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 Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 4:42 pm
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Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:46 pm
. Just like the shirts Aina had seen the first time, the new ones she’d laid out had gone, too. Somehow, the cavern had become more bare with every passing month. Even the rocks seemed a little cleaner.
Aina hadn’t told her great-aunt Rebecca about the alcove yet. For one, her great-aunt always seemed so afraid of magic. More importantly, Aina knew how angry she would have gotten knowing that the shirts she had bought Aina were not being worn by her, but by someone else.
Now that the shirts really were missing, Aina knew she had no choice but to keep the alcove a secret from her great-aunt. Maybe from her grandfather, too, because he had warned Aina not to stray too far, and she hadn’t listened to him at all.
Aina hadn’t listened to Cruz or Anita, either. She’d strayed past the bedrock in record time, even faster than she had in April. She no longer paid much mind to searching for the fairies that hid under seashells.
“Did you not like the shirts?” Aina asked, though no one else was at the alcove with her. “They had sunflowers an’ peonies on ‘em,” she recalled. She had certainly liked the shirts, and she’d hoped whoever had left the shirts in the cavern did, too.
When no one answered, Aina slumped and sat at the edge of the alcove. She was so certain someone was here, or something. It was what drove her to return again and again to this odd little place holed up between the ocean and the cliff.
She sighed, then let out a soft huff. Water began bubbling in front of her. She looked up from her lap towards the sunlight.
A bed of matted hair poked out past the water, and a pair of dark eyes watched her from below.
The Frei startled. A splash of water kicked up, splashing her. She managed to magic some of the water to stay still, but by the time she had, the thing with hair and dark eyes had long disappeared.
If Aina thought very hard on it, she could swear she had seen ripples of pastel green and white where it had been. It was the color of the shirt she had left behind, the one with the sunflowers.
Too afraid to swim in the ocean, the Frei fled the alcove.
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:08 am
. Previously ▪ Anne smiled, widely, and pressed her cellphone to her ear. “O-okay. I love you, dad,” she felt her cheeks go red, and she squeezed her nose for warmth, “I will. Thank you so much. I'm... I'm going to go, though, Mordekai's upstairs right now to talk about it with,” Anne lied; she was simply tired, and her head was whirling with relief and adrenaline. “I'll talk to you soon, then, okay?”
“Okay. I love you so much, sweetheart. I hope to see Lady Aina and her sire soon?”
Anne reverberated with a laugh that was louder than it probably should have been; tears streamed from her face. “s**t, dad, stop that. Yeah, of course. I'll tell Mordekai we're visiting soon.”
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s what Grandpa had told Aina the title of Miss Millie’s project had come from. She had asked him to explain, and while the concept of unalienable rights seemed a little too obvious to her - of course everyone had the right to live! - the sentence had stuck with her. Miss Millie had explained her project further, too; every Cypress Academy student that went through her class was in charge of making a book collecting every moment, thing, and person that made them happy. At the end of the school year, everyone got a chance to share their happiness with the class.
Everyone in the world was chasing happiness. And that happiness was theirs, no one else’s. That, to Aina, seemed like the most important thing in the world - and she wondered why everyone didn’t have to make a book about it. This project had told Aina for sure that she wanted to be a part of Miss Millie’s class, and go to Cypress, and that Ghislaine’s wasn’t that cool anyway - even if they did take field trips to insect farms.
Aina had stewed on what had made her happy for a few days after visiting Miss Millie. She’d decided on using a notepad for the endeavor, one that Jillette had given her with pink stars and clouds on the corners. But, after five pages, Aina had gotten stuck.
One night, Aina was scrutinizing the list over the dinner table, staring more at her paper than she was eating.
“Hey, mamzelle,” Mordekai called, carrying a load of dirty dishes to the kitchen. “Know your food don’t really get cold, but you gotta get to bed soon.”
“I know,” Aina replied, resting her cheek on her palm as contemplatively as she could, tapping her pen on the table. “‘M almost done...”
“Mais, whatcha workin’ so hard on, anyway?” Mordekai went on to ask, taking a glimpse over at the Frei’s sheets of paper before heading to the kitchen sink. The Frei didn’t seem to notice him as she idly picked a pomegranate seed from her plate, popping it into her mouth and chewing on it slowly. Duncan returned to the dining table after retrieving mugs of tea, setting them down at the dinner table with a platter of cream and sugar.
“She’s working on The Pursuit of Happiness book, Mordekai. We told you about it a few days ago,” Duncan said, laying the contents of the platter out in front of the Frei. Once the tea was ready, he returned to his seat, helping himself to a spoonful of cream and sugar. “You have quite a long list already, Aina. You should take a break.”
“Ahhh, hey. Gran’pas right, ye’know,” Mordekai said, making quick work of the dishes. “Don’t you wanna work on it when you’re actually goin’a school?”
“But I didn’t think of everything yet. And I wanna get a head start...” A tad defeated, Aina looked up from her papers at her guardians. “Papa, grandpa? Can you help me?”
“We could try. Can we read what you have so far?” Duncan asked, sipping his tea. With a small nod, Aina leaned over to hand Duncan her papers - she stared nervously at him as he read, her hands fidgeting over the table.
“Let’s see… Papa, grandpa. Nonc, auntie Leigh… Anita, Cruz. Tea, our family’s garden…” Duncan let slip a chuckle, leaning the paper away from his classes to reread. “Cupcakes?”
“You ain’t even try ‘em yet an’ that got top ten? S’top ten, right?” Mordekai laughed, drying his hands on a kitchen towel. He folded his hands over the counter, humming. “What ‘bout bugs? Flowers?”
“I think cupcakes are pretty, an’ Anita likes ‘em, so I know they’re tasty,” Aina rebuked, wings twitching as she sat proudly in her seat. “I got bugs ‘n flowers on there already!”
“Oh, yes, I see those on there,” Duncan confirmed, gesturing to the paper as Mordekai approached the dining table. “Let’s see what more is on here... fairs. Painting, going to the beach… napping. Baking.”
“Rain?” Mordekai suggested, easing himself into a chair.
“Mhm! Duh, papa,” Aina said, sticking out her tongue.
“Watchin’ Bake Off?” After picking up a mug of tea, Mordekai stuck his tongue out at Aina right back.
“Watching TV is on there,” Duncan raised his brows, adjusting his spectacles.
“Close ‘nough.” Shrugging, Mordekai leaned back in his seat, the mug of tea at his lips. He smiled over the rim of the cup at the Frei, raising his brows. “Seaby an’ Dame?”
“Uhuh! And the farm. And Mario Kart.”
“There’s an entire section just dedicated to books… hm.” Duncan looked up at the ceiling as he thought, taking another idle sip of his tea. “What might you have missed…”
“I dunno,” she sighed, leaning forward to rest her cheeks against her palms. “But I know I got more stuff…”
“S’a tricky question, huh? You’re gonna hafta give us a minute,” Mordekai said, staring at the pomegranate’s still largely untouched plate of food. “Aina, you gotta finish your dinner.”
“‘M not really hungry…” Draping herself over the table, Aina sighed. “Can we go read?” she asked instead, staring pleadingly up at Duncan.
“You’re really finished with your dinner?” Duncan asked, and Aina nodded, already leaning to the side in a motion to leave. “Alright. Bring your tea upstairs, and we’re getting ready for bed afterward,” he said, rising from his chair.
”Yeah! Oh--” hopping out of her chair, she quickly floated to her grandfather, holding her hands out. “Grandpa, can I have my list back, please?”
“Here you are,” Duncan smiled, and as soon as the Frei had the list again, she fled upstairs. Mordekai laughed, waving as she went.
“Girl’s gonna kill it at school.”
---
Aina had already torn through her entire bookshelf by the time Duncan and Mordekai had caught up with her upstairs. Many of her books were in small piles on the floor, and Aina was mulling over a copy of Are You My Mother? when she noticed her guardians stepping inside of her room. After deciding Dr. Seuss was a little too weird, she set the book down with a disappointed frown.
“I dunno what I wanna read…” hovering lower, she stared at the remainder of her bookshelf - most of her novels had been upended and stacked into piles already, discarded for other options. Mordekai knelt beside her, scrutinizing the remainder of her books, as Duncan huddled down to clean the piles off of the floor.
“Nothin' you like? What 'bout some conte de fées?” Mordekai nudged her shoulder; smiling wide, he leaned over to kiss her head. “Boucles d'or et les trois ours? What does that mean, ah?”
“Goldilocks an’ the Three Bears! And… mm-mm,” Aina smiled, nudging herself closer to Mordekai. She rested her head against the side of his arm, hugging him. “We read ‘em in French yesterday.”
“Mais, I guesso, huh?” Mordekai tilted his head as he watched Duncan sort through Aina’s discarded books. “Anythin’ good, Duncan?”
“Not yet… hm…” Duncan scratched his chin, thinking, then brightened. “What about… I bring a book from my office?”
“Am... I gonna be able to understand ‘em?” Mordekai laughed; Aina did, too, though she nodded curiously at her grandfather.
“S’it one of your teacher books?”
“No,” Duncan proceeded carefully, watching as Aina and Mordekai’s smiles faded with wonder. ”It’s one of your mother’s books.”
His words drew wide eyes from the two of them, and as they glanced at one another, he stepped out of the room and to his office.
---
Duncan was often envious of Cerise’s ability to weave a tale. There was a creativity in her that the Bellamys seemed to have mastered that he never had, even from traveling across the world just as far and just as often as Cerise had. But, as Annie grew up, it was plain to him that she’d inherited his love for stories, and her mother’s abilities to create them. Before Annie could even write, she used pretend games and toys to make fairytales of her own.
There were only a few stories, though, that Annie had ever written down. A lot of them were from her childhood, shyly hidden away in bookshelves or stuffed into boxes where no one could read them. Most of them had been thrown away on a whim when Annie left home, and the handful that survived were given to Duncan after she was grown.
Annie’s books sat in a corner of his bookshelf, nearest to his desk. They were crafted with cardboard and office paper, makeshift creations with no titles and acrylic paint binding it together. Many of the stories were about their home’s many tenants and the lives Annie had pretended they had; some were about music; others were about places.
There was only one that she had written about her family. She had created it with her mother so long ago.
Duncan reached for the cardboard book from his shelf, wiping it of dust. The cover was blank, a simple sky blue, but one look inside it and he knew it was the correct one; it was the tale of Prince Aina, his granddaughter’s namesake.
Duncan wasn’t quite sure what had inspired him to find the book on a random day in May. Perhaps, he thought, it was seeing Millie again, the youth preserved in her reminding him of his wife as she worked on the books with their daughter.
Perhaps, too, it was because he hadn’t seen mama on Aina’s list of happinesses, and he couldn’t bear to see her forgotten.
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:19 pm
. Before I can tell you about Prince Aina, I must tell you about the World.
Did you know that before there was the World, there was only the Between Place?
It was ruled by the witches and wizards, who could make anything. Among the things they created were the plants, the animals, and the plots of land on which they lived. Among the things they created were magical things, too, like other witches and wizards. They made all these things with their special Potions. They were the thoughts the witches and wizards had that were unique to all the universe, bottled with love.
For a while, the witches and wizards were content in the Between Place. But soon their lands grew too small, their plants and animals too few, and the witches and wizards felt crowded in their humble Place among the stars.
There were three witches who knew this unhappiness would lead to catastrophe. They were the greatest magicians of the Between Place, making the biggest and most powerful of Potions. With the aid of their beasts and tremendous magic, the three witches began crafting a very big Potion.
With that Potion, they created the domain of Sky, the domain of Sea, and the domain of Land. The three domains created Earth, a much bigger place than that which lay Between. The witches and wizards, though they were afraid, moved from their humble and too-small Between Place to these domains unknown. The three witches, trustworthy and helpful to all, guided their staid and wary people to a happier place.
With the help of the domains, the witches and wizards flourished, but there was no longer a need for Potions. Kings and Queens grew to power as the years passed, with the three witches as the Empresses of their domains. As time went on, magic faded from the air and seeped into the Earth, lingering only in the ancestries of the witches and wizards once from the Between Place. Though magic was soon forgotten, the people were happy, for children flourished in its place, and the World was at peace.
When Prince Aina was really little, she remembered that peace. It blossomed all around her, like spring flowers, making her and her father, the King of Clouds, very gentle. Their subjects loved them, and the Cloud Kingdom helped bind the domains of the world together.
But, when she grew up, the Domains were broached by a great evil that not even the Empresses could predict.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 11:13 pm
. Lorenzo introduces Duncan and Aina to Vesna after the four run into each other at Durem's summer festival in Little Kyoto.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
When Duncan had told Aina that they were going to a summer festival today, she was excited. Aina had expected Durem’s festival to be the same as Barton’s county fair, in a way, and she was absolutely, totally wrong. There weren’t any animals or hay bales or rides in sight, and though she was disappointed by that at first, she was quickly swept up in all the things this new corner of Durem had to offer her. She had no idea what Kyoto was, but if the Little one in Gaia was anything like it, she absolutely loved it.
The cherry blossom events had come and gone through most of the city for the season, but the trees were kept even more vivid and alive with the help of magic, painting the place with bright spring pastels. Music was bustling down the closed off street, the sidewalks flooded with yatai and sprinkled sparsely with a few other food trucks and event booths. It was a lot to take in all at once, but Aina was happy to do so, especially with the help of a disposable camera - they hadn’t been there for more than an hour by the time she’d taken lots of photos, especially of the people marching around in costumes.
“Why are so many people dressed funny, Duncan?” Aina asked, her disposable camera aimed and ready at a few taiko drummers preparing themselves nearby. A few women in colorful dresses passed by them, and Aina watched as they disappeared into the crowd. She startled with the sound of the drum, and she glanced back at the taiko drummers, timidly clutching her backpack handles.
“Well, a lot of them are dressed in traditional Japanese clothes. They’re pretty, aren’t they?” Duncan asked, looking onward at the drummers once their performance began. The crowd around them grew denser as they proceeded, and Aina seemed just as thrilled about the noise as she was about the gaggle of people. She began urging them away, pulling Duncan away to a quieter part of the street just ahead - though, he noted, it seemed just as busy there as it was before.
“S’too loud,” Aina complained, hugging herself closer to Duncan - thankfully, they managed to pick through the edge of the crowd without much issue, and Aina quickly distracted herself with another photo opportunity just ahead. “Are they in Japanese clothes?” she asked, pointing in front of them.
“Those are just costumes, Aina,” Duncan assured, laughing - he couldn’t quite pinpoint what, though they did look a tad like those characters from Anita’s video games. “Hm,” he said, pressing his hand to his chin, “Should we ask them?”
“It’s okay,” Aina replied, shyly, though she dutifully took a quick photo of the cosplayers as they left. Once that was done, she pointed just next to them. “Is that Japanese?” she asked, hopeful.
“No, I think that’s just - a man in a cape,” Duncan laughed, though it was quickly stilted by the glimpse of a glowing rune and ribbon in front of the man. He startled, though the realization came a second after Aina’s, and she was quick to pull them both forward to Mister Fisch and the mystery girl with him.
“Mister Fisch!” she shouted, though her voice was too small and quiet for the crowd - “Mister Fisch! Your Raevan is here!” she yelled again, flailing her hands.
“Mister Fisch!” Duncan waved, too, his voice a few volumes louder than the Frei's. “Excuse me!”
“Mister Fisch!” Aina shouted again, equally as eager to shout as she was in catching his attention, “Your Raevan is really pretty!”
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:52 pm
. The dreariness of visiting Aunt Rebecca was beginning to grow and overflow every time Aina visited her. Between the shopping trips, routine hours-long music lessons, and sitting inside talking about incomprehensible things, Aina was always the first one out of her Aunt’s door after every good-bye. At the mention of Aunt Rebecca’s name, the drive from Barton and Gambino was always cursed with sudden traffic, accidents on the road, and stopping at every red light.
But, after the day dragged on, Duncan brought Aina to Yarrow’s Point, and Aina had no time to spare over reminiscing about her aunt. Armed with a backpack full of arts and crafts supplies, Aina traversed to the alcove, the distance between her and her grandfather spanning yards upon yards by the time she reached the crag.
Aina was no longer hesitant in traversing this part of the seaside, striding quickly and confidently past the sand and the arc, which still loomed high. The water beneath her rolling calmly against the rock invited her safely inside of the alcove, and Aina looked around, immediately clinging to the straps of her backpack as soon as she had reached the landing.
She stared at the spot where that stranger with dark eyes and matty hair had been, wearing the shirt with the sunflowers and peonies. The alcove was encompassed by an eerie quiet, bare of any moss or stray rocks, the air cool and breezy. It reminded Aina of visiting Auntie Leigh after New Years, her baby room unused and lonely.
“I can help you decorate,” Aina said, floating lower and sitting nearby the edge of the alcove, her ribbon dipping slightly into the ocean water. Reaching for her backpack, she unzipped the top, rummaging through her supplies. “I got watercolors, an’ paper, an’ some clay an’ seashells, if you wanna make this place prettier…”
“Would that help?” Aina asked, setting a supplies down onto the ground beside her. “Would that make you happy? S’not really happy bein’ somewhere empty all the time…”
“I think seein’ you would make me really happy… Miss Millie said I gotta write that down, but I forgot… but, um,” she glanced up at the ceiling of the alcove, “D’you wanna see me?”
It was silent. Just like it had been when Aina had visited the first time.
“Hello?”
She zipped up her backpack. Sniffing, eyes welling with tears, Aina began her trek back to her grandfather.
A pack of watercolors and a few seashells sat near the edge of the alcove.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:59 pm
. (In progress!) Without anyone's knowledge, Aina and Cruz sneak into the storage room facility where Duncan and Mordekai have been keeping Annie's things.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
On the day that Duncan managed to unearth the Sky Prince's book, and began reading it to Aina, she – and Mordekai soon after – was falling asleep almost immediately after the Introduction was over. Aina loved the story, but patiently, she agreed to wait to read the rest until Duncan and Mordekai could read it with her again, bit by bit, savoring what was left of the small book with the insistence of suspense from both the Frei and her grandfather's part. But mama's other stories, now that an entire world had been unveiled to Aina, were completely free to explore.
Aina couldn't have gotten enough of her mama's stories after Duncan had shown her the one about the Sky Prince. But he only had a few more after that one in his office, and despite his explaining to her that his was all there was, she didn't believe it. And, when Mordekai swore he had seen more books around, even read them, Aina was convinced there was more of her mama in the world than her grandpa had known of.
So – with another recommendation from Mordekai – Aina and her guardians took a trip to a small storage facility at the very eastern end of Durem, only a half hour's drive away from home. Unbeknownst to Aina before their travels, a small storage room was full of all of Annie's knickknacks, boxes and boxes towered onto each other filled with an unimaginable amount of things.
With none of the boxes labeled, it took a while for Duncan and Mordekai to rummage through Annie's things. At their encouragement, Aina shuffled through some of the boxes Duncan and Mordekai had rifled through without much success.
It took a few hours, and it felt like the supply room had been rearranged completely since they'd gotten there – but they managed to find two boxes full of books, true to what Mordekai had sworn. Aina had plugged Annie's fairy lights into a well-hidden outlet in the storage room, laying out too many baubles for Duncan to have piled into his small car. Though Aina managed to bring a few things – jewelry and a few more clothes and a small case of scrapbook supplies – a few other things were laid bare in the storage room, with Mordekai and Duncan too worn to sort them back into their proper boxes. Birdhouses, a bead set, CDs, blankets, and an assortment of other crafts had been left in the dark, after Aina had to turn the fairy lights off.
Duncan and Mordekai promised that they'd return sometime to pick up those things. But June was a bad month for both Aina's grandfather and her father, with the end of the school year beckoning Duncan to stay on campus well into the evening, and Mordekai being kept at the farm through the night some days.
The days seemed to drag on after Aina's visit to the storage unit. And, after seeing more than just a snippet of her mama in her photograph, Aina found it hard to wait even longer to get to know her.
So, she thought – did she have to?
After staying with her Aunt Rebecca for a visit, Aina asked to visit Anita and Cruz at their apartment. Her aunt agreed, on one caveat – that she was allowed to see them before she drove off. It had been a long while since Rebecca had seen them last, and though Aina felt a little reluctant to have her there, she guided her patiently up the elevator of Anita's Wavecrest building.
One hand held onto Rebecca's, Aina knocked on the door.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:01 am
. Previously ▪ “You’re gonna get a soggy butt,” Aina noted quietly; then, hugging her flowers tighter, she arched her neck up to look at Mordekai. “An’ mama’s just a big stone now...”
Mordekai’s somber smile broke into an amused grin, and he chuckled; “Aw, this big ol’ stone ain’t her. She’s down there,” he pointed toward the snowy grass just in front, “She’s restin’ up in a little box in the ground, helps her get warm in winter. She been wantin’ to meet you a long time.”
“Oh... “ Aina stared at the grass and gravestone before them, then held out the bouquet - she placed it carefully against the gravestone. “Sorry, mama. We got you flowers.”
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Mordekai sat with a bag of takeout for four on his lap inside of Duncan’s car, his knees touching the glove compartment of the passenger’s seat. The two men were staring outside at the veranda of their home in silence. Anita was inside helping Aina and Cruz keep busy, and their little Frei seemed more eager to interact with Anita than either of them. That much was expected after the blow-up at the storage unit. Things had gone less than ideally.
The kind of tension that was building up in the car was waiting for an explosion -- for either one of them to begin the conversation they had avoided on the way back home and to the grocers. But Mordekai, more than keen to keep on the silence, grabbed the plastic bag from his lap and began opening the car door. Duncan watched for a moment, wanting just as much as Mordekai to let the whole thing go -- but, of course, he knew simply ignoring it would only make the friction between them worse.
Duncan cleared his breath. “Mordekai,” he began, training his eyes on the car wheel. Mordekai paused, sitting at the edge of the car seat as he waited for Duncan to finish his sentence.
When nothing came, Mordekai glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah,” he replied, mustering a coldness in his tone Duncan did not know he was capable of. The distance steeled Duncan’s resolve to set things right before they stepped foot into their home, and he folded his hands patiently over the steering wheel.
“We have to let those things go,” Duncan concluded. Mordekai slid back into his seat, resting the takeout bag on the dashboard, stuffing his hands inside of his jacket pockets.
“Go where?” Mordekai knew perfectly well what Duncan had meant, and the older man didn’t entertain the question.
“You’ve been paying for this storage place for four hard years, son. It’s finally time to throw those things away.”
“You wanna throw those things away? Things, that’s all you think of ‘em? This is all we got of her. Look what we found just by keepin’ it around,” Mordekai retorted, and Duncan rubbed his temples. This conversation was already threatening to be a repeat of the one they had at the storage unit, but he would not let that be.
“We can-- go back some other time and pick up what we want to keep. But the rest is a burden, and you shouldn’t have to keep paying for that space.”
“You know I’m not worried about payin’ for that space,” Mordekai softened, trying to regress the tension between them with a quiet, dismayed laugh. Duncan met his eyes, and both men seemed to match each other’s air of sympathy. “C’mon. Let’s go in.” Mordekai gestured to the house -- another plea to let things recede back into normalcy.
“You’re not worried? Son, you’re paying hundreds of thousands of gold every month to rent a space where you collect nothing but dust,” Duncan urged, not moving an inch from his seat, which made Mordekai slump back against his own. “That money could go towards anything else… your livelihood, your debt, your medicine--”
“I got it handled. I’m alive, ain’t I? I’m payin’ for everything you an’ Jo ask me ‘bout. Every goddamn thing, you don’t have to worry ‘bout me anymore,” Mordekai’s voice rose and fell in a crescendo, and he rubbed his nose, glancing out the car window. He quickly closed the door shut in a vie for privacy. “This is-- this is what we got left of her, Duncan, s’all we got of Annie. What we got to remember her by, ye’know? We can’t let that go.”
“We are not forgetting Annie by throwing these things away, Mordekai, that’s absurd!” Duncan let out an exasperated laugh, eyes trained on the back of Mordekai’s head as the younger man let out a soft scoff, fists bundling up the cloth of his jacket. “We don’t remember her by-- by things like those birdhouses, or blankets, or-- or any object. We remember her for the days she has given us! Objects don’t preserve her memories, we do,” Duncan implored, one hand moving away to gingerly touch Mordekai’s shoulder. “Son,” he said, calmly, pleading his attention -- and Mordekai turned back to him, wide-eyed and nonplussed.
“Okay. But you think Aina’s got what we got? You thinkin’ ‘bout our girl too? Mama this, mama that, you jus’ gunna rub the salt in talkin’ ‘bout all the fun we had, givin’ Aina a taste, then-- what, throwin’ it all way? Don’t that sound ******** up to you too?” Mordekai put his hand over Duncan’s, gingerly moving his father-in-law away from him. His voice was calm, barely a whisper.
“If the things are what you’re worried about, then we can keep it here, but that storage room-- that storage room, if Aina can just-- meander into it in broad daylight, we’re not encouraging that behavior. A child-- no, anyone-- trying to live out of a storage room, Mordekai? That is dangerous. The people that could roam through there, it’s-- terrifying,” Duncan stammered, “Do you understand?”
“You’re blamin’ her for this? She didn’t do anythin’ wrong. And like those kids aren’t responsible, can’t take care of themselves-- hell, Cruz even got a cellphone on him, they just fell asleep. That storage room got a lock on it, right? Who else gonna get in there, the damn guards?”
“They left home without telling us-- Mordekai,” Duncan upturned his brows, leaning against his own seat. “That doesn’t worry you?”
Mordekai breathed in, dragging his feet closer to the base of the passenger’s seat.
“If they leave home without tellin’ us, I feel like we’re the ones doin’ something wrong. Shouldn’t we just be thankin’ ‘em for coming home at the end of the day?” Duncan softened at the sentiment, glancing at the car brakes. “I swear that storage room’s safe. If Aina wants a place to hang out, get to know her mama a little better without us lordin’ over her shoulder,” Mordekai said, shrugging, forcing himself to keep staring out the window. “I’m not gonna stop her.”
“Mordekai, Aina is barely two years old,” Duncan carefully retorted, his voice gentle. “Do you remember the last time Cruz left home without telling Anita? He was gravely hurt, and he’s much older and bigger than she is. We encourage curiosity, yes, but-- in our home, with family, somewhere we know is safe. We don’t lord over her shoulder. There’s freedom in our home, and we can provide for her needs-- love, shelter, anything. We are her shelter and safety. That is what good parents encourage. That is what good parents are.”
“Yeah. I’m just worried she don’t think this is a safe place,” he rested his head against the glass, “What if she wants out?”
“Every time Aina says that she loves you, do you think that’s a lie? That she wants to leave? Aina simply made a mistake because she’s a child, and she isn’t aware of the consequences--”
“We made a mistake too, right. We couldn’t keep her safe. That’s what I heard you sayin’.”
“We did,” Duncan agreed, pursing his lips. He let out a soft breath. “But we have the fortune of being able to atone for it all. We are learning, too, I’m afraid.”
“What if she jus’ wants some time with her mom? Not us.”
“Objects in a storage space can’t speak for Annie, son. We’re the ones who tell Aina the stories behind them.” Duncan smiled, and hoped very much that Mordekai could feel it; and, when his son looked back, Duncan felt his shoulders ease just a touch. “She can’t do this on her own, Mordekai. And I sincerely don’t think she wants to.”
“Ah…” with a defeated laugh, Mordekai slunk back in his seat, rubbing his face with his hands. “Annie’s been her mama from day one. Remember? She called us Duncan an’ Mordekai when she got home. An’ for a long time after that.”
“And why should that matter? It simply doesn’t,” Duncan chuckled, shaking his head. “We had to earn our titles. So what? It means that Aina knows she is loved by us more than anything. When you feel like she doesn’t need you, please, remember that.”
Mordekai slid his hands down to look at Duncan, and he giggled, reaching over to nudge Duncan playfully on the shoulder with his fist. “Real cheesy stuff, pops.”
“Yes, well,” Duncan chuckled, patting Mordekai’s hand. Flustered, he turned his head discretely back to the steering wheel. “It is a weakness.”
“Ah. I like it,” Mordekai digressed. Another sigh left him, and he grabbed the takeout bag one more time, nudging the doorknob open with his elbow. “I’ll tell her. ‘Bout the unit,” he looked back at Duncan before he stepped out of the vehicle, rummaging his pocket for keys. “I know what you’re sayin’ is right.”
“Thank you, Mordekai,” Duncan replied, a tad uncertain, but he masked it with an appreciative smile.
“‘Bout time I do somethin’ responsible, right?”
***
Duncan set the table for dinner while Anita and the Freis played in the garden. When Mordekai emerged from the patio, the laughter he’d heard seemed to dim somewhat, but Aina quickly went to him as soon as he asked for her. The pomegranate was calm and quiet, fiddling with her hands as she sat across from her father at the garden table. Mordekai watched her for a moment, squeezing his own hands together, one foot tapping nervously on the ground.
“Hey, baby girl. You got every right to be mad at me. I just wanna come in and say sorry,” he began. Aina continued to stare at the table, but she shrugged awkwardly, wiggling in her seat-- a sign that she wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“I’m not mad at you, papa. Um,” her voice was shy, and she rested her chin against the table, deflating a bit. “I’m just sad…”
“Why are you sad?” mirroring the Frei, he rested his head on the table, too, tilting his head in an attempt to meet her eyes.
“‘Cause… I made you and grandpa angry… and worried,” she replied, sniffing as she glanced carefully up at Mordekai, hands still fidgeting with themselves.
“We’re not angry at you… worried, yeah,” Mordekai nodded, and Aina did the same, sniffing again as her cheeks flushed. He smiled sympathetically, shaking his head. “Don’t think the three of us got a lotta anger in us. That’s good, right?”
“Mhm… you’re really not mad?”
“Not a bit.”
“Can I have a hug?”
“‘Course.” Aina hopped out of her seat and fled to Mordekai as quickly as she could, and he’d almost forgotten how light the Frei was most days. Careful of her wings, he gave Aina a pat on the back as she buried herself into his chest, and he pretended not to see the few stray tears or hear the whimpering on her end. “Hey, Aina. Grandpa and I were talkin’. We gotta make the storage place go away, okay? It’s just-- not safe. We can keep some of mama’s things, but-- no more roamin’ around on your own,” he murmured, lifting her up to his shoulder.
With another sniffle, Aina nodded almost immediately, which came to a surprise -- “Okay,” she said in return, and Mordekai tilted his head back to see her, only to have a perfect view of her mess of white hair.
“Are you mad at us?” he asked, brushing away some of her bangs behind her ears, and Aina shook her head.
“No... um, I trust you, and grandpa, so… it’s okay…” she played with her sleeves, “I’m not mad.”
“Can I ask you why you gone there, Aina? Did you need somewhere else to be? Like-- somewhere that ain’t home. Do grandpa and I need to give you more space? Runnin’ away like that… sometimes we do that ‘cause we’re frustrated or hurt,” Mordekai wondered, setting Aina back down on the table. He knelt down some to see at her height, hands politely clasped together over his knees. “Don’t want you to feel frustrated or hurt inside like that.”
“No,” Aina twirled her hair, wings twitching. “I just wanted to see mama’s stuff… ‘cause I can’t talk to her like you and grandpa can… so…” Mordekai’s eyes strayed to the ground at the thought, and he held the back of his head at the idea.
“I dunno what you mean, baby girl… grandpa and me talkin’ to your mama’s stuff…?” he asked, smiling gingerly at the Frei with upturned brows.
“Mhm. When you go visit her without me… it’s ‘cause you’re seein’ her, right? And talkin’ to her… I just dunno why I can’t. Does she not wanna see me?”
“No-- hey-- what, Aina, we can’t do anything like that,” Mordekai stammered, laughing at how stunned he felt; “Grandpa and I can’t talk to her like that, we-- just talk and hope she hears us… ah, up there, you know.” He pointed upward in the hopes of reaching Aina, but the Frei seemed just as upset as she had been. She turned her head up, shading her eyes with her arm, but nothing about the sky seemed new to her at all.
“Oh… in the Sky Kingdom?” It was an untimely reminder to Mordekai that Aina never quite had a concept of heaven or hell -- but that was just as well, and he grinned, looking up at the clouds obscured slightly by the rafters above them.
“Yeah… ah, in the Sky Kingdom. But that’s awful far, huh. So we’re just hopin’ she hears us,” he reconciled. “Hey… I’m sorry you thought that. We’re not keepin’ any secrets from you, Aina. Promise.”
“Okay… I promise I’m not keepin’ any secrets, too.” Aina looked thoughtfully at the garden with her sentiment -- she remembered the fairy at Yarrow’s Point, but she kept quiet, watching as the clouds drifted east.
“Thank you, mamzelle… hey,” Mordekai held out his hand for the Frei. “We can go pick out some real cool things your mama’s got soon. Pinky promise.”
Was it a secret if papa or grandpa hadn’t asked?
“Like her music?”
No.
“Like her music.”
Aina smiled and reached out to hold her father’s hand. “Pinky promise.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:10 am
. Damien offers up his space to the Clarke-Kantors to store Annie's things in the interim. When Mordekai and Anita finally head to his home, Anita has some funky deja-vu.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Whether or not Duncan wanted to, he won the argument. It was true; Mordekai was running out of money, and Annie’s items were doing nothing but rotting in a cold and dark place for years. The storage unit was no longer viable.
After taking apart the fairy lights, packing Aina’s backpack with what she wanted - a few cassette tapes and books - they vacated the storage unit the morning after Cruz and Aina were found. Boxes and boxes of Annie’s things were shoved into the corner of the foyer until Mordekai and Duncan both agreed on a time to sort things through to donate, throw away, or give to loved ones.
Aina kept to herself, keeping quiet and occupying the time at home in her room. For the first time since Aina had come home, most of their family’s nights were quiet and isolated.
The boxes were hard to look at. A couple of weeks passed. Duncan avoided looking at the whole ordeal, ducking his eyes if he left through the front door, with Aina doing the same. But Mordekai stared, overwhelmed every morning, until he went to work one day to ask Stephen if he had any room to spare for Annie’s things.
Damien managed to interject, volunteering his duplex instead.
During the weekend, while Duncan was at work and Aina visited Johan, Mordekai began packing Annie’s boxies into the back of his borrowed truck (courtesy of Stephen) with Anita’s help. Damien’s duplex was a fair distance away from Duncan’s home, but Mordekai remembered the directions, opting to drive himself and Anita there in the morning as quickly as he could. As they approached the neighborhood, he glanced out his window, letting the car roll along at walking speed as he checked the numbers.
Mordekai: “Ah… s**t.” -reaching into his jacket to try and find his cellphone- “Gotta call ‘im out here, all these gatdamn houses look the same… Durem, man.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:10 am
. Claire and Ivy arrange a play date with Duncan at the Gambino Botanical Gardens so Lorin and Aina can meet.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
It had been almost a year down to the day since Aina and Duncan had seen Claire and her family last, and it was only a week ago that they had managed to carve out a time the families to reunite that worked perfectly with all of them. They were to meet at the Gambino Botanical, a lovely garden by the coast, to have a small picnic. Along with a basket of her and Duncan's own offerings to the picnic, Aina also brought a small giftbox with her. She hugged it to herself the whole car ride there, scrutinizing the label, which was written in her own handwriting heavy with curls and hearts - 'TO LORIN,' it said, embellished with a green gel pen.
"Grandpa?" Aina chimed in, glancing out the backseat window as the car slowed into the parking lot. "D'you think Lorin's gonna like his present?"
"I think he'll love it, Aina," Duncan replied. On a random weekday, it was easy to find parking at the garden, and he settled near the foot of the garden's entrance among the gravel. "Are you excited to see him?"
Aina flustered, wings twitching with excitement, and she giggled. "A little," she said, wiggling her shoulders a bit. Once the car was still, she clicked off her seatbelt and pushed open the handle of the car door. The autumn breeze against her hair was nice, and she hummed, staring beyond at the gate of oak trees covered in moss. "Are Miss Claire an' Ivy an' Lorin here yet?"
"We can give them a call soon, here," Duncan replied. He smiled back at Aina from the driver's seat, grabbing the picnic basket next to him meanwhile. "You're only a little excited to see him?"
"A little," Aina mimicked in return, giggling again. "Grandpa, your seatbelt's still on!"
"Patience, Aina," Duncan grinned, watching as Aina sunk into her seat in exasperation. "There's no hurry if you're only a little excited, hm?"
"Grandpa!" her wings fluttered, and she leaned against the threshold of the backseat. "You're movin' so slow...! Can I go?"
"I need to grab some blankets, first," Duncan said, finally having hopped out of his seat. Just as he began rounding the corner to the trunk, Aina followed, diligently popping open the trunk where the blankets were. She managed to grab a pile in both her arms, the height of them all well over her head; Duncan couldn't help but laugh in light of the Frei's enthuse. He closed the trunk for her and followed after the pomegranate's wobbly floating toward the trees.
"I can do it!" she said, muffled against the cloth. Despite her fumbling from the blankets obstructing her view, Aina managed to reach the entrance of the botanical gardens. "Miss Claire! Miss Claire?"
"Aina..." with a small laugh, Duncan leaned forward to grab a few blankets from Aina's impressive pile, allowing her nose and eyes to poke past it. The pomegranate grinned up at him, and he furrowed his brows, replying with a teasingly stern smile of his own. "If you're in such a hurry, would you mind calling Miss Claire for us, to see where she is?"
"Oh! Uhuh!" Duncan, after retrieving the phone from his jacket, exchanged the remainder of Aina's blankets for the device. While her grandfather rested the blankets on the ground, folding them neatly to better carry them, Aina hummed and began dialling the number for Miss Claire's phone. Once the phone began ringing, she pressed it to her ear, bobbing her head.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:19 am
. Aina didn’t like seeing grandpa and papa get mad, or cry, or look sad at all. Even if they didn’t yell at her, Aina knew they were yelling at each other, and that almost felt worse. They were holding in so much from her.
Aina didn’t like any of it.
Aina hadn’t visited Yarrow’s Point since June. It was August, now, a month before she had to go to school. Even if she had told grandpa they needed to visit Cesc, Cruz, Ethiriel, and Lorin because they were close, her heart still knew that Gambino was far from northern Barton, after the bus ride she took with Cruz. It took thirty minutes to get from Cruz’s room to the ferry. That was a long, long time.
Papa and grandpa took her to Yarrow’s Point. They were just behind her, because she moved slow for them, so they couldn’t be sad again. She wanted to say goodbye to the crag at the edge of the sand, and the arch barely in view, and the alcove just beyond that.
“Why don’t you like me?” she asked the jagged rocks, but really, she wanted to ask the person with dark eyes and matted hair who wore her shirt. When the rocks said nothing, she stared at the ground. Not even the fairies were out today.
“It’s not safe here,” someone said. It was a faint voice. Aina glanced up, back at her grandpa and papa, who were talking a few yards away from her. She glanced to the side, to a frail looking child, who had scraggly yellow hair and a waterworn shirt that had peonies and sunflowers on them. Aina startled.
“You’re wearin’ my shirt,” she said, elated, floating closer to the girl. “Are you the one that’s in the cave all the time? D’you wanna paint together?”
The child backed away, shaking their head. “It’s not safe.”
“The rocks’re safe! I can help ‘cause I don’t have any feet,” Aina insisted, holding out her arms. “It’s okay! I wanted to meet you!”
“Not the rocks,” the child warned, “The cave. Not safe.”
“Is it your room? It’s safe, it’s just empty,” Aina said, shaking her head. “It’s okay!”
“Aina?” Mordekai called out, and Aina glanced back, startling.
When she turned to see the child again, they were gone.
“Aina, c’mon, those rocks ain’t safe.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:18 am
. Previously ▪ “Yes, your grandmother!” Millie sighed, leaning back to look at Aina. “Aina, your grandma was a very good friend of mine. She’s the reason why I became a teacher. And my son went to school with your uncle, and your grandfather was their teacher. Isn’t that funny?” she asked, and Aina looked up at Duncan, who seemed a bit surprised by Miss Millie’s reaction.
“I think it’s neat,” Aina said, nodding plainly, which caused Duncan to chuckle. The Frei smiled, and Miss Millie did, too.
“Really, you’re a very lucky girl, Aina. Your life is full of so many teachers. It must make your life so curious,” Miss Millie stood again, sipping down the rest of her tea. The Frei nodded.
“My uncle’s a teacher, too,” she added diligently.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Aina liked seeing her nonc’s view of things. Uncle was so tall, even taller than papa, that when she sat on his shoulders and walked around town she felt like she was flying, or floating, without using any of the magic that made her feel so tired and hungry. Her nonc usually encouraged her to walk with him, but on their tour through Cypress Academy, Johan humored Aina by letting her ride on his shoulders. Duncan walked beside them, charmed, to Miss Millie’s class. Both Aina and Duncan had been waiting far too long to show Johan around Aina’s school to be, and it seemed like August was slated to be a month of hasty appointments with school coming up for all three of them.
“Nonc? When I’m grown up, are you still gonna give me piggyback rides?” Aina asked, poking her head past Johan’s shoulder to take a gander at his face. Johan was wearing the same tired expression as always, but he gave Aina a small smile at the question. He was enjoying their quiet walk through Cypress previously - the campus was more beautiful of a thing than he ever imagined an elementary school could have. The academy was surrounded in an arrangement of flowers that reminded him of Duncan’s garden, and the outdoors hall leading down to the main building was crafted out of stone tiles that were lightly dappled in moss.
“If you ask nicely, I might entertain it.” Johan noticed Duncan’s smirk from the corner of his eye, and Aina hummed pensively at the reply, hugging her arms against his shoulder. “What spurred that question on?”
“Just thinkin’, ‘cause I’m going to school now, and that’s part of growin’ up,” Aina replied, resting her chin against her knuckles. “Grandpa and papa said they’re worried ‘bout me growin’ up too soon.”
“I don’t know why your grandpa and papa would worry about that. You’re going to be a kid for a long time,” Johan said, looking to the side and giving Aina’s nose a light poke - she leaned back at that, giggling and swatting away her uncle’s hand. She took the opportunity to hide her face with the end of his scarf.
“Oh, that’s a relief.” Duncan peered over at Johan past his glasses as he held the door aloft for his company.
“Really? How long?”
“Hm.” Johan ducked his head carefully underneath the threshold to avoid hitting his head, which was a usual fare, but the building seemed much smaller to him than usual given the demographic here. “Until you graduate college.”
“Who says I’m goin’ to college! That’s gonna take forever!” Having arrived after school hours, the building was devoid of students, and only a handful of staff could be seen opposite to where they were standing near a room clearly labelled for the administrative crew. Johan waited at the entrance until Duncan caught up and could continue leading the way. When Johan’s response wasn’t immediate, Aina persisted by lightly tapping the back of his head. “Nonc,” Aina urged.
“You don’t want to go to college?” Johan pulled his attention away from the bulletin boards that decorated the walls with a variety of events and resources - he had to wonder how Ghislaine Elementary was when that was the first choice in school.
“Oh, please, Johan, I’m only just adjusting to Aina attending elementary school,” Duncan scolded. Johan shrugged in reply, and the three headed through a narrow corridor with walls of glass.
“Hmm… um, well, do teachers have to go to college?” Aina asked.
“They do. I didn’t realize you wanted to be a teacher, Aina,” Duncan mused, smiling as he slowed his pace to walk beside Johan. He glanced at the Frei, and she nodded, beaming with a touch of pride.
“Yeah. Just like you and nonc!” Duncan laughed in a way that Johan could only translate as bashful, and as they made their way into the second building, Johan again ducked his head to manage through.
“And your aunt,” Duncan noted, and Aina ducked her head a bit.
“And your grandmother.” That seemed to catch Aina’s attention. “She was a friend of Miss Millie’s, right?”
“Mhm! Did you know grandma?” Aina asked, and Johan glanced at Duncan meanwhile - the question seemed to conjure a kind of wistful smile as his father in law turned his head toward the wide partition of windows.
“I didn’t. She passed away before your father and I were even living in Gaia,” Johan replied, and Duncan looked back to the hall, taking in a small breath. Johan grimaced, but the sight of the notorious art room up ahead caught his attention - it was easily discernable by the paintings surrounding the walls. A faint scent of patchouli and cardamom seemed to drift through this section of the hallway. “I do know Miss Millie, though. I went to school with her son one year,” he mentioned; it seemed appropriate to mention before seeing the woman herself.
“Mhm! She told me. She wears a lot of jewelry! A lot of her jewelry’s like mama’s.” Aina’s description of Miss Millie conjured the very same as he remembered from nearly twenty years ago - a vivacious woman laden with jewelry smoking from a large pipe.
“I think Miss Millie even gave your mama some of the jewelry she owned.”
“Oh, without a doubt!” Duncan laughed, and Aina bristled at the discovery, smiling ear to ear.
“Do you think some of that jewelry is at Uncle Dame’s now, grandpa?” Aina asked, and Johan raised his brows, glancing at Duncan with just as much curiosity as his niece. Duncan glanced back at him, steadfast, as he nodded.
“I’m sure. Uncle Damien let us store Annie’s property at his home after we took it all out of the storage space,” Duncan explained, anticipating Johan’s question. Of course, the news was enough to make Johan pause momentarily in their walk. They were only a few yards away from Miss Millie’s classroom, and this was a curious topic to end their stroll on. Duncan stopped, too, waiting calmly for Johan to continue on, hands folded patiently over themselves.
“Nonc? Why’d you stop walking?” Aina asked, but the question went unanswered.
“Uncle Damien has all of Annie’s things,” Johan repeated, almost as if to test that he had heard the sentiment correctly. “Was that Mordekai’s decision?”
“Johan.” Duncan raised his hand up to him. A call for peace. “This is not the end of the world.”
“Yes, then, it was his decision.”
“Yes,” Duncan replied, and Johan turned to the classroom door. There was nothing else to say here, and he walked the last few feet of the hall with brisk pace. Aina turned to look back at her grandfather as he followed at a polite distance behind them.
“D’you want anything from mama’s stuff, nonc?” Aina asked, worried.
“Thank you, Aina, but I’ll pass. I think your aunt would appreciate it if you asked her, though,” Johan replied, a tad pointedly as he crouched down to help the Frei to the ground. Aina hopped off, nodding quietly as she watched her uncle stare at Duncan.
“Nonc,” Aina pressed, quietly, tugging the end of Johan’s coat. The world seemed to stand still until Miss Millie pushed open the classroom door, the patchouli and cardamom scent practically bursting past with her.
“Johan, my handsome boy! It’s been too long,” she greeted, spreading her arms wide to meet Johan with a hug. Despite the discomfort he felt at the affection, Johan smiled, reaching over to return Miss Millie’s hug with warmth.
“Miss Millie, it’s good to see you. Your school is beautiful,” Johan said, leaning back to see her, as calm as ever.
“And me?” Miss Millie asked, barking with laughter.
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:01 am
. Before I can tell you about the Great Evil, I must tell you about Prince Aina. And before I can tell you about Prince Aina, I must tell you about the three Domains.
After the three Empresses helped lead their people to the World, away from their crowded, stale Between Place, they settled comfortably into their own corners of the great earth, finding solace in the places that reminded them of home.
(Why, you ask? Even the Empresses, the first to vie for this strange new place, had missed home sometimes. To remember the Between Place so fondly was a great poison, and not even the Empresses could remedy it.)
In these places where the Empresses had found solace, the Witches and Wizards from Between settled, too, and around them grew a kind of warmth. These settlements, as they grew larger and larger, were recognized as three Domains:
The Domain of SEA. The magicians of this place valued privacy, and found discontentment with intrusions. As such, the Sea Empress found home deep within the water. The people of Sea live peacefully in the caverns with the fish and coral, finding comfort in the quiet and mysterious waters, preserving the great secrets and histories of the World from down below.
The Domain of LAND. The magicians of this place valued connections, and found discontentment with isolation. As such, the Land Empress found home in the land that connected Sea and Sky, needing only to look up or down to see her fellow Empresses if she felt lonely. The people of Land often wander their large Domain, trading and discovering new flora and fauna from kingdoms far and near.
The Domain of SKY. The magicians of this place valued freedom, and found discontentment with boredom. As such, the Sky Empress found home in the clouds and stars, always circling the World, observing new wonders from up above. The people of Sky find the World the most magnificent, and their love is concentrated in the weather, which enriches the Land and Sea.
Now that you know about the Domains, I can tell you about Prince Aina - but only a little.
Aina, the Prince of Clouds, is from the Domain of Sky. Her father, the King of Clouds, had fallen in love long ago with the Sky Empress. From up above the reaches of the World, Aina envied the Land and Sea. When she was very little, she was told many tales of the other kingdoms; the people’s lives, their homes, their great loves.
That is the reason why Prince Aina worked so hard to defend the World from the Great Evil.
What is the Great Evil, you ask?
Now that you know about Prince Aina, I can tell you about the Great Evil - but only a little.
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:39 am
. Vesna, Lorenzo, and Aina have a tea party in Duncan's garden.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Just as promised, Lorenzo and Duncan eagerly set up a playdate between Vesna and Aina so they could meet after the Little Kyoto festival. The process was expedited by the girls, of course, and after a few weeks, they had arranged for a tea party involving all things stuffed animals, porcelain tea sets, dainty flowers, and Other Cute Nonsense. Aina volunteered her family garden for the gathering, eager to show Vesna their plants and to add to the collection of pink flowers already blooming in her hair.
The autumn weather had been especially kind today, and while Duncan worried the Freis would have to move their tea party indoors, the breeze was not too harsh and the temperature was surprisingly moderate. Aina, optimistic that things would work out, began decorating and setting the tea table for her guests in the early morning, nitpicking and rearranging a few things even after she was done. A few plush birds she had inherited from family members sat at a few of the extra chairs, and Aina placed Agnes near her side of the table in a recently cleaned bell jar.
Duncan prepared some simple fare for Lorenzo and himself – a Victorian sponge cake, coffee as an alternative, and some cucumber sandwiches. With the Frei’s intention of making the tea party extravagant, he had just finished setting the lunch platter when the clock struck noon – the appointed meeting time. Aina, who was idly passing the time by playing her 3DS, quickly hopped off of the couch before Duncan had a chance to step out of the kitchen.
“I’ll get it!” she shouted midway to the foyer, and Duncan calmly finished preparing their lunch. He trusted Lorenzo’s diligence, and when Aina stood near the front door, he had a feeling she would not have to wait long.
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:34 pm
. Previously ▪ “Yeah… ah, in the Sky Kingdom. But that’s awful far, huh. So we’re just hopin’ she hears us,” he reconciled. “Hey… I’m sorry you thought that. We’re not keepin’ any secrets from you, Aina. Promise.”
“Okay… I promise I’m not keepin’ any secrets, too.” Aina looked thoughtfully at the garden with her sentiment -- she remembered the fairy at Yarrow’s Point, but she kept quiet, watching as the clouds drifted east.
“Thank you, mamzelle… hey,” Mordekai held out his hand for the Frei. “We can go pick out some real cool things your mama’s got soon. Pinky promise.”
Was it a secret if papa or grandpa hadn’t asked?
“Like her music?”
No.
“Like her music.”
Aina smiled and reached out to hold her father’s hand. “Pinky promise.”
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After Aina saw the girl at Yarrow’s Point, it changed everything. Whether it was a secret or not - and whether grandpa or papa had asked about it or not - she had to show somebody that the alcove existed. She was so certain that the girl with her shirt on was the one she had seen in the alcove, too; and if so, that meant she was all alone there.
If she was all alone, just like Tequila was before uncle Dame had found her, Aina was intent on finding her a home. So, as much as it pained her to wait, she asked grandpa and papa over and over again if she could visit Yarrow’s Point one last time before school to traverse the beach. Mordekai relented and agreed to go with her over the weekend, even though his time off was growing scarce during the autumn season.
Mordekai thought he was a pretty good runner, but Aina was so damn fast, he was struggling to catch up by the time they reached the far side of Yarrow’s Point. Aina had insisted on going to this part of the beach when they had visited with Duncan, too, for reasons Mordekai couldn’t quite understand - not only was the tide pool on the opposing part of the beach, this place seemed a little boring. The sand was thin, and there wasn’t much to see beyond the sharp patch of rocks they were soon approaching.
“We’re almos’ there, papa!” Aina encouraged, and Mordekai paused mid-step to hang his head and laugh, gripping his hands around the straps of his backpack.
“Almos’ there where, Aina?”
“To the cave!”
Mordekai glanced up, taking a few slow steps before returning to a running pace. “A cave?” he repeated, and when Aina began floating herself up and over the path of crag, Mordekai staggered to a quick stop, bare feet padding against the wet dirt. “Whoa, whoa--” he paced to where Aina was, quickly lifting her up from the rocks - the Frei seemed to object to that, trying to push herself back to where she was. “Okay,” he huffed, collecting his breath, “What’s-- goin’ on here? These rocks ain’t for climbin’ on, mamzelle.”
“The cave’s over there,” Aina insisted, pointing out past the rocks to a thin patch of sand. Mordekai struggled to see it past the rising tide, and he hugged Aina protectively closer to his shoulder.
“Yeah, don’t see a cave anywhere,” he retorted, and Aina dropped her hand, groaning. “We turned around? S’it the other way?”
“No, it’s over there, I promise! We just gotta get over these rocks,” Aina said, waving wildly at the rocks in front of them - just the sight of them made Mordekai feel like his feet were splintering and ripping apart. Wincing, he hobbled backwards, prodding one of the rocks nearest to him with the base of his boot.
“I can’t climb over these rocks, I got feet. They’ll get all bent up!” he laughed, bending his knee up to showcase his leg to Aina. The Frei was never a big fan of legs, as it were, and even if she occupied a home with two humans, she was eager to forget their limitations. Still, the Frei crossed her arms, humming thoughtfully. “Oh no,” Mordekai murmured, chuckling despite himself. He rested his foot on a soft pad of sand, and Aina glanced sidelong to the ocean’s horizon, where the crag met the water.
“Hmm… oh! This way!” Urging Mordekai forward, she pried at his arms gently enough to get him to let go. Hopping back onto the ground, she floated past the crag toward the low tide. The water was less shallow than Aina had anticipated, but her hesitation with wading through the water had long diminished since the first time she navigated to the alcove. Mordekai followed suit, boots soaking in some of the saltwater foam when he came to a stop. The near weightless Frei floated perfectly over the water, and she glanced back to check on her father’s progress.
“C’mon, papa!” Careful of the ocean below her, Aina looked down and took a little hop over the oncoming tide. They were still close enough to the sand that the waves were small. The oncoming wind billowed Aina’s jacket in the breeze, and she held the end of it to keep it from getting wet.
“S’a little too deep, Aina,” Mordekai called back, taking a few cautionary steps to the Frei, hoping to coax her back. “Whatchu tryna show me?”
“Papa, y’know how to swim!” Aina laughed, grabbing ahold of Mordekai’s arm as soon as he was close enough. As much as Mordekai wanted to insist on their return, he kept on with Aina’s momentum, the end of his jeans meeting the cold sea. “It’s really really close, I promise. It’s this really cool place,” she said. An oncoming tide washed over them both, and the Frei let out a short yelp as the water got to her shirt. Mordekai laughed as the ocean drenched the last inch of his pants.
“I know… I know, but - I don’t want this backpack to get wet!” Mordekai replied, raising his voice to speak over the sound of the waves. “S’got somethin’ in it for ya!” Thankfully, the elevation of the water didn’t seem to fall too much as they skirted the edge of the coastline. He loosened the backpack from around his arms and held the backpack over one shoulder. It was not, in all honesty, a good idea for him to entertain Aina’s wiles in the cold of September.
“Huh? Really?” Aina turned back to look at Mordekai and the backpack on his shoulder. Nodding, Mordekai hugged it to his chest, unzipping the backpack in the middle of the water.
“I got it for you at Uncle Dame’s,” he began, slowly pulling out what looked like a pink book - but, as another big wave came in, Aina gasped and urged them back to the edge of the crag.
“You’re gonna get it wet!”
“What? Oh--” laughing, the two fled back to the safety of the sand. When the coast was clear, Mordekai sat on a dry patch of sand, holding out a simple pink book for Aina.
The Frei, her rune thrumming from all of the excitement, gently took the book into her hands. Someone had written on top of it with gold ink - “Annie’s Journal,” she read aloud, her smile growing. “This is mama’s?”
“Yeah, s’mama’s journal,” Mordekai let out a tired breath, brushing off some of the sand stuck to his pants. He watched as Aina opened the book, reading the inside, and leaned forward to peek at the pages with her. Annie’s handwriting was a neat scrawl of perfect, bubbly cursive. “Thought she’d want you to read it, and-- y’know, if you want, you could bring it to show and tell?”
“Thank you, papa,” Aina said, quietly leaning in to give Mordekai a quick hug, her eyes still on the journal. She pointed at the inside cover. “That’s nonc’s handwriting!”
“Oh, is it?” Mordekai laughed, squinting in an attempt to make out the words. They were all a blur. “Can’t get this thing wet though, right,” he continued, patting Aina’s head. “Can you jus’ tell me what the cave’s about?”
“Mm…” Aina closed the journal carefully, arching her head up to look over the rocks. “There’s this cave over the water… I promise it’s safe,” she quickly amended, hugging the book to her chest, “It’s not like the storage space! I don’t wanna live there or anything…”
Mordekai’s expression fell, but he nodded, wiping some of the seat off of his forehead. He let in a breath. “I trust you,” he conceded, smiling wanly at Aina. “But hey. What’s so cool ‘bout this cave that a tide pool can’t beat it, huh?”
The Frei quieted for a moment, staring across at the dull sky and cliff face ahead. “I think someone’s lonely there,” she whispered, floating lower to the ground. Mordekai watched as she sunk low against the sand, sitting next to him.
“Someone? Hey,” he leaned forward to look at the Frei’s blue eyes, and when she met his with a wan smile, he grinned back. “You okay?”
Aina looked at her book. If anything, her mama would have wanted her to help someone who was so lonely - but she couldn’t risk getting the journal wet. With a sniff, she rubbed her eye with the shoulder of her jacket. “Is this gonna be the last time I can go to the beach?”
“What? Like we can keep the beach way from you!” Mordekai laughed, pressing his palm against the sand as leverage as he crouched - he could already feel the cold gnaw away at his bones, and he winced at the pain. “Let’s come back another time, mamzelle,” he murmured, holding out his hand.
“I made you cold,” Aina sniffed, staring guiltily at him, “You’re gonna hurt!”
“It’s okay! It’s okay,” Mordekai hushed, fastening his backpack around him. Hastily, he scooped Aina up and onto his shoulder, heading away from the crag. “But let’s come back another time, okay?”
“Are you really gonna be okay…?”
“Always.”
Aina fiddled with her jacket. “Really?”
“Yup!”
She leaned against him. “Can we go to the tidepools, then? I miss ‘em…”
“Thought you’d never ask again, mamzelle.”
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