NOVEL WEB Extras #9 (pt.2)
"Hi dad. May I come in?"
I was standing in the doorway of a small room tucked away in between the seneschal's office and the clann archives. It looked like it was originally meant to be another office, but my dad had taken it over at some point.
There was a desk against the wall to the left, next to that were two bookcases, and finally in the corner stood a third bookcase-like unit that was obviously designed to store maps. The top of the desk was lost under an assortment of various maps laid out upon its surface. On the wall above the desk was a huge detailed map of the Realm, with the royal palace indicated at the centre and castle Brádaigh marked towards the bottom in the Southern Marches. On the right were a pair of large padded leather chairs with a smaller table between them.
Dad was currently sitting in one of the chairs with a large atlas on his lap.
"Tegan!" he smiled as he got to his feet. He set the atlas aside and gestured, "Of course, come on in! I didn't think you knew about my little retreat here."
I grimaced slightly as I entered his private hide-away, "I actually didn't. Uh, clairvoyance spell. I was wondering where you were hiding."
Dad laughed, "Well now you're here, come and have a seat! What's that you've brought with you?"
I was carrying a large canvas book-bag and I held it out to him, "Some gifts for you. Me and the wives are still slowly unpacking, but I found some things I brought you from Earth."
The two of us sat back down and dad opened the bag to have a look. His eyes lit up and his smile grew wide as he pulled out the two old atlases and the little bundle of folded-up maps.
"They're actually antiques," I mentioned. "Well, antiques in the human sense. All their maps nowadays are inside their technology, they haven't had paper maps or atlases like this in a few decades."
He looked like a kid on xmas morning as he carefully inspected the paper maps first. He didn't unfold them yet, he was just looking at the front and back panels. And he couldn't read English so apart from the pictures and the thumbnail images of the maps they contained I wasn't sure what he was getting from them. Still, he seemed really happy to have them.
I added, "If you like, I can spend some time going over them with you? Like to teach you some of the words so you can actually understand them better. And I can point out a few landmarks and things. Oh and I have to apologize but a few of them have some writing on them. I uh, marked out places where the veil is thin. I used to use these as a reference when I was travelling around Earth."
"That's really exciting," he replied with a smile. "Used maps are better than pristine ones, I think? An unused map tells you a little about a place, but a map that's been used and marked-up can also tell you a story."
"Huh," I smiled. "I never thought of it like that."
The atlases were older than the maps, one covered all of Earth, the other was just Canada. They had plenty of text in addition to the maps, like instead of just being maps they also talked about the geology of the different places, and even some of the history. Though it was about fifty years out date, I figured if my dad learned English he might enjoy getting all that background information.
We spent a half hour or so looking over the maps and atlases together. I pointed out where my estate was on a map of Ontario, and where that was on a map of Canada, and in the world atlas I showed him where Canada was on the globe.
"That's amazing!" dad commented as he stared at that map of Earth. "All these places are full of humans? Even this one way down here?"
I smiled, "Yeah. That one you're pointing at is called Australia. The only continent that isn't really settled is that white bit at the bottom, it's too cold there."
Dad stared for a few more seconds as his eyes wandered back and forth over the world map. It had all the countries indicated, and all the major cities too. He finally said "Earth seems so much bigger than Otherworld. It must take forever to travel between these far-flung kingdoms."
That made me smile again, "I'm pretty sure Earth and Otherworld are the same size? But humans have explored and inhabited their entire world, where we haven't even finished exploring a single continent here. And they have their technology to help them travel."
I pointed at two cities in opposite corners of the world map, Toronto in Canada and Melbourne in Australia. "These two are more than three thousand leagues apart, but humans can travel that distance in less than a day with their flying machines."
"Three thousand leagues!" dad exclaimed with wide eyes. He turned and gestured at the map over his desk, "Our entire realm is less than six hundred leagues from east to west! And only half that from north to south."
"I know," I grimaced. "Part of the reason is population? There's a lot more humans on Earth than there are fae on Otherworld. It's one of the reasons I really don't want them coming here. They outnumber us by more than a thousand to one. They've filled up their world, if we open the doors they'll come fill up ours too."
Dad finally set the maps and books aside and said, "I may well take you up on your offer to learn some human language later on Tegan. Thank you so much for the gifts, you've certainly made my day! Now tell me, did you just come to listen to me ramble about cartography or was there something else you wanted to discuss?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "Actually there was. I was wondering if you could tell me what it's like to be a dad?"
He gave me a slightly confused look and asked, "How do you mean, Tegan?"
I shrugged, "You're my dad, and Saoirse's dad. I guess I'm wondering what that's like for you?"
He took a deep breath as a thoughtful, and slightly sad look came to his expression. "You know even better than I about the troubles our family have endured. I was robbed of the chance to be your dad, Tegan. A human man got that privilege. Just as a human woman took my wife's place as your mom."
With a sigh he continued, "And now with Saoirse, your mother is so determined to make up for what she missed out on with you that I've honestly not played as big a role in your sister's life as I'd have liked. Oh, I've been there for her at times, but Maeve was always there first. So I'm afraid I may not be much help in answering your question."
Of course I knew what happened to me, and I knew what happened to him, but hearing the pain in his voice as he said it left me with some tears in my eyes. And I had no idea mom was keeping dad from playing a larger part in Saoirse's life.
I got to my feet and moved over to him and gave him a hug. "Dad I'm so sorry. I'm sure mom isn't doing that intentionally? Maybe if we said something to mom and Saoirse, they'd understand?"
Dad hugged me back then replied with a sad smile, "It's ok Tegan, don't worry about your old man. Anyways, Saoirse's fifty-five now. She's not a child anymore, I'm sure she'd much rather spend time with Elise than her boring old father."
"Maybe," I sighed. "Or maybe you should talk to her and mom, and let Saoirse decide for herself where she wants to spend her time. Likewise I think maybe I'll have some words with Elise, to remind her she's got a grand-dad here she could be getting to know better."
"Thank you Tegan."
After a moment dad added with a smile, "Mind you, if you go telling everyone about my secret hide-away here, I'll have to relocate."
I pointed out, "If you want your family to spend more time with you, they shouldn't need to use magic to find you."
"Touché," dad replied with a laugh. His expression became serious again, "Tell me Tegan, why were you asking me about fatherhood?"
I got serious as well, and replied quietly "If you haven't heard the news yet, you will soon. Queen Áine has had a child, Princess Tara. And I doubt it will take long for the rumours to reach us, but Tara is a small child with purple hair and aqua-blue eyes. She's a Brádaigh."
Dad looked at me in surprise, but before he could respond I continued talking.
"Mother doesn't know the truth yet, but she will soon." I sighed again, "For decades Áine asked me to give her a child. I finally relented. She and I agreed up front, she wouldn't expect me to be a big part of the child's life. I'm not going to move to the palace, I'm not going to spend half my time there. I'll probably visit now and then, like I've been doing for the past half century? I don't even know if the queen will tell Tara who her father is, though I'm sure she'll figure it out when she gets older and starts hearing the rumours. For that matter she'll probably see the resemblance for herself when I visit."
Dad continued to stare at me for another minute or so as all of this sank in. He finally shook his head slightly, "After all the resistance you've given your mother whenever she even brought up the subject of you providing an heir for the clann, you've become a mother through adoption and now you've given another family an heir by fathering a child with the queen?"
I blushed, and his words hit a little harder than maybe he intended. He was right of course. I knew mom would be angry with me because of the added attention this would bring me and the rest of our family, but I hadn't considered that angle. Mom would have every right to be upset with me for giving Áine an heir after refusing to have one myself.
As for Elise, dad didn't know her true origins. And I wasn't sure if mom had changed her mind about not considering Elise an heir or on the line of succession within the clan since we learned Taralynn and the Gods all considered her my child. If she had accepted Elise as an heir then she obviously hadn't mentioned that to her husband yet.
"So you're a father now," dad said slowly, "And I won't pretend to understand how you actually managed to achieve that. But I take it you won't be raising your second child? You didn't raise the first one either, at least not for the first fifty years of her life. That's why you're asking me about fatherhood?"
I was still blushing as I nodded, "Yeah."
Dad looked thoughtful again, then frowned. Rather than answer my questions, he had more of his own.
"Tegan what do your wives think of this? Please tell me they know, tell me you discussed it with them well in advance?"
I nodded, "Yeah. They know Áine's wanted me to give her a kid for years, and they know I've done so."
He asked, "How do they feel about it?"
"They said it was ok," I replied.
Dad's frown deepened, "But how do they feel, Tegan?"
I shrugged, "I don't know? Like I said, they said it was ok."
Dad shook his head. He sounded serious as he stated, "Tegan you need to have a heart to heart talk with your wives. You've been with them both for about six decades? And just in the last three years, you've taken Elise as your adopted child, now you've fathered a child with another woman. I know you and Elise are mother and daughter to each other, but she doesn't refer to your wives as her mothers. Nor to they address her as daughter. She is yours alone. And this new princess is daughter of Áine. That's two children who you've made a part of your life, completely independent of the women you're actually married to."
When I didn't respond right away he continued, "Talk to Kelly and Keira. Find out how they feel. Make sure they aren't jealous, make sure they're not unhappy or upset about this. And for goodness sake Tegan, talk to them about having a child with them. Do they want to be mothers? Or fathers? I don't want to know how that works by the way, but I'm sure they do. Whether you actually have a child with them or not, at least talk it over."
"We have talked about it," I finally replied. "After we had our official marriage? The three of us had a big conversation about it. We all agreed to wait. They were both working on their careers, I was busy with the embassy..."
Dad interrupted, "Tegan that was thirty years ago. Now you've got Elise and you've given the queen a child. Talk to them again. And I mean right now, not next month or next year."
I sighed, then nodded. "Ok dad. You're right. Thank you."
When I got up to exit, he got to his feet as well.
He gave me a hug, and said "Thanks for coming to see me Tegan, and thank you for the human maps."
"You're welcome dad," I said as I hugged him back. "Thanks again for the talk, and the advice."
