Wildfire

105

"I... I think I may be able to explain that..." The words that flow from my father-in-law's lips make so little sense to me that I feel unable to do anything other than stare at him while I  continue to give Rayne shelter in my arms, my valiant Queen currently resting after Kanaye finally persuaded him to partake in some of the sedative so that he might rest and let his healing come faster... The words that had finally come tumbling from my own lips revealing the last words Cho found it within himself to mutter when Akeno was finally able to step away from the wreckage that was once one of the ballrooms in order to check on us, "But you must not ever tell Mai or the girls of what I tell you... I do not wish for it to circulate around the palace... I do not wish for people to start looking at him differently in light of Cho's actions..."

The lump that forms in my throat when Akeno's words all but confirm what I had thought might be true... A truth that only confuses me at the moment... For it means I spent time begging for Cho to explain himself instead of trying to preserve his life due to thinking that he had betrayed me when truly he might have simply been trying to save... Trying to save his son... 

"Now... I cannot be for certain... I doubt any of us would be able to say for certain now that Cho himself is not among the living to explain himself to all of us... But I've had my suspicions for some time now that he may have been the one to have sired Rayne... You may not be able to remember it, but at one point many years ago, he had been engaged... She was a charming, delicate creature..." The look that I see in Akeno's eyes lets me know that he is not to be interrupted at the moment, the shadows I see cast there reacting to sights that I myself must be too young to truly remember... The brief moment he takes to look at me before he gets drawn back into the world of his memories leaving my soul at bit shaken as I pull my sweet Moon Beam closer to my chest so that my warmth may soothe away some of the ache that I know is under all of his bandages... 

"Cho and the dragoness married, but it was brief... None of us were ever sure what exactly happened after Cho left the palace to be with her... Only that he came back after a year or so without her... Insisting that the matter not be commented on... There had been rumors that his wife had slipped from this world in childbirth... But there was no word of the child and no baby to speak of when he returned... And he had only returned to court after Rayne had been discovered on our doorstep with nothing more than the basket he had been carried in and a blanket cocooning him to keep him warm..." Akeno's voice cracks as he recounts the finding of his youngest child... The day in his memory a tragic one, but one he holds most dear due to the fact that he discovered he had more room in his heart that day, "Every time after that that we showed our faces here Cho would seek me out and ask of Rayne... How he was growing... Asking after temperament and always wondering aloud if his hair would stay paler than starlight through the years instead of darkening to match what's common... He was careful at first, over asking about the baby... I had assumed that he had only been asking of the child as a way to distract himself from the loss of his wife... But when he continued asking of him... Eventually asking if we would bring him around the palace more... Claiming that seeing Rayne brought him great joy... We refrained of course... Mostly due to his requests making Mai uncomfortable... She had wondered if somewhere along the line his interest in Rayne became that of the romantic kind after he was of age... I had almost come close to telling her my thoughts on the matter, but I fear that it would have only frightened her more... We... We both at one time feared that his birth parents might make themselves known and take him away from us... And if Mai had known that Cho might've been his father Rayne would have never been allowed to set foot here at all for her fear that we might lose him..."

I know that this subject is not easy for Akeno to speak of, his voice watery as he readjusts himself in the chair that he had so carefully moved closer to our bedside so that he might be able to keep his voice low as we discuss the day and all of the trauma that it has brought about... The stress of the day shows itself so clearly on his face, no doubt my own face showing the same... And yet still my father-in-law finds it within himself to talk of such a heavy subject... He talks of it so that my heart might know peace, "The... The only reason I kept it from her is to spare the man any extra grief that he might have over the decision he made... He never once spoke or made any claim over Rayne... And up until it was made known that Rayne was to be your wife he never even made the move to talk to him... I just figured he knew it was better to watch from afar... And that he might rest easier at night knowing that Rayne was and will always be cared for... He never once made a move to try and talk to me of Rayne's parentage... He never did anything or said anything... And I could not bring myself to outright ask him of the matter... I do believe that Rayne was his son... But that doesn't make him any less mine and Mai's child... Cho knew that Rayne having a family that could love him and care for him unclouded by the grief that always surrounded him... So he gave our family the greatest gift... He gave us Rayne... And he never uttered a word about it to anyone, not until he found our Dew Drop in need of saving..."