Adelinde first took him to Aurik’s house when he was six—not too long before they met Tara, actually. According to things he’s overheard Adelinde and Rene talking about since, the decision wasn’t easy but had to be done; Matteo did technically own the house, as Aurik’s closest relative, and Adelinde decided she was more-or-less just putting off the inevitable.
She told him the story behind Aurik’s death in small chunks. Adelinde never gave him any hope of thinking his father was alive, but she always assured him that Mark—and eventually Rene—were there in Aurik’s place. Matteo couldn’t exactly remember what he thought happened to Aurik, but nonetheless he actually looked forward to going to the Qrian house.
Adelinde warned him of spiders and dust when they entered, the long entrance hallway boring him until he noticed an open door that gave view to a piano. Matteo immediately went to the instrument, running his hand over the covered keys—it was a small upright piano, like the ones in the conservatory or the music district, instead of the grand pianos they had at the palace or in their current house.
Matteo, after brushing off the dust on his hands, sat on the bench and tried to open the cover to play it. Adelinde—he couldn’t tell if she was amused or distant, honestly, but he knew it must not have been easy for her—walked over to the piano and helped him, then stepped away again as soon as Matteo started playing.
Adelinde wandered over to a small bookshelf on one wall while Matteo continued to play. He wasn’t sure how—random six year old thought process, probably—but at some point a certain idea came to mind and he stopped playing, looking over at his mother.
“Was Dad a bad person?”
The only thing he knew at the time was that Aurik had died. Adelinde told him when he was eight that he was executed. Somehow, he went until he was fourteen before anyone told him why. The man was detested enough by most of San Asari—even if they only knew him as ‘that noble who attacked the former queen’—and was barely known outside of San Asari that it must’ve just been a silent agreement to never explain why he died. Either that, or the whole city stayed quiet to make sure Matteo heard it from Adelinde. One or the other.
He remembered—very distinctly—that Adelinde completely froze. A part of it was that, being ignorant to his father’s crimes, he actually called him what most of his friends called their fathers; another part, most likely, was that Adelinde didn’t expect to hear the question. Him asking meant that he was noticing his life differed from his friends’—that he could recognize patterns in the way Aurik was brought up in conversation.
“Aurik…did some bad things.” She never actually said ‘your father’ unless she was speaking fondly of him. “His priorities were not what they should have been. If they were different, then our family would likely look a bit more…standard, I will admit, although what we have now is perfect.”
Adelinde turned towards Matteo, giving him a kind look. “Why do you ask?”
“Well…” For a six year old, he spoke as carefully as he could. “Grandpa and Grandma are dead, but you and Uncle still talk about them. But when you talk about Dad, everyone gets all…frowny. Like he did something bad.”
Adelinde hesitated long enough for Matteo to think he could read her expression, and in his childlike self-centered anxiety he lost all caution.
“Was Dad bad because of me?”
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Adelinde’s expression changed to that kind of guilt Rene wore when she had a really painful migraine that kept her in her room—complete with the same slight annoyance at oneself that he only recognized later.
She didn’t take nearly as long to consider her response as she did before, walking over to him and bending down so she was at eye level.
Firm but almost gentle, she assured him, “It had nothing to do with you. Aurik’s…choices were a result of his own beliefs. No matter what anyone says, it wasn’t you, even if circumstances could lead people to believe otherwise.”
Looking back on it, he had…mixed feelings; while Matteo himself didn’t cause it—he wasn’t even born yet—the fact he would exist did. He knew Adelinde didn’t lie per se, but mainly due to that first influence he didn’t think he would fully understand what Aurik was even thinking. Literally no one he knew even bothered to defend him.
“Don’t worry about your father,” Adelinde said, smiling a bit. “You will never become what he did. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, please let me know.”
“Okay,” Matteo replied obediently. “I will.”
“Thank you.” Adelinde stood up, then must have decided the conversation was enough of an adventure for the day. “Why don’t we go see if your uncle’s working?”
Matteo cheered up instantly, and his memory of that day ended.
…
Matteo didn’t regularly go to the Qrian house until Adelinde told him how Aurik died. He considered that to be when he was allowed to, since Aurik’s things were still scattered around the place.
He came again and, since it was his, just made a point to clean it up a bit. His first task was to clean out the dust and cobwebs, then figure out how Aurik had decided to arrange everything. At least whoever combed through it after his death took out any perishables.
By then he had schoolwork in the actual building, but it kept him busy on the days none of his friends could hang out and he finished what he needed to for school. Eventually he made his way to the second floor, finding only two bedrooms. The first one he opened must have been Aurik’s.
It was about the size of Matteo’s in their house; a double bed sat on one side, with a chair next to the dresser. Despite his instincts telling him not to, he stepped further in to investigate a violin case by the chair, taking note of the open score book.
He moved the case to the chair and opened it, pictures hiding underneath the violin. He moved it and paused.
Photos of Adelinde and Aurik. Why was he surprised?
He closed it again, not quite embarrassed but something. He looked around for a kind of distraction—for something else to think about other than why Aurik wasn’t there—and noticed a few books sitting on the dresser as well.
Matteo went over to the books, expecting music theory but instead finding detailed accounts of places Aurik went. Two books were written before he met Adelinde, based on the dates; the third was after, but incomplete.
The contents were…a bit fascinating, honestly. It didn’t help him understand the man any better, but it did give him a good idea of what traveling around would be like. The little anecdotes and excerpts from and legends reminded him, vaguely, of when Rene would tell him stories.
Matteo didn’t immediately tell Adelinde out of fear she might not take kindly to it, but those dusty old books—and similar journals he found after further investigation—actually did inspire him to pursue a different hobby than just talking with friends.
Even if he would eventually have to stay at the palace, it wouldn’t hurt to see and understand the rest of Dakari as well. It only took a few months before that turned into fascination with other nations and their folk tales, but he never gained the same kind of desire for ‘a new nation’ that Aurik’s journals mentioned so often—if only because both Adelinde and Rene made it clear that it was a place of pure fantasy. Matteo didn’t want any part in something Aurik had been willing to kill for.