Chapter 72 - Broken And Miserable

I stirred a small cube of sugar in my tea and watched it disintegrate into nothingness. 

"So," Mama said as she smacked her lips after taking a sip of her own tea, "Spill, from the top."

I kept stirring my tea, because it gave me something to do with my hands. "Before I begin, I want to say that I'm very sorry-"

She tutted at me. "I don't want to hear some sob story. Get straight to the point."

I stopped stirring my tea. There was nothing to stir in anymore, after all. Slowly, I took a deep, much needed breath and looked Mama Ruth straight in the eye. 

"I found your diary in the attic one morning," I started eventually, not being able to bear the accusing look in her eye. "I was bored, so...so I started reading it, soon realizing it wasn't an ordinary book. Honestly, I hadn't even reached the part where you revealed your actual origin until last night."

Mama took a long hard gulp of tea. "Last night? What happened last night?"

I did a little shruggie. "Reynard came by while you were gone. We...um... He pointed it out, I think."

"Oh?"

"Yes." I just couldn't meet her gaze. It was as if she knew I was lying. I took a small sip of the tea I had cooling in my hand. It was sweet, very sweet. I made a face of distaste which Mama didn't seem to notice, since she started talking.

"Well then, I haven't much to hide. 'Tis true, the priestess is my great-great-great-something or the other- grandmother. And there's a reason I need to hide that from the public, too." She made a face. "The priestess's children had to carry out the duty to ensure that the prophecy remained unchanged. For that, we have to take the role of the Man of God as well, which I certainly wasn't ready for. My mother was a priestess before she died, and so was my grandmother, and so was her mother and so on and so forth. It's not a safe career choice, I'll tell you that. They barely got paid. So I figured, opening an inn and living on the down low would be much safer, more so for me, since I had a child to provide for."

I nodded. Lissy Swailes, I remembered the name. 

"So," she sighed as she leaned back, staring at the ceiling, "I ran away from the House of God, and concealed my identity just like you did, to live an ordinary life. Believe me, when I say I sympathize with you more than anyone, that can't be any more true. But yes, I suppose it did break my heart to see how much the prophecy had gotten manipulated due to my absence."

I nodded again, but then I remembered to ask something. 

"Mama," I said, frowning, "I've lost sleep over thinking about asking you this, but what actually is the real prophecy?" It's true, I slept terribly last night. I had expected Mama to answer it in all sorts of ways. But the most, I wanted the real prophecy to be something in favor of the supposedly ill-fated princess. Something that 

Mama Ruth stayed silent.

"Mama?"

She put a finger on her lips, telling me to stay silent. 

"I'll tell you one day," she muttered in a daze-like state. "That day is not today, though."

Dang. I'm always out of the loop. Why won't anybody tell me anything? And not just anything, this was something that could change the course of my life! I grumbled at my dumb luck and gulped down the rest of the tea, burning my tongue in the process. But this pain felt good. 

"Alright," I said nonchalantly, "I'll await the day, then. Don't forget, Mama."

She muttered something, seemingly in a sleep-like state. I picked up her cup from her lap and took it silently to the kitchen where Sven was still present.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, pausing whatever he had been doing, which was apparently cutting up vegetables. "She didn't yell at you for whatever reason, did she?"

I shook my head. I realized our conversation had gone by much smoother than I had expected. Not once did she accuse me of wrong-doing. 

I put the cup along with the other cutlery that needed washing and leaned against the counter, watching Sven work. He kept peeking at me nervously, his knife wobbling far away from the carrots.

"What?" I asked. 

He shrugged and focused back on the carrots. I waited a while for him to say something, but when he remained silent, I went back upstairs after grabbing a baby carrot snack. 

✿

Reynard sat beside the bed, his face crumpled up into a mixture of hurt, hopelessness and disbelief.  There was a clutter outside, and then the door sprung open. 

"I came as fast as I could on foot!" Rosa huffed and puffed as she held onto the door. Then her eyes moved from Reynard's limp figure to the bed and her eyes widened as she let go of the door. "Mother..." She walked forward, as if tranced, and collapsed before the bed. "Mother!" 

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she grabbed onto the foot of her mother, covered over with a thin white sheet. In fact, the whole dead body had been laid over with a spare bedsheet, for the children did not want to be reminded that their mother had indeed passed away. Reynard closed his eyes after seeing his sister grab hopelessly onto his dead mother's foot and weep into her chest. He was still very much in shock. 

Oh, if only he had come home sooner last night. He had been out in the rain over at Mama Ruth's, when his sick mother was alone at home. When he had finally returned, he had found his home's door wide open and his mother lay limp near the doorsteps.

Hurriedly, he had brought her in to warm her up, since she was sick and it was not acceptable by his means to be out in the rain in such a state. But before he had even laid her down on her bed, he had known she wasn't breathing. 

He had tried everything.

He tried to shake her, to wake her up again, but her eyelids never fluttered open. He tried to tickle her in her tickle spot right at the back of her neck, but she never once laughed. He even tried to douse her with water since his mother hated getting wet, but she didn't yell at him. Not once. 

"Reynard." His sister's voice broke him from his trance of thoughts. "What happened?"

Reynard felt unable to speak. What had happened? Why was his mother lying near the door like that last night? Had someone tried to kidnap her under the shadow of the stormy night? But why would someone just leave her like that? Because of the cold, stormy night, her health had worsened rapidly, resulting in- he winced, not wanting to think about the word- death.

But most of all, Reynard deemed himself at fault. If only he had stayed at home, if only he had looked after her last night... she wouldn't have…

"Reynard?" Rosa called again. "You don't look so good. I advise resting for a bit before we arrange for her...funeral. Has the news reached out to father?"

Weakly, Reynard nodded. 

"By letter?"

Reynard nodded again.

Rosa stood up and wiped her face on a handkerchief before looking at her mother's covered body with determination. "Alright, Reynard, we're strong, we can do this. Let's not mope now, shall we? Get up. Here, let me help you." Rosa bended and grabbed Reynard by the arm and heaved him up. Limply, as if with not a will of his own, Reynard stood up, but he seemed as if he would fall down again. Rosa noticed and quickly ushered him to his room, making him lay down in bed.

"Good boy," she said as she looked upon him fondly. "Sleep, now, for I hope you wake up to a happier day."

Not until he had laid in bed, Reynard hadn't realized how much he had been punching sleep away. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he was out cold. 

Quietly, Rosa closed the door and collapsed on the floor in a puddle of her own tears. Oh, how she had kept them in. Since she was the elder sister, she had a duty to remain composed and strong headed, especially in front of her younger sibling. But when she was alone… 

Slowly, Rosa rose to her feet and went to put the pan on for breakfast.