@daily-writing-challenge - May 2024 - Day 4 - Drama
The Banshee’s Wail
TW: Dementia, infidelity, violence
A woman’s voice screeched through Nahilvi’s comm, hidden under her hair, you could hide an entire engineering shop there with as full as the ombré curls were. “You PERVERT! You stay away from me! My daughter will be home any minute!”
It was the last day of the Hearts Of Tenacity fest and Nahi was kicked back around the fire sharing snacks with Pheonix, a woman she just met, while wearing her jeans, boots and Starstriders tee. One last night of freedom, then she would go back to the chaos of her family life, that was all she had been hoping for, one last night.
Scrambling to her feet, she apologized to the people around her who could hear the screaming, it had been so loud, and ran away from the circle. She stopped behind a tree and clicked the small device. “Mother… what in the Fel is going on?”
“There is a MAN here who tried to climb into my bed.”
Before she could respond another voice came from the shared family channel. “Hey Nahi, sorry, she has been so good all weekend.”
The singer ran three fingers up the center of her forehead then down to the bridge of her nose and kept her voice calm, “Mother… that is your husband Irenthalas. You have been married for years now.”
“No! I don’t KNOW him.” The pitch of the wail was so high only a trained singer could project it. Her mother had been an opera singer for hundreds of years, she had perfected it.
Well there went the last night of the festival and she hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to the new people she met. “I will be there in a minute, Iren.” It would do no good to address her mother, she was in one of her lapses. The dark skinned performer reached into her pack and pulled out her hearthstone, setting it for their home in Dalaran.
In the time it had taken for that simple action, Nahi could hear something shatter upstairs. The stairs were traversed three at a time with her long strides and she slid into the doorway to take in the chaos. Irenthalas was on the floor, blood streaming from his head, there was shattered porcelain in a blue and white pattern around him and her mother was lifting a lamp like she was going to throw it. “Mother stop!”
“Call the guards! Where is the one posted at my door? Our Prince would never leave me unguarded! Did this man kill him?”
Alright, this was one of her bad episodes. Nahilvi’s mother had been a singer in Kael’thas’ court for a long time, one of the favored entertainers that only performed in the main throne room. When the keep was attacked, she had fallen after taking a blow to the head. Nahi had picked up a sword to protect them but luckily the invader’s were focused on Prince Sunstrider by that time and it had allowed Irenthalas to get to them.
He had secretly been infatuated with Acenadalia for decades, but he was a lowly priest and her mother was married to Viscount Preado Sunburst, the ennobled bastard that her mother had found in her dressing room getting head from two of the Summershade triplets while suckling the third’s breast. Of course that wasn’t the first time he had been caught with his pants down, but it had been the latest.
Iren had helped get them clear before the keep was locked down completely, taking the women to his familial home in Dalaran. He treated her mother but the damage that had been done had left her permanently impaired. She had taken a glancing blow to the temple from an invader’s mace, the skull fracture and cuts healed well, but when Acenadalia woke it was clear she was not in her right mind.After it was clear that Nahi’s father had not made it out, Iren and her mother were wed.
With more work the lucid times outweighed the spells when her memory lapsed, but her mother had to be watched all the time. The last time she had not she walked right into the Alliance alcove in the city and demanded that she be taken to Kael’thas immediately along with no few ‘don’t you know who I am’s’ thrown in for good measure,
“Iren?” Nahilvi questioned while keeping an eye on her mother as sometimes she wasn’t recognized either.
The man’s deep voice sounded exhausted, “I’m alright, she just threw a teapot at my head. I never liked that set anyway.”
“Wasn’t that your grandmother twice removed’s set?”
“Yes, but family lore said she was a harridan.”
Nahi wanted to laugh but was expecting a lamp to be hurled at her or her step-father at any moment. “Mother, it is alright I am here now.”
“He crawled into my BED!”
The shrillness of her mother’s voice caused daggers of pain to embed themselves in Nahi’s head, “I am here now, you are safe, put down the lamp.”
“MY BED!”
“MOTHER!” Nahilvi yelled, she hated doing that most of all, “I am here, we will get everything sorted, put down the lamp.
Acenadalia’s gold eyes snapped to her daughter and narrowed, then they opened wide, “Nahi? When did you get home? Did you enjoy your festival? Did they like my song? I bet they did, you have such a lovely voice. Iren? Why are you on the floor? Did you fall?” She set the lamp back down and crawled into her huge bed, “Come to bed dear, I am sure our daughter would like a bath and settle in for the night.”
Just like that, all the drama ended and they were all one big happy family again. Her mother hadn’t been wrong, she did want a bath and bed, but that bath was going to be accompanied by a bottle of brandy. “Sleep well mother, Iren. I love you.”
(Minor mention of #pheonix)
