“Zande was with me before Diana came….” A look of fondness has overtaken Laura’s face, her eyes glossy as she began to speak about the girl that was no more, the girl I wished I had met.
Zande had obviously made a significant impact on this family. Even Peter was shaken. His hands were now unclasped, and he was rubbing them softly on his jean clad thighs.
“She was kind and sweet, with an air of freeness and gentleness around her. The community had been skeptical about her at first, because of the rumors about her using black magic to kill her parents, but with time, she won them over when she came out from coma. She even attracted Queen Aliana’s attention, who later wanted the girl for herself; but Zande had been firm with her decision to stay with me. She had been the daughter that I had been praying to the goddess for. I thought she was the answered prayer, so I took her as one. It wasn’t long after her name got cleared up that she started going out with Aliana’s first son. I actually warned her against this; I had thought then that Aliana had set that relationship up to get closer to Zande-I was never sure why, but I knew that she wanted something from the girl. Well, that interest waned when her son successfully slept with Zande. His interest waned too, and it broke her. She was sorry about a lot of things, and got depressed especially since she had lost a couple of friends, whilst following Duke around.”
So that was the idiot’s name, Duke. I couldn’t wait to see him, to transfer a transferred hate on him. He was making Laura cry, and I didn’t like it one bit. But I listened on; she was still speaking.
“I remember that Dim and Lourdes were the happiest. I still didn’t understand why that was so then, even now. There are a lot of mysterious things in this community, Maya. A lot of things that I have no answer to, despite my rank in the community. Well, during the last communal war, Zande had volunteered to fight, despite my warnings-I knew she wanted to focus on something else, she wanted to vent her frustration. But she went on to fight when I was absent, when I had been in a meeting with the queen. They brought her home dead. Dead and pregnant.”
I took in a large bout of air through my nostrils, as my heart began to burn within me for some reason. Anger. I felt like smashing something, then I felt like shouting. Another tear slid past Laura’s cheek.
“I wasn’t sure if she was even aware. She was a little over three weeks gone. Duke had denied ever knowing, the queen too. Although, sometimes I catch myself wondering how it had escaped her notice. She was the queen with extraordinary powers that some of us could only imagine to have; and she hadn’t noticed? I hadn’t believed her, but I had no choice but to bury Zande, and the unborn dead baby. I mourned her for months, mourned her years, until the goddess decided to comfort me with Diana.” Laura completed, wiping off her tears with a flip of her thumb across her cheek.
“The Queen’s children are all like that. Feeling like they are gods. I am happy that the goddess knows this and hadn’t given any of them the white hair, if not, all hell would have been let loose.” Laura added, shedding another tear, aware of Peter’s comforting side hug.
I thought of ending the queries, seeing the discomfort it brought them. I was actually about to stand up and excuse myself, but Laura began to speak again.
“That’s why I am cagey around you, Maya. I don’t trust the queen with you. I don’t trust you with her children. So, promise me that you will be careful around them.” She said, peering at me from within Peter’s embrace.
“I promise Laura. I won’t fall to the whims of the queen and her family.” I agreed, knowing that I will keep to it, knowing that the plans for my life went beyond falling in love with some entitled wizard and giving birth to babies.
I had my magic side to work on, I had my revenge plan to work on, I had to find my real parents. All these and probably more-there wouldn’t be a chance for relationships and dumb love. Or so I had thought.
You know Fate is funny. The fates are really funny.
“One last question,” I mentioned, causing them to look at me.
Peter’s nod indicated that I go ahead.
“The communal war. What was it about?” I asked, my eyes drifting to the clock. It was forty five minutes past nine. Fifteen minutes to go. That would be more than enough.
“The lycan king had wanted to colonize us, but we refused. It had sparked out war, when we suddenly found out the real reason why Queen Aliana’s sister had been murdered in cold blood years ago. We had always thought that she had died in childbirth. We fought until leaders of the supernatural realms had interfered. We won the case finally, but then lives had been lost. That’s why we share a boundary with them.” Peter answered, and I nodded slowly, remembering the peace pact that had taken place in the pack a few years ago. That had been the second time I had attended a public meeting in the pack.
I wanted to ask how Queen Aliana’s sister died, but I shut my mouth, deciding to leave the question till later, at an appropriate time.
“Alright then. Thanks Laura. Thanks Peter for answering my questions. I do appreciate it. I sympathize for the death of Zande too, and I promise not to cause you the same heartache.” I said, standing up from the seat.
Peter nodded, and wished me goodnight, hugging his wife tighter to himself.
This would be a long night for him. I thought, as I walked out of the hut, needing to rest my now heavy head on my soft bed. Tomorrow would be a longer day.