Look Beyond What You See

As we walk to the suite Kyla and Weston will be sharing—at the opposite end of the mansion from mine and Dmitri’s suites—Kyla chatters nonstop, putting on a great show of being cheerful and at ease. Her husband and the servants with us seem to believe her performance, but I know that she only acts like this when she’s upset or uncomfortable. Will she be able to relax here? Was inviting her and Weston a mistake?

As soon as the servants leave Kyla’s and Weston’s luggage with us in the suite and take their leave, Kyla’s entire demeanor changes to solemn and reticent. She drops into the nearest chair, all at once limp and worn out. Weston, as dour as ever, stalks about the chamber slowly, inspecting everything critically and finally taking up residence staring out a window at the opposite end of the room. I suppose this is as close as we’ll get to him giving us privacy, though I dare not ask for such a thing.

“Are you happy, Aerys?” Kyla asks softly with a furtive glance towards her husband. She is almost as good as I am at speaking so as not to be overheard.

“Much more so, now,” I match her volume. I don’t want Weston to decide to become a part of this conversation. With any luck, we’ll be able to speak so he can’t hear us indefinitely. “We’ve had some trying times recently, but everything has worked out most satisfactorily in the resolving of those difficulties.” At least, so far, I add silently. I do not really wish to tell Kyla that my wedding has been undertaken so precipitously as a political maneuvre, an attempt to checkmate Xenia de Poitiers.

“It does not bother you that he is...as you say, a different species?”

“Not in the least. I care very deeply for him, and he for me.”

“This...difference between you will not cause marital strife?”

“It could not, Kyla, because of the necklaces. Surely you know that you and Weston are very different. Do these differences cause you marital strife?”

She fingers the chain at her neck. It is a different style from mine, a silver braid of sorts, hung with lotus charms. Then she glances at her husband, who I’ve noticed has been intermittently interrupting his window-gazing to stare our way with hard, intolerant eyes. He regards me as something subhuman, I feel, and I detest the feeling.

“I believe it would take more than a necklace’s enchantments to conquer the strife caused by the differences between us,” Kyla admits in tones lower than before, so low that I must lean quite close to her to hear all. “Yes, I love him, but I am not blind to his faults, nor those of his family. If I could only break it....” Her voice trails off and hopelessness fills her eyes.

“I can, but I know not what good it would do you. Mine was broken, and Grandmother came in person to remedy the situation. She was most displeased, besides. But if you want me to risk it....”

“Don’t trouble yourself, Aerys, dear. God has a plan even for this.” I hope you’re right, for your sake. I hate to see this side of her. I hate to see how much she is suffering. How easy it would be for me to dispose of him.... “How could you break it, anyway? To break an enchanted thing would require--”

“Magic, yes? You recall my last letter to you? You seemed to well enough, earlier.”

She is silent for a long while, regarding me with skeptical eyes. “Yes, I recall. I just find it all so difficult to believe....”

“I was shocked by the revelation, as well. But I promise you that it is the truth. I would demonstrate, but I feel that your husband would not approve.”

“He would not. He feels.... He is adamant that we should not have come here ‘by means of witchcraft to sanction a union of an intractable sinner and your wayward sister,’ as he put it, and he is most put out by everything about this place, not least the hospitality of your new family. I believe that cognitive dissonance irritates him. He would prefer to believe that sinners the likes of your new family have no redeeming qualities.”

“And you, Kyla? How do you feel about all of this? If you are uncomfortable, or do not want to be a part of this, you need only say the word and we will send you home.”

She laughs grimly, the first sign of genuine amusement she’s shown since her arrival. My heart breaks. “I would endure far more discomfort than I think likely to befall me here to be away from his parents, for they are many times worse even than he.”

“Does he genuinely care for you?”

“With the necklaces, it is impossible to say. But he is kind to me, a leader, a provider… Other women are bound to worse husbands.”

“Your faith is genuine, not just a show for him?”

She sighs deeply. “I know you knew me to be vehement in my denials of God, and at first my faith was merely pretense. But things were so very bad, Aerys.... His parents were exceedingly cruel, and even his best efforts were not enough to spare me completely from them. Things have improved immensely since then, but at the start, between the abuse and the loneliness, I would have jumped at any opportunity to abandon my life. I went to the chapel in desperation, and there...I wish I could explain better. But I believe I heard from God, that He has a plan for me and will not test me beyond what I can bear, and I have to believe it. I have to, or else, even now, life is not worth living.”

My eyes fill with tears and I fling my arms around my poor sister. “Oh, Kyla....” I hear the rain pouring outside to match the opened floodgates of my eyes. I hear the window crash shut and Weston’s irate mutterings and pay him no heed. Kyla has returned my embrace and is weeping with me, for all that we’ve lost and all that could have been.

“Kyla, let go of that heathen,” Weston’s voice orders roughly. “Did you not see that her tears coincided with a rainstorm? A powerful witch, like the rest of them, perhaps even an imposter for your sister. We ought not to stay here--” His ranting is suddenly muffled and rendered incoherent by the imposition of a water barrier between him and us. But my annoyance with him has dried up my tears, and the flow from her eyes stops shortly thereafter.

“Neat trick,” Kyla remarks, observing my handiwork that shelters us from her husband’s wrath. “I wish you could teach me. I would have much use for that.”

“I can imagine. I’m told I’m the only one of our family, aside from Grandmother, who possesses magic in any great quantities, or I would teach you immediately.”

She smiles wanly. “Even with the benefits it would bestow upon me, I could not forsake my God for your talents. I do not judge you, only envy a little what you can do, a sin I shall have to confess later. But God’s Word is clear about such things, and if I am to believe, it must be all or nothing. I cannot pick and choose.”

“For that I respect and admire you greatly. I have little patience for hypocrites.” I look pointedly at her husband, who is by now quite irate on the other side of my water barrier. He seems to have entirely missed all that his religion says about love. “Shall we stop tormenting him now?”

“I suppose. I do hate to see him like this.”

Accordingly, I pull the water barrier back into myself as quickly and smoothly as I can, getting nothing wet in the process. I’ve gotten much better at that in the last few days of training. Weston and Kyla both stare at me with something like awe, though Weston’s is of course tempered with disgust.

“My apologies for disturbing you, sir,” I say to Weston as I rise from my chair. “I simply felt that Kyla and I needed a little bit of sister time, which is understandable when one knows how close we were prior to your marriage. We have been greatly deprived by our separation since then, and I felt that privacy was not otherwise to be had, else I never would have infringed so on your personal comfort and moral code. I am aware that the talents I have had since birth are seen as sin in your view, and for that I am sorry, but I cannot apologize for what and who I am, nor for what and who the members of my new family are. I therefore humbly request that you, in spite of your natural inclinations, do everything in your power to be respectful to those around you during your stay here, and perhaps even to show Christlike love to the sinners with whom you find yourself surrounded. If at any time you and Kyla mutually decide that you wish to depart from this place, you need only inform me and arrangements will be made accordingly as quickly as I can manage them.”

Weston is so caught off-guard by my little speech that he is left speechless. Kyla mouths me a thank-you as I curtsey and depart, reciting some invented excuse about being needed to finalize arrangements for this evening’s festivities. I do intend to help arrange this evening’s festivities, but not in a way that anyone, even Kyla or Dmitri, would expect.