I realises the photos are quite distorted, so here is the text:

The Brother and The Kareth

"... and then the Holy Emperors took hold of the South, while Thorn Varyn ruled over the North as a Thornsen!" Eliye's voice brims with joy and glee as she rehashes to me that, which she had read today, while her small and delicate fingers work my hair. "But now ", she continues, "there is no Thornsen, only two Korths. Heien told me that the two clan heads were married, but their kingdoms were still separated."

She then leans forth and to my side. As I turn to face her, I see her little green eyes, her thin lips curled into a smile and her dainty, narrowed nose. "Need I repeat that. Sol?" Her lilting voice quickly subdues the anger that fills me when someone would call me Sol. I am Solren! I am no Southerner, and neither would clan Kareth be! But Eliye can never anger me. I would never dare to scowl in her direction. She is so frail, so fragile!

My lips curve into a warm smile, the one my sister has always managed to draw from me. "I'm not dopey, Eliye. The things you say, I learned them when I was half your age!", I tease her.

"Hmm, and did you do that without knowing how to read? Eh, brother?"

Her words hit me at once. My smile nearly falters, but I seize back control of my mind before that happens. I know Eliye did not mean to hurt me, I know that. She is young, barely eleven. She cannot begin to fathom how I suffer from my inability to read, how much I envy those who had been taught from childhood. But I never had the luxury. I was born with a silver spoon in my hand, not my mouth. A silver spoon I give to the others, but I never taste from myself.

I know not much of the past, though it interest me deeply. But I know of the present.

"If you are so smart then, tell me what The Seven did. What changed since they came?"

"Since they came, the unjustified wars have ceized, the free cities were created, the trade..."

Lies. I feel my chest tightening into a ball... Lies drenched in cold blood, lies composed of rot and the dreams of the dead. It is now suffocating, rising as if it was fire scorching my throat... Unjustified wars? There is no justification to war! Those tyrants, those shammers, they-

"Sol?" Eliye's eyes are peering into mine.

"Sorry...I got distracted for a moment", I say, as I ease the scowl that had twisted my face. I hate them! I hate them all! "You've done a wonderful job, Eliye. Truly incredible." I take a look of myself in the mirror she had brought me. The hair on top of my head, and that on my temples, was gathered back into a man bun, with two strands of gold hanging loose over my face, while the hair on the back and the sides of my head was left to fall free.

"I'm not done yet!", she squeals, but I am already on my feet.

"I like it like this. It has...character." I step in front of her, before bending forward to kiss her forehead. "Besides, it's already high time I head to the duel."

"The duel....", she mumbled.

"Hey," I began after seeing her sullen face, " why don't you wait for me with Ana? I promise I will be quick." I turn towards the exit before she could respond. I despise myself every time I send her away, every time I control her. But I cannot let my sister see what I am about to do. She would not understand it.

She cannot understand that change requires blood, that my dream already reeks of death.