8. Raia
RAIA
“Mau Kore...” My heart. Mother Jamila’s thick Sinsólian accent seems to emphasize the sadness radiating from her.
Anxiety seized me the moment she called me into her office.
A frown mars her vaguely wrinkled face as I take a seat across from her, and already I’m a split second from leaping out of my skin.
“You’re nineteen years old now...”
Fuck.
I knew this was coming.
For the last year and a half, I’ve been walking on eggshells in anticipation of it. If I’m honest, I’m surprised this conversation didn’t happen sooner.
The word comes out a croak. “Yes.”
She studies me, emotion tightening her face, and I don’t miss the way her eyes water. As selfish as it is, it gives me some minute fraction of relief to know that she cares enough about me to shed a tear.
“You know what this is about.”
I nod, eyes burning.
Drawing a handkerchief from her pocket, she dabs at her eyes.
“We have a waiting list longer than my arm with children. Infants, even. And?—”
Choking with emotion, Mother Jamila swallows it back, pausing. When she speaks again, it’s with a tremulous whisper.
“You know that if I could, I would change it.”
My chin trembles beneath the weight of the first tumbling tears.
Jamila takes a deep, steadying breath to recompose herself, fingers fluttering over the sealed slits of where her gills would be if she were in the ocean.
“I’m taking you to an interview with a flueratheurge this afternoon. To become an apprentice. If he hires you, room and board are included.”
I give a watery, pitiful laugh.
“But I don’t know anything about plants or alchemy.”
Mother Jamila gives me an admonishing look. “And once upon a time, I had no idea how beautiful, intelligent, and kind you are, but we both know it didn’t take long for me to learn the truth of the matter.”
Her lips twitch as she dabs at her eyes again. If I weren’t so terrified and heartbroken, I might crack a smile.
But alas, my heart is pulverized, and I’m trembling at the idea of being thrust out into the world alone.
“Thessaly has been a friend of mine for many years. He’s a little eccentric, but I have a feeling you two will get along like eggs in a nest.”
Will I have to lie about who I am?
She must see the question in my eyes. “I told him who you are. He is also from Sinsól, seeking exile here. Like so many others. You’ll be safe with him, Raia, I swear it.”
Sinsól. The city beneath the sea where my father, The Nameless King, reigns as dictator, sociopath, pirate, warmonger, and God of the Sea.
A loud and urgent tap, tap, tap against the single-paned glass window across from us causes Mother Jamila to start in her chair. She clutches at her chest before heaving a sigh of relief to find it’s only my raven friend, waiting.
“And I’m sure Horus would peck his eyes out if he so much as curled his lip at you.”
Even as tears threaten to break free, my lips twist in a grin.
Yes, my precious guardian angel would.