Chapter 34: Reunion

At first, Nienna thought she was hallucinating. Her parents were alive and right there in front of her. She never thought she would see them again, yet there they stood, frozen in time. It didn’t seem real. They hadn’t aged a day since the last time she saw them all those years ago. It was uncanny and impossible by any sort of natural means. But they were still her parents, and seeing them again was the one thing in the world she had always wanted.

Their embrace was real and cold, but Nienna could feel the warmth of their love deep in her bones. Years of loneliness and pain bubbled to the surface, culminating in a fit of sobbing she could no longer hold back. Her tears spilled over, joining her parents’ frozen tears of joy. Suddenly, she was that little girl again, saying goodbye to her parents and not understanding why. She didn’t ever want to let go.

Now, as Danae flew them all back to Hoelbrak for supplies, Nienna and her mother sat quietly in private quarters the airship captain set aside for them in the belly of the Raven’s Revenge. She couldn’t help but stare at the woman and wonder what she and her father had been through all these years. So much time had gone by. There was still a sense of familiarity…but she couldn’t help but also feel disconnected from her parents. It had been so long; were they the same people she remembered from her childhood?

Leaning back against the ship’s inner wall, Nienna let the vibrations from the engine gently massage her tired back. It felt soothing, and her tense shoulders immediately started to relax. However, just as she was getting comfortable, a tickle rose up in her throat. She panicked, fished out a spare rag she picked up from the engine room, and placed it over her mouth as her body broke into a coughing fit. The oil stains hid the black ichor her coughs now continuously produced. She carefully folded the rag when she was finished and placed it on the ground next to her.

Her current condition posed a serious complication to her plans. What lay ahead for her was a mystery, and so far, nothing in her family’s book gave her any insight as to what to expect to happen to her body. She was at a loss of what to do. What if she didn’t make it safely through this ailment and everything fell apart? Crossing her arms over her chest, she slouched and stewed in her disappointment of the lack of answers. It was the only thing she had energy for right now anyway.

Rhrya leaned forward and furrowed her brow. “How long have you been suffering?”

Nienna frowned, but not because she was forced to confront her condition again. It was because of her mother’s rough and strained voice. Her words sounded like they were being forced out between labored breaths. She looked worn, like she hadn’t slept in years.

“Are you talking about this?” She held up a bare hand now covered in black. “Or do you mean generally speaking?”

Rhrya frowned. “I’m so sorry, lovey. We put you through so much.”

Nienna sighed, immediately feeling guilty about what she had just said. The worse she felt, the snappier and snarkier she seemed to become. She didn’t mean to. It was hard to maintain a sunny disposition when she felt like her body was giving up on her. “I just…why didn’t you tell me about her? Why didn’t you tell me I had a sister?”

Rhrya straightened herself, groaning from the stiffness in her frozen muscles and joints. She was about to answer, but hearing a shuffling at the door, both mother and daughter glanced up just as Nienna’s father, Viktor, stepped into the room. Nienna had remembered him being a man of average height and weight, but the coverage of ice made him appear taller and broader than she recalled.  

“Good timing. She’s asking about Seren,” Rhrya filled him in.

“Ah,” he replied with a slow nod and then looked down at Nienna. “We owe you an explanation.” He settled himself down next to Rhrya. Like her, he also struggled with the action. Nienna could hear the ice in his joints grinding. The sound made her cringe.

“The Byrnes discovered our secret,” Rhrya started to explain. “We weren’t sure what to make of the threats at first. It was so strange. Eira used to be my friend, you know? But when we noticed strangers following us around and watching our home, we knew there was true danger.” She sighed, the sound rough and akin to a cough. “I blamed her for so long, but I know she hurts. I would be hurting too if I had lost a child.”

“It doesn’t excuse what they did,” her father added.

“No,” Rhrya agreed. She shook her head, the ice crystals on her ponytail crunching and clattering with the movement. “They have been blinded by their pain, and they believed the blade was the solution to their problems—to all their problems. It wasn’t safe for any of us, so we sent you to your aunt and uncle’s farm with our family’s book and instruction for what to do with you should we never return.”

“And what exactly was that?” Nienna asked. She then coughed to clear her throat. The bitter taste of the ichor filled her mouth, so she reached for a cup next to her on the floor and took a drink of water to wash the taste away.

Her parents looked at each other, sharing an uncomfortable glance before her mother finally replied, “starting your watch as the next warden of the blade.”

“Your mother was pregnant with your sister when we sent you away and went into hiding, ourselves. We didn’t tell you because we thought it was wise to keep you separated,” Viktor explained.

Nienna watched her mother’s shoulders slump as she leaned back, exhausted by the conversation. Her father frowned and reached out to comfort her with a hand on her arm.

“I wish I would have known. There were so many years lost that we could have spent together. This whole time, I could have had my family,” Nienna said. She sighed heavily, and the right side of her head started to pound.

“I know. We’re so sorry. We can’t imagine how hard it was for you,” her father said and then bowed his head. “We thought we were doing the right thing and keeping you two safe.”

“How did you two eventually meet?” Rhrya asked. Her curiosity renewed her strength, and she leaned forward, awaiting her daughter’s reply.

“He showed her to me.”

Viktor arched a heavily frosted dark eyebrow. “Who showed her to you?”

Nienna nodded. “Grenth did when Scarlet besieged Lion’s Arch. He appeared over her while she was protecting a group of children.”

Her parents shot each other glances filled with confusion and intrigue. It wasn’t until that moment, Nienna realized they might not even be aware of most events that had happened in the past twenty years. There was a lot for them to catch up on. As much as she wanted to sit and talk about all that’s happened over the years and reconnect with her parents, there wasn’t time—as always. It was becoming a common theme Nienna was growing increasingly frustrated with.

“Curious,” her mother answered with hope filling her eyes.

Her mother seemed to be happy thinking their patron god had a plan for Nienna and Seren’s meeting. She had always been a devout follower of Grenth. Nienna didn’t have the heart to tell her mother what their patron god had told her in a previous vision: the gods were leaving. It would be a hard pill for any believer to swallow. The more she thought about it, the more she felt abandoned and betrayed. For her own sanity’s sake, she decided to change the subject.

“What happened to you?” Nienna had wanted to ask this since she first laid eyes on them, but the shock of their meeting drowned out the question from her mind.

“This,” her father began as he held out a frozen hand and turned it over and back again, “was a result of Aedan Byrne’s obsession with power. The world had taken their son, so he was going to take from the world. But in order to do that, he needed an army. One that would do anything they said without question. They thought the blade could help them do that.”

“We’re not sure how they found out about it or who talked, but the Byrnes eventually came for it and us shortly after your sister was born. Thank the gods, we managed to get her to the Queen’s Heart Orphanage before they got to us.” Her mother sniffled and wiped at a frozen tear on her pale cheek.

“They couldn’t find the blade, so they settled for taking us. They couldn’t make us talk, though.” Viktor looked over at Rhrya and smiled as he gently wiped a tear from her cheek. “Didn’t give them an inch.”

Nienna rubbed her chest to try to calm the burning sensation building on itself. “I’m so sorry,” Nienna said quietly. She shifted where she sat as a wave of uneasiness came over her.

Rhrya sighed. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it. hings got really bad when they discovered a pool of blood from the Claw of Jormag left behind from a recent attack by local adventurers. It was imbued with Jormag’s power, and it did this to us.” She gestured to her whole body with a shaky, frozen finger. “It changed us on the outside, but not on the inside, and that made Aedan furious.”

“We were experiments in an attempt to build this army they wanted,” Her father added, “but he couldn’t control us. The Claw’s blood was too diluted. He took his frustrations out on us at first, but then grew tired of that and had their Inquest scientists put us into a sort of stasis sleep. I’m not really sure how. They were contraptions we had never seen before.”

“Gods, how did you escape?” Nienna asked. Her back started to hurt again, and it was then she realized she had been leaning forward this whole time, drawn in by their explanation. She leaned back against the ship and let the vibrations do their work.

They nodded.

Her mother smiled and covered her mouth as she cleared her throat of icy phlegm. “The power must have failed, and I woke up first. We were able to free a couple of our fellow captives, and we all fought out way out together.”

“When was this?” Nienna asked as she fought back a sudden wave of nausea. She put her hand down on the floor and braced herself.

“A week ago,” her father replied.

“Wait.” Nienna struggled to focus. “You’ve been captive for almost—twenty years?” She asked between breaths that were growing increasingly unsteady.

A sadness grew in her mother’s green eyes, paled by the film of ice covering her face. She looked up at Viktor. “Has it been that long?”

There came no reply, and an unsettling silence quickly filled the room. Ignoring his wife’s questioning gaze, Viktor instead stared straight ahead at his daughter, whose form had grown slack and her eyes closed.

“Nienna? Sweetheart?” He leaned over and reached out a frozen hand to her shoulder. He shook her gently, but she remained unresponsive.