Chapter 7: Loss of Family
Yeah know, people often say that you don’t know how good you have it till you lose it. Aisling was hating that phrase right about now. The funds from her father had been more than she had thought. Now that he wasn’t here, they were barely scraping by.
The taxes have gone up in recent months. It was taking all of their money and mother was starting to have to use the food they stored for winter in order to be able to feed them. It was rather infuriating to Aisling as she knew why this was happening.
If one were to ask her if she wanted this stupid war to end to see the taxes relent, she would agree. It was getting bad. There really was no inflation at least, that was good. There was a great amount of construction going on in Dublin, the home of the duke the controlled the whole of Ireland.
The duke had once been the Royal King of Ireland, but had fallen to invaders. The English needed the land that the Irish had to grow food. They also wanted the secret recipe of Royal Mythril.
She was ten years old now. Father had been gone for about a year now. She had just had her birthday yesterday. But without Kaelin or father it simply felt empty. Her niece was wondering where her father was, and Aisling had to tell her that her dad wasn’t going to be back for another long while.
She walked down the street without her little sister. She had gone to the market without her this time. This was so she could actually get into some trouble without her being involved.
A group of men had been following the girls for a while now. Said group of men were four in number and had been watching and stalking the girls for about two weeks. Aisling found this rather strange that a group of grown men were following a little girl every day.
She simply thought they were mistaken about her identity at first. She thought they thought that she was someone important to Sylvia or the Baron. That was what anyone would think after all.
Or maybe she was being stalked because they thought she had money. It was as simple as that in reality. Many people don’t have money right now because of the increase in taxes. She looked to an alleyway off of the main street and walked down it.
In the alleyway there were a multitude of homeless people. Several of them looked at her and sighed. Some of them had had homes not too long ago. But the tax hike had forced them out.
When she went deep enough into the alleyway she turned around and spotted them. She expected people dressed in suspicious garb. But the men were wearing normal looking clothes and seemed to be the average person in every sense of the word.
It was just that they had the look of desperation in their eyes. It seemed that they were here simply to rob her. She rolled her neck and gripped the hilt of her sword. She kept it hidden on her back behind her coat.
The temperature was starting to drop, and she and her sister had started to wear their winter garb. It was a rather thick and heavy winter coat the color of coal. The crooks pulled Knives out of their pockets and pointed them at her.
“We don’t want to do this kid. But we have no money to spend on booze or women. Give us whatever you have in that coat, and we will let you go,” the middle man begged.
It seemed like she would have to tell these men not to spend all their money on booze and women. Many single men that had no future or were simply to broke to be able to make sure their wives were happy, usually spent their money on stuff like that.
She was not going to feel bad about this beatdown.
Before they could react, she ran forward. Stabbing at the middle man. She aimed her blade for his ear. This was so she didn’t hurt him too much. He dropped his knife and fell onto his rear end.
The next closest man looked and this and decided that he had pretty good odds at winning. Like, she was just a prodigy at swordplay, how good could she really be? He failed as he held his knife in a reverse grip and tried to stab the young girl’s head from the top.
She dodged to the side and stabbed him in the forearm. She pulled the blade from his arm as he started to scream. He fell back and ran out of the alleyway. The two other men gawked at this. They too felt as though this was a fight they could win together though.
By the end of the fight, she had three grown men groveling at her feet. These grown men had given her all of their remaining money. She needed the money so she could pay the increased taxes. She went home a happy kitty. But when she got there, that happiness slipped away.
For the Tax collector had arrived. And something outrageous was happening. That something was Sarah.
…
“Get off of him Sarah! What is wrong with you? Pay your taxes like a normal woman and not with whatever this was supposed to be!” Aisling shouted at her sister-in-law.
Aisling had to separate Sarah and the Tax collector from each other as she had tried to pay the taxes with her body. This was going to be a long day. If she was being honest, she would have been fed up with Sarah’s shenanigans.
Aisling was contemplating taking her niece from Sarah. But she had to stay strong. Her niece was young, and she needed a mother figure. She needed her mother. It was heart breaking to think this way.
She had openly expressed how much she missed her husband. She had told Aisling herself that she was missing their nights together. How much she was made whole by Kaelin.
It was rather eye opening for her. As someone who had never had a lover or girlfriend in their past life, Aisling was rather shocked to hear how much she missed her husband.
It made her think of how lonely her mother was in comparison to Sarah. The thought of her perfect mother silently suffering was enough to send shivers down her spine. She even got the sense that her mother might have done something like this if she weren’t so mature.
Aisling thought of Sarah as a sister at this point. It was rather strange to see her so broken and out there about how she felt without Kaelin. It made her wonder why she would do something like this.
Maybe it was simply because she missed him so much that she wanted to feel like how she felt with him with other men? Maybe it was because of the fact that the oppressive taxes and weight on her mind with her husband’s safety pushed her to do dumb and often idiotic things?
In all likelihood, it was probably because of the stress of the all of the factors that pushed her to do this. Aisling looked at the Tax collector and threw the bag of coins at his feet. He nodded at her and took the money.
She looked back at the seemingly emotionally broken woman and sighed.
“You can’t throw yourself at people like that. You have a daughter and a husband. Sure, that husband is at war right now, but you still have to stay strong here for him. What will my brother think of his wife if she sells herself like that?” she asked.
Sarah looked at her sister-in-law and deadpanned. Her mind was a cloud of painful emotions at those words. She didn’t even know how to respond.
“And this is our house. You do not even pay taxes here. What are you doing here? What Business do you have here? Did you come here to ask for money? What is it that you want? I’m not even sad or disappointed anymore. I’m just angry that you would even do that,” Aisling railed into her.
She flinched at her own words. She was truly angry, but in all honesty, she didn’t even mean for it to sound that bad. She simply wanted to get her point across, but it came out angry and loud.
Sarah stood up and started to cry. First it came as a drizzle, then a downpour. She crumpled to her knees and kept choking back the worst of her sobs. Aisling rushed over and grabbed her in her arms. She rubbed the older woman’s back and cooed.
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“It’s all right, my brother would have forgiven you. Now let it all out,” she said, rubbing her back.
“Sniffle- I miss him so much! -sniffle- you can’t even know what it feels like! -sniffle- to not have him in bed next to you! -sob- I miss him so much!” she sobbed.
Aisling looked at the face of her sister-in-law. She had tears running down her face. She had snot starting to drip down her face and she was about ready to start pouring tears again.
Aisling kissed her cheek as if she was trying to make a child feel better. She had lived more years than her sister-in-law, at least chronologically. This made her feel as if Sarah was her younger sister instead of an older one.
She hugged her surrogate older sister and sighed. She continued to rub the older woman’s back while she whaled for her love. The two of them didn’t even know what his fate would be in this war.
He may die, he may live. Little did the two girls know that this wasn’t the end of their worries. Fate had decided that pain was the road that this family would walk on. Fate had decreed that death was to be their travel companion.
That was all a fancy way of saying that they didn’t have much happiness left in this world. Sorrow was to be the whip that drove them forward. Anger was to be the food that fueled the little girl that held her sister in her arms. Anger and hatred were to be her driving force in the years to come.
Hours of this embrace passed by. Aisling grew a bit hungry, and she looked at the clock that hung from the dining room wall. It was only 5:00. Sarah should probably go home by now.
Or maybe the young mother of one should eat here with her daughter. That would be a much better idea. Then they could let her mind be at ease within the presence of family.
“Sarah, its five. My niece is probably hungry. After all, she is a growing girl. How about you two eat here today, huh? Is that a good idea?” she asked the older woman.
She nodded at this and looked to the door frame that led outside. There, standing in the doorway was her mother. In her hands she held a tarp bag full of dried meat and veggies. She looked at the two girls kneeling and holding each other in their arms and asked something.
“Sarah, may I ask why you are here at such an hour? Your daughter is surly hungry, and it is not good habit to leave one’s child unattended,” she asked the younger woman.
It took a multitude of tries to get her to tell mother why she was here. Aisling didn’t even know why she was here. She had started to cry before she even had a chance to tell them why.
“I came here to talk to you. I just got word that Kaelin is going to go to the front lines! He hasn’t even been to war before, but he has been told to fight in the front before he even see’s blood!” shew balled.
“That’s no good,” mother said, “but we can talk about that once I feed my grandbaby and daughter in law. Aisling, would you be a dear and go and grab you niece for me?” she asked.
“OK,” was Aisling’s only response.
As she went out the door she looked back at her mother and sister-in-law. Her mother was helping her up and directing her to the table. Mother looked at Aisling at that moment and beckoned her to go and grab her niece.
…
Dinner went well, Sarah got to tell the whole family about her own feelings. In all honesty, Aisling was getting tuckered out. Her mind felt like it was being swamped out by her sister’s feelings and thoughts.
She felt it weas rather a pity that she didn’t stay up during the whole talk. She looked down at her own food and then leaned back in her chair. She felt like dozing off. And that is exactly what happened. Her head slumped to the right and her body grew still except for the rhythmic breathing of her sleeping chest.
Mother noticed this and stood up. She grabbed her first daughter and pulled her into her arms.
“I think it is getting late. We might have to put Aisling and Athoria to bed. It seems that they can’t take all of your woes and tears. I’ll put them to bed, just keep eating your dinner,” she told her daughter-in-law.
Mother went to the nursery and put Aisling in her own bed and Athoria in Kaelin’s old bed. When she was doing that Sarah sat with her own thots for a bit. She kept repeating the words from the letter in her mind over and over again.
“We are sending this letter to inform you that your husband has been relocated to Rotterdam in Occupied Francia. He will be at this post until the foreseeable future.”
“We are sending this letter to inform you that your husband has been relocated to Rotterdam in Occupied Francia. He will be at this post until the foreseeable future.”
“We are sending this letter to inform you that your husband has been relocated to Rotterdam in Occupied Francia. He will be at this post until the foreseeable future.”
The words kept repeating and repeating. They soon started to change within her mind. Like her fears were starting to grip her. She soon started to get upset and depressed at the new words floating in her head.
Like a broken record player that hadn’t been invented yet, it took on a unnerving tone. Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. Her sight was blinded by her own fears and mixed-up phobias.
“We regret to inform you that your husband and lover has died fighting for the crown, have a wonderful day!”
“We regret to inform you that your husband and lover has died fighting for the crown, have a wonderful day!”
“We regret to inform you that your husband and lover has died fighting for the crown, have a wonderful day!”
She balled her hands into fists and pushed them into her face, covering her eyesight even more and causing it to swim. Strange shapes colored, pink, yellow and purple, danced in that blackened vision.
She let her head drop onto the table and openly sobbed. Soon though, mother came back. As soon as she saw her daughter in but blood only, she walked over and held her in her arms.
“Hush now little one. It would do little good to have the wife of my first-born cry like this, now would it. You can stay in my arms as long as you would like. As long as you need and find my body comforting you can stay here,” she whispered to her daughter.
Sarah simply nodded her head. She had broken down today. She didn’t know how to feel now that her family had seen her like this, but they didn’t seem to mind. As her breathing became more and more even, she slowly drifted away from the land of the conscious and to the land of dreams.
Mother set her back down on the chair she was sitting on and went to her own room and grabbed a blanket from there. She then came back and set it on her daughter in all but blood.
She looked back to her daughter’s room and sighed. It seemed like Alise didn’t want to see her niece. For whatever reason, she got incredibly sad and down whenever she saw her sister-in-law, or her niece. Mother suspected that it was the special magic she weas born with, but who was to say other than the girl herself.
Mother stretched her back and heard a deep crack. She sighed in happiness ands walked to her own room. It was going to be a long and lonesome night for her. She laid down on her own bed and turned around. Her love was supposed to be there. He was supposed to hug her till they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
But he was off in a war, he was not here right now, and he wouldn’t be for the foreseeable future. She sat up again and took off her clothes and set them in her laundry basket. She laid back in bed and pulled the blankets over her head.
…
She was running, from what? She could not tell. It was as if the very thought of what was coming would bring it closer. She panted as if she were a dog, trying to make her body rejuvenated faster so as to run faster.
But that wasn’t how this song and dance would play out. She would die here. She looked around the cave and sighed. This place was to be her resting place. It was to be the place where she made her last stand against whatever it was that was chasing her.
But it was strange. It was almost as if she craved this feeling, in a masochistic sort of way. She pulled her sword from its sheath and stared down the rocky corridor. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She opened them again only to find herself back home.
But it wasn’t home. It was home home, the place where she had spent the first 27 years of her past life living.
‘Why am I here?’ she asked her mind.
The young man now looked around to find the room he had spent his past life in. the wall of cool license plates and posters of cute anime girls was a dead giveaway. It was almost as if he had never left. Never been killed by that falling tree.
And it had found him. The walls closed in on him and his hand went to his belt where he kept his sword. But then he remembered that was him, that was Aisling. That was her life’s work; her trade was the sword.
The thing closed in on the door. Loud banging could be heard. The thing was nearly here. He could feel his death in his bones. And then the door broke. Light spilled in the room.
…
Aisling woke up to a dull morning, except this morning was going to be anything but dull. She got out of bed and stretched. She then walked over to her sister’s bed and shook her awake.
Her sister woke up with a start and stared at Aisling as if she was making sure that shew was real. She simply looked at Alise funny in response and went to the door.
Going out into the hallway, she moved herself as if she was merely a puppet on strings. For the dream she had left her feeling depressed and used up. Moving her way to the kitchen she rolled her neck and a loud pop echoed around the room.
She went over to the sink and poured herself a cup of water and guzzled it down. The cool water filled her throat and mind. It cleared her. She could think now. Think through the weird dream she had.
“What was that dream?” she questioned out loud, “It didn’t feel like a nightmare, but it was a nightmare; So strange.”
Mother soon went back into the house. She had gone out to grab some firewood so as to start that oven. The oven extended into the fireplace. Father had built the oven and fireplace like that so they could save heat in the cold mornings of winter.
“What nightmare?” mother questioned.
She had only heard the tale end of Aisling’s sentence, so she had to describe the whole thing to her mother. It took about fifteen minutes, but to Aisling, it felt like an eternity. Of course, she couldn’t have told her mother about her past life, but she did tell her about the whole thing.
She had to pretend confusion and make up her whole reaction to section of the dream, but it couldn’t be helped. Mother nodded and set the firewood down into the fireplace. She lit it and stared into the flames as they grew. Today was going to be a long day.
After Alsie came into the room and the three of them had made and eaten breakfast the two girls went outside to do their chores. This included raking the leaves, making the morning pottery as the last weeks had broken down too much to use.
When they had done that and told their mother they were going to play outside after, she let them. Mother knew that the girls would stay safe on their own. They knew about stranger-danger. They knew most of the kids in the neighborhood. It would be safe for them today.
But that was so untrue.