Sir Eadric shook his hands in a gesture of denial as a look of fear appeared on his face. “If you plan to get the money from your father, then I’ll have to refuse payment. I’m already being paid a salary by Count Armond; it would be terribly improper for me to take more money from him.”
“You insult me, Sir Eadric,” I said with a wolfish grin. Among the other denizens of Sableton, I still changed my way of speaking slightly. Eadric was different. He had seen my true face before I was even seven years old. He knew something was wrong within this child’s brain and he had come to accept that fact. “I intend to earn those three gold pieces by selling the product that I was able to develop with the help of your generous contribution.”
We soon arrived back at Feldrast Manor. I waved to Eadric as we split up on the outskirts of the property. Eadric left to enter through the back entrance while I moved toward the front entrance.
As I walked through the large garden in front of the manor, I heard my mother talking. A trellis covered in hanging vines separated the two of us, so I could hear but not see her.
“You know,” Tabitha Feldrast said, “I was rather pleased that Merrick cried often when he was a baby. He was so expressive; I always knew what he was thinking. Did you know that Thale barely ever smiled when he was a baby? And he never cried. You know… he was always much more advanced than all the other kids. I guess he just never saw any need to cry.” Tabitha laughed at the absurdity of the statement, and her voice was joined by two others. One of the voices was my eldest sister, Solana, and I did not recognize the other.
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“Isn’t it a good thing that Thale’s smart?” This statement was expressed by the voice I didn’t recognize. Based on the context of the situation, the voice could only have belonged to Ethel Koravin, the wife of Riomed Koravin. “All of his teachers say he’s a genius. He’s the only one that can compete with my Nina, you know. I, for one, am happy that the next Count is showing signs of greatness so early.”
As she spoke, the speaker’s identity became more and more clear to me. Yeah, that was definitely Aunt Ethel. I hadn’t heard her speak very often, but I distinctly recalled her tendency to put her foot in her mouth. She frequently spoke more than she should and often ended up offending those to whom she spoke.
“Perhaps,” Tabitha said. “I know that I should feel happy for him, but… Well, I just feel like he never had the chance to be a kid.”
Ironically, she was completely correct. I was not a kid, and I had no particular desire to live through a second childhood. I certainly did not want to relive Thale’s childhood. I knew how that turned out.
As I thought about the utter monster Thale turned into, I was struck by a surge of melancholy. He must have been a normal kid tortured by an ailing body and the unexpected deaths of two parents. He was only sixteen years old when he became the Count of Northwind, and he was only twenty years old when he died. Considering that I was forty-five when I died, the old Thale was still basically a kid to me. It was such a shame that so much potential could be squandered like that.
I physically struck myself in the forehead.
What? That wasn’t me. I didn’t feel strongly about the tragedy of the original Thale Feldrast. I was honestly more emotionally affected by the death of Miriam. She had never done anything wrong; she had never hurt a fly, as evidenced by her healing potential. Yet, the original Thale Feldrast threw her away like yesterday’s trash. No, the feeling I felt toward the original was not melancholy. Something within my mind was affecting my emotions and thought processes.
I dispelled the echoes of melancholy from my brain and stepped into the garden.