Late July rain limited Matteo’s time to play outside, to the boy’s annoyance. Adelinde still let him run around for an hour or so, but she didn’t want him to stay out long in heavy rainfall; he had a tendency of getting drenched in just a few minutes. Sometimes he seemed determined to go outside in the rain so he had an excuse to change outfits.
Adelinde appreciated the antics—living the kind of stories her mother told of her and Mark—but grew wise to them fairly quickly. As such, while she did let Matteo outside for a while, she led him back inside when the heavier rain started.
“I wasn’t done,” Matteo pouted once inside. He didn’t have any trouble taking off his jacket or shoes, while Adelinde closed her umbrella and sat it aside.
“You can head back out when the rain lightens up,” Adelinde promised. She gave him a smile. “Until then, why don’t we practice on the piano?”
Matteo perked up immediately and Adelinde chuckled. If nothing else, she successfully started a path towards him appreciating music. They practiced consistently since he turned four, and he seemed to enjoy each little session.
He followed her to the music room without any protests, taking a seat behind the piano once she nodded permission. His younger idle tapping faded once lessons started, instead assuming a kind of fully determined and almost reverent expression whenever he sat on the piano bench. It helped that Mark and Rene tended to refer to the actual piano as ‘Adelinde’s,’ so the boy didn’t want to break it.
The pieces of paper with each note was still on the keys, if only because Matteo mostly relied on the visual aid and Adelinde didn’t think he needed to have it all memorized right away. Maybe he didn’t ‘learn’ anything per se as a result, but she valued his ability to have fun with it just as much.
They carried on with a lesson of sorts, Adelinde gently explaining the most common version of the same melody she taught Rene when they first met. She played the six notes, and he repeated after her. The same process continued for a few minutes until there was a knock by the door, prompting both mother and son to look up and smile.
Rene poked her head in, returning their smiles with a sheepish look.
“Did I interrupt?”
“We were finishing up for now,” Adelinde reasoned.
Matteo offered a wave from the piano bench. “Hey Reny!”
“Hey, kid,” Rene said nicely. “Are you being good for your mom?”
“Super good! Snack time good!”
“I never said you could have a snack after this,” Adelinde pointed out, despite a little chuckle negating any actual discontent.
Matteo frowned, but Rene laughed a bit as well.
“Come on, Adelinde, you can let him have something.”
“Spoiling him is Mark’s job.”
“What, future stepmothers can’t spoil just as much as uncles?”
Matteo turned towards Adelinde. “Can I have a snack, please? With you and Reny!”
“All right.” She smiled too widely for her to decline and not be pestered. She had a hard time turning him down if the request was innocent enough.
Matteo cheered, promptly standing up and running out of the music room. Adelinde took a bit more time, offering a kiss to Rene on her way past. They walked to the kitchen, entertaining some small talk on the way.
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“Was work fine today?” Adelinde asked.
“I didn’t have too much trouble,” Rene replied evenly. “I stopped to get some input on the migraines when I was done. Seems like a normal thing for omyn with a lot of mixed blood—something along the lines of Sólstaðuric blood, for example, not really cooperating with the omynic stuff. She gave a list of things that typically help.”
“At least it’s not anything serious,” Adelinde said. She glanced over, noticing Rene’s look. “You still seem a bit worried.”
Rene did what she could to hide it, offering a smile instead that only partially seemed genuine.
“I just don’t want it to last too long and effect anything,” Rene reasoned. She put on a joking expression instead. “I don’t want to plan everything for the wedding just to postpone it at the last second.”
Considering the earlier look didn’t return, Adelinde believed her and nodded. Rene had time to share an anecdote from one of her jobs—she worked two or three on most days, most of them on a ‘when we need you’ basis rather than steady work—before they reached the kitchen. Upon arrival, they were greeted by the few staff and Matteo trying to reach a plate of cookies one of the staff sat out for him.
Adelinde walked a bit closer and gave him one, with Matteo cheering as thanks. She got another one for herself, then picked up a third to pass to Rene as they walked to the sitting room across the hallway. Although Adelinde and Rene sat down on one of the couches with plenty of room for Matteo, the boy opted to sit on the floor in front of it instead.
He leaned back and let his head rest on the couch, lifting up the cookie so he could munch on it.
“Can you tell a story?” Matteo asked, looking at both of them.
“Don’t lean over the couch,” Adelinde said kindly. He nodded, repositioning himself a bit so he was facing them instead, still taking slow, interested bites off his treat; by contrast, Rene ate hers in about four bites almost immediately, and Adelinde hadn’t gotten the chance to start eating it yet. “Thank you. Now, what kind of story do you want to hear?”
“A fun story!” Matteo declared. “With dragons!”
Both of them considered it for a moment, then Rene gave him an amused smile.
“I don’t know any stories with dragons,” she said, “But I do know one about a kijo.”
He frowned a bit. “What’s a kijo?”
Adelinde cast her a curious look. “One of the first island’s creatures?”
Rene nodded, then turned back towards Matteo to explain.
“Oni and kijo are monsters—but you can only find them on the first island.”
“First island..?”
Rene glanced at Adelinde. “You haven’t told him much folk tales yet?”
“It’s…hard for me to mention,” Adelinde admitted. Fortunately, Rene understood.
“I can tell something else if you want.”
“No—go ahead. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story involving the lesser-known creatures there.”
Rene did hesitate for a moment, then murmured some agreement and looked back at the mostly-patiently waiting Matteo.
“Okay, to understand oni and kijo you need to understand the first island,” Rene told Matteo. “The name kind of explains it: ‘first island’—the first place the gods made. Emaya and Bekin made humans for their children, Itoki and Aimiki. Itoki and Aimiki fell in love with two humans, and each couple had one son—Kurokami and Ginshin. The cousins fought over ownership of the island, and started a war; Ginshin and Torigami—Sólstaður’s founding god—made tengu—bird-people, for lack of a better explanation—while Kurokami created kitsune—shapeshifting foxes—and, eventually, Itoki and Aimiki created oni and kijo—strong, human-like beings who always fought.”
Matteo listened in complete fascination. Adelinde could never recall Aurik telling the same story with the same kind of inspiration—he spoke it more as fact, like a fanciful history lesson. He never simplified anything, even when talking to small children. Rene didn’t have any kind of disdain or dissatisfaction like Aurik had, either. She shared the tale the way it was meant to be told: as fiction.
“In the end, neither Kurokami nor Ginshin won the war,” Rene explained. “They were forced to share the island—Kurokami made his nation in the west and Ginshin made his in the east. A long time after that is when my story happens.”
“Forget the kijo story!” Matteo said, smiling, putting the rest of his cookie in his mouth. He finished chewing and swallowing before continuing. “I wanna hear more about that!”
Rene didn’t seem to expect it. “About Kurokami and Ginshin?”
“Mhm! And their nations!”
“I don’t know much else about the creation story, but I know some stories about the important history moments after that?”
“Tell me, tell me!”
Rene looked over at Adelinde for permission, then looked back at Matteo.
“Okay, okay. This is incredibly simplified—I can tell you more when you’re older—but I know one about the first queen of Gin…”