The Rainlords dispersed, but no one left the castle just yet. Everyone promised to call around for any available reapers. Mariana almost told them not to bother, but the desperation of her circumstances had begun to weigh on her, finally. And in the past couple hours, her trust for everyone in that room had grown immeasurably.
In truth, even after all these years, even after giving birth to five new Rainlords, she’d never quite felt like a Rainlord herself. She’d only married into the title, not been born with it.
But today, she felt it. That companionship. Ancient and bloody and fierce and warm. And so very welcome.
The rest of the day drew out slowly. Mariana waited as long as she could, spent as much time with her daughters as she could, and hoped silently that someone would walk through that door with a reaper for Marcos. But no one did.
The girls had been quiet, perhaps afraid to ask their questions, perhaps just knowing that their mother would talk to them in her own time. Mariana thought at length about what she should say to them, what her last words should be.
It wasn’t easy.
“You will be safe here. I wouldn’t leave you if I thought otherwise. Red Lake is one of the most secure castles in all of Sair.” Mariana paused, her expression spoiling slightly. “But I don’t know what the future holds. Something could happen. Even if I remained here with you, something could happen. Do you remember what I taught you? The most important lesson?”
“Always be prepared,” Ramira piped up.
Mariana smiled tiredly. “Yes.”
“Think, plan, and act ahead of time,” added Emiliana.
“That’s right. You are smart girls. I have confidence in you both. Look out for one another. Listen to one another. And protect each other. Do you understand? The time for childishness is past. It is unfair, but both of you must grow up quickly now. That means you will have to give up on many of the things you desire. Possibly forever. You will come to accept this, or you will get someone killed. Perhaps someone you love very dearly. Perhaps yourself. Perhaps both.”
The looks on their faces were stern, and Mariana knew they understood. Or hoped they did, at least.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
That's a great motto, except that Mariana and Zeff utterly failed to live by it. As a potential target to violence, they should have known that one of theirs might become victim to an attack and die. They should have had a bunch of unpaired reapers on call for exactly this situation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry. I don't think Mariana can do anything that will make me like her again.
How exactly would you keep a reaper without a servant on call? Can't give them a cell phone and they can't check email. That is the whole point of these last few chapters. Solo reapers would have to be hunted down and that takes time.
ReplyDeleteWhat i am interested in is, what happens when a servant is released. Does the soul just disintegrate or would it be like death all over again. If the soul behaves as if the person just died, then why can't the one reaper take turns keeping the soul intact? Take on the boy for a few hours wile other reapers hold his mothers soul, then switch off, back and forth until a reaper is found.
Alright, "on call" isn't a good description for it, sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant was this: With time and effort, they can find unpaired reapers. They found Chergoa after all. They know they're going to turn their children into servants anyway, so to be well prepared, they should have started searching for a reaper as soon as possible.
I am not saying that I expected the Elroys to have this kind of precaution in place. But consider this motto. They're saying that they are always prepared, and needing a reaper seems like a pretty standard thing in their world. They should have been prepared.
Consider real life. For a regular family, there are things that might happen with a certain probability. Children get hurt, so you have a first aid kit at home and maybe a doctor on speed dial. Things break, so you have spare parts. Someone might break into your house, so you have alarm systems and maybe a gun. You know, things that might happen and that you can prepare for.
Now imagine the Elroys. The regular things that can happen to your family include attacks and a 100% chance of your children becoming servants. This is NORMAL in their world. Needing a reaper isn't some unlikely event, this WILL happen sooner or later. And they are not prepared.
And one thing that bugs me even more. They claim to be prepared, but they never bothered to name guardians for their children if something should happen to them both? This is something that regular people do in real life, and the Elroys, who fight in life and death situations every other day, never bothered to do so? Mariana just handed over custody of her children to a bunch of people whose loyality she wasn't even sure of ten minutes ago. Well prepared indeed...
Firstly, they DO know of other reapers, as Shenado stated:
ReplyDelete‘We all know reapers who could fill the role,’ said Shenado. ‘The problem is contacting them in time. Do you have a solution to that, Mevox?’
Zeff and Mariana already had reapers in mind for both Marcos and Ramira. But those reapers are not going to just wait around, twiddling their thumbs for the next two and five years, respectively. I guess you could say, then, that the Elroys should just kill their children at an EVEN younger age in order to convert them into servants, but... haha, well, that's broaching a different issue. Also, geez.
Secondly, it was never stated that they didn't have legal guardians lined up. Mariana is asking the Rainlords to "watch over" her children--as in protect them from the people who are trying to kill or capture them, not to just make sure her kids get to school on time or brush their teeth at night. That's a big difference.
Officially, their legal guardians would be Joana and her husband, as she she is their closest living relative. Zeff and Mariana have both signed off on that in their wills in the event that anything should happen to them.
But...what about the sacrifice of her life for her son. Technically, she was attacked by her allies. People she would never expect. But what happened, all her daughters got away and Cisco did his duty
ReplyDelete(which was out of her control ) . Sure the kid died but it was an accident from (again) one of her allies.
why cant reapers just 'farm' for a great power. just keep getting a new servant until you get one with a pretty awesome power
ReplyDeleteThey can. You may remember Garovel telling Hector back in the First Oath about his contempt for reapers who do that. Besides, just about any power can become awesome on the hands of a clever and dedicated servant.
ReplyDeleteAnd so begins...the Tear Jerker scene...
ReplyDelete