Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ XLIX. JAE ❆ ❆

There he is.

The white-haired, blue-eyed prince.

Just as Kumari's grandmother had described — just as she'd described everything else.

Jae gets... A strange feeling when he sees the prince, when he sees those fabled eyes. When he sees them, he sees his own eyes — they're the same color as his, yes, like everyone else's in the newfound kingdom... But something else, maybe the same shape or gaze — Jae can't quite put his finger on it, but he doesn't like it.

He doesn't like this Prince Alexei of Ruisea.

He's not sure he can say the same for Kumari, though. She slips out of Chiro's grip — not that he had much of one left, in his own shock. She goes, slowly walking towards the prince, who in turn, steps down the last of the stairs. Neither say a word, just looking at each other as if they're the strangest thing they've ever seen.

Jae's not surprised at their reactions, really. Kumari's only heard of a prince by this description from her grandmother, many years ago... And everyone called her crazy, or at least, Kumari's parents did. Now stands before her the figure of her grandmother's many myths...

And Jae, with what little knowledge he has of Ruisea, can't blame the prince's reaction upon seeing Kumari, either. She's his total opposite — dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes. Jae wonders what he'd think if he ever saw a Huveni, but from the sound of what those guards had said earlier, they've never heard of Cevalon, so how would they know of Huven?

A kingdom lost... Or rather, locked away. Nobody knows anything of them, and they know nothing of anybody else...

They approach each other, and Jae desperately wants to call out to Kumari to stay back, to not go closer, not to trust royals, but he's the one who brought her all this way, so he says nothing. He watches to see what they'll do, hand on jambiya tightening...

The prince is all the way down the stairs now, approaching Kumari in the center of the room. They circle each other, heads tipped, blinking at each other, as if the other might disappear at any moment.

And then, they reach out their hands. Kumari's hand is much smaller than Alexei's, and his skin is so much paler. So much paler...

Their fingertips touch lightly.

And both of them shriek, recoiling away from the other, Kumari clutching her hand to her chest as Alexei's still crying out in pain.

"Kumari!" Chiro and Jae call, as always, rushing to her side, trying to see what's wrong with her, but when Jae manages to pull her hand away, it doesn't look anything like it was poisoned or stung...

"His hand," she rubs her own together as she says this. "It's, it's really cold!"

"O moy BOG!" Alexei lets out a low whine, "What's wrong with your skin?!"

"What's wrong with my skin?" Kumari whirls on him. "What's wrong with your skin!"

"Nothing!" Alexei frowns. "It's perfectly normal skin! You're the one who's... Painted."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a pretty color," he mutters to himself, still looking at his palm warily. "But it hurts."

Kumari looks baffled as to whether that's a compliment or an insult but Jae definitely takes it as an insult.

"You can't talk to her that way!"

"What way?" Alexei wrinkles his nose. "I'm telling the truth! Her hand is soft but it hurts to touch it! I'm scared."

He's... Scared? Of Kumari?