Chapter 37-Revelations

"Now, let's begin." Lady Emmi said after taking a sip of tea. "Aline, go ahead and ask your questions".

"I have...so many...questions. It's...hard to...know where...to start. Was I...not wanted? I only...came into...contact...with Nurse and Jasper. Then...Nurse went...away. Why did she...leave?" As I thought about all the loneliness and the pain and the heartache of losing my protector who was like a mother to me, my eyes began to flood with tears.

A handkerchief was placed in my hand which I brought up to my eyes and blew my nose.

The sound of sobbing and smacking made me stunned.

"You told me she wouldn't remember! [smack] You liar! [smack]". The smacking sound stopped, but my mom was still sobbing. The sound was heartbreaking and made my tears surface once again. I spread my aura out to find that my dad was holding my mom still. Probably to stop her from hitting him again.

"Why don't you all start from the beginning. She needs to know what was going on in order for her to understand. Otherwise it will just sound like excuses and this also affects her past and future." Lady Emmi persuaded.

"She's just a child." said my dad.

"She is a very smart child. She should be able to understand most of it".

"Ok. So...where to begin?" my dad said as he sighed.

"When Jasper was two years old and right after his ceremony we were commanded by the Emperor to travel to Kingdom of Terrinas to be the Protector. Each Emperor has a group of men and women that he trusts and are completely loyal to him. I am one of them. We each take turns going to one of the kingdoms under the Emperor's domain to ensure that that Kingdom is following the rules set down by the first Emperor in order to be under the Emperor's protection. The protector assigned to the specific Kingdom is also in charge of helping that Kingdom protect itself from groups like pirates, bandits, and foreign invaders. The length of service depends on many factors. Ours was up when it was time to go back for your ceremony. Before we left, the Emperor had a niece who desired to go with us as a lady's maid to Gemma, your mom.

"We gave the okay and everything seemed alright. We were in that Kingdom for several years and then we found out Gemma was pregnant, thanks to Jasper. He even knew that you were going to be a girl. Anyway...your birth was very difficult and the doctor who was there realized that your mom had been poisoned and in turn you had as well.

"The effect was that you were born blind and your mom almost lost her life a couple of days after delivering you. For Sapphire and Jasper she was able to nurse and take care of them, but for you we had to hire a nurse because at that point, your mom wasn't even able to take care of herself. We weren't able to narrow down the origin of the poisoning, so we were suspicious of everyone. At the same time as Gemma, your mom, was trying to recover, I was constantly being called away. Terrinas's king had just passed away unexpectedly and it nearly ripped the kingdom apart due to his sons fighting for the throne. As soon as we got that settled, we had a rash of pirate attacks all along the coast, then bandits along the highway that connected the Kingdoms and the only source of trade. I was consistently away from home for almost a year. Sapphire had to really step up and take care of your mom. Jasper would sneak away to see you, but we had all agreed that in order for you not to become a target, we would try to have as little contact with you as possible.

"After the second poisoning, we realized that our attempt to hide you had been worthless. Thankfully with that incident we were able to pinpoint that source of all the poisonings. Unfortunately it was the niece of the Emperor. As she was technically one of royal blood, I was unable to just get rid of her. She was brought back to be judged by the Emperor. I'm sorry, I thought that you were so small and young that you wouldn't even remember any of your infancy. I was wrong."

"What about...Nurse?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Gemma, you should answer this one" my dad told my mom.

There was a very pregnant pause before my mom started talking.

"I would peek into the nursery to see you playing so happily with...nurse Daysha...you would smile so big with her, but you ignored my presence. I...I...I was...jealous. It wasn't until much later...after we sent her away that we found out that you were blind...you couldn't see me." After saying all that in between her sobs, she broke out in a waterfall of tears.

Never having had any children, I had a hard time understanding, but I did suppose that if you went through the burden of carrying the baby for 9 months and the agony of giving birth, that most mothers would want to be the center of that little babies world at least at the beginning.

"Does that answer all your questions?" Lady Emmi asked.

All the emotions going through me just made me exhausted. I just nodded and said "for now" then crawled onto Jasper's lap and drifted to sleep.