EL Official BK5 Chapter 13 - Riddles, Games and my Mother. (Patreon)

Markos tries to connect with his mother, but also struggles to deal with being forced to look after Klein children.

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A shadow passed over my face and I jolted into wakefulness with a sudden start. It had been a soft sound to my left that alerted me and I caught the arm reaching over out of reflex. Baltzar stared down at me with wide, terrified eyes and I scowled as I understood what was happening. 

“Es tut mir leid, dass ich dich erschreckt habe,” (I’m sorry, I startled you), he spoke rapidly.

Disgusted, I pushed him away with a scoff, “Don’t touch me.”

He was holding a dampened cotton ball, and magic stirred around his fingertips as he worked to heal the damage to my face. I was laying on a hospital bed in the infirmary, unclothed under plain white sheets.

“Ich wollte nur helfen, es tut mir leid…” (I was just trying to help.) he explained meekly as I sat up to look for my clothes.

“Ich brauche deine Hilfe nicht.” (I don’t need your help.)

Baltzar fidgeted uncomfortably, he was somewhat like my father, docile and soft spoken. Still, he idled instead of leaving, almost as if he was waiting for something and as I pulled my shirt back on I realised the shimmer mask was missing from my possession. 

“Where is it?” I demanded, continuing in the language he could understand.

“… I-I’ll give it back if you train me..-“

“You’ll give it back and maybe I won’t beat the shit out of you,” I growled in response. 

I took a step toward him and he stepped back, “b-but I saved you… you owe me…”

“You want to bet on that? I would have been fine without your help. Now hand back my property or face the consequences.”

Baltzar relented, he took the mask from his pocket and dropped it into the palm of my hand without making eye contact. I almost thought he might cry.

“Please help me… I’m going to fail…”

I could have felt bad for him, but he was right where I wanted him to be, “Fine,” I answered as if I were fed up, “I’ll teach you so you stop whining, but in return you have to teach me healing magics.”

“You want to learn how to heal..?” he murmured uncertain.

“Since you haven’t found a way to get me into the medical training program, you’ll have to do it yourself-,” I was beginning to explain when he cut me off.

“You bet I can do it!” he exclaimed and I shushed him immediately. He had no idea how to keep quiet…

***

Leaving the infirmary, I sported blackened eyes and a split lip. Baltzar would have finished healing the injuries but I didn’t want to ‘owe’ him anything. I passed another room in the hall where a woman’s screams echoed off the walls. It wasn’t a scream of fear, but rather a long guttural exhale of pain followed by a moment of silence before another scream that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I couldn’t imagine what it was at the time, having never heard such a sound, but I would later come to understand that it was my aunt Perrone giving birth to her first child. 

It was a girl, much to Lazarus’s disappointment and her birth marked the end of my freedom. As my father was to serve Ælferic, I was to serve this child. I met her in the following days. She was a small, plump thing with ashen hair and dribble coming from her mouth. There wasn’t a single other thing on earth I wanted to be around less.

“How do you like your new responsibility?” Lazarus purred. He paced around the cradle in a neat circle with his hands clasped behind his back and a smug expression.

“I like it just fine,” I answered diplomatically, as I stared down at the blob of a child. Many of the nobles had gathered, including Hasan, but Peronne wasn’t present. She had even less interest in her daughter than I–at least for me, she was a point of leverage.

“Should anything happen to her, I trust you understand the blame will fall to you.”

He was chastising and far too arrogant, but with guards lining the walls I could hardly make a fuss.

“I understand,” I assured, “However, one thought comes to mind. How should you like me to care for her, when I don’t live in the inner castle?”

Lazarus came to a stop, and while I didn’t look away from Lucinde, I felt Hasan’s gaze come to rest on me. I’m sure he was displeased.

“Indeed that poses a problem, I can hardly have my child subjected to the state of the streets,” he pondered.

“If I might offer a solution,” Hasan spoke up before I could, “There are several empty rooms for renovation in the eastern tower, perhaps you might choose to move Markos there so he may better do his job?”

“Bring the street into the castle?” Lazarus mused, “Very well, have the arrangements made.” 

I lifted my eyes to glare at Hasan and he gave the faintest of smiles. He had been waiting for this very moment, and my lip curled involuntarily. He’d beaten me. Fulfilling his promise when it was well within my reach, like plucking a low hanging apple and presenting it as if it were one from the top.

He fell into pace with me after the meeting. His hand came to rest on the small of my back as if he were guiding me and I stepped out of it, “Keep touching me like that, and you’ll lose your hand,” I warned without any pleasantry. 

“Now that’s hardly any way to speak to someone who just did you a favour,” Hasan mused.

“You did nothing for me.”

“You’re in the castle as you wanted, aren't you?”

“With hardly any thanks to you.” 

“Now now, there’s no need to be so prickly. If I hadn’t spoken when I did our lord Lazarus would never have agreed, surely you can see that? Without me, you would have gotten nowhere.”

“What do you want?” I snapped back, choosing to ignore the manipulation.

“I have another letter to be delivered, I trust our arrangement still stands?”

I paused, of course I wanted to read the next letter, but I couldn’t seem too eager, “Why should it? If you’ve ‘delivered’ on your end of our bargain, I feel I’ve done more than enough for you.”

The man smiled, “Everything I've given I can take away. After all, who do you think reminded Lazarus that you should be the one to take care of any children he has?”

“Seems to me as if you’ve done nothing,” I retorted and to my surprise, he took hold of my arm.

“You think yourself quite clever don’t you? Training that girl in the woods and sneaking away into town.”

My muscles locked up at once, I didn’t know how he knew what he did. At least he didn’t seem to realise I had been on the ship with his weapons trade.

“Oh? What’s the matter, didn’t you think I knew about that? I know everything that happens in this castle, and more to the point, I can always get what I want. So, if you’re going to insist on playing this game with me, then perhaps you mightn’t make it into the castle. After all, given who your father is, there are plenty of traditional noblemen who would appreciate the chance to have you delivered to them, it wouldn’t take more than a word to arrange.”

“What?” I muttered, confused.

“Ahh, it seems you don’t know as much as you think you do. Deliver the letter, or I’ll have you delivered to someone who’s very interested in you.”

He let go, and was gone before I could understand the full extent of his threat. What did he mean, ‘traditional noblemen’ would be interested in me for my father’s lineage?

*** 

The room I was moved into was large, but minimally furnished and covered in dust. I kept Lucinde with me while I cleaned it. She laid on the armchair in the corner, secured in place with my coat sleeves tied around her and when she became upset I simply told her to be quiet. Any time she was not with her mother, I was expected to care for her, but it wasn’t like she could lodge a complaint if I wasn’t paying attention. Instead, I read the new letter in the privacy of the room: 

‘The seed grew into a flower.’ 

The six sprawled words were just as much nonsense as they ever were, but something about them gave me pause. The first note had mentioned a ‘seed’ as well. As I pondered Lucinde began to fuss, she vomited milk onto the chair and I cursed under my breath. I hated her already, she was an annoying seedling– I stopped mid sarcastic thought. Could it be that she really was ‘the seed’.

Pieces connected in my mind, something that would happen at the beginning of the year, she was born in the new year. A flower not an oak? Did that mean a girl not a boy? I sat paralyzed as I processed. Who was Hasan giving this information to? Had he intended harm to the child if she were a son? Moreover, if that was true, did that mean he had nothing to do with the ship that came into the harbor?

I took the child with me when I delivered the letter, and to training with both Ávila and Baltzar. Keeping her swaddled on my back I paid her almost no mind. 

“I can’t hit you when you’re with child…” Ávila complained.

“She’s fine, ignore her,” I shrugged. 

“But-” 

When she hesitated I struck, slicing her arm and elbowing her in the face on the follow through. Blood poured from her nose and she staggered back. “See?”

“You scummy bitch,” she snapped back.

“It’s my job to worry over the child’s safety. Not yours,” I responded calmly, “And I have no problem hitting you.”

“You have no morals,” she corrected.

I shrugged, Lucinde hadn’t so much as woken with the motion, and hurting Ávila gave me the opportunity to practice healing. Baltzar was similarly apprehensive, but he caught on quicker. With my training, and now that I wasn’t sabotaging him, his improvement was exponential.

Time passed, days blurred into weeks and then months or years. I couldn’t say. Peronne fell pregnant for a second time, while Lucinde grew like a weed. Once she could walk it was more difficult to go places with her, moreover, she was annoying. Constantly asking mundane questions over and over, ‘why this’, and ‘why that’, I thought of throwing her off the top of the castle wall more than once.

On quiet days where Lucidne was with Peronne, I went to visit my own mother. Returning to the dirty street alleyways was my least favourite activity, but she had refused to move into the castle with me and I wasn’t going to force her. Now that I was older she couldn’t hurt me anymore. 

“Mother,” I called as I forced the too tight door open. 

As was common I received no response, and I set the table before going up stairs to get her. She was in bed, surrounded by a week's worth of mess, and made no effort to move even when she saw me. 

“Come, I’ve brought food,” I announced.

She didn't move or speak, and not knowing what else to do, I chose to bring the food to her. I set it down beside her and stepped back to wait by the door. Fresh, bloodsoaked meat rimmed the shallow bowl. In learning to heal, I’d taken to collecting humans. They’re anatomically similar to us, plus or minus a few organs, and I’ve found the way they’re more fragile is helpful. 

It forces me to work faster and keep in mind their vitals while I work. Even minor errors result in death, but that just means I have a good personal supply. Of course if I were to be caught leaving the castle, it would mean punishment, so I made no mention of where I got it from. 

“You think I would eat anything you offered me?” Adélaïde sneered, pushing the bowl away. 

“Unless you want to starve.”

“You’re just like your father, dégueulasse espèce de…” (a disgusting piece of…) she began, but I stopped listening.

“Eat,” I told her sedately as I folded my arms, “I’ll go clean while you eat.”

Her eyes tracked me as I moved to go back down the stairs and I pretended I couldn’t feel the malice. I had long since given up expecting her to behave reasonably. Nothing I did would ever make any difference, I was simply obligated to care for her…

When I returned she had finished eating and sat with the dish in her hands. She didn’t look over, but when I moved to take it from her, she spoke, “Markos…”

I froze, I wasn’t sure I remembered the last time she spoke my name, “...Yes?” I responded with trepidation.

“...You’re too skinny, you should eat more,” she murmured. 

It was a simple gentle statement, but it was the first time she addressed me without continued hatred. From then onward, Adélaïde was cordial and gradually, our relationship improved. I began to visit more often to help her with her tasks, and little by little, she started telling me more about herself.

She grew up in a different region, until being sold to my father, and had four sisters somewhere. Her favourite pastime was archery, while she disliked sewing. Similarly she had a preference for combat, and enjoyed board games. Chess was her bias, and it was quickly apparent who I had inherited my overthinking from. I don’t believe I ever won a match against her…

***

As the exams approached I made sure to balance my time well. Between teaching Ávila and Baltzar, being taught healing, and tending to Lucinde. I was losing sleep, but I made sure to see my mother. The week of Baltzar was almost ready, and Ávila would be more than fine, while I was equally as confident in my own abilities. No humans had died by my hand recently, by mistake anyway.  

To double up on things that needed to be done, I kept Lucinde with me while searching the castle. You see, I hadn’t forgotten about the weapons on that ship, and I wanted the scythe before exams. Which of course meant finding it.

“Where are we going?” the girl asked as she toddled along behind me.

“Somewhere that you need to be quiet,” I warned.

“But where?”

“Quiet,” I ordered. I would have been in trouble for using the command if she told anyone, but it was worth it for the silence that followed.

We slipped into a hidden passage I’d found some time ago and exited into the far end of the gardens. A gathering was being held with all the nobles and I had plans to eavesdrop. I crept along the grass, carrying the child to keep her from making too much noise before stopping at the edge of the building.

“Now you have to keep quiet. This is an important game, if you make any sound at all you lose. Got it?” 

She nodded without saying anything. The girl was smart, she followed instruction well and it hadn’t taken all that long to train her.

“Good.”

When we reached the window I readjusted, setting a faint illusion along the windowsill and pushing the shimmer mask onto Lucinde’s face. If one of us were going to be caught, it would probably be the kid. 

“I’m going to hold you up, and you tell me who is who. Understand?” I explained.

The girl nodded again and I held her up with me. Even looking at her knowing full well who she was, I was almost unsure. It felt like I couldn’t tell if I was still talking to her or if she had somehow been replaced without my noticing.

We peered over the ledge subtly to view the room. An assortment of High Fae Nobles swanned about the room in extravagant drab. Skirts dusted the floors and heeled shoes clattered against the marble. 

“That’s mommy…” Lucinde began, and I rolled my eyes. Of course I knew who Peronne was. “And Pap-ah…!-” she stopped as I pulled her aside.

A servant passed by close to us with a tray of tiny dishes and I knew the illusion wouldn't hold up under the proximity. 

“Shhh.”  I scolded her.

I waited a long moment, and then another moment after that to be sure, before peeking back over the sill. It was safe, and I lifted her up again, “Tell me who the one in blue is, do you know who that is?” I asked instead.

“Lord Joachim,” she answered eagerly. Mathéo’s father, I thought absently. 

“And over there?”

“Lady Baltzar!”

“Shhh, inside voice,” I reminded her. 

It was a game for her to point out whoever she knew and there were few she didn’t. Afterall, as the first born Klein—known by all, and introduced to everyone. If she was unable to remember names and faces, even at such a young age, it would have displeased her father.

Scanning the room my attention came to settle on a mildly familiar face, the man who had ordered I be thrown overboard on the ship. My heart began to race, “Lucinde, the man with the white frills, who is that?” 

The girl struggled, hesitating before at last answering, “Lord Edwin… I don't like his pet… she doesn’t blink…” 

I hardly had time to contemplate over that statement before I understood. Standing on the other side of the man was the human woman with seeing eyes. She turned in our direction out of instinct and I knew immediately that she could see us. Her gaze burned right through the illusion between us and she turned to tell her owner.

“Merde,” (shit,) I swore softly under my breath.

It was time to go.

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