She didn't know how to feel about this. She was just... shocked. She wasn't sure she was ready. Although after their father's disappearance Orluiowa and Atlantia coped well enough, they never completely got over it. Imagine their surprise that while reviewing their empire's numbers they got the message that hunters had found the old bones of a male cecaelia.
Bones with the crest of the Dark Empire, nonetheless. After ordering the guards to lead them to the location of the remnants, Atlantia ordered them to leave. And so both sisters stared down at their father's corpse, which had tattered robes and a necklace made of stone.
Orluiowa leaned down and took hold of the fabric, which was somehow still intact. Atlantia peered closer as well, and twitched with realization as she saw what her sister was looking at. Two stab marks and one hole at the chest.
Moments of silence. The sisters stared at the missing tooth located near the chin.
"He was murdered." Orluiowa said flatly. Atlantia nodded, swallowing the painful lump in her throat. In that moment all she wanted to do was hold her sister.
Orluiowa swallowed back her grief and instead grimaced at the punctured bone. There were only two stab marks. She would have expected for her father to put up a fight.
"Mother must have done this." Orluiowa said calmly. Keeping her face neutral, Atlantia once again nodded in agreement.
"What will be done to his bones?" Atlantia asked, keeping all emotion out of her voice.
"We will bury them with mother." Her sister said, then began digging out the bones. Atlantia bent down to help, and pulled out her father's fist. Both sisters tensed, for there was something in his bony fingers.
Orluiowa pulled it out carefully. There was a note.
Atlantia swam closer and peered at it, the fading letters barely readable.
Your mother has tried to stab me, girls. I am going away until she calms down. I write this as she chases me, as you might have noticed by the handwriting. She shot me with an arrow. May you both someday find this and know how much I ridiculously loved you both, my girls. You will be great leaders.
The silence between the two cecaelias and the corpse seemed to stretch on and on, as long as the ocean they inhabited.
Handing the blood-stained paper to her sister, Orluiowa lifted the stone necklace from her father's chest, and put it on.
It was tradition to pass on a relic from previous rulers, and they hadn't received the chance to get one because of certain circumstances. Atlantia placed the paper in her bag, and continued doing the same with the bones, as well as the broken arrow.
The tread back to the empire from the hunting grounds was a long one, and one filled with silence as well. Atlantia cleared her throat and asked,
"Did you keep it?"
Orluiowa turned her head to Atlantia and said rather absently,
"Keep what?"
"The parcel our father gifted us."
Orluiowa paused for a moment. She had only once ever received one single gift, and she had to admit she still had it.
"Well?" Her sister pressed.
"Yes. I kept it, it looks good in my hair, don't expect a sob story behind the reason." Orluiowa snapped quickly.
Chuckling, Atlantia said,
"I know you too well to know there is no sob story. I kept mine as well." Both sisters peered at each other silently, and Atlantia realized for the first time that the gray and indigo stone was broken in pieces and decorated on Orluiowa's hair. As for her sister, she knew Atlantia wouldn't have it out in the open in case of theft.
"Where is your stone?" Orluiowa demanded, and her sister pulled something out from underneath her armor. A single gray and cyan stone was attached to a dagger's hilt. Orluiowa nodded and then said cheerfully,
"It will be Urina's Name Day soon. I expect decoration to be impeccable and you to be in the front seat."
Atlantia nodded her head once and asked,
"What will be done?"
"She will do the same thing mother forced me to do."
Orluiowa exclaimed excitedly.
"It's a shame." Atlantia thought out loud, then continued,
"Both her eels are very smart creatures. Catching them will be difficult. Which will it be?"
Orluiowa smiled deliciously and then said in a low voice,
"Oh, it will not be either of them. The eels are too good to be killed."
As Orluiowa said this, she couldn't help but feel a tiny pang in her cold heart. The time spent together was much too short-lived. It had taken them a while for them to become close. Ursula would grieve, and perhaps Orluiowa would grieve of what was and could have been.
Nevermind all that mush. Mother taught me to not even consider such things. Grieving over the death of one would be pathetic and weak. We knew it would happen someday. That is why we don't become lovingly close. Oh, no! Hahaha! The closer you are the easier it is to kill you. Uruga will tremble and I will at last know if her intentions are as-
"Pardon me, sister, but may I ask why you laugh?" Atlantia asked rather curiously, interrupting Orluiowa's wicked smile.
Feeling rather distraught and embarrassed, Orluiowa answered,
"May I ask why you may ask why I laugh?"
Before Atlantia could answer, Orluiowa continued,
"Yes! I may ask why you may ask if you may ask me why I laugh! Is it wrong to laugh? No! On the contrary, asking why one laughs takes the joy out of living! What's the fun in life if you can't live it laughing when the other is asking why the other laughs? It makes the laughing being question their dignity and their freedom! I am the Empress and I may laugh whenever, however, wherever, I want and no one should have to ask me why I laugh! So! The answer to your question would have to obviously be answered in the same aspect you asked me! And so my answer is this: may I ask why I must ask why I may ask if you may-"
"Alright!" Atlantia finally said.
"My reply to your answer would be this: yes."
Glaring at her sister, Orluiowa crossed her arms and scowled,
"Well I don't want to answer your reply anymore."
Atlantia shook her head in amusement. Then her head turned to darker thoughts.
Her father. Her kind, and sweet father whose only sin was just killing 1 million folks. Nothing compared to previous rulers. She had to admit she missed her father dearly. And her mother. Yes, she had been very much on the rough side of a caring and loving mother. Finding out she had been captured by pirates hurt the empire, but hardened them all up some more.
After Orluiowa assumed the role of empress and Atlantia the army commander, both sisters had agreed to never touch upon the subject, and visited their mother's grave on her Name Day every year. Though they did not have a body to bury, they had decided on using her mother's favorite eyeball.
It had been hers before her mother took it out as it was blind and did not match her red and black hair. Both cecaelias buried their mother while revising the last lesson their mother had unknowingly taught them: always keep another expendable. Their mother had run out of things to gamble, so she figured she could gamble herself off and then head home, in her drunk state. While gambling with pirates was now illegal, they had to admit their mother would had liked how her time had come. The guard who was supposed to be gambled had run off and explained, hoping to be spared by the honesty, a silly excuse indeed, and ended up getting sold to pirates in return. It was widely presumed their mother had gotten captured by pirates, so to keep respect in their family name, everyone had simply gone with it.
Orluiowa and Atlantia had not had to say out loud what their mother would have said,
'Karma is delicious, is it not?'
Hours after burying the bones, both cecaelias returned to the empire's duties, and once finished headed to Atlantia's room to begin planning Ursula's Name Day celebration.