Little Blind Mice [Bee]

[Dark]

Expectation was a living, breathing thing; Raniya's skin crawled at the snap and crinkle of the paper as it was folded and then set aside, the noise deafening in the quiet shrouding the kitchen. Her mother's voice broke through the silence effortlessly, low and even, as if the tension hadn't ever been there to begin with. Raniya envied her mother that ability on occassion.

"It's very nice to meet you Helena. Allow me to give proper introductions. I am Fehima, this is my husband Jabr, my son Hadi, and my daughter Anisa--" as they were introduce, the family member in question murmured in greeting, allowing their guest to put name to voice, "Could I perchance interest you in a cup of tea?"

Raniya twitched, impatient; they weren't here for pleasantries. It was rather refreshing to have her family behaving for once, though, and she took a brief moment to enjoy it before plowing forward.

"Could we speak alone?"

[Bee]

The clamor of voices was pleasant; they sounded like nice enough people. Helena gave a friendly little wave in what she assumed was their general direction, and then waited for something to happen.

Surely enough, it did. Niya requested some alone time, and the rest of the family seemed happy to oblige. She heard movement, of the father--Jabr--saying something about him and the kids getting out of the room, and then another shuffle as him and Niya's siblings exited.

Soon it was just the three of them, dead quiet. Helena shifted her weight from right to left uncomfortably. She had never really done well with silences, and now that she couldn't see, she felt even more dependent on noise to assure her that she was still part of the universe, connected firmly to the rest of the world.

So, to fill the void, she took the initiative of speaking, uncertainly: "I have...a couple of questions, if it wouldn't be...too much trouble."

[Dark]

Raniya had the feeling her mother knew exactly what questions Helena wanted to ask, and had probably know since they'd walked in the front door. It was easy to forget that beneath the dreamy, soft-spoken exterior her mother was a retired professor of no small renown; the woman had a mind like a trap and the uncanny ability to see straight through a person. Raniya always knew to exit quickly whenever she felt that assessing gaze land of her.

"You may ask, but I'm afraid that you won't be pleased with the answers that you receive here today, Helena, or that they will be of any particular good. The curse upon you is of darker things than to be broken so lightly."

Raniya frowned, tilting her head in the direction she knew Helena to be, and wondered what exactly it was her mother saw when she looked at Helena.

[Bee]

Helena wilted. Darker things. What could there possibly be in the world that was darker than whatever curse made parents here bind their children?

She thought, then, of her youngest brother. Mad, pupil-free green eyes. She supposed there were worse curses.

For a moment she couldn't summon words. She had come all this way for bad news. Fantastic. Just her luck.

I love....

She forcibly shoved Simcha's voice out of her mind, soft and comforting though it was. She was tired of Simcha's love. Simcha wasn't a person. Simcha was a voice in her head. She didn't love manifestations of her madness, or her curse.

She said, "You know about it, then, at least? Right?" Broken lightly. Maybe she was just grasping at straws, but the wording seemed to imply that it at least could be broken. Somehow.

[Dark]

"Not of it in particular, but of curses like it," Fehima paused for a moment, "I'm afraid the only real answers you will receive are from the pelt around your neck."

Raniya didn't feel that was probably the answer Helena was looking for, and could her mother get any more vague, but her mother seemed to realize this and continued gently:

"The study of curses can take a lifetime and more. Torquehelm is no exception; even as a freed citizen, I could not quite tell you the specifics of our curse." There was a long pause, and Raniya had the distinct impression her mother was looking at her; bitterness swelled in her throat.

"With the exception of sheer blind luck, I'm afraid you will have to uncover just who that particular rabbit was in life before you have any hope of understanding its and your curse." There was the sound of rummaging, "I have a colleague in the Capital that might be able to help you. I have his address, somewhere."

[Bee]

Well, Toquehelm had been a depressing bust, then. Helena sighed deeply. Even if Raniya's mother had somehwere they could potentially go for assistance, she had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to amount to little more than a dead end. She wasn't going to get any answers out of Simcha, either. The little bunny was a wimpering little mess who couldn't even get out complete sentences most of the time, let alone answer any inquiries Helena might have as to her exact nature.

There was no better option than to follow the woman's lead, though. Helena felt a dry slip of paper being pressed into her paw; she maneuvered it clumsily into her small pouch. She supposed this was the end of her stay in Torquehelm, then. She really didn't want to go back to the Capital alone.

"Niya," she said. "Want to come with me?"

[Dark]

Raniya held her breath, waiting for an objection that didn't come. Her mother, puttering around the kitchen, remained silent.

This was what Raniya wanted; this was the reason she'd even given Helena the time of day. The invitation, the opportunity to escape, it was right in front of her. Raniya hesitated.

Raniya had expected an objection, and she felt oddly bereft in the absence of one. Did the woman care so little? Raniya had spent her entire life listening to the woman's sage advice; why would she remain silent now? She scowled, not particularly caring if her mother saw the expression or not. Did they want her gone that badly? Had pride been the one thing keeping them from speaking?

She gave herself a mental shake; it didn't matter. She was leaving, and she wasn't coming back.

"Of course I'll go."

[Bee]

Helena felt a real stirring of delight. If she wasn't going back to the capital with an answer, at least she wasn't going back alone, and that meant more to her than it probably should. She loathed being alone more than just about anything else.

She nodded in what was probably the general direction of Raniya's mother.

"Thank you for everything," she said. She briefly weighed the pros and cons of two blind people trying to navigate in the relative safety of daylight versus one sighted person able to see whatever terrors lurked in the night leading the other. Well, she had traveled here by night, hadn't she? And she hadn't run into anything too terrible; she should be able to get them back to the capital without incident.

"We'll leave at...nightfall, I think," she said to Raniya. "I'll be able to get around better then."

[Dark]

Raniya didn't particularly care for the idea of delaying their departure, but she couldn't see any way around it. She was blind all of the time and Helena was blind most of the time; they wouldn't get very far past town before they were running into trees, falling down ravines, and walking right into the open maws of whatever nasty beasties might be lurking around. But even though they didn't have any other option, it didn't mean Raniya had to like it.

Hope and dread, knotting in the pit of her stomach. Silence. Still silence. That was fine, it would have to be fine; if her mother had nothing to say to her, than Raniya had nothing to say to her.

"I'll just go pack, then." Raniya climbed the stairs to her room, and shut the door quietly behind her. It didn't take long to empty the contents of her drawers into the knapsack--she had never been keen on possessions.

Her father was in the kitchen when she returned; he kissed her on the top of the head and withdrew, saying nothing. Her mother pressed a small bag into her paw, heavy with coins, "Safe journey."

Raniya gritted her teeth, nodding jerkily, "Well. Let's go."

[Bee]

Helena was getting unpleasant vibes off Raniya, so she made their exit from her house a quick one before more family weirdness could pop up and poison the atmosphere further.

It was a relatively short hop back to the inn at which Helena was lodging to get the small number of items that she had brought along on the trip. She had heard her mother’s horror stories about travel, at least; she knew better than to bring a lot that could easily be stolen. Or lost in a river. Or lost over a cliffside. Or eaten by banders. Helena had never really gotten a lot of that story out of Mom, but it sounded like a surreal trip.

Maybe Mom had just gotten high and made the whole thing up. That seemed just as likely.

“We should get a bite to eat before we go so we don’t have to tote around much food,” she said. She didn’t want to attract…wild things that smelled a free meal. “Any place around here we can do for a nibble? We have time to kill before dark.”