Close Friends

Lillian took a breath and asked,

(Lillian) "What do you want to know first?"

Liana thought for a moment before she replied,

(Liana) "Well, there are three questions that I can think of at the moment."

(Lillian) "You can ask me one by one, but I'm sure it'll overlap somewhere."

Liana nodded.

(Liana) "Okay. I guess my first question is, who's Ruby?"

Lillian seemed to be in thought for a moment before she replied,

(Lillian) "Ruby is… a close friend of Liz. Her closest friend, in fact."

Liana raised an eyebrow and turned her head slightly to the side.

(Liana) "Like…"

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "Well, not quite yet, but on her birthday, Liz is intending to ask."

Liana mouthed 'wow', while shaking her head.

(Liana) "And you?"

Lillian smiled and said,

(Lillian) "Of course. She's my only family. And even if she weren't, my decision would still be the same."

Liana nodded slowly.

(Liana) "And who's Robyn?"

Lillian chuckled under her breath and said,

(Lillian) "Robyn is her older sister. Due to certain reasons, their age gap is twelve years between them."

She made an innocent looking face as she said,

(Lillian) "Also, Robyn and Ruby are Robyn and Ruby Adkin."

Liana frowned for a moment, then her eyes widened as she gaped a little.

(Liana) "Robyn Adkin, the chieftess of the Copper Blades Clan, the Third Clan by terms of rank. Robyn Adkin is also one of the most valued chiefs as she led an army of a thousand men into battle with the Agriwen Kingdom when they attempted to invade, and successfully defeated the enemy army, with only six casualties and three deaths. All this was done when she was at the age of twenty, making her the youngest chief who has led soldiers into battle. This was also only the second year after she became chief at the previous Chief Adkin's retirement."

She added as an afterthought:

(Liana) "And the Clan that the girl from that day came from."

She saw the look written on Lillian's face, a mix of shock and amusement, and burst into laughter. As she tried to calm down, she said,

(Liana) "I… didn't show off my memory until now and it was so worth it just to see your expression."

Lillian shook her head, her previous expression mixed with confusion,

(Lillian) "I told you my surname on the first day we trained. How were you so surprised that I was the chief of my Clan?"

Liana shrugged.

(Liana) "The only reason I know those things about Chief Adkin is because I saw it written on a report my father was given on her. For some reason, I've seen many reports about other Clans and Tribes but I have not once seen your name or your Tribe even mentioned on paper, except for the fact that it's the biggest Tribe. The reason I recognized your surname was because I had heard my father say it in passing a couple of times, just that I didn't hear the full context."

Lillian nodded with an understanding look on her face.

(Lillian) "The information on my Clan has always been top-secret, never written down and only passed around by word of mouth through trusted messengers. It's not surprising you don't know much about me or my Clan."

Liana raised an eyebrow.

(Liana) "Why?"

(Lillian) "Because of its background and how it was formed in the first place."

Liana nodded.

(Liana) "That explains a lot."

Lillian chuckled.

(Lillian) "Well, yes, everything written about Robyn is true. There are certain missing points but it's unimportant."

Liana nodded, knowing that if Lillian was going to tell her about it, she would already have done so.

*

(Liana) "My third question then, is, is your first name Alexandra?"

Lillian looked surprised for a moment, then shook her head and said,

(Lillian) "It's my second name. In the Vayithen Empire, they use the name closest to the surname."

Liana frowned.

(Liana) "So you actually have influence in their kingdom?"

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "Before my parents died, the present Empress had visited us, though it was about five years before she became Empress. In disguise, of course. She had wanted to get to know me, as she knew I had the mark. We established a soul-connection, and we talk once in a while. As for me having influence in their Empire, the name Vilera alone carries a lot of weight, as it is the surname of the royal family, though also a common surname throughout the Empire. And due to the Empress's actions, the name Alexandra Vilera is very important to those in leading positions: Chiefs, Captains of Guards and other similar positions, without it meaning too much to everyone else."

(Liana) "A soul-connection?"

Lillian nodded, then she smirked.

(Lillian) "I hope you're not intending to recite your textbook again."

Liana shook her head.

(Liana) "No, I think I won't, it's a huge chunk of text that spans across more than ten pages."

Lillian raised an eyebrow.

(Lillian) "I'm not sure what textbooks you used, but mine had a lot more than that."

Liana smirked.

(Liana) "Ten pages without the additional clauses for exceptional cases."

Lillian looked upwards for a moment before looking back at Liana and shrugging.

(Liana) "You called her the Empress, but I'm guessing you don't call her that."

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "She's actually known as Empress Laurel in her kingdom, but I call her Kristen, which is her first name. When I first met her, she told me to call her Kristen. Although at the time I met her she was still Princess Laurel, she asked me not to call her that."

She smiled, reminiscing, though Liana frowned when she noticed something seemed different about the way she smiled when thinking of the Empress than when she was thinking of John.

(Lillian) "She said that she had a first name and no one was using it, and to keep her visit a secret as well, she wanted me to call her Kristen. It was only a year later when she visited again that we created the soul-bond."

Liana nodded slowly.

(Liana) "Do you talk to her on a regular basis?"

Lillian shook her head.

(Lillian) "With our duties, it's hard to find a time when we are both free to be able to just chat."

Her eyes lowered to the ground and her smile had hints of sadness as she said,

(Lillian) "Talking to her through the connection is still not the same as meeting her face to face, even if the last time I met her was ten years ago."

A few moments later, Lillian looked up with a raised eyebrow and nodded.

(Lillian) "Is it really that obvious?"

Liana nodded.

(Liana) "It's written all over your face."

Lillian smiled, but there was no hint of happiness on her face as she said,

(Lillian) "I do. I know it may not make that much sense as I've only met her twice, but she's one of my closest friends and one of the few people I fully trust."

Liana smiled.

(Liana) "I hope that eventually you'll come to trust me as much as you do her, even if it might not be anytime soon."

Lillian raised an eyebrow and gave Liana a strange look. Liana noticed the look and asked,

(Liana) "What?"

Lillian smiled and lowered her head slightly before looking up again and holding Liana's gaze.

(Lillian) "I don't know how you haven't noticed, but I do trust you. More than most."

Her expression turned contemplative as she said,

(Lillian) "It might even be tied with Kristen, after Liz."

Liana's eyes widened slightly.

(Liana) "I hadn't noticed…"

Lillian smiled.

(Lillian) "I don't really know when exactly it happened myself, but it seems I unconsciously already trusted you, even before I knew about your mark."

Liana smiled shyly as she said,

(Liana) "Thank you."

Lillian returned her smile and asked,

(Lillian) "Anything else you want to know or can we go eat something?"

They had skipped lunch earlier, wanting to finish working before eating.

(Liana) "I'm hungry."

Lillian chuckled and shook her head.

(Lillian) "You sound like Liz."

*

An hour and a half later, they were in Lillian and Liz's house in one of the many sitting rooms. Instead of talking however, Liana was laughing uncontrollably at Lillian sprawled out on a sofa. Indignantly, Lillian half-shouted at Liana:

(Lillian) "Hey! Don't laugh at me!"

Which, unfortunately for Lillian, just made Liana laugh even more. Still, Lillian refused to move from her position. Through the bond, Liana knew that Lillian thought it was 'just too comfortable to move'. A few minutes later, Liana finally stopped laughing and sat down on the same sofa, moving Lillian's legs slightly so she had space to sit.

(Lillian) "There are so many chairs here and yet you choose to sit on the same one as me."

Still, Lillian didn't move and just let Liana sit there. Lillian's eyebrows shot up and she said,

(Lillian) "If you're just doing it to annoy me that's not going to work."

Liana smiled but didn't move.

(Liana) "It's times like these when I can actually see your teenager side. Usually you're all serious-like when you're working or training."

Lillian raised her head to look at Liana.

(Lillian) "Like I said, I trust you, which means I'm comfortable around you. There just haven't been many chances to just laze around and do nothing for a while."

For the past few weeks, Lillian was either constantly dealing with Clan matters, and if she was not doing that she was training, and if she wasn't training personally she'd be training Liz and Liana, and if not that, the soldiers in her Clan. She hadn't had much free time and wouldn't have had free time that day either if she hadn't decided to just stop after she got that letter from Chief Brent.

(Liana) "Are you sure you can just stop so abruptly like that? Won't you have a lot more to do tomorrow then?"

Moving her legs so that they were over Liana's lap, Lillian replied,

(Lillian) "You remember the 'elders' that my Clan has?"

Liana nodded.

(Lillian) "Well, they're the ones that do the work if I go on a trip, and they're also the ones that do the work if I take a day off."

Liana raised an eyebrow, even though with Lillian's position she couldn't see it,

(Liana) "So, basically that means that if one day you decide you don't want to work anymore, they'll cover for you?"

Lillian shrugged.

(Lillian) "They always tell me to take more time off, since they technically don't have a job to do when I do all the work. I just don't want to make them do everything even when I'm around, since I travel quite often."

Liana raised an eyebrow.

(Liana) "They don't have other things to do?"

Lillian chuckled softly.

(Lillian) "There are so many people in the Clan that there are jobs for almost every single thing and there are still more people than jobs. That's why there are so many in our guard. The Elders job is basically to do the things that the chief would normally do, but are not as significant, however, when I'm here I do everything, thus giving them nothing to do."

Liana chuckled under her breath and said,

(Liana) "You make it sound like handling the biggest Tribe is boring, instead of challenging."

Lillian swung her legs off of Liana's lap and sat up properly before she said,

(Lillian) "It's not really challenging. There have been no real battles or wars, but we still train our soldiers to be top-notch or they're not allowed on field. Other than that, the logistics and everything else is mainly handled by the respective teams in charge of those. All the chief does is mainly handle the people and make decisions that impact the whole Tribe."

While Lillian was speaking, Liana was in a dilemma.

(Liana's thoughts) 'Why did I enjoy it when she put her legs on my lap, and now that she took them off, I'm kind of disappointed? Her legs were so heavy too… I've been having really weird feelings and thoughts recently…'