15th Vortas, 2719
KULEDA HOME
KULEDA HOME
The sound of the autumn whice nesting in the garden was what woke Lilanee first. She didn’t open her eyes though, arm curled under her pillow and blankets drawn up over her shoulder. Slowly, consciousness took over, and the warmth of her companion was keenly felt as lacking.
That hurt, a little.
A lot more than a little.
They’d slept together in her bed, because by the Ten she’d fought for that against her mothers wishes, but it didn’t mean they’d slept together. They’d rested, with anger and hurt in their hearts, and somewhere along the way before the morning light had barely broken through her curtains Ezre had slipped away. No goodbyes or see-you-soons or anything.
Well, the day was still young. The two ninth forms could probably do with a brief reprieve from each other anyway. They’d spent more than thirty hours together, and whilst it was mostly nice, it was new. Idiosyncrasies that could be overlooked by the brief hours enjoyed in Brunnhold together were exposed in this longer time period. Things like big clocking Hessean mouths and nasty Hessean mothers.
Groaning, the teenager rolled on her back and yanked the covers over her head. By Ophurs Glittering Grace, everything was a proper moony mess.
“Why must everything be so complex?” She sighed out loud, answered only by the sound of birds professing their love of the morning in loud song. Shoving the covers down, she grabbed for the pillow beside her, hugging it tightly and frowning at the ceiling. Did she really want to get out of bed? What is really worth the lecture she most certainly knew was coming?
Not really, but she couldn’t stay in here. Eventually Alethia would come to her.
Throwing the pillow and the blankets aside like a petulant child, the russet brunette slipped from the bed, dressed in a too long and ridiculously proper night dress. It was her attempt at propriety under her parents roof, but after the events of the day before it didn’t really matter. After completing her morning rituals in the bathroom—eyeing the tub as though it were part of yesterdays problems—the young woman padded back to her room. Throwing open the cupboard doors, she sifted through her clothes that stayed in the Viendan house, curling her nose at some of them. So many Hessean garments, and so many things she didn’t want to wear. Eventually she found something, a black day dress with short cuffed sleeves and a white starched collar that lay flat against the shoulders. Over the top of that, she tugged on a long ochre coat, brushing and braiding her curls and twisting them into a neat bun. Slipping on her glasses and her boots, Lilanee made her way downstairs, glancing in the sitting room first.
No Ezre. No Alethia.
Releasing the tightness in her chest she hadn’t quite realized was there, the teenager moved to the kitchen, preparing to grab someth—
“Where’s the Hoxian?” A sharp voice asked from the kitchen table, causing the russet brunette to nearly jump out of her skin. Grasping the bench, hand on her chest, Lilanee looked at her mother with wide eyes. Around them, the house cooks worked as though they weren’t there at all, though it was painfully obvious they were trying very hard not to stare.
“Mother?! What the tocks are you doing? You nearly stopped my heart!” The girl said in a shrill voice, to which the older Hessean barely reacted, continuing to consume the grapefruit in front of her with calculated timeliness. Unlike Lilanee’s rather simple attire, Alethia had chosen violet robes this time, lengthy and flowing with ruched straps and a golden woven belt under her bust. Clinking golden bracelets adorned her wrists and rings her fingers, whilst a necklace appearing to be made of chains and coins dripped from her throat. Her earrings were two small medallions hanging from a thin chain, and her thick dark curls were twisted up into an almost elegant updo save for a few loose curls that accented her olive skinned neck. Wearing the same thick khol the Hessean women favored, the stern matriarch didn’t even look at her daughter.
“Eating breakfast child, what else would I be doing?” A brow arched as she spooned more of the pastel pink citrus into her mouth.
“Was our home too Hessean for the boy? Seems he could barely stand to stay here a moment longer than necessary.” The dig was vicious, and the teenager felt her temper flare. Drawing her brow, she straightened, tucking her hands into her pockets.
“That must really please you, mustn’t it mother? You must be very proud of yourself for last nights performance. I have never been so ashamed to be your daughter before.” Alethia put the spoon down with a loud bang, causing the kitchen staff to jump, trying their very best not to glance at the two galdori with fields so bright and full of fury. Standing, one hand still on the table, the older woman pointed a finger at Lilanee.
“And I have never been so ashamed to be your mother. A Hoxian Lilanee, in my house?! You insult your Hessean culture, and everything we have built from dirt and rocks. Hox looks down on Hesse, they sneer at us and call us names unfit to be repeated.” The russet haired girl set her jaw, brow drawn, crossing her arms and looking away from the intense sable stare of her mothers gaze.
“We sully ourselves to them, filthy with hard work. Dirt caked under our nails and skin tanned by the sun on our backs. There was a time, once, when the humans played us for fools and it has stuck like a bad smell. We cannot escape it, but we have grown from it. We live off the land, as Vita intended, as Vita provides. And those volcano-sitters turn their nose at us, look down on us. They think our way of life is a blasphemy to the false Gods of books and myths and tales, thinking us less than them.” Lilanee turned away, reaching for a freshly baked sweet roll and shaking her head.
“You know nothing about Ezre, they aren’t like tha—”
“He is Hoxian, Lilanee, they are all like that. You are stupid, blind with lust, and you do not see the truth. Tell me child, have you told him you’re Vitan?” The girl blushed deeply, moving to pass by the woman.
“I don’t need to listen to this.” She said hotly, coming to a short stop when Alethia grabbed her arm. Looking down at the hand, before looking up at the woman, the teenager drew her field close in preparation of casting.
“Tell him then. Tell this…they..this kss-ill as you called him. Tell him the truth of your beliefs and watch him cast you aside in disgust.” Tugging her arm away, Lilanee glared at the woman a moment longer, before making her escape through the kitchen and outside.
Trudging along the side of the house till she reached the back of the premises, swearing under her breath in Estuan and Hessean and the small snippets of Deftung she knew, picking at the roll angrily. When she reached the small paved patio, small puffs of steam accompanied her words. Crossing the stone pavers, nestled between large stone planter boxes overflowing with orange and brown fall bushes, she took the two large natural stone steps that led onto a small wooden bridge that crossed over a stream that drizzled through the property. On from that, she walked up a set of stone steps nested between autumn weary bushes and natural growth. Clover, ground cover, thick and overflowing onto the steps, it was something close to unkempt and yet it was still within reason.
Beyond the steps, the pathway continued between tall trees, some void of leaves others clinging to the reds and golds they had left. Wildflowers tangled between more overgrowth, vines wrapping through plants and garden decor alike, dormant now in the cold but ready to spring to life the minute the weather turned warm. As she walked, Lilanee came to an arched walkway, covered in thick creeping vines with leaves of red and orange and yellow. Her breath plumed before her as the teenager huffed her way along familiar paths, taking a sharp left once she exited the walkway to leave the stone under her feet. She followed a trail, almost unseen amongst the undergrowth, winding through the sprawling gardens of the Kuleda estate. Eventually, she found where she was looking for.
The Hearth Tree.
It was a large, wide tree, barren of all leaves with a bulbous middle and branches like skeletal fingers reaching for the sky. All around it on the ground, the garden floor was littered with wide flat leaves in the colors of her own hair, and skin, and clothing. It stood out, between birches and willows and wild creepers, an old gentleman betwixt the children. Lilanee shoved the rest of the roll in her mouth and approached the tree, placing both hands against the grey bark of its massive trunk, and closed her eyes. Swallowing the stodgy breakfast bread, she inhaled deeply, breathing in the chilled scents of the garden and all the life that existed there, and exhaled slowly. Her field calmed, expanded, reached for the soothing quiet of the tree and the ground and the insects all around. She inhaled the stillness of the morning, and exhaled the grief of the evening.
In, and out.
Inhale, and exhale.
After a few moments, she opened her eyes, looking up through her lenses at the branches overhead.
“Let me be like you, oh Great One, in this washing of the tide. Ground my roots deep in the earth and nourish my soul with the feasts of the wild.” The prayer, if it could be called that, was more of an ask. A wish. Lilanee knew trees didn’t talk, and she knew that Vita didn’t reply. But one could find themselves needing to speak to nature, at times.
Stepping back, she removed her shoes, curling bare feet into the crunchy dry autumn grass. She sat down, then let herself lay back in the thick carpet of leaves, looking up at the crisp blue sky through the Hearth Tree’s great branches. Her hands came to rest on her abdomen, and for a while, the teenager simply watched the morning clouds drift gently by. The Hearth tree was from Hesse, a seed carefully carried by Alethia and Jonathan when they fled the kingdom, fallen from her grandfathers own Tree. It was the Kuleda legacy, the seed of a tree, of a tree, of a tree. Passed down through the generations to flourish in the homes of their namesakes. A link to her heritage, flowing from the barren landscape of the harsh country into the lush Anaxi soil.
It was her shrine, in a way.
Time passed, a house maybe, before Lilanee woke shivering. Clocks, had she fallen asleep? Sitting up, the Hessean yawned and reached around for her glasses where they had fallen from her face. The lovely bright morning had shifted into an overcast mid afternoon, and the chill of the day had seeped through the ground into her very bones. Rubbing her feet to warm them up, Lilanee pulled her boots back on and stood up. She felt calmer, centred.
Ready to deal with whatever disaster awaited in the house.
Pulling twigs and leaf debris from her hair as she walked, the ninth form returned to the house through the back entrance, hanging her coat on the hanger by the rear door and making for the warmth of the sitting room and its fireplace. She passed through the formal dining hall and past the brandy room, into the large empty space her father liked to call the ‘lounging room’ where they hung more Anaxi appropriate decor like paintings of the family and decorative swords which were utterly pointless and historically inaccurate. Finally, she reached the sitting room.
And like the ever looming autumn storms, Alethia was there, waiting.
“Mother.” Lilanee said shortly in a cold greeting, moving closer to the fire to reluctantly share the space with the woman that had birthed her. The older Hessean sat in her favorite chair, staring at the flames, sipping something warm and alcoholic. She looked at the glass in her hand, twisting it in her palm.
“Lilanee, we must talk about preparing for your fathers funeral.” The olive skinned woman said quietly, her field dotered for once. Glancing away from the flames to the poker at the side, as though considering how easily she could get to it, Lilanee sighed.
“We don’t, because I am going to find him and bring him home.” She said calmly, reminding herself to be like the Tree. Calm, patient, quiet. Alethia tsked, taking another sip of her drink before speaking again.
“I have looked child. I have sent search parties, and wick trackers with banderwolves, and Seventen on chroveback. Lilanee I have looked, and have found nothing. Brunnhold will not offer any assistance, and I have accepted that a year has gone by. A year. If he was alive, if he is alive, then he must have run off with some secret lover because there is no trace of him. Or the few assistants he took with him.” Lilanee frowned, but held her tongue, before finding her words carefully.
“Then you have looked in the wrong place. Father said he was going into the west, close to the fog that covers the forest. It is possible that the fog has made it hard to see his tracks, we just need to go deeper.” Alethia shook her head, frowning in frustration.
“We do not. He is gone Lilanee, and you must accept that.” The teenager turned on her, blue eyes bright with anger and shining with tears.
“I must not. If I accept that, then I accept that I have given up on him. I won’t do that. I don’t know why you are.” The accusation was thrown at her mother harshly, spiteful and full of anger and confusion. The Hessean took a deep breath, finishing her drink and standing to approach the younger girl. She placed her empty glass on the mantle, and looked down at the teenager.
“You are so much like him. So full of a need to find out the why for everything. It is part of what fascinated my father about him. Your grandfather.” Lilanee bit her tongue, frustrated by the irrelevant mention of their history. It was because without asking why, how would anyone learn anything? Alethia clasped her hands together in front of her.
“He would incessantly ask father why Hessean’s followed Vita. Why we mined gold. Why we moved with the seasons, instead of being stationary like the other galdori. Why I didn’t like him. Why he couldn’t marry me.” Arching her brow, the older woman glanced over her daughter at the relics around the house.
“At first, he was tolerated because he needed time to heal. But after a while he grew on us. Hesseans speak our minds, without the filter of shame or judgement, and Jonathan was much the same. Only, he spoke too much. Crafty though, clever with his words. Speaking things with sweetness and conviction that eventually I agreed to marry him. But you must know, that Hesseans come from the dirt. We are frowned upon even by the other galdori nations, and we live without riches. Our place in society isn’t won with treasures, it’s fought for with blood. With magic. People die every day in Hesse, and we celebrate their strength as a warrior, and we move on. Your father is dead, Lilanee, and he knew that if it ever happened I would not wallow in sorrow. I am a Kuleda. I must pick up the pieces and move forwards. Even if it means remaining stationary.” She looked back at Lilanee, dark eyes hard and lips firm.
“We will hold this stupid ritual, and your Hoxian can cast his magics to the legends of names he calls Gods, because it will finally get you to see the truth. Then, after, you must plan the funeral with me. It is your duty as his daughter.” The teenager glared into the fire, not answering her mother. Alethia nodded, and turned on her heel.
“Dinner is at the nineteenth of the clock. You will dine with me, and afterwards, you are welcome to stay in the sitting room and wait for the boy. I suspect you will be wasting your time, however what would I know.” She said stiffly, before leaving the young woman alone to her anger.
That hurt, a little.
A lot more than a little.
They’d slept together in her bed, because by the Ten she’d fought for that against her mothers wishes, but it didn’t mean they’d slept together. They’d rested, with anger and hurt in their hearts, and somewhere along the way before the morning light had barely broken through her curtains Ezre had slipped away. No goodbyes or see-you-soons or anything.
Well, the day was still young. The two ninth forms could probably do with a brief reprieve from each other anyway. They’d spent more than thirty hours together, and whilst it was mostly nice, it was new. Idiosyncrasies that could be overlooked by the brief hours enjoyed in Brunnhold together were exposed in this longer time period. Things like big clocking Hessean mouths and nasty Hessean mothers.
Groaning, the teenager rolled on her back and yanked the covers over her head. By Ophurs Glittering Grace, everything was a proper moony mess.
“Why must everything be so complex?” She sighed out loud, answered only by the sound of birds professing their love of the morning in loud song. Shoving the covers down, she grabbed for the pillow beside her, hugging it tightly and frowning at the ceiling. Did she really want to get out of bed? What is really worth the lecture she most certainly knew was coming?
Not really, but she couldn’t stay in here. Eventually Alethia would come to her.
Throwing the pillow and the blankets aside like a petulant child, the russet brunette slipped from the bed, dressed in a too long and ridiculously proper night dress. It was her attempt at propriety under her parents roof, but after the events of the day before it didn’t really matter. After completing her morning rituals in the bathroom—eyeing the tub as though it were part of yesterdays problems—the young woman padded back to her room. Throwing open the cupboard doors, she sifted through her clothes that stayed in the Viendan house, curling her nose at some of them. So many Hessean garments, and so many things she didn’t want to wear. Eventually she found something, a black day dress with short cuffed sleeves and a white starched collar that lay flat against the shoulders. Over the top of that, she tugged on a long ochre coat, brushing and braiding her curls and twisting them into a neat bun. Slipping on her glasses and her boots, Lilanee made her way downstairs, glancing in the sitting room first.
No Ezre. No Alethia.
Releasing the tightness in her chest she hadn’t quite realized was there, the teenager moved to the kitchen, preparing to grab someth—
“Where’s the Hoxian?” A sharp voice asked from the kitchen table, causing the russet brunette to nearly jump out of her skin. Grasping the bench, hand on her chest, Lilanee looked at her mother with wide eyes. Around them, the house cooks worked as though they weren’t there at all, though it was painfully obvious they were trying very hard not to stare.
“Mother?! What the tocks are you doing? You nearly stopped my heart!” The girl said in a shrill voice, to which the older Hessean barely reacted, continuing to consume the grapefruit in front of her with calculated timeliness. Unlike Lilanee’s rather simple attire, Alethia had chosen violet robes this time, lengthy and flowing with ruched straps and a golden woven belt under her bust. Clinking golden bracelets adorned her wrists and rings her fingers, whilst a necklace appearing to be made of chains and coins dripped from her throat. Her earrings were two small medallions hanging from a thin chain, and her thick dark curls were twisted up into an almost elegant updo save for a few loose curls that accented her olive skinned neck. Wearing the same thick khol the Hessean women favored, the stern matriarch didn’t even look at her daughter.
“Eating breakfast child, what else would I be doing?” A brow arched as she spooned more of the pastel pink citrus into her mouth.
“Was our home too Hessean for the boy? Seems he could barely stand to stay here a moment longer than necessary.” The dig was vicious, and the teenager felt her temper flare. Drawing her brow, she straightened, tucking her hands into her pockets.
“That must really please you, mustn’t it mother? You must be very proud of yourself for last nights performance. I have never been so ashamed to be your daughter before.” Alethia put the spoon down with a loud bang, causing the kitchen staff to jump, trying their very best not to glance at the two galdori with fields so bright and full of fury. Standing, one hand still on the table, the older woman pointed a finger at Lilanee.
“And I have never been so ashamed to be your mother. A Hoxian Lilanee, in my house?! You insult your Hessean culture, and everything we have built from dirt and rocks. Hox looks down on Hesse, they sneer at us and call us names unfit to be repeated.” The russet haired girl set her jaw, brow drawn, crossing her arms and looking away from the intense sable stare of her mothers gaze.
“We sully ourselves to them, filthy with hard work. Dirt caked under our nails and skin tanned by the sun on our backs. There was a time, once, when the humans played us for fools and it has stuck like a bad smell. We cannot escape it, but we have grown from it. We live off the land, as Vita intended, as Vita provides. And those volcano-sitters turn their nose at us, look down on us. They think our way of life is a blasphemy to the false Gods of books and myths and tales, thinking us less than them.” Lilanee turned away, reaching for a freshly baked sweet roll and shaking her head.
“You know nothing about Ezre, they aren’t like tha—”
“He is Hoxian, Lilanee, they are all like that. You are stupid, blind with lust, and you do not see the truth. Tell me child, have you told him you’re Vitan?” The girl blushed deeply, moving to pass by the woman.
“I don’t need to listen to this.” She said hotly, coming to a short stop when Alethia grabbed her arm. Looking down at the hand, before looking up at the woman, the teenager drew her field close in preparation of casting.
“Tell him then. Tell this…they..this kss-ill as you called him. Tell him the truth of your beliefs and watch him cast you aside in disgust.” Tugging her arm away, Lilanee glared at the woman a moment longer, before making her escape through the kitchen and outside.
Trudging along the side of the house till she reached the back of the premises, swearing under her breath in Estuan and Hessean and the small snippets of Deftung she knew, picking at the roll angrily. When she reached the small paved patio, small puffs of steam accompanied her words. Crossing the stone pavers, nestled between large stone planter boxes overflowing with orange and brown fall bushes, she took the two large natural stone steps that led onto a small wooden bridge that crossed over a stream that drizzled through the property. On from that, she walked up a set of stone steps nested between autumn weary bushes and natural growth. Clover, ground cover, thick and overflowing onto the steps, it was something close to unkempt and yet it was still within reason.
Beyond the steps, the pathway continued between tall trees, some void of leaves others clinging to the reds and golds they had left. Wildflowers tangled between more overgrowth, vines wrapping through plants and garden decor alike, dormant now in the cold but ready to spring to life the minute the weather turned warm. As she walked, Lilanee came to an arched walkway, covered in thick creeping vines with leaves of red and orange and yellow. Her breath plumed before her as the teenager huffed her way along familiar paths, taking a sharp left once she exited the walkway to leave the stone under her feet. She followed a trail, almost unseen amongst the undergrowth, winding through the sprawling gardens of the Kuleda estate. Eventually, she found where she was looking for.
The Hearth Tree.
It was a large, wide tree, barren of all leaves with a bulbous middle and branches like skeletal fingers reaching for the sky. All around it on the ground, the garden floor was littered with wide flat leaves in the colors of her own hair, and skin, and clothing. It stood out, between birches and willows and wild creepers, an old gentleman betwixt the children. Lilanee shoved the rest of the roll in her mouth and approached the tree, placing both hands against the grey bark of its massive trunk, and closed her eyes. Swallowing the stodgy breakfast bread, she inhaled deeply, breathing in the chilled scents of the garden and all the life that existed there, and exhaled slowly. Her field calmed, expanded, reached for the soothing quiet of the tree and the ground and the insects all around. She inhaled the stillness of the morning, and exhaled the grief of the evening.
In, and out.
Inhale, and exhale.
After a few moments, she opened her eyes, looking up through her lenses at the branches overhead.
“Let me be like you, oh Great One, in this washing of the tide. Ground my roots deep in the earth and nourish my soul with the feasts of the wild.” The prayer, if it could be called that, was more of an ask. A wish. Lilanee knew trees didn’t talk, and she knew that Vita didn’t reply. But one could find themselves needing to speak to nature, at times.
Stepping back, she removed her shoes, curling bare feet into the crunchy dry autumn grass. She sat down, then let herself lay back in the thick carpet of leaves, looking up at the crisp blue sky through the Hearth Tree’s great branches. Her hands came to rest on her abdomen, and for a while, the teenager simply watched the morning clouds drift gently by. The Hearth tree was from Hesse, a seed carefully carried by Alethia and Jonathan when they fled the kingdom, fallen from her grandfathers own Tree. It was the Kuleda legacy, the seed of a tree, of a tree, of a tree. Passed down through the generations to flourish in the homes of their namesakes. A link to her heritage, flowing from the barren landscape of the harsh country into the lush Anaxi soil.
It was her shrine, in a way.
Time passed, a house maybe, before Lilanee woke shivering. Clocks, had she fallen asleep? Sitting up, the Hessean yawned and reached around for her glasses where they had fallen from her face. The lovely bright morning had shifted into an overcast mid afternoon, and the chill of the day had seeped through the ground into her very bones. Rubbing her feet to warm them up, Lilanee pulled her boots back on and stood up. She felt calmer, centred.
Ready to deal with whatever disaster awaited in the house.
Pulling twigs and leaf debris from her hair as she walked, the ninth form returned to the house through the back entrance, hanging her coat on the hanger by the rear door and making for the warmth of the sitting room and its fireplace. She passed through the formal dining hall and past the brandy room, into the large empty space her father liked to call the ‘lounging room’ where they hung more Anaxi appropriate decor like paintings of the family and decorative swords which were utterly pointless and historically inaccurate. Finally, she reached the sitting room.
And like the ever looming autumn storms, Alethia was there, waiting.
“Mother.” Lilanee said shortly in a cold greeting, moving closer to the fire to reluctantly share the space with the woman that had birthed her. The older Hessean sat in her favorite chair, staring at the flames, sipping something warm and alcoholic. She looked at the glass in her hand, twisting it in her palm.
“Lilanee, we must talk about preparing for your fathers funeral.” The olive skinned woman said quietly, her field dotered for once. Glancing away from the flames to the poker at the side, as though considering how easily she could get to it, Lilanee sighed.
“We don’t, because I am going to find him and bring him home.” She said calmly, reminding herself to be like the Tree. Calm, patient, quiet. Alethia tsked, taking another sip of her drink before speaking again.
“I have looked child. I have sent search parties, and wick trackers with banderwolves, and Seventen on chroveback. Lilanee I have looked, and have found nothing. Brunnhold will not offer any assistance, and I have accepted that a year has gone by. A year. If he was alive, if he is alive, then he must have run off with some secret lover because there is no trace of him. Or the few assistants he took with him.” Lilanee frowned, but held her tongue, before finding her words carefully.
“Then you have looked in the wrong place. Father said he was going into the west, close to the fog that covers the forest. It is possible that the fog has made it hard to see his tracks, we just need to go deeper.” Alethia shook her head, frowning in frustration.
“We do not. He is gone Lilanee, and you must accept that.” The teenager turned on her, blue eyes bright with anger and shining with tears.
“I must not. If I accept that, then I accept that I have given up on him. I won’t do that. I don’t know why you are.” The accusation was thrown at her mother harshly, spiteful and full of anger and confusion. The Hessean took a deep breath, finishing her drink and standing to approach the younger girl. She placed her empty glass on the mantle, and looked down at the teenager.
“You are so much like him. So full of a need to find out the why for everything. It is part of what fascinated my father about him. Your grandfather.” Lilanee bit her tongue, frustrated by the irrelevant mention of their history. It was because without asking why, how would anyone learn anything? Alethia clasped her hands together in front of her.
“He would incessantly ask father why Hessean’s followed Vita. Why we mined gold. Why we moved with the seasons, instead of being stationary like the other galdori. Why I didn’t like him. Why he couldn’t marry me.” Arching her brow, the older woman glanced over her daughter at the relics around the house.
“At first, he was tolerated because he needed time to heal. But after a while he grew on us. Hesseans speak our minds, without the filter of shame or judgement, and Jonathan was much the same. Only, he spoke too much. Crafty though, clever with his words. Speaking things with sweetness and conviction that eventually I agreed to marry him. But you must know, that Hesseans come from the dirt. We are frowned upon even by the other galdori nations, and we live without riches. Our place in society isn’t won with treasures, it’s fought for with blood. With magic. People die every day in Hesse, and we celebrate their strength as a warrior, and we move on. Your father is dead, Lilanee, and he knew that if it ever happened I would not wallow in sorrow. I am a Kuleda. I must pick up the pieces and move forwards. Even if it means remaining stationary.” She looked back at Lilanee, dark eyes hard and lips firm.
“We will hold this stupid ritual, and your Hoxian can cast his magics to the legends of names he calls Gods, because it will finally get you to see the truth. Then, after, you must plan the funeral with me. It is your duty as his daughter.” The teenager glared into the fire, not answering her mother. Alethia nodded, and turned on her heel.
“Dinner is at the nineteenth of the clock. You will dine with me, and afterwards, you are welcome to stay in the sitting room and wait for the boy. I suspect you will be wasting your time, however what would I know.” She said stiffly, before leaving the young woman alone to her anger.
