Hey. Guess what? I'm updating. n.n
However, this is the last chapter, because I don't want it to go into limbo again. So hopefully this will give you avid readers some closure.
Please review or message with any questions or whatever. Enjoy.
"Arya? What...?"
"Mother, please. Let me explain this."
The queen looked to be a whole lot of emotions at the same time. Taken aback, furious, upset, confused. She put a hand to her heaving chest and sat lightly on a conveniently placed white cane chair. There was a pause as she observed the sight of her daughter, gaunt, pale and sickly, carrying a small child and standing next to... a shade!
The queen hissed and said in a low, threatening voice, "You had better explain this, girl! What have you got yourself into!"
Arya found herself weeping as she retold her torture, capture, pregnancy and home on the outskirts of the Hadarac. She found that although she loved being here, home among the leafy green, she had also loved her little ramshackle home that her lover had built for her.
The queen clicked her fingers and chairs were brought over for Arya and Durza.
"Are you meaning to tell me," The queen began quietly, studying her intertwined hands. "That this man, this shade, has tortured you, hurt you... done unmentionable things to you, and yet you have brought his child into this world and find yourself in love with him?"
Arya and Durza looked at each other. "In so many words, mother, yes."
The queen's eyes widened in ager and outrage and her chest swelled pompously. "Well!" was all she could seem to say, rather breathlessly.
"You and I both know that Durza was under the king's power. To this day, we still have no idea how we even managed to escape, as the king was so rigid in his security."
Kaida awoke and started fussing. Arya spoke gently to her, tickling under her chin until she made Kaida chuckle.
The baby's laughter seemed to awake something in her grandmother's manner. She sat up straight and tossed back her long hair. "Well, no matter why the shade did it, he's still done something irreversible and irrepressible. He cannot stay here with us. As for you, Arya, you will resume training and will meet the Rider soon enough. I will have the child looked after."
Arya's head snapped up and her heart beat increased. Kaida, sensing her mother's stress, started to cry.
"You... you can't take her away. She is everything to me. Durza and I have worked hard to escape with our lives, let alone hers too. We deserve her, and we love her. You want the world, mother, I know you. You can't be content to sit back and watch somebody else be happy. You think you ought to have it all." Arya was standing up now, handing Kaida to Durza.
She admired Durza's silence through this; his bearing of insults and of her mother's talking like he wasn't there.
The queen stood too, her chair falling backwards. "You will not speak to me like that ever again. I don't care for your age; I am your mother and I will not be spoken to like it!"
Elves had begun to creep through the trees to watch the confrontation. Some gasped at the sight of Durza, some cooed at Kaida, and others made no noise at all, only stood, solemnly watching.
"You can't control me anymore, mother. I'm too far gone." Arya stared straight into her mother's eyes.
Islanzadi, seeing Arya's direct, serious stare, was reminded of Arya as a small child. She remembered when her father was gone. She remembered when Faolin was gone. She remembered when Arya was gone, too. Her eyes welled with tears and she whispered, "I need you so much closer."
Arya shook her head and quietly repeated, "I'm too far gone."
An unspoken sentence flowed between Durza and Arya, and they both turned and walked away. From behind, Arya could hear her mother's quiet cries, but she paid no notice.
"You were very brave," Durza said quietly, holding tightly to Kaida.
"Thank you," Arya replied, even though she didn't feel brave. She smelt small and insignificant and hurt.
She lead her family to a large tree, which she hugged before starting to climb. Durza looked up into the tree, and could see a distant treehouse in the limbs.
A moment later, a long stick-and-string ladder unfolded down and Durza began his ascent, Kaida held tight to his chest.
Up in the treehouse, Arya and Durza sat cross-legged on the floor, facing each other, their child asleep between them.
"Arya." Durza said simply. Her name seemed to him to hold every connotation of the word "love", so he said it as a way of saying he loved her.
She smiled and said, "Durza."
"Arya, I... I have something to ask," he began shyly.
Sensing the seriousness of the moment, Arya straightened her back and nodded.
"Will you be my wife?" Durza asked quickly.
Arya, surprised and excited, made a small squeak before leaning over and giving Durza a quick hug.
Durza laughed. "Was that a yes?"
"Of course it was a yes!" She laughed back.
---
Later that night, when the sky was a dark canopy above them, Durza held Arya and Kaida and lay in silence, staring at the stars.
"I love you," he said softly, thinking Arya was asleep.
"I must be dreaming," she smiled.