"Ties Undone - Part III"

[Laehval tTemarr 0]

The flitter stopped before a modest dwelling in the small village of Pril'in and the lone occupant climbed out, pausing only to remove her carryall. She slipped the bag over her shoulder as the flitter pulled away, traveling back through the village toward one of the bigger cities. This far north, the temperature had already begun to drop at night, blanketing the province to near freezing. Now that the sun had began to set, the village had grown quiet and still and there was no sign of movement from the house. Laehval stood and gazed at her childhood home, breath hanging in clouds of misty vapor before her face. She had not been back to visit in several years, but nothing had changed. The compound held only a few buildings. The house looked deceptively small as the majority of it ran underground. The outbuildings housed the power and communication arrays. The maintenance shed where she'd spent the majority of her childhood alone stood untouched and unused.

 

The proximity sensors would silently alert them to her presence the moment she stepped over the proximity boundary. Taking a breath, she passed through the gate and walked slowly up the path to the front door. Not surprising, the doors slid open before she reached them, spilling light from the entryway onto the stones at her feet. Her chin rose a fraction as she recognized her father's silhouette. The lights outside activated as she reached him, bathing them both in soft blue illumination.

 

"Father," she said simply.

 

"She will not be pleased you are here," he replied almost automatically.

 

"I know, but I felt it was my duty as your daughter to visit one last time."

 

His features changed suddenly as he weighed her words, but he did not ask her to elaborate. Instead, he nodded and beckoned her inside. "She will not be pleased, nonetheless. I suggest you say what you have come to say and be brief about it."

 

Laehval entered and sat her bag down in the foyer, continuing into the main living area where she knew her mother spent the evening hours. Her mother was reading from the panel in her hand, sipping tea from her favorite mug, and lost in her own thoughts. Laehval resembled her mother greatly, both in her features and her expressions, even more so than her sister Nalhven. The slight frown of concentration that Au'rial wore was one Laehval sported many times in Engineering while reviewing departmental reports. It made dealing with her mother that much more difficult.

 

As Laehval stepped into the room, Au'rial glanced up. Her expression changed almost immediately from brooding to angry. She sat the mug down with more force than she intended and pushed herself up from the sofa. "How dare you come here!" she snarled. "First you embarrass your sister, then you assault your brother! How dare you enter my home!"

 

"Jolan Tru, mother," Laehval replied evenly. "It is a pleasure to see you as well."

 

"Get out!" Au'rial shouted, moving closer. "Or I will have you removed!"

 

"Peace, Au'rial," her father interjected. "She is not staying. She only wished to see you one last time."

 

"I do not wish to see her. Get her out of here."

 

"I am not leaving until I say exactly what I came to say," Laehval replied lowly. "And it is time you listen."

 

"You have no right to speak to me that way! Murderer! Coward!" Au'rial struck her full in the face, the flat of her hand impacting Laehval's cheek solidly. "Traitor!"

 

Laehval's head snapped sideways, but she did not move away. Turning again to face her mother, she stared blankly into Au'rial's eyes and saw nothing there but hatred and loathing. Her mother was ranting still.

 

"Would that you had died when you were born. Would that you were deformed so that we might have disposed of you before you could grow and do so much harm. It was your fault! They are all your fault! Jalen, Lilet... and now your Enarrain!"

 

"I did not come here to debate," Laehval grated out, her anger rising despite her resolve to retain control, "but as ever, I am honored to be blamed for the death of the brother that died BEFORE I WAS BORN!"

 

Her mother slapped her again and would have a third time had Laehval not intercepted her hand. Gripping her wrist, she squeezed and then shoved her mother backwards. "NO! YOU will listen to me! I came here to make peace with you and you will not have it and there is nothing I can do to release you from the poison you carry inside." She advanced on her mother, now seething. Caught off guard by the sudden change in her daughter's demeanor, Au'rial backed away.

 

"I take responsibility for Lilet," Laehval continued, "but you cast me out of your heart long before she died. Her drowning only cemented your feelings of antipathy for me. But nothing you can say to me compared to the guilt I feel every time I think of how my negligence killed my baby sister." Laehval pounded on her own chest. "It has eaten away at me all these years and made me as cold to the world as you have always been to me. All I ever wanted was your love and you gave me nothing!"

 

She would have backed her mother into a corner had her father not caught her around the waist and held her. Fists clenched, she continued to glare, every fiber of her being screaming for her mother's blood. She twisted out of her father's hold, but did not move forward. "You have poisoned them all against me," Laehval said darkly. "Nalhven is angry, Yilte is ashamed, and Mornot threatened to arrest me if I ever contacted him again. I am certain that even Pritus would shun me if I dared speak to him."

 

"You are a blight on the name of Temarr," her mother spat. "They are right to cast you out. You do not deserve to hold the name!"

 

"I am more than deserving," Laehval countered with just as much malice. "I am the personification of Temarr. I am everything of you and everything of him that you would bury! I am your anger and your rancor, your neglect and your disregard. I am everything about yourself that you hate. I am a glaring reminder of your failure and it eats at you that you can do nothing about it."

 

"Get out!" Her mother yelled, unable to argue as she knew everything Laehval said was true.

 

"I will." Laehval glanced briefly to her father, before returning her attention to her mother. "Remember this day, mother, for it is the day I finally please you. I have no intention of ever returning to this place or contacting any of you ever again. I shall be as dead to you as you have always wished me to be."

 

Sparing one last glance for the room, she turned from her mother and walked past her father without saying anything more. Collecting her bag from the foyer, she walked steadily out into the night and did not look back. The night was cold against her skin, but Laehval felt it mostly keenly within her heart.

[Lerak trPexil 0]

I hate you, hate you... for writing so well. Excellent and again sad.

[m_k_tksa 0]

This makes me sad :(

 

 

...but in a good way. Good writing! Well done!