Chapter 47
Important: Please read the last scene of chapter 46 for a better sense of continuity! (I suck at choosing where to cut my chapters, heh. :P)
August 10th - Grythen
Mejaine
Mejaine drifted to her room. It felt like a dream, too impossible to be real. She could not sense anything. No pain, no resentment, no sadness. She felt so hollow, like a dried up prune with its seed dug out. Where was her heart? She could not even feel it beating anymore.
She climbed onto her bed, kicking something fury beneath it. Her eyes fell on it and she smiled thinly-it was a toy dog. She picked up the knitted dog and explored every inch of it slowly, dreamily, running her fingers over its soft body. It had turned a dusty shade of grey since its lonely century with her.
She set the toy down abruptly. It was a gift from Zaelem. He had given it to her those hundred years ago, on that day when she decided she could no longer resist making her dream come true and packed what little things she owned, planning to leave without saying goodbye.
She had opened the door quietly, hoping to run away without her family knowing. To her dismay, Zaelem was standing at the door with his knuckles facing her, just about to rap the wood. He laughed when he saw that she opened the door before he even knocked, but the smile dissolved when he saw her luggage.
“What are you doing, Jane? Are you… are you wearing lipstick?”
She looked away and pushed past him, but he caught her by the arm. She yanked her arm out of his hold.
“I’m going to the capital,” she snapped.
“Why didn’t you tell me? We could-”
“I’m not coming back, don’t you understand? You said ‘two more years’ two years ago, and two years later, you’re still at the same spot. No, in fact, you’re now ten steps backwards. You’ve got even lesser than you started out with. I have a dream, Zel, and I want a good life, but that is impossible to attain with you.”
The poor man looked like a comic character zapped by lightning, except that the weather was perfect that day. He did not speak. She knew his voice always cracked when he was about to cry.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered and turned to walk away again, this time at a slower pace.
“Wait,” he called out, “I can go with you. I’m coming with you.”
Oh, the stupidity of this man. Love must have made him mad. And immature.
She took in a deep breath and turned back to him, prepared to lash out at him in full force.
“You?” she shrieked, her voice coming out a little too high. “What are you going to do there? The only occupation seeking employment all the time is the army and what do they want a farmer’s boy for? What about your father, your land, your seeds, your shed? Have you not thought about these things at all? Are you going to leave them like this? Where is your sense of responsibility?”
“I want to be with you forever, Jane,” Zaelem replied softly, but his voice was strong with conviction.
His eyes, oh, that look in his eyes. Mejaine turned her face away. Her own heart would be giving way very soon. She had hoped to smack him back to reality with guilt, but the mixture of hurt and passion in his eyes almost made her crumble instead. Almost. She hastened down the path again, this time not even sparing him a glance. She had to make him give her up, even if it pains her to hurt him like this.
She had to. She must.
She forced her legs to march forward and shouted, not even bothering to face him, “Forget it, Zel! You’d probably need double the time others take to make it and by then, we’ll all be long gone!”
At the thud of his feet hitting the stair boards, she began to run.
“Jane!” Zaelem leapt forward and grabbed her by the arm again. “At least, take this with you. I told you ‘two years’ and I really meant-”
“Yes, yes, now go home! I’m going to be late for my train.” Mejaine snatched the white stuffed toy from him crossly and carried on with her luggage.
“I’m going to Grythen to find you tomorrow after I’ve settled my things here,” he cried from behind.
She leapt down the remaining steps towards the road and rolled her eyes until they hurt. “I hope he loses his way,” she had cursed fervently under her breath, “Please, let him lose his way and never find me again.”
Mejaine sighed. Memories were her worst enemies. Tonight would probably require an extra dose of sleeping pills again. “What is it that I really want?” she whispered to the dog. This was perhaps the first time she took a real good look at the toy. It was a simple toy with a multi-coloured scarf suspended across its neck, tied in an elaborated knot at the front.
Mejaine raised an eyebrow at the knot. It was tied clumsily, forming a lump. No, it wasn’t elaborate at all. It was, if truth be told, an ugly knot. She pressed her lips together. Her fake fingernails were a hindrance and may chip or even crack, but she no longer cared.
After a lengthy tug-of-war with the scarf, she was down to the last of the frustrating knots. With a jerk, the scarf was freed, along with something compact and heavy. The object rolled off her bed and fell to the floor with a dull thud on her carpeted floor. She leaned over her bed slowly, afraid that it would be what she thought it to be.
Her heart almost stopped. She tried to breathe, but her air passages were so constricted that her breath came in agonizing gasps of air that refused to enter her lungs. Her trembling hand reached over to pick the metal up and she slid it over her longest finger.
She knew how she would have thrown it back in his face and called him degrading terms had she received it then.
Today, she would have given up anything for it.
Air finally rushed into her lungs, and when it did, it went out in a harrowing howl of excruciating pain.
She lifted her shaking hand to inspect the diamond ring, its sparkling brightness stinging her eyes with its brutal irony.
August 13th - Grythen
Kismette
*****
Kismette took a long sip of her hot chocolate as she waited. Something good actually came out of her short-lived engagement to Chairon. Kinship DNA testing from the prison database-probably only the Vikens had the money to pay for such an extensive search-linked a young lad imprisoned for burglary as her cousin and further deductive work narrowed the possibilities to a middle-aged couple.
Zaelem smiled the moment he spotted her table. “Hey,” he eyed her all over, “nice change. You looked like you finally grew up into teenager. So you sure you’re ready to meet your parents?”
Kismette made a face at his comment before nodding vigorously. Excitement definitely triumphed anxiety this time round. “They are still alive! Can you believe it? Do you think they would want to meet me? What if I gave them trouble instead? What if they couldn’t acknowledge me even if they wanted to?”
He laughed and shook his head. “You silly girl. If you’re really so worried, you should have let them send someone to contact your parents just now. Why don’t you just show me the address? I can navigate, not predict.”
She pushed her mobile phone towards him and grinned even wider. “Do you know where Silveracre is? It’s a village right beside Reensville, named after the River Silver. I have been to the market there before, but I never guessed my parents would be there.”
“Silveracre?” Zaelem glanced at her in surprise. He took one look at the address stored in her phone and turned pale. “I… I used to live there. That is my family’s house.”
“Your… what?”
Their eyes locked with dread. They both knew what this meant.
Villagers have the tradition of first-borns inheriting their parents’ house. The couple living in Zaelem’s old home must have descended from his elder brother.
Are we… related by blood?
Ning: Still remember that personality clasher from Chapter 16? ;)
I hope you can tell what the promise Zaelem made to Mejaine was by now, heh. And why Mejaine thought he didn’t deliver his promise while Zaelem was confident that he didn’t break any promises.
Anyway, I'm not familiar with the kinship DNA testing thingy, so please don't take what I wrote as something factual! X) I don't know if you can really link someone to a cousin and how accurate such things are.
On a side note, can any kind soul point me to clothes suitable for Zaelem and Kismette? I’m running out of clothes for them to change, especially Zaelem. T-shirts are kinda boring. :P
Lastly, sorry for posting such a short chapter! :( My computer started giving me problems again so I didn't want to risk overheating my graphics card. I will also be working normal office hours (8:30am to 6pm every day, omgawd) starting tomorrow, so I guess I won't be hanging around much this holiday either. :((( *sigh*
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Next: Chapter 48