Chapter #7 - Talia

Talia's mom sat at the wooden kitchen table— which now looked eternally bland compared to the other things she'd seen that day— working hard on whatever she was up to with her job as a marketer.

Talia had made her decision.

She would tell her. Not just because she wanted someone else to talk about the craziness of this whole Lost City thing, but because if elves did kill her father, her mom deserved to know about them. Especially if he had also been a part of the HRP.

"Mom?"

Her mom looked up, and Talia took a seat across from her. The dark circles under her deep brown eyes looked unnatural. "Hi, Sweetheart. How was school? Mr. Alenefar said you learned a lot."

"Well... I did, actually." She took a deep breath. Talia's storytelling skills were far from Joley's, but she didn't have to tell her everything.

Just the things she deserved to know.

"I—"

Her gaze was lost on the slightly rusty wedding ring on her mother's finger. The ring was something that her mom refused to take off, even while she was sleeping or showering, which could get awkward. With its slightly opalescent purple jewels, it was certainly beautiful, but it had never looked particularly interesting until now.

"I, uh, learned about dinosaurs. Where... where did Dad get your wedding ring, again?" Her face turned somber, and Talia immediately regretted bringing up such a tender subject.

"He said it was from a special jewelry shop. Why are you asking?"

Because... it looked strangely elfy.

But she couldn't spit out those words. "Just curious. It's a really nice ring." She hoped what she was about to ask wouldn't be too much. "Can I... hold it for a minute?"

"Sure, honey." Talia could tell there was no doubt in the words— her mom wasn't the type to hesitate— but she also knew they were still delicate. Raw.

Holding the ring between her thumb and forefinger, she examined the stunning jewels. After looking at them for a moment, she realized she was being paranoid. Sure, it was a nice piece of jewelry. But that didn't mean anything.

When she handed it back, her mom was misty-eyed.

"Is it okay that I—"

"No." And for the first time in forever, her mom actually paused in the middle of her sentence. "It's nice, actually."

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you too."

***

After the incident with the ring, it occured to Talia how little she really knew about her dad's death.

She now knew it was two rebellious elves from that day, but why? What could he have possibly done to them? She thought about in bed for who knows how long, before she suddenly came up with a scary conclusion.

Her dad had been part of the Human Reinstatement Program, but what if the people didn't want humans to know about the Lost Cities? Would they go far enough to kill one of the HRP humans— to make a statement?

The fears kept Talia up for hours, and when she went to scratch her elbow, she found that one of the tiny crystal jewels from the ring had somehow fallen off and gotten stuck on her arm.

She tucked it under her pillow.