“I see it!” I leaned over the edge of the ship, watching home draw nearer and nearer to shore.

  “Yes, yes,” Father put a hand on my shoulder, pushing my feet fully to the floor. “Be careful.”

  “Yes Father.” I said, sitting myself down. “Have you made up your mind?”

  “On what matter?” He asked, staring ahead as if it hadn’t crossed his mind what exact matter I was on about.

  I stuck out my lip. “A teacher.”

  “For what?” He asked.

  “A sword!” I said. He knew very well what for. I did not want his jokes at the moment, I wanted an answer.

  “I’ll speak to your mother.” He said, placing a hand on my head.

  It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I could hardly stay upset when the ship ran alongside the docks.

  “We’re home!” I returned to the edge of the ship. “I see Mother!”

  “Yes.” He smiled, pulling me to his side and waving to her. He looked at her as if she was the sun, and I could only do the same. Oh, for eyes to look at me that way. It wasn’t likely, even if I traveled across the sea, but a girl could certainly dream. “There she is.”

  He remained on board, even as the men began taking things off the ship, even when they began with our things.

  “Father,” I pulled his hand. “I want to see Mother.”

  “I want to see her too Nefret.” He said.

  “Let’s go to her.”

  “After matters are taken care of here.” He said. I could see in his eyes that if I wasn’t patient, he’d give me a very long talking to about why it was so important, and then things would take even longer.

  “Oh, alright.” I went alongside Ai, speaking with her of all the things I’d missed dearly, and all those I wished to see. All those I wished to tell of our endeavor– a fruitful endeavor indeed. There were so many things about the place that were wonderful. They had no need to hear of the things that were not, or they would worry, and I made Ai swear not to mention such things unless she was forced by a higher authority.

  “Are you ready to see your mother?” Father came to get us some hours later. He held out his hand and I was quick to take it.

  “Yes!” We left the ship much quicker than we had boarded, and I let go of his hand and ran into Mother’s arm. Her embrace was warm and the same as always, smelling of lavender and henna. “Mother!”

  “Nefret.” Her voice carried her smile, and she placed a kiss on my head. “How was your trip?”

  “Wonderful!” I said, looking into her blue eyes that stood out as much as a Blessed’s despite their natural coloring, so unnatural to the people of my father. “I’m engaged!”

  “You’re not engaged.” Father said, coming beside Mother and giving her a kiss of his own. “We’re only discussing.”

  I frowned at him. “Well I will be soon.”

  “You can’t say that with certainty.” He said.

  “So it was a success then?” She asked. She understood my joy, and did nothing to hinder it, returning it to me.

  “Yes!”

  “I would say so,” he agreed, as we stepped into the carriage.

  It was a ride of many hours before we arrived in the palace, in which I showed mom the things I was sent off with. She treated each with the same nod and smile, slight and elegant, but that was all it needed to be. I reigned in my own excitement, to match her own controlled temperament.

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  “This one must be my favorite,” I held out the silk, unable to keep back the giggle, but able to bite it back.

  She smiled at me, running her hands along its surface.

  “I think this would have to be my favorite as well,” she said. “It’ll make a fine dress for you. Or two. Goodness, how much is there?”

  “A lot.” I giggled, covering my mouth.

  “A lot indeed.”

  The wheels came to a stop, the lurch nearly throwing me out of my seat, but between my Mother and Father I remained in my seat. I yawned, laying my head back in my Mother’s lap. I missed her smell and her arms around me. I didn’t want her to let go of me, even if we had arrived.

  “We’ve arrived.” Father said. I held on more tightly to her, burying my face in her legs to beg her not to release me.

  “I think someone’s asleep.” Mother said, on my side as ever.

  “Asleep?” He said. “What happened to all that energy from before?”

  “Carry me Mother.” I said.

  “Carry you?”

  “Please?” I looked up at her.

  “You can’t make your mother carry you.” He said. “I’ll carry you.”

  “I want her to do it!” I held tighter. I was too old to lay beside them in sleep. This was all I would have of her until morning.

  “I can carry a child to her room.” She said, and she very well could.

  “You carried her within you long enough.” He said.

  “And I can carry her a little longer,” she said, taking me fully in her arms and stepping out of the carriage.

  Father sighed. “Ai, get Nefret’s rooms ready and then get yourself to bed.”

  “Yes sir,” she said, taking off ahead of us as he came beside us.

  “Allow me.”

  “Look at how peaceful she is here.” She turned to him. I showed him my smile, one he could rarely refuse. He did not seem impressed.

  “I will only ask once more.”

  “Your gesture is denied.”

  “Very well then.” He said. “Don’t say you weren’t warned.”

  The world seemed to spin as I Mother was thrown to the side, and I was lifted higher, still in her arms, but no longer truly carried by her.

  “This is ridiculous!” She said, pushing against him with one hand as she held me secure in our new transport. “You can’t mean to carry the both of us that entire way!”

  “I can carry two ladies to their rooms,” he said.

  “Oh unhand me.”

  “Look how peaceful she is like this.”

  “The sea must have gotten you riled,” she laughed.

  The guards bowed their heads as we entered, offering welcome returns I could only smile and wave to, the weight of exhaustion the trip had placed on me finally wrapping itself around me.

  He set my mother down on the floor of my bed, and she placed me on it, pulling the sheets over me.

  “Good night my little beauty.” She kissed my forehead.

  “Good night, bigger beauty.”

  “Oh, you’re much more beautiful.” She said.

  “You’re both beautiful.” Father said, turning to her and taking her back up in his arms.

  “Akhom!”

  “I did warn you, Nadzeja.”

  “At least close your daughter’s curtains.” She scolded, but her voice held no ire.

  “I was going to wait until I closed her door,” he said. “But if you’re that impatient.”

  The canopy around my bed closed shut and the room fell into proper darkness. The scents of home, henna and lily, the cyprinum and kyphi, the linens and camel hair, and all the other things that meant home.

  In such comfort, sleep was not hard to find, as the phantom feeling of the waves rocking the boat followed me even hours after my feet kissed the land, and even still, as sleep kissed my eyes.