Chapter 33

Ididn't know why this Inanos frightened everyone so badly. So much of the tribe's history was lost to the Tempris because it ceased to be taught to us after the wars. It had been so long since the wars, I really knew nothing about it and Belisarus never brought it up, to my father or me. When Terros, Volaris, and Fluvis went to get their people, my father finally got a good look at his granddaughter.

He"d met her before, but he was just like my daughter and how I usually was. We were so used to being lied to and given half truths by the Barons that we needed all the information before we made up our mind. I was guessing my daughter was like that, too, because of Belisarus and his secrets. But I knew my child, even if my father doubted. I'd never say I told you so to any of them.

"Lisana?" my father said after the other kings left to get their people.

He moved to embrace her, but she danced away. I knew she was still getting used to affection and would prefer she got it from her family instead of Sono, but I also remembered being a nineteen-year-old girl. It was actually adorable it bothered Leodos so much. I'd never get Rivannus back, but in a perfect world, my first love returned my feelings and would step in to be her stepfather. Except I'd just gotten my child back and having Leodos, too, was probably asking way too much.

"I don't know that name. I don't know you. He never treated me like he was my family. I don't know what it's like to have a mother, nor a grandfather," Sorcha said, looking uncomfortable.

It was hard calling her Sorcha to her face because I still called her Lisana in my head. There was so much I didn't understand. Lisana hadn't been a wildly common name when I had her, but after her name was announced, a lot of people started using it with their babies.

The people on Idric Island had no idea what I looked like. They didn't even answer to my family. They were completely separate from Nestran with their own government. Belisarus didn't have to take her name, too. No one would have connected a random Lisana on Idric to the missing princess on Nestran. Especially since she seemed pretty good at hiding her hair and eyes unless she was unconscious.

"I'll call you by the name you know but forgive me if I slip and call you by your real name. I know this is all too much for someone so young to handle, but I hope you take the time to get to know both me and your mother. While you learn what it is you are supposed to do, we can teach you what it is like to have family," he said, gently.

I thought we'd have a nice family moment, but Sono, Oris, and Neptis crowded us. Based on the look on Sorcha"s face, she didn't seem to understand why they all wanted her attention. I'd been around her enough to understand her a little. She didn't seem to really care about what she looked like, and I thought she'd accepted they all thought she was special, but didn't really think it was a big deal.

My father and I were off to the side watching all three boys try to impress her.

"It's escalated now from just warning looks to each other. She doesn't understand what it means because she was never allowed to talk to anyone."

"Has anyone attempted to explain it to her? You know what they want."

I tried to explain the whole Senso thing to my father since it didn't happen to us. We'd been isolated from the other tribes so long, I hadn't realized they had much better hearing than the Tempris did. I should have realized, even if Rivannus had kept that part of himself secret from me.

Sono didn't strike me as the type to brag about what he had done with Sorcha. He was the type that wouldn't like that more than just he and she knew about it. I thought I was having a private conversation with my father, but they all heard it. Oris shoved Sono, and they looked like they were about to come to blows. Sono rushed at Oris, but before they could fight, they were all of a sudden both suspended in the air, as if sitting on a cloud. Sorcha was doing it somehow.

"What the fuck are you doing? You've known about that shit much longer than I have. Would you have preferred I go feral and burned all of Nestran? If you can't talk to me without being fucking idiots and you can't treat me like a regular person, then don't talk to me again!" she snapped, stalking off.

Oris and Sono fell out of the air as soon as the clearing began to swarm with both Theran and Farkhi. The Tarks slowly started peeking their heads out of the brush like they finally wanted to come out. Everyone was trying to find her and some of the kings seemed angry she'd run off.

"Talk to your sons," Joron told them. "They started fighting over her and she doesn't know what it means. She thinks they were fighting over her because of who she is, but we both know what they want."

I left to follow her and only hoped I could catch her before she transformed into something again. Frog told us she ran when she was upset and the night I suggested she be my heir, I watched her turn into a large black cat before she disappeared until morning. I was able to catch up with her a little further into the wood as she was angrily slapping branches away from her face.

"Wait!" I called, relieved when the girl stopped and turned around.

"I just want to be alone right now."

"I know you run it off when your fire is getting too hot, but I need to talk to you about those boys and why they are fighting over you."

"They are just doing that shit because of who I am to them. I'm still a regular girl, no matter what I can do and what I'm supposed to do. They banished Belisarus because of their stupid purity rule. The only reason they are trying to break it now is because they think I'm their god."

"Sorcha, sit down so I can explain some things to you," I said, relieved when the girl sat but still looked angry. "From what I understand, that mixing law was just because they thought the babies would be stillborn. Belisarus proved them wrong with Rivannus and then I guess I did the same with you. You know your own mind and do what you want. I admire that about you. Those boys do, too. They don't want to marry someone their fathers pick for them. They want to pick their wives. They are trying to get to know you better."

"They don't want to marry me because I'm me. They want to marry me because of who I am to them. Only Sono talks to me like I'm a regular person!"

"You haven't really spent much time around Oris and Neptis. Sorcha, I realize you didn't grow up around people and no one probably told you this, but you're a very beautiful girl. The parts of you that don't look like me look like your father and your father was one of the most handsome men I had ever met. They aren't just fighting over you because of who you are to them. I thought you said Belisarus told you stories?"

"He did, but he never said anything about what I looked like. He was my teacher, so I never asked. Frog's opinion doesn't mean anything. He likes everything about me because of what I did to him."

The girl looked like she was trying to process what I just told her and she wasn't arguing with me this time. "Did you not look at paintings and then look in the mirror?" I asked.

"The only drawings he bought were for learning. There was only one mirror in the house and he used it for shaving."

"You never thought about it growing up?"

"The only time I've thought about what I looked like was when I wanted to mate and Leodos pushed me away. I thought he did because I wasn't pretty like you. And I really didn't want to kiss him, I swear. I couldn't help it. He didn't kiss me back."

She looked horribly embarrassed, and that she thought I'd be angry with her for kissing Leodos. I might not understand what she had been going through, but I understood enough to know she couldn't help what she was doing.

"He didn't push you away because you're not pretty. He pushed you away because you are too young and because of who he suspected you were."

Sorcha gave me that look she had sometimes that led Leodos to give her the nickname Imp. She was up to something again.

"He pushed me away because he's in love with you."

"Leodos is an honorable man, but he doesn't feel that way about me. How can you see he feels that way when you don't understand why those boys were fighting over you?"

"I've been figuring out what unfamiliar smells mean since I got here. You and Leodos might be lying to each other, but you can't lie to my nose. You both love each other. I'm not sure why there was all that drama over you picking a husband from a stinky Baron you couldn't stand when Leodos was right there and he actually smells good. If the Barons got pissy about it, just set their hair on fire. You're stronger than them."

It was actually a lot more complicated than that, but she'd given us both a gift. I never would have told him because I always thought he viewed me as some stupid girl my father asked him to look after and he never would have told me because he lost everything when he burned all that research.

"Leodos was my first love before I met your father. He was wonderfully supportive when I lost both of you and those feelings came back again. Thank you for telling me he felt the same."

Sorcha didn't gloat. She looked satisfied, but she completely changed the subject. It was something I was wondering when she was going to ask me.

"What was my father like? If he knew what I was, why didn't he tell you? If I needed protecting so badly I was taken in the middle of the night, why didn't he tell you so you could help? Why didn't he tell you what he was?"

I knew I needed to get her back since my child was more than just a princess. She was important to all those people back there and she could actually change so much about Nestran. But this was the first proper conversation we'd had and the first time we had a chance to bond.

"I've never met anyone like your father. He was such an expert hunter, but he was also very gentle. He didn't like hurting people like you don't want to hurt anyone. I don't know why he kept his secret from me other than the same reason you initially refused to come here. He was frightened someone else would find out and kill him and he knew what that would do to me.

"When he left to find you, I don't think he expected to be hurt. Belisarus only told me he died while looking, not how. I never wanted to admit he wasn't back because something had happened to him. I always told myself he was still out there trying to find you. I had no way of knowing someone I had trusted and learned from for so many years had taken you and I never knew he became part of my family when I married your father."

"I understand how I am some of the way I am because of who he was and who you are. I don't understand everything else about who I'm supposed to be. Belisarus told me it's all true, so it must be, but I still don't know how I'm supposed to do what they think I'm here to do."

"I would have preferred you just be my daughter instead of this Spirus they say you are. I'd rather you just be my child where the most dangerous thing you'd be dealing with was court politics and stinky Barons."

Sorcha looked at me sadly. "I don't know what is supposed to happen to me after this."

I didn't either, but I would fight to the death to make sure nothing bad happened to her. It was getting pretty noisy back at the clearing, so I needed to either get her back to them or let her run.

I wasn't going to control her. She was an adult now and I couldn't get the last nineteen years back. I could still be there for her and not completely drive her away by telling her what to do.

Yes, she needed to get back there and meet everyone, but if she wanted to run, I wasn't going to stop her.