“Well,youwould not notice.” His mother’s eyes roamed over their surroundings with obvious disdain.
Maldenis supposed he should have been used to how his mother thought little of his venture. Of him.
Why did you do such an idiotic thing again?
Have you no shame?
Do you have any idea how bad this makes me look?
Don’t you think of anything but yourself?
Yet, it still hurt, after all this time.
“I’m used to it,” he said with a shrug. He managed to get pastthe incidentafter all, and all this would pass too.
“How could you be so casual about this?”
A small bubble of anger rose in him. “And how does this affect you, exactly?”
“At first I didn’t think it would.” Melora pursed her lips. “The ministers have sent my colleagues their next mission, but I have yet to receive mine. Then, my friends refuse to answer my calls or meet with me. We have all been dishonored by your actions, Maldenis. And it’s not just me that’s been affected.”
“Oh?”
“Your sister Mileena told me she was passed over for a promotion. Then your brother Marselis called me to complain that he did not get the raise his boss had promised him. And then Morosis lost that important court case when the judge all but assured her he would be siding with her client.”
Ah yes, of course she would care more about his older siblings. “Oh well, too bad.”
His mother’s face turned purplish red. “Maldenis, this is serious. Soon, we will all be pushed to the fringes of society.” She took a deep breath. “Tell me, has business been slow the last day or two?”
“No, I—” He stopped short. Last night had been an unusually slow Friday. Usually, they’d get a lot of spillover from the restaurants around them, but they barely moved a case of well Molovian fire water.
She raised an eyebrow. “See? You may not think so, but soon, you will feel it too. Your little bar will shut down and then you won’t even be able to get a job washing dishes.”
His mother’s words may have been mean and spiteful, but they were, unfortunately true. After all, he had experienced this once before, duringthe incident.He got lucky that time, thanks to his mother and older siblings’ positions.
But now?—
“Our family has been dishonored. You must fix this!” his mother hissed, slamming a hand over the bar. “Today. Now.”
“I—alright, alright,” he muttered under his breath. “I’ll…bring her back and tell her we have to act like a married couple.
“Youarea married couple,” she emphasized, then took a deep breath. “Alright, we may yet to fix this. You have deliberately bound yourself to a human?—”
“It was not deliberate?—”
“I don’t care. I must meet her. Just bring her back to Solkaris and I’ll take care of everything.”
“Take care of everything? What do you?—”
“Just do it,” she ordered, then turned around, slithering away from him, her tail swishing mercilessly across the scarred hardwood floor.
The door slamming as his mother left made him start.
“Fuck me,” he cursed, his eyes sliding heavenwards. “What did I do to deserve this?” Burying his face in his hands, he let out a scream, which lasted about ten seconds. And though his throat felt scratchy, it felt good.
It wasn’t so bad, he thought. All he had to do was find Liora and convince her to come back to Solkaris and stay here for a year and a day, then they could part ways.
This was going to suck, big time.
