"Maybe you must change just as she must. You must grow beyond your role as a battle commander, if you want her to accept her place."
A'Ran frowned at the truth in his uncle's words.
"And there must be a solution to the Yirkin," Mansr said. "Qatwal has supported you before."
"Her sister is wed to the son of a Qatwal dhjan," A'Ran said. "The Qatwal disowns her, yet seeks to battle me as well for the affront."
"Qatwal has always been full of itself, but they may still aid you," Mansr said. "She does not look like one of theirs."
"She is not," A'Ran affirmed. "She is from even further."
"She's beautiful, like your sister's dolls."
"Talal has not had dolls in sun-cycles, Uncle," A'Ran replied. "But yes, she is."
"I forget you are all grown sometimes. Do you not ever wish to have a family, to be as happy as your father was so long ago?"
His words struck A'Ran hard. His chest clenched, and he found himself holding his breath. He closed his eyes, recalling how happy he and his sisters were before the war. He recalled his mother, her heavy features nonetheless made beautiful by her radiant smile as she swung a waist-high Talal around.
It was his favorite memory, that which preceded his abrupt knowledge of war and the world at large. He sat with his sisters and mother beneath a brilliant sky atop the small rise overlooking Anshan Palace with its white columns and myriad of windows. Cats wrestled and played around them while D'Ryn's strict oversight of his and Gage's actions could not be shaken.
The memory was achingly beautiful, and he remembered seeing his war-weary father approach from the house. His whole face had changed upon seeing his nishani and children, had gone from tired to hopeful.
A'Ran hissed as he released his breath and opened his eyes. A distant light was in Mansr's eyes, a faded glow about his face.
"I remember, before Anshan fell," Mansr whispered.
A'Ran made no response, unable to quell the tremor deep within him. At the age of fourteen sun-cycles, before he reached manhood, he had lost all but his sisters, been proclaimed dhjan of a planet he couldn't even visit, and made battle commander of a war he knew nothing of.
Since then, he'd known nothing but war, been driven by nothing but revenge, fury, and the elusive glimmer of hope that he might one day feel as he had sitting with his mother and sisters on that hill above his rightful home.