~ Namor ~
I remember once a few hundred years ago returning to the place where my mother requested we bury her. Then I had known nothing of humans aside from their inept need to take and destroy. Their customs had always been seen as crude and barbaric to me but the more I watched them the more intrigued I became.
I didn't expect the land where she was buried to be vacant forever but as time hardly meant anything to me I was caught by surprise the first time I saw her. A woman with dark skin and equally as dark hair stopped by the grave. I made to remove her but stilled as I saw her place a single flower on the mound. This happened again and again until my mother's grave was covered and over top it a flourishing flower patch. It was hard for me to believe a human would be so kind. It was then I fully registered the human in my mother and by default the human in me.
I thought the world was wicked and every human that resided in it as well. If I could be wrong about her, about all humankind, then I would have to admit I could be wrong about other things. My mother had died from a broken spirit, from being separated from a life that was all she had ever known. How could I hate the people and place which she loved so deeply? I couldn't. Now and then I still thought of the woman who took care of my mother's grave, and more times than not when I failed to recall her image I found myself replacing her with Shuri instead.
Shuri. I sat up with the throbbing ache in my head. What was happening? The lights in the room I was in were dim and cast strange shadows around me. I had a small almost microscopic tube inserted into my arm and there was a rhythmic beating coming from somewhere. This wasn't the room Nakia had taken me to. Had I been captured? No, I could easily stand if I wanted to. The door on the far side of the room was slightly ajar and didn't appear to be guarded.
The events of the night prior came flooding in clearing the ache in my head and instead filling it with panic. The bracelet, Shuri had destroyed the bracelet. I felt way better than I did when it first happened, I could sense my strength and agility more than before. I stood. My balance was returned as well. If I didn't have this underlying need to eat everything in sight I would say I was almost back to normal. I tried the final test, a launch into the air. On the first attempt, I got about an inch off of the ground. An annoying thirty minutes had passed and I couldn't get above a foot in the air. I wasn't completely healed.
"Namor?"
It was Shuri. How didn't I hear her arrive? She was alone and made her way over to where I stood. For a moment we just regarded one another. It was clear she had something to say but still, she stood there in silence. Somehow around her, I ended up always saying the wrong things and simply waited for her to make the first move. Despite the horrible lighting my eyes widened when I saw her dress. It was the one Namora had made for her the day she came to Talokan. I never told her how beautiful she looked in it.
"I should not have broken your mother's bracelet Namor, it was precious to you and I acted badly."
Was she apologizing? I reached behind me for the cot I had just been asleep on and sat.
"Are you feeling any better?"
I nodded.
"I have strange urges, like the need to eat and drink that I seldom felt before. At least not to this intensity."
She nodded coming close to me and looking over me at the monitor. Her expression looked genuinely concerned which puzzled me profusely. Had someone reprogrammed her in a single night? Last I saw her I was sure she was going to try and kill me, but now, she was watching over me like I was someone she would help.
"Your vitals are fine, I just think you need some sun now. Maybe a cool drink and to get back in the water. Are you up for that?"
When I didn't reply she was forced to meet my gaze. The anger that I had grown used to seeing was not there. She looked at me with an emotion I couldn't place. I needed to know what had changed.
"You are being very helpful to someone you claimed to hate just last night."
She broke contact first and looked towards the door.
"Someone will be here soon to do whatever you feel is best. I am sure your people need an update."
I stood. I couldn't let her gloss over my words.
"The only update I need is from you Shuri."
Slowly she turned so we were again facing faces. Her deep brown eyes pierced my own. This was the princess I knew.
"I want to make this right Namor."
Her hands clutched a vial at her neck and I zeroed in on it, the fragments from the bracelet were inside. She was carrying them with her still.
"You're a confusing woman, Shuri."
I said looking back at her. She nodded before taking a step back.
"I have things I need to go over with you. Get in contact with your people so they may know you're well. We can meet in the hall as soon as you return."
Shuri turned and left the room not looking back once. She had not been cold to me as I had come to expect. It was almost as if she cared about my well-being. Or maybe she was guilty, she had to have known there was some magic within the stones of the bracelet. That severing the pieces would break something within me. Did she think I would hate her if she destroyed it? To this, I smiled. I don't think I could ever hate that infuriating woman. To make matters even more of a blur she had apologized to me for doing so in the dress I had created especially for her. Dealing with absolutes was my strong suit. Never before had I misjudged a situation, I prayed to whoever would listen that this would not be the first sign I completely misread. Because in my mind Shuri, queen of Wakanda, had just tried to make peace with not my nation but with me.
A little while later I again walked the path that Nakia had shown me and made it to the beach. As soon as my feet entered the water I felt a rush of comfort and familiarity. I waved my hand over the water and a mirror was created revealing to me Namora sitting peacefully on the floor of my above-ground chambers.
"I see you always make yourself welcome."
I teased into the water. There has never been a time in our lives when I could startle Namora. She turned as if I were annoying her and smiled before her expression fell and she rushed closer.
"Cousin, you're not well?"
She asked but more like accused. There was no use in hiding anything from her so I told her all that had transpired. For a second she was silent and I could see the wheels in her head turning as she considered every possible thing she could do.
"Your connection to the source power was severed, I wonder if there is another way to restore that bond?"
"Maybe in the great library, it would take months to go through every record though."
"It would."
She agreed, her mind still racing. The plant that had saved our people was somehow infused with raw, untainted vibranium. Though our own vibranium was plentiful it did not come from the life-giving plant, without that specific source I wondered how we would ever restore my abilities.
"You need to get to France anyways Kukulkan."
Namora said more to herself than to me.
"Do that first, in two days I will try and find out all that I can."
I nodded. We didn't have any other option. I needed to both restore my full powers and honor my allyship with Wakanda. I went to wave my hand over the water before Namora raised her own hand stopping me.
"Do not get cocky just because she is not glaring daggers at you anymore Namor."
Namora was using the voice she reserved only for speaking sternly to me. I smiled.
"You know me."
I assured her.
"I would never let something like that go to my head."
She rolled her eyes and severed the mirror herself until I was once again looking at my reflection in the water. The sun bore down on me as if giving me a recharge and I turned back towards the palace. The sooner we got this mission completed the sooner I would be able to focus on the severed link. I had to admit I was optimistic. Even if all else failed at least she would not hate me still, that was more comfort than I had scarcely allowed myself to feel in months.
- A/N -
I love Namora, we didn't get much of her in the film so I have enjoyed bringing her character to life a little more. Thanks for reading and all of the comments, I appreciate you all so much. See you next chapter.