Chapter 66: Cranky Old Woman

A few days later...

The house that Edana and Frances lived in was in the inner ward of Erlenberg, whose houses were reserved for citizens.

Honestly, it was more of a manor. It had a very large dining room, an enclosed back yard for magic practice, and several guest rooms for when Edana and Frances’s friends came over to stay.

They were empty right now, leaving Frances alone in the manor. Thankfully, with the help of some magic spells for cleaning and to make the brooms and mops move, Frances could keep the manor clean.

The cooking Frances did for herself, which was why she was in the pantry, putting away her finds from the nearby market. Today she was planning to make Bar Mackerel, native to the seas around Erlenberg and had a slightly different texture from the mackerel she’d seen and tasted on Earth. That and some rice fried with egg and a mix of vegetables would make for a lovely dinner.

Finishing her dinner preparation, Frances walked over to the music room that she and Edana had set up a month ago, and started to practice her scales. For a song mage, it was important to practice one’s singing every day and it was a good way to pass the time.

It was rather lonely without Edana, Martin, or Elizabeth with her, but… being alone was kinda nice, and her mother would be back from her trip tonight. She’d be late, but at least Edana would be home.

The doorbell chimed over the notes she was singing. Frances frowned and quickly took a sip of water. She wasn’t expecting visitors. Maybe Edana had gotten home early?

She felt a note of disbelief from her wand beside her and sighed. Even Ivy’s Sting knew that when Edana said she would arrive, she would arrive at that time or late. Not that her mentor liked arriving late, but it was how the roads tended to work. Frances had asked her mother why she didn't just teleport if she hated being late, to which Edana explained the exponential power expenditure that came with teleportation distance. That had made Frances balk in horror.

Shaking her head, Frances walked to the door. Out of an abundance of caution, she peeked through a side-window to catch a glimpse of the visitor.

From how much grey was in her black hair, the woman at the front door looked around her late fifties, or perhaps early sixties. It was difficult to tell thanks to the skillfully-applied makeup she wore. She wore a fine jacket and trousers, both of silk and a wide-brimmed hat that sat comfortably above pointed ears, like a troll. Except, this woman wasn’t a troll—she looked mostly human. She also had a twisted spine, like her mentor, only, hers was turned so that one shoulder rose above the other. It was why she was leaning on a cane as she stood in front of the door

Deciding not to keep the unknown visitor waiting, Frances made for the door. Just in case, though, she slipped on her diamond ring onto her right index finger.

Ever since her kidnapping, Edana had been trying to diversify Frances’s arsenal of spells, including very taxing and difficult to cast shield spells, as well as teaching her how to use Words of Power in addition to her song magic. The diamond ring Frances now wore stored some of her power, saved on days she wasn’t fighting. In combat, it acted as an additional focus to maintain the shield spells she cast with her wand.

One hand by her wand, Frances opened the door and smiled. “Hello, how may I help you?”

“Is this the house of Edana Windwhistler, Grandmaster of the White Order?” the woman demanded.

Frances was unable to keep her smile from fading. It seemed that someone had found out where they lived after all. Her mother wasn’t going to be happy, but she had mentioned that they would be discovered eventually.

“She is staying here.”

“I am Eleanor, a member of the Erlenberg City Council. I must see her immediately.”

Frances felt tense. The Erlenberg City Council was one of the governing institutions of Erlenberg, similar to the American Senate. It was formed by members of the city’s most powerful families.

Now that she was closer, Frances realized the woman’s dress was lavish, but subtly so. Little things like solid gold buttons for her jacket, a silver bracelet with the largest sapphire she’d ever seen. Her cane was tipped with a gold cap and engraved.

Bowing, Frances averted her gaze, “I’m sorry, Honored Representative, but my master—mother will not return until tonight. I will let her know that you called on her however, and pass any message you would like to her.”

Eleanor groaned. “The message is too sensitive for anybody else. I need to speak to her as soon as I can.”

Frances pursed her lips. “There might be a way. Can you please come in?”

She led Eleanor into the manor and its front sitting room. Once she’d quickly put some hot water on the boil, Frances sat down across from where Eleanor had taken a seat.

“I have a communication mirror with my mother. I think I might be able to contact her that way.” Frances pulled out the small handheld mirror that had been Edana’s fifteenth-year birthday present to her.

“Oh, how did you get one of those?” Eleanor asked, curious.

“My master—mother gave it to me. Well, she was my master then.”

“Edana Firehand gave one of those to you.” Eleanor’s eyes narrowed, and Frances realized the elderly woman’s eyes were as green as her mother’s. The young mage suddenly had a sneaking suspicion she needed to contact her mother, ASAP.

Focusing on her mirror, Frances thought of her mother, her saviour in many ways, the person who loved her when she didn’t even like herself.

Edana’s features appeared in the mirror. Her mother was in a carriage, looking rather tired and from the looks of it, had awoken from a nap.

“Hi, Frances. You do know I’m on my way back?” Edana teased.

Frances blushed. “I know, mom. But it can’t wait. Someone from the Erlenberg City Council has come to our house and said they need to speak to you urgently about a sensitive matter.”

“Oh, we’ve been found out? Well, put them through.” Edana sat up straighter as Frances looked up from the hand mirror.

Eleanor was already walking over and she sat down beside Frances, making the girl flinch.

Edana’s expression turned from tired but cheerful to alarmed surprise, before her features twisted into a scowl.

“Frances, that’s not a Council member, that’s my mother.”

A cold chill played over Frances’s skin as she stared at her grandmother. She could see the resemblance now, even with Eleanor’s smug grin.

“Things have changed, my dear firecracker. If you had bothered to call or send a letter, you would have known that I got elected to the council.”

“But you were lying about needing to speak to me in private.”

“Oh, not at all. I want to know why my daughter abruptly adopted an Otherworlder war mage without letting her own mother know.”

Edana pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s none of your business. I am interested to know how you found out about that particular fact.”

“None of our business? Oh so you refuse to use your house’s name for years and now you just bestow it on some slip of a girl?” Eleanor demanded.

Edana glared at Eleanor and hissed, “Frances, please show my mother the door.”

“Edana, is that any way to treat your mother?”

As Frances glanced between mirror and Eleanor, Edana, in a calmer voice, said, “Frances, you do not need to interact with my mother any further. Leave the house if you have to.

It was at that moment that Frances saw a flash of tiredness come over Eleanor’s expression. She immediately set her jaw, but Frances did see it.

“Can you please at least tell me why? Just a sentence would suffice.”

“I owe you no explanation. You didn’t open my letters for years. And then you deceived my daughter to gain entry into our home. This is your last warning. Get out.”

“Look, I’m sorry about that but I thought you were in and—”

“Leave.”

“Um, master—I mean, mom?” The two older women turned to Frances, both looking rather caught off guard. Despite this attention, Frances swallowed and said, “I… I would like to get to know my grandmother, and our family more. If it’s alright with you.”

The two women had frighteningly similar reactions to this. Their green eyes widened, and their jaws dropped slightly, before closing to form lips poised to speak.

Edana recovered first. “Frances, are you sure?” she asked in a concerned tone.

Frances nodded. “Yes. You did say you were going to introduce me to your family eventually.”

“Yes, but I was thinking of starting with someone like your aunt Erin and her children rather than your grandmother.”

“That… would have been a rather good idea,” said Eleanor in a sheepish tone.

Edana stared at her mother. “Did you just agree with me?”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“I won’t.” Edana paused, debating with herself, before sighing. “Alright, mom, you can stay. Frances?”

“Yes?”

Edana’s tone was serious, but Frances could hear the worry. “Be yourself, and you don’t need to tell your grandmother everything. You’re allowed to keep your privacy. If she makes you uncomfortable, you can tell her that and leave.”

Taking a deep breath, Frances nodded. “Okay. Thank you, mom. Love you.”

“I love you too my dear. I’ll see you soon.”

Frances gave a small wave as her mother’s face vanished and picked up her mirror. “So…would you like some tea, grandma?”

Eleanor leaned back on the couch and gave Frances an unreadable look. “Did Edana stock up on any Roranoak Gold Brand?”

“I bought some a week ago. Do you like Bitterrue biscuits, Lady Windwhistler?” Frances asked.

“I’m partial to them. I prefer tea biscuits myself.”

“Oh, I just made a batch yesterday. I think they’re really good. I’ll go get them.”

Eleanor watched Frances run off and return in minutes with a three-layered serving stand, and a tea set held in her magic. She set everything down on the table, before pouring a cup, which she handed to her.

“You cook, Frances?” Eleanor inquired, taking a sip from the cup.

Frances nodded. “It’s a hobby. I like following recipes and making a few of my own up.”

Her grandmother nodded and went on to ask about Frances’s favourite foods.

As Eleanor sipped tea and sampled the biscuits, she kept the questions fast, and brief. They weren’t too probing, though. Most were just on Frances’s hobbies, what she liked, what she thought about the Great Library and Erlenberg.

This went on for a while. The older woman asking these very light questions, and Frances answering them as she refilled her teacup, or brought more biscuits.

Eventually, as the hour passed, Frances noticed it was about time for her to start making dinner.

“Lady Wind—”

Eleanor snorted. “Call me Eleanor, Grandma if you must.”

“If you would like to stay for dinner, I am making Bar Mackeral and fried rice.”

“If you are as good with cooking Bar Mackeral as you are with biscuits, then yes. I would be delighted,” said Eleanor. She said so rather dramatically, but Frances didn’t think she was mocking her.

Nodding, Frances got up and quickly went to the reading room in the mansion, retrieving a few volumes and the daily newspaper. “If you would like to rest, here are some books and the daily newspaper.”

Eleanor accepted the items with a murmured thanks and opened the newspaper, leaving Frances to go to the kitchen.

Frances wasn’t sure what to think of her grandmother. She seemed… alright, but she hadn’t said much about herself or shown much of her personality. She got the distinct sense she was being tested, but not in the nasty way that her… former parents had sometimes done.

What was most confusing for her was how hostile her mother had been to her grandmother. Frances was aware something had happened between the two, and that it had to do with Edana signing up at fifteen to fight in the Erisdalian-Lapanterian war that had first made her famous. Yet, she wasn’t sure what that was, or why they hadn’t reconciled after so long.

These thoughts occupied her even as she filleted and seasoned the fish, started cooking the rice chopped the vegetables, and then started to roast the fish and fry the rice in the wok. Still, the act of cooking very much calmed her and helped her to organize her thoughts.

Surely, Edana’s mother couldn’t be a bad person, but if so, then why did they not get along?

Silently, Eleanor watched her new granddaughter move around in the kitchen with narrowed eyes.

She was beginning to get a sense of why her firecracker of a daughter was drawn to this teenager. Frances was a thoroughly pleasant individual to be with. She was responsible, polite, courteous, and didn’t have a mean bone in her body. Eleanor suspected it might actually pain Frances to try being cruel.

Yet, the wily old matriarch knew she was missing important pieces of the puzzle. For why would her daughter adopt an Otherworlder? Why would Edana adopt and show such affection to a girl who would go back to her original world? Unless she wasn’t going back to her original world. In which case, Eleanor wanted to know why.

And why would this girl want Edana to be her mother?

Whatever the reason for why Edana adopted Frances, Eleanor suspected one reason had to be Frances’s cooking skills. The fish was perfectly cooked and the fried rice the perfect texture and mix of ingredients. Everything had been plated well too, with the fish resting on top of the bed of rice, garnished with some sauteed collard greens.

After expressing what she felt was an appropriate degree of approval for the food, which Frances beamed brightly at, Eleanor decided it was time to ask some more pointed questions.

“So Frances, as an Otherworlder, aren’t you going to be returning to your world and your family after you defeat King Thorgoth?”

Frances blinked at Eleanor’s question. As intended, she’d caught Frances after swallowing, in hope for a more honest reaction. She expected the girl to freeze or at least hesitate.

She didn’t expect Frances to close her eyes and shake her head. “No. I’m not going to go home—to Earth that is.”

“Why not?” This was unexpected, and although Eleanor was comforted by that answer, there was a mystery to be solved and she was determined to find the answer.

“I… my…” Frances grimaced and put her utensils down. Wiping her mouth, Eleanor watched as the girl shook. She could see her touching her wand; a comforting gesture? Finally, Frances said, “I have nothing to go back to.”

The grave, resigned tone in her tone didn’t match that of a young girl’s at all, and Eleanor’s curiosity deepened. She had nothing to go home to? Surely she had a family. She heard many of the Otherworlders had already self-summoned themselves out of homesickness.

“What happened, if I may ask?” Frances shivered at that question and she closed her eyes. Eleanor watched the girl with a frown. “Is there a reason you cannot tell me?”

“There isn’t. It’s just hard.” Her fingers curling into a fist, Frances scowled. “Damn it. It shouldn’t be hard. It’s just…”

“Difficult to get the words out?” Eleanor quipped. At Frances’s shaky nod, the matriarch grimaced. “Words are like that. Why not ask me a question, Frances?”

Bobbing her head, Frances thought for a moment and asked, “Lady Wind—Eleanor, what… what do you want to know about me?”

Eleanor smirked. “You could tell I was testing you?”

Frances thought about saying that it seemed rather obvious, but decided against it and just bobbed her head again.

“Well, I’m mostly curious as to who you are, what made my firecracker of a daughter decide to adopt you, and whether you are a threat to my family.” Eleanor said this rather airily, but she was watching Frances’s reaction like a hawk. She was met by unflinching determination, and surprised by it, given how shaken the girl had been a second ago. “You don’t seem bothered by my concerns.”

“I can understand them, Lady Windwhistler. I’m not normal—” Frances winced “—I’m a unique case. I…How do I answer your worries?”

“Well, with regards to who you are… I think I like what I’ve seen. You seem like a responsible, considerate, kind mage who doesn’t stand for bullies. My niece Eva can’t stop talking about how amazing you were in taking down Ophelia Voidsailor.” At Frances’s blush, Eleanor smiled briefly. “And you’re modest too. And yet…” She studied Frances’s face, thinking about what she knew and had observed. “Two years ago my nephew and his husband adopted a troll girl orphaned in the earliest stages of this damned war. Something horrific happened to her during or after she was orphaned that changed her, permanently. If I may be so bold, she reminds me of you. Only, you seem to have recovered somewhat.”

Frances averted her gaze. “You are right. Though, I didn’t lose my parents. They—my mother and step-father—abused me, for as long as I can remember.”

Eleanor’s eyes widened as the puzzle, or at least, a major part of it clicked into place. “So when you arrived in Durannon… Oh, you poor thing.”

Frances sniffed. “Edana, your daughter… took me in as her student because of my magic. She… she saved me. Taught me—showed me I can be happy. And um… we found we really cared for each other.”

“I see. And I’m glad for you,” Eleanor said truthfully. She, however, remained thoughtful. “I do not mean to doubt your sincerity, but have you considered that if someone else took you in, you’d see them as a mother or father figure?”

Frances shook her head. “I have and I don’t think so. I don’t know how to explain why… I just think that Master Edana—mom, she offered something nobody else could.”

“Love?” Eleanor said in a knowing voice, watching as her granddaughter blinked at that.

“Yes. How… how do you know that?”

Eleanor leaned back in her chair. “... I may be estranged from my daughter, but the Windwhistler family’s history has a very sad beginning. My mother, the first Edana—may the winds carry her gently— the founder of our house was the bastard daughter of the Windstorm troll family.” Eleanor pointed to her ears. “She was half-troll, though, that wasn’t the reason they treated her worse than the shit that drains into the Great Canal. Still, she was a woman with a heart of oak and iron in her bones. She ran away from her home and served as a sailor on merchant ships until she came to command her own, which she used to start her own trading company.”

“But… she… she never completely recovered from that, did she?” Frances whispered.

Eleanor shook her head sadly as she remembered years long ago, lost to the mists of time. Of cradling her crying mother after a bad day.

“No. She never did. You… you do know that you—”

“No, I know.” Frances smiled, resolute. “But I can’t—won’t let that hold me back from being happy.”

Eleanor’s lip quirked up and she reached over, but paused, just hovering her hand above Frances’s. When Frances nodded, the elderly matriarch patted her granddaughter’s hand. “That’s the spirit.”

A few hours later…

When Edana quietly opened the door to the manor and slipped into the living room, she found her daughter and mother playing chess and sipping some herbal tea. And her mother was telling stories to an enraptured Frances.

Eleanor snorted, “So I walked upstairs, wondering what that sound was, and found your mother, sitting in the middle of her room crying. I’d left a small tub of lotion on the floor of her room by accident and forgot about it. She’d somehow gotten into it and thought it was a toy. So there was white lotion all over her face, lotion covering her diapers, lotion all over the floor and her toys, and on the walls. She’d emptied the entire tub of lotion and spread it everywhere. I tried to pick her up. She promptly slipped out of my hands, skidded across the floor like it was ice. I’d never seen anything so ridiculous in my life.”

To Edana’s embarrassment, even though Frances valiantly tried to cover her mouth, she was shaking with giggles.

“Mother… did you have to tell that story,” Edana moaned.

“Master—I mean, mom!” Frances leapt up and flew across the room. Embracing her daughter, Edana wondered when she’d finally stop calling her ‘master’ but smiled nevertheless. At least her daughter was getting along with Eleanor. Somehow.

Speaking of which, Edana narrowed her eyes, “Hello, mother.”

Eleanor smirked. “Yes, yes that’s my title don’t tire it out. You, on the other hand, Frances, need to call me Grandmother more.”

Frances blinked, “But Lady Windwhistler—“

“By the winds girl, where did you learn your impeccable manners? Not from my daughter you didn’t.”

Edana’s eyes widened even before Frances’s gaze dropped. Her mind whirring desperately because Frances learned the deference that most saw as ‘good manners’ from her abusive parents. She wondered how to communicate the taboo matter of the subject to her mother without telling too much.

Except, Eleanor’s eyes were widening as well. “Oh. Oh. Sorry, Frances. They… they ingrained it into you?”

Edana quite nearly gawked at her mother, who had just apologized?

Frances just gave a short nod. “Yes. It’s alright Lady—grandmother.”

Wait, and Frances had apparently told her grandmother—Edana pinched the bridge of her nose for a second. This was a lot to take in, but… this was good, this was much better than she thought might happen.

“So you got along. I’m glad,” Edana said with some relief.

Eleanor smiled too. “I know my approval isn’t what you want, or need, but I’m happy for both of you.”

Edana blinked, her jaw agape, she spluttered, unable to quite phrase what she was thinking for a moment until she simply nodded. “Thank you, mom.”

Frances smiled eagerly, glad that her mother and her grandmother were clearly, much happier.

“If you would like, I want to invite Frances and you to the monthly family gathering. It’s in a week. I think it’ll be a good setting for Frances to meet her cousins.”

Edana immediately narrowed her eyes. Her mom might be right in this case, but… “Aren’t you afraid Frances might get overwhelmed.”

“Ma—mom, can we please go?” Frances begged, even as Eleanor met her daughter’s arched eyebrow with a frown. After a moment, the matriarch grimaced.

“Before your mother says yes, Frances, I should let you know that you have… fifteen—no, sixteen cousins.”

“I have sixteen cousins?” Frances almost-squealed in glee. She looked up at Edana. “How—what… that’s fantastic.”

Edana nodded. “Alright Frances, we will go. As to how you have seven first cousins by my sisters and brothers and... I think you have nine second cousins? I’m not entirely sure where the sixteenth cousin came from.”

“Don’t you recall your cousin Danny adopting Ayax two years ago?” Eleanor asked in a chiding tone.

“Oh, yes.” Edana blinked and she realized what her mother was getting at. “Ah, you think she and Frances will get along?”

Eleanor’s smile faded. “It’s more than that. I’ll call you on your mirror about it if you don’t mind?”

Edana blinked. This sounded serious. “Of course not. By the way, how are you getting home, mom?”

“Called for my carriage an hour ago.” Eleanor smiled as the doorbell rang. “And that’s them.”

“In that case, I’ll… see you later, mom. You’ll give me the details of the gathering later?” Edana asked.

“Yes.” Eleanor stood up. “Thank you for being a wonderful host, Frances.”

“It was a pleasure, Lady—Grandmother,” Frances managed, smiling.

“Until next time,” said Eleanor, walking to the door. Edana thought for a moment and walked beside her mother, offering her arm as she used to when she was a child. The matriarch of the Windwhistler house glanced at her daughter, smiled and took it.

“I’m very proud of you, Frances,” said Edana later that night, as she sat beside Frances’s bed. Yes, she knew her daughter was a teenager, but Frances had told her that she appreciated Edana tucking her in once in a while.

“M—thank you, mom,” said Frances brightly.

“Thank you, dear. You’ve… you’ve made things between me and my mother just a little easier,” With that Edana kissed her daughter’s forehead, leaving Frances feeling rather warm and eager. Eager to meet the rest of her mother, and grandmother’s family.