To Make a Kinder Children's Tale

11: Going Home

Althalos had managed to place them in the great hall of his father's home, then ducked into a side-room. Dervaine Fourthborn had a ready smile on his face until he saw what his son dragged in. Nothing made it more clear to Haldrane what she meant to even the Aelif at her side than did this man in front of her. "What is the meaning of this, son?"

"She's half human, half Bondmaid, and I'm stuck."

That statement didn't change a thing about his expression. "But why is she half dressed?"

"I'm right here." She had taken a step forward to say this much, going against a decade of training, scared shitless that it would cost her as badly as every time she tried to assert herself in the past. But it did not stop her from continuing on. "I can speak for myself."

The imperceptibly older man stared at her, arched eyebrows raised for several seconds before addressing her. "By all means, go about this the way you intend to, girl."

The permission did nothing to quell the shaking, but now it was more from relief and the remaining chill of their travel. Through chattering teeth, she managed to say, "Former Thieve's Guild. Most of what I wore I did not own."

Dervaine nodded, then turned back to his son. "I'll have the Eldersuite at your Grandfather's home prepared, and can have a royal clothier ready within minutes if you both wish. For now, I'll have someone get an old day robe out so she's fit for family company. And for both your sakes, get your first child out the way before winter's end so we can plan a proper celebration in the spring, if she stays."

The older Aelif gestured to a nest of chairs, as he walked out to bark orders at any available servants. Althalos steered her towards a seat that could hold the both of them comfortably. He had a few questions he wanted out the way before they were dragged through his father's expectations. "Have you settled on a name for yourself now that you are free of obligations?"

"I've been Esme for so long. I never really got used to Haldrane. Besides, it's ugly."

"I agree. Sounds like a name for a gargoyle on a waterspout. Esme at least sounds like a name I can murmur against your flesh as I take you." He said this with an amused look to him so she couldn't tell if he was joking or making a promise. Frankly, she wasn't used to a man talking like this to her. He moved smoothly to the next question before she could object. "Have you thought about what you would like out of all of this?"

"I want things that are mine, that cannot be taken from me."

"Jewels, clothes, shoes?"

"No, not material goods, although I'm sure some of that is needed. I mean loyalty, ability, intangible commodities denied the poorest of our nation."

"You have me." He dropped his hand on her knee again, the contact intended for comfort.

But it felt hollow and it thereby did nothing for her. "You just admitted to a whole 'Skirthouse having you."

"As you were rejecting me." A squeeze, then his thumb was rubbing the inside of Esme's knee, distracting her in a way that neither of them needed at the moment, but damn Althalos, she didn't want him to stop. "As long as you remain, I cannot, by law, have another. You really need to read the treaty between our people. I am as bound as if this were my bond until you break it."

"I really don't understand. You suffered because I did, but were free of it when I clouded it all with alcohol, right?"

"Yes."

"So, if I'm happy, within the bond, you'll feel the same?" The urge to kiss this stranger was making her lips feel thick-or was that the alcohol? Damn him, but this little and the stupor did nothing to prevent desire. Was it their connection or her own needs? Or did drink stir lust and both she and her mother walk a self-destructive path?

"Mostly. I am aware that they are not my feelings when I have them, and what of them you have, they are likely given to you by the Crystal Queen. We only get to be ourselves once the conditions are met-you conceive. The remaining obligations are severed when you leave."

"And you want to try to make it work until I grow wings and run off without you? That doesn't sound like any of it is real."

"It isn't. I don't trust it."

Her lip curled in a very slight smirk, at that. "I figured that you lacked trust when you startled in guilt over my 'Skirthouse comment. A person who trusts such yearning wouldn't be like that. But I meant physically possible."

That got a chuckle out the man. "I opened a hole in the wall of the world to drag you here. Much of what Aelifs live and work with borders on the incredulous. I cannot help that our more human counterparts are ever skeptical of our everyday life. But you lived with the compulsion, yet balk at the wings? They are part of the same strange traits that make up the whole of who you are."

"It still doesn't make sense to me."

"You're alcohol-addled, severely underfed, and I'd have to assume you're distressed. That's not a good state to try to reason from."

It's always a surefire way to get a woman's ire up, to tell her she is incapable of being rational. Unfortunately for the thief, she was trained to accept this criticism-which wasn't what she wanted to do, at all. Esme took a few breaths before responding. "You're right, in part. I guess I have time to work on that, too. How long is your father going to be?"

"Not long."

"Good. I don't want to finish coming down off the alcohol before we're done meeting." At this point the former thief pushed his hand off her thigh, as he was rubbing lazy circles ever higher with his thumb-very reluctantly.

"What do you mean, 'in part'?" Of course, Althalos wasn't as distracted by his touching her. He caught onto the objection she hadn't intended to make known enough to ask her, after all.

Esme opened her mouth to respond, but the elder strode back in, interrupting their conversation. "This will be a short gathering with your mother-and a meal for the girl-then off to bed with you both. You need to be in balance with each other before anything drastic is done. Come."