To Make a Kinder Children's Tale

26: Althalos' Confession

Talk at the table stopped abruptly as they cleared the door. Althalos chose to direct his confession towards his uncle. "This Tal-Anan did not touch me-I touched her when I was a child. And it's a tangled mess that lead us to that point-or even beyond, when you caught her with me." He had used this speech as a cover to pull out the chair for his betrothed before sitting along side her.

Rileus shook his head, off to left of him. "What excuse would you have had? How old were you?"

"First time meeting the woman? No older than Esme-probably no bigger, either. Just before I started the shift from boy to man. She caught a grown Aelif trying to force himself on a child and killed him outright. It was over so quickly, I didn't even have time to cover myself. Took me weeks to get the stench of blood off my hands, as well. Was too scared to ask for her name."

"Wait, all of twenty five? Sir Halut of Bittermore?" Octavian mused."There weren't many Aelif we lost that year, but he vanished abruptly-without a trace. How far did he get?"

The braw Aelif's head bowed. How he had managed to look his family in the eye for any previous statement was a bit of a surprise to himself, but this question just gutted him. "How far did any of these fools get? A grope? Some ripped clothing? And something stops them each time. I have been....forturnate." His last words were formal, but the bitterness made a lie of them. Althalos did not feel favored in these events.

One thing puzzled Esme. "Wait, why didn't you find the body? I assume that he died on castle grounds, right?"

Althalos looked at his betrothed darkly, like he couldn't believe the former thief wouldn't know, but his answer showed he knew exactly why she was confused. "She ate the evidence. I've never seen you eat quite like a bondmaid-perhaps you are too human, but they devour creatures bigger than themselves without gaining a single inch. Considering how your weight changes, I don't think that will work for you."

Rileus talked across the table to the Eldest. "Do your people still eat Aelifs?"

The elderbeing looked back at him in amusement. "Well, we'd much rather mate with you, but we have no qualms about hiding evidence as a meal-and the ancestors remember what you taste like very fondly. So, yes, I believe that Tal-Anan ate this Sir Halut. I would deem it irresponsible for her to not have done so."

Rileus glanced at his cousin, but his eyes strayed back towards the Eldest. "And you touched her then?"

"No. I started drinking myself to sleep-sneaking alcohol isn't hard in this castle or at home. Not like the servants understand to tattle for that. And I had nightmares about the bondmaids as well as men big enough to break me for damn near a decade."

Rileus still didn't lose contact with the bondmaid. "Then how did things change?"

"They didn't." Althalos stated this flatly, drawing focus back on himself. "She kept an eye on me and pulled me out of several less dire altercations with such evil. I don't think she ever killed another one, though. The problem is that children start to ask themselves if they are into what is being done, and I was drinking pretty damn heavily by then. I was mad at her-even as I was scared witless. And she was no less frightening than these men were. There was a gnawing sense of frustration over the whole thing when I finally hit her after one rescue too many. Uncoordinated, more of a slap than a punch-my hand glanced off her armor, landing roughly where their heart is. It was with bare hands in anger. She told the truth. I touched her heart-surprised I remember that after all these years, honestly. I was foolishly angry and too numb-drunk to feel what I've felt with Esme, so other than a sudden intense interest in women, in general-which is expected for a boy-I had nothing to tell me that she had bonded. It was the sheer ignorance of a child, although I knew I'd be in trouble."

It all tumbled out in a rush. Normally confessions lead to relief, but this left the man drained. It would take much more for this conversation to end, after all.

Truebell sighed. "When I had brought Tal-Anan's behavior to the attention of Father, neither of us knew that you were being perused so seriously. I thought it was just her misbehavior, so we decided that she should be removed from the temptation until you were old enough to handle her."

"You took the one person who knew what was going on away from me." Althalos said it without any heat, but the statement killed any further conversation until he chose to speak again. The silence grated on his nerves. "By that time, I was firmly interested in girls and would fight back. I had not put on all the muscle, yet, but I was at least as strong as any other useless wandering male out there. It wasn't a lasting danger-although it was hell to be alone in it all."

The king shook his head. "You consider Heinlen no lasting danger? I am aware that a courier comes straight to you, my boy."

Much like outside, Althalos cringed at his thoughts. "I don't reply to them. For now, he is harmless-and he wasn't one for force. There's never been a way to address it without conflict."

"Nonetheless, you will turn the letters over to your cousin. This has been left to fester for far too long."

Althalos agreed with his grandfather on that much, but the damn letters were a painfully personal matter. "I'd prefer not to, M'Lord."

Octavian snorted in derisive humor. "M'Lord indeed. This was a command. You've no right to object."

Althalos dipped his head in submission before changing the subject. "This is a good enough point to get back into Tal-Anan's timeline. I was about thirtyfive when she left, only five years off my majority. Esme must have been born not long after she was exiled, to be all of her mid-twenties."

"I'm afraid not," Truebell responded. "She's a blend of three of the Aelfine. Her twentieth birthday is tomorrow."

"But I remember being all of four, at least, twenty years ago." Esme lightly smacked the table, to show her disagreement. "I remember the perfumery before then. This makes no sense."

"Remember what I told you about false memories, Esme." The Elder smirked at this point. "The Queen always has the greatest understanding, but I can explain it some. Our descendants go from grubs to physically four years of age in less than a month. The mind is different. Hind lobes are supposed to be fully adult while forelobes are more childlike, so in some ways we're grown by what you remember as being a four year old. Convergence-where the front and hind lobes understand each other fluently-comes some six years later. Then we are grown enough to be sent out to the various kingdoms-about half grown in appearance, to the Aelfine. I already told you that this was interrupted in you. You may never be 'adult' in the same way a bondmaid thinks, marking you as more human."

Esme shook her head at this information. "Just how adult am I, by your estimations?"

The Elder shifted to a full grin-the Princess finally caught onto why her smiles bothered her-the woman's jaw was not connected in the center and was made obvious by the grin's taut skin dimpling at the breach. "You make decisions for yourself, right? By the Queen, you are adult. You hesitate and wait more than most of us will, but that is not because of a lack of autonomy. Perhaps that's part of why Tal-Anan accepted Allthalo's touch, as it was his choice-poor though it was. He wouldn't have been able to even be near her if she had not allowed it-you all know this. We have studied Aelifs for several millennia, are part Aelif ourselves. We do try to follow custom and leave you poor creatures be until your fortieth year."

Again, the former thief found herself shaking her head. "But I'm only half of forty, by this acount."

Rileus grinned there. "But both All and I judge masses of humans. They are treated as adult-by law-at some sixteen years. You've lived twenty years, and have passed by human restraints."

"But I'm not human enough for that to hold up, as Althalos keeps insisting."

Her betrothed laughed at that-not his usual relaxed sound but something gut-wrenchingly raw. "You're angling to be called the child I was when they kept your mother from me? Do you really want to go there? I was five years away from being old enough. Five years, when I finally started filling in as an adult should. You said you did this very thing last year-and by any of the changes I've held in my own hands, I don't think you're done. By those standards, they saved me from being a child in adult relationship only to flip this damnable thing backwards. So please, dig for more reasons for me to avoid you."