Chapter 3 - Nahla - To Work

Nahla knelt down by her daughter's bed and gently shook her. "Kiardha, wake up. Kiardha, I need you to get up."

Kiardha scrunched her face and stared up at her mother through bleary eyes. "What's going on, mother? Why are you getting me up so early?"

"There's no time to explain right now, Kiardha," replied Nahla. "Just get up and get dressed and I'll explain once we get to where we're going."

As her daughter stumbled to her feet, Nahla went in to check on her son, who had just gotten up a few minutes before. "You coming along alright, Mahko?"

Tall and lanky, Mahko Mereid now stood a good 4 inches taller than his mother. He, too, had bleary eyes and moved slowly in the pre-dawn light. "Yeah, Mom."

Nahla finished gathering her belongings, then sat down and scrawled a two-word note for her husband, which she then left on his bed. It's over.

"Now kids, we're going to travel on foot because I don't know if they have carpet stands where we're going."

"Where's Dad at?" asked Mahko. "Is he coming with us?"

Nahla replied, "Your father did not come home last night, to my knowledge, but an urgent message came for him last night. I assume his not being here this morning has something to do with that. He will not be coming with us."

"Why are we leaving so early?" Kiardha asked, a little crossly. "Can't we go later?"

Nahla told her, "I have my reasons for leaving now. I will fill you in once we get there."

So the three Mereids left their house and began trudging their way through the city in the early morning light.

None were used to walking so far on foot, and all felt heavy on the their feet when Nahla finally led them to an inn called Marid's Solace. Upon their arrival, an Undine woman of cornflower blue hair and pale blue skin came out and greeted Nahla. "You made it!" she called. "And these must be your children."

"Yes, Felaadi. These are my children, Mahko and Kiardha," replied Nahla. "You have quarters for us?"

"It will be a little tight for the three of you, but yes, there are quarters. Come this way, please." Felaadi gestured for Nahla and her family to follow her.

"Why do we have quarters here?" asked Mahko. "We already have a house."

"What's going on, Mom?" asked Kiardha, also confused.

But Nahla shushed them and followed Felaadi to the quarters. As indicated, they were small. There was only a single bed and just barely enough room for both Kiardha and Mahko to sleep on the floor.

Felaadi said, "I can give you about half an hour to get situated, but we'll need you to come serve the morning crowd after that."

Nahla nodded and closed the door behind Felaadi.

"I am not sleeping here," Mahko insisted.

"Me neither," said Kiardha, equally adamant. "I want to sleep at home."

"Yes, you will," contradicted Nahla firmly. "You have to. This is our home now. I've left your father."

"Mom," said Mahko with an uneasy undertone in his voice, "if this is your idea of a joke, it's not very funny."

Kiardha asked, "Did you and Dad fight again?"

Nahla decided to answer Kiardha's question first. "Technically, no, Kiardha, we did not fight again." Turning to Mahko, she said, "And this is not a joke, son."

"What did Dad do?" Kiardha asked, turning owlish limpid blue eyes to her mother.

"Yeah, Mom," asked Mahko angrily, "Just what did Dad do that's worth messing up our lives over?"

Nahla's heart broke at the anguish in her son's eyes behind his anger. She took at deep breath, wishing she had better prepared her children for this terrible news. "You know that your dad and I have been fighting a lot over these past few years. Yesterday, he broke a promise, and I told him the last time he did that that if it happened again, I would leave him. Last time was not the first time he has broken his promise - it has happened more than a dozen times before that that I know of and probably more than that that I don't know of. I felt I had to do as I said I would so he would understand that breaking a promise as many times as he has is serious. This is nothing you guys did - your dad and I just do not seem to want the same things anymore. I will always love both of you no matter what, and if you guys want to visit your dad, I will try to arrange that for you and be nice to him for your sakes. He will always be your dad no matter what, and I want him to still be in your lives if that is what you want. But as for me, I don't want to be with him anymore." Her voice broke on the final sentence. Her heart wasn't quite there yet even if her mind did recognize the absolute necessity for what she was doing.

Kiardha said quickly, "I want to be with you, Mom. I might visit Dad if Mahko goes, but I don't want to go by myself."

Mahko asked, "Can't you forgive Dad? Doesn't he deserve another chance?"

Nahla placed a soft hand on Kiardha's shoulder, but addressed Mahko. "I gave your dad many, many chances and he threw them all away. I will be working on forgiving him for what he's done. But for he and I to reconcile, your dad would have to want to be forgiven and he would have to want another chance. Then he would have to persuade me that he is serious about no longer breaking his promises. The only kind of marriage worth having is one where both people keep their promises, and you simply cannot force another person to be a promise-keeper. It works best when a person has their own reasons for wanting to keep their promises. Your dad would need to find those reasons and he's going to have to do that on his own."

"But that's so unfair," fumed Mahko.

"You are upset because this news turns your world upside-down, Mahko," said Nahla gently. "I know this little room is far different from what you are used to, and I am sorry. But all the comforts we had at the old house do not mean a thing when there is no love between the people living there. I grew up in a humble home in a room not much bigger than this one. So did your father, for that matter, although his family was slightly better off than mine. All of the trappings of your father's money meant nothing to me, but I accepted them for his sake. And when I knew he still loved me, it was enough. Now he does not, and it is not."

"Dad doesn't love you anymore?" asked Kiardha in confusion. "Why not?"

Nahla sighed. "You would have to ask him that, Kiardha. In truth, I don't know."

"Do we love each other?" Kiardha asked with frightened eyes.

Nahla kissed the top of Kiardha's head and replied, "Yes, aisaa. We still love each other very much. And our love will get us through this."

Nahla noticed that Kiardha didn't ask whether Dharak still loved her and sighed inwardly. She already knows he doesn't. Lady Isis, but Dharak has failed Kiardha spectacularly.

"Now, you two," said Nahla, changing the subject, "it is time you head for school. It will take you longer to get there and back now. I will give you money to catch a flying carpet today, but you may have to walk a ways toward your school before you find one. Just go left down street outside of this inn until you come to a fishmonger's shop on the left. The sign has a large blue fish with green gills and is quite unmistakable. Turn right at the fishmonger's and walk or ride quite a ways up. You will eventually come to the rear of your school on the left."

"Also, your school clothes will make you a target for thieves in this part of town. I picked up hats of disguise for each of us some time back in the event I wound up leaving your father." She then showed them how the hat worked. "Tip your hat and imagine your face with an outfit like what they wear in this neighborhood when you are here and tip it and imagine your school clothes when you are there. It will save you from constantly having to change physical clothes back and forth."

"Mahko, I am trusting you to look after your sister. Keep her safe for me, please." And then her face softened and she added, "I understand that you are angry. I still love you even when you are angry, my son." She studied his hard, young face and willed her eyes to communicate the depth of her love for him.

Mahko looked slightly mollified and somewhat disgruntled, but he nodded. He and Kiardha had always been fairly close, even if he did tease her about being a pesky younger sister. There was an inner fragility about Kiardha that Mahko seemed to instinctively understand even though he never expressed it, and Nahla relied on his protective instincts now to keep her daughter safe.

Nahla handed her children their hats of disguise and helped them set their appearances, having them change between local clothes and school clothes a few times to make sure they had the hang of it. Once she had seen them on their way and changed into her own ordinary clothing, she came down into the inn's kitchen where Felaadi was bustling about.

"Oh, good," said the woman. "Let me start by telling you the table numbers." And she took Nahla's arm and led her into the dining area. Pointing to each table, she gave it a number, starting with the table nearest the kitchen doors and going to the front of the inn, then leftward in columns.

Nahla was accustomed to cooking and serving her family, preferring to do those tasks herself rather than relying on servants except on special occasions, but by mid-afternoon, she had to admit she was already exhausted. Still, she knew her stamina would improve with time and she didn't want to let her new employer down.

At Felaadi's suggestion, Nahla had an early dinner with Mahko and Kiardha before the dinner rush started and asked them about their days. They had had no trouble with either their new hats of disguise or with catching a flying carpet to school. Mahko had done well on a math test and Kiardha gushed enthusiastically about the new Western Common phrases she was learning. After the meal was over, she cleared away the dishes and sent her children to their room to do homework.

As she worked through the dinner hour, she half-expected that either someone would come asking about any new Undine workers the inn had recently hired or that Dharak himself would waltz in and demand to talk to her, but other than a minor mishap with a spilled pitcher, it was an uneventful evening, for which she was grateful.

After helping Felaadi to clean the kitchen and lay out the things that would be needed for breakfast the following morning, she returned to her quarters and fell into an exhausted sleep.