29th Saun, 718
It felt strange being back on the farm. Echoes of a previous life seemed to flutter through the house mocking her. Echoes of a time when she had felt safe here; when this farm had been her sanctuary...her home. Now though, she couldn't wait to get everything settled so that she could put this place behind her once and for all. Maybe then the memories of being dragged out of what should have been her sanctuary would finally stop haunting her.
As Lei'lira had suspected, it had not taken her long to find a buyer for her farm. One of her neighbors had a son who had just gotten married, so he and his young wife were looking for a home of their own. Her neighbors were getting on in arcs, so while the newlyweds wanted a home of their own, they wanted to stay close enough that they could help their parents out when needed. It had helped that Lei'lira wanted to sell quickly so she was willing to give the new family a good price for her farm. The fact that she was looking to sell the farm fully furnished helped as well. All the new owners would need to bring with them was their own clothing, bedding, and the like.
"We have all of our things boxed up now, Lei'lira. What can we help you with?" Eri asked with a concerned tone.
Lei'lira smiled fondly at her "little sister" as she thanked her. Atreyu, Lil'ari, and Kei'iru were hovering behind her with worried expressions. Had her anxiety at being back here really been that obvious? Probably. It was hard being back here after everything that had happened. Lei'lira had already lost herself in flashbacks three times. Teia had pulled her out of one, and Eri had pulled her out of the second one. The third...that one had been the worst so far. Teirue had been the one to find her. The poor girl had been terrified to see her adopted mother in such a state. Fortunately, Sai'ryl and Tae'ryn had been near by when it happened. Sai'ryl had done her best to calm the hysterical child while her younger sister had gotten their older sisters to help. Ei'ryl took charge of the younger children and did her best to sooth them while Ei'ryn pulled her out of the flashback. Since then, all of the children had taken it upon them selves to keep an eye on her. If at least one wasn't in the same room with her, they were near by in case she needed help. And they would pop in to check on her frequently. Like now.
"How about Teirue? Is she all packed up, too?"
Atreyu nodded.
"She's taking a quick nap with Tiran and Taerin now, but Ei'ryl helped her pack before she got the little kids down for their naps."
"Is Kaien taking a nap, too?" Lei'lira asked hopefully.
"No, but Teia is with him. She's reading him a story in the hopes that he will fall asleep soon. Sai'ryl and Tae'ryn are with her." Lil'ari told her.
Lei'lira thought for a few trills. Most of her stuff was packed too, but there were still a few things she needed to go through. Like that chest that belonged to her mother. It was the strangest thing. It had been locked for many arcs; ever since her mother had lost the key for it when she and Lazuli were five. But the key that Lei'lira had gotten from one of the road guards the one time she had tried to bribe one for information had turned out to be the key that her mother had lost. Lei'lira had lost track of the key herself when she couldn't find what it might belong to after searching for a few trials after she'd gotten it. But she had found it again while sorting through her things to see what she wanted to take with her, and what would be left behind for the new owners.
"I still have things I need to sort through, and finish packing, but the house could use a good cleaning before we turn the farm over to its new owners. Would you be willing to start that? Ei'ryl and Ei'ryn don't really have anything to pack up, so they would probably be willing to help you clean, too."
The kids were quick to agree. Kei'iru was so enthusiastic about having something she could help with that she promised Lei'lira that the cleaning would be done before she finished sorting through the rest of the things she needed to look through. Lei'lira didn't know about that, but she thanked the kids and watched them run off to go start cleaning before getting back to the task at hand.
As she stared at the chest in question, Lei'lira found that she had had very mixed feelings; both about the chest, and about its former owner. After several bits of simply staring at the chest, Lei'lira finally knelt in front of it. She stared at the key in her hand for several more bits before putting it into the lock, and turning it slowly. There was some resistance due to the fact that the lock had not been opened in so long. Somehow, it felt as though the chest was as reluctant to be opened as Lei'lira was to open it. In many ways, she was opening a door to the past that until now she had meant to keep firmly shut. To do otherwise was simply too painful for her.
Why did you leave, Mother? When Dad died, we all lost someone who was very important to us. In some ways, he was Lazuli's most important person. But he was taken from us. He died. I hated losing him, but I understood; he didn't want to leave us. He had no choice. But you...you did have a choice. You chose to leave us. As soon as Dad's funeral was over, you were gone. Why? Was it something I did? I was always closer to you than I was to Dad, just as Lazuli was closer to Dad than you. Did I do something to drive you away? Was I not a good enough daughter to keep you with us after your husband died?
Lei'lira braced herself as she lifted the lid of the chest. Would she find answers in her mother's chest? Or nothing but more questions? She took a deep breath, and looked inside. The chest was filled with old journals. Most of them were her mother's diaries. Lei'lira counted twenty one of those; one for every arc her parents had been married. But there was a book that contained some flute music mixed in with the diaries. When Lei'lira flipped through it, she recognized her mother's handwriting. Were these all songs that her mother had played for her father? She remembered hearing several of them growing up, but some were new to her. Some of the songs were ones that had been common in Warrick when Lei'lira was a child. But others were ones she had never heard outside her home. Could her mother have written those songs? It was possible, but Lei'lira knew that she would never know for certain; her mother had abandoned them, so she wasn't here for her to ask. That thought left her feeling bitter, and heart sore, so she closed the book firmly. It wasn't until after she had done so that Lei'lira realized that she had been reading the flute music as easily as she had arcs ago when she used to play the flute under her mother's guidance. Some things were never forgotten.
At the bottom of the chest, Lei'lira found a box that looked as though it had been made out of tightly woven grass. The grass must have been of different types because it was different colors, and it was woven together in a way that had created a pretty pattern. Had her mother made it? Curious, Lei'lira opened the box. She found several necklaces within the box. Each was made out of a mixture of bone beads and beads made out of shells. Some had been painted, others had not. Some were plain, and some were ornately carved. Gifts from a childhood friend, perhaps? It was obvious that the necklaces had been precious to her mother at one time, and Lei'lira didn't think her mother could have made them. At the very least, she had never told Lei'lira that she knew how to make beads. There was something made of leather underneath the necklaces, so Lei'lira began lifting them out one by one, being careful not to get them tangled up; there were nineteen in all.
Lei'lira took a closer look at the leather object, and found that it was a pouch. It was heavy when she lifted it out of the box, and when she looked inside, her eyes widened in shock. There were a thousand gold nels inside! Had her mother been saving up for a trip back to Desnind? But if that were the case, why had she not taken the money with her when she left? Even though she had lost the key, she could have broken the chest open if she had wanted the nels badly enough. Unless maybe the other items in the chest meant too much to her to risk damaging them? But if that were true, why not take the chest with her when she left? Lei'lira didn't think she would ever know for certain. She carefully packed everything back into the chest, and locked it once more. Then she placed the chest with everything else that she planned to take with them when they left.
By the time she had finished going through the contents of her mother's chest, and putting them away, she heard footsteps approaching her room. She realized the kids must be finished cleaning the house. Lei'lira felt guilty about not helping them with the task, but what she'd been doing was important, too. And the money she'd would would come in handy for their own trip to Rharne. Besides, there was still plenty of work to do. Now that they were all packed up themselves, they had to get the animals ready to go.
Off Topic
The key that opens the chest belonging to Lei'lira's mother was earned in this thread.