The Seahorse and the Spice 🪼🎩✔

16: The Bumblebee Flies Anyway

The carriage stopped and I looked at the surrounding buildings to where I was. I hadn't fancied the city since I became pregnant and I was afraid to show myself amongst everyone. Eadric jumped out of the carriage and motioned for me to follow.
"Come on! There's not much time! Duke Barma!"
"I... I can't go out like this."
"No one's watching!"
I nodded because I knew he was right but I was just a little afraid. I slowly stepped out of the carriage and followed Eadric into the house.
We opened the door and Minerva looked up from the bed, a bloody rag in her hand, blood also all over the front of her dress.
"Eadric Bartholemew Thrathum, where have you been?! How could you leave your brothers like this?! Xerxes is scared to death and Bastion's bleeding, convulsing everywhere! He's dying! He's bleeding everywhere and- Salem. Er, Duke Barma." I nodded and she brushed out her dress a little. "Why are you here?"
"Eadric came to get me. He said that I was the only one who could help."
"You're the reason things are going like this. You threw us out when we needed your shelter the most! I don't want you here with my family!"
"He has to be here, Mum!" Eadric yelled at her.
She looked at him and he stared at her.
"What does this... this rake need to be here for? What possible reason could he have?"
"Bastion said that the duke was the only one who could help him. He said that the duke has to fix this."
"Bastion has a paw." Xerxes said, walking up.
"A paw?"
"He mean's a flaw. Bastion said that if a wish is too long, he gets sick because sometimes he has to bend reality. Making a man pregnant is pretty reality twisting, don't you think?"
Minerva looked at Eadric and then back at Bastion.
"But why does he need the duke? We could have unwished it ourselves since we don't know the person who wished it in the first place."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Bastion's wishes can only be unwished by another person. The person who wished it can't unwish it no matter how much they try." Minever explained.
"Then I agree, why did I have to come here?"
"Duke... Barma...?" Bastion said, sounding very sick.
"Oh, bullocks, you've gone and woke him up. He was sleeping soundly." Minerva growled as we all made our way toward the back of the house.
The house was humble enough, a small kitchen area to the right of the entrance, a fireplace just in front and a small parlor big enough for a few guests. Behind the parlor looked like a large room that was cut off by curtains.
"Stop scrutinizing our status in life." Minerva growled as she pulled back the curtain and I followed her in.
"I was just looking around, woman."
I looked over and felt horrible for throwing the family out of my house. The sheets were blood stained and Bastion wasn't even in clothes, probably for the same reason plus the sweat that was on is body now.
"What's happening?" I asked softly.
"He convulses often, blood coming from his mouth. He's been very strong but he can't live much longer." Minerva gulped a little. "I give him tonight; maybe, if God is kind, tomorrow."
"Duke Barma..." he said with a small smile, teeth stained red. "I'm glad you came. The postman was fast..."
"Your brother actually came and got me."
Bastion smiled a little but coughed, blood oozing from his mouth. Minerva quickly grabbed a semi-clean rag and caught it before it could go anywhere and cleaned him up.
"I need to speak to the duke by myself."
"I can't let you do that. He doesn't know how to take care of you."
"Mum, he knows more than you think. Please... I don't have much time..."
Minerva stared at him with a scared look but nodded a little. I could see tears in her eyes as she got up and pulled Eadric and Xerxes with her. I looked at him and he motioned for me to come over to him. I found a stool and eased myself onto it.
"You're wondering why you're here." he said as soon as I got onto the stool.
"Yes. Considering your mother said any of them could have unwished it."
"Well, that's the funny thing about my power... it gets picky. Sometimes it doesn't like certain people or sometimes situations don't allow certain people to unwish things. In this case, it must be you."
"Why?"
"Because I don't know if you're really with child or not."
I frowned and looked at my stomach. "I beg your pardon?"
"The wish was simply that you know how a woman felt after the fact of being with a rake. The consequences of that... there was not any specifics. So, I don't know if the wish has given you a child or made you have the symptoms of being with child."
"So... this could be just... air?"
"I don't know but when my mother was pregnant with my brothers, she felt them move all the time. Have you felt any movement, Lord Barma?"
Now that I thought about it... "No, I haven't."
"In that, this is why you must be the one to unwish the wish. You have the power to keep the baby or not..."
"I see... Why are you sick though? What's causing the sickness?"
"Long wishes require me to maneuver time and space to make them happen. There are natural laws that wishes bend and when those laws are messed with, they backfire on me. The sickness is what should happen, what I'm changing around; someone has to pay for defying God."
"Bastion, you're not defying God."
"I make things happen that sometimes would otherwise not happen. I've turned people into things before and now I've made you like that. God did not intend these things and so someone must pay for it."
"Then what do you wish for me to do?"
"Wish." He said with a sad smile. "But make it good."
"What do I wish for? I mean, what do I do? If I unwish the wish, then if there is a child, I will have killed it. But if I don't then what happens...?"
"That's why I said make it good."
Why was it left to me? Why did it have to be on my hands?
"How... how big of a wish can it be?"
"If you word it right, it can be as specific as you want it to be."
"Alright... um... Then I know what I want to wish for."
"Alright."
I closed my eyes but everything happened for a reason. I was the reason.
"I wish you'd never met Lord Jacoby in the marketplace that day and... I wish you'd never met me."
Bastion frowned a little. "Is that what you really want?"
"Hmm? I thought it would be-"
"Time and space, Duke Barma. I can choose whether or not to grant only those types of wishes. Is that truly what you want?"
"If you'd never met Lord Jacoby, he would have never made the wish and if your mother never worked for me, you would have never known me. Doesn't that take care of things?"
"It does."
"Wait... I change my wish. I wish you had never met Lord Jacoby in the marketplace and I wish your family had never met me before. If the pregnancy really developed a child, I want to keep it. If it hasn't then I don't want it to be there. I also want your family to be accepted in society." Bastion's eyes widened. "I want Minerva's father to have accepted her and you all live a good, comfortable life. She deserves every happiness and the status to fulfill that happiness. And..." I leaned in and whispered the last part in his ear. "All the backlash will be on me. You won't have to suffer anymore."
"But-"
"That is my wish. Final."
Bastion shivered a little and looked at me.
"When you walk out of this house, we will forget you. You can't take it back now, Duke Barma."
"I know." I said softly, brushing his hair from his face. "I want it that way. You have a beautiful mother who can get any nobleman she likes. You need a father who will love you, not someone like me."
"But you love her."
"I know. So I have to let her go. She's got three children of her own, she doesn't need a fourth. I'm so sorry that I threw you all out; if I had known, I would have never done it."
"I know." I got up and headed toward the curtain. "Duke Barma?" I turned. "You've manipulated a lot of things. The pain will be immense... Can you handle it?"
"I will have to." I turned again.
"One last thing!"
"Yes?"
"You will remember us." I turned to him. "Your wish said that we never met you. In that, you will remember us and everything that's happened. Time will change but your mind will not. Are you prepared for that too?"
"Yes."
I walked out of the room and left the boy forever.

Minerva
When Salem came out of the curtain, I glared at him. How could he? How could he do this to us? To my children? They loved that stupid idiot of a man and so did I. How could he just throw us to a society we know nothing about? Make us forget him?
"Minerva." I slapped him in the face. "I will assume I deserve that."
"How could you do such a thing?! You didn't ask us if we wanted to forget you!"
"I thought you'd be happy to."
"Once again, you make assumptions without asking me first. I was mad at you in the first place for putting my sons out when Bastion was so sick! I don't hate you!"
"Ah... I am a fool then."
"Yes! A bloody, daft fool!"
Salem walked over to me and touched my face softly and cupped his hand to my cheek.
"I want you to have the best happiness. You'll fit in nicely with society... Maybe we'll even have a dance at a ball together." He pulled my face forward and kissed my forehead tenderly. "I love you, Minerva, but you'll never know."
He pulled slowly away from me and I watched as he left. He rustled Eadric's hair and told him how sorry he was that they didn't get to know each other better. Xerxes was the worst, holding onto Salem's leg and crying. He didn't want him to go. I had to pull him off of him and hold him tight as Salem touched the doorknob.
"No! Papa! Papa, you can't go!" Xerxes yelled out.
Salem looked at him and with tears his eyes, put his finger over his mouth to silence him.
"A lord never cries, do they, Lord Piff?"
Xerxes sniffled. "No."
"Good." He looked at me and winked. "See you in another life."
He opened the door and walked out of the house.