"It's- oh, this is all so much... it's a good thing Marekai never installed a proper camera in this room. There's nothing really important in here, so he probably just overlooked it," Hope murmured, her eyes darting back and forth.
Vella briefly had to wonder just how much she'd gotten used to subterfuge and secrecy and smiling and pretending things were okay.
Her mother, smiling at her as she helped her with her dress-
"What do you mean cursed?" Vella's voice was filled with disbelief.
Though, in retrospect, when faced with talking shapes, the sun and moon speaking to her, creatures made of yarn, and a giant talking wolf after expecting to be eaten by a giant monster, maybe she should've been a little less alarmed by a curse.
Hope cleared her throat a bit, awkwardly. "Well, it's a bit of a long story."
Vella glanced out the window- Ray was starting to dip below the horizon, signifying that it was nearly morning.
The sky was painted shades of gold, orange, violet- clouds reflecting pink in the early morning glow of the sunrise, the mist casting what looked like a glittering sheet of fog around everything.
It was absolutely breathtaking.
"I have the feeling we've got time."
"Time for-" A loud yawn cut Ray off as he appeared as well, Hope quickly sliding to the side to allow him room. "- time for what?"
"Explaining the curse, dear," Hope said simply.
That seemed to be quite an effective wake-up call. "Ah."
"What kind of curse are you talking about, exactly?" Vella pushed.
"I'll be happy to explain, Vella," Hope said patiently, "but if it's alright, I would like to tell you a story."
Vella frowned. "Is this your way of explaining the curse to me?" she tried, gently.
"Just go with it," Ray said, no longer yawning or even looking all that tired. "Hope's stories are clearer than her explanations."
"Ray!"
"Sorry. Go ahead, honey."
Hope cleared her throat, though a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth- she was clearly trying to disguise the fact that her husband's antics had honestly amused her. "Thank you."
The smile faded a moment later. "The story truly begins a very long time ago, but that would be... too difficult to explain..."
Ray gave a chuckle. A sad, resigned sort of laugh. "Well, Vella has a point. We have plenty of time."
"Very true," Hope hummed, her lips twisting briefly, before she sighed and nodded a little. "Very well, then. I'll be telling you a story, Vella, of a young girl who made a very big sacrifice."
Vella found herself folding her legs into a pretzel-shape on the bed- a habit she'd apparently transferred to Rocky, who always folded her legs whenever she was sat down for a story.
She felt a little like a small girl herself, eager for the next installment of her grandfather's adventures, packaged into dramatic and often overacted stories that kept her up long past her bedtime until her mother was scolding them both, laughter in her eyes as she tried to keep her mouth from twitching.
"The girl was in love with someone, and she and her lover discovered that she was with child. However, the society she lived in looked unkindly upon those who had children out of wedlock, and she'd already been betrothed to someone else, despite the noble ancestry her lover possessed."
There was a brief pause, as if Hope was considering her words very, very carefully.
"She knew that if her child was born in this society, even though the society was filled with everything she'd ever known and all of her loved ones, her baby would suffer the consequences."
Hope shook her head, as if condemning the notion itself. "And yet, she couldn't bring herself to rid herself of the child. Now, mind you, this was a personal decision she made. Is it the right move? Would another option have been better? We will never know. But it was the sacrifice she made."
"What did she do?" Vella asked, despite herself.
"She fled her home and eloped with her lover, leaving behind everyone she'd ever loved to be able to raise her child in a warmer and kinder environment.
"Her lover, whose ancestors were experts with various technologies and magics helped her- painting and changing the castle to be a child's kingdom, creating technology to aid raise the child in the guise of soft, cuddly creatures and interactive objects. Oh, when the child was born, he lit up everything around him... the servants loved him so, he was such a bright little thing..."
Her voice, briefly warm and full of a love that Vella had heard before, in her own mother's voice and eyes, faltered.
"Then... on the eve that her child turned five years old, her betrothed found them.
"Her people were furious at what they considered a massive betrayal, and their wrath and hatred had formed a potent curse- one that her ex-betrothed was more than happy to wield against her and her newfound happiness.
"The servants were transformed into the very technology that had been crafted to aid the young prince, minds and bodies morphed into strange creatures with wires for nerves and electricity for blood.
"The castle was blocked off from the rest of the world. The machinery that had been made to better watch the child was either broken or twisted, against its original creators' wishes.
"And the young prince's memories were altered- his parents became nothing more than a machine to him, meant to raise him and protect him, the servants merely toys or strange electronic beings to do his bidding."
Hope took a shuddering breath. The story was clearly painful for her to tell, but she continued after a moment.
"The girl's betrothed, pitying the child and the girl that he still loved, if in a twisted way, gave an ultimatum- if her child could not find a way to take the responsibility that had once been the girl's and fulfill it by the time he was twenty-one- the age she had been when she had fled- the technology would fail, and with it the lives of every servant, and the girl and her lover.
"Not only that, but it would prove that the child's very existence was cursed, and the girl's former betrothed would-"
Hope cut herself off with a sudden sob.
Vella had been almost entranced by the story-explanation, but now that she looked closer, Hope had tears in her eyes.
Ray sighed softly. "You take some time to recover, honey. Shay's sleeping in since he was up all night walking Vella around, so you have some time."
Hope sniffled once, blinking hard- Vella briefly wondered why she didn't wipe her eyes, then immediately felt stupid for the mental suggestion. "Alright. Thank you, sweetie."
She vanished from the window, and Ray turned to Vella, face grim. "Her story explained most of it, but as you might have guessed, Shay is the child, Hope was the girl, and I was her 'lover', to use her words. He's twenty right now. He'll turn twenty-one in two months."
Vella felt her eyes grow wide at the blunt statement. "Wait- if that's when the technology fails... you'll die in two months?"
Ray hesitated, which completely confirmed her hypothesis.
"Holy crap. That's awful! Why would someone curse someone like that?" Vella's brow had knit together- either in anger or frustration, she couldn't tell.
It just... wasn't right.
"Well, that's not necessarily the part we're upset about... though, I will admit, it's anything but ideal." Ray coughed awkwardly.
"How is that the part you're not upset about?"
Ray might've scratched his chin, if he still had hands. "Hope didn't quite finish... if Shay does not somehow 'fulfill' the incredibly stupid and somewhat misogynistic 'responsibility' she had, her former betrothed is going to kill Shay."
Vella stared, mouth practically hanging open in- shock? Outrage? Anger?
She didn't know.
Besides a tiny flinch, Ray barely reacted to his own words.
(Because he's probably had Shay's entire life to come to terms with it, some very quiet part of Vella reasoned.)
(That's bullshit, a much louder and angrier part of her almost screeched at the top of her lungs.)
"I- that's horrible. The curse is going to kill Shay? Surely the girl's- I mean, surely Hope's, um, ex isn't here?"
"No, the curse isn't going to kill Shay- it only affects us," Ray responded, grim. "But, unfortunately, yes... Hope's ex-fiancee is here."
"Marek," Vella said, the cog finally clicking into place.
Ray gave a simple nod. "He's been turning Shay away from the possibility of us- and, by extension, him- ever going free."
"That's horrible," Vella repeated, at a loss for words. No amount of babbling could ease the ache of not only near-imminent death, but also losing a son.
... wait-
"Shay knows you guys are his... parents, right?" she asked, tilting her head a little. "'Cause he just calls you guys 'the computer'..."
Ray didn't reply, which once again gave Vella her answer.
Shay didn't know.
He didn't know.
The quiet voice in her head spiked in volume along with her angry one, which burst out of her lips in a furious exclamation of "WHAT THE F-"
