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Jade has had many a day off from her duties as a squire and a stablehand. As kids, most of those days are spent with Kit out on the rock cliffs of the Stoneblades Mountain where she would teach the wild princess the latest move that she had learned in her knightly training or just riding through the Talacyte woodlands and hang out with the ranger patrols.
Those days were Jade’s most favourite days.
But there are days, like today, where Kit cannot pull away from her own duties on Jade’s days off. Before, it was because of royal lessons and tutoring. A necessary part of growing up as not just a highborn but a royal and something that Kit can’t easily run away from no matter how hard she tried. During those days, Jade, who had no idea what to do on her own that’s not work, would walk the halls of Tir Asleen castle or, having been given free access to Tir Asleen’s vast library, read on her own until Kit finishes her lessons.
These days though, Kit’s days are filled with meetings with the royal council and teaching Elora everything she needs to know about being a highborn alongside her brother Airk, to prepare her for her empresshood. Jade herself has become more busy as well, having decided to continue pursuing knighthood in Tir Asleen (in a new Knightly order that Kit sprung on her but a knight nonetheless) and helping her sister Scorpia with expanding the Bone Reaver camp. She has also finally joined the Pacalcade in genuine Knightly training, has been working with Earl Kannor to establish a trading relationship with the Bone Reavers and Tir Asleen, and recruiting people for Elora’s personal guard.
Suffice to say that both Kit and Jade have been very busy for the last couple of weeks and a day where they can both just relax together is precious.
Today, Jade strolls through the halls that she knows so well and looks at the portraits depicting the most important histories of Tir Asleen and its rulers. The young knight has studied these portraits so many times and yet every time she’s still amazed how she can see Kit in every Tanthalos to have ever graced the walls of the Castle.
Her cocky smirk in one of the wayward princes, a look of determination in the face of a queen of old that she has seen in both the twins’ faces during a particularly frustrating meeting, the exact shade of brown in the hair of an old king that has lead Jade to imagine an older Kit which she had to shut down real quickly because it brought up certain fantasies that the knight is not ready to face yet.
The Halls of History has endlessly fascinated Jade and she will walk these walls a hundred more times before she grows even a little bit tired of looking at these portraits.
This is how Kit finds her in this slow afternoon.
She had stopped at one of the oldest portraits in the castle. The portrait of the first Tanthalos’ to rule the land.
The portrait shows a couple standing proudly and holding hands looking at the far distance. Equals in leadership and in partnership. The Stoneblades mountains loom in the background alongside the first of the towers that will eventually become the Castle of Tir Asleen stand proudly behind the couple.
The man, Rion Tanthalos, bears a great resemblance to every other Tanthalos whose portrait hangs on these halls. Brownish hair tied back with a number of braids, a sensible beard, his stature and aura one would commonly see in most warriors alongside a soft kindness in his proud smile. Beside him, Corwynne Tanthalos has the mischievous smile that Jade always sees on Kit’s face whenever she has some crazy plan cooking up in her head, and curly orange hair that Jade knew Sorsha had before fading to its now soft curl greyish brown... Together the first rulers stand in pride and Jade can't help but admire every detail of their portrait.
She hears very purposefully loud footsteps approach her from behind and feels a hand slip into her own. Jade grips the hands tighter and turns to give Kit a kiss hello.
“Hi,” Jade says as she gives Kit another kiss on the forehead. “How was the meeting?”
Kit lets out a loud and tired groan and leans her weight against Jadeb before saying, “If I hear any more of those lily-livered highborn old farts argue about the existence of the wyrm, I’m committing murder and I don’t care if that’s “not how you settle an argument.”
“They’re still on about that? You would think since Airk was literally kidnapped and is actually testifying that it’s real that they would listen.” Jade hummed, also tired of this argument.
“Of course they won’t, they’re asses.” Kit scoffed and rolled her eyes.
They stand together in silence for a moment, mirroring the couple in the portrait in front of them.
“Rion and Corwynne Tanthalos, the first rulers of Tir Asleen… before it was called Tir Asleen.” Kit murmured after a minute, the exhaustion clear in her voice.
“Tell me about them?” Jade looked at Kit and pulled her into a side hug, a tactic Jade has taken to using more frequently recently to comfort the princess from her frustrations.
“Well, they were very clearly a power couple.” Kit said with a cheeky grin and leaned her head on Jade’s shoulder. “Rion was the warrior and protected the people so successfully that they made him the leader. The only thing was that he was a kinda bad leader, no patience for politics, and the way people would speak riddles instead of just asking him what they really wanted.”
“Sounds familiar.” Jade quipped, jostling the princess in her arms teasingly.
“Shut up no it’s not.” The princess slapped her knight lightly on the stomach. Said knight only chuckled and pulled the princess closer to her side.
“ANYWAYS, he was horrible at it but this guy Corwynne was really good at it so Rion asked them for help and their partnership worked so well they just got married and the people crowned them as the first rulers of the land.”
Kit points at the tower that was visible in the portrait, “That’s where the old town hall was. They took it down to rebuild it with stone and the tower was the first guard tower. They’ve rebuilt it more than once over time cause wars and shit and added more to finally make a castle but that bit still exists.”
“Really?” intrigue and interest colouring Jade’s voice. “Which bit?”
“Most of it is Fin Raziel’s tower and the library now. Ever seen the weird discoloration of the walls around the west side of the library? That was part of the old walls. Same with walls on the stairs leading up to Fin Raziel’s tower. It’s pretty cool actually.”
Kit continues to ramble a bit about the progression of the building of the castle and Jade just listens to her with a smile. She loves when Kit gets like this and she will never not feel incredibly lucky that she’s one of the few to see this side of Kit. And every time she falls a little bit more in love with her princess.
Kit’s rambling peters off after she gets to the creation of the east wing garden and the two were silent for a while once more, just enjoying each other's presence before Kit spoke up again, her voice softer.
“They weren’t all that great y’know.”
“Oh?” Jade looks down at Kit with a questioning quirk of her brow.
“I said that Rion was a warrior right? Well, Corwynne was a shrewd tactician… and together they were conquerors.” Kit stands up straight and frowns at the portrait of her ancestors.
“They became rulers during the early age where the Nelwyns still had claims to most of the lands, the Daikini were young and still just starting out and frequently quarreling each other. It’s why the first tower was a watchtower. Rion was good at claiming lands and killing but sucked at leading a village, Corwynne was a smooth talker but could barely take a guy on a fight. When they got together…”
“Ah..”
“Yeah.”
“Some of the people they didn’t kill during their conquests became slaves.” Kit scrunched her nose in disapproval at the fact. “Of course that was abolished and outlawed later on but… it still happened.”
“The people who managed to get away, fled to the forest.”
“Wildlings.”
“Yeah.”
“And the freed slaves?”
“Just integrated into the populace.” Kit tried to smile only for it to look like a grimace. “It happened a while back, I don’t think some of their descendants even remember but I know some do and my family does too. There were rosters and lists. I think one of my great grandparents actively tried to make amends but…. it still happened.”
“It’s one of the things I hate about us.” Kit glared at the portrait. “You know besides Bavmorda,” she added with a roll of her eyes.
“You know a lot about them.”
“I know a lot about my family’s history.” Kit looked at Jade and smiled gently and the fiery-headed knight couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between Kit and Rion.
“Oh, is that so? Princess lessons worked after all, eh?” Jade’s brow rose with a smirk.
“Oh haha very funny,” Kit growled, punching Jade on the arm. “I paid attention to my lessons, thank you very much! But they were boring as shit and I just wanted to learn how to sword fight more!”
Jade and Kit slapped and punched each other, mock fighting and laughing for a couple of minutes before Jade pulled the princess to her side once more with a kiss to the cheek which Kit returned before continuing her story.
“In any case, my tutors were and still are too stuck up to teach anything about my family’s or the kingdom’s dark history but all history books are required to be unbiased. Something about learning your history enables you to actively not repeat the same mistakes people before me made or whatever.” Kit waved her hand dismissively, clearly just repeating her tutors' words before looking at the ground shyly.
“But that’s... not the only reason why I know a lot about them,” Kit blushed and coughed into her fist. “I was looking for stuff for uhm… you.”
“Wait wha?” Jade started at Kit’s unexpected confession. “What’re you talking about??”
Kit pulled away from Jade and looked at their joined hands, her thumb rubbing circles on Jade’s skin. “I- remember that time in the Reaver camps with the truth plum? And you asked me if I had known if you- if you had been-”
“If you knew that I was a Bone Reaver?”
“Yeah….” Kit looked up at Jade through her bangs before looking down again. “I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t. The only reason I had the idea in the first place was because I knew that the mark on the back of your neck looked… familiar.”
“You’ve seen the mark before?”
“Not your specific mark, no. That’s the mark of Kael like you said. Unique to him and his children…. But the practice and the design is very familiar because the culture is from one of the groups that they, Rion and Corwynne, could never quite fully conquer.” Kit turns her body to Jade but doesn’t take her eyes off their hands.
“There’s not much history written about them in the library, just that the stars and the moons were important to them and that the marks were kind of like how we have houses and nobility but last names aren’t really a thing so if you decide to have a family, the best way to know whose child you are is by the marks…” Kit says to the ground but each word feels heavy with deeper meaning on Jade’s chest.
“Or at least that’s what they wrote down.” Kit huffed a laugh finally looking at Jade with an apologetic smile.
“Grain of salt though cuz those books are definitely biased.” Kit huffed with an awkward laugh. “Also there are a lot of people in Waldveld who have similar marks on the back of their necks like yours and I could've asked them about it but that felt like a very disrespectful question to ask especially coming from me and like h-how would I even ask them about it?? Or like even approach the subject?? It’s a very touchy history and- “
Whatever Kit was going to say next was very quickly silenced and forgotten as Jade pulled her in and kissed her senselessly.
Jade only pulled back when they were on the verge of losing air but continued to leave lingering kisses on Kit’s lips and nose, arms very securely around her princess. Said the princess’ eyes fluttered open, winded and disoriented, staring very intently at Jade’s lips.
“Wha- uhm,” Kit cleared her throat and swallowed thickly. “What was that for?”
For everything. For including me in your life. For thinking about me. For choosing me. For doing this for me. I love you, I love you, I love you.
“For being you.” Jade replied softly, giving the still slightly winded princess another small peck on the lips with a smile.
“You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
“Well… I mean you deserve to know about it.“
“I know. Thank you. I love you.” Jade kisses Kit sweetly again and pulls her to her chest and buries her nose in her princess’s hair, breathing her in as her heart beats with overflowing love for this thoughtful, caring, menace and, owner of her heart.
“Oh.” Kit breathed out, surprised before wrapping her own arms against Jade and letting herself melt in the arms of her person.
“I love you too.” Kit murmured against the skin of Jade’s neck, the council meeting completely forgotten.
“I mean it though,” Kit murmured in the hug. And though muffled, Jade hears Kit’s next words in her heart and soul and her heart sings with love once more.
“You’re a child of both Tir Asleen and the Woods and you deserve to know your history and if I can do anything to help you learn more about your Wildwood roots, I’ll do it.”
Jade just hugs Kit tighter.