Stolen Scales

Chapter 43

Sera nods. "Yes, let's start. Do you want to sit on the floor, or stand?"

Kyma frowns. "Sit, please."

Sera nods and takes a seat, folding her legs beneath her, and waits for Kyma to follow suit before speaking. "Let's start with sign language first. How many of our signs do you know?"

Kyma frowns again, but this time her frown is thoughtful. "I know the greeting one."

"Can you show me?"

Kyma nods and tries to demonstrate the hand movement, keenly aware of the mistakes she is making in her movement. She finishes her botched version of the sign and mumbles. "Sorry."

Sera shakes her head. "What are you sorry for? It's much farther than I expected you to be."

Her last words contain a small mix of bitterness, condescension, and anger. Kyma reels back in shock at them, hurt. "How little did you expect me to know? I know I'm new to this, but you don't have to be cruel about it."

Sera stands and her voice rises in anger. "I don't have to be cruel about it, but I should be. You just waltzed into our Kingdom and act like you deserve everything and are better than everyone else. You don't know our culture yet you order us around. And you're just putting the bare minimum into learning our languages! You don't really care about our people, you care about yourself."

Kyma feels tears trying to escape her eyes but she forces them back. She also forces down the warble in her throat before she speaks. "I know this won't change your mind about me, but I don't act like that, I never have. In fact, I've been raised as someone who doesn't matter, so it's hard for me to speak out. You're right, I don't know your culture, not yet anyways. I haven't been here long enough. But I'm trying to learn, the culture and the languages. I tell you to do things because they are good things. Do you really think that it's a bad thing for me to tell you to talk about your problems with the people you have them against?"

Sera frowns darkly at her. "Look at you, still acting all high and mighty. You don't deserve our respect. You shouldn't be friends with Alai, you'll just tear her apart."

Kyma swallows against the lump in her throat as Lyss comes up behind her. "Come on, Kyma."

Kyma turns and shakes her head at Lyss. "No, I'm fine."

Lyss scowls. "Kyma." Kyma stops resisting for a moment to look up at her. "Fine or not, we're going outside."

Kyma tried to pull away again, but Lyss just drags her outside to sit on the steps. They've barely sat down when Kyma bursts into tears and falls into Lyss' side. Lyss just puts her arm around Kyma for comfort, murmuring softly.
"I know, I know. She's horrible. But I didn't expect her to be this bad towards you. She wasn't being very professional either. She's a teacher, you're her student. She shouldn't have let her personal opinion, no matter what it was, be expressed in that setting." Lyss falls quite for a moment before resuming. "We can talk to Queen Lahira about getting you a new teacher, if you want."

Kyma hastily shakes her head at that. "No, I'm not going to switch teachers."

Lyss pulls away slightly to look at Kyma with a shocked expression. "But she was horrible to you."

Kyma nods, sniffling. "I know that, but what do you think will happen if I quit? For her, it will just further confirm her beliefs. And if I allow her to bully me into leaving, what does that say about me? It says that despite all my ordeals, I'm not strong enough to stand up for myself."

Lyss nods thoughtfully. "I see your point, But it is still your choice, Kyma. Do you really want to do this?"

Kyma inhales shakily. "No, I don't. But I have to."
Lyss smiles softly. "Very well, we can go back whenever you're ready."

Nodding, Kyma gets to her feet and wipes away the last remnants of her tears with the back of her hand. She walks back through the building and inside the room, and sits down in the same spot as before.

"Continue the lesson, Sera."

Sera looks mildly surprised that Kyma returned, and sneers at her before sitting down across from Kyma, her next words scathing. "Let's start with the basics. I'm sure you can understand that."

Kyma doesn't let Sera's barbed words hit her like they were intended, deflecting them aside instead and presenting Sera with a calm demeanor. "Show me them."

Sera lets out a small frown at the ineffectiveness of her words, but complies with Kyma's request and begins to show her the basic signs. "Since we are starting with the basics, let's truly begin with the alphabet. Then you can at least spell out a word if you don't know it."

She shows Kyma a small series of hand signs, and waits impatiently for Kyma to copy them. Despite her comments being minuscule corrections on Kyma's movements that are intended to make Kyma feel bad at the signs, Kyma interprets them as what they should have been, suggestions.
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I knew based off of what was written last chapter that Sera wouldn't be the best person, but I didn't think she would be that mean. What did you think of it? How quickly do you think she'll learn? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading, and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.