A Fine Black Sky
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Osseus Rivalis, Son of the Lord of the South Tower, and First Son and Heir, stood cracking unfunny jokes with his group of sycophantic Noble children, those who would undoubtedly be vying for position once Osseus took charge of the Tower himself and very much attentive to making their future matter now, in the falsity of friendship they garnered with an impressionable fool of a young man that Osseus was, when he suddenly noticed Kid, and used his revelry to dig at Kid a little more.
“Hey, scum! I thought I told you to hide in a hole?! You’re scaring the children!” was the monologue, followed by much laughter, bolstered Osseus beyond measurement. Kid ignored him, infuriating Osseus, who made a venomous path for him, “I’m talking to you, scum -“
“Osseus!” The voice was still, forceful and demanding, not used to being ignored. At the Widening Stairs stood three darkly attired girls in the first flushes of womanhood, descending appropriately in age as a sibling might. It was Osseus’s three sisters - Faeryn, the youngest, Etaine with the murderous stare, and Urth, the one to be Osseus’s Chief Advisor, too young to Apprentice, but old enough to vocalise her desire, and right now it was of her Brother’s attention that she was desiring. Although Osseus kept a grin upon his lips, his eyes shone with something more familiar to Kid than his own hair. It was fear. Osseus feared his Sisters.
And in the reaction that followed, Kid observed many things. He could see how Osseus’s Sisters hated on him, belittled him, emasculated him, even degrading him with tricks and taunts. They had obviously had to fend for themselves, the girls, being inferior in their Father’s eyes to the Heir, who took all the attention, and therefore received all the jealousy from his Sisters, who resented everything he stood for. It wasn't his fault, of course, very much a victim of circumstance as Kid had found himself also. There seemed to be a kindred nature to the two of them, Kid and Osseus - but while Kid internalised his anxiety, Osseus externalised it and tried to regain that control he lost at home through the victimisation of others. Though Kid would never condone his actions, he could however understand the course Osseus’s life had taken, because of what he had been pushed toward. Lonely, rejected and alone - it affected different people in different ways.
Something changed then. Nothing visible, nothing readable, but something altered irrevocably. An understanding, and a path to righteousness came into being.
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