My Father's Viera
Writings
Marisa's nurse was an older Hume woman Balthier had only met a few times. She had been around the few times Niddy was sick and couldn't be near him because nobody knew whether she could get him sick. Her name was Karen.
"It's wonderful you have returned. You know, Marisa has always wanted to meet you. I should've told you, but after poor Niddy… just the thought of disobeying your father still scares me." Karen told Balthier.
"I am not staying for good. Fran and I just came here for a while. We were going to make it our hideout, but since Marisa lives here…"
"What a lovely Viera you have. Niddy was a very pretty Viera herself. We always figured you'd end up with one, considering how you felt about Niddy. Perhaps Marisa will show her the photographs Niddy took. She has a few very old photographs of Viera. They are quite precious to Marisa since her mother took them."
"Niddy's camera. How Jote hated that blasted device!" Fran hissed.
"You knew Aeranidya?"
"Only for a very short time when I was a mere kitten. One of Kjmi's sisters was her mother. Kjmi was my mother Sylva's best friend."
"Sylva was your mother?!" Marisa yelped in surprise. "I have to show you the photographs!"
"There are photographs with my mother in them? I would like to see them sometime. I miss her."
"My mother once told me she had been told my great aunt Kjmi had a half-Hume half-brother, so I am not the first half-Hume. I don't think Mom believed that until she had me. She never knew whether or not Viera could have children with Humes until she became pregnant with me. My great uncle died a long time ago, since half-Humes don't live as long as pureblood Viera. It made me feel better to know that Viera and Humes have been having children for a long time. I'm not a one-of-a-kind freak."
"You're not a freak, you're a beautiful thing. You're a little piece of Niddy that I can visit anytime I want." Balthier said.
Fran went back to reading Niddy and Marisa's notes. It was difficult. Niddy wrote a lot in Sylvan, and even though it was her native tongue, Fran was beginning to forget quite a bit of it. She'd have to relearn it, she decided. She didn't want to forget everything about being a Viera. She was, like Niddy, a Hume's Viera.
The male Viera, though quite rare, does exist. They look very similar to the females and are often mistaken for them. The hair is generally kept long, further confusing Humes, although a Viera can tell the difference instantly. The ratio of males is about one for every twelve females, which is the main reason most male Viera take many mates. Viera males are not as physically strong as their female counterparts and there aren't very many male wood-warders. Most male Viera are hunters, salve-makers, or healers. Only a very few are warriors, and they are the ones who tend to attract more of the females because strong Viera males sire strong kittens.
Fran was rather interested in this fact. She had very little experience with male Viera. She hadn't seen her own brother—yes, she had a brother—for many, many years. Delf had gone and lived with his father for two years until he had met and married a Viera woman from another village, and the last time Fran had seen him was when Sylva had died. Sylva was his mother too, even though he and Fran had a different father. Fran, Jote, and Mjrn were sired by the same warrior. Delf's father was a super-rare Vieran Blue Mage who had attracted Sylva, who hoped her kitten would inherit the ability. He didn't, at least that anybody knew of, but he was a good man anyhow.