200 and some odd years ago...

Ka’shin’lai looked over Eun’s shoulder and rolled his eyes. “Ves’hil’n, come here.”

Ves’hil’n sprung to his feet from his kneeling position on the torn up and packed down grass where he was pondering what Eun’s reaction had been about. Ves’hil’n jogged over to Ka’shin’lai, dry blades of grass clinging to his pants. “Yeah- uh, yes, brother?” he called back.

As Ves’hil’n leisurely approached, the Soothsayer leaned in to whisper something in Ka’shin’lai’s ear. Ves’hil’n was still too far away to hear it. Tejara dared not. But Eun could hear her words, “we should bring them to meet the Borderwood Ranger that came with me, Ka.”

At that telling last syllable, Eun raised an eyebrow. Ka’shin’lai returned the look with a narrow eyes glare. Then he inclined his head towards the Soothsayer and nodded, “Ves’hil’n, Tejara...” his eyes somewhat reluctantly slid back to Eun, “... Swordmaster... Please come with me.” Then he turned on his heel, the flick of his long sleeves hitting Eun on the leg as he did so. His sleeves were long, even for a noble, trailing on the ground and completely hiding his hands.

Eun fell into step beside Ka’shin’lai. Their shoulders almost brushed and Ka’shin’lai flinched away, hurrying his steps to get ahead of Eun.

The Soothsayer smoothly slid in besides Eun, “I’m Uling by the way, nice to meet you.”

“Eun.” Eun responded with a smile that clearly didn’t reach his eyes.

They reached a guest room in the palace, Uling keeping Eun occupied along the way with questions about his past deeds and his work as the Swordmaster of the Royal Guard.

There was someone sitting on the floor in the center of the guest room, inspecting each arrow in their quiver for quality. They had a lithe body and long, thick black hair pulled back in a high ponytail. Their clothes were worn and dirty but not dirty like they needed to be washed but dirty like they had been through rain and mud and grass and bloody injuries countless times before and would never truly be clean again.

They stood up. The cut of their clothes was masculine and any minimal, loose pieces were tied down, giving a form-fitting look. But their features held some soft femininity that made it hard to tell their gender. Ves’hil’n, as usual, lacked subtlety and asked as soon as he stepped into the room, “are you a man or a woman?”

The Ranger smiled good-naturedly and bowed, “a man, Your Highness. The name is Kliali. It is an honor to meet the first and second princes of Kon.”

Uling moved further into the room and stood beside Kliali, “Kliali is a Borderwood Ranger that was sent to Xoran to report the situation to the Xora King.”

Eun crossed his arms over his chest, “what situation? Start from the beginning.”