The Prophecy of Water | ✔️ 🎖 [2018 Wattys Shortlister]

CHAPTER 19-The Sins of Thy Father

I am a father, should I feel any differently now?

LoG, 313

The Viewstone colour was halfway from The Dark to The Light. In Drian's Namas near The House of Credo all oil lamps available in the house still burned. No one was sleeping.

Drian was in his room on the first floor. He was sitting on the bed, barefoot, holding his head between his hands. His robe was placed in an oak cabinet. He had beige linen pants and a white shirt on. Every time he would take off that black fabric, Drian would feel somehow lighter, more himself.

Drian's bedroom was warmly coloured,  and furnished with taste, with lots of wooden elements. A large candelabra lit by a hundred tiny oil lamps was hanging from the roof.  Just below the chandelier, in the centre of the room, was Drian's spacious bed with soft light-blue linens and two huge pillows. To the left of the bedstead, there was a wide-open window, over which a hand-embroidered white silky curtain was pulled.

The floor was a faithful copy of the vaulting. On the right side of the bed lay a dense dark red carpet. It now contained Drian's discarded and abandoned slippers.

Occasional chirping and screaming interrupted the absolute silence and Drian's accelerated breathing. It was coming from a spacious bone cage placed on a nightstand.

Drian jerked from his thoughts and sat closer to the cage. He put a finger inside to caress the creature that lived there. "Mina," he whispered, stroking the black tiny bird's head. "I know you feel my nervousness. You must wonder why we're not sleeping. All I ask of you is a little more patience, and then you can go to sleep, girl."

Along with those words, Drian gave her a piece of apple. The bird greedily swallowed it in two bites. Then it screeched: "Mina! Apple!"

"Yes, girl. Your favourite fruit. Maybe I could ... Here, I'll cover the cage," Drian said.

With a longing look, Drian glanced under the bed next. His canvas and paint were also there. He didn't take them out.

His fate was being decided in the living room. Nalon and Kamil were talking about what he had just done. He had to wait for them to finish. And then, Drian knew, a conversation with his father followed. That was why he was sitting awake on the bed, at such a late hour.

"I have to be deprived of sleep because I am about to have an uncomfortable discussion. It doesn't mean you can't sleep either," Drian said, covering the bird's cage.

When he was alone in the room with Mina, reading or painting, Drian was used to sharing his thoughts with mynah instead of keeping them for himself. He felt that the bird listened to him intently.

Drian still clearly remembered the day she entered his life. He was merely eight Big Ones old. He had returned from classes from a local village school.

He threw a leather bag with parchments and notes on the bed, looked up and ... There it was. The bird was sitting on a windowsill which was then, as now, open. The only difference was that there were no curtains in those days on the window.

It was a completely black bird, save for a saffron circle beneath the eyes. It had a bright orange beak and yellow legs with tiny but sharp dark claws. It was chirping to herself, chasing a caterpillar.

One of its wings seemed to be crushed, and it didn't resist when Drian took her in his hands. The feathers were soft and warm under his careful touch. The bird ran up his forearm without fear and placed itself on top of Drian's head. There it chattered something into his ear.

"Where did you come from?" Drian remembered having said that to Mina. Immediately after, he flew down the stairs with her on his shoulder to show her to Nalon. He knew his father was strict and that he might be upset if Drian tried to keep the bird.