Author's Preface
Merkra: Welcome back to Hidden Narratives. I’m Merkra.
Solana: And I am Solana. We hope you enjoyed our interview with Professor Grimjaw last week. It was certainly enlightening and led us to schedule a follow-up interview with a member of a druidic group that reached out to us. That will come out next week.
Merkra: In the meantime, we’ve got a story to tell. Things are starting to come to a head. We’ve got a rebellion brewing, Atania questioning her loyalties, an absolute maniac talking about stealing the soul of a devil, and all of it seems to be circling a little girl that we’ve just learned isn’t actually a Deviltouched at all.
Solana: Possibly a Nephilim. I have been scouring historical records for any mention of them. There are a few mentions in religious texts, but thus far my historical record search has been disappointing.
Merkra: We’ll keep looking. I think we should pick up with Atania, though. She’s handling the news that a baby is now nearly a preteen about as you’d expect.
“I don’t get it.” Atania leaned against the front rail of Rekk’s deck. “Not even considering how she accomplished something so sick, why?”
Terran had sat the children in a semicircle in front of a tree. She could only hear bits of it, but she’d listened to the story so many times it was hardly necessary. The story of supposedly the first deviltouched, Althea. Persecuted by her people, only to return in their hour of need and save them. The should-have-been infant sat to the side, picking idly at grass as she stared up at Terran. A sponge soaking in every word.
“Since when does crazy need a reason?” Rekk huffed and took a swig from the bottle she’d brought him. “Penelope finally pushed Terran too far, though. She said she’d going to speak to Father tonight.”
Shit. She couldn’t let Father find out from Terran. Not only would it not be good for Atania’s health, but he’d likely take out the immediate wrath out on her.
“Tell her not to.” Atania glanced back at Rekk. “I’m going to go talk to him, anyway. Better for bad news to come from me.” Rekk shrugged and passed her the bottle. “Is the kid okay? Like…mentally?”
Rekk raised an eyebrow at her, making her cheeks heat up a little, but did eventually answer. “As okay as you can be spending all your developmental time with a lunatic.”
Atania snorted and shook her head. “You’ve got a deathwish, old man.”
“Oh, bottle me up and send me up the river. You’ve hated that little shit since you were kids running around that yard yourselves.” Rekk flung a hand in the air as if to bat away her judgement.
“Sure, but you never know who’s listening.” Atania took a drink and passed the liquor back. “Try to keep that shriveled up dome on your shoulders, huh?”
He smiled slightly at her and slowly nodded. He’d never been one for warmth or reassurance, but he always looked out for her, even when she didn’t want him to. The old timer had a knack for keeping himself at the perfect distance. Never close enough to feel him hovering, but close enough to snatch her up when she fell.
“Old Rekk’ll be fine. Been pissing people off since I was a kid. Hasn’t killed me yet.”
Atania watched the child as a comfortable silence settled between her and Rekk. She couldn’t help but feel terrible for the kid. On one end of the shit sandwich an otherworldly, all powerful being was trying to get his hands on her, then, on the other, an absolute maniac was accelerating her growth and flaunting her about like it was any other day.
“I don’t wanna prod a sore spot, ya know, but something’s always bothered me.” Rekk broke the silence. “Why didn’t anything ever happen between you and Benicio?”
Atania grimaced and looked over her shoulder at the old man like he’d lost his mind. “He was like my brother. Never would have even considered looking at him that way.”
“I think you two woulda made quite the pair.”
“Gross.”
Rekk let out a gravelly laugh and shrugged. “Anybody else you got your eye on?”
Anyone else? Atania’s grimace fell, and fell, until her face reflected the gut punch he’d not meant to hit her with. In her early years, she’d fantasized about running away. Getting out of the country to some place the king or Father couldn’t reach her and she could live a normal life. Find some irritating partner to boss around for a few centuries. Maybe have a kid or two.
“Not really,” she said, looking down at the grass. That just wasn’t a part of her reality. She was a tool, and she accepted the fact.
“Well, somebody will show up. You’ve got a lot of life ahead of you, Kiddo. Don’t want to spend it alone,” he said, tipping the bottle back again.
Atania smiled faintly, but her chest tightened. A lot of life ahead. Maybe, but what was it worth? “Take it easy. You get yourself too drunk to handle your crossbow, Terran will have my head.”
“Hah!” Rekk patted the butt of his crossbow and nodded. “Good point. To keeping Terran happy.” He raised the bottle and took a swig before offering it to her.
“Here, here.” Atania raised the bottle and took a deep drink from it.
Terran released the stampede of adolescence a few minutes later, where they broke off into smaller groups. Yasha stood in the same spot she’d sat, looking around at the other children as they gathered to play. After a minute, a little girl around five but half of Yasha’s height grabbed her hand and took her to their group.
“My beautiful wife! How was story time?” Rekk stood up, wavered, then dropped back into his rocker with a laugh.
“Atania, did you get this old fool drunk again?” Terran glanced at her through narrowed brows.
“I may have had something to do with that… yeah.” Atania gave a sheepish smile.
Terran’s expression softened, and she moved in, wrapping her in a warm, soft hug. She was not typically a hugger. For Terran, she made an exception. The older woman smelled of sage and freshly baked bread. The soft but strong embrace was the only way she could explain the physical sensation behind safety.
“He needs to relax a little, anyway.” She whispered and pulled Atania’s head down to kiss her forehead before letting her go. “I wish you would come around more. The kids need someone who’s not an instructor to talk to. Like a big sister. Not to mention we miss you.”
“Well, Penelope keeps me pretty busy.” Atania clocked the little lip twitch under to warm smile when she mentioned the name. “I’ll see about making some time to sneak away, though.”
“Good.” She snatched the bottle from Rekk, sniffed at it, then took a little sip. “So what brings you down today?”
“Came to visit the old man,” Atania jerked her head in Rekk’s direction. “Looks like things around here have been exciting.”
“Always is when the kids start to get older.” Terran noted.
“Some faster than others, it seems.” Atania looked back out where the younger kids had gathered a pile of sticks and pinecones, and one of them was trying to keep the others away from it.
Terran took a deep breath and nodded. “I would rather not discuss Yasha, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Of course.” Atania stretched as she stood up, new skin on her back stretching to the point of making her nervous for a moment. “None of my business, anyway. Think I will head down and talk to them, though. If you’re alright with that.”
“Absolutely. Just keep that dagger of yours secure. Couple of them have sticky fingers.”
Atania moved down the steps and into the yard between the circle of buildings. She bobbed and weaved through sprinting children on her way to what she assumed was a classic game of Dragon’s Hoard.
“You guys mind if I play?” Atania squatted near the pile of tree rubbish they’d collected.
“Ooooh, can you be the dragon!” a young dwarven boy sprouting peach fuzz yelled up at her.
“I would love to be the dragon.” She winked
“This is your hoard. You’ve gotta make sure we don’t steal any of it.” Two children took her hands and pulled her to the pile.
“Alright, I think I’ve got it.” Atania widened her stance and planted her feet, raising her arms like wings.
“We’re not scared of you, dragon!” One child rushed at her, stick pointed out. A flash of a crimson skinned Benicio sprinting at her took her vision for a moment, but she dodged the blow and pushed his memory away. She scooped up the child and pretended to eat her before dropped her squealing body to the ground.
“Who’s next, silly children?” Atania’s voice boomed.
“What’s a dragon?” Yasha walked around the sprinting children and looked up at her, completely unphased by the game.
“Oh, uhh…a dragon is like a really big lizard that can fly and breathe fire.” Atania said, feeling suddenly silly in her wide stance.
“Can they do magic?”
“Some of them could, sure.”
“Are there a lot of dragons?”
Atania bit her lip and shook her head. “There used to be, but not so much anymore.”
The game pivoted to an assault of questions about dragons, which caused the children to get impatient and kick her from their game to replace with a more active dragon. She plopped down beside the center tree, Yasha having followed to continue peppering her.
“So dragons can never die?”
“No, they can die. Just not of old age like people do. They can only die if they’re killed.” Atania grabbed a pinecone and tossed it up and down in one hand.
Her little face scrunched up, trying to get a grip on something that was far beyond her years. “So there aren’t a lot of dragons because we killed them? That doesn’t seem very nice.”
“You’re absolutely right.” Atania couldn’t stop her eyebrow from raising, or a little grin from crossing her lips. Maybe the little girl would not become a reflection of her manic mother. “It’s a little more complicated than that because the dragons weren’t very nice either.”
“So when someone isn’t nice to us…we should kill them.” The girl’s face screwed up even more with confusion.
“No, but you should defend yourself. A long time ago, the dragons ruled over people like us. They were very mean. They made us do things that we didn’t want to do, like fight each other. That’s the story Terran was telling you earlier, probably just a watered-down version.”
Yasha nodded. “Althea killed the dragon because it was hurting people?”
“She only did that as a last resort. The dragon was going to make her friends hurt each other. She tried to talk to it. She tried to get her friends to run away. None of that worked, though.” Atania tossed the pinecone to Yasha who snagged it between two fingers without breaking eye contact with her.
“I think I understand. We should only hurt someone if there is no other option.”
“That’s a good way to look at it.” Atania smiled up at her. “You learn fast.”
“That’s what Penelope says too,” Yasha perked up, obviously reveling in the praise. “She says I’m very smart and very strong.”
“I think she’s right.” Atania examined the dusting of dark freckles across her nose and cheeks. “I’m Atania.” She said, extending her hand.
“I’m Yasha.” She tilted her head, looked at her hand, then tried to balance the pinecone on it.
“You shake it…here.” Atania reached out and took Yasha’s hand to bring it up to shake hers. “This is how fancy pants grown ups introduce themselves to people.”
Yasha giggled. “Fancy pants.”
Atania grinned at her and let go of her hand. “Do you mind if I ask you a question, Yasha?”
“Sure, I’ve asked you lots of questions.” Though she frowned, following Atania’s hand back to her lap with her eyes.
She stared into the deep violet eyes for a moment, utterly confused as to what Father could possibly want with such an innocent soul. “I’m sure you’ve noticed you’re growing up faster than the other kids. Are you okay? Has anyone explained why that’s happening to you?”
Yasha glanced around at the other children playing, then scrunched her adorable little face up. “I guess it’s a little weird.” She said as if the thought had never crossed her mind. “Maybe I just grow faster than them. I’ll be as big as you one day.”
“I bet you’ll be even bigger.” Atania reached out and took her hand. “Do you spend time with any other adults? Besides Penelope, Rekk, and Terran?”
Yasha nodded. “I see Gregor a lot. He’s fun. We play hide and seek.” She turned Atania’s hand palm up and placed hers in her palm. The corners of Yasha’s lips turned up in a wide smile as she stared at their hands. “Sometimes me and Penelope visit Virinax. I don’t like him.” The girl looked up, and the smile dropped from her face, the inside of her brows raising with concern. “Are you okay?”
The tears falling down her cheeks hadn’t even registered. The joy on Yasha’s face at seeing her hand in a larger version of her own…Atania was having a hard time controlling her breathing.
“Should I go get Terran?” Yasha knelt down, cocking her head to look up at her from a different angle.
“No, honey…” Atania gave a slight silent laugh and wiped at her eyes. “I’m okay. I hope we get to spend a lot more time together. I think you’re a lot of fun.”
“Thanks! You are too.” Yasha hopped back up to her feet. “I’m gonna go play now. Thanks for talking to me.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” Atania froze as the little girl ran to her side and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Horn pressed against her cheek, surprisingly cool to the touch. Atania awkwardly patted her back with one arm and nodded. “You go have some fun.”
The girl ran off to rejoin the Dragon’s Hoard game, leaving her there under the old tree surrounded by pinecones and her thoughts. Virinax obviously had something to do with the aging. Why though? Some kind of sick power play Penelope was working against Father? If Yasha weren’t a baby anymore, would he reject her? It didn’t seem likely, but she doubted he’d be pleased.
She needed to get to him before Terran did, but could she bring herself to deliver this perfect little girl to him? Could she openly disobey Father?