Pea woke up to the obnoxious clanging of cast iron pots and pans. Nadia was hunched over their old-fashioned, second-era, electric stove, flipping some sort of shapeless batter blob in a pan. Her confident demeanor seemed weaker then usual. She bustled very closely to the stove, her movements too careful.
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Pea mumbled as she came up behind Nadia.
"Nonsense." Nadia croaked. "I'm just a little tired."
Pea rolled her eyes. "Sure. Whatever." She pulled one of the chipped, old plates from the cupboard and plopped down at their antique table. Nadia stacked some pancakes on a platter and turned off the griddle while Pea fumbled in her seat.
Nadia's wrinkled feet padded the floor towards Pea. "One or two?" she inquired.
"Three."
She laughed. "Silly girl, I don't want to fatten you up too much!" she pushed four pancakes onto Pea's plate and then two onto her own. Her chair screeched like nails on a chalkboard as she pulled it out and sat down.
Pea twiddled her thumbs for another minute before digging in. Nadia always liked to say grace before a meal.
"Thanks you to the many farmers who planted and harvested the wheat to make this meal. Thank you to the androids who scanned the ingredients for anything dangerous or unhealthy. Thank you to the bots and machines that packaged the batter, and thank you to Beattie's Pancake's for making pancakes easier to make and more efficient to bake!" she chuckled at her rhyme.
Pea tapped her nails along the mahogany table impatiently. "Yeah, thanks, or whatever." She muttered quietly.
"Oh you useless girl, you aren't the least bit grateful!" the old woman chastised her.
Pea sighed agitatedly. "Thank you farmers. Thank you androids. Thanks machines and Beattie. Happy now?"
"Of course."
It was silent for a little while. The only sounds were the echoing ring of their forks against the cracked china and the chattering of the early-morning folk walking outside.
"You know, if you're going to go insane and die, you won't be able to tell me anything about myself. You'll leave me alone with this mess of a house and not a single memory of myself." Pea broke the silence.
Nadia hesitated before answering. Not an awkward pause, just a contemplative one. "That was rather blunt." she finally huffed.
"You're avoiding the question again. Just tell me who I am already!"
"That's not for you to know right now. Just wait."
Pea shot up. Her fork clattered to the floor. "I've done my waiting! I've had it with being in the dark about everything- including myself!"
Nadia kneeled down to pick up Pea's fallen utensils and set them carefully on the table. "In time, little girl." She reassured her.
Pea stomped. "Don't you get it?! I'm not a little girl! I'm not stupid, either! I know you're dying! Just because I can't see, doesn't mean I can't see!" She barked. "Don't treat me like I'm still ten, Nadia! It's cruel and selfish! You could die at any time!" Her voice cracked. "You could collapse and I can't do anything about that and then what? What if you haven't told me who I am? What if you haven't told me what I'm supposed to do? What do I do then, huh?! What do I do?!"
Across the table, Nadia smacked her lips together and breathed heavily.
"Where am I supposed to go? W-who can I turn to?" Pea gasped. "I-I have no one else. I don't even have an identity." She sniffled, holding back the tears that threatened to stream down her face.
"Are you finished?"
Pea wiped the tears away before they could spill past the brim of her eyes. "Am I...?" She thought for a moment. "You know what? I think I am. I'm finished with you, Nadia. I don't need this anymore. I can just... figure it out for myself."
She dumped her plate in the sink and left quietly to her side of the room. Pulling a hefty sack from underneath her mat, she slowly placed her few belongings in the bag and weeped quietly. In the kitchen, Nadia finished her food in silence and set what was left in the garbage.
A soft, wrinkled hand suddenly caressed Pea's arm. "Okay, you silly girl." Nadia mumbled softly. "I'll tell you what you need to know."
Pea turned and collapsed into Nadia's arms. "I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry about what I said. I just can't take it anymore."
"I know, I know, sweetheart." Nadia murmured. "I've got you, don't worry."
As Pea unpacked, Nadia unraveled Pea's mysterious past to her, relaying how her father, a member of the lunar royal guard, one of the queen's top thaumaturges, went behind the back of the queen herself to get the young Princess Selene to earth. He was caught and sentenced, but not before he, and several other rebels, succeeded in getting Selene to safety. After his execution, the royal court targeted the rebels' families, and Pea's mother was soon lost as well.
In the hopes of granting a safer life for Pea, just as her father had done for the princess, Pea's grandmother, Nadia, snuck Pea down to earth at the age of nine and had her memory wiped to keep her powers from fully establishing. In order to keep the secret, Nadia knew she would need to stop using her glamour,. This was causing her to age faster and faster, and grow increasingly more ill. But Pea, who was so young she barely had any control of her glamour, was safe.
Once Nadia was finished, Pea sat there speechless. The room was so still, it seemed that even the world outside their window had stopped.
Pea took a deep breath. "Well then... so I'm...lunar?"
Nadia grinned. "Yes, my dear. And of noble blood, as well. Your birth name was Desmoins Adaria. You were named after my mother, but I think 'Pea' suits you much better."
"I hate peas." Pea sneered in reply.
"I know, darling." Nadia winked. "But you were right. I am dying. I can feel my bones getting weaker every day, and to be quite frank, it took me a while this morning to even realize who I was."
"No...you can't- not this fast!" she cried.
"You were right to make me tell you. I need to teach you how to control yourself. I've seen it, you may not know it, but you still use your glamour sometimes. You always have, but not at the caliber I've seen as of lately."
Pea raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? How can I control something I didn't know I had?"
"It just comes with who you are. There isn't much you can do to stop it without the knowledge and willpower. Do you remember last week when you were caught stealing that chocolate bar?"
"The storekeep let me have it. He said I looked starved." Pea stated.
Nadia shook her head. "No, that was you manipulating him. No one else noticed, but I could see it. He seemed so confused after we turned to leave, and the way you were staring at him...even though you couldn't see him."
"But- I don't understand. How can I hide it?!"
"Don't."
"What do you mean, 'don't'?" Pea cried. "If I'm caught who knows what could happen!"
"Hush, my girl." Nadia whispered. "Your gift is not something to hide. I hid mine to keep you safe, because I could not control it well enough. But you, you are young. You are smart and powerful. I will guide you, Pea. Don't hide in the shadows like I did. Stand up for yourself and be who you are."
Crinkling her nose, Pea replied. "That's ridiculous! I'm not going to go out there and get myself killed!"
"I'm not saying to go out into the world and announce you're a lunar. The world isn't ready for you yet. But embrace who you are."
"That sounds like a second-era cliche." said Pea dryly.
"You are hopeless."
Pea laughed. "I'm fantastic. When can we get started?!"
"Excuse me?!"
"You're going to teach me, right? How to control my powers, and all that?"
Nadia looked flustered. "Well... yes, I just-"
"Didn't expect me to be this excited, huh? Well I got news for you, Nadia. I know who I am now. There is no way you're taking that from me again. Now let's get down to business."
They spent the day going over the convoluted history of Luna and its monarchy. Pea wasn't inclined to learning- relearning - her own moon's history, but once she knew the basics, Nadia got down to her gift.
"Everyone has bioelectricity." Nadia explained. "Lunar or human, we all have it. All those neurons that fire in your brain, a thousand times a second, that charging rush of nerves and all those bits of the brain that the humans don't even understand. But you, Pea, you can control what they can't. You just need to understand it."
"Okay..." Pea seemed unconvinced. "What, do I just look at someone and make them think stuff? I didn't think it would be that easy."
Nadia scoffed. "It's not, silly girl. First, you must be aware of the bioelectricity around you. Your own glamour. You're always using it, you know."
"I am?" Pea was bewildered.
Nodding, Nadia explained. "Of course! It's probably the only inherent bioelectric powers you have right now."
"Then- what... I really don't get this. Are you saying I don't really look like this? I mean, I barely remember what I looked like before I was blind, but... was that all a lie, too?"
"No, darling, your glamour is fairly similar to your actual appearance. I've seen it flickering through before. You are yourself. But it's still there. Can you feel it?"
"No." Pea huffed impatiently.
Nadia sighed. "Okay, then. Close you eyes."
"I'm blind, remember?"
"Just do as a I say. Now stop fidgeting, calm yourself!"
Pea obliged. "Okay, now what?"
"Hush!" cried Nadia. "Now, listen. Just listen."
At first, Pea couldn't help but roll her closed eyes. "Listen?" she thought. "What's the point of that? I already know how to!"
"Are you listening?"
Pea slumped, but gave in. She let herself hear everything. Her breathing was slow and shallow. Her grandmother tapped her fingers across the floor with a clack-clack. The wind blew outside, shaking the open window and shutters with a soft banging sound. The trees out there rustled in the same breeze. Children giggled in the park down the street and the footsteps of young couples walking together beat steadily on the cobblestone sidewalk. A single bird chirped by the tavern across the road until a delivery ship landed with a loud and thundering boom.
Nadia grinned. "Keep listening." She whispered.
It felt like Pea had a sudden uncanny awareness of everything around her. She listened deeper, doing more than just hearing. She could feel it now, too. The blood that normally flowed through her veins in silence now gushed and flew. She could hear it; it was pouding screaming, raging.
"That's it." Nadia crooned.
There was more. Pea's organs grumbled and squeaked inside her like un-oiled gears of an old-timey machine. Her eardrums roared. Pea was hyperaware of every sound, everything.
But the loudest sound was her heart. It thudded with a fast, steady beat, contracting and expanding. It rumbled as blood whooshed in and out her ventricles and circulated her body.
She was sound. She was all sound.
"Yes!" Nadia lauded. "Yes!"
In and instant it was gone.
"Why'd you do that?!" Pea yelled. "I had it!"
"And you'll have it again. You can do it now, but there's more. It's not just hearing, but feeling."
Pea groaned. "Oh, come on! I'm the queen of feeling! How do you think I win all those fights?!"
"That's why it will be easy for you. It will be natural. Many people have little control over their glamour and their powers because they cannot feel. But you, my darling, have been blessed. Despite what some would call a weakness, you are stronger for it. You understand where you are, not through sight, but through touch, and feeling. You can feel the simplest vibration of a step flooding through a floor. You can feel the air pulse when someone speaks. But you can do more."
Pea closed her eyes. This time, she blocked out the sound. She made it silent, she muffled Nadia's voice.
She felt.
She curled her feet and stroked the course wooden floor she sat on. She shivered in the draft caused by their open window and embraced the cold gust of wind. She let herself feel the particles of air surrounding her. She felt the solidity of the earth she stood on, the walls that enclosed their home. The gravity of the world collapsed down on her like she was Atlas and the pressure of the earth pushed right back and held her up.
It was like electricity buzzing down a wire. Everything moved.
Pea pushed it all back. "Okay, so I can hear things and I can feel them. What now, then?"
"Now you master all of it. Did you notice that feeling is more than touch? It's pressure and temperature and pain and balance. It's hunger and thirst and so much more."
"I'm not sure I follow." Pea frowned.
"Once you can understand and feel all of it, you will be able to control it."
Pouting, Pea countered. "But you said it would come naturally!"
"Almost. In time, it will. You'll pick it up soon. But I think that's enough for today."
A/N: Oh snap, that just happened!