Pollan ended up inviting them to stay as guests with him and his family. They were all lovely people; his parents were welcoming and warm, and his six siblings – three older, three younger – all seemed like responsible, well-mannered young adults and children. Alice was frankly surprised to learn he had such a large and apparently loving family; the book hadn’t mentioned any such thing, and it did feel a bit strange that he was so willing to up and leave them. They certainly seemed like they would be fine without him, though; they were all healthy and strong, and they were clearly wealthy compared to the other townsfolk, with a comfortable house in town and even a stable with two horses. They welcomed Alice and Aurum as if they were expected guests or old friends, inviting them to sit down to a dinner of a rich meat stew with the entire family. It was an odd experience.
What felt especially odd, though, was his family’s blasé reaction to Pollan’s announcement that he planned to leave. It was like a playable character in a game announcing to his family that he had accepted a quest.
“Mother, Father. I’m afraid I have some news.”
Pollan’s parents looked up as though mildly interested in what he might say, expressions polite but a bit detached. They both looked nothing like him apart from his mother’s dark hair and his father's square jaw. He shone like a protagonist should, and they were faded in comparison. His siblings were much the same as they sat watching the exchange from around the table. It was as though Pollan was a bluebird living among a family of sparrows, bright and colorful against their brown and grey feathers.
Pollan took a deep breath. “I’m going to go away for a while. I’ve met Alice and Mura today, and they need my help. I know it is a busy time in the shop, but this is something I need to do. I –”
Pollan’s mother smiled indulgently, her expression making her look a lot more like her son in that moment; it was the same expression Pollan had used on Alice earlier that day. “Of course, son. Your dreams are important. You should follow your heart.”
An awkward silence followed. Pollan’s father took another bite of his stew. One of Pollan’s brothers stood to refill the water jug, chair scraping loudly on the wooden floor.
“Well. Yes. Thank you, mother.”
She smiled again, nodding and then turning back to her dinner. It took a few more minutes for conversation to start again, one of Pollan’s youngest sisters – she looked to be about twelve – chattering about something her friend had said during a lesson that day. No one asked Pollan any questions about where he was going, or for how long. No one engaged Alice or Aurum in any sort of discussion of why they needed Pollan’s help, or tried to learn more about who these strangers were who planned to take their Pollan away.
They acted like NPCs, largely uninterested and seeming as though the news barely affected them. At first, Alice thought it might be some insidious force of the plot – perhaps this was an artificial world, and the aspects outside the main plot were glossed over even as you lived through it? But that thought left her mind when she happened to look at Pollan’s face a moment later. He looked quietly despairing and unbearably lonely. After a minute, he noticed her scrutiny and met her eyes with an expression of forced cheerfulness which would have easily fooled Alice if she hadn’t been watching him before.
Oh. He’s lonely. Suddenly his pompousness from before made more sense to her. It was a mask he put on to seem less vulnerable. He spent his time connecting with others who were isolated, bringing them superfluous items as a reason to check in on them and perhaps a reason to feel a bit less lonely himself. His expression of despair from before overlapped with Alice’s own memories of her previous life, and her heart ached for him. She put a hand on his arm, a quiet gesture of support. He started at first before smiling at her, the expression gentler and more sincere than before.
“Eh-hem.” Someone cleared their throat roughly, and Alice looked away with a start to see Aurum staring at her with a look of angry disapproval. It seemed as though she had not come to the same conclusions about Pollan that Alice just had. That makes sense, I suppose. She is still suspicious of him. This might actually make him seem more suspicious, like he enchanted a family to think he was their son and spy on the town looking for Aurum… In the book, the princess had weeks to warm up to the hero. She’s only had an afternoon, not to mention my prophesizing has put her on edge.
Glumly, Alice nodded at Aurum, trying to appease her. It did not seem to work, so in the end she simply turned back to her dinner, memories of her uncle and cousin swirling painfully through her mind for the rest of the evening as they finished their meal and went to bed. Her dreams were no better.
“Pathetic. Hannah was able to learn this in a year, and you’ve been studying the violin for two and you can barely perform this piece. You can’t attend the recital like this. We will have to tell them you are ill. I won’t be associated with your poor performance.”
Her uncle’s voice was harsh, but no harsher than usual. After six months with him, Alice was already numbed to it. His words barely stung, even though she still felt a dull ache of disappointment at his fresh rejection of her. But missing the recital was hardly a disappointment. Alice knew that if she had gone to the recital, he would never have been happy with her. It wasn’t really a proper recital. Her violin tutor taught a lot of children from wealthy families, and the event was minor part of a larger banquet. For her uncle, it was meant to be a place for him to show off his charitable spirit by displaying the polished ward he had so selflessly taken in when her parents had passed on the day she turned six.
Six-year-old Alice had not been crafty enough to purposefully err in her performance just then, but the relief she felt was so strong she wondered if that might have been the best option. She was just a child, after all, and she had been to a banquet like this already, even though she had never performed anything before. The idea of all of the looming, vaguely predatory faces of her uncle’s peers watching her as she played terrified her.
Her uncle kept berating her, and the dream shifted. Now she was seventeen, on the honor roll at school, her academic awards clutched in her hands as she stared hesitantly at her phone. Adult Alice watched dream Alice, feeling an odd sort of resentment toward herself. She had never learned at all, had she? Even there, eleven years later, eleven years after she had sensed as a child that no level of achievement would earn her any sort of love or acceptance from her uncle, there she was, still stuck fighting the temptation to seek it out.
She already knew she would cave and send her uncle a message. She couldn’t remember exactly what she had written back then, only that it was short, and that her uncle had never replied. Half a year later, he had washed his hands of her entirely, and she was completely alone.
Aurum POV
Aurum had been restless, unable to fall asleep. Pollan’s family had given her and Alice a small guest room to share, and she tossed and turned on a twin bed by the window while Alice slept in one by the door. Eventually, Aurum gave up and just stared at the moon visible through the glass, too bright and too hopeful. She hated it. Here she was, sleeping in what was very likely the enemy’s home, while her family was struggling. Or worse.
Shying away from that thought and the darkness behind it, she turned her head roughly to the side, only to see Alice’s face turned towards her. The moonlight shone on her face, lighting up the tears that were trickling silently down her cheeks. It occurred to Aurum how very little she knew about Alice. Alice, who claimed to know everything about her. Alice, who had saved her. Alice, who might be lying to her.
Alice stirred fitfully, clearly struggling against some sort of nightmare. Aurum stood and walked over quietly, kneeling by the bed. Gently as she could, she wiped the tears from Alice’s face, and was startled when Alice jolted and grabbed her arm. Looking down in a panic, she expected to see Alice staring at her, but instead she saw her sleeping soundly, hand still tightly clasped around Aurum’s wrist.
Unable to leave, or maybe just unwilling, Aurum sat beside Alice for a long time, her thoughts a mess but her heart more at peace than it had been for a long while. She fell asleep with her head on Alice’s bedspread, Alice’s hand still holding her in place.
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