Raeda: Spill Your Secrets or Spill Your Guts?

Tea Leaves

Sleep didn't come easy to Eda that night. How could it when all she could think about was how her ex was suffering at the hands of the Emperor?

But eventually even the wild witch eventually succumbed to a broken slumber as her body gave into the exhaustion that had drained her mentally and before long streams of sunlight crept through the stained glass window and lit up the room in a whirlwind of colour.

Eda shifted uncomfortably as the room grew brighter, the nest rustling beneath her as she slowly sat up. She let out a groan as she felt a crick pop in her neck.

Eda glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was far too early for her to be awake and any other day she would have shove the clock onto the floor and curled up again. But that wasn't an option today.

No, today was the day she was going to get Raine back.

So instead she threw herself out of the nest, landing on the floor with a thud before scanning the floor and picking up her clothes from the day before. They were unwashed and had seen better days, but seeing as people already believed Eda was strange she didn't really care much what they thought.

Once she was dressed and her mane of hair brushed, Eda headed downstairs.

Eda found herself slowing her steps by the sight of Luz and King laying cuddled up together on the floor, both still asleep and surrounded by various textbooks and half empty potion bottles.

Eda approached the pair as quietly as possible and debated waking them but after recalling the time, Eda decided against disturbing just yet. Afterall they were going to need as much rest as possible.

So silently, Eda snaked her way past the duo and entered the kitchen to make herself a drink. She thought about pouring herself some apple blood but for some reason she wasn't feeling it this morning. Maybe it was the memory of Raine's disapproving look Eda used to get in a morning that put her off. It was a look Eda knew too well in her youth. And it might sound stupid, but right now she would do anything to see that look one more time.

Smiling sadly at the thought, Eda began to rummage through one of the cabinets in the kitchen. It took some manoeuvring of various tins and Luz's cereal but eventually she found a small metal tin that had been lovingly decorated with music notes.

Eda opened the tin and was hit by the familar aroma. Raine always drank herbal tea when they were trying to write a new song or were calming their nerves in preparation for a performance. Eda didn't care for the stuff really but it made Raine happy so she always made sure to have some in for them.

A few minutes went past as Eda brewed and poured the tea, although it would have been done quicker if didn't have to restart at one point because she had forgotten to put a strainer onto the cup. Raine was usually the one to make the tea so she was a little out of practice.

Eventaully Eda took a seat at the kitchen table, her cup of tea in her hand. She leaned in towards the cup and breathed deeply, her eyes closing as for a moment as she pretended that the last 20 years hadn't happened. That she was still the young and naive wild witch waiting for her lover to come into the kitchen to kiss her goodbye before going to work.

Despite everything that had happened between the two witches and all the time that had seperated the pair, Eda's feelings towards the bard had never changed. Sure there had been numerous flings over the years, but those withes didn't mean anything. Not really. Now that's not to say Eda didn't care about the people she ended up taking to bed because she often did, but whenever things started to get serious with anyone, Eda couldn't help but compare them to their first love. But once that started to happen Eda was at least self-aware enough to break things off, for their sake and her own.

And now here she was, sitting at the table thinking about them once again, just like she always ended up doing.

Eda soon found herself ripped from her thoughts as the kitchen door swung opened with a half-hearted shove. The soft footsteps froze once they realised the room wasn't vacant.

'Hey Eda.' King spoke hesistantly, almost in shock to see the witch awake at this time.

'Hey Fluffball.' Eda replied quietly, her voice coarse from not having been used yet.

King felt a sense of warmth at the term of endearment, Eda hadn't called him that since he was really small.

The room fell quiet again, aside from the birds outside, and Eda soon found herself staring down at her cup. King took the silence as an invitation to step further into the room, Francois dragging across the floor as he walked. The small demon pulled a chair out across from the witch and after throwing Francois onto the table, scrambled up the table leg to sit across from Eda.

Eda seemed very interested in her tea at that point.

'Are you okay?' King asked, disrupting the quiet.

Eda took a sip from the cup, not caring that the contents had now turned luke warm.

'Just a lot going on right now bud.'

A beat of silence went by.

'Eda? Why didn't you tell me about Raine?'

Eda found herself gripping the mug tightly in her palms, the air now squeezed from her lungs.

'They were important to you, why wouldn't you tell me about them?' King continued, his eyes staring sadly as Eda tried to avoid his gaze.

'I- I didn't know- I wanted to-' Eda fumbled before taking a breath.

'I wanted to, believe me I did. But if I told you about them then I would have to tell you everything else that happened. Look, Raine meant a lot to me and when they left it really hurt me. It hurt to even think about them for a long time and I was in a bad place because of that.'

'Where were you?' King asked rather innocently.

'I mean in here.' Eda gestured to her head.

'Oh, like your feelings and stuff?'

'Yeah. I was strugging with the curse and with my family, and then with the whole coven drama happened. Losing Raine, sort of pushed me over the edge and I was doing some stupid things because I was in that bad place. I was hurting myself and those around me. I- I wasn't a good person to be around.'

Eda felt guilty as the memories of drunken fights, unnecessarily harsh words and reckless schemes flooded her mind.

'So when I found you and brought you here, I knew I had to be better. For you. And it was easier to do that if I didn't talk about the things that had happened in the past. I took the easy way out.' Eda said shakily as she stared into the mug, a tear running down her face.

A warm fluffy body soon latched itself around the woman. Throwing it's arms around the witch's neck as their hugged her tightly.

'It's okay. I forgive you for not telling me.' King muttered.

'You do?' Eda whispered, pulling back to look at King.

'You were just trying to protect me. You didn't want me to see the bad things and worry about you. I wish you had told me cause I think I could have helped but I understand why you didn't.'

'Thank you King.' Eda said. It never ceased to amaze her how grown up the demon could be sometimes.

'It's okay.' King said, pulling her into another hug.

Eventully, the demon pulled away, 'I'm gonna go see if Luz is awake yet.' King grabbed Francois beore jumping down off the table.

'Eda?' King said, standing in the doorway.

'Even with the bad things, you'd always be a good mum to me.'

Eda could hardly contain her emotions hearing that. It was a mixture of relief, happiness and pride she thought.

'Love you little guy.' Eda smiled.

'Love you too.' King shyly smiled before leaving the room.