73 Macha's Mother

Luna ran around merrily with Krystof, playing a multi-tiered croquet-like game. Tyr hated the game because ever since they were children Krystof let Luna cheat. Sometimes Krystof would even knock Tyr's ball out of the course. Once Tyr had gotten so mad, he kicked Krystof in the shin and broke Luna's mallet in half.

Hrod had witnessed her son lash out and forced him to write an entire book on morals from front to back. She also denied Tyr dessert for a month. Luna spent every night slowly eating her dessert and commenting on how delicious it was. To a ten-year-old boy who felt wronged, it was a worse punishment than death.

The bitter feelings of injustice flooded back to Tyr when Luna handed him an ebony mallet. Now that Krystof dated his sister he had no confidence in a fair game. He looked over his shoulder and spied Macha sitting at a table with his mother. Her brows were furrowed, and she seemed to shift uneasily in her chair.

Hrod forced Macha to sit next to her the whole time. At first, it was to point out all the things Macha did wrong and to give her a sample of how she would be expected to act if she wanted to date Tyr. She wanted to let the woman know it was not only fun and games. After a few minutes, Tyr came over and sat down with them. She expected Tyr to take Macha away, but he made no indication of moving. He never willingly sat at the table with Hrod, so this development surprised her.

Macha put her knife down and crossed her fork over it. She moved to pick up her glass, but Hrod gave her an icy stare. Looking at her placement, Macha put her glass down and glanced at Tyr.

Tyr sat watching the two interact. His mother never bothered to teach him table manners. Hrod had left most of their education up to his tutors and nannies. He took a sip of his wine and casually mentioned, "Your knife is not in the correct position." He did not know how his mother expected Macha to learn anything unless she told her what errors were being made.

Macha peered down at the plate. She placed it on the plate and it looked fine to her, and she could not see what was wrong with it. The set up looked exactly like Hrod's and it seemed like they were being overly picky.

The small details could be difficult to catch, so Tyr reached over and adjusted the handle, "It should be there." He took another sip of his wine and glanced over the glass at his mother. The look on her face did not hide how she judged Macha's every movement.

Macha stared at the knife. Tyr had only moved it a pinky's width down. The arbitrary rules seemed so absurd that she felt like she would go crazy. She swallowed her thoughts with a sip of wine. "Thank you." Since coming to this world, Macha learned how to fight and she swore she would master these rules. Nothing would satisfy her more than wiping that smirk off of Hrod's face. One day this woman would acknowledge her.

It pleased Hrod that Macha tried to make conversation throughout lunch. Macha did not follow the guidelines of what she should talk about. Hrod was willing to overlook this mistake because Macha shared with her what she and Tyr did at the guild. One of the most interesting stories was how Tyr beat Jarnvid in the tournament. She never watched the annual tournaments because the crowd grew too unruly for her. Macha described Tyr's fight with too much animation, but Hrod did not want to distract her and miss out on the story. After the story, she asked, "Do you enjoy cultivating other skills, or do you just focus on fighting?" Hrod wanted to know how much effort she had to put into Macha.

Tyr did not care for the backhanded question that his mother asked. He interrupted Macha and explained, "Macha enjoys cooking, reading, and listening to music as well. She forced me to go to the 'Le Pêcheur Misérable' concert when it was showing." He wanted his mother to understand that Macha was an intelligent and beautiful woman.

Hrod turned her head. She did not appreciate Tyr interrupting the conversation, "Oh? You did something other than swing your sticks around and traverse the Outer-Reaches? How surprising." Throughout his youth, she had never got Tyr to go willingly to a concert. He always complained about how boring it was. To Hrod, Macha's hand in his attendance was obvious.

Tyr's face turned to stone. He hated how his mother phrased things. The words that came out of her mouth always seemed to drip with venom. "Mother," he began, warning flecked into his tone. She had been civil for a while and he did not want her to convert back to her usual self.

Hearing Tyr, Macha could tell his temper was beginning to show. Not wanting another disagreement, she interrupted him, "He had a bad day, so I treated him to it. I would not say I FORCED him to go." The comment Hrod made about Tyr was unjustified, so she explained, "Tyr does other things outside the guild. He enjoys reading, and he is very knowledgeable about many things. For example, on the way here he showed me how cinnamon is made. It is quite interesting." She wanted to smooth things over between the two. Since Tyr defended her last night, she wanted to defend him this time.

Hrod looked shocked. She raised her hands, "Why would he need to know how to make that? He could just buy cinnamon." She could not believe her son would do such a lowly hobby. He excelled at anything he did, but he wasted his talents. With a pretentious voice she said, "Really Tyr, you can be so odd at times."

There was a time Hrod remembered when Luna and Tyr were teenagers. Luna had difficulty understanding one of her spells and Tyr glanced over at her tome and explained the theory behind it. He did it so casually as if he were explaining why she needed to chew her food.

Hrod had no doubt in her mind that Tyr could have gone into sorcery if he wanted to. She believed he would have shined in that field, but Hymir refused to let Luna feel inadequate. Her husband believed it would be best if their children all specialized in different fields. He said it would give them confidence in life. They knew Tyr would be fine in any other specialization, so they allowed Luna to have sorcery because she wanted it.

Tyr had heard his mother's sharp remarks his whole life. He did not care what she said to him as long as she did not turn her tongue on Macha. Tyr replied dryly, "Yes mother, I am incredibly odd. You should have just abandoned me as soon as I was out of the womb."

Hrod waved a hand to disregard his comment. "Don't spew such nonsense. People could take you seriously. You are the only son." She hated that he always acted as if she picked on him. The way he talked made it sound as if she neglected him and gave him a life full of sorrow.

****

Macha sat by the window in her room. She felt content that Tyr had spent some time with his mother today. The day made her remember her own mother, who died from brain cancer when she was in elementary school. She did not remember her mother's voice anymore and only remembered snippets of memories.

One of her favorite memories was a day she went with her mother to the hospital. That day, her mother bought her a lollipop from the gift shop that was as big as her head. Green and yellow stripes swirled around it. She remembered that she took all weekend to finish it.

Macha knew she imposed her wishes for a mother on Tyr. She knew she was being selfish, but Macha did not want him to regret his relationship with her one day. He already lost his father and Hrod was the only parent he had left. Being alone in this world made Macha want a family more and more. Her new friends made her happy, but not being able to have a family made her want one more.

The faint light of the moons illuminated the grass. In the distance, she saw a few fireflies dancing in the night. While Macha dreamed about her mother, she looked out at the field below. When she had been a teenager, she wished her mother had been around. There had been so many questions about womanhood that Macha wanted to ask. She ended up stumbling through her adolescent years, unable to talk with her father about things like periods, dates, sex, bras, and other things. As a result, she made a few mistakes, but that all lay in the past now.

A long time passed since she last thought about her mother. Her heart hurt from the memories and she tried to bury them away. She remembered seeing her mother sleeping in a hospital bed. Her skin became blotchy and her hair was dry and brittle. As a child, it had scared Macha because her mother did not look like the same woman she once was. Her mother lost a lot of weight and her health deteriorated in less than a month. One week, she talked at the dining room table about going shopping for a new doormat. The next week, cancer left her too weak to walk. Towards the end, her mother slept a lot. A tear ran down Macha's cheek and bitter feelings coursed through her. Life was so fragile and ended quickly. She hated thinking of her past.

Tyr walked around outside. He hated how restless he felt and wanted to leave the estate. His mother spent the day with Macha, therefore he needed to be with them as well. He did not understand how Macha put up with her. Macha let his mother's comments roll off her back. If it was not for her, he would have left the table at least ten times this afternoon.

Tyr looked up at Macha's window and saw her sitting next to it. A tear glistened in the moonlight as it rolled down her cheek. Panic gripped him and he ran into the house towards her room. As he raced through the hall, he cursed his mother for her constant nagging. He did not know why Macha always had to put up a brave front.

When he opened Macha's door, he saw her in the same place. She sat by the window with her arms around her knees. Macha looked at him and quickly wiped her cheek. He rushed towards her side and sat down. Trying to convince her, he pleaded, "Macha, let's leave. My mother upset you. I don't want you to put up with it."

Tyr remembered how much Fenrir hated his mother. They always butted heads when they were around each other. Hrod made Fenrir so angry that Fenrir showed up drunk to one of his mother's social parties and mentioned how he loved her more. She then tossed the food on the floor and caused a scene. The outburst caused a lot of discord between him and his family. He broke off communication with his parents for twenty years because of it.

Macha raised her hand and pulled Tyr in for a hug. She rested his head below her chin and smoothed his hair. "I'm not upset because of your mother. I was thinking about mine." Macha paused, unsure if she wanted to share her past with him. In a soft voice, she explained, "My mother died when I was young, so I never had her while I was growing up. I would trade anything to have more time with her."

The pain and sorrow in Macha's voice resounded in Tyr. He understood why she pushed him to talk with Hrod. He allowed her to hug him. Macha never talked about her past, so this was a rare insight into her life. Being bad with words, he racked his brain, unsure what to say. He had never been a smooth talker, so he went with honesty. "If she was like you, she was a caring woman. I wish I could have met her." He wanted Macha to talk about her life more, but she rarely did. It was not something he wanted to push and figured he would learn about it with time.

Macha smiled a bitter smile. "I don't know. I can barely remember her. She smiled a lot and made life really fun. You're lucky to have Hrod. She is still alive and relationships can always be fixed. I know I push you to be with her, but you have something I never did and I consider you lucky." After saying her thoughts on the subject, Macha added, "If you really don't want to, you don't have to make up with her."

Tyr raised his head and cradled Macha's head in his hands. Never in his life did he expect to hear that he was lucky for having Hrod as a mother. Macha surprised him with her point of view often. Tyr tried to collect his thoughts. He thought about where he stood with his mother now. "I appreciate the life she let me have. We have a few things we need to work on, but I'm willing to try." Tyr noticed there were a lot of things he wanted to try lately.