Warp: Disappointing Clarifications
1603 words
1603 words
Eden woke with a start. “Ahhh! Shark! Shark! Mommy!” She immediately resumed what she had been doing before losing consciousness, thrashing and trying to swim away from the shark while crying for her mother.
“Shh, sh, it’s alright, Tadpole,” someone said in a soothing, low voice. Tight arms wrapped around her to stop her struggling.
The young spurii opened her eyes to see Taris and Tanaya’s worried faces. “Taris? Tanaya?” She looked around to see that she was being held in Taris’ lap, his strong arms keeping her safe against his chest though they were no longer restraining her so tightly. Tanaya knelt by their side, a hand comfortingly on Eden’s shoulder. “Where’s Mom?”
“Almeda has gone to discuss the recent attack and ensure that she and you are safe for the rest of your trip as well as interviewing the rest of the people on board for information about who was sent after you,” Tanaya explained gently.
“But it was one of the ladies that works with Celia!” the child protested, getting agitated again. “Mom should just tell Celia one of her advisers is a traitor and make sure it never happens again!”
Tanaya rubbed her back, calming her, though the attendant released a heavy sigh.
This time, Taris spoke, “It’s a bit more complicated than that. It might be Celia behind this or someone else is trying to frame Celia.” The man struggled to maintain eye contact while delivering this observation; this was something a child Eden’s age should never have to deal with, but not knowing could put her at greater risk. If she still trusted her aunts, that trust could be abused. All they could do was hope the child could adjust and overcome this, she was rather precocious and capable Almeda had assured them, but that would not make this any less difficult.
The look of confusion and hurt in Eden’s piercing blue eyes was hard to bear. Her brows furrowed and her lower lip trembled as tears started to form.
“But why would Aunt Celia do something like that? I know she doesn’t like me or Mom very much but we’re family! It had to be someone else.” She looked from Taris to Tanaya, silently willing one of her caregivers to give her an answer.
“Purebloods don’t always see it that way,” Tanaya said, “sometimes people are so upset over people of different races having children together, it makes them blind to the fact that they’re hurting and discriminating against their own family. They don’t want to believe a mixed child is their relative, so they don’t think of you as a person. That can make it too easy for a person to be cruel, Tadpole.”
“I’m sorry,” Taris added, voice thick like he was holding back tears himself, “everyone really tried to keep it from you because we didn’t want you to be hurt. But now it’s not safe for you not to know. Trusting some of your family is dangerous.”
The two caretakers held the girl as she cried and screamed her betrayal, hurt, and frustration, whispering comfort in their native tongue and rubbing her back while she sobbed. It was difficult to break the heart of a child who they had seen grow from a babbling infant into a cheerful young girl. They honestly hoped Eden would not lose her happy and trusting disposition entirely because of this; there was not much they could do to ensure that but hold her until her tears faded and her shouts grew hoarse, wiping away the tears with a cloth dipped in the bowl of water on the nightstand.
Eventually, Eden calmed. Taris released his tight hold on her and the child slid out of his lap and wandered from her bed to the armoire against the wall, taking careful steps because her head swam with every move. Before she could reach up to pull open the large wooden doors, Tanaya rested a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.
“You haven’t quite healed from all of your injuries yet,” she explained and opened the door.
Just then, Eden noticed the bandages on her arms and torso. She placed one hand against her head, gripping it, in response to the dull, aching throb that resided somewhere behind her forehead.
“You also have a mild concussion, so you will need a lot of rest. Headaches and moodiness are all normal, if you move too fast you might still feel a bit dizzy.”
Eden nodded and let Tanaya help her change into a pair of clean undershorts and undershirt followed by a simple blue dress with three quarter length sleeves and a thin, light blue sash around the waist which Taya tied in a bow. Thin strips of light blue fabric stretched from the shoulder to the sash, forming an illusory v-neck with three horizontal stripes between them.
Taris braided her hair, opting to make one braid along her hairline from her left temple leading into a larger braid that brushed the nape of her neck. He left a short, wavy lock of hair --which he gently tucked behind the child’s ear-- free from the braid.
“Come on, let’s get you something to eat. It will make you feel better,” he suggested, picking Eden up and carrying her bridal-style. The young spurii wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head against in the crook of Taris’ neck.
Tanaya followed them to the kitchens where she held Eden’s hand while Taris got permission from the cook to make something for Eden to eat himself.
Though they weren’t her mother, Taris and Tanaya’s presence and efforts to comfort her calmed Eden a little. She wondered what her mother would do if Aunt Celia had really tried to hurt her. Part of Eden wished that the adviser had gone crazy and attacked her. Then Aunt Celia would punish the woman and everything would be okay. But things weren’t that simple, were they? Eden sniffled a little and Tanaya squeezed her hand in response.
Eden didn’t understand why her aunt would be angry that she wasn’t a pureblood. Her dad was a nice man and a skilled fighter. He had proven his skill in various competitions, served as a Conexus guard, among other positions that would make him prestigious enough for the family. Or even if he wasn’t, it wasn’t as if her mother had married a pauper. Her dad had his own money and was decent at business, he wasn’t going to live off of her mom and aunts’ hard-earned money without working. Why didn’t they like him? Eden wanted him to be able to come with her and her mother on all their business trips and stay with them all the time. Even if they couldn’t get along, and sometimes grownups couldn’t, why did that have to mean her aunt would be angry with her, too? Eden hadn’t been around to ask her mother to have her with another velen instead of picking a laicar father.
Unconsciously, the girl’s hand tightened around her female caretaker’s palm.
“Tadpole, come on.” Tanaya tugged on her hand, gently.
Eden blinked, pushing away her thoughts, and reached up to allow her caretaker to pick her up. Tanaya carried her into the ship’s dining hall and set her and sat her at a table. Right after Taris entered the room and set a bowl of seafood stew in front of the child and handed her a spoon.
The two caregivers sat with their charge in relative silence while she ate the stew at a sedate pace, picking out individual chunks of fish, octopus, squid, onion, mushroom, and bell pepper swathed in seaweed. Eden was stirring her spoon to scoop up some of the fine bits of minced garlic and shallot with meat when her mother sat at the table across from her and Constance sat beside her.
The little girl looked up from her food and smiled at her mother, “Mama!”
“My little tadpole, are you feeling better?” Almeda greeted her, relieved her daughter was finally awake.
“A little bit. Mama,” Eden hesitated, “Did Auntie Celia really send that bad lady with the shark after me?” Her mother would set things straight. There was no way her aunt had done such a thing.
Almeda’s smile tightened for a moment before fading away. The amethyst-scaled woman sighed. “The woman who attacked you was one of Celia’s trusted advisers. I can’t leave out the possibility that Celia told her to come after you.”
Eden’s shoulders sagged a little and the girl went back to picking at her food.
A couple of men from the kitchen came in and set plates of food in front of Almeda and Constance accompanied by hot mugs of coffee. They also gave Taris and Tanaya mugs, filling them with the steaming, black liquid. Eden was given hot cocoa.
“Thank you.” Almeda nodded at the men in approval.
They set a pitcher of cream and a bowl of sugar on the table before leaving.
“I am going to find out who was behind this, I really hope it was not Celia. In the mean time your training will be harder so that you can protect yourself when I cannot. If my sisters are he ones targeting you, you will have to go live with your father because you will not be safe with me.”
Eden nodded, a lump forming in her throat. She didn’t want to be sent away, but if her aunt was really behind this, who could they trust? She took a bite of the stew, but didn’t really taste it.