Internal: Viperpath (volume 1)

(22) Countermoves

"Alright, Big Sis, what was that all about?" Das protested as he finally managed to shrug his arm free of Zal's grip, some distance from their tutorial chamber. "Ya coulda told me we were goin' out..."

"This is far 'nough, alright," the Little Viper affirmed, as if to herself. "Now, look 'ere: I love ya, runt, so I don't want ya to keep on livin' in some stupid delusional bubble. Mom's definitely not as good n' kind as ya think she bloody is."

"How can ya say that?"

"For one," Zal lowered herself to his height, "ya been wonderin' where Eara is, right?"

"'Tis gone, Mom told me so."

"Only 'alf the tale. What she didn't bother to tell ya, was that she made hher gone."

"H-how..? What are you..."

"She burned it in her room's fireplace, saw the act myself."

"Why would she..?!"

"'Cause I been skippin' my lessons, that's what she said."

"Well that's your fault then, ain't it? Had ya been but a tad more diligent, Ea would still be alive!"

"A kitty's life for not gettin' to work out a couple lines o'er the days? She went way too far!"

"That's just how hard Mom can get, ya'd know! She cares for ya-"

"Cares for me, that it?" Zal blurted out. "Then how the heck am I the only one to 'ave gotten all the slaps from her, and ya not an inch, eh?!"

Dastra blinked. "I- what, she slapped ya?"

"Bloody freak, she did! So many times! Those 'fresh wounds' ya saw that other day? Mom's marks o' courtesy."

The boy chewed his lower lip briefly. "Just how naughty 'ave ya been to deserve all that, Sis? Way it is, ya're probably just sayin' bad things o' Mom, 'cause ya don't really like her..."

"Dastra!"

"I... I'm sorry if Mom's been hard on ya, Sis Zal, I really am. Still... she's our mom, and just like with Vessy's lot, it may not be a good idea to be so rude to her. She's been workin' so hard to get us both 'ere, I'm sure. Mom's so like ya, I'll say, and I love both o' ya."

That gave the Little Viper pause. Her mom's 'hard work'... it was pretty much true that she, Azalea, never really bothered to check that quarter. Mira was presently a queen, sure, but what had she done to really deserve that? What could be her true aims?

"Tell ya what," Das resumed, gently caressing his true sister's cheek. "If ya still think Mom's so bad, we could pray that she'll get better..."

Zal groaned. "The very same option Lei's been suggestin', truth be told... and I been plannin' to get to know more o' these prayers. What, so ya too believe it might work on this occasion? For all their prayers, Mu and Rashid still ended up losin' two maids, mind ya..."

"But not their own lives! That's something, surely? And hey, we've seen how they'd been a lot calmer in handlin' that kinda loss; certainly not the kind ya'd most likely 'ave pulled off..."