TRISHA PAYNE

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When I was a little girl, I was told that a woman would challenge the world to prove her independence. But the moment she births an infant, her whole world will revolve around them. That independence would disappear in favour of nurturing her child.

That happened to me when Ilias was born.

I had lived twenty years of my life without him, but the moment Dr Creed handed me my infant son, I wanted to stick by him and give him the world. So when he made the decision to head to the Capital to take the State Jynxist exam—a dangerous event which would separate us for a little under three months—every emotion one could feel swirled inside me.

This would be the first time he’d ever be separated from me.

But instead of reassuring him that he’d be fine, the roles were reversed. He would go on about how Ray and Heloise were with him, how he himself was a better jynxist than I was, and he promised not to act recklessly during the exam. He also explained that my growing anxiousness would disappear soon, especially since I was going to be taking care of Jaime while they were gone.

Ilias was spot on about that.

If I was going away for three months, I had enough trust in my son to take care of the house by himself. Ray, however, didn’t share the same trust with his daughter.

He had asked me to take care of Jaime while he was away, and being the caring friend I was, I agreed and gave her Heloise’s room. Ray also gave me the key to his house just in case Jaime wanted to get something from there.

He has absolutely no trust in his daughter. Just how much trouble does this little girl make?

I found out the answer to that not long after.

The day I started taking care of her, she left the house to play just like any child would and only came back for meals. She returned in the evening sticky and smelling of fruit. It turns out that she had used the vineyard Mrs Uva was growing on her property’s outside wall as sword practice, practically destroying them. Luckily, I got to the vineyard and healed the plants in time.

“Jaime, you must apologize to Mrs Uva tomorrow,” I told her. “She worked hard on growing them so they can bear grapes. Please don’t go around tearing down plants.”

“I thought they were weeds,” Jaime explained, her pointed ears tucking themselves behind her head. “The colonel and Ilias are going to be gone for three months and I don’t have anyone to practice my swordsmanship with. I don’t want to forget the things I learned.”

“That’s fine. We have a lot of space in the backyard and scrap materials in the shed. We’ll ask the lieutenant to spare some soldiers tomorrow and have them build dummies for you to practice on. I’m sure some of them will even practice with you.”

“Thank you, Auntie…”

The next day, she was frightened to apologize to Mrs Uva by herself, so I accompanied her.

A week after the vineyard incident, mothers came complaining to me about how Jaime had been going around beating up their kids. One of them even showed up with a bruised eye.

I apologized to them and sat Jaime down when she got home.

“Do you know why I’m in a bad mood?” I questioned.

“Is it because I dragged mud in here? I mopped it though.”

“It’s not that.” I held out an open hand. “Give me the sword.”

“But—”

“Jaime. Don’t make it hard.”

Her ears drooped and she did as she was told.

“You can’t be going around hitting the other village kids with your sword. Just because you are more fortunate than them, doesn’t mean you can go around abusing your power.”

“I made a promise to the colonel not to use my sword on people.”

“Then why did Little Joey have a black eye?”

She showed me her bruised knuckles. “I hit them. But not with my sword and I will not apologize.” Jaime began to head upstairs.

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“Where are you going?” I asked calmly.

“The colonel usually sends me to the room if he gets angry.”

I patted on a chair to invite her to sit. “Come back. What happened that enticed you to hit those kids?”

She sat down. “I was just minding my own business practicing my swordsmanship on tree branches outside the village. They came up to me calling me names. Mosshead, half-breed, wild child. I ignored them, but they took my sword. So I picked a fight to get it back.”

“Have they picked on you before?”

“A couple of times years ago. But they said they’re picking on me now because Ilias and the colonel aren’t here to protect me.”

There was no lie in Jaime’s eyes. I was blamed for a lot of things I didn’t do when I was young so I was all but familiar with that look.

“Is that true?” I asked. “I need to hear from your mouth that you’re not lying.”

“I’m not. I promise.”

“Okay, I believe you.” I gave back her practice sword. “I’ll talk to the kids’ parents first thing tomorrow to make sure they don’t bother you anymore.”

Jaime’s face brightened. “Really? You believe me?”

“Of course I do.”

“It’s just that… the colonel would get mad at me before hearing my side. It’s nice to hear you listen to me, Auntie.”

“So the colonel would believe the words of other people without first hearing out his own daughter?” I rubbed my chin. “I see. I’ll make sure to talk to him when he gets back. Just remember, you can always come to me and I’ll listen.”

The next day, I made it a point to stick up for Jaime and talk to the parents of the children that were picking on her. They made a fuss about it first by saying Jaime would be the type of child to attack their kids. But they went quiet after I pointed out how it was suspicious that she would suddenly start causing trouble when the colonel was gone after she had been behaving all these years.

Ilias seemed to have the maturity of an adult. I started to lose confidence as a parent. I wanted to scold him, teach him lessons, and show my side as a mother, but I rarely got a chance to do any of that. Jaime, unlike my son, was a normal kid—which meant I got to do that with her.

After the bullying incident, Jaime seemed to be more well-behaved. She never caused any trouble around the village and she would always ask me for things if she needed help or advice.

I can’t help but notice that she kind of mimics a kid version of me.

Around three weeks after the Capital party left, I was startled in the morning while reheating last night’s leftovers. I found Jaime growing anxious in her bed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I lit the candles in her room.

“I don’t know how, but I think I’m bleeding.” She got off and pulled the blankets to reveal the sheets soaked in crimson. “I woke up and the bed was just covered in blood. My stomach hurts.”

Ray is so lucky that he doesn’t have to go through this.

“Jaime, has this happened before?”

She shook her head.

“Did the colonel… tell you what a period is?”

She shook her head.

I spent the next half hour explaining what a menstrual cycle was and everything that came along with it. “It hurts a lot now. But you’ll get used to it.”

“So, this means my body can bear a child now?”

“Yes, but obviously you’re too young to have one.” I gave her a succulent pad. “Clean yourself up and use this. I’ll change your sheets.”

Me acting like her mother is so natural. I can’t believe it was so close to being like this. If things had gone down differently, Ilias and Jaime would’ve been step-siblings.

Around the time I was due to give birth to Ilias, a three-month half-elf girl with green hair appeared on my front porch with a note.

Hello, my name is Jaime Fontoya. My father is an elf and my mother is a terran. Please take care of me.

Ray convinced me to let him take care of Jaime until I had given birth to Ilias and recovered enough to take care of two children.

That was the plan.

While I was recovering, however, Ray had gotten attached to the green-haired girl. By the time I was ready to take her back, he made the big decision to adopt Jaime.

He rushed into my office once. “Trisha! Look! Jaime said her first words. Jaime, can you say it again?”

“Colo-nel!” the infant would babble.

He had a crib brought into the library so he could watch her while working. Every milestone she achieved was in that building so there was no wonder why she hated it there. Soldiers would often drop by to receive or ask for orders and I think Jaime picked up on their habits. Ray was her father, but since everyone around her kept calling him colonel while she was at such a young age, she started, and to this day, still continued calling him that.

The only reason why Ilias called him colonel was out of respect, even though I would much prefer it if he called him uncle.

But everything about Ray’s amazement with Jaime turned into regret by the time she could walk. She would always cause trouble and it fell on him to clean up after her. That, along with his busy schedule, meant she was too much he could handle.

By the time she turned four, he said he may have bit more than he could swallow.

I had a feeling he wanted me to take her in like what we had originally planned, but I would’ve declined. He made the choice to take care of her and he should take it seriously. Besides, Jaime had already lost her blood parents and if Ray all of a sudden gave her up, she would be broken emotionally.

Thankfully, Ray never asked me to do such a thing.

What I learned from Jaime during her stay was that she was a misunderstood child who was given a label because no one listened to her. She just had a hard time communicating her feelings, but once she overcame that, I’d come to learn that she had the ability to be an angelic child.

Don’t worry Jaime. I’ll give the colonel a good talking to when he comes back.