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A noble duality. That’s what they came into this world knowing, her twin and herself. What one wasn’t capable of the other was able. What the one was, the other was not. It was both in their personality and in their actions. It was subtle at first. Nahia was not the presence to reckon with from the time she walked. In fact, she was the younger twin of the two and wasn’t the fussy one. She timid, watchful. Maybe it was due to the fact she was the one left in the hands of their real caretaker. The nanny that was more nurturing than her all too busy parents. Busy with dealing with their slowly drowning house as more and more nobility gets choked out for indecision, their stand, lack of ability to adapt. As much as they wanted to change, the Lazkao’s was at the people’s mercy. And the only way to escape that was to mold their twin children into the new society.
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Their parents only took to their children as that. They didn’t nurture them, it was purely to teach them what they would be dealing while restricting them from the public eye. It kept them from seeing the world different from what they wanted to show them. And that world’s lens was dictated to be that was the outside world was cruel. Their lessons in that scope were you had to be crueler with a smile. Their parents were not wrong, the world was cruel. But what they had shown their children to be cruel to wasn’t right. They learned quickly they were merely family tools. And the same went for the other houses around them. And it was their lives’ duty to ensure they didn’t let the house fall victim to the crumbling powers. And the people that were around them were nothing but objects to be shot down the moment they grew out of hand. Nothing else mattered.
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Nahia herself didn’t seem to be the one that would thrive in this idea. But she’d have to. She was the one that was more reserved, quiet. She was respectful but she often found herself attached to the nanny that took care of her, often hiding behind her after the day’s lessons had come and gone. Maybe it was her youth’s naivety but she didn’t want anything to do with duty. Not the duty her family was deciding was for her. No, she just enjoyed things as simple as spending time with her nanny, reading with her, watching her magically make the meals they picked at daily, trying to haplessly help with the chores her nanny had to do.
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In Nahia’s young eyes, this woman was her mom. Not the mother that gave birth to her, but the motherly nurture that a child craved for. Her twin even had the habit to suck up to the lovely woman that cared for them. But the moment that the word “Mom!” spilled from their mouths at the woman not behind closed doors, things become suddenly different. That woman was no mother, let alone their mother, and in heads of the Lazkaos saw this all as a slight, something to spite them. Whether it was their children’s idea or the nanny’s, there was a lesson to be had here to them. After all, both were only tools. Just two were more important to them, and more importantly, needed to lose their attachment to a tool that was not only to weaken them but was going to disappear when her usefulness ran out.
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To the house, it might as well have been a public execution in the works, even though a peep never left the walls of the home. The trio we all subjected to whatever the head’s decided. Nahia’s on memories of this time were hazy, only recalling she had cried a lot till she just stopped. The memories refused to break the line of the violence that followed in that week. She didn’t really know what was to become her ‘mother’ but she easily could suspect; such thoughts locked to only herself to keep herself in graces of family heads’. But that silence on that twisted her to be less the subdued, laidback daughter she had been. She was a tool, after all; she might as well be useful. Even to herself. She easily proved her loyalty to her family, as her twin had also done well to do. They were turning into the very objects expected of them. Smiles in the forefront, but a knife prepare to twist in a back.
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As they grew, being the younger twin of the two had its perks in Nahia’s eyes. Her expectations weren’t as high as her twins. It was to support her twin’s goal, her lessons came to her less and less harsh as she didn’t defy anyone but the people that were beneath her in tactful ways. She slowly learned how to crawl under their skin with everything and everyone she could as their parents focused on trying to make the ever so slightly older one more perfect. They were going to be the next head, after all. That was their duty, and Nahia’s expected duty was to support her twin. That was all. A duty that she easily accepted.
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But even with all the work invested into their children, the Lazkao house was still drowning in itself. It was hard not to with their history. When the nobility still all stood unshaken, the Lazkao’s certainly weren’t shy of playing their fellow nobles, the Alder included. And now that many grasp at the air to be spared their fate, they were turning to each other for saviors. Only many would look at the current heads and look the other way, and certainly, doubts would be cast upon these children whom they’ve rarely seen. But still, their parents told them their duty. Ensure the Lazkao family would live on. Even if it meant stealing away into another house’s name. But what a bitter taste it would be to them that their children standing in their places only gained the ears of the Alder who had fit the nips of their manipulative ways.
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Nahia and her twin, however, did not care. They were tools fulfilling a duty, they would do anything for that. It was her twin’s idea to marry themselves off to get themselves into the Alder family. After the obvious garnering approval for themselves, Nahia had been the next target as her twin and herself refused to be separated. After all, they were the only thing they had truly familial and one had a duty to the other. She had no problem with whatever was about to be asked of her. But if only Yvel Alder had stated it more plainly from the get-go, it would have happened in matter minutes rather than a couple of weeks of thought. But Nahia did not complain.
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No, she simply played at the Alder’s game to get what she wanted, a way to prove herself to them. Cryptic words and puzzling avoidance of the straightforward answer was nothing she didn’t deal with daily. But the hint of blood and family was enough to finally tip her off. It was the execution that was the problem. Nahia knew it was just needing a follow-through and she had that. It wasn’t like she saw her targets as anything valuable to her. They were just tools. But would be interesting to remind them of that and have them realize they were no longer of use. Just like her mom, lost at their hands.
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It wasn’t long before the young woman with a tired, drained look dragged a bag with her as a gift to the mother of the Alder. After all, it was a long, exhausting night for her. A night filled with reminders and pain. But it wasn’t fully hers, as she dumped the contents of the bag out in front of Yvel at her own feet with her tired look gaining a twisted smile. She shuffled a kick to one of the heads of the Lazkao family forward, not cleanly cut from where ever the bodies had been left to rot. It wasn’t like Nahia attached to them as anything but painful memories, even though they were her parents.
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“Anything else I can do for you, Mother Yvel?” She spoke softly without hesitation or a fading smile.