Relations

Posted by Llorana
Sat Apr 14 17:40:55 2007

She watched her older sister, Nianica.

Watched her pause before the entrance to the garden; watched her lower her gaze to the ground and then take that deep breath before the plunge.

She knew who waited in that garden, knew exactly why her older sister had paused and was pretty sure she knew what the outcome would be. It was why she had also neglected this part, this most final 'good bye'. But was it really a good bye?

Sighing, she silently followed her sister down the path and stopped at a line of tall, privacy hedging dotted through with pretty little red flowers. Stopped, because she heard the cold greeting.

"Miss Dalar, it has been a while."

Once upon a time, that tone would have filled her with anger but now...it only left a lingering echo of sorrow. A tired sense of frustration. Would their mother never understand?

She heard Nianica apologize and ground her teeth. Mother knew why she was not visited by her daughters more often, she didn't have to be obtuse about it. Lowering her gaze, she turned away from the heartbreaking scene and found herself distracted by a flash of memories, none of them nice, until - Llorana winced as her mother's raised voice pierced through the fog of her
recollections.

"But you shouldn't be working like that! The army is not the place for a lady like you."

With an odd sense of hilarity, she wondered if her mother considered her a lady as well, though she suspected her mother thought of her more as a black sheep. Every family had one, right? Slowly, she lifted her gaze to watch as her sister pleaded with her mother for understanding, and could take no more. She slipped silently back down the path and into the house. It was cowardly perhaps, but she couldn't face her mother, not knowing that this might be the last time she ever saw her. She wanted to die, if death was to be her fate, with her mother's smile in her memory. Their father would understand and would be able to relay her love. Time was running
short anyway and their leave was almost over.

She found him sitting in the common's room, an odd vase on the floor beside his chair and a sheaf of parchment in his hands. A smile touched her lips and silently, she moved closer to him.

"Has anyone ever told you-"

"I should have been born a kender?" She sighed and smiled, watching as he set his work aside and stood up to embrace her, "Many times, da."

"I heard your mother." He sighed against her hair, "I suppose this is your good-bye?"

"It is, da. Nianica is with her, though we haven't much time." She said in a somber tone, "Tell her..."

"I will, child." Her father said quite simply, embraced her again and then motioned her to the door. "Zandreya keep you and your sisters safe. You can tell me all about it when you come home."

"We'll make you and mother proud." She replied and, without turning back, she headed to the front door. She needed to catch Nianica and she didn't want her father to see her tears.