Thank you to Mizuna Kurenagi for review last chapter
Chapter XXV: Lord Orkham
Log #346 name: Alura Degre
It has been almost four years now since we began our work on Mahina and I have to say I'm both surprised and pleased.
None of her predecessors have ever lasted this long.
It might also be because we no longer treat Mahina with Cheza's DNA and have stuck with strictly observing her as well as interviews once a week for the past year. There still so much to learn about Mahina. Cheza's DNA its...connected them somehow, Mahina says so at times.
She says that Cheza teaches her things and sings to her or even tells her to go to bed when she's being restless...it makes me wonder if the other Hanabito can communicate with Cheza as well.
"..." Alura paused, her gaze drifting to Mahina and the girl passed making her way to a corner of her room "Mahina?" the blonde called out to her but Mahina ignored her.
She was focused on the white wolf sitting in the corner of the room watching her.
As the year that he warned of drew closer, Mahina had seen more and more of this white wolf until he just lingered around her constantly. He never said anything most of the time if he and Mahina ever exchanged words Mahina was always the one to do it first like now as she slowly sat down on the floor in the corner where he lingered.
"...what are you?"
'Im what's left...or...perhaps i'm all there ever was…' the wolfs voice resonates as he settles down into a comfy position 'The time is fast approaching.' Mahina felt like she should react to this comment but she doesn't. All those treatments left this sense of eternal calmness to embrace Mahina's being. As the white wolf tilted his head curiously at Mahina she could do nothing but passively stare back at him 'you seem...unafraid'
"..." Mahina didn't respond, instead reaching out a hand to pet the creature before her and the wolf notices perking up as Mahina's hand draws closer but again, like before, something in her tells her no. This isn't the right wolf, this wolf she should not touch. His ears drooped when Mahina's hand returns to her lap and she simply blinks lazily at him.
Behind her Alura's voice continues its report.
"Things around the lab have been a bit strange lately. When she isn't being treated Mahina sometimes just… stares off into the distance or sits in corners of rooms. Sometimes she talks as if someone is there with her but we can never see who it is."
This was new information to Mahina, she had always assume that this wolf was a normal presence in the keep and that was why no one really reacted to him lingering around but in truth they…
"They can not see you"
'Humans who have forgotten their true forms can not see me.'
"...will they be taken too?"
'Anyone who resides in the house of Darcia will fall to its curse.'
Anyone?
So her father could fall to it too? And the people in the lab? Had her mother fallen to this curse?
These question quickly whizzed through Mahina's minda and she found herself looking over her shoulder and at the blonde woman
...did that mean Alura could too?
"Still, the lack of any true progress is weighing heavy on everyone. Sure, Mahina is stable but Lord Darcia has yet to reveal what her purpose is and well… people are getting scared. Rumors have been circling around of a wolf sighting, a white one but our cameras show nothing of the sort not to mention wolves are supposed to be extinct… well…not all of them at least. Whenever someone reports that they've seen this… wolf… soon after that person…
Paradise sickness… We still don't know what causes it but… it seems to be spreading through the keep. Cher...I'm so glad you decided not to come back with me, im glad your husband convinced you to stay where you are…. I wish… I had been able to convince others to do the same…"
Pausing in her log, Mahina's ear perked a familiar jinggling sound the echoed the room as Alura held up a collection of bangles and stared at them. Those bracelets… those were Tyson's bracelets, the ones his mother gave him that he never took off. Why did Alura have them?
"On the night that Mahina somehow escaped her room we lost so many people… the guard watching Mahina's door… half of our night crew that watched Cheza...and my assistant… Tyson" Alura gripped the bracelets tightly as she spoke the young man's name "he was so young, too young to go like this but there's nothing I can do… We understand this illness so little...The only thing I could do for him… was promise to return these to his mother…"
So that was it, Tyson had been taken.
"...Leave."
Alura jumped at the sound of Mahina's voice before spinning around to meet her gaze. She had moved quickly and silently without the woman's notice until she stood right behind Alura. Mahina tone wasn't angry… in fact she had no expression on her face as she stares at Alura. Still, there's just something purely intense about her stare at that left Alura unsettled.
"Ma...Mahina?"
"..." Mahina's gaze shifted from Alura to look directly at her camera "This place...is cursed…" she declared to it before looking back at the blonde scientist. As she did, Mahina's vision hazed and the image of Alura seems to grown younger? before her eyes but the image is only there for a split second before it's gone. "You served your purpose here…" she spoke on, her voice echoing in her head a bit in the wake of her brief hazy vision "It is not to late...go...home."
"I've...what?" still startled by Mahina's sudden commands Alura offered Mahina a confused look but it didn't matter anymore. Mahina had said what she had wanted to say and she hoped that Alura would listen. Turning on her heel Mahina made her way back to the corner she had once been sitting in leaving a bewildered Alura behind.
'Do you think you can save her?'
"...perhaps"
The white wolf never left anymore.
It follows Mahina around when she moves from room to room, sitting beside her like an unseen guard dog to the world. Almost no one seemed aware it was even there.
Almost…
Cheza seemed to know.
She stayed awake less and less these past few weeks. Mahina often felt her flickering in and out of sleep to check on things with Mahina before drifting off again. Every time Cheza woke she would flicker with curiosity over the strange white wolf. But if she knew anything about it or why it was here she gave no voice to the matter.
Darcia also seemed aware.
The tall man who lorded over these humans normally never uncovered his wolf's eye, it almost seemed like he hated it. When he did it is only in the presence of his daughter. When it's just the two of them in Mahina's room and he would rest his head on her lap he stares up at her with that golden eye of his.
But then he noticed what Alura had noticed months ago, that Mahina's eyes would wander when the white wolf made his presence known. One of these times Darcia saw the normally invisible creature with his wolf's eye.
Immediately, Darcia, flew into a defensive mode standing between Mahina and the creature but the wolf never made to attack or harm either of them.
As always he simply sat in the corner and stared.
That's when Mahina noticed Darcia turned his head side to side before muttering about his 'damn cursed eye' and settling down.
When Mahina offered the wolf a curious look his response echoed back for her ears only.
Humans will only see what they choose to.
Humans will only see what they choose to…
Darcia never saw the wolf after that but he became more guarded of Mahina in the following days. He had almost moved completely into the room sleeping beside Mahina at night as if she would wander out of the room again. They ate together and though he hadn't go so far as to force Mahina to bath in front of him Darcia did linger outside the door.
In the days since he'd seen the white wolf Mahina was never without the ever lingering scent of her father invading her senses.
Today Mahina was spared any testing done to her giving Alura and her team much needed rest but Darcia himself showed no sign that he would be leaving Mahina's side. Instead Darcia made himself comfortable resting his head on Mahina's lap as she sung for him like she always did.
"Shailoh Shailoh, Yatreet ka…"
"We will have guest soon…"
"..." the comment drew a pause from Mahina, her fingers paused in their path through her fathers dark hair. "...guest?" she mused bowing her head to take in her fathers expression. Darcia nodded, turning his head so that he could look at Mahina with his normal eye instead of the wolf one.
"A fellow Noble." He explained "Lord Orkham is on his way west to attend his sister's wedding to another Noble-the name escapes me…"
"What does that have to do with-" Mahina began to question, her brow furrowing in confusion
"The journey is long and tiresome," Darcia went on speaking "he will stay here for a night to rest and refuel his ship before moving on."
Father would have guest, that meant all test and activity in the labs would be halted and Mahina guessed her father didn't want her to be seen.
There was a long pause but Mahina nods in understanding soon after. But as she is about to go back to singing Darcia's hand reached out and touched her face.
"I would have you by my side when it is time to greet him." her father declared
"Me?" Brow furrowed farther, Mahina pressed a hand over her fathers "but why?"
"Mahina" Darcia's smile is gentle and his voice hums deep as he speaks "my precious key. It is time we reveal you to the world as my beautiful child."
'Revealing me to this world of human' the thought came to Mahina though it stopped short before it could reach her tongue, 'To the creatures who took our home away…'
"You will be dressed and stand at my side as we greet and entertain our guest"
'Entertain our enemy' the thoughts stirred a spark of heat in Mahina's belly 'Entertain the monsters'
"and they world will know you as Mahina of house Darcia."
Mahina of house Darcia
This was the title she'd have and honorable one for sure if the smile Darcia gave Mahina meant anything. Despite this knowledge, despite her father's comforting words nothing about this could blow out that small spark in Mahina's belly.
Everything about this felt wrong, extremely wrong.
But Darcia was her father and he had made it clear he only used these humans to wake Mahina's mother. Father had a plan and it involved Mahina becoming this title he gave her.
And so she became such.
Neige, one of Darcia's servants, dressed Mahina for the occasion. With a queen anna neckline and long heavy, robe like sleeves covered Mahina's hands before touching the floor, the dress mermaid silhouette hugged Mahina's slender human shift in a way that screamed it was perfectly made for her form. The dress was dark navy, like most of the colors her father dressed in, but was lined with decorative silver designs.
Mahina's hair was much too long to be styled in any of the elegant ways normal Noble's daughters would have but Neige did the best she could, lining Mahina's crown with carefully woven braids of black silky hair.
Her lips were painted purple and her porcelain skin was dusted with a faint blush. When all was said and done Mahina sat before her vanity looking more human than she'd ever before.
" You look beautiful, My Lady" Neige compliment as she brushed the long black locks of Mahina's unbraided hair.
And Mahina did look beautiful… at least from a humans standards. Aside from the striking crimson color of her eyes she really did look a lot like her father now.
Less like a lab subject
...less like a beast
All that's left was…
"…" Mahina didn't bother to respond to Neige, truth be told she didn't even know how she was supposed to respond. This was all so sudden, have a servant at her beck and call.
It all felt so foreign to Mahina.
So out of place…
Just wrong. And it did nothing was gently fan the burning in Mahina's core.
Rather than respond to the very young girl tending to her Mahina hung her head. Neige seemed to understand. Setting the brush down on the vanity, she turned to leave.
"I will inform Lord Darcia that you are almost ready" the young servant remarked over her shoulder and then she was gone Leaving Mahina to herself.
Though she's not alone, it seems like these past few days Mahina is never quite completely alone.
From where she sat Mahina can see the White wolf sitting in the corner of the room. His golden eyes stared at Mahina from through the mirror. If he has an opinion on the matter he doesn't voice it, leaving Mahina to draw her own conclusions on her current situation.
Breaking their met gaze, Mahina bows her head once more her eyes landing on the item Neige left for Mahina herself to place.
A ceramic mask the color of bleached bone sat on the vanity waiting for Mahina to claim. The black voids of the eyes were almond shaped and it looked like it would only cover the upper part of Mahina's face. The very top of the mask was adored with elegantly painted flowers.
"Lunar Flowers..." the name came to Mahina's lips as she carefully picked the mask up with both her hands to look over. She had seen enough of the nocturnal flower to recognize its design across the ceramic surface.
Mask were a normal thing for Noble, Mahina had learned. Her father too had his own mask that covered his wolfs eyes and was crowned with black feathers
As a Noble...Mahina needed a mask herself.
And here was hers...
Slowly, she raised it to her face ready to place it but stops. Her hands trembled just as the mask came inches from touching her face and though she knew he had to place the item her hands refused to move anymore.
This feels all wrong.
Mahina shouldn't wear this mask, she should not present herself as her father wish her to.
Mahina of House Darcia…
The spark within her has caught flame, a tiny one but a flame all the same. The heat of it sends a unfamiliar warmth though Mahina in an emotion she can't quite place.
A feeling Mahina forced herself to ignore. The shaking passed after a time and when it did Mahina carefully fitted the mask to her face. The Vanity showed Mahina what 'Mahina of House Darcia' would appear as to the world and she looked...ominous… Mysterious… even though Mahina could see her face from the bridge of her nose down the blacks of the eyes covered the red color of her own...it felt...uncanny like she had things to hide from the rest of the world.
But that was the life of a Noble she supposed.
Secrets and lies.
Falsities and standing on ceremony.
"Beautiful"
Mahina didn't bother to look back at her father as he entered. His large gloved hands encased her shoulders briefly before he gently took hold on Mahina's chin and made her look up at him.
"Just like your mother was." he mused lovingly
Right…
Mahina's mother.
It had been so long since Mahina had last layed eyes on her mother. What did she look like?
Instead of replying to her father, Mahina pulled into herself. She searched her black voids of her mind for any memories of her mother from her childhood. There had to be something of that blonde woman who lay in deep unwakeable sleep somewhere in the keep. Mahina tries her hardest but nothing comes, the void is as empty as its always been as if it was the price Mahina had to pay for surviving whatever it was that almost claimed them both.
Would she...would her mother ever wake?
"Will Lord Orkham help us save her?" the question comes to Mahina as she focusing on her father once more.
Silence follows her question and Darcia appeared to be thinking over Mahina's question. Or at the very least Mahina assumed that he was, It was hard to tell what her father was thinking in that instant when he wore his own mask but whatever it was, it only took a moment before he made a decision.
"Save her?" he echoed Mahina's words turning her chair to face him and kneeling before her.
"...you said…" Mahina mused quietly "that we were here because the humans were helping to save her"
"I did"
"You said…" Mahina continued "these… test… were to figure how if what saved me could save her."
"I did"
"Is Lord Orkham here to help?...is that why he is resting here?"
This place… Nobles never stopped here to rest Mahina knew that much. There were rumors going on about the keep and that it was cursed among other things. Most of the workers here were eager to leave it, despite Darcia's harsh punishments for those who were caught many still tried. Mahina couldn't see anyone just coming here even if they needed rest and were low on fuel for their airships.
"We will save her" Darcia confirmed with a sigh "but Lord Orkham can not do this for us"
He wont?!
"So than why-" Mahina's reaction is instant, her back straightens forcing her to sit up in her chair, her teeth almost bare in a snarl of annoyance and her voice curved upward in volume to shout her protest but Darcia is faster. Her father silence Mahina quickly, straightening himself out as well to match Mahina's raising posture and cupping her face in his hands.
"Shhh" he hushed her before she could spiral too far for him to reign back in "shhh" he repeats even as Mahin's mouth parts to insist in arguing "I promise you, we will save her from this together." Darcia mutters in a deep hushed tone rubbing his thumb against Mahina's cheek as he did. Despite herself and her growing frustration Mahina accepts the feeling, nuzzling against the hand in affection "You are my precious key," Darcia declared, his fingers curling possessively against Mahina's skin "with you by my side I know we will find our paradise."
Mahina can't argue with her father though she still wanted to. He knew more of this human world than she did, he had made sure Mahina couldn't venture far enough outside to know anything. This keep she'd spent so much of her life in was her entire world and she didn't know enough to question him.
This knowledge is enough to silence any lingering fight Mahina had in her but it does little to silence the observer in his corner of the room. His voice echoes in Mahina's ears alone.
That woman will never wake.
"..." the statement forces a drop in Mahina's stomach "Okay…" she whispers out
Paradise claimed her soul a long time ago
"...I understand…" Mahina could feel her voice growing even smaller as she accepted the words only she could hear.
So this was all meaningless efforts…
Paradise claimed her mother soul and soon it would claim Mahina's as well
Being deaf to the ominous words of the white wolf he choice not to see, Darcia must have taken Mahina's words as her falling back into obedience and he nodded satisfied with this. Standing up, he offer her his hand, Mahina took it carefully before standing up herself and letting her father lead her out of the room. The white wolf's words looming in the air behind her, ever mysterious, ever ominous. As the pair near the door Mahina glanced over her shoulder at the wolf who stared at her with those golden eyes of his.
There is no saving in this house
Because that is the curse of this house.
The tiny spark of flame in Mahina's belly flickers and grows ever so slightly.
Lord Orkham was a fat man.
Even from the short distance, draped in the black and deep red colors of his robes, Mahina could see this. She took in his half black half white steel looking mask as he neared Darcia and herself. There were no bows when the two parties met at the peak of the hill just before the keep.
Mahina tried her best to focus on the approaching guest instead of around her in wonder, father never let her out here. It was always only certain parts of the garden if Mahina was ever allowed outside at all.
The sky seemed so much vaster, the air freer.
Her nose, however, reminded her to stay in the now as a breeze rolled up the hillside and brought with the stench of sweat, perfume and oils coming from Lord Orkham and his large host.
"Lord Darcia!" His voice was deep and booming with the sounds of a jovial old man but it was impossible to tell from the mask if he was genuine about it.
"Lord Orkham" Father's voice was deep too but it held almost a growl to it compared to Lord Orkham's echoing boom. Mahina didn't need to remove her fathers mask to recognize the tone. He'd been expressing it more and more as the fated time of arrival came, his utter disgust for the likes of Lord Orkham.
But as a Noble they had duties to uphold, roles to play.
Mask to wear.
"I cannot express how grateful I am that you have opened your house to us even for a single night." The large man's louder than life voice force a slight wince out of Mahina the closer he drew "Not many are so generous these day."
"Nonsense." Darcia chuckled "Your house has been ever the kind neighbor to us, our doors are always open should seek shelter."
Mahina tried to forget father comments last night about what an arrogant bastard Lord Orkham was.
"You must be tired from your travels," her father continue "come I already have dinner and warm beds ready for you and yours"
"Thank you My Lord! I'm absolutely famished" the air rattles with the loud mans equally loud laughter.
Mahina tried to forget father sneering about what a gluttonous pig Lord Orkham is, feasting like a cow fatten for slaughter while his poorer people starved.
Lord Ham father called him last night sneering as he did.
There's a pause in the conversation as Lord Orkham stepped beside Darcia with intent to walk back to the keep. He stopped suddenly, his masked face turned ever so slightly to take in Mahina's form seeming to only now notice her standing on the other side of her father.
"And who might this be?" he questions
"Ah," as if he too forgot she was there, Darcia turned to also stare at Mahina's still form "Mahina, my precious key." he held a hand out to Mahain and she immediately took it, stepping forward to be presented to Lord Orkham. "Lord Orkham, my precious daughter Mahina."
"Daughter?" The fat lord turned fully to Mahina now and she can hear the faint whispers from his company. She tried to pays them no mind her ears are keen and the pick up the whispers, the quiet mutters of a name:
Hamona…
How long had it been since Mahina last heard that name?
In a muttered prayer
A soft whisper
A murmured warning
They say the late Lady Hamona was Mahina's mother but Mahina had no clear memories of the woman up and well.
The only memories Mahina had of her mother was the limp, lifeless body resting deep inside the keep left barely alive by the same science and people who ran test on Mahina.
Even with the mask on Mahina can almost feel the burning stares of Lord Orkham trying to take in as much of her form as he could as if he were trying to find flaw in her to disprove that Darcia had a child.
"She certainly has your features" the fat lord comments causing Darcia to let out a deep chuckle but Mahina caught the ever so slight snort that her father tried to hide. "I wasn't award that you and the late Lady Hamona had a child before her...untimely demise."
Darcia's grip on Mahina's hand almost instantly became vice like forcing Mahina to hold back sounds of pain in the presence of this loud fat guest.
"She has been very ill since birth" Darcia does well to hide the clear anger Lord Orkhams words stirred within him while explaining away why it was only now being revealed that Mahina existed "so I have held off on introducing her to the public"
"I should hope you're in much better health now, my Lady." Lord Orkham adressed her, looming over Mahina's shorter, smaller form and despite herself she found herself ever so slightly intimidated, leaning back to keep distance from the fat lords form. "It would be...unfortunate if you should meet the same tragic fate as your beautiful mother."
It takes a lot for Mahina to not growl at the man, her fathers even tighter grin on her hand is enough of a sign that the male also knows the hostility growing at the base of Mahina's throat. She could almost feel the bones in her fingers crunching against the force of her father's grip, he commend to settle down silent but very clear.
As Mahina and her father lead the fat lord and his company into the keep Mahina decided that, just like her father, she did not very much like the fat Lord Orkham.
The small flame in her core grew in size at the idea of having to entertain him for the night.
Sometime after dinner and pleasantries ran their course Lord Orkham asked to see the thing that Mahina had a feeling he really came here for.
Cheza.
Cheza was sleeping when Darcia, followed by Lord Orkham and tailed by an ever tense Mahina, arrived in her chambers. As they enter Darcia glance back, past Orkham and at Mahina and with his one eyed stare alone Mahina understood what was being demanded.
She has to stand back though honestly she didn't want to.
From behind her mask, Mahina's red eyes watched Lord Orkham like he was prey to be chased down. Perhaps one day he would be, Mahina was sure her father wouldn't care if Mahina went hunting for pig once they brought her mother back from Paradise's grip.
She could see it in the Lord Orkham's body language, the way he spoke to Darcia but never once turned to look at his host despite Darcia staring right at him. All these words of false kindness and pleasantries were all so he could stand in this room before Cheza.
Lord Orkham wished to oggle the marvel that was the Flower Maiden, crafted by house Darcia and never again in the history of time ever recreated despite other bigger houses trying.
Human greed was clear.
Lord Orkham coveted Cheza.
Still Mahina did as she was told, waiting by the door way with her invisible white wolf sitting beside her.
'Nobles…' His words earned him Mahina's gaze. He refused to look at her ever since she put her mask on but still he spoke. 'they have become lost… disconnected from this world of their birth.'
"...lost…" Mahina echoes the words softly so her father and fat Lord Orkham can not hear.
What does it mean to be lost?...disconnected?
Hearing those words feels almost like Mahina has gained a sort of perspective of her own situation.
Is that what this unmotivated feeling overcoming her for the past year was?
Is that why losing her soul did not scare her?
Mahina was already lost and disconnected from this world what could the beast beside her possibly do that could make this listless feeling worse than it already was.
Perhaps this curse everyone spoke of was the cure for the true cure
The life of a noble.
Mahina stared down at the wolf now in silent contemplation of these inner thoughts. Her staring was cut short as Lord Orkham and Darcia approached her forcing Mahina to face forward once more and give them her undivided attention.
"Tell me, sweetling" Mahina tried her best not to grimace from the sickeningly sweet tone the fat lord adopts when addressing her. Like Mahina is a child to be coaxed. From under the long sleeves of her dress she dug her nails into her palm in an effort to center her annoyance over the tone. "will you follow in your forefathers footsteps and continue this quest for a…" he pauses and it was obvious he was trying to hide snort "Nobles Paradise?"
"..." at first, Mahina did not answer the question. Not because she had nothing to say but because something just didn't feel right with the fat mans words.
Nobles Paradise.
The very combination of the two words felt like a hand gripping Mahina's neck in a vice of abrupt disgust. The small flame roared to life in the wake of this disgust, curling and licking at Mahina's core before forcing its way through her veins until it quickly gripped Mahina's whole form in utter refusal of this concept.
A Nobles Paradise?
"Paradise…" Mahina took in a deep breath "is not made… for Nobles."
The silence that followed was a heavy one.
The two men clearly too stunned by Mahina's sudden declaration to question or comment on it but even if they did Mahina had no true explanation for why such words came to her.
It was as if it was something burned into her very soul.
Paradise did not belong to them
It never would.
"..." now aware of the silence she had cause Mahina followed the burning feeling in her, it demanded she escape, leave right now! "I am weary father...may I go to bed?" Despite the eye patch, Mahina could almost feel the burn of her father's wolf's eye against her skin but whatever he wished to say he decided against it for he nodded.
"Apologies" he cleared his throat as words came back to him "It must be quite a tasking day for you."
Mahina didn't bid Lord Orkham or her father a good night. She rounded the doorway and hurried down the hall to her room before either man could speak to her further.
When she entered her room the guard waiting for her closed and locked her door behind her and Mahina wasted no time ripping her mask from her face, throwing it across the room before throwing herself onto her bed.
From his usual spot in the corner of her room the white wolf finally raised his gaze to stare at the young girl.
Darcia came to Mahina's room a few hours after her outburst.
She hadn't moved from her place, sprawled across her bed with her face tucked into her arms and she made no moves to leave this position when her fathers scent hit her senses.
"What was that?" his voice reached her ears as the bedroom door slowly clicked shut behind him. Silence. Mahina didn't answer her father but after a moment of this quiet she raised her head to look at him. Darcia was already seated on the bed beside Mahina's sprawled form "You spoke of paradise as if you knew its purpose"
Still Mahina said nothing though this didn't appear to bother him very much. He sits ever patient, ever watchful now rid of the mask he wore when he entertained Lord Orkham. From her peripheral view that Mahina has of her father, Darcia didn't look mad at her for her actions in front of Lord Orkham but it's clear that something had bothered him about it.
She didn't want to ask though
Something in Mahina didn't want to respond to the man she called father.
That lingering feeling of disgust towards Lord Orkham and his horrid ownership of Paradise still burned a hole into her chest until she could feel the beginnings of a growl rumbling within her.
Darcia must have sensed it because he turned his gaze to look at Mahina completely, allowing Mahina to see that he had even taken his eyepatch off as well. His wolf's eye practically gleamed in the darkness of the room as he stared at Mahina
"Who told you that about Paradise?" Darcia questioned
Mahina was reluctant to respond, especially since she herself didn't know what had compelled her to declare that.
"Did Cheza tell you this?"
"...No…" slowly Mahina pushed herself up so she could sit up and turn to face her father with a subdued look on her face. "Cheza sleeps." her voice comes out softly "She's always sleeping." her father hums at this nodding his head as he did.
"Mahina" he speaks her name after another pause but Mahina does her best not to react. She avoided looking her father in the face, deciding that her hair was tangled from today's events. Her crimson gaze quickly became fixed on her hair and she busied herself by running her fingers through it in an attempt to fix it. Still her father is patient with her, his deep voice gentle with her as he leans over to try and catch Mahina's gaze. "What did you mean when you said that Paradise wasn't made for Nobles?"
"..." inhaling through her nose Mahina quickly turned her head in the other direction when Darcia almost met her gaze "It will be spring soon…" she was avoiding the subject, they both knew it, but Darcia would not let it go. Carefully, he reached out and took hold of Mahina's chin forcing her to turn her face to him.
"Mahina," the gentleness in his voice was giving way to a more firm tone one Mahina knew came from her lack of obedience "did someone tell you that Paradise was not made for Nobles?"
Still, Mahina refused to address that sudden urge she had felt that made her declare that. Quickly pulling her chin free from her father's grip, Mahina put distance between the two of them Crawling away from her father and off her bed. The man turned his head to follow her journey and watched her pace the room slowly.
"The garden will start to bloom soon, Alura said so."
"Mahina I need you to tell me where you heard what you said."
" That night when I went outside the moon had been almost full… I wonder what the garden would look like under the glow of the full moon…"
Darcia quickly had enough of Mahina's avoidance.
Mahina had forgotten of the brief encounter she had in her young with her fathers speed but in this instance she was reintroduced to it.
She didn't see her father stand up from the bed let alone reach for her. All Mahina knew was one minute she had been standing and the next her back had hit her bed leaving her sprawled across the soft cushions and bedding. Soon Darcia loomed over her form, his wolf's eye trying its hardest to burn Mahina alive where she lay under him.
Silence came to the room and yet even as Darcia now had his daughter full attention he kept the silence as it was. He didn't speak a word, he didn't demand Mahina tell him why she believed Paradise was not for Nobles. Instead he just stared down at Mahina, perhaps his eyes staring past her with how far off his expression became.
Where did he go when he stare off like this? When all the world just fell away before the things that haunted his mind. Mahina may not know a lot about her father but one thing was true, something haunted his every second of life and it was tied to Paradise.
Mahina reached up breaking her father from whatever thoughts he was getting lost in. He didn't move as Mahina carefully covered his human eye with her hand so only the wolf in him stare down at her.
"Do you remember that other pack of wolves we met so long ago?" She asked breaking the silence between them
So long ago when all of this began
So long ago when they lost their home and Hamona
"Do you remember...the pup with the snow with fur? He had eyes just like yours." the comment made Darcia flinch but Mahina ignored it continuing her trail of thought hopefully to its conclusion. "That day," she mused "he listened so intently to the stories of paradise. He looked like he wanted to go there one day...I wonder… if he would have made it if he had survived."
"Mahina…"
Letting her hand drop back onto the bed, Mahina turned her head to stare off into the corner where her white wolf companion always sat watching and waiting.
The pup's fur was white as that wolfs and his eyes the same golden.
But the wolf in the corner was nothing like the pup who loved the stories of paradise.
Or at least… that's what Mahina's body felt.
How long had it been since she'd met that young pup. If he had lived what would he have looked like now? Would he have grown to be tall and handsome like Mahina's father? Would she and this pup have become friends and ran off to find paradise together?
"I remember thinking that he looked like the kind of fool that would believe in paradise and go chasing fairytales" Mahina admitted snorting as she did, even now years after that encounter Mahina thought the idea of blinding chasing after such a place as Paradise was foolish and yet… "...but sometimes…" Mahina frowned "I think about him...and I wonder what Paradise looks like. When I try to imagine Paradise I think of the garden in spring...a place where the Lord Orkhams of the world are not welcome."
"..." Darcia hums lowly at this though for what reason Mahina wasn't sure
"I would like to see paradise someday… and maybe i'll see that wolf there too." It was a small dream, one Mahina had been nursing since the beginning of all of this. She wasn't sure why she hoped for such things despite all logical thought telling her that pup was long since dead and even if he wasn't he surely matured enough to stop chasing fantasies. Perhaps it was just something for Mahina to hold onto after all this time.
Darcia's sighs pulled Mahina from her idly thoughts in time for her to turn her head as her father carefully lower himself so he could press his forehead against hers.
"We will find paradise one day, I promise I will get you there." he swore
"I promise, we'll reach paradise…"
The words echoed almost immediately after Darcia's and they made Mahina furrowed her brow. This voice was new, Mahina was sure she'd never heard it before in her life and yet the sound of it-the self assure promise of it sent Mahina's heart rate going up. Even Cheza briefly stirs from her sleep as these words suddenly echo through Mahina's head spoken by this voice she'd never heard before and yet… yet it sounded familiar.
Darcia was not the one. His promise was empty.
Mahina didn't reply to her father's declaration and he sighed again when Mahina seemed determined to remain silent.
"Tomorrow" He spoke "when Lord Orkham leaves, we'll go on a walk through the garden."