A Promise Broken

Keilan-minnai swept the four-year-old into her embrace, ruffling the girl’s brown tresses with one hand. Poor girl, she muttered, but Eiryn didn’t understand why. People had been treating her like that all day, but no one would tell her why.

When the woman let her go, Eiryn turned to the stack of wood in the middle of the drab, grey courtyard and ran towards it. She was barely tall enough to touch her mother’s arm. Eiryn turned again and sought her uncle in the small crowd. The night before, he’d told her they’d be going to the beach to see boats sailing into the sunrise, but they were in a small courtyard instead. And why was dai lying outside on a pile of wood? Why didn’t she rise to hug Eiryn? Dai was just sleeping. Wasn’t she?

But kerisaoina didn’t sleep on stacks of wood where twigs could prick uncomfortably in their backs. Eiryn knew that. That’d be silly. But she didn’t know why everyone looked so sad. Or why most people felt Eiryn should be too. She’d spent all day trying to find a word for that, for why she resented the adults for throwing their grief at her, for not telling her what was happening, but she hadn’t found one. Amaru-dai would have told her. Amaru-dai always told her everything, even if it was hard to understand.

Dai, she whispered and, annoyed by her mother’s unresponsiveness, tried to climb onto the stack of wood. Dai loved games, but she never worried Eiryn like this. Never.

Her uncle pulled her away before she could reach the top, and her new blue dress got torn where the pricking, nasty twigs had got hold of it and refused to let go. Arèn-minnoi ignored the wood, and Eiryn’s struggling, as he carried her back into the crowd. That was her mother lying there. She wanted her mother, and Eiryn squirmed and cried and fought her uncle with everything she had. She wanted her mother.

Her feet kicked against Arèn-minnoi’s chest and her hands alternated between beating against his shoulders, pulling his hair and scraping his face, and when Eiryn finally looked at him, worn out from struggling, she was taken aback by the pain in his eyes. It made no sense because she knew she hadn’t hurt him, but she felt bad and fell silent and still all the same.

It’s all right, Eiryn-adai, he whispered, too softly for Eiryn’s liking. After a few moments, he added, It will be all right. He smiled, but the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes belied the promise and she squirmed in his grasp once more. He didn’t let go.

Someone else spoke from behind her, but Eiryn couldn’t make out the words. She wriggled in her uncle’s arms until she was positioned in such a way that her neck didn’t hurt from the effort of turning around. The speaker was a middle-aged man dressed all in still-sea blue — even his sash matched — and she didn’t understand most of the words he was using. Keilan-minnai had lectured her on some of them just this morning, but they hadn’t made sense and Keilan-minnai had been too upset to explain again. Dai wouldn’t have been.

When Eiryn dared to look around her, she saw that no one was happy, no matter what Keilan-minnai had tried to tell her. No one was looking at her either, but she didn’t dare try to slip out of Arèn-minnoi’s grasp. It’d only make him angry with her and she was certain he was already angry enough. We shall say goodbye to our friend, our sister, our mother –

A loud sob escaped Eiryn’s lips at that. Arèn-minnoi had told her to be quiet, but why? Why did she have to say goodbye? Where was dai going? Why wasn’t she taking Eiryn? She hadn’t said anything! She would have said something. She would. Amaru-dai had told Eiryn that she was leaving for a night, maybe two, and that she’d come back with a little sister. Eiryn knew very well that something was wrong and everything was all messed up, but she wanted her mother.

Still held firm in Arèn-minnoi’s arms, she buried her face in his clothes instead. Eiryn didn’t want to see everyone stare at her with those eyes, like something terrible had happened and she just didn’t understand what because no one would tell her. She didn’t want to be stared at at all. Didn’t want to see. To think. Arèn-minnoi’s shirt, blue as everyone else’s, smelled faintly of flowers, but it didn’t help distract her. She didn’t know which flowers and she didn’t care because she was scared. Her fists clenched around both the blue silk of Arèn-minnoi’s shirt and her own sash.

Eiryn tried very hard to be strong and not to cry out in fright. Arèn-minnoi didn’t like it when she cried. She’d already learned that. And, anyway, maybe there was nothing to cry about. Maybe dai would just be gone longer than she’d expected. But then they wouldn’t be here, saying goodbyes. Would they? Eiryn didn’t want it to be that bad, hoped that everything would be all right. She wanted dai to tell her that everything was fine. That she was just having a bad dream and she’d wake up soon, had already woken up to sunlight and tickling and dai’s constant, soft farakaoina. But it wouldn’t happen. Would it?

Dai, she sobbed softly, into her uncle’s shirt, and she felt Arèn-minnoi stroke her hair. Grateful for his presence, she pressed her face against his shoulder.

It’s all right.

Eiryn sobbed again. Her uncle sounded so pained. How could he try and comfort her when he was hurting so much himself? Was it something she’d done? She hadn’t meant to, if she had. No one seemed angry, not at her. Eiryn was scared anyway. She was scared and she wanted her mother to tell her that everything would be all right. Eiryn wanted to know that, wanted to hear that. But only Arèn-minnoi tried to comfort her, and he was hurting too much himself to be any comfort at all. Eiryn could feel drops of something falling on her head, and she wasn’t sure whether it was rain or Arèn-minnoi crying. It felt like he was crying. It was a long time before Eiryn calmed down enough to look up at her uncle’s face again. He was looking away, over her head, and what she saw of him was only bronze.

So she looked to Keilan-minnai beside them for some form of support or comfort, and when the woman noticed her she gave Eiryn a small smile. Eiryn didn’t smile back, but she craned her head to look around again, surprised that a few people did look almost cheerful now. It couldn’t be so bad then. Others were trying to look happy and failing. Eiryn turned back to Arèn-minnoi, letting go of his shirt long enough to brush a strand of her hair from her eyes.

Her uncle smiled at her. It was a pained, tear-struck face that looked down at her, but it was filled with tenderness and even relief. Eiryn buried her face against his shoulder again. She didn’t want to understand what was happening; she only knew that he was warm and it was cold outside. The courtyard wasn’t sheltered against the wind and it blew in, stinging Eiryn’s ears and nose with cold and salt and tangling her hair. Before she’d noticed dai, she’d gone over to the low wall that looked out over the water to see whether the rocks below were also drab grey instead of shiny, but Arèn-minnoi had pulled her away. Now it just showed a darkening sky. Eiryn decided she didn’t like the end of summer very much. It snarled and growled and it’d done something to her mother.

Fasaoibound, Amaru-dai.

Eiryn’s head shot up. No, no, no. That was all wrong. Arèn-minnoi shouldn’t be saying that. It was one of the words she had understood, somewhat, when Keilan-minnai had talked to her that morning. Eiryn had thought it was just a lesson, like the ones Mayry-minnoi and dai gave her every morning, playing with words because Eiryn liked them. But they shouldn’t be saying that, not fasaoibound. Her mother was coming back. But the crowd around her murmured the words in echo of her uncle and, when they were silent, she knew they were waiting.

Eiryn was silent. Digging her fists into the smooth fabric of Arèn-minnoi’s shirt once more, she was silent. Until she started crying and she didn’t care whether her uncle would like it or not. It wasn’t fair. She was going to have a baby sister and dai was going to come back. They weren’t going to stand out in the cold, nasty wind and say funereal words of goodbye. They weren’t. Dai’d promised she’d be back. She’d promised.

Eiryn heard nothing but the wind, not even whispers, and, eventually, Arèn-minnoi set her down on the ground. He crouched before her, almost a mirror image of her mother, and wiped Eiryn’s tears away with his thumb. Her head ached and her throat felt thick. Someone get her something to drink, he said, looking away from her. Eiryn tried not to cry because she knew it hurt him, but she couldn’t stop. It only made her cry harder. Dai was leaving. Her mother was leaving forever.

That’s what it meant. Dai’d broken a promise, and now she’d be gone. Eiryn called for her mother; time and time and time again, she cried out the honorific. Eiryn didn’t know what to do with herself, whether she wanted to run or stomp her foot or fling herself at her uncle or at her mother. Arèn-minnoi pulled her back when she ran for dai and crushed her against his shirt. He smelled of salt now too, salt and flowers, like dai never had. She smelled of ink and soap.

Someone smoothed Eiryn’s hair back and pressed a cup to her mouth. She barely managed to take a few forced, hiccoughed sips before she started crying again. Arèn-minnoi pushed her into someone else’s arms, gently, and she calmed a little when she recognised Keilan-minnai’s voice whispering a silly bedtime story in her ear. The woman used her sash to dry Eiryn’s tears and smiled at her.

Eiryn didn’t smile back, but when she was given the cup again, she obediently took a few sips of the cold water and leaned against Keilan-minnai. She felt tired.

You have to say it, Eiryn-dai. You know you do, Keilan-minnai urged her. Eiryn shook her head. What would she think of you if you refused? Is that how Amaru-minnai would want her daughter to be?

Eiryn stubbornly held her tongue. If she didn’t say the words, no one was leaving. Her mother wouldn’t be leaving. Kerisaoina could only truly leave if everyone they loved said the words. That’s what Keilan-minnai had told her. So she wouldn’t say them. Never.

You’re hurting her, Keilan-minnai’s gentle voice tried again. It’s hard to say goodbye to someone you love, I know. I know, Eiryn-dai, I know. But she’ll never be completely gone. You can feel her all around you, Eiryn-dai. You can see her all around you too. But you have to let her go now.

F-fasaoi– Eiryn struggled with the word. She didn’t want to say it, never, but she didn’t want to hurt dai either. Never, never, never. Keilan-minnai had said she was, said she’d still see dai and feel her. And kerisaoina didn’t lie…

Eiryn couldn’t say it. Her throat closed up and the words caught in it. She started to cry again, but she made herself continue, made herself finish the word. Fasaoibound. Dai. Dai!

Arèn-minnoi thanked her and hugged her, but Eiryn felt nothing to be grateful for and she pounded his shoulders with her fists. That word was final. It didn’t matter what Keilan-minnai said or that her uncle didn’t seem to notice she was trying to hurt him. Her mother was never coming back to her. Never.

Arèn-minnoi didn’t let go as he raised his voice in farakaoina. Eiryn was surprised by how firm, clear and high it was, like her mother’s. And then she caught some of the words and she beat at his back again and fought against his hold because she didn’t want to be there. Arèn-minnoi pressed her head against him, but not before she saw the blue-robed man carry a torch to the wooden structure. Muffled by her uncle’s shirt she cried out for her mother anew. Eiryn groped around in her memory through the farakaoina that her mother and Orryn-minnaoi had been teaching her, hoping, praying, that fasaoi-willing, she’d already learned one that called forth water. Water doused flames. They were surrounded by water. It was right beside them.

And Eiryn sang. At first her voice sounded broken and off-key even to her, more a semblance of her sobs than anything else, but then her voice grew steadier and clearer, as she’d always been told all the voices from her family had been even at so young an age. Dai’d said it’d made their family perfect for researching farakaoina.

Eiryn could hear the small crowd stilling as she sang without any regard for the volume the farakaoina called for. All she cared about was that it drowned out everyone else’s farakaoina. All of them. She knew farakaoina didn’t work like that, but she didn’t care. If she sang louder and better than anyone else, everything would be all right. She shifted frantically in her uncle’s grasp to look around the courtyard for any sign of change, for any sign of the water she was trying to call.

There was nothing. The flames licked at her mother’s body and a shout cut through Eiryn’s farakaoina before she managed to catch herself. She sang and sang, louder and higher, as she called for water. Water. Water. Water.

It started to rain.

When she felt the first thick splatters fall on her head, Eiryn fell silent. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but she hardly cared. It was raining. She’d laugh with joy and thank fasaoi, but she was swaying with exhaustion and it was only her uncle’s arms that kept her upright. The flames were being doused. No one moved in the small, barren courtyard. Some, such as Arèn-minnoi kept singing, undisturbed by the way the weather had turned. Yet, as long as the fire was gone, Eiryn didn’t care.

When her uncle let her go, she sat down on the grey stone and glared at the drenched torch. Amaru-dai wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. But Eiryn had said goodbye already, so she wasn’t coming back either. Eiryn shivered. Did that mean her mother would be caught between the world and fasaoi forever now? She wanted a hug.

When she saw the floating spheres going upwards, Eiryn lunged forward, caught only by Arèn-minnoi’s arm around her waist. The spheres were beautiful, almost like soap bubbles. They were much brighter, though, and they floated around her mother, slowly drifting upwards, swaying in the wind. In the rain, they gleamed and glittered like Spring Star celebrations. As they rose, their colours slowly dulled and faded; Eiryn didn’t know why. No one had told her there’d be bubbles, not even Mayry-minnoi. She could feel the fasaoi in them, though. It touched her cheeks, caressed her hair. It danced around her and called to her to follow, offering a comfort so familiar it would have been frightening if she’d had any energy left to be afraid. Mute, she followed their path with her eyes.

Eiryn wanted to touch them, but she didn’t want to move from Arèn-minnoi’s warmth either. Looking was all she did, his high voice singing softly beside her ear. Eiryn watched her mother’s body slowly fade away, like the bubbles did once the colour had drained from them. They were her mother. Dai was there, all around Eiryn, just as Keilan-minnai had said. Amaru-dai was dancing among the currents of fasaoi. Eiryn was captivated.

Faintly, she could make out murmuring and she could feel herself being handed over to someone else again. She knew she was lifted up into the air, but she hardly cared until whoever was carrying her started to make their way to the back of the crowd and Eiryn cried out, stretching her arms out to the bubbles floating steadily up there. She wanted to be near her mother. That was dai, calling for her, wanting Eiryn to join her wherever she was going. It wasn’t fair that someone was taking her away. It wasn’t fair.

Eiryn pounded her fists on the shoulder of the person carrying her, but she was too tired to struggle much. It wasn’t until she was sat down in a chair that she realised they’d gone all the way back up to Arèn-minnoi’s chambers and that it was Keilan-minnai who had been carrying her.

Eiryn bolted for the door as soon she could, stumbling and scraping her knee in the process. Keilan-minnai’s voice trilled and the door slammed shut just before Eiryn reached it. Even on tiptoes, she couldn’t reach the handle and pushing it didn’t make the pine door budge one bit. Eiryn spun to face her family’s friend, her entire body shivering with anger, fear, hurt and cold. She wanted her mother.

Oh, child, the woman muttered. What have you done?

Eiryn blinked, trying to understand the question. All she knew was that there were no dai-spheres in Arèn-minnoi’s sparse chambers. Her mother was out there in the small, ugly courtyard, floating away from her. Eiryn wanted her mother. When Keilan-minnai rose and came over, Eiryn bolted past her. At least, she tried to. Her blue sash had come undone and she tripped over it.

Keilan-minnai caught her. I am sorry, Eiryn-dai.

But ‘sorry’ wouldn’t let Eiryn go back to her mother. ‘Sorry’ didn’t do anything. Keilan-minnai carried her back to the chair behind Arèn-minnoi’s desk and set her down in it. Her uncle had never let her sit there before. It was soft, though no longer smooth, and large enough to hold her entire body if she wanted to curl up on it. Eiryn pulled her legs up and hugged her knees. Keilan-minnai stayed crouching near it, one hand resting on an armrest almost as dark as she was.

I want dai, Eiryn croaked. She could feel more tears stinging her eyes, but she didn’t look away from Keilan-minnai’s face.

The woman shook her head lightly. She died, Eiryn. I’m sorry.

She promised. Eiryn looked up to study her uncle’s cluttered desk. Papers were scattered all over it and he hadn’t bothered to close the ink bottle, the quill resting precariously on the desk’s edge. Eiryn reached out to push it back, but changed her mind. She promised. And kerisaoina always kept their promises.

She can’t keep this one, Eiryn. Not this time. You’ll understand when you’re older.

But Eiryn didn’t want to ‘understand when she was older’; she wanted to understand now. Why couldn’t she understand now? Amaru-dai had promised her that she’d come back. Kerisaoina always kept their promises. Always. How could her mother break a promise? Why did she break it now? Keilan-minnai was trying to explain, but Eiryn was too tired to pay attention and let the words wash over her. Amaru-dai was out there, calling to her. If she went to bed, she’d wake up and find it was only a horrible dream, wouldn’t she? If she strained to catch whispers from the windows…

Tiredness momentarily forgotten, Eiryn bounded over to the windows. Through the panes she could see the harbour and the bay and, further in the distance, the mountain peaks of the mainland touching the clouds, but she didn’t care. The rain was still pouring down and obscuring her vision even more than the spider’s web linking panes together, but that was okay. She was looking for the bubbles that had floated around her mother. Perhaps if she could see them, they’d come to her and if she could just catch one of them dai would always be with her.

Keilan-minnai’s arms wrapped around her. She’ll be with you, child.

Eiryn didn’t react. What could she say? What could she do? Dai wasn’t there. She was gone. Not even the bubbles were left. Eiryn sniffed. She wanted her mother back and she was very, very tired.

But you cannot go with her.

Eiryn craned her head up to look at the woman hugging her, frowning slightly.

It’s all right to cry.

And so the girl did. She twisted in Keilan-minnai’s grasp and flung her around the woman’s neck. Eiryn pressed her face against the woman’s blue dress. Perhaps, if she was good, Keilan-minnai would let her go back to the drab courtyard and whatever bits of her mother remained there. The woman sang a farakaoina, low and soft, but for once Eiryn didn’t care what it was for.

When Eiryn thought she felt something sticky on her skin, she held Keilan-minnai tighter, but the feeling passed as quickly as it’d appeared and Keilan-minnai didn’t seem the least bit alarmed. The touch brought whispers with it, though. Whispers of fasaoi that carried dai’s voice, calming and soothing. Eiryn gradually stopped crying, straining to make out the words.

Eiryn?

The girl looked up at Keilan-minnai for a moment, then stared beyond the woman to where she could almost discern the figure of her mother. Eiryn stretched out her hands. Dai! she cried, then Amaru-dai! and the vision of her mother shook her head and pressed a finger to her lips before vanishing. Eiryn was left with Keilan-minnai and the fasaoi whispers. She could almost hear her mother’s voice clearly enough to make out the words. All she had to do was follow them and she’d know, and be with her mother. If dai could go there, why couldn’t Eiryn? Who decided on that?

Eiryn, Keilan-minnai’s voice sounded again, louder this time. Eiryn shook her head until the whispers were driven far enough away that they didn’t distract her from the woman beside her. Fasaoi ebbed all around them and Eiryn knew that it was waiting for her to pay attention to it again. You cannot follow her, Eiryn-dai.

I’m tired.

Of course you are. Shh. I’ll call Mayry-minnoi to undress you and put you to bed.

Eiryn hugged the woman tighter. I don’t want you to go. If Keilan-minnai left, perhaps the faintness of her mother would leave too. The whispers had only started after the woman’d sung a farakaoina. Eiryn thought the whispers were saying they wouldn’t leave her, not ever, but she didn’t trust them. Dai’d promised to be back by morning too, and she’d left forever. She wasn’t about to let her mother break another promise if she could help it.

I want dai, she whispered while Keilan-minnai scooped her up and carried her into her uncle’s bedroom. Though she’d visited Arèn-minnoi’s chambers often enough with her mother, she’d never been inside the bedroom before and Eiryn looked around curiously. Unlike the room where her uncle lived and worked, the bedroom was a sea of softness and colour. The bed reminded her of a calm wood, all brown and green, with grey pillows that made her think of rocks, except soft and fluffy.

Keilan-minnai set her down on the carpet and Eiryn took her slippers off herself. She was a big girl already, but the sash, even halfway undone, still escaped her and Keilan-minnai untied it for her and pulled the blue dress over Eiryn’s head. The carpet tickled underneath her bare feet and the fasaoi wrapped around her like a woollen blanket. It took Keilan-minnai a moment to find a night-shift and Eiryn didn’t really want to wear it, but she let the woman pull it over her head anyway.

When she was ready, Eiryn clambered onto the bed herself and nestled atop the blankets so she could still feel her mother’s gentle arms around her, shift or no. She closed her eyes and barely felt it when Keilan-minnai covered her with another blanket. Eiryn found she didn’t care either because in the darkness, she could see the bubbles rising higher than they had outside and she could, almost, hear her mother