Deceit
By: Manna

…xOx…

This Is the Fault of: Tabby

Deceit: The act or practice of deceiving; concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud.

…xOx…

Both Kent and Lyndis hated to lie. To speak an untruth went against everything they had ever been taught. It was surprising how similar they both were despite their very different upbringings.

It was Lyn’s suggestion to simply say that they were merely deceiving the others, rather than imply that they were lying to them.

Kent supposed that she had a point, there. They weren’t really lying, per se…they were merely saying nothing at all, letting others assume things that were not true, and it certainly helped keep things…quiet.

He knew that she didn’t want to hide, and he felt the same way—again with the similarities—but their situation required it. He scarcely knew how it had even happened—or rather, how they had happened. It seemed that one day, they were friends, the next they were friends that wanted to be something more, and then the day after that…they were more than friends.

The problem was simple, though fairly complex in its own way: they couldn’t be together until Lyndis abdicated Caelin. It was hard to be silent, sometimes. The war had been difficult enough; they were given time together, time alone, time apart… But after returning to Caelin, things became worse. It was hard for him to watch her dancing with men that weren’t and could never be him. It was hard for her to see him standing along the wall at every single event, never able to participate.

During the war, they marched side by side for hours, days, weeks, months. In Caelin, they were separated for hours, days, sometimes weeks at a time if he was ordered away from the castle to quell an uprising or defend villages that could not defend themselves.

So they enjoyed the time they could together, as rare and hard as it was to find between the parties and the training and the necessary sleeping. Sometimes it was but a moment, other times minutes. Seldom were they granted hours or even an entire day, but when they were, they took advantage of it.

Lyndis already knew how precious time could be. She understood, only too well, what it was like to lose someone, to lose someone and not be given a chance to say goodbye one last time. Kent knew, by every word that left her lips, that she would never fail to tell him exactly how she felt about him. And for her sake, he tried harder to do the same, to put what he felt into words even though he had always been terrible at it.

Their love was, by all rights, an impossible one. If she was not choosing to abdicate Caelin rather than ascend to the throne, their love would remain as it was forever. Courtly love, as celebrated as it seemed to be in plays and books, was not something Kent could settle for, and he doubted that Lyn could, either. As selfish and ungentlemanly as it was, he wanted her—all of her. He wanted her to himself. When he had shyly admitted as much, she had laughed, insisting that he would indeed have all of her, someday, as soon as they left Caelin.

They had been together, in love, for over two years. Time tried their patience, both with keeping things secret, and with the desire to give all of themselves to the other. Nothing would be a secret, though, if the noble lady of Caelin found herself pregnant, and she would be shamed, possibly cast out—and he put to death, certainly.

Perhaps that was the only thing that kept them from consummating their love in the way that a married couple would. It wasn’t as if, she had said rather dryly, once, they would ever be allowed to legally marry one another.

Kent feared for Lyndis’s reputation, for her honor and her safety; she feared for his life. Should they be found out, it would spell only disaster for them both. It was something they couldn’t risk.

Silence, unfortunately, was the only answer.

“Anyway,” Sain was saying as Kent spaced off beside him, “I was thinking that I should probably wait until early summer to go to Ilia. I hear it’s not too bad there that time of the year, and it’d probably be easier for me to get used to it… Alas, my angel waits for me, and she will have to wait a little longer than we had planned, I am afraid…” The older, wiser of the two of them put his head in his hands and sighed. “I thought that Lord Hausen would have departed this place by—”

“Sain!” Kent turned his head sharply, brown eyes furious as he glared at his friend. “To say such a thing, it’s—!”

“Oh, come off it, Kent. It wasn’t meant as an insult. Originally I had planned to wait until Lady Lyn abdicated to run off to Ilia, but by his health, I thought that would have happened over a year ago. It looks as if I’ll be leaving beforehand.”

With a snort, the younger knight looked at the wall instead of Sain’s melancholy face. If only his companion knew that he understood only too well what he was going through… He couldn’t tell him, though. He couldn’t tell anyone, not even his own mother, who likely fretted over him because he had not married and by St. Elimine, he was getting old!

Suddenly, Sain smiled and clapped him on the back, jumping to his feet, leaving his dinner only half-eaten. “I think I’ll write Fiora tonight. I could send it out in the morning with a messenger…”

“Very well.”

“What will you do?”

He shook his head, “I will be back late. I have guard duty tonight.”

“Again?” When Kent nodded, the sandy-haired knight blinked hazel eyes at him in disbelief. “I never get issued any kind of guard duty anymore,” he said. “Not that I’m complaining, of course. I do admit that I sorely detest it. But I heard that Lady Lyndis is the one who has been ordering such things…” He trailed off, waiting, perhaps, for a reaction out of his friend.

“What of it?” If Sain had expected Kent to look anything but completely neutral on the subject of Lady Lyndis ordering the knight commander around, he was disappointed.

“Nothing, nothing…” Clapping him on the back again, Sain walked a step away. “She’s been working you hard, lately. Usually, you know, a lady doesn’t make orders within the military unless there’s a war and her husband’s away or dead. I am starting to think that you’ve angered her. What did you do, Kent? Forget to dot an i on one of your reports? Or did you refuse to indulge her hand with a kiss at the last formal ceremony that was held, here?”

The more the man spoke, the further his feet took him from his half-eaten food and his boon companion.

Kent was glad when he disappeared around the corner; it was hard for him to maintain an uninterested, innocent expression while Sain prattled on about things like kissing Lyn’s hand. Oh, he had done much worse than that… He had, after all, kissed more than her hand. He had kissed her a lot.

If Sain knew, he would likely faint on the spot, unable to believe that his auburn-haired longtime friend was capable of such things.

He had, admittedly, felt guilty about every little touch, every little kiss, for a long time. But Lyndis enjoyed it, enjoyed him, his company, his voice, each touch and every kiss. The same held true for him, as well. He could deny her nothing.

Calmly, carefully, his usual seriousness wrapped around him, he finished his dinner, and made his way to his room. Sain’s room was beside his, and he noticed that his friend’s door was ajar. A smile on the man’s face as he dipped his quill in a bottle of ink almost made Kent smile, too. Sain was so good with words, eloquent on paper and in person.

Sometimes, he wished he could be just as good at such things, but he knew that it would never happen. Still, the thought of leaving Lyndis nice little notes to find was one that he entertained often…

What would he say, though? Nothing that he could speak or write would ever be good enough to tell her how much she meant to him. He abandoned his silly thoughts as he pulled on his armor, latching and buckling it all securely even though in a few hours, he doubted he’d still be wearing it.

The corridor outside of Lady Lyndis’s room—ah, it was getting harder and harder for him to remember her title—was eerily silent. She had made changes to the night watch, altering the amount of men in the halls and changing their positions. It was a recent motion on her part, and people assumed it was because she didn’t feel like she needed protecting.

Only Kent and Lyn knew the truth. The truths, to be more precise.

She was tired of being alone, tired of sleeping alone, of eating alone, of feeling alone. She didn’t need protecting by half of Caelin’s military. All she needed was one man by her side to watch over her, and she knew exactly who she wanted that man to be.

And Kent…wanted to be that man.

Forever.

For always.

It was late when her door opened without a sound. He hurried across the large hall, his leather boots silent against the wooden floor. He reached her side, and he was in the receiving room, eyes focused only on her. She stood before him the same way she had for several nights, since she had been requesting his presence outside her door. A candlestick was in her hands, the light casting itself across her face, creating shadows that he wanted to touch, to kiss. Her long hair hung down her back, tied once with a ribbon halfway down.

It wasn’t long before that ribbon was out; he wrapped it around her left ring finger, one of those silly little games they played that neither of them grew tired of.

She smiled, taking his hand, pulling him into her bedroom before closing the door behind them. Once they were alone and safe, his armor came off, settling into a neat pile on the floor.

Their lips met, once, a kiss that seemed to go on for hours, though both of them knew that hours would never be long enough. He kicked his boots off as he kissed her face, leading them both to the bed. Once there, they stopped, pulling away from each other. He got in first, letting his back rest against the headboard. She crawled in afterward, settling against his chest, her head on his shoulder as he pulled the blankets over them both. She sighed, her fingers tickling his toes through his socks, trying to get a reaction out of him. He leaned down, kissing just behind her ear.

She stopped, smiling widely, her hand reaching behind her for his face, fingertips running down the slant of his jaw, over the bridge of his nose…

“I missed you,” she finally said, softly, sleepily.

“It has only been a day.” But his lips were turned upward as he played with her hair, fingers undoing the small tangles that had formed.

“I know.” She sighed, relaxing. “I can’t assign you to duty tomorrow night.”

“People will get suspicious,” he finished. “I understand. It’s okay…”

“It isn’t,” she whispered. “It really isn’t. Besides… Kent, who could do a better job than you?”

And who could? He was in her bed, after all. Nobody could guard her as closely as he.

His arms wrapped around her, hands clasping over her stomach as he let his cheek rest against her head. “No one, Lyndis… No one.”

It wasn’t long before she drifted off, lulled to sleep by the sound of his even, soft breathing and the warmth of his embrace. Her only regret was that in the morning, she would wake up alone. Perhaps that regret belonged to the both of them.

But Kent didn’t have to return to his post until five o’clock in the morning. At six o’clock, he would be relieved of his duty and be allowed to return to his room to sleep.

They had seven precious hours together, and they spent all but the first twenty minutes of it sleeping.

In the morning, Lyndis did wake up to find herself alone, on one side of the bed, her arms wrapped around a pillow instead of her knight, the blankets pulled up around her snugly. She sighed a little, stretching her legs under her sheets as she wondered what it might be like to wake up to find Kent there with her, next to her. Maybe his arms would still be around her… How wonderful that would—no, will, she reminded herself—be…

It was then that she noticed something lying on the pillow beside her. A small piece of parchment that was folded neatly in half. A smile flickered across her face as she plucked it from its resting spot and unfolded it.

Lyn had never been good at reading; it was still something that Chancellor Reissmann scolded her for being terrible at. But there were only five words on this particular piece of parchment, and she could read every single one of them.

Good morning.
I love you.

Folding it back in half, she pressed her lips against it before holding it tightly against her heart.

…xOx…

Author Notes:

This is the longest one, yet. I’m happy with how it turned out. Lyn and Kent have successfully deceived a lot of people for a long time. I do hope their luck holds.