Kumari lives in Cevalon, as princess of fire and sun, but has never been outside the castle. Jae is the son of a conspiracist, who, when he was still alive, warned him to trust no one. Chiro is an illusionist, paid by the king and queen to put on sh...
If Jae gets them into trouble, Chiro swears to himself — he will steal a knife right off this man's counter and stab him with it.
Softly, he thinks. A little itty bitty stab. Not enough to fatally wound him, just enough to give him a piece of my mind.
He wonders what Jae must've done for him to seem so scared — not an expression Chiro ever thought he'd see on Jae's face — of the man selling sharp instruments. He knows Jae must've done something foolish, it just seems like the kind of thing Jae would do.
Or perhaps it was something to do with the gold coins he'd gotten... By not entirely moral means, but better than complete thievery, Chiro admits.
"I want to buy a knife for my friend," Chiro hears Kumari say.
I can't let her do this alone, and he tries to calm down his shaking hands to stand next to her.
"For him?" The man laughs uproariously. "He looks like he couldn't handle a toothpick."
Kumari giggles and Chiro's face turns red.
"No, not for him," she dismisses. "My friend isn't here right now. So can I see your knives and daggers and stuff?"
"Alright. I have better ones in the back, come in."
Kumari eagerly skips in as he opens a curtain to the back of his stall, and Chiro wants to stop her. But as the man glares at him when he's held the curtain open too long, Chiro opts to just go inside with her.
"Woahhh," comes Kumari's soft awed voice as she looks around at all the weaponry. All the sharp, pointy, deadly things. Some still have blood on them.
Chiro breathes deeply. This is very anxiety inducing.
But he can't let the Princess go in someplace dangerous alone...
"Here, here," the man brings out a large wooden display, decorative knives all lined up side-by-side. "This ought to be the kind of knife you should get as a gift."
Kumari leans in, Chiro standing right behind her, glancing nervously between her and the knives and the merchant.
"This is a really pretty jambiya," Kumari says, picking up a knife.
Chiro leans in from beside her to get a better look.
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It's a jambiya, just as Kumari said, the traditional curved Cevalonian dagger design. But it isn't a plain iron knife. The jambiya and its sheath are ornately decorated, colorful, with swirling enamel flowers, and small round rubies embedded into its golden hilt.
Even Chiro, frightened of knives, finds it beautiful.
