Chapter 95: Nereida’s Voyage
When Nereida arrived in their cabin, she saw the boys playing at Aella’s large map. They were not supposed to touch it, they knew that, but clearly the temptation was too great.
“Egaz! It’s not fair,” Alejo whined, knocking over one of the blue markers that stood for sirens. “How come the Bad Men always know where I am moving my ship! I wanna win too!”
“It’s ‘cause they cheat,” Egaz’s voice was hard with what might have been hatred. Nereida paused in the doorway, worry creeping into her heart. Egaz had no reason to hate the demons, he didn’t know about their past. She had sheltered him from that. “They take and they steal and they cheat because all of them are bad!”
“But the bad guys aren’t supposed to win,” Alejo protested. “We are heroes, and the heroes win!”
“You are,” Egaz replied sullenly. He knocked over a carved black ship. “I’m the bad guy.”
“Boys,” Nereida interrupted, not liking where this conversation was going at all, “Are you supposed to be touching that?”
“No mommy.”
“Sorry mommy.” The boys both looked guilty. She heaved a small sigh, and crossed the room. She herded the boys to her large bed, lifting them each up. They kept looking at their toes, as if expecting a scolding. Instead, Nereida pulled them into a tight hug.
“I made a mistake,” she said softly. “Binding your magic when you first showed it. Magic, any magic, is a gift. My father… he hated that my magic was different from his. And I… I know you will be different from me, you are my children, not my reflection.”
Neither boy answered her, the topic clearly heavy for them both, but they did both lean into her.
“I love you, mommy,” Alejo said softly after a long moment.
“I love you too. Both of you. More than anything,” she told him. She kissed his head. He made an annoyed face, smoothing his hair with his free hand. Egaz did not push away her affection, but he did cling on to her tighter, as if she were about to pull the ground out from beneath his feet.
Aella appeared in the doorway quite suddenly, looking not quite herself. Her posture was strange, and she ended up walking into one of the chairs, looking dazed. Alejo snickered.
“Step mother, you need a nap,” he said to her. “Mommy can I go play?” Nereida sent him off, Egaz still clinging to her tightly. The crew liked him well enough, he’d be safe on deck. Aella blinked at them owlishly for a moment as the door closed, before her expression cleared. Nereida felt her mouth draw into a tight line. Moon. The dragons were getting bolder with taking them over. It was the light of day! Had they accidentally made the dragons stronger by agreeing to possession?
“Egaz, buddy,” Nereida pulled him fully onto her lap as Aella sat in one of the other chairs, holding her head as if she had been struck. His distress was more immediate than dealing with the Moon’s interference with her wife. “What’s eating you?”
She had not expected the little boy to burst into tears. His sobs shook his whole little body, as tears and snot ran down his face into her shirt. Aella was across the room in a moment, putting a hand on his back as Nereida whispered helpless shushing sounds to her son. He cried hard and long, until he was exhausted, hiccuping as he tried to gain balance.
“I’m scared mommy,” he managed, wiping snot over his sleeve.
“Of what, sweet boy?” she asked, trying to hide her heartbreak. She gently moved his bangs off his face.
“The bad guys,” he said, burying his face in her shirt again. “The ones we are running from.” Oh. The children were a little more aware of things than they had realized. She felt a flash of guilt, but buried it. Her feelings didn’t matter right now; his did.
“Let the grown ups handle it,” Aella advised softly. She offered him a crooked smile. “My crew’s been fighting demons since before you were born, little crewman. We have this.”
“But…” he trailed off, whatever he was going to say next dying on his lips. He clung tightly to his mother’s shirt, trembling in terror. “Mommy?”
“Yes, little love?”
“Are the crew our family?” She looked up at Aella, and the Admiral chuckled.
“A kind of found family,” Aella replied for her. “They love you, little man. You are crew too. Always.”
“Promise?” he asked in a broken little voice that made Nereida’s heart ache.
“I promise.”
“Mommy says we shouldn’t keep secrets from family.” His voice was soft and sad. “But I.. I was keeping a secret. Arbmos said I had to.” Nereida clutched him tighter, her mouth going dry. She looked up at Aella, her eyes wide, willing her wife to tell her who Arbmos was. But Aella looked confused. It was not a crew man. Nereida’s heart hammered in her chest. People who asked children to keep secrets were rarely good news.
“Who’s that, honey?” she asked, keeping her voice steady with nothing more than her iron will. He smiled sadly.
“My friend. You can’t see him. He’s not here right now, he’s sleeping.”
They sat in silence for a moment, waiting to see what else the boy would tell them.
“Can we meet him?” Nereida asked after a moment when it became clear the boy wasn’t going to tell them anything else. She felt Aella shift on the bed beside her.
“You did, once,” he said, looking down. “He… he told us to run away, remember?”
“Your friend is the demon hiding on the crew?” Aella asked in utter disbelief. “How?” But Egaz glared at her with all the ferocity his little face could convey.
“He’s NOT a demon.” He crossed his little arms and looked so angry.
“Honey,” Nereida began, but the little boy pulled himself from her arms. She tried to catch him, but he fell to the floor with a thud. He looked up at her with a hurt, angry expression.
“He’s NOT, because I AM!”
Both women stared at the little boy in dawning horror. Aella recovered first, slipping off the bed to sit next to him.
“Still crew,” she whispered to him fiercely. “Still our boy.” The boy’s anger shifted on his face, going through a hundred little emotions before he dove into her arms, sobbing. Nereida watched her wife comfort her son. Her son. She tried to breathe, but a thousand little memories hit her, and she felt tears fall from her face. She lowered herself onto the floor beside her wife and weeping son. They sat like that, tears flowing freely, for a long time.
Eventually, Egaz told them about his magic coming to him, about his friend Arbmos who would whisper stories to him, that he had started practicing his magic before they had boarded the ship. Little things; make the shadows dance, make something look like something else. See what was to come. When Alejo’s magic showed, he asked his friend to teach him how to look like he had water magic too. Arbmos was not someone he ever saw, just someone he heard. He claimed it was the Ocean, but only because Arbmos told him the adults wouldn’t understand, would keep them apart.
“He’s nice,” Egaz said. He had taken off his boots and stockings, and was pushing them around on the floor. “Sad, though. He made his mommies hate him.”
Nereida winced, remembering Egaz’s strange behaviour.
“Mommies never stop loving their kids,” she repeated softly. Egaz looked up at her with bright, sad little eyes.
“It’s true,” Aella said, placing her hand on his shoulder.
“Oh good. He thought they’d be mad, but he just wants to protect our sister.” Nereida made a face at her son. Aella, on the other hand, started to choke. She started to curse, but Nereida shot a warning glare at her wife, and instead the Grand Admiral let out a long, low wheeze.
“You let him know we’d like to talk to him next time he talks to you, okay?” Nereida said, ignoring whatever nonsense her wife was dealing with. She blamed the Moon.
“Okay, but mommy, he’s not here. Not really. He’s like a ghost.” He shrugged. “A nice ghost though.” He yawned. “Am I allowed to nap, mommy?”
“Yes, little love.”
She tucked her son in, sang to him, kissed his head. She waited for his breathing to even out before she left his side. Her heart broke. Her son had thought she’d abandon him for being born with shadow powers. How could she have ever been such a terrible parent that he thought she’d leave him?
Her mind was still all in tangles, and she finally noticed that her wife was on the floor still, her arms wrapped around her knees. Nereida picked across the floor, sinking to the ground and leaning her head on her wife’s shoulder. Now she could take time to parse out her wife’s issues.
“Love?” she prodded gently. Aella looked up at her.
“Arbmos,” Aella whispered. “I… it’s Sombra backwards.”
“Sombra?”
“It means Shadow.” Aella swallowed heavily. “I… I didn’t understand, until… until Egaz said “our sister”. He’s been talking with the Dragon of Shadows!”
Nereida shook her head.
“No… Why would it warn us away from its, his, minions?”
“I don’t know,” Aella admitted softly. “But I think… I think we need to find out. And soon.”