Flashfic #15: Seliph thinks about his heritage (a bit)
It so happened that one day, when he was alone with his wife at supper after a long day of work, Seliph asked the question “Muirne, what do you think I am?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“When you see me, do you see me as Isaachian or Grannvalian?” he clarified.
The conversation between them took place in the Isaachian language rather than Grannvalian. Seliph limited himself to Grannvalian as much as possible in public, but behind closed doors when he was alone with one of his childhood friends, he preferred to speak Isaachian, if only to prevent eavesdropping.
“What kind of question is that?” Muirne responded with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t think of that. I see you as Seliph,” she said. “What makes you ask that?”
“I…sometimes, I feel that I’m pretending to be Grannvalian. I know that I am supposed to be their emperor, but I wasn’t born here. I didn’t even see Grannvale until three years ago,” he explained. “Today, I had to catch myself because I almost mispronounced a word. My accent almost came out.”
Of course, Seliph was taught Grannvalian primarily by Edain and Oifey, same as the other children at Tirnanog. He had a fluent command of the language, but in reality had primarily spoken Isaachian when growing up. At least it mean that there was no rural accent to worry about — his Grannvalian sounded posh and formal — but he also wasn’t as natural with the language as someone who grew up in the country.
“Do you think they noticed?” Muirne asked.
“Most likely not,” Seliph responded.
“Sometimes I feel that I don’t fit in too. I know I don’t fit in because I’m an Isaachian living in Grannvale. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t survive here,” Muirne added. “But we have to pretend to fit in to make it. If they didn’t notice, then it doesn’t matter much.”
“You’re right…” Seliph trailed off. “Say, when you met me for the first time, what did you think I was?”
“I didn’t think much about that. I guess that you looked Grannvalian,” Muirne answered. “It wasn’t important to me. You weren’t the only Grannvalian there.”
“A Grannvalian that was born in Agustria to a Verdanian mother,” Seliph said. “Though now I know that my mother wasn’t even fully Verdanian. Her father was the Crown Prince of Grannvale and her mother was from the Maerists who didn’t originally come from Verdane either. That’s why she is said to have looked different from other Verdanians.”
“Do you think that she thought much of that?” Muirne asked.
“I imagine that the village that she grew up in was all she knew until she met my father. She probably knew she was different because of the entire ‘you must not entangle yourself with a man’ business, but I don’t know if she worried about being different from the others,” Seliph said. “Shannan did tell me that she had a harder time adjusting once she left the forest and married my father, but he only realized that after he grew up.”
“I wish I could talk to her. I feel like she would understand how I feel,” Muirne mentioned.
“A day barely passes without mourning my parents…” Seliph said.
“I’m glad that Mother is still around, at least…But anyway, try not to worry too much about this. Nobody who matters should care about where you grew up or what you looked like,” she encouraged. “If nothing else, I don’t care and Julia doesn’t care.”
With gratitude, Seliph looked towards Muirne, smiled, and said “thank you.”
