Work Text:
Syden sat at his desk, drawing on a blank page in his notebook. The instructor was going on about foreign lands and their politics and ways of life. But Syden was lost in his own land of daydreaming.
He used his charcoal pencil to sketch a feminine figure in a white ball gown, her long black hair styled half up, half down.
His cousin Cela had been attending the same school as him for over a year now, but they still saw her as the ‘new girl.’ She was mixed race and took after her father in appearance, which meant that she and Syden looked mostly different, and no one would know they were kin if they were not told.
He began adding more strokes to the strands of her dark hair.
She was a year ahead of him, and therefore, not in the same classroom. This was hard for him as he had gotten used to her constant presence at home.
Ever since she came to live with them, he couldn’t imagine a day without her.
Yes, she was a year older than him, but neither of them ever felt it.
Suddenly, the teacher called his name. He had been sketching at his desk while her back was turned, her slender figure standing before the group of students, scribbling with chalk on a large grey slate as she gave her lessons.
“Syden, can you give me the names of the six islands that make up The Belt of God?” she asked him.
“I… uh, I don’t know,” he said, looking up with what he was sure was a hazy look on his face.
The instructor didn’t seem happy, yet was not angry either.
“Ok then…” she said. “What are they best known for trading in?”
“Women?” he offered speculatively.
There was a general outbreak of laughter in the classroom.
The instructor again appeared passive though not happy. “Well, yes… they do have beautiful women in those lands. And they still engage in the abhorrent practice of the slave trade. But that was not the answer I was looking for.”
“Oh,” he said, itching to get back to his sketching.
The instructor gave them a speech about how they all needed to study harder if they wanted to pass the upcoming exam.
Syden thought about it, and he realized the answer was gems… of course, because it was called “God’s Belt” for a reason. But truth be told, he didn’t really care. No matter what, he knew he could rely on his older sister Kate to save him from failing by being his private tutor. After the teacher finished her talking, when her back was turned once again, he got right back to daydreaming.
When he was done with the first image, he sketched a white rose underneath it, held by a hand. White roses were her favourite flowers…
The ‘new girl at school’ was just another pretty face to them, a foreigner with a strange manner and odd stories to tell. She was a mystery, to be avoided or uncovered.
But to him, she was more than that…
She was the white rose, opening just for him. He took up some red ink and blotted the pure petals with drops of crimson, flowing onto the hand holding it, staining its pale skin.
Because of her, he was blooded in more ways than one.