>>5640962“You never speak of your family,” Eka says, when you are with her the next day, enjoying a meal together in the palace, openly, for the first time. “What are your parents like?”
Ironic.
“My mother isss dead,” you explain.
Ekaterine places a hand to her mouth and her eyes widen in apologetic shock.
“It isss okay,” you say. “I owe much of who I am today to her deedsss, her example, but I never truly knew her.”
“…Oh.”
Ekaterine is clearly curious as to how such a thing came to pass, but unwilling to ask more, perhaps fearing she will upset you. Her own mother’s death is, you know, a troubling subject for her. Instead, she asks:
“And your father?”
“He isss…” he consider. “We are not closse, ass you are, or were, with yoursss. He isss a warrior, and a craftsssman. Highly-born, but diligent in hisss dutiesss to the—to our people. I resspect thiss.”
“It sounds like your parents gave you a good example to live up to,” Eka notes after a moment, to break the silence. “Strong, um, role models?”
You nod. You suppose so.
“Yoursss sseem essspecially aussspiciousss, of coursse,” yous ay, changing the subject back to her.
Ekaterine laughs, and rubs her arm self-consciously.
“Mother was an amazing woman, so kind and so caring. The most thoughtful woman I ever knew, and the glue which held us together. After her passing… Well, you know. And Father… Well, he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and yet never buckles or bends, never lets it show… Even now, as he is. I sometimes wish he would carry less, share more… But that is the way of men, isn’t it?”
You shrug, and Eka frowns a little at your own apparent emotional distance. But then, what else are you to do, when so much of you is secret, and when you can relate so little to human conceptions of family and fatherhood? Thinking of Roth’s reaction the previous day, you eventually add:
“Fatherss who ssee themssselvess firssst and foremosst in relation to their resssponsibilitiess, to their people, mussst ssometimess sstruggle to adapt to a world in which they are more than their role.”
Ekaterine smiles, a sad smile but still a smile, and nods.
“Yes,” she says, “they must.”
