CHAPTER EIGHT: MY GIFT TO Y*U.

"What's your second name? You said you'd tell me one day." Kaira asked Sienna.

"Who says that day is today?" Sienna asked then pinched Kaira's cheek.

"I just want to know what my second name will be."

Sienna sighed then smiled.

"I also took my second name from my previous teacher," Sienna said wistfully.

"Now I want it even more." Kaira pouted.

Genie, the basilisk, began her descent near the port. As soon as she landed, she bowed gracefully so that they could hop off with ease.

Sienna held on to Kaira's hand as they walked up to Genie's face.

"I'll miss you, birdie." The bird turned its face away from Kaira, and Kaira laughed at the familiar gesture. "I mean Genie."

The bird rubbed its head against Kaira's stomach, and Kaira hugged it.

"C'mon," Sienna said, pulling her toward the port.

The port was bustling, the sun had just risen, but everyone seemed as though they were in the middle of their day.

"STRAIGHT TO ACAI FOR THREE THOUSAND ICHES ONLY! ACAI THREE THOUSAND!!" one peddler yelled outside a fancy ship.

"What a rip-off, three thousand?" Sienna mumbled.

"Right? That's daylight robbery!" Kaira nodded enthusiastically.

"Actually, It's pretty standard because they add carriage transport after you arrive at the southern port. Plus, that mode of transport is mostly meant to be used by wealthy merchants, nobles, or basically those who don't like the struggle of connecting rides."

"Which one would provide full transport till Arkedia?" Kaira asked Spade, who seemed to know his way around.

"Full transport will be expensive because Arkedia is in the west, it's further than Acai, and so we'll have to take a ship that reaches the southern port, then we'll have to find another means of transport till Arkedia."

"Do you by any chance have a flying familiar?" Kaira asked.

"No."

"A familiar?"

"Nope. Anyway at most the entire trip should require four thousand iches, that's plus shopping so don't worry."

Kaira eyed him sceptically as she nodded slowly as if she had understood what he had said, but Spade could tell from her obviously pained expression that she would rather swim to save money than spend four thousand iches.

"SOUTHERN PORT NINE HUNDRED ICHES, FULL ROOM AND BOARD,"

"Bingo! That's the one; we can share a room to split the cost if that's what-,"

"Really?" her eyes glittered the iches sign.

"R-R-Really…" he said uncomfortably then turned to Haru.

"This is it." He said to Haru.

"Yeah…" she replied almost in a whisper. "This is it."

He pulled his sister into his arms and embraced her tightly, as though If he didn't, he would cease to be. It was not until he felt Haru's hands press against his back, that his shoulders relaxed.

"I will be waiting for you, Zen," Haru whispered.

Kaira turned to Sienna and smiled. "You raised me frugally."

"Yeah…I did."

"You tortured me."

"Yeah…"

"You kicked me out."

"Yeah…"

"You hugged me when I had panic attacks." Kaira's voice broke.

"Yeah…"

"You trained me."

"Yeah…"

"This isn't forever; I'll be back." Kaira's lip wobbled, and tears pooled in her eyes.

Sienna did not respond; she simply hugged Kaira until she stopped sniffling.

"I'll give you something else," Sienna whispered. "My name, my teacher's name, and now yours if you claim it."

"I will." She vowed.

"Ariena," Sienna said then pulled back and kissed Kaira's forehead. "Myra Ariena, Sienna Ariena, and now you, Kaira Ariena."

Kaira wiped her tears with her white woollen sweater then nodded.

"I'll come back to you, wherever you are, as Kaira Ariena."

"Okay, find me." Sienna smiled and kissed her forehead once more.

Spade cleared his throat, and Sienna pulled back from Kaira then held Haru's hand. She nodded to Spade, and he nodded back then the two, Kaira and Spade, headed to their boarding site.

It was only after Kaira had disappeared that Sienna shed a tear. It wasn't because she felt as though she would never see her, or that the next time they met, they would probably be enemies, but it was simply because all those who carried the name 'Ariena' were often deeply misunderstood and lonely.

She cried because she hoped that the cycle would be broken. After all, the name 'Ariena' itself was cursed. But that is a story for another time.

THREE DAYS LATER.

Kaira grumbled at her empty bowl on the dining table in their shared room. Spade ignored her and continued reading the paper at the chair opposite her.

"I said, 'Arrrhhgghh.'" Kaira tried again.

"What?" he gave in to her obvious cry for attention.

"I'm hungry…I didn't realize we'd have to split meals as well."

"Well it's too late, the ship is full, plus we were given that option, but you said ‘no’ because you would save what? Five hundred iches?" Spade replied and then turned the page.

“Hey! I asked him to make it two fifty!” she defended but felt her energy seep out of her body.

"Let's sneak into the kitchen!" She suggested.

"No."

"What…why?"

"Why??? Are you serious right now, we have two more days left just hold on or are you that willing to swim with the sea serpent?"

"That's a myth." Kaira shrugged.

"I just, I don't understand why I keep talking to you," Spade mumbled then buried his nose back in the paper. "I just…I don't…why do I do it?"

"Tch..." Kaira stood lazily. "All you do is read the paper, you're like an old man."

"Oh? And what experience do you have around old men."

"I used to talk to old man gimmick, the herbalist in the grasslands. Did you know him?"

"Didn't he kill chickens as 'sacrifices' and talk to walls?" Spade asked.

"Well, yeah but the conversations between him and the east wall, was pretty funny," Kaira said.

"That's not a good reason to encourage him," Spade said, then turned the page.

"He is old, how long do you think he can keep it up? He'll probably croak in a few years, let him have his fun. I mean, if he was young maybe you could try and train him to fit in because he'd still have a long way to go and people to impress but now…there is just no point." Kaira babbled as she went through her luggage.

"What the hell do you think death is?" Spade asked in an irritated tone pushing the paper he was reading aside.

"I don't know." She said, pulling out a black cloak from her bag.

"You don't know?" Spade repeated as though she had said something unbelievable.

"Well, what do you think of death?" Kaira asked the question back at him as she draped her cloak over her shoulders.

"I think it robs us of, the things we hold dear," Spade said in a soft voice.

Kaira noticed the distant look in his eyes and wondered if he was also hungry but didn't feel like complaining.

"Oh? How…selfish." Kaira replied. Completely misreading the situation.

"Huh?" Spade asked her in disbelief, the person who had refused to pay an extra thirty iches for laundry, the same person who tried to steal his fried chicken while he was asleep, and the very same person who had hogged the entire bed every night since they had boarded, had called him selfish.

"Well I'm off to steal some food, it's mid-morning, and since this is a commoner's ship, I doubt they are planning on making 'tea' for us. So I can sneak in while the kitchen staff is lazing around." Kaira put on her shoes then left the room only to come back a few seconds later.

"Don't borrow or take the food I bring. You chose your side." She finished and closed the door.

-She, she called him selfish?!??-

Spade rubbed his eyebrows and sighed.

"Spade why the hell, do you talk to her?... I just...I don't know." he asked and answered himself.

KAIRA

Kaira was right; they were gossiping.

Apparently, there was a bigshot in the ship, and he was perfectly good looking and friendly. The staff had addressed him as 'Lord Monroe', but Kaira wasn't sure if that was his actual name or just a codename.

He was blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Those traits were not common in Skala, so Kaira had tried her best to listen in to the gossip because honestly speaking, talking to Spade was like communicating with a rock.

He didn't gossip, He hardly complained nor did he get upset. He was…boring to Kaira.

Apparently, the man, 'Lord Monroe' was interested in a maid who worked on the ship. So much so, that he had ignored a luxury ship to board this one.

Kaira had wondered what the maid looked like to make a rich man forgo good food and luxury, as well as the kind of man 'Lord Monroe?' was, to her he seemed like the type to follow his heart, a romantic fellow.

Kaira smiled at the thought. 'What would 'love' feel like?' She wondered as she grabbed some bread from the counter and nibbled on it as she continued to eavesdrop.

“I heard that he is staying in room zero.” One woman said.

“Well, of course! He could even buy this boat and sell it to the serpent itself!” another replied.

“Do you think Rosa likes his money?”

“What are you saying? Have you ever had enough money to know what it would feel like to be rich?” the first voice asked.

“I imagine that it’s getting everything that you ask for,”

“Stop, you’ll make me want to seduce him myself!” at that, the women laughed out loud.

“He seems to like maids, maybe we all have a chance!” one woman chimed, and they laughed louder.

Having heard enough, Kaira grabbed some ham and juice that were near her crouched position then covered the goods under her coat and slipped then before she was noticed.

Excitement coursed through her as she dashed down the hallway. She had managed to take an entire ham!! That would last her two days…well as long as Spade kept his word. Before she could process things further, her body felt as though it was suspended in the air.

"Huh?" The loss of control felt unfamiliar to her body, and when the back of her head slammed on the ground and the ceiling towered above her eyes. Kaira realized that she had slipped.

"The…" ham! Kaira did not complete her sentence, because when she had sat up, she realized that her ham had landed on a child who was mopping the floor.

'Well….fuck.' Kaira thought when their eyes met. 'Should…should I kill him?'