Putting Things Together

Artimé was full to the brim with people, but in a good way. Somehow bringing together willing fighters from Warbler, Karkinos, and the Island of Shipwrecks was working to unify the magical land in a way that might not have happened had they been left alone to heal and grow after the rift. Everyone gathered there had one purpose in mind: protecting the seven islands and helping the neighboring world. The grumblings from any remaining dissenters were drowned out by the camaraderie and enthusiasm that spread through the mansion and across the lawn.

Florence began training the newcomers alongside the veterans, teaching magic to those who possessed abilities and combat to those who didn’t. Samheed, Lani, Seth, and Carina all assisted Florence in demonstrations and teaching beginning magic. Kaylee, Sky, Maiven, and Ishibashi taught nonmagical combat and, in their spare time, created more throwing stars and other small weapons. Rohan and his friends from Grimere assisted with the weapon making and grew stronger and more adept magically, too. And, after so many years of oppression in the catacombs, the black-eyed children were finally learning how to socialize.

The mansion had been repaired after the civil war destruction, and now that everyone had arrived from the other islands, things began to settle down in Artimé. In the evenings after training there was time for everyone to relax and learn about each other. To keep their minds off of Thisbe and Fifer’s troubling absence, Rohan and Maiven and the other black-eyed people often sat and talked with new friends like Seth and his family, or Henry and Thatcher and their children.

One evening Rohan, Maiven, and Asha met up with Seth, Henry, Ibrahim, and Clementi in the dining room for a late snack. Clementi, an Unwanted, and Asha, one of the black-eyed children, sat together, for the two were like long-lost friends from the instant they’d met during the civil war. Aaron wandered past, and Maiven urged him to join them, so he did.

“I’ve been meaning to see you anyway,” said Aaron to his grandmother. “I was wondering if you would tell us more about… my mother. And how everything happened with her.” He glanced around, realizing a little too late that she might not want to talk about it in front of so many people. “Or would you prefer not to?”

Maiven Taveer reached out and gave Aaron’s hand a squeeze. She smiled sadly. “I’ve come to terms with her death,” she said. “I’m willing to share what I know in case it brings peace to anyone who needs it. And perhaps you’d be willing to share what you know as well.”

“Of course.”

“Well,” said Maiven, shifting in her chair and dabbing the corners of her mouth with her napkin, “as most of you know, I was the queen of Grimere when the usurpers began their rise to power. A fine dragon named Suki was the ruler of the dragons, and she and I got along very well until her unfortunate death at the hands of the rebels.” She went on to give a short history lesson about that rogue group who took advantage of a strange natural disaster, the meteors, to seize control of Grimere. “I hid my daughter, Nadia, in the castle while I commanded the army to fight against this group, but the usurpers were clever. They kidnapped black-eyed children and used them to get to her. Then they forced the other children to deliver Nadia to the pirates, threatening to harm their parents if they didn’t comply. Before I could get to her, she was gone.”

“Wait a minute,” said Rohan tersely. “And please excuse me for interrupting, but did you say that the other black-eyed children were forced to kidnap your daughter? They didn’t do it willingly?” His expression betrayed how important this detail was to him.

Maiven studied him. “Yes, I’m sure of it. They were her friends. I knew most of them by sight if not by name, and I knew they wouldn’t do anything like that unless they were coerced or threatened, which all of those children were. Why do you ask?”

Rohan seemed beside himself for a moment and couldn’t speak. Then he said quietly, “As you know, those of us who have taken the ancestor broth have experienced images pulsing through our minds. One of mine that I’ve been ashamed to tell you about is of my mother…” He paused to steady his voice. “My mother,” he continued, “as a young girl, helping to push Nadia onto the ship.”

“I have an image like that too,” said Asha. “And so does Reza. We didn’t know what it meant. Are those our parents by the sea? And is the captured girl Maiven’s daughter?” She turned to Aaron. “She’s your mother?”

Maiven reached out to Asha and Rohan. “Listen to me,” she said. “Your parents are not to blame for Nadia’s capture. That rests solely on the usurpers, especially the one who called himself king. Whatever the images show you… please believe that your ancestors are not at fault.”

Rohan rested his face in his hands as he absorbed this new information. He’d been feeling bad about that scene in his mind ever since he’d first taken the ancestor broth. He knew the girl was Thisbe’s mother, and he felt terrible that his mother had done something so horrible to a fellow black-eyed person. He couldn’t fathom anyone betraying their people in such a terrible way, and he’d all but written his mother off as a traitor. But now… maybe she wasn’t as horrible as he’d thought. Perhaps he’d been too quick to judge based on that image and the foggy, conflicting memories of his childhood. He winced and looked up. “Thank you, Maiven,” he whispered, and sat back. “Please continue the story.”

“There isn’t much to tell after that,” she said. “The pirates chained my daughter to their ship. My assistant tried to stop them. She screamed for me to come—I can still hear the awful echo of her voice in my head. My army ran with me, but we were too late. The ship sailed. I saw Nadia…” Maiven stopped and cleared her throat, then pressed a crooked forefinger to her lips for a moment before speaking again. “I saw her strain against the chains to look back at me. And then they were gone.” Everyone was quiet for a long moment as the queen collected herself.

“We weren’t prepared for such a thing,” Maiven continued after a while. “I commanded my ships to organize. Within hours they were going after her, and I was preparing my own ship as well when the earthquake came and split the worlds. Our ships were lost in the gorge. But Nadia’s ship made it to this world.”

“I wonder how she got to this island,” said Aaron. “The pirates wouldn’t have sold her to Quill—there’s no money system, and the High Priest Justine would’ve been too paranoid to intentionally bring strangers in. Frieda Stubbs told me once that my mother snuck in through a break in the wall while it was being repaired. Frieda’s neighbor in the Wanted quadrant must have felt some pity for her and taken her in.”

“Maybe she escaped the ship,” said the queen. “We may never know the truth if she didn’t confide in anyone.”

“Confiding in anyone would have been frowned upon in Quill,” Aaron said. “And punishable. I wonder if my father had a clue that he’d married a princess.”

“What else can you tell me about her?” asked Maiven.

“She was mostly quiet and reserved. But she seemed proud of me when I was declared Wanted,” Aaron said, “though she didn’t say anything about it. I could tell it in the way she helped me pack for university. The pride was in her touch. Her… step, I guess. Perhaps she lifted her head a bit higher after that. Glad that I’d be treated properly after what had happened to Alex, being Unwanted. I wonder…” He shook his head. “I wonder what went through her mind all that time. Stuck in Quill with no way to escape. Staying silent and living that oppressed life. Then having the girls and finding out they had her black eyes… That must have been so meaningful to her. We never knew any of it.” He looked at the black-eyed people gathered there. “No wonder she gave up her life to save them when the wall fell. She must have known they had an important future. And perhaps a way out that she couldn’t fathom for herself.”

“She must have known we’d need them,” said Rohan reverently.

“I wish I had more answers,” said Aaron. He thought about the wall coming down and the leadership changing, and how that must have given his mother hope all those years later. A new will to keep the girls alive so they could go back to her land. She’d never had the chance to tell them about it.

Henry looked up, wearing a sanguine expression. “So many stories were lost in Quill forever. What a soul-sucking place it was.”

Maiven’s eyes were glossed with unshed tears. “Thank you for telling me about her.”

On that melancholy note, the party broke up, and most slipped away to their rooms. But Aaron headed upstairs to the kitchenette tube to go home to the Island of Shipwrecks for the night, which he could easily do. He was feeling an urgent longing to hold his wife and son, and to thank Ishibashi for believing in him.