Rosetta

8

Esmerelda sat opposite Rosetta, and her mother, still tied, was in the middle of a dark room. They could see each other, but Rosetta had to study the coffee table they were at very hard to finally realise that there was a small knife there. Instinctively, she reached for her gun, but she found that it too had been placed on the table.

"Nat," Esmerelda started. "We have a lot of explaining to do, I see."  Her voice was void of the demonic bounce it had had, and sounded instead like they were on trial. As she spoke, her mother was untying her ropes and picking away at the tape in her mouth.
"Natty, if you dare try anything, and I mean anything at all that is not what I say," she picked the dagger up placed it beneath her mothers neck. "We may not finish this conversation."
Rosetta was trying to scream, trying to rip the knife from her hand, trying to swipe the gun off the table end this woman's life. This kidnapper's life. But she couldn't. Her limbs were aching from her attempts, and eventually, she relaxed in defeat.

"That's it, Rosetta. You just sit there and listen." Her mother was fully freed now, but was motionless like her.

"Let me tell you something, Rosetta." She placed her knife back down onto the table.
"Every person has their weapon. You have your gun, and I have my knife." She gestured to them, laying on the table. If only she could reach out and touch it. But no. Esmerelda would know if she'd tried.

"My knives had served me greatly. No doubt your gun has too. But we don't use them on ourselves now, do we? No, we don't know how it feels to have your means of protection turned against you!" She shouted the last few words. She stood up and held out her hand.

"Well I did! I had my own knife, my own limbs turned against me!" She sat down and calmed herself.

"Well," she said in a shaky breath. "Now you will know."

Beside her, her mother whimpered. Rosetta couldn't tell if it was from pain or trying to be set free.

"Natty, let me tell her." She rested a soothing hand on her mother's arm. She picked the knife up off the table and stood up. She twirled it around her fingers and she paced around the room.

"Me and your mother lived in Artemisia, years ago. We were both the sisters of high thaumaturges, and our gift was among those of the powerful." With that, Rosetta stood up and the orbs in each corner lit up. She slid the gun off the table and aimed it for Esmerelda's head. I'm going to shoot her? She questioned. In fact, she wasn't doing anything. She was being controlled. She pivoted her foot and aimed her gun for her mother. She felt her finger tense around the trigger.

"FINE!" She screamed. "YOU'VE MADE YOUR POINT!" She was crying now. She felt her hold on her snap and she crumpled to the ground.

"I have a heart, Rosetta. I may threaten you, but I use my gift to restrain." Surprisingly, she helped her to her feet and sat her back down onto the chair.

She continued pacing as if nothing had happened, the knife twirling round and round and round. Her mother was still as stone.

Esmerelda continued as if nothing had happened. "One day, Sybil came to me with news. The queen needed two people for a job. She wanted us to aid the queen in the spread of letumosis. Sybil told me that I had been chosen, and that she needed someone else. Can you guess who I chose?"

Her eyes darted to her mother. "That's right. Natasha Parks and Esmerelda Mira would be the two spies sent to weaken earth. We were to be given one year to start it, and where given separate places to start. I was sent to a little city called Frafrah, and Nat was sent to Russia, weren't you? And what did you find? Remember our agreement." Her mothers eyes flashed to the knife and then at her. She stared at her with tearful eyes and spoke.

"Rozzy, I am so sorry. So, so sorry you had to see this. To know this way." The tears had fallen now. "I am lunar, and I was sent to Russia to spread the blue fever."

"And what did you find, what's was it, 4 months into the job?" Esmerelda prompted.

Her mother whispered something. She could hear her own heartbeat so clearly it, she failed to see how Esmerelda could hear herself talk.

"Louder," she said.

Her mother tried again, louder but cracked and stuck in between sobs. Rosetta's heart was stuck in her throat now.

"Louder!"

"Y-You."

She couldn't hear her heartbeat anymore. In fact, she wished it not to return. The room was silent. Esmerelda looked triumphant, as if she knew how this would make her feel. This was a nightmare, she told herself. She would wake up any second.  Her mother would be next to her, with water and a damp cloth that she'd be using to cool her forehead every time she had a nightmare. But no. It was real. She slumped in her chair and began to silently cry.

Her mother- No, this stranger continued regardless, in rushed stammers. "I-I found y-y-you. R-Rosetta, you w-were a t-tiny baby. I f-found you in a rose f-field. I-I couldn't leave you. You were so s-small."

"Natty, thank you for telling that. Now, let me finish. That way we will actually end the tale sometime today." She sat down and swung one leg on top of the other.

"When your mother returned to Luna, we were both so happy over you- I knew how Nat felt because I was a mother myself. I had a son that loved you, played with you, and a husband that adored me. But of course, Levana found out about you. She asked me to kill you and Nat, and I agreed. I lied. Do you know why? Because that night, Nat asked me to be your starma. I said yes."

Rosetta stared at her. Starma?

Esmerelda huffed. "A starma is similar to what the people around the Second World War believed in. They believed in godmothers and fathers, people that would protect you if your parents could not. We believe in starmas and starpas. Some people called them starmothers. Anyway, I asked a guard to take 2 people to earth in a week. I told Levana that I killed you both and destroyed your bodies. She was pleased until your mother stormed in. She had been told that I would attempt kill her, so do you know what she did? She forged documents and said that I planned to kill Levana! And dear miss Queenie didn't even look at the documents! She brought in my husband and my son, my baby son and controlled me! She made me take my knife and kill them! Then she made me cut my hand! Do you want to know her exact words? 'Death is too good for you- you will forever live in guilt'"

Esmerelda was close to hysteria, but she consoled herself and continued.

"She took the ship and left. Sybil forced me out of Artemisia and I was sent to be a miner in RM4. I almost died of regolith sickness, but I promised that they would pay"

They?

"Rosetta. I have a job for you."
Looking in the dim light, Rosetta could just make out her tear-stained face.

"Do it, and I will leave you free. Don't, and Natasha dies."