Chapter 33 ∞ Birthday

My birthday was the event of the year in the House—they celebrated it harder than any other holiday. My mistresses never skimped out on any of the details and went all out, from the lavish feast to live music to dozens of presents. For tomorrow's celebration, I was sure they were already very amply prepared. However, the addition of another celebrant spurred them to panic. I heard some of my mistresses discussing what they should get for the boy as present with someone leaving the House every now and then, probably to pick up something to wrap and gift.

When morning arrived the next day, I heard an excited flurry of knocks raining down on my door. My wavy hair was in knots and tangles as I crawled out of bed, dragging the pillow behind me as I pulled the door open to answer. I locked it last night because I knew of the tendencies of two certain ducks to invade my privacy.

I forced my lids, which were still pretty much glued together, open. "What are you doing? You're not paying for this door if it breaks down!" I exclaimed.

I caught both Erenol and Maun looking at me in excitement.

"It's your birthday! It's Maun's birthday!" Erenol cried. "Can I adjust my birthday and make it today too?"

"Hell no," I said. "Now leave me and don't disturb me until I come out!"

I shut the door close on their faces and jumped back to bed, squealing in frustration. I tried dozing back to sleep but realized it had left me completely. I threw the pillow I had dragged with me back on the bed and stomped my way to the bathroom.

I had the water running in no time. It didn't take me long to get under it either. After spending minutes in the water, waiting for myself to turn into a raisin, I went to my closet to put on some clothes and finally left the room to get some breakfast. I could smell the food all the way to my room, which made my stomach rumble.

Upon reaching the dining room, I saw that everyone had busied themselves with eating. I was greeted a chorus of good mornings and happy birthdays after which I took my seat and got to eating as well.

Soon, preparations for the celebration began.

Maun had trouble picking what flavor his cake was, so we had him snack on some of the sweets we had at home. In the end, he picked out white chocolate as the base flavor. I wasn't very bad at baking in my past life, but I was no pastry chef either. My mother helped us with the whole preparation and guided us along the way. We were just responsible for mixing and putting the thing in the oven.

My cake was a simple marbled chocolate and vanilla—both flavors considered quite a luxury in our side of the world, especially in the recent years. Most of the cocoa beans were grown in the other continent, Vertvalden. Recent difficulties in the place had led to little to no production, which made export scarce and supply short.

The whole lobby was repurposed. A large table was put in the center. The House became a buzzing, lively flurry of activity until, finally, we had everything set up and done by dinner time. It was originally supposed to be a service night, but the mistresses decided it would be alright to close the House just this once and celebrate the occasion instead.

Considering it was my birthday, I was supposed to dress up nice. The dress I was given was Mistress Neilly's present. She had used lustrous and shimmering pink-purple-gold fabric before layering it with thicker and more structured fabric underneath. She lined the length with folded ridges and sewed in painstaking beadwork, making it shimmer even more under the light.

Once again, these long and puffy sleeves would be so inconvenient to wear at the dinner table. They went everywhere. Girls have it tough. They had to know to gracefully pull back their sleeves while reaching for the food. Not wearing sleeves in formal events was a social faux pas it seemed.

"Take a turn for me!" said Mistress Neilly and I obliged, spinning on my toes, letting the fabric swoosh about. "Ah. I knew the pink fabric would suit you very much!"

"Thank you for the beautiful dress, mistress!" I exclaimed.

"Wow," Erenol whispered. "Evy, you look so pretty! Ahhhh! I'm jealous. Mistress Neilly, you would give me a dress this nice too, won't you?"

"Why, of course, Eren!" Mistress Neilly replied, pinching her cheek.

I took my seat in front of the table, letting the fabric curtain about me. As it was my celebration, I took one end of the table to myself. There were two plates set on the corner—presumably one for myself and the other for Maun. I took the left plate.

"Where's Maun?" I asked. Erenol, I saw, rounded the table to sit on my left.

"Who doesn't get pimped up for their birthday?" Lili stated with a soft smile. "Give the boy the world he deserves." She entered the room with one of the plated dishes, squeezing it with the others. They truly filled it to the brim. I wondered how the table could even stand up as it was doing.

I shrugged and continued looking around. "So…I don't have a present. Anyone else got him one?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Erenol said, elbowing me. "Technically, you gave him his birthday. You're like…his mother!"

I deadpanned and shoved her back. "Off me, you little twat."

"Evy is a mommy," she sang.

I sighed.

"Evy is a mommy."

"And you're a twat, you useless lump of meat! I'm younger than you and you act more like a kid than me!"

Erenol, unable to retort, stuck out her tongue instead. I ignored her in exasperated silence and busied myself with mulling over the events of the past few days. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I saw Amber last, but considering how he was able to talk to me back then, that must mean the new moon was approaching.

I brushed it off my mind when Maun came in with Kora. Both of them were dressed in garb like fine men. Compared to the baggy clothes, it seemed they had strived to find something to fit Maun very well. Or Mistress Neilly's sewing skills had managed to kick yet another goal. Looking at the guy now, he had a potential to be good-looking in the future. His face was still a little immature, but the curve of his lids and the soulful color of his eyes would no doubt strike a chord with the ladies.

I looked at Erenol and she was clapping frantically. "Looking good! Looking good! Couldn't recognize you at first!"

Yup. Definitely a chord. Erenol's was most definitely broken.

"Nice, nice, nice!" Marian flicked a thumb up in their direction, signaling her approval.

Kora came up to me with a bouquet of fresh flowers—cut from his own garden too, it seemed. "Happy birthday, my sweet blossom. You're growing so quickly. I wouldn't mind it if you slow down a bit, you know."

I greeted him with a smile as he leaned down to give me a kiss on my forehead.

"Thank you!" They were all my favorites. He usually didn't like cutting flowers from his own garden, but he made exceptions for me during these occasions.

"Ooh. Is that really the boy you took in, Evy?" Mistress Marga spoke from across the table. She pushed her glasses up her nose and squinted at Maun's direction.

"Well, you haven't been out of that shed ever since you came back last time, so how will you know? There's a real world out here, Marga. It's not going to knock on your door and tell you everything that happens to it every day," Mistress Lili quipped. "What kind of experiment are you doing this time, anyway? Ah. Never mind. I'm not asking about that."

Mistress Marga pouted. "Can you blame me? Being outside that long is enough for me to forgo socialization for the next five years or so."

"Alright, alright, everyone. Settle down," Hellenia announced. "Let's greet the birthday boy and the birthday girl and sing them their song."

Maun took his seat beside me at the nudging of Kora while my mother brought out her flute and Mistress Marian her harp. They played a short interlude after which we sang the birthday song of this world. Maun was unable to hide his delight. That wide smile kept splitting his face so he resolved to lowering his head out of shyness.

Mistress Neilly brought my cake over while Mistress Lili brought Maun's. There were no candles-on-cakes tradition in this place, unfortunately. At least at first. Instead, the celebrant was awarded the responsibility of slicing through. If I hadn't insisted on the candles when I was young, they wouldn't have done it at all. It was why they had to order custom thin and small candles for the cakes during my birthday. It became tradition after that.

Same went for today.

After singing the happy birthday song, Maun looked at me in question. I silently made a wish and blew the candle, showing him how it was done.

"Blow the candle," Mistress Neilly told him shortly. "But make a wish first. Keep it to yourself though. Just whisper it in your mind."

He complied and leaned forward to do just what I did. When the fire died, we were handed knives to cut our cakes with. He sliced through. We then began to take slices onto our plates.

The celebration was filled with merrymaking. Aside from filling our bellies, my mistresses did short performances to showcase their talents—nothing I hadn't seen before. Erenol and Maun were having a lot of fun though, which was all that mattered. I do admit I don't remember these things being this jolly for the last five years or so. It seemed these two really changed the dynamics of the whole House.

After everything, the last and most awaited part of the whole event started.

"Presents!" my Mistress Lili uncharacteristically yelled.

Maun looked far more excited than I did with receiving presents. At first, he didn't know whether he should tear through the wrapping paper or carefully peel them off. However, seeing what I was doing, he quickly followed right after.

He got new clothes, some whatchamacallits, new shoes, a couple of books…he was just so excited to go through them. I could tell he was a little disappointed it was over, and that he wanted to open some more gifts. I think he looked forward more to knowing what they had more so than actually getting them.

Mistress Veronika had already given me her present, which was the trip to Lovarda. Mistress Neilly's gift was the dress. Mistress Lamia had given me the bracelet I was now keeping on myself at all times like she told me to.

The other mistresses were very thoughtful with the things they have given. Kora gave me a packet of…seeds. Judging by how he was gifting them, it probably meant they were some pretty cool stuff.

"Those things are hard to grow. It'll be a test on your ability!"

"Thank you, mistress," I said, even though he technically wasn't a mistress but a mister.

Mistress Lili had gotten me a book about Vertvalden, one that explored it with more depth. I realized, however, that it wasn't written in the local language. It was a completely foreign book—probably something that came from the continent itself written by one of its people for its people.

"You'll just have to learn it, I suppose," Mistress Lili told me with a smile.

I smiled back, though it was a little strained, and brushed a finger down the debossed title of the cover. The letters were foreign, but the longer I stared, the more I became familiar with them. I could feel my mind gearing to process it—like a machine decrypting lines of code with ease. My mistresses had an inkling about my talent for languages, but I don't think they're expecting me to actually be able to understand every language that comes my way. This was a gift Amber left me before he left me.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about going through the thing.

Mistress Marga gave me a new communicator—which was very thoughtful considering I had broken my last one with that incident in the city. It was the latest model too! The design was exquisite on this one. Dragon wings extended the shell of my ears in a sort of elfish curve while the tail would pierce through the puncture on the lobe.

"Cool!" I said. I was very eager to put this to use.

"Now it's my turn!" Mistress Marian said. She came over with her favorite harp—the one with the Angel's Hair strings. She had wrapped a pretty bow around one part of the shaft and set it before me with a smile. Her legs folded under her and she comfortably sat on her ankles. "I know you're probably still scared," she began with a comforting smile, "but whatever happened that night—that is a beautiful and powerful gift, Evy. You will trip if you're learning to walk. That was just one hiccup. I want you to continue practicing. Learn to control it. That isn't something to fear. Your mistresses and I will always be here to guide you, alright?"

I looked at the harp. Memories of that night came flooding in. While I was a little hesitant and very scared, I knew she made a point. I took the harp into my hands and looked up to meet Mistress Marian's kind eyes. I felt some tears well up on the corners of my eyes as I nodded.

"Okay…okay…"

"What gift?" Erenol wondered aloud. "You play the harp too?"

I looked over to my best friend of six years and remembered lying to her about my being a Conduit. I pursed my lips as I breathed and said, "I'll tell you later."

"Last one's up!" Mistress Marian stood, her pretty maroon dress fluttering about her.

Everyone looked over to my mother, who still hadn't given her present.

"My gift…well, I'll give it to you later before you go to bed," my mother said. She had a tranquil look on her face which was both clear and so…ambiguous at the same time.

"Oh…okay." I nodded.

"Awww!" the mistresses whined. "That is not fair!"

"Alright, everyone. Enough," Mistress Lamia said. "Let us conclude this celebration with a praise to the dragons. May these two be blessed with longer lives and may their patrons guide them through the discord they will be presented in the future."

"Mavuiha!" everyone exclaimed. The word meant something along the lines of 'I agree and wish the same' in Veneryali.

When the celebrations were over, I wearily retreated to my room and changed out of my stuffy clothes. I was very worn out by today's events and, for sure, Maun and Erenol were as well. We've already arranged a room for them to stay in in the House and they've already retreated to rest for the night.

I slipped into some comfy, cotton dress-pajamas and prepared to slip under the cover. Before I could, even so, there were swift and gentle knocks falling on my door. I sighed and answered it, finding my mother bearing a long, rectangular box in hand. She peered into the gap as I did and quietly asked if she could come in. I smiled brightly at her and left the door open, fixing a pillow on the floor for her as she entered.

I caught her look around my room, a small sigh leaving her nose. Her chest heaved as she gazed at the clutter on my table, eyes eventually falling on the failed sketch of the mother I had never known. I drew that very recently, I remembered, when I was sitting on the porch with Eren.

"She is beautiful," she told me. "It seems you're learning a lot from Neilly."

"Thanks, mama," I replied as I took my sit on the floor pillow opposite of hers.

Ever so gracefully, she descended on her knees. The box alighted between us on the floor and she faced me with a calm smile—so calm, in fact, that it was a little unnerving. I have never seen my mother like this with me before. She was usually fussy. It showed in everything she did and said.

"Open it," my adoptive mother said.

I looked down at the box she set down and pulled on the ribbons that locked it together. I then lifted it to my lap and felt the weightlessness of it.

I wondered what was inside. I was scared just thinking about what it might contain.

Carefully, I peeled off the top and found a beautiful fabric laid out before me. It was a unique gold in color, carrying a slight metallic sheen to it that reminded me of that cool, foggy moment after rainfall, when spider webs would have drops scaling their length.

"This is pretty," I said, caressing it. It was cool to the touch but easily warmed to the skin. "Thank you, mama."

"I'm glad you like it," she whispered. "This was the cloth you were wrapped in when I found you."

My eyes snapped to meet hers. Genuine shock spread across my face. I wasn't expecting her to tell me this now of all times. Also, I knew I was wrapped in a blanket but I have forgotten about it. I didn't think it was significant.

"When you…" I trailed off, swallowing.

"I'm sorry for hiding the truth from you, Evy," she said. Her fingers pinched the corners of her eyes, dabbing away the tears that gathered there. "I…I wasn't ready to tell you the truth. I lied to you about your father. You aren't actually mine."

"I see…" I whispered, setting the fabric to my lap and brushing it with my hands. "Do you know…where I come from then?" I squeezed the words out my throat. Looking at her face made this very hard for me. I felt her pain more because I had known all of this all along. It hurt me knowing I had to act like I didn't. More than that, I felt guilty. Would this be easier if I had told her the truth?

"No," she said. "It was this day of all those years ago. There was a man who brought you to me. He…was a peculiar man. I suspect he has a lot to do with your affinity with death. All I knew was that he looked…out of this world. He definitely did not come from Erindal because his features…were more of the people from Vertvalden. Yet different. And he had amber eyes. I don't know if he was your father but he called you Evyionne before he…disappeared."

I choked.

Amber as my father? Daheck no way.

"Are you alright, darling?" she asked, reaching for my shoulder and pulling my chin up.

I nodded. She must've mistaken it for shock—which wasn't really wrong.

"I'm sorry if I'm telling you this just now. I just couldn't bear to before," she said. "You were the greatest gift I have ever had and telling you the truth, to me…felt like having to let you go. But I put myself in your shoes and realized I was only being selfish. I treasure you so much, sweet." She caressed my cheek and I felt a tear fall from one of my eyes. She quickly brushed it away and leaned forward to embrace me tenderly yet firmly.

I felt more of her pain with the tightness of her embrace and savored the warmth and love that came with it. I felt a tear escape my right eye before we broke away from each other. While it was supposed to lighten the burden in my heart a little, I felt it getting heavier. I had a lot to confess to my mother. It hurt me to know I didn't have the courage to do the same with everything I knew.

"So what Papi said about Lovaska…" I trailed off.

"It is most likely true," my mother told me. "It might be your mother or your father."

"Lovaska…" I muttered.

Maybe I was getting all of this wrong? Maybe I was just making assumptions? Although I was aware that Amber had taken me away from my birth family into a wholly different timezone altogether…maybe Lovaska was actually where I was born?

But no. He said something about not being able to stay there, probably due to danger—otherwise he wouldn't have been so frantic as to have stolen me away. From what I knew, that trouble actually came from Vertvalden. If I could know where it all began, I might be able to track down my birth parents.

"I understand that you would want to meet them. I'll help you," she told me.

"Really?" I asked, gazing at her tearfully.

I suddenly felt…alienated all of a sudden. I knew I had it coming. Even so, it was one thing knowing you weren't really of the same blood, but to be told was a wholly different matter. I was aware of the truth, but the truth, to me, had been invisible this entire time—sort of like that wind you could ignore. However, now, it felt a little more concrete. Knowing the truth against acknowledging the truth.

"I'll leave you to rest, then," my mother told me. She smiled and leaned forward to give me a kiss on the forehead. "Come on up, darling. Let me tuck you in."

"Okay."

First, I made sure to close the box and fold the golden fabric back inside properly. I then placed it under the bed, right next to the box that held the bow we bought from Lovarda a while back. I hadn't touched it since then. Even though I knew how to control the frost somewhat, it still did cause me to wake up next morning as though Jack Frost himself painted my walls. I had a feeling these two things were kind of related, especially since I didn't have any of those 'episodes' afterwards.

I followed my mother's lead and slipped under the covers. Her warm and gentle hands straightened out the blanket around me, forming half a sushi. She brushed back my hair and pinched my cheeks a little before retreating and fingering the pad right next to the door. She swiped it down and the light was reduced to the dimmest setting. So dim, in fact, that there was hardly any light at all.

I curled up under the covers and closed my eyes, giving in to the darkness that followed.