard her.
Nya had dug her own grave, it seemed.