Junelezen2026 - Day 29 - Rewind
"If you could back and relive any moment... What moment would it be?"
"Any? There are honestly quite a few but... Learning who my mother is, meeting her..."
He'd been nervous, to the point of fidgeting so much his father had reached over to place weathered hands atop Tsirae's to steady the young Knight. For twenty winters he'd lived under his father's roof, knowing full well the lady of the house was not his birth mother. The elder brothers ensured he never forgot. It had culminated into a rather lonely part of his childhood, never bonding with a maternal figure, despite knowing somewhere out there she might still exist.
"Admittedly... I was upset when the truth was revealed. All these years she had been right in the Shroud. I had seen her, spoken to her, and visited her home, never knowing that was the mother who birthed me."
It had been a bargain. The Lord's wife would allow his youngest son to live with them, be educated, raised and given title despite being a bastard born, and it would give the child a step up in life that he would otherwise not have. The trade off was simple, his mother could never be involved. Effectively, erased. When everything was revealed, the calm demeanor shattered and a floodgate of emotions had raged through him. Tsirae didn't know whether to focus on the betrayal or the relief of finally being reunited. He'd lost so much time, had so many unanswered questions... So much hurt.
"That would be the moment. When I saw her for the first time as my mother. Not a friend of my father's, or simply a merchant and trader of goods we did business with. My mother. It was a tragic and equally beautiful place in time, and despite overwhelming feelings, I was so happy in the end."
They had missed out on so much, but while it was a deep wound, now it could slowly start to heal.