THE APPLE OF SNAKES

xxxiii. living echoes

"And then, just as the Honorable Lady rose her blade to slay the monster, a moth as white as moonlight appeared, landing on the back of her hand," Nerluce said, hooking his thumbs to make a moth with his hands, bringing it close to Kierli's face.

She giggled and reached her small, chubby hands out - that could barely grip toys, much less the hilt of a sword - and wrapped them around Nerluce's hands, bringing the moth closer to her.

Nerluce smiled and patted her head. "The Honorable Lady hesitated. She knew that the white moth was the sign of the Goddess Le. The Honorable Lady realized that Le was telling her to not slay this monster and so she sheathed her sword and instead freed the monster's leg from the hunter's trap. The Honorable Lady then said-" Nerluce changed the pitch of his voice to match what he imagined the Honorable Lady's would sound like, "Go and do good in this world."

"Then what?" Kierli asked, her eyes wide with amazement.

"The monster stood. It rose to its full height. It was as tall as a house. Yet the Honorable Lady did not feel fear as she looked into the monster's great eyes. Then the monster said," Once again Nerluce changed the pitch of his voice, but this time it was much deeper and contained a bit of a growl, "You are worthy of your title, Honorable Lady. For sparing my life I will give you my most prized coat."

Kierli's eyes seemed to grow even wider as she leaned in. Like all children, she seemed to have a special love of stories, especially when they were being told to her with different voices and dramatic hand gestures.

"The monster took off his fur coat and gifted it to the Honorable Lady. This coat was impenetrable to all mortal weapons and when she wore it into battle, no one was able to defeat the Honorable Lady. They say the Honorable Lady was buried in the monster's coat and the monster itself protects her grave so that no one will use its powerful coat for evil."

"Woah..." Kierli said. "I wanna meet the Honorable Lady and the monster and-" She continued to list all of the characters from the past dozen stories that Nerluce had told her. Then she turned and ran up to Aristide - who was sitting not far from them in the grass. "Ari! Ari! Can I meet them? Can I?"

"When you get older," Aristide said. "Then you may go on as many adventures as you'd like."

Kierli squealed with delight before taking off, running through the garden on her short, stumpy legs. Nerluce sighed but smiled fondly as he watched the toddler run about. She had exceptional energy these days.

That was the primary reason why Nerluce, Aristide, and Kierli were all outside. There weren't any classes - the teachers were conferencing to see who was moving on and who wasn't - the day was nice, and Kierli hated being cooped up, whether it was in the nursery or in Aristide's chambers. She was a little kid and in Nerluce's opinion, all little kids needed to be able to run around outside at least a bit.

Aristide was less inclined to agree.

However, they'd taken her to the innermost garden so there was little danger. The water wasn't deep and very few people even knew how to get here. Even Nerluce wasn't exactly sure how he kept getting in and out. Overall, it was a pleasant day of playing and telling stories and eating outside. They'd just finished with lunch when Nerluce started his story about the Honorable Lady for Kierli.

"She's becoming spoiled because of you," Aristide commented as Kierli chased around a small, yellow ball. It was just one of her many favorite toys.

Nerluce hummed. "Is that so bad?"

"I don't know many stories. It's hard to get her to sleep at night and she whines when I reuse them." Aristide's expression was sullen.

"Then why don't I teach you some?" Nerluce offered with a smirk.