Chapter 9:
The Day Aisha Quit Being a Maid
WE TOOK AISHA AND ARUS back home.
Lilia nearly passed out upon seeing Aisha’s round belly. After falling on her backside, she quickly stood up and made a beeline for the kitchen. When she reappeared with a knife in her hand, I rushed to hold her back.
“Let me go! This is the only way I can make amends…!” she screamed.
I took the knife from her and explained where Aisha had been, what had happened there, what we’d talked about, and that I was satisfied with the result of that conversation. Lilia looked exhausted after hearing my explanation, but she calmed down. Not long after that, she ended up in bed.
Had Lilia always been such a fragile woman? She was so pale, I couldn’t help but wonder. Then again, in the last year, she’d been on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion most of the time, so maybe this was unavoidable.
I took the time to really talk to her as I nursed her back to health. I told her I had reservations about members of the family getting married to one another. But I also explained that Aisha and Arus, despite how warped their relationship had become, were serious about each other. Arus had found his own sense of resolve in the last year, and Aisha had grown up as well. I felt people should be free to live the way they wanted to, at least within reason. I explained all of this to Lilia, who listened silently.
“I’m an immoral woman,” she said. “I seduced Master Paul, and Lady Zenith was so sad and angry. I believe that Aisha laid her hands on Master Arus because she’s my daughter. Oh, how many times have I thought in the last year…if only I’d never given birth to her… Of course, I have no intention of saying that to her. I already told Lady Zenith this, and she was so upset with me.”
Zenith was sitting in a chair in Lilia’s room. As usual, I had no clue what she was looking at. She appeared to be spacing out, but despite her condition, Zenith was always listening to and watching us.
If Lilia actually told Zenith she wished Aisha was never born, Zenith had probably hit her. Hell, even I’d get angry. If that was how she felt, then what had been the point of that day when Paul, Zenith, Lilia, and I talked things out? All the joy we felt when Norn and Aisha were born would fade to nothing.
“It was bad enough that she slept with him, but when I saw how big her belly had gotten, I felt that she’d gone too far. There is no going back now,” Lilia said. “Aisha is my child. She seduced one of her masters, someone she should have been protecting, then tried to use her body to create a place for herself within the family. It’s like we have dirty succubus blood running through our veins. Even if she didn’t trick Master Arus into falling in love with her, it is clear as day that she had an effect on his heart.”
I told her I didn’t believe that was true. Their blood wasn’t dirty. The two of them had just happened to settle into a master-and-servant relationship with us. Anyone would work hard to get the person they loved to look at them. People affected one another. There was no changing that.
In Aisha and Arus’s case, they were too close and too far apart in age. Arus might’ve been immature, but Aisha was too. She had more years on her, but that was it. I explained all of that to her.
“Master Rudeus… What should I do?” she asked weakly.
“I spent a lot of time thinking before I spoke to Aisha and found myself at peace with things. Lilia, I think you need to take the time to speak to Aisha and Arus together. Calmly.”
She considered this.
“If you do, I know you’ll understand,” I added.
She’d understand that, despite his immaturity, Arus had a real sense of determination. She’d understand that Aisha loved Arus genuinely, in her own way. She’d understand that maybe Aisha did guide him into falling in love with her, but she’d never tricked him.
“All right.”
Should I get them? Or should I give it some time? I wondered.
“You can bring them now,” she said, answering my unspoken question.
I nodded and left the room.
In the living room, I found Aisha and Arus answering the other children’s various questions with serious looks on their faces. I summoned them to talk to me privately.
“Yes?”
“What is it?”
I told them about Lilia’s condition, her worries, how she felt it was her fault that Aisha ended up like this, that she believed Arus had been tricked, and that she was heartbroken over how things had played out. I asked them to go talk to her together. The pair nodded and rose to their feet.
“Hold on.” Just as they were about to leave, I stopped them.
There were a few more things I needed to say. Three things to Arus, to start with.
First, that he was going to go talk to the mother of the woman he loved, not Grandma Lilia. Second, that because he was unable to protect the woman he loved, he’d driven her to this predicament. Third, that he was going to be taking Lilia’s precious daughter from her.
Then, three more things for him.
He needed to focus on understanding: understanding just how much he’d worried the people around him, how his actions were wrong, and how Aisha’s actions were also wrong. He needed to understand his flaws and hers.
He also needed to think. What could he have done better, to help Aisha through all of this? What did he need to learn going forward? In order to do that, he needed to know how Lilia felt. He needed to hear the true feelings of Aisha’s mother, the woman who’d watched and worried over her more than anyone else.
Finally, he needed to convince Lilia. If he wanted to be with Aisha, he needed to start with her.