"Xureila, dear, have a seat" The Queen suggested as soon as I walked into the small office she was in. Princess Shuri closed the door behind me but not before giving me a quick thumbs up. The Queen motioned at the chair across from her, which I gladly took. "So, how are you feeling?" She asked in such a motherly tone. It made the younger woman smile the slightest bit.
How did she know my name so fast? "Umm, better now that I am in fresh clothes. Thank you, by the way." She responded respectfully. The Queen nodded with a small smile grazing her lips. She gathered a large stack of papers before sliding them across the table to the American woman. Xureila hesitantly grabbed the thick stack and sat it down in front of her. At a glance, she was not too sure on what these papers were for, but she did not want to speak on it. She was much too nervous.
"I was able to get these documents, but for only three hours. These are all the files of all of our men and women who were sent out to America on missions. Since you are not completely sure where in America you are from, we have to search through all of them. That's not too bad, but as I mentioned, we only get three hours with this stuff. Okay?" The Queen explained. Xureila nodded. She truly appreciated the fact that the Queen of Wakanda could be doing anything else right now, but instead she is helping her find her identity. Even though it is her duty to make sure her people are safe from the outsiders, Xureila felt as if she was doing her a favor. "Now I am not an expert on accents in America, but I can assure you that you are not from the South. You speak sort of...proper." The Queen observed. She hesitated for a minute, and took a slightly smaller chunk away from the pile. As Xureila noticed, the initial pile she was given was separated into three chunks with differently labeled tabs: West, East, South. The West being the largest, East the middle, then the South being the absolute smallest portion. As more and more time flew by, the Queen realized that this method of searching through every file may have not been the best idea.
Two and a half hours later, they were still thumbing through the East pile. "Umm, Queen" Xureila started.
"Yes, dear" She responded in a monotone. She was obviously hopeless at this point.
"Is there a way we can search their given names through a directory...instead of their American names. From what I saw in my dream, my grandfather's headstone had his birth name... not his assignment name. To be quite honest with you, I don't even know his assignment name" She revealed. The Queen's head shot up.
"He did his mission with a given name?" She whispered in disbelief. "Why?". The American woman shrugged. "Okay, what is his given name?"
"Zuberi Keyaan" She enunciated, trying to perfectly pronounce it as she heard herself say it in the dream. Ever since she had awaken, that image of the elderly man had been swirling in the back of her mind. It was literally the only thing she had of herself. The Queen gasped loudly, holding a hand over her heart. Xureila's face dropped as she immediately thought the worst. She was about to stand to get help, but the Queen held a hand out.
"Bast" the Queen mumbled. "Ok sweetheart, let's find this file" She smiled softly. Ever since the outburst, Xureila had a feeling something bad happened within her family here in Wakanda. Was her grandfather banished from Wakanda? Was he a traitor? Why had the Queen reacted that way? Was something wrong? "Ah!" The Queen exclaimed shuffling through the papers for a quick second before pulling a file. "Would you like to do the honors?" The Queen slyly smirked before handing the stack of papers over.
Wait... honor? Was she missing something? The American woman hesitantly grabbed the manila folder and sat in down atop of the mess of files she already had down in front of her. When she opened it, the first thing she saw was a headshot of her grandfather. She smiled slightly at the image and peeked up to see the Queen smiling at her. Her fingers traced over the photo as if it was like she could feel his presence through the image.
"Go on" The Queen urged, slightly bouncing in her seat. Xureila suddenly got a warm feeling in her heart as she turned the page. This page held a family tree. It started at generations way back, and stopped one line under her grandfather's name.
"Zuberi and Aureila Keyaan" Xureila read aloud. Her grandparents. She smiled slightly at their names, deeming them the most beautiful things she had ever heard. She studied the bracketed chart before zeroing her eyes at something else. The bracketed pair above her grandfather's name branched out slightly to the left where there was another name present. Zuri Keyaan. "Zuri" She whispered. "My grandfather had a sister?" She directed to the Queen.
"No, child. A brother" The Queen chuckled lightly. "He was also sent to America on a seperate mission".
Xureila frowned slightly. She wanted to ask this, but she was not sure if she was ready to know the answer. "W-was he...killed too?" She whispered, not realizing she had already let it slip.
"No" The Queen beamed. "Very much so alive." The American's head rose slightly as she locked eyes with the Queen who was still smiling. Does she know him? "In fact, he returned right after his mission. Now, he is the keeper of our sacred garden" She explained fondly. Xureila didn't know she was crying until the Queen passed her a single tissue.
"Garden" She repeated after the monarch before her. She thought back to her dream about sitting at her father's tombstone and feeling proud that the flowers she planted there were still alive. Suddenly, images of her grandfather on his hands and knees in front of a peachy colored house filled her mind. He pulled and pulled at weeds until the flowers were surrounded by nothing but budded grass. She remembered herself, still a teenager, walking him over a glass of ice water and a hand towel for his face. "I remember him... he loved planting" She voiced, dabbing under her eyes with the tissue. She decided that she wanted to know everything, so she kept looking at the family tree. Under her grandparents' name read a single name: Xariaa. "Xariaa...my mother" She said.
"Do you have any memories about her?" The Queen whispered. Xureila thought deeply just as she did when she was first presented on trial. Nothing.
"Queen, will it be alright if I met Zuri?" She questioned, ignoring what the Queen said. From said dream, she remembered not being surprised that her mother did not attend her grandfather's funeral. Maybe her mother skipped out on a lot in her life. That would explain why she could only recall things about her grandfather.
"Of course so. I would be foolish to not" She responded. She motioned for Xureila to hand over the files that were in front of her and she did. The Queen checked the time on the clock and stood, holding the papers under her arm. "Stay here and I will call on T'Challa to come and get you, ok?"
Xureila nodded with a small smile on her face. "Perfect"