Advent Story 2012: The Fae World: Alder: On Earth (part 5)

[k_a_webb]

Willow

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Alder couldn’t help smiling. “You think you’re normal?”

Raising an eyebrow Esra turned back to the hob. “I’m more normal than you are.”

“That’s a matter of opinion, Es.”

“Alder…” She shook her head, sighing. “I don’t know why exactly I think I need to be friends with Willow and I don’t know why it’s important that our introduction happens soon, but I know that it has to happen as soon as possible.”

“Are you having one of your feelings?”

Esra nodded. “I wish that I could be more specific about things, Alder, and that I was given more information, but right now the only thing I have is this gut feeling that Willow is going to need me. Every time I say her name there’s this twinge of emotion that I can’t quite work out. It may well be a mix of my emotions and her emotions.”

“Okay, if that’s why you’re so adamant that it needs to happen then I’ll make sure it happens.” Alder watched as Esra worked in the kitchen, pouring hot soup into a bowl, cutting bread and putting it on a plate. “You could have just said it was one of your feelings, sweetheart.”

Biting hard on her lip Esra walked into the living area carrying the bowl and the plate. “Sometimes I forget when I’m talking to you that you’re the one person in our family who ever took my feelings seriously. With Father and everyone else I always had to have some other explanation, because they had no idea where I could have possibly got the ability to have any form of premonition.”

“They were too focused on the family tree and not focused enough on how magic works. It is possible to mix bloodlines and get specific magics, but a lot of the time it’s pure luck. I think that someone in Mother’s family, somewhere, had premonitions.”

“Do you think that’s why she disappeared?”

They looked at each other. After their mother had disappeared, leaving behind a five-year-old Esra, their father had forbidden them to talk about her, but now that he was gone it was a conversation Alder knew it was a conversation they should have. Unfortunately that knowledge didn’t make having the conversation any easier, because he still felt hurt by what their mother had done and wished he knew where she was.

“I don’t know, Esra. It’s possible. It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about, but it’s entirely plausible that Mother had a premonition and that’s why she left us.”

“Do you think…” Esra shook her head. “No, it doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I just… could she be on Earth? Is that possible?”

To put off answering the question Alder dipped his bread into the soup, because he didn’t have an answer. As he chewed he thought, wanting some sort of answer but not knowing what one to give. Finally he sighed and said, “I guess she could be on Earth.” He chewed some more of his bread. “There have always been stories about Earth told by the fae who travelled her, so she could have chosen to come here for some reason. I just don’t know if she would have come here.” He looked at Esra. “Don’t get your hopes up. I doubt if she is here that she’ll want to see us.”

“Why do you say that?”

Another question Alder didn’t want to answer. He spooned up some of the soup and blew on it, again procrastinating, wondering if Esra knew that he was trying to work out if he wanted to answer the question or not. “Mother and Father never really got on,” Alder replied, knowing he needed to be honest with his sister. “They handfasted because it would be good for both their families to have an alliance with the other, but there was never anything more to their relationship than that. I don’t know if they expected to fall in love or something. When Mother had you… She said it was an accident. It something that can occasionally happen, even using magic as a method of birth control, but Father didn’t believe her. He thought she’d had you on purpose and that was pretty much the end of their handfasting, even though they were contracted to spend another five years together.” He blew on another spoonful of soup. “I would have thought that we’d remind her of him and all the bad times they had.”

“Maybe we would.” Esra looked down at the table and then at Alder again. “I just… it’s another one of my feelings, Alder. I think she’s here and I think…” She stared at the table again. “I think I need to find her.”

“Look at me, Es.” Alder waited until his sister did look at him before continuing. “This is something we need to talk about before it happens. I don’t know if I even want to see Mother again right now, so I at least need some time to get my head around the idea.” He reached out and touched his sister’s hand. “I know that we always should pay attention to your feelings, but this one is going to be hard for me.”

“I know that, Alder. I didn’t want to bring it up today, but I feel like I don’t have much time before I need to find her. It’s like…” Esra shook her head. “These feelings are so hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t have them. When I used to think of Mother, when we were on our old world I knew she was too far away for me to reach and I never really felt the urge to. Now when I think of her all I can feel is this almost hand on my back, pushing me, and it’s like the only thing I want to do is find her.” She sighed. “A part of me really never wants to see her again. I don’t know if I can forgive her for leaving us. I just know that I have to give her a chance to explain why she did what she did.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.