A Daughter’s Love

Father’s arms were heavier than iron, but gentler than a blanket. I barely had time to squeak before he’d hauled me against him, pressing me between himself and Mother. No escape, just their warmth, their trembling relief.

‘I will see this investigated,’ he said, voice low and steady. ‘No rash war, not while I breathe. I will try…’ he hesitated, as if the words themselves were bitter, ‘…to reach out to my old comrade. Mana may sit on the Scorpion Throne now, but once, we were brothers-in-arms. If there is truth to be wrung from him, I’ll wring it.’

He pulled back to look at us, kissed my mother’s temple, then my head. And then he winced.

The sharp wrinkle of his nose snapped my head up. ‘...what was that for?’ I demanded.

What in the world?

Mother burst into laughter. I glared at them both, heat rushing into my cheeks with the realizzation. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t exactly had time to bathe between being kidnapped, poisoned, and passed around like a sack of grain!’

Well shit… Huhu this is so embarrassing! When can I even have a safe time showering?

It was impossible to hide my pout. Father cleared his throat with exaggerated dignity, squeezed my shoulder once more and stood up to retrieve the treasure box Riye set aside. Mother’s giggles followed him all the way.

After silence crept in, asked the question that had been gnawing at me.

‘Before I was Raiona,’ I said carefully, ‘did I come from Earth? I remember things…from there. But why? What does it mean?’

Mother looked to father for support. He turned back with his arms full of scrolls, faded ledgers, and a small box that clinked faintly.

‘Oh, I had thought you had a crown for me.’ I teased.

His eyes softened. ‘Not quite. I raised you not to think we are better than anyone else, hence we never wore crowns. But these are yours, Ina.’

He set the knickknacks on the low table. I frowned down at the jumble of faded parchments, strange charms, a strip of cloth worn soft with age.

Raiona’s old stuff? And then? More of her journals would’ve been useful.

What he said next clarified everything and made a mess of everything at the same time.

‘Your soul was never born in this world.’

The air thinned. My ears rang.

‘What?’ I whispered.

‘You were conceived on Earth. To a girl…Aminata.’ He confessed, carefully gauging my reaction.

‘She was but thirteen. A victim of abuse, like Ishara. Too young. Too frightened. Yet she wanted you desperately.’

I wouldn’t be surprised if the tears coming out of my eyes were blood by then. I was confused and bewildered at the same time.

This is why Ami kept saying she counted me as her daughter… I really was her daughter… She just didn’t know it. I also, did not.

‘But you, your soul, even in the womb, felt her fear. And you made a choice.’

I could barely breathe. ‘A… choice?’

‘You decided not to be born.’ Father said, his voice heavy with reverence, not judgment. ‘Your spirit refused to burden her. And so, Aminata wept over a stillborn child.’

My throat locked. I gripped the items presented to me with both hands. As if touching them returned any memories.

Stillborn. Me. I chose not to live to not burden her?

Father pressed on gently. ‘At that time, here in Meu, Tiaret and Raiona had been struck down. She was but a baby. The attack on your mother was a direct assault to her soul. Her spirit was shattered by a powerful insidious black magic. Her body was alive but with a broken core, was dying slowly. The body needs its core, the soul, so it can keep on going. A body without a soul is not a holistic being.’

Father and mother cried in each other’s arms. A recollection too painful to be carried by one.

Ishara did this… 

‘Raiona, did not get as much damage. Her body was fighting off whatever was poisoning her and your mother.’

Why is Raiona being addressed as a different person? Am I not supposed to be her?

‘Then, just one day, she stopped living.’

My father had to stop explaining to grab a drink for my breathless mother. He looked like he wanted to leave it for the day, but she urged him. After a while, he carried on.

‘She had given her soul away, to Tiaret, your mother, to mend what was broken inside her.’

Oh… wow…so Raiona gave up her soul for mother. And I, Ina, gave my body up, so that Ami could live a normal childhood…

I couldn’t recall how long I have bawled and shrieked for. It doesnt make sense. Nothing makes sense. Yet everything is fitting in now. Mother’s hand trembled in her lap. Her eyes shone wet, but she didn’t speak.

‘So,’ Father continued, ‘Raiona’s body remained. Empty. Fragile. Still alive despite having an incomplete soul. As if waiting to be complete again.’

The memory made my father look defeated. ‘And I… I borrowed you, Ina. I summoned your spirit from Earth, from Aminata’s womb, and placed it into Raiona’s body. You became her. You became ours.’

He leaned closer. ‘I reached for your spirit in that fragile moment between life and death. I begged you to lend your life to Raiona’s empty body, to give her a chance, to give us a daughter. And you… you agreed.’

My lips parted, but no words came.

‘You could have refused. It could have torn reality apart,’ he said. ‘But your soul fit with her body as though you had always belonged there. Perhaps you are her counterpart. Perhaps reincarnation. We may never know. What matters, Ina,’ his voice cracked for the first time, ‘is that you are not an outsider. You never were. You are part of us. You are ours.’

Something inside me shattered. My chest burned. My tears spilled so fast I couldn’t stop them.

I wasn’t stolen. I wasn’t abandoned. I wasn’t some mistake between two worlds. I was… wanted. Chosen. Woven into this family on purpose.

Mother’s hand trembled as she pulled me against her breast. Her heartbeat was a lullaby of grief and strength.

Her voice quivered. ‘Listen to me, child. Even if you bear a thousand spousal marks… even if Celphi was the one to pull you across worlds…the truth is this… even without memory, when you were sent back to Earth, you found your way to your mother. Your first mother. Ami. You loved her, without knowing who she truly was.’

I hiccupped through my sobs.

‘That is not a coincidence,’ she said, her tears dripping into my hair. ‘It is a bond. The bond between mother and daughter is not something that can be branded, not something men can fight over. Spousal marks are promises. But a mother’s bond…’ she pressed her hand to my chest, over my racing heart…’this is life itself. It is a bond no one can sever. Not time. Not death. Not even worlds.’

My vision blurred into pure salt and light. My shoulders shook so hard I thought I might break.

Mother held me tighter, voice fierce and trembling at once. ‘No matter how many men circle you, no matter what kingdoms demand of you… remember this. The deepest bond you will ever have is not with them. It is with us. With your mothers. With me. With Ami. That bond is stronger than any promise. It’s the truth of who you are.’

My sobs tore from me in waves, grieving for Ami’s loss, for Raiona’s sacrifice, for mother’s broken soul, for Father’s impossible choice. For all of us.

I cried until my throat was raw. Until my body trembled like a child’s. And still Mother rocked me, whispering, ‘You are ours. You are hers. You are loved twice over. That is no curse, Ina. That is your miracle.’

Father watched as mother and I exchanged that small, fierce closeness. Soul to soul. After we settled, he continued.

‘When you vanished years ago, we assumed you had chosen Earth instead. That you had remembered your first mother, Aminata. That you wanted to stay by her side. We believed you rejected us. After not letting you have your dragon pet.’

Father doesn’t like Celphi?

‘We did not realize your memories were gone. That Ishara had taken them. We summoned you back not to chain you, Ina, but so you might choose. To give this world…your second home…a chance.’

I did not think that having multiple suitors would look so much appealing over having multiple mothers…

I went back and hid in mother’s arms long after the tears stopped burning. My throat ached, my eyes stung, but still I couldn’t let go. What she said broke me, and healed me all at once.