A COURT OF PAIN AND SORROW (ACOTAR FANFIC)

A conversation between father and daughter

The next morning Verna Amila Tansmia woke up early. Which was a rare thing indeed. Normally she woke when the sun was high in the sky, but now she was awake before the dawn. She laid in her bed for a good hour, trying to wander what to do with herself, perhaps she could read a book. But she had read all the books in her room, and she did not want to leave her bedroom to walk to the library the other side of the house. So she waited. And waited.

"VERNA!" A voice like honey said as the main doors of her bedroom opened, two hours after she awoke. "Verna good your wake!" The High Priestess Said.

"I have been for hours, Circe."

"Why have you not told me?" Circe asked shocked. "I would of come and make you breakfast or. . .or play games or tell you one of the many story's I know of the Seven."

"Circe I mean this with love, but I don't care about the Gods your home country worship." Verna said, even though she felt bad for it.

"Don't worry, I don't either. It's just story's that I was told by my father and some that were told by my mother." Circe said. She seemed nervous about something.

"What's wrong?" Verna asked.

"I have had a letter."

"Bad news I guess." Verna asked.

"Yes. Sent from my grandmother, Margarita. She says that an uprising is happening in Hybern and we must be careful. Prythian itself must be." Circe whispered. "They have a throne but no ruler and have not for two hundred years, my grandmother tells me the people grow tired without one. The last Kings wife, Mab had been ruling since but they grow tired off her. If only she still had her daughter."

"How long will this last for?" Verna asked. "And both of them you forget died."

"Until they find themselves an heir." Circe answer. When she got mad her accent came out more, which was what it was doing. Her S became more snake like. Her T's were sharper. "That might take months, or years. Just. . .be careful. If you see someone or something that looks wrong, tell me. Not your father, not Echo but me. Promise me."

"Of course. But why?"

"Because they still listing to the Bathory name." Circe answered. "They do not care for High Lords or their children, they care about their own. My mother is a Bathory, therefor I am. They are more and likely listen to me, Plus this helps." She said pointed to the moons on her forehead.

"Fare enough." Verna laughed. "Now why are you here?"

"Oh! Your father wanted me to get you. He's in his office."

***

"Circe says that you wish to speak to me," Verna Tansmia whispered as she stood on the edge of her fathers office. "What about?"

"Ah. I'm happy your able to make it, I hear your making sure that the Tithe goes well next week." Tamlin relied as he stood and make his way to his daughter.

Shit. Verna had forgotten about the Tithe, and the fact it was her right to make sure everything went well.

"Yes father, everything is going well." Verna said smiling. "Circe has invited the other heirs."

"I have heard." Tamlin said looking up from his paper and smiling at his daughter. "Hopefully they will address accordingly. We all know Miss Lilith likes anything that shows of her tits."

"Indeed. Now why am I here?"

"I did wish to speak. About Echo. About you. About everything."

"Must we?" Verna asked.

"Yes."

"Then at least may I sit?" Verna asked.

"Of course."

Tamlin moved his body, in a way that was so animal like it almost scared Verna. She moved with her head held high as she moved towards the two seats nexts to the large fire place. Once, when she was a child, during her first few weeks at the Manor, she stood inside the fireplace. She remembers that it was large enough for her to lay in. Though perhaps not now that she was a woman. With a woman's body.

"I heard that you fell. From the top of Rhysand castle. . .i was worried."

"Why?" Verna asked. "I'm fine."

Tamlin spat, "Your my daughter. My only heir, you could of been killed!"

Even in his anger, Verna could hear his sadness. He was worried that Verna would not of make it out alive. Clearly he believed that Verna would die. The thought itself made Verna feel sad.

"Just be careful next time," Tamlin laughed. "I don't wish for my daughter to become an pancake two weeks before her birthday. Which reminds me, what would you like?"

"Some quiet." Verna laughed.

"That I believe I can do." Tamlin laughed with her. "However it might be expensive"

Verna only rolled her eyes and laughed. This was one of the rare moments where they could just be father and daughter.

"S-sometimes I forget how alike you both where." Tamlin whispered. "Your mother I mean."

At that Verna rose her head. Tamlin never said anything about Verna's mother, unless he was drunk. And even then, he only cursed her.

"Your mothers absence. . .is something that will never heal. It has created a whole in you which I have tired to feel, yet I know it never will. Without her. . . I feel that you have lost knowledge about womanhood that I fear I can never give you. I know Vassa tried before her death and Circe try's now but there are somethings only a mother can teach her daughter about the ways of womanhood."
Tamlin whispered. Verna went to open her mouth, but her father just held a finger up. "Fucking hell, you had to go to Vassa the first time you got your bleed because I did not know what to do. And I dare say. . .you will never recover from the absence of your mother nor the lack of knowledge you should know by now." He added in a low voice.

"It pleases me to hear you speak so highly of her, after all these years after her death. It pleases me to hear that I'm not alone in missing her." Verna whispered, a tear running down her right cheek.

"I wish I had known better in what to say to you in the aftermath of her death. You where so scared. And so little, I remember thinking that you should not be so small. So tiny. You where six and the size of someone half your age. I did not help either. Truth be told I never liked the name Verna, that's why I tried to change it. But you were so stubborn, you get that from her. I. . . I'm sorry I did not help Verna, I'm sorry that I have been a bad father to you. You should be given the world, and yet I cannot give that to you." Tamlin bit his lip. "I am now struggling to realize that my daughter is now a woman. With a woman's needs. I have failed to realize you have become a woman. I have become almost blind in it, but. . .know I know that you are a woman I can have this talk with you. You know what is expected of me."

Verna turned her head back towards her father, a question in her eyes. But she already knew the answer. She already knew where this conversation was going.

"A High Lord should have a wife." She answered her own question with. "He should have heirs."

A moment of silence went between them, father  looked at his daughter and daughter looked at her father.

"I could never replace your mother. Not in your head nor your heart. No more then I intent to replace you as heir. But you are my only heir and now the Tansmia line is small and weak now because of the Artemis's." Tamlin whispered. "The Tansmia line can be to easily ended. And by marrying Echo, I can assure that there will be more heirs and more Tansmia's. So that we can better look after one another."

"From who?" Verna asked.

"From whoever may challenge us." Tamlin answered. "Even if they call themselves our are friends."

Verna swore she felt wind blow across her face.