Charity
an excerpt

From days twenty-five and twenty-six:

The clash and clang of swords was filling the air around Caiden. He breathed heavily, every movement full of purpose as he blocked, parried, and attacked. There was a pause in the fight, and he had a chance to take a step back and draw an extra breath.
The air was cold, but it only chilled his skin. The rest of him was boiling -- practicing long and hard tended to do that. He got back in the fight with renewed energy.
The session was over quickly, and sat down on the nearby bench to rest before he went to get cleaned up. Something flickered in the corner of his eye -- a sword, coming straight for his naval.
He brought his own sword up to block it in one quick movement.
"Nice try," he said passively.
"Very good, Master Caiden," the sword master said, grinning. "I thought for sure you were too distracted to notice. I was fully prepared to stop short that time."
Caiden laughed half-heartedly. "You know how hard it is to catch me off guard, sir," he said.
"I know you, of course," the sword master said, eying him pensively. "But you haven't been yourself lately."
Caiden pushed himself to his feet again with the help of his sword. "Well, doesn't change much anyway, right?"
"I suppose so," the master said, grinning once again. "Perhaps I've just forgotten a little while you'd been away. Good day to you, Master Caiden."
"Right," he replied, saluting casually. "I'll be back for more tomorrow."
The sword master chuckled and gave him a final wave before Caiden turned away to enter his home.
He didn't even reach the door before a figure came rushing out to embrace him.
"Lovely work today, Caiden," a young voice said coyly. "But you almost beat your record from yesterday. I don't think I've ever seen you miss so many opportunities before!"
"Emeril." He sighed. "Do you have to keep bringing it up?"
"Of course," she said, grinning. "I have little else to do. Did you know Father cancelled my party this afternoon?" His sister pouted. "Practically said that nothing else was less important in the world."
"It's possible that he's right, you know," he pointed out, trying to sound as unaccusing as possible.
"You don't have to make it seem likely," she said sourly. "Just because you two are obsessed with war games doesn't mean that other things are less important."
"Yeah, but your party?" Caiden shook his head. "You've been complaining about it all week. I would expect you to say something positive about it, at least."
Emeril grinned. "Haven't I?"
"Not that I noticed," Caiden said, trying to at least get under the threshold's shadow. "I'd like to go clean up, you know."
"See, that's the bright side!" she declared. "I have the time to catch you when you're not stuck in your room or getting all yucky in the training yard."
"I am 'all yucky' right now, if you hadn't noticed," Caiden said, amused.
"Yeah, so?" she asked, and tightened her side-embrace a little. "This version doesn't have swords flinging about every which way."
"What a brilliant idea," he said, tilting up his head in a mock epiphany. "That's the best way to get rid of you!"
"Oh, please don't!" she cried. "You don't do anything else these days. Why, I wouldn't be surprised to see you out here training at night if Father didn't have his rules, the way you act."
Caiden didn't reply at first. "I'd thought of that."
She backed away in shock. "You're kidding! That bad?"
"What's so awful?" he asked her with a glare. Despite now being free of her grasp, her reaction annoyed him.
"You," she accused.
"That's a grave accusation," he said, turning his chin up.
"Can you really deny it?" she snapped back. "Doubt you can. Else you would have by now."
He didn't reply, but just walked past her.
"Don't you dare!" she said, hurrying after him. "You've needed a good talking to all week. Father may be too busy at the moment, but I'm not."
She caught his arm, and he stopped but didn't look up at her.
"Come on," she insisted. "You haven't talked a thing about that school since you got back."
"I told you I was sent away because I lost my temper," he said, gazing listlessly towards the ground.
"And I just said you haven't talked since then," she said irately, and put a hand on her hip. "What I don't know is why."
"There was a fight," he said, moving forward. "I thought I already said as much."
She came about, put her hands on his shoulders, and forced him to a halt.
"You misunderstand me," she said coldly, narrowing her eyes at him. "I've heard the explanations and reasonings on the matter, just not the truth." She took a deep breath. "You seem to think I don't know you. Maybe you don't even realize how you act. But I certainly do. It takes a lot for you to care about nothing but training, and avoiding discussion, and to lose your temper," she said, clenching her teeth. "That should have been a signal, I think. I'm not even sure if I've seen you lose your temper. Not completely."
His eyelids lowered and he glanced aside. "So you're joining with the lot of them who say I haven't been acting myself?"
"No, absolutely not," she said, turning up her chin. "I am completely positive that you are acting exactly like yourself."
He glanced at her, his eyebrows quirked. "Explain, then."
She slapped her forehead, turned away, and came right around back to lean into him.
"You left something behind, that's what," she said, shaking a finger in his face. "That's why you lost your temper in the fight, and why you don't care about anything here."
"How can you say I don't care--" he tried to interrupt, but she put her hand over his mouth.
"I can't believe how oblivious you are," she said, scowling at the wall and then snapping her gaze back to his. "Of course you don't care. I think you think that becoming a better fighter will solve your problems."
He pried her hand from his face, and sighed in exasperation. "I don't have any problems."
"That's a moronic thing to say, and you know it," she said, giving him a look that dared him to disagree. "You just don't know what it is, so I'm going to find it."
"Go ahead and do that," he said, and continued on.
It looked like she wasn't going to interrupt him again.
"I'm going to start with my greatest suspicion," she called after him. "And say that it's that Resille girl."
Caiden froze in his tracks. The space was silent for several moments, and then he heard her light footsteps come towards him.
She took his face and made him look at her. Her eyes searched his, and then she dropped her hands.
"That was easy," she said softly.
"How'd you manage it?" he asked, staring at the ground, clenching his fists. He knew he'd been restless. He'd worried about her. Worried about her every day. But for some reason, he never made the connection.
She made an exaggerated sigh, tilted her head at him, and stared at him in exasperation. "You think I haven't noticed my brother the paladin?" she asked skeptically. "If there was a foundling at the gate this very day, I know who would adopt it. You gravitate towards the innocent. I already knew she counted as such, but I didn't know how much you thought so."
"What then?" he asked. "The matter is over for the time being, there's nothing I can do."
"I wish you really believed that," she said, crossing her arms. "You'd think about something else if you did."
"You think I should not worry?"
"Not if you're not going to fight for what you worry about!" she cried, and threw up her hands. "Otherwise, you're wasting your time. You have two options," she said, and held up a finger. "Find something else to care about. Or two," she said, adding an extra finger. "Find a way back."
"Neither are possible."
She threw back her head and shrugged. "Fine, I suppose you could just go with option three. You could dwell upon the past, find disinterest in everything, and grow steadily more frustrated." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I must say, that sounds quite a bit more beneficial than the other two."
He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a light push.
She grinned, flinging out her arms to balance herself. "Glad to see you agree."
He glowered at her. "If you're so clever, mind suggesting a course of action? You seem to have thought everything through in advance."
She shook her head, smiling. "I've just figured out to think as fast as you're supposed to." Her eyes twinkled. "I can't really figure out what to do, seeing as I don't know which option you've chosen."
"I need to get back," he said, and took a deep sigh. "I want to go back more than anything."
"Perhaps 'know' wasn't the proper word choice in my case," Emeril said thoughtfully. "Or about the options. Should have said something else."
"What are you talking about?" Caiden asked, raising a brow.
"Nothing," she said, smiling at something only she understood. "Well, if I was to help, I'd have to know everything about why you left," she said, and gestured. "Come on, we'll discuss it inside. It's getting really cold."
He followed her, deep in thought.