First Time
Jul. 9th, 2005 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birthrightgreenThe first time I saw Daemon Sadi I was ten years old. A week before my mother had brought home a witch lost in the Twisted Kingdom, called Tersa. We'd cared for her as best we could, and then one day she was gone, a pattern to be repeated time and again. A week later she returned, with the coldest, handsomest man I had ever seen. My first Warlord Prince. Tersa talked to my mother about nothing and everything, and the whole time his eyes rested on me. I was terrified, sugar, let me tell you that much. Then Tersa stopped babbling and turned to him.
"The child is Blood and should be trained in the Craft. She has the right to wear the Jewels if she's strong enough. Daemon, please?"
He stared at me a while longer and then he seemed to come to a decision. He pulled out a great deal of gold marks and laid them on the table. Then he made some sort of list and left it, and a key on top of the money. He finally spoke, of a house not far from the shack we lived in, that was warm and clean. Of tutors for me. Lessons to be learned.
He asked nothing of my mother than that she allow Tersa to stay there whenever she wished it. The rent was paid already. The money was for clothing and food and the things I'd need to learn.
My mother was able to stop whoring, and a new world opened up to me as I started to learn from tutors -- languages, Craft, history. The next spring Tersa came and took me to the nearest Sanctuary for my Birthright Ceremony, when I was given my Green. My mother gave me hers, set in the necklace I still wear, when I came home. I spent my days learning Craft and general education, and at night my mother taught me to use a knife. Her Craft was gone, but she was still an expert in that arena and she taught me well.
We were happy there for two years, until that was shattered by her murder.
The second time I saw Daemon Sadi was three years after that--five from the first time. I'd been living on the street, whoring for food, killing for ... something. He trapped me in an alley, then dragged me to another part of the Realm, where Tersa waited. Once again, he found me a home, this time in a Red Moon house where they trained me in the intricacies of whoring in reputable houses, skills far beyond what goes on in backstreet alleys. He also arranged for the continuation of the education he'd started five years before. Languages, literature, history. And he arranged for tutors to continue the training my mother began, to hone my second set of skills.
He was a regular part of my life after that. Always has been. Can't say I see that changing, especially now we know we're family, may the Darkness be merciful. I get the feeling that means I'm somewhat stuck with him along with the rest of them.
There are days I wish I could go back to being an orphan. But when I was, sometimes I liked to pretend they were my family--Tersa and Daemon. Closest thing I had after my mother died, until the last few years. All those years--I didn't know who he was then. Just the beautiful man who gave me a home and opened the world to me. I didn't know the Sadist until much later. Didn't know what that meant for several centuries even. He was just Sadi. Now I know. I've seen it. I've felt it. I know when to be wary. I know what he's capable of.
But he's still just Sadi.
"The child is Blood and should be trained in the Craft. She has the right to wear the Jewels if she's strong enough. Daemon, please?"
He stared at me a while longer and then he seemed to come to a decision. He pulled out a great deal of gold marks and laid them on the table. Then he made some sort of list and left it, and a key on top of the money. He finally spoke, of a house not far from the shack we lived in, that was warm and clean. Of tutors for me. Lessons to be learned.
He asked nothing of my mother than that she allow Tersa to stay there whenever she wished it. The rent was paid already. The money was for clothing and food and the things I'd need to learn.
My mother was able to stop whoring, and a new world opened up to me as I started to learn from tutors -- languages, Craft, history. The next spring Tersa came and took me to the nearest Sanctuary for my Birthright Ceremony, when I was given my Green. My mother gave me hers, set in the necklace I still wear, when I came home. I spent my days learning Craft and general education, and at night my mother taught me to use a knife. Her Craft was gone, but she was still an expert in that arena and she taught me well.
We were happy there for two years, until that was shattered by her murder.
The second time I saw Daemon Sadi was three years after that--five from the first time. I'd been living on the street, whoring for food, killing for ... something. He trapped me in an alley, then dragged me to another part of the Realm, where Tersa waited. Once again, he found me a home, this time in a Red Moon house where they trained me in the intricacies of whoring in reputable houses, skills far beyond what goes on in backstreet alleys. He also arranged for the continuation of the education he'd started five years before. Languages, literature, history. And he arranged for tutors to continue the training my mother began, to hone my second set of skills.
He was a regular part of my life after that. Always has been. Can't say I see that changing, especially now we know we're family, may the Darkness be merciful. I get the feeling that means I'm somewhat stuck with him along with the rest of them.
There are days I wish I could go back to being an orphan. But when I was, sometimes I liked to pretend they were my family--Tersa and Daemon. Closest thing I had after my mother died, until the last few years. All those years--I didn't know who he was then. Just the beautiful man who gave me a home and opened the world to me. I didn't know the Sadist until much later. Didn't know what that meant for several centuries even. He was just Sadi. Now I know. I've seen it. I've felt it. I know when to be wary. I know what he's capable of.
But he's still just Sadi.
