The Rule of Blood

Chapter 11

Calians POV:

I am so stupid. I don't know what possessed me to go to Aideen and tell her about the alliance. It was incredibly stupid and now what? I have to sneak away to the capital to teach her to be "big"? God i'm in over my head.

I just couldn't shake the awful feeling after my meeting with Matthias. It wasn't right. I couldn't do that to her and it was infuriating. For the first time in my life I made a decision that didn't necessarily have my people in the forefront of my mind and it was alarming. I barely knew Aideen and yet I was making foolish decisions for her. I need to temper myself or Lassair and Elohi will both crumble.

I scuffed the toe of my training sneaker into the ground and continued muttering to myself under my breath as I waited to spot a certain red haired girl. The capital was the only neutral territory where Lassair, Elohi, Mizu, and Lofti could meet because fighting here was forbidden. The sounds of footsteps on gravel caught my attention and I looked up to see Aideen approaching me.

God give me strength because the way her hips swayed as she walked, making her loose fitted dress flow around her was enough to get me feeling some type of way. I was so distracted and flustered I had to search for something, anything else to look at besides her hips. The sky was looking mighty fine if you asked me.

"Calian." Aideen greeted me and I finally found the strength to make eye contact with her. I tried my hardest to keep my face neutral but it was hard when she had that soft smile playing on her pink lips.

"Where are your soldiers?" I asked and Aideen shrugged at me. "You didn't bring any?" I narrowed my eyes at her and she smiled sheepishly at me.

"I told them I was riding the crimson wave and would be in my room all day." Her cheeks reddened slightly at her confession and I sighed in exasperation.

"That was extremely dumb of you Aideen." She looked surprised that these were the words coming from my mouth but I continued. "What if you had run into trouble on your way here? You would've left your people with no ruler. That was un responsible of you." She remained quiet and I softened my voice. "You need to remember you are responsible for thousands of people now. Your life, your decisions, they all matter." She lowered her head unable to maintain eye contact with me and I sighed. 

"Here." I said as I chucked a small pack at her. It hit her in the stomach and she fumbled with it, managing to catch it before it hit the ground.

"What's this?" She asked curiously as she opened the bag to look inside.

"Clothes. Go change." She peered at me with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Well you can't train in that." I gestured to her long dress which while it may be pretty, would be impossible to train In.

"Train?" She questioned, her eyebrows raised "like physical training?"

"Well yeah." I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look learning to be "big" is 90% confidence and 10% fake it until you make it. Except you suck at faking and have very little confidence so to build that we need to make you confident in your abilities." Aideen stared at me blankly.

"Though to be confident in your abilities, you'd have to have some first. So that's what we'll be working on." I put my hands on my hips and smiled cheekily as her mouth gaped in mock offense. She didn't correct me though. Elohi and Lassair had very different ways of ruling. Lassair was ruled by a Banrion that was equivalent to a queen. She held higher duties than others and assisted in decision making but rarely got her hands dirty. Elohi on the other hand was ruled by a Chief. Chiefs are equivalent to a head warrior. I am the best warrior of all of my people which is why I have earned my title of Chief. Sure birthright played some role but I still trained my whole life and had to be elected to be Chief when the time came.