BXBX NOVEL Chapter 802
“Still, I bet I can give you something new. His name was Gaston. He was about a year older than her... perhaps. As I said, Zuhra’s exact age is a little uncertain so perhaps it was more perhaps less but officially it was about a year. He was the son of Bell, who runs ‘Long River Road Traders’ it’s a medium sized merchant house,”
*I’m sorry he’s the what? I was honestly on board with the whole secret heir to the 8th of the 10.*
[Yeah me too. I mean... I don’t necessarily want to rule it out yet. We didn’t hear who his father was right?]
*I feel like that might just be wishful thinking but we can ask at some point.*
“I don’t really have any dealings with them myself. I did consider it, what with the farm, but, once again, we don’t have any particular specialties and a trading company of that size surely already deals in produce of some kind. It’s simply how things work here in this city, well if you have business outside of it that is. Some of the wealthiest merchants just work for one of the Ten and keep themselves to the city but not everyone can be like that. Especially when nepotism is a big issue.
“Still, while I can’t tell you much about Gaston, I can tell you about his relationship with Zuhra. I don’t know the precise day they started getting together but I do know they met through Marem’s husband. He... oh what was his name? I know it... I’m sure I know it... S... Stan? Stalone? Set? Nope it’s not coming to me. I’ll have to just call him Mr S because I’m pretty sure his name starts with an S.
.....
“He was just an apprentice in the Calculator’s Guild which is not actually a guild, but it was founded before the current Guild system and was able to be grandfathered in. Anyway, Mr S always had a way with numbers. He just... saw the world differently to most people. Still does I suppose. Anyway, he was making his way up the ladder and he was assigned to the LRRT as his first big assignment.
“That’s where he met Gaston. Gaston... well as I said I don’t know too much about him but apparently Mr S, who was already good friends with Marem, perhaps a bit more. Marem was actually much better at hiding her relationship then Zuhra. Zuhra would pretend nothing at all happened but Marem pretended S was a just a friend for quite some time. She’d visit other friends and was always able to keep her stories consistent.
“Anyway, for some reason Mr S thought Gaston and Zuhra would be great together and he was certainly right. They got along really well from what little I got from Zuhra at the start. He was ‘her bestest friend’ and when I asked if that meant he was a better friend then Marem, she said he was her ‘bestest male friend then like Mr S is for Marem’ which is actually what clued me into Marem’s activities. She’d just been playing him off as a normal friend amongst a half dozen.
“Still, Zuhra was a bit young at the time... I think she was ten or eleven? So I’m not entirely sure if she knew exactly what she was implying at the time. I think he did though. Shortly after that Zuhra would get little gifts. Not super frequently and they didn’t ramp up in quality all that fast. The first thing she got... hmm... I think it was a necklace. I never saw the picture inside but it was a locket so I can guess. Though maybe the picture changed later.
“After that, gifts would normally be given on major holidays. Discovery Day,” Theresa paused as she saw the confused looks on the girl’s faces, “Discovery Day is our largest holiday. It’s supposedly the day our ancestors discovered the water fountain that our city surrounds. Personally, I’m of the opinion that it was an event created later on, perhaps with the correct date. Perhaps not. We also have birthdays of course, and Last Day of Winter which is more of an import. It’s a very old tradition from other regions celebrating the end of winter and the survival of the individuals.
“Except winters have never been particularly harsh here and with the fountain we can not only stock sufficient food for ourselves, we can keep growing through winter. So it’s never been an issue... but we also have a bunch of food spare at the end of winter and it ended up becoming one of our largest festivals. Anyway. Zuhra would get a gift usually on one of these three holidays. A new outfit, nothing too high quality at the start, a hat for the sun, perhaps some nice sturdy shoes. Things like that.
“Zuhra always thought she was subtle about it, but for like a month after each gift she’d always get a rather goofy look on her face. I don’t really know how so many other’s missed it. I think the happiest I ever saw her was the day she got the ring. It was after Discovery Day and she was just so happy. I think that was the day all the others figured out as well. The ring wasn’t overly fancy, as there was no reason to risk attracting thieves, but it was a magic artifact. Something we have very, very few of still.
“Once attuned to two people, for they were a matching pair, they would indicate the direction the other half was in. So of course... it was a terrible day when... when it happened. I was actually in the room with her at the time. We were folding clothes one afternoon and sorting them out. Just... in the middle of one of her folds she stopped moving completely and let what she was working on fall.
“She had... such a look of horror in her eyes as her hand moved mechanically down to her ring. I’m not really sure what she was thinking. I imagine part of it is that she hoped it had broken. As much as she might not have wished to believe Gaston would pick out a faulty gift... but it was much better than the alternative. Sadly... later that day Gaston’s mother delivered the news personally.
Theresa sighed, her odd condition seemingly dissipating to make her seem much, much older. The weight of a women who looked after many children, and had seen a terrible end to one that was, while not her own, close enough for the weight to be stifling. “I remember the next few days with an... an odd sort of detached horror. Zuhra stopped speaking, she simply went around doing any job she could. First she did all the washing, then she cleaned every room. Then once that was all done she turned to other things.
“She spent a day fixing up all the faulty wooden boards. I don’t even know when she learned how or where she got the supplies, but that took her another few days because she didn’t really know what she was doing. Then she got a bunch of cloth scraps and repaired a lot of the clothes deemed ‘too damaged to be worth fixing’ for some reason. Well, no it was to keep herself busy.
“The day after that I wanted to confront her... I found her in the food storage. Just... resorting it all. I couldn’t do it the first time. When I came back later that day to find she’d clearly finished once only to start again... well I asked her if she was ok and she just looked at me and tried to answer... but no sound came out. So I did what I could. I helped her finish cleaning out the storeroom.
“Good thing I did because the moment she left that room she collapsed. I had to have someone look at her. Turns out she hadn’t been eating, she was dehydrated and she probably had some minor damage in her bones were her knees slammed into the ground. She was supposed to be given orders to rest but...
“She woke up at some point in the night and started working again. Had to get a bit of help from some old friends to knock her out and then tie her to the bed. Not with anything too restricting, but certainly enough to stop her working for just a bit. Well, then the crying started.”