"Honesty is the best policy, so let me not keep you in suspense. I liked you for your body, your hands. Now that I look at you clearly, and this entire fiasco of a wedding is done, I don't see it. I really couldn't care at this point, so take a lover or whatever."

That was all he said before leaving me alone in the bedroom, I heard laughter outside, the same men I had met him with in the pre-wedding preparations. He wasn't going to stay, instead leaving to go and do something else. I fiddled with the beads that hung from my neck, staring beyond the door and the four walls of the room. The wedding gifts stared at me from the tables established in the room. His cold words still echoed in the room, how he waved dismissively. All of it was a stark prophecy of what was to come. Is this why the faces of my new family looked on in pity?

"Life of all Life, grant reprieve," Was all I whispered in that moment, the words from myself to myself in the empty room.

The garden was a well-needed escape. It had a small fountain in the center. I traced my fingers across the reliefs, looking into the clear water. Small bits of moss grew in the bottom but it wasn't like the pond that could be found further into the shrubs. I looked around before taking off the amethyst necklace and dangling it over the water. I focused on it, on the small space over the water. 

"Show me," and the I let the the amethyst touch the water. The ripples it sent out were haphazard as it fell to the bottom. It fell quickly, and the threads of the necklace moved in their patterns. It was first distant, but it came to cross at the top. The amethyst was largely bent to my end. 

"Village practices are best kept hidden here, the master isn't fond of ... those types," I turned quickly, seeing a small lady who began to deadhead the flowers. She turned around and winked, holding a finger to her lips, as she continued. I nodded, pulling the amethyst beads from the water.

"What did they show you, love?" 

"Fortunes are best kept secret, Aunty," I chuckled, coming to her side and watching her quickly swipe the dead flowers from the bush and put them in a basket to throw into the compost heap. 

"Clever lad. You come from the North, I remember those types of designs." 

"Yes, Aunty. The Galeen Range, I live in a valley there." 

"Oh, the Galeen Range, beautiful place during the winter. Always had the best dried fruits." 

"Thank you, Aunty." 

"Well, remember what I said: if you want to do those things, just keep them hidden. We all do what we need to, but it ain't worth getting berated by the master."

"What do you know about him, Aunty?"

"Drunken, lustful wight, you didn't hear that from me," she pointed at me in warning. I nodded and let her carry on shuffling to the next bush. 

"He has his good moments, but no sun is complete without its dark and dangerous days. Yeah, he's a handful. Thinks with one head at a time, rarely the one with the brain, and he screams like a goat, at everything and anything that moves," she emphasized her annoyance with quick movements of her hands. Eventually, she sighed, holding the basket at her waist.

"Maybe, maybe you'll cool him down. If not by being opposite, then maybe you got a trick that can just shut him up for two seconds," she chuckled deeply. She then smilled and cupped my cheek with her hand. 

"A Galean boy, through and through. Remember that, my son, and you will get far in this place." 

A/N: You might note a few things here, one being folk traditions and the other being the usage of identity. I will probably be the millionth person to say that keeping my mind on my lineage is something that gets me through a lot of things... the entire idea of "I'm Portuguese, we made fado about sad shit like this" was an important one.

So that will be one thing here, Identity, losing Identity but also regaining Identity (please see Kiki's Delivery Service on this part, a good way to look at it. You can also see it with Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle and Chihiro in Spirited Away, though Kiki more so loses her identity and Sophie and Chihiro focus on the idea of finding or reclaiming an identity. I do recommend the book for Howl's Moving Castle because it puts a good amount of context behind Sophie's identity.... where was I going with this?)

This page underwent editing on: 2024/04/23, Added Breakers