Daisy II | Levi Ackerman

Chapter 36 - To Unveil It All

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[Naomi]

"Oh no! The princess is dwowning!" Lily squealed playfully as she splashed on the surface of the bubbly water with a doll, playing pretend with her toys in the cold evening bath as I was scrubbing Cole. The whole ivory-tiled room was bright alight and pleasantly ringing with my baby's sweet giggles and playful shouts, but my preoccupied mind was swimming elsewhere stormier, as these dark clouds waging over my thoughts persisted since the day I discovered the documents.

"Quick, save her, Sir Knight!" Lily continued her splashes, dunking the silver knight doll into the soapy surface. If this was any normal day like before, if we ever even had what we used to dub 'normal' before I reenlisted, then the simple sight of my bright kids playing cheerfully in the bath would have lightened the weight off of my head, and possibly loosened the seemingly permanent tight knot inside my chest. I would have even been playing with them at present, as I always did.

But I could not. These ever-daunting dead ends in my process of unraveling and connecting the obscured dots hindered me from blissfully indulging in the little things I used to enjoy about being a mother; like playing pretend, like after-dinner bubble baths.

After all, who in their right mind could return to their neutral stability and anchored perspective when something so disconcertingly significant about their identity had been revealed in one violent blow?

I stared at my two kids, watching them play around with the curious looks on their puffy faces, Lily with her dolls and Cole with his ships. Looking at them made me wonder how this unveiled portion of the whole enigma of my ancestry could affect them, especially knowing that in our veins ran the blood of Marleyans, and not just any Marleyans. Dietrichs. A prominent clan that seemed so widely respected and yet so elusive, as if speaking about them was a cultural taboo.

Every time someone in Marley wanted to point out something about my resemblance to this deceased bloodline, it was all in a hushed tone. Sometimes they would say one comment about my red hair, or about who my parents are, and never elaborate or press on any further. All hesitant cases were similar, except for that audacious Willy Tybur, who seemed to enjoy skirting the boundaries of intrigue by talking about the Dietrichs with me. Even then did it feel like he was taking a luxurious risk. Why was that so? Who are they? Who am I?

'Whoever the Dietrichs are, whatever power they might hold... They must possess, as long as they live- a great and unparalleled responsibility over Marley.' ... What the hell does all that even mean?

"Ship's here!" Cole's cheer snapped me back to the present, as I finished on his lathered jet black hair, while he was gingerly pushing his toy gallion to where Lily had been letting her dolls swim around. "Come, come!"

Lily let out a delighted gasp. I spotted that she had her knight hug the princess, as if he had 'saved her'. "Thank you, Captain Cole!"

I was so exhausted of having to lock myself in an illusion of my identity and then reestablish it just for it to crumble once more, and I had to build it all over again with the debris that was left scattered. So much so was my weariness, that before I even noticed it, my racing, troubled mind had wandered off of my anxieties as I vacantly watched my two raven-haired angels play together. Lily motioned the two dolls to climb up the ship, and made them stand next to each other.

"You're okay!" She said, lightly shaking the knight, as if he's the one speaking. Then she did the same with the princess. "Thank you for saving me, Sir Knight!"