O Mother, Where Art Thou

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden finally turned. Her words didn’t make things better. Their law was such that any sorcery was punishable. He had to question Ra’s actions and laws now. They couldn’t be justified. There were those who were evil incarnate. Baiko wasn’t one of them. He’d known her for so long, knew she was a good person, a proud warrior, and that without her Kaden wouldn’t be standing where he was. She had shaped him and formed him. Baiko was still shapping and forming.

”Then why say anything? You adopt me and in the next breath you say these things. How am I supposed to feel about it? You know what I was brought up under, the rules of a Mand’alor who believed any of these magics were an evil to be purged. How can I ask you to take a cure for something that it is part of you?”

He freed himself from Baiko’s touch.

”If you didn’t have to lie, then why did you tell me?”

Kaden was at a loss for any other words. He wasn’t telling her to leave, but he wasn’t reaching for her. The timing had been horrible.

”I need to sit. My injuries seem to have caught up with me today.”

[member="Baiko no Kaho"]

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

"Kaden, I had to tell you. It meant nothing if I was leaving Mandalore, but you want me to stay, and I couldn't put you in a position where the knowledge would be rashly claimed in an inopportune moment.” Baiko set her hands in front of her, mashing her fingers together and casting her eyes to the ground. “Feel however you feel, Kaden. I’ve always upheld Ra’s law, and you know I taught you to uphold it… there is some room for interpretation in the Law. Force Use is banished from Manda’yaim… not strictly Force Sensitivity. In that, I follow the letter of the Law. I was going to leave. It didn’t matter if I left, I’d be free… but now I am not leaving.”

Baiko snapped back into the obedient servant the moment Kaden admitted he needed to sit down. She propped a pillow on the near arm chair, reaching to guide him into it.

“I’ll fetch you a drink… calm your system.” While Kaden had been nearer to the blast radius, he’d been in armour. Baiko had none. She refused to show the pain wracking her own body as she served Kaden, trying her best to make him comfortable.

“I am sorry, Kaden… but I had to in this be honest, or you would have, later on, taken my silence as a deeper betrayal.”

A pair of boots trotted into the flat, Yasha running in and rushing straight for the fresher. “Yasha!? Yasha, let me help you!”

Baiko rushed to the fresher door, grunting as she heard the noise of a young woman dealing with the nausea of pregnancy. “Yasha, I’m coming in.”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The nausea was unbearable. Since when did Yasha Mantis get stomach sick? The back of Yasha’s mind flung to her earlier days, being a six year old in Rianna Ar’klim’s arms, as the Doctor gave her medicines and therapies to help Yasha stomach food and water outside of the Netherworld. Was it back to smoothies and shakes for another year, after this bought?

Her body vibrated as she retched, barely cognitive of [member="Baiko no Kaho"] behind her until a cold, damp cloth pressed to the back of Yasha’s neck.

“Easy, Yash’ika. Easy, breathe little one, I am here.” Baiko knelt beside Yasha, pressing the cold cloth to her neck with one hand and feeling her forehead with the other. Yasha’s lips quivered and her teeth chattered.

“Not again, Baiko… I don’t want to go through that again... thank you.” Yasha whimpered. Baiko got her up and helped her rinse her mouth, taking care of the mess.

“Oh Yash’ika, worry not. You will feel just fine in a few weeks time. Why don’t you sit beside Kaden, darling? There, a sweater on the hook of the door. Bundle up.” Baiko continued to serve, and Yasha rubbed at the side of her face as she pulled the loose grey sweater off the hook and put it on top of her armour weave. She searched [member="Kaden Mantis"] for some divine meaning to his supposed malaise.

Padding back into the living area of the small flat, Yasha took a bottle of elba water, cracked the seal and sipped it. She plunked down beside Kaden on the love seat, gingerly putting her legs over his lap. “Look like you’ve seen a flame wing, cyare. What did I miss?”