A/N: In the past, I have tried to Photoshop in blood. Let’s just say it was less than stellar. How about instead of me attempting it (and failing), we use our imaginations where applicable? hehe 🙂
Corrine
They’re back. I saw the sailboat an hour ago. I ran to tell Zuri, and we started implementing what we’d planned: she and Rohan would be at the beach to greet them while I watch the kiddos. Thankfully, they remained passed out asleep when Zuri and Rohan brought them over. They’re crashed out upstairs. I’m waiting here at home. I figure having a one-person audience would be better for Orion when he sees me. That way, I’ll know the reaction I see isn’t just an act.
I want to scream. I WANT TO SCREAM! I can’t bear the waiting. They surely should’ve come ashore by now. What is taking him so long? I walk over and look out the window. No one.
Sighing, I have a seat on the sofa. My leg starts bouncing, and I don’t bother to stop it. I can’t stand this! So much rides on what’s going to happen in the next few hours.
After what feels like days but is probably only ten minutes, I hear voices. Oh no. Vik. I failed to consider that he’d want to see his daughter immediately. And Sama too.
Zuri looks in the window, and I stare at her with wide eyes. She nods then makes a point to direct Vik and Sama up the outer staircase. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Where is he? I get up and start pacing.
Then I hear him. Yelling. Oh no. It sounds like he got into a fight with Rohan. Oh great. What if he and Yadira got together on the voyage home? I’m going to look like such a dumbass! I start for the other room, but I’m not fast enough.
Orion bursts into the room in a flurry of grumbling and cursing. “She refused to come back wiv us! An’ Rohan blames me. I did everythin’ save manage to carry her out o’ there, an’ I barely escaped wi’ me life! Damn wanker still blames me. Good thing she has his royal turdness wrapped ’round her…” He pauses.
I carefully look up at him. I’d slowly backed further into a corner during his rant. He’s staring at me with an impossible-to-read expression. I manage to eke out, “Hi.”
“Who’re you?”
I glare and raise my chin now. “What do you mean ‘who are you’? You don’t recognize your best mate?”
“Na. Yer some kinda changeling, an’ no’ a good one, at that. Ya got it wrong, mate.”
I feel my face flush, and I scowl at him as I sputter, “Zuri’s man…, Yadira’s brother…” I take a breath. “He changed me.”
His eyebrows come together. “Yadira has a brother?”
I clench my fists and stand stiffly. Of course you WOULD only hear the Yadira thing! “He’s the son of the Goddess, and he can change things.” My breathing gets faster.
“Is he gonna change ya back?” His eyebrows raise now.
My heart shatters, and everything about me crashes. I do my best to suppress a sob as I run out of the house. I don’t think that could’ve gone any worse! None of my imaginings could’ve predicted that.
“Peter!” I yell out once I’ve made it far enough away.
“Shh! Not so loud. I was curious,” he says as he materialises right in front of me.
“Change me back.” I can’t stop crying. This hard-to-control emotions thing I will NOT miss.
“You’re going to base your decision on his initial reaction? Give it a little time. What did you expect to happen?” He pauses. “Oh. Well, maybe in a perfect world.”
“But he hates me.”
Peter shakes his head no. “I don’t think so. Give him some time.” He quickly glances towards the ocean like something startled him. Then he vanishes before I can say anything else.
“Get back here, you bastard!”
I fold in half, still crying. Eventually, I sit down and pull my legs up into a fetal position, staring off into the trees and trying not to think too much.
Pounding footsteps. Oh no.
“What the bloomin’ hell?” It is indeed Orion.
I ignore him, instead picking up a stick and beating it against the ground randomly.
I can feel him staring at me. “Why did ye run off?” He waits for me to answer, but I don’t. “Is this somethin’ ye WANTED ta happen? Why did ye never tell me?” Again, he waits for a moment but continues when he realises he’ll get no answer. “I’ll be honest wiv ya, I’m a mite hurt ya never told me.”
I let out a huff and hit the stick against the ground so hard that it breaks. I pick up a pebble instead. “I’m still me, you know.”
A side-glance shows me a dubious expression on his face. He’s seconds from asking me ‘are ye sure?’ So, I punch him. Ow!
He rubs his jaw. “Okee, so ya are.”
I toss the pebble into the trees, trying to ignore the extreme pain my girl hand is in. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.
“Yer hand’s bleedin’.”
I look down at it and wipe some of the blood away. Black and purple splotches already have started showing up on the back of my hand. “I’m not bothered.” I have to bite my lip to keep from screaming.
“I think ’tis broken.” He tries to reach for my hand, but I pull it away before he can get it. “Let me see yer hand.”
“No!”
We have a small battle over who’s going to have control of my hand as I keep evading his grip. Then I yell out when he grabs my wrist. “OW!”
“Quit yer mewling,” he says as he carefully inspects my hand. “Sama needs to take a look at this.”
“It’s nothing. A small fracture, maybe. I’ll wrap it up. It’ll be fine. Let go.” The last thing I want right now is to see everyone else’s reaction to my transformation.
“Sama can wrap it up. Let’s go.” He stands up.
I ignore him, instead getting another pebble with my good hand and tossing it into the trees.
Suddenly, I’m lifted into the air by my waist.
I gasp and instinctively reach for his arms, which means I hurt my hand doing it. “Ow! Let go of me!”
“I’m takin’ ye ta Sama.” The lug actually throws me over his shoulder!
“Put me down, you great stone gargoyle!” I start beating the living shit out of his back with my good hand. I think the bastard is actually enjoying this!
“Na. This’ll be faster.” A quick glance shows me that, yes, he’s grinning.
“Orion. I mean it. Put me down. I will literally kill you in your sleep if you don’t.” Finally, he carefully lowers me to the ground. I can’t look at him, so I turn wordlessly and start making my way to the main settlement, holding my hand and wrist to keep them from jostling about as I stomp off. I no longer care what everyone’s reaction will be.
Derek
My personal guard does a sweep of the tea shop before Yadira and I enter. She acts aggravated while they do so, but unfortunately, it’s necessary. When we’re given the all clear, I escort her into the quaint little place, run by a now-extremely-nervous young lady. Although I told Yadira I like the place, I’ve only visited it once or twice.
I smile to try and ease some discomfort. Ever since being crowned and starting the city, I don’t get to get out into it very much, my duties keeping me ridiculously busy. Today, however, it’s all about doing my damnedest to try and make Yadira happy.
We take a table near the window, and I order for us, even though I’d hoped Yadira would do so for herself. She merely looked at the menu like it was a foreign object, shook her head, and placed it back on the table.
It suddenly occurs to me that she’s never done this before. I keep forgetting how young she was at eop and how the nearby city had been utterly wiped out.
Her expression reads ‘so what do we do now?,’ but she doesn’t say anything, instead looking out the window at people passing by.
Our tea is brought to us, and as the lady starts to place Yadira’s cup, Yadira grabs the woman’s arm. “They didn’t suffer. Debris hit them and knocked them out.”
The woman pauses. “My lady?”
“Your family. When the dam was bombed, they didn’t suffer.”
She has to sit down. At first, my guards react, but I wave them down. Right now, I doubt the lady knows I exist as focused on Yadira as she is. “It’s true, then. You answer unanswered questions. Those bastards killed my whole village but for a few of us.”
“Those times are done. The bastards you speak of also suffered losses.” She takes a breath. “It’s time to move on. It’s what your family would want for you.”
She nods, holding her hand over her heart. “I know, but I see them, and I hate them.”
“I know, but someone needs to take the first step. Since eop, we’re all in this together. We’re no longer separate peoples but one.” She smiles. “You don’t have to like them, but you need to forgive them as they need to forgive you.”
Once again, I’m awed. I’d honestly had no idea the tea lady was holding such a grudge. She couldn’t have been close to ten when her family, and village, was destroyed.
As the day goes on, word gets out that the goddess is in the streets, helping people. A mob situation begins to rise, and my guards struggle to maintain a sense of order. Finally, Yadira tells everyone that they will also have their questions answered but that she is only one woman. I myself have to put out a decree stating that if they threaten the peace with demands of being seen, they immediately get placed at the bottom of the ever-growing list.
At sundown, I have to practically carry Yadira back home.
We walk through the door, and the second it closes, she bursts into tears. “I can’t do it!”
I blink several times. “What?”
“I can’t. It’s too much. There are too many of them. Why does mankind have to be so horrible to itself?” She continues to cry.
Without thinking much, I pull her into my arms. “That’s a question for the ages, and the answer is as complicated as people themselves.”
She doesn’t resist me holding her. “I’m glad I wasn’t there for any of it. Is it weird to say that Asa, Sama, and I were extremely lucky that every single person in our city died but us? We don’t even know who our enemy was much less know enough to hate them. Sama might’ve, but she’s never said anything.”
Ever eager for more information I couldn’t glean from Lars, I ask, “How old was she?”
“Twelve.” She sniffs.
A clearer and clearer picture begins to form in my mind of how their life must’ve been. Yes, they probably were lucky. It would have been better to have an adult or even older teenager, but the way they brought themselves up gave them no room for learned prejudices, a perfect environment to raise someone who doesn’t harbor hatred. It’s like it was planned that way.
If I continue in this manner of thinking, I’m going to become very religious.
Instead, I bring myself to the present moment. She’s gone from a ‘don’t touch me’ stance she’d held all day to letting me hold her while she cries. “You need to get some food in you. Come, our head chef is probably very aggravated we’ve taken this long.” I instruct someone nearby to have them set a place for Yadira at my dining table–something I should’ve thought of ages ago. Prisoners eat alone in their rooms, and she’s not one.
She pulls back and scowls at me. “I’ll be fine in my room.”
My jaw clenches for a moment. I should’ve expected the stubborn streak. “Would you do me the honor of dining with me?”
She steps back and turns away. “Go to hell,” she throws over her shoulder as she barges past everyone on her way to her room.
What… happened between last night and this morning? Yes, I was a bit of an ass last night, but I don’t think it warranted this much hostility. My initial reaction is to want to chase after her and get answers, but then I think that might actually make things worse. Whether it’s wise to or not, I let her go.
Over the next few days, I assign Ali as her personal assistant, leaving her in charge of maintaining a schedule for Yadira. I set aside a parlor where Yadira can conduct her meetings, and slowly, the people of Victoria really begin to benefit from her presence.
But I never get to see her. We’re like the proverbial ‘two ships passing in the night,’ and a week in, it really starts to bug me… so much so that I find myself knocking at her chamber door.
“Come in,” she says from the other side, and I grin for a split second before opening the door. “What did you forget this time, Ali?” Then she turns and does a slight jump when she sees it’s me. “Oh.”
A/N: The next few chapters will focus on the Haven people, since there’s a week to catch up on and loads that’s going to happen. When we get back to Reck and Yadira, the last paragraph gets repeated so it’s easier to plop it down chronologically. 🙂
After the End 