KHALL
Khall settled into his favorite living room chair.
It was dark enough now that the lights of the city were all that was visible outside the large windows. Golden rectangles glittered out as far as he could see. Behind each of them, another person or couple or family was eating or fighting or making love.
That knowledge had made him feel less alone after Xteniya was gone. He knew that every window had a mourning family member behind it. No one on Ulfgard had been spared after the loss of the Women.
And yet they all kept going - scraping and fighting and dragging themselves forward until they learned how to bear the pain, even if it never truly went away.
In some ways, he found it hard to leave this place himself, not so much because of the memories of her, which he would carry with him for the rest of his life. But because of the city itself, which reminded him how to keep going.
April teaches us how to keep going.
Sun gods, but the girl seemed to know instinctively what each of them needed.
Xteniya, did you send her to me?
But Xteniya couldn’t answer him. She was in Vallagard, if the legends were right, feasting on delicacies and celebrating her reward with the other warrior women for the rest of time. She would never advise him again.
In the beginning, it had been hard not to resent her for it. Though he knew she had done something heroic. They all had.
“Dad?” Minerva’s voice came to him from across the room.
Had he really lost himself so thoroughly in his thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed her come in?
“I asked April to send you because I wanted to know what you thought about that job offer I got,” he told her, indicating the sofa.
She sat across from him, eyeing him solemnly, as if he had just asked her to judge whether someone should live or die. There was something clutched in her hands.
It hit him that April was right - she was proud to be asked for her thoughts.
“If I wanted to take the job, we would have to move,” he told her. “We wouldn’t be in the city anymore. We’d have to be close to the palace. That would mean a new school for you.”
“I’ve already finished all the required coursework for secondary,” Minerva said quietly. “I could go straight to university without doing next semester at all.”
“Really?” he asked. “I knew you were taking extra classes, but I thought it was just because you enjoyed them.”
How had this happened without him knowing about it?
“I do enjoy them,” she said quickly, her eyes shining. “I just wanted you to know that you wouldn’t be disrupting me if we moved. And we would have more space - room for dancing and everything - just like we always wanted.”
Room for dancing?
“That’s true,” he said, smiling at her already wanting space for dancing after one day of being brave enough to try. He was proud of her.
“And then, maybe one day, I could work with you,” she said, suddenly shy.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
She twisted the papers she was clutching in her hands.
“Are those college brochures?” he asked, amused that she would be nervous.
He knew she wouldn’t want to live with him forever, but maybe she would agree to virtual classes just for her first semester or two. He wasn’t ready to give her up just yet.
“Not quite,” she said, placing them on the coffee table and smoothing them out. “I know it’s not what you thought I would do with my life, but it’s what I want. April said I should talk to you about it.”
He gazed down and it took a minute for his mind to recognize what he was looking at.