“Will you sing a song with me?” he asked, looking up at those golden eyes, and she smiled like she always did. A gentle, patient smile that always made him feel warm inside.

“A song?”

The boy nodded eagerly.

“Which song?”

“Any song!” In truth, any song would do. All he really wanted was to hear her beautiful voice.

She seemed to ponder for a moment, and ended up sitting down on the white-stone steps leadint to the always empty dais. Looking at him, she gestured him to come closer. And he giggled happily, running across the white floors to sit by her side.

“Do you know the song of the Bird and the Tree?”

The small boy nodded eagerly, a huge smile on his face.

Before she could regret her decision to sing with him, and wanting to take full advantage of the short time they had to play, he started singing. Soon she joined him, her voice the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard. And their joined song filled the entire Pavilion with warmth and joy.

ZaiWin felt wretched, recalling his own memories. He’d spent his entire life trying to forget his first six years of existence. And yet, just one stupid song, and it all came back to him, as clear and real as if it had happened only yesterday. He hated that song!, he immediately decided. He wished he could silence it, order that child to shut up! But the small baby in front of him kept happily floating to the sound of that distant voice. And so, even though he did loath that song, at the same time he couldn’t help feeling grateful to it, for, even from far away, keeping that little one some company. Whoever that child was, amidst that dark, cold world its voice was like a real blessing.

Time was an inconstant thing in there, not only because it was a world of its own, but mainly because those were mere memories. Soon silence returned, darkening the world around him, and his only source of light became the small baby, now comfortably sleeping. He was such a tiny, delicate thing. His eyelashes were as silver as his hair, his small lips like tiny rose petals. He kept his knees pulled against his chest, his arms folded against his body, occupying as little space as possible. And his pale skin kept glowing softly as he floated amidst the darkness. The sight of him made ZaiWin’s heart hurt. Such fragile, precious child … waiting to be born into a world of suffering and pain. Such fragile, precious child, that should have been loved and cherished, like the priceless, amazing gift that he was.

The sound of screams startled him. Desperate screams that made his skin crawl.

The faraway child, that had filled the dark world with laughter and warmth, was crying, and a devastating pain flooded the darkness around him. Maybe because the child was screaming, its voice sounded much louder. And ZaiWin’s heart stopped for a brief moment, before it rushed into a maddening beat.

He knew that voice! He knew it all too well! Above all, he knew the pain and desperation it echoed.

Somewhere out there a child’s world had just fallen to pieces, his mind was breaking, the heart inside his chest, even though it kept beating, had just died. Anguish and misery were all that was left.

ZaiWin looked at the small baby in front of him, at the way the pale light was quickly fading away, and felt his chest heavy with sorrow and guilt. He didn’t need to see what would happen next. He wished he was wrong …

As the desperate voice of the child kept pouring in, the woman that had been silent all that time started screaming as well. Soon other voices joined her, shouting orders and commands. The peaceful darkness was thrown into chaos. The silver-haired baby was gone. All that was left was darkness, screaming, and pain.

“It’s time! The baby is finally here!” an old woman announced, and a bright light poured into ZaiWin’s eyes, forcing him to raise an arm to shield his suddenly blinded vision.

“Just a bit more! Push!”

The woman’s voice he’d learned to recognize filled his ears as she obeyed. And yet it sounded different. No longer a distant echo. It sounded as real as any voice he had ever heard.

Blinking, ZaiWin tried to focus his vision, but he’d been immersed in darkness for too long.

“You’re doing fine! You’re doing fine! One more time!” Voices kept bombarding his ears.

Straining his vision, ZaiWin squinted and tried to see. There were several people in there. Five, maybe six … all women from their clothes, he quickly concluded through his blurry vision. It sounded like they were all talking at the same time, even though the older woman’s voice always overpowered the others.

“Bring me some hot water, girl!”

A smaller pale shadow rushed from one end of the room to the other, immediately obeying.

“Let’s go! Again!”

The other woman moaned and gasped, and ZaiWin blinked again, his vision slowly getting clearer.

They were all surrounding a large bed, where a blond woman was lying. Even though he had never been present during such an event, he easily concluded that she was in labor. As his vision became more focused. he started to capture a few more details. The woman in the bed had long, blond hair. And although she was probably in her mid-thirties, she was still beautiful, even with her face flushed and her blond hair glued to her sweaty face.

Suddenly the sound of another, different cry filled the room, and ZaiWin couldn’t help hold his breath. The baby had just been born, and his first heartfelt protest echoed everywhere.

ZaiWin smiled. Who could have ever guessed that he could actually complain like that? He was so focused on his own emotions that it took him a few moments to realize that he was the only one smiling. In fact, after all that noise of people shouting and speaking one over the other, the room was suddenly deadly silent.

“What … is this …?” the older woman finally gasped and, in the next instant, she simply dropped the little one on the bed, backing away with a horrified expression on her wrinkled face.

Coldly dropped like that, the baby’s cries only became stronger.

The women surrounding the bed all stepped back, the same disgusted expression on their faces, so much so that ZaiWin couldn’t help moving closer to see what had gotten them all so repulsed.

Faced with that scary reaction, the blond woman still lying on the bed also tried to sit up, her body clearly weakened from delivering her child, her cheeks now as pale as the white wall behind her. And yet, the moment she laid eyes on the small baby she immediately cringed back, pulling her knees against her chest, almost falling off the bed.

“What’s that? That’s not my baby! That’s not my baby!!” she screamed hysterically, startling everyone else, and the other women backed even farther away, nervously averting their gazes and shaking their heads.

“This is a curse …” the older woman breathed. “We have been cursed. We disobeyed the Temple’s directives. We even spilled an honorable Varsen²Literally var (sky) + sen (star). Meaning that who reads the stars in the sky. Name given to the Temple’s Seers. They can live in the Temple or as honorable guests of a Clan.’s blood. And so we have been punished for our sinful deeds and greed.”

“Take it away! Take it away!!” the blond woman screamed, pulling her own hair, rocking herself back and forth. “That’s not my baby! That’s not my golden-haired baby!!”

Of course he wasn’t, ZaiWin concluded looking down at the small baby crying alone on that bed. His pale skin was still bloodied, his thin hair wet and plastered to his head, his round cheeks reddened from crying so much. And yet he was still the same glowing baby that had patiently floated amongst the darkness all that time.

Probably wanting to see what all the commotion was about, a younger girl slowly approached the bed. She was no more than a child herself. Maybe eight, nine years of age. She had dark, straight hair, tied up in a messy knot, and huge dark eyes. And from the simple clothes she wore, ZaiWin knew she must be a servant-girl.

Seeing the small baby, unlike the other women, a huge smile stretched her lips. And she carefully raised her hand and placed it over the little one’s head.

Finally taking notice of the servant-girl’s actions, the older woman roughly yanked her back by the collar of her simple tunic, throwing her back with such strength that the poor girl fell helplessly on the floor.

“Don’t touch it!! You dumb girl! Haven’t you heard a single word I said? It’s cursed!!”

The other woman gasped in fear. The blond woman kept sobbing and rocking herself back and forth. The baby cried desperately.

“What … what do we do …?” one of the other women asked, her face ashen.

“Kill it. Just kill it!!” the horrible answer came from the blond woman’s trembling lips.

The older woman nodded with a dark expression on her face.

“My daughter-in-law is right. We must get rid of this abomination.”

Abomination! ZaiWin wanted to kill them all! How was that small baby an abomination? He was as small, as perfect, and as defenseless as any other baby he had ever seen!

“Shouldn’t … shouldn’t we inform the Lord …?” muttered another woman and the older one shook her head.

“Abomination or not, I will not weigh my son with the killing of his own flesh and blood.”

With a maddened scream, the blond woman jumped from the corner of the bed where she’d been cowering and, kneeling amongst the bloody sheets, wrapped her pale hands around the baby’s small neck.

“I’ll kill it!! I’ll kill it! It was never mine, to begin with! This thing! It must die!!” she kept screaming, leaving everyone gasping and murmuring in fear. But no one dared take a single step and try to stop her.

Silvareiel

? Well, we all knew that there was no way a normal family would be able to accept that a Tien’Elhar could look like Snow. ? It’s sad, I know. But expected ?