Since Esmera was abandoned on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, the only person who has looked out for her is herself.
Until a lark starts visiting her, leaving behind exotic flowers and iridescent pebbles that the internet doesn't recognise.
Esmera...
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Esmera disagreed with Tauram. A marriage that her daughter's arm was twisted into was a loss, especially when her groom would be a god. He'd whisk her away to some unearthly realm where the divine dwelled. Would they even be able to be a part of her life after he had taken her?
Esmera looked to Nuredir, who, unlike Tauram, wasn't at all moved by her unshed tears. "Will you at least let her grow up with us?"
Most parents lost their children to marriage, college, or adulthood by the age of eighteen. If that was when Nuredir would claim their daughter, all wouldn't be lost. Esmera would have eighteen wonderful years to love and cherish and nurture her.
"With pleasure." Nuredir waved a dismissive hand. "I have no interest in raising a child."
"That's an interesting sentiment from a man who's bartering his way to a wife." Esmera narrowed her eyes. It was one thing for him to force his way into her daughter's life but another for him to try to control it. "Is it not inevitable that she will someday give you children?"
Too late, Esmera bit her tongue. As much as it irked her to think of sharing family with this insufferable god, no good could come from voicing her feelings.
The truth was, she needed Nuredir's help, or this daughter he and Esmera both wanted, albeit for different reasons, would never come to exist.
Esmera wished she could claw them out and return them to the earth they had come from, but she somehow managed to contain herself in the fists she clenched at her sides.
"Breathe, Esmera." Tauram's voice was little more than a breath, but Esmera heard it as if it was a whisper he traced along her skin.
She obeyed him and exhaled as he spoke the words she couldn't bear to say to Nuredir.
"We agree that you may have our daughter as your wife after her eighteenth birthday and not a moment before."
Nuredir laughed softly. "There is no need for those terms. If I was the kind of god who would take a woman without her parents' blessing and before she is of age, I would've done just that."
It was a courtesy on his part to ask for Esmera and Tauram's permission. Esmera repeated that thought in her mind even as she wanted nothing better than to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
Nuredir was more powerful than Esmera and Tauram combined. He would have their daughter whether or not they wanted him to.
"I also want to be allowed to see her after she is married to you," Esmera blurted out. She was aware that her request was vague. Did that mean every week? Once yearly? Only on special occasions? Even so, she feared that to ask for anything more would anger the god and get him to withdraw all the concessions he had already made.
