Off Kilter

SHIBA KLEIN

He admitted that he hadn’t been captured, going on to give other excuses instead, without actually explaining what exactly had kept him away for so long. She was unimpressed. She couldn’t be sure if his attempt at flattery was genuine or just a way to soothe any bad feelings that had cropped up between them, but either way it did little to calm Shiba’s irritation with him. Even if she had found his rotting corpse, with the mood she was in, she would have still blamed him.

"You already owe me your life. What more could you possibly offer?" There seemed to be little use in doubling his debt when Shiba couldn’t imagine what she could possibly gain from it. She still wasn’t even sure what she wanted from him now, what could possibly make up for all the time she’d lost tending to him. Even if it had been her choice to stay with him until he was well enough to travel, she would never admit that it was her fault. Unfair or not, she had grown to resent the time she’d spent tending to him. After seeing how much everyone else had accomplished in their lives, her siblings' children beginning to rise up and take over the family legacy while she had faded away into obscurity. She felt like an outsider among them still, and had no one to fall back on for support. She hadn’t wanted incredible power, or to have her name known far and wide, but she had wanted to at least be significant to someone. A lover, a child, a friend. But all she had was Mikko, a man who only stayed because he had to.

"Speech."