Aenya's arms itched. She tried her best not to scratch for fear of ruining one of the dozen or so woven charm bracelets that adorned both her forearms. They were too important to mess up. After all, each bracelet, made of each weaver's hair woven and braided with strands of straw, served as proof of the weaver's humanity.
Only three more to go. Aenya prayed that not one of the charms would fail, that the news of a possible traitor in their midst was false. Their village had gone a quarter century without having to perform this ritual. The fact that they were doing it now was a testament to the villagers' increasing unrest. If one of the charms did fail... Aenya shook her head, trying not to think of the implications.
She took a deep breath, smoothed back her coarse black hair, and gathered up the three remaining bundles of straw in her hands.
Aenya entered the dust-covered tent, the coarse material familiar beneath her fingers. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the stuffy darkness; gradually she could make out the figure sitting cross-legged near the back of the tent.
"Hey, Snowdrop." Her father, a solemn man with a softness in his eyes, gave her a small smile. "Looks like it's my turn, huh?"
Aenya smiled back, her chest filling with warmth at the sound of her nickname. Her father liked to tell her of how, despite her being born in the dead of winter, he had found three snowdrops outside the birthing tent shortly after her birth. Aenya personally felt his story was unlikely, given the fact that snowdrops rarely grew this far north midwinter, but it was a nice sentiment.
"Hello, Bapi," she replied, addressing him the way she did when she was little. Then, remembering she was here on official business as the Tribe Healer, she cleared her throat.
"Ethreck Moonwalker," she said, feeling it strange to be addressing her father by name. "Are you prepared to weave your loyalty charm?"
"I am," he said, the smile in his eyes fading.
Aenya held out one of the prepared bundles of straw. "Please untie your braid and hold this in your hands."
There was a brief pause, no longer than a couple seconds, before he reached up and accepted the bundle of straw. Aenya's heart skipped a beat. Something was off. She tried to tell herself that her father's uncharacteristic solemnity was his way of accepting her as the Tribe Healer, but the tiniest seed of unease burrowed deep into her heart.
With great care, he removed his hunting knife from his belt, wound a loose strand of dark brown hair around his finger, and slid the blade across the lock. The knife sliced through the hair with ease, leaving a clean cut. Aenya opened her mouth to point out his mistake, to tell him that she, the Healer, was supposed to cut the hair, then decided against it. It made no difference in the effectiveness of the charm.
Setting the knife down on the woven sitting mat, next to his crossed legs, her father unwound the strand of hair from his finger. He tied one end with a few strands of hair, then began painstakingly weaving it together with the straw.
Never before had observing the creation of the loyalty charm caused Aenya such agony. She had never thought such a thing would be necessary, but rumors of a Thain living among them had grown too large to ignore. Normally such rumors were dismissed as scare tactics from the enemy, but the rumors came from various sources in such rapid-fire succession that the entire tribe had been consumed in a tsunami of increasing panic. After all, the Thain weren't human. No one knew for certain what they were, but everyone knew that the Thain were different. The short ones could sometimes pass for a human, but they usually towered over their human counterparts. Their eyes could see in the darkest nights, and they could bewitch humans with their haunting music, luring them into caverns and off of cliffs. Some were said to use a strange magic that needed no charms, potions, or ceremonies. If one had infiltrated their tribe... Aenya shook her head. No, she couldn't let herself fall prey to such gossip.
She looked up to see her father holding the finished charm in his outstretched palm, his eyes watching her with a hint of resignation. Aenya took a deep breath and continued with the ceremony.
"Ethreck Moonwalker, now that you have finished weaving your loyalty charm, please tie it around the wrist of your Tribe Healer as a final testament to your loyalty as a member of your tribe." Aenya held out her wrist and pushed the prior charms up her arm, doing her best to keep her arm from shaking.
Without looking her in the eye, her father took her hand in his, turned her palm upward, and traced something in her palm with his finger. Aenya recognized it immediately; it was the "magic symbol" he used to trace in her hand whenever she woke up from a nightmare as a child. He had always told her that the symbol would keep the Dream Crawlers away from her pillow so she could sleep soundly. Aenya no longer believed in the Dream Crawlers who climbed into people's ears to eat away at their dreams; her father hadn't traced the symbol in her hand for many years. Feeling his calloused finger brushing against her palm once more sent shivers up and down her spine.
He rubbed his thumb over her skin, then tied his charm around her wrist.
Immediately the woven charm shriveled up, the knot of straw and brown hair transforming into charred black strands. The smell of burnt hair mingled with the putrid stench of mold that resulted from the failed loyalty charm's magic.
He let out a long, sorrowful sigh and finally looked her in the eye. "I'm sorry, Snowdrop."
No. Aenya took a step backward. No. That couldn't be right. Not Bapi. Something must have gone wrong with the charm. But no. The charm had worked exactly as it should have. Aenya had thought she had prepared herself for the possibility of a traitor, but this?
Aenya's knees went weak. She took another step back, then another.
"Aenya," her father stood and reached out to her, his tone a mixture of guilt and pleading.
Just before her knees buckled, Aenya scrambled back out of the tent. She tripped over one of the tent flaps, caught herself, and bolted. She half expected her father to call out to her or chase after her. She shoved aside fellow tribe members who had gathered to discuss the results of their loyalty charms, and many people covered their nose with a sleeve or a hand in disgust as she fled.
Her behavior would certainly cause the gossip to reignite like pine needles on hot coals, but Aenya didn't care. She had to get away from the camp before she screamed or suffocated.
She made it all the way to the well before she stopped, panting. Her father had not followed her; he likely hadn't even left the tent. Aenya knelt down next to the well, gripping the uneven stone so hard her knuckles turned white and her fingertips grated against the rough rock.
Bapi was a traitor. He wasn't human; he never had been. He was Thain.
How could he lie to her all her life? Had he lied to her mother as well? Or had she been Thain as well?
Then it finally hit her. Aenya rested her head against the well. Her father was Thain. Her father was Thain. If he was Thain, then she was half-Thain. And if her mother had been Thain as well...
A wave of dizziness washed over her so suddenly that she felt like the well was trying to buck her off. Who was she, really? Everything she had known, everything she had thought she was, was a lie. And what would the Tribe think, knowing that not only was her father Thain but that she, the Tribe Healer, had been half-Thain the entire time? There was already enough panic over the mere rumor of a traitor in their midst.
"Are you all right, Snowdrop?"
Aenya sighed and picked at a clump of dirt stuck between two of the stones. "Did you really have to ask?"
Her father's shadow fell over her as he stood next to the well, but she refused to look up. "You're right, that should have been apparent." There was a sloshing noise and the clunk of a wooden bucket scraping against stone, then her father pressed a freshly-filled water skin into her hands.
Aenya was not stubborn enough to refuse the gesture; as it was, her father had to refill the water skin twice before her dizziness finally abated. She wiped the cool water off her chin before handing the water skin back to her father.
"I'm sure you have plenty of questions," her father said as he sat down next to her, his back to the well.
Aenya sighed. Where should she start? Perhaps she should start with the question most directly related to her identity.
"Was Mamu...?" Her voice trailed off as she found herself unable to even say it aloud.
"Your mother was fully human," he replied, knowing what she was trying to say. "And she was fully aware that I'm... not."
So she was only half Thain. Not that it made her feel any better.
She pulled her knees up to her chest. "We're going to have to leave the tribe, aren't we?"
Her father was silent for several long moments. He sighed. "I was hoping it would never come to this. The last Chief knew who I am, but after your mother died..." His tunic scraped against the stone well as he shrugged. "I asked him not to pass his knowledge on when he stepped down as Chief. You were comfortable here, and you're too human to pass as Thain, so I..."
"So you thought you'd let me continue to live a lie, thinking I was human," Aenya finished for him.
He was silent. Perhaps he couldn't deny it. Aenya swallowed the bitter taste that was rising in her mouth.
"Snowdrop, I am sorry," he finally said.
Aenya didn't doubt it, but it didn't make things any better. A thought occurred to her. "Your story about the snowdrops outside my tent, when I was born...."
"Yes?"
"I always thought you were exaggerating, but it's true, isn't it?"
"I never said it wasn't."
She shook her head, not sure how to explain her realization. "I meant... I was born in the south, wasn't I? That's why there were snowdrops so early in the season."
"Yes, that's true." Her father placed his hand on her hair. "You were born between the land of the Thain and the human lands. It wasn't until you were two that we migrated further north and settled here." He stroked her hair, playing with a loose strand. "After all, we didn't dare settle in a tribe until we were certain you could pass as a full human."
Between the Thain and the humans. How fitting for someone who was neither human nor Thain.
"Are we going to live with... with them now?"
He shook his head. "The Thain would never accept a traitor like me back into their community."
A sharp pang struck her in the chest. She had never considered that her father was a traitor to the Thain. She had only thought of him betraying her.
"Did you have a family there?" Aenya's voice came in barely a whisper.
He stopped stroking her hair and dropped his hand. "Yes. Though I've been disowned."
Aenya couldn't believe how insensitive she had been. This whole time she had only thought of what her father's betrayal meant for her. Not once had she considered how it might have been for him. She licked her lips, straightened, and looked her father in the eye for the first time since she fled.
"I'm sorry, Bapi," she said, hoping her sincerity came through.
Her father's eyes glistened with tears. He reached over and enveloped her in a warm hug. "I know, Snowdrop," he said in a fierce whisper.
Aenya tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat. Their uncertain future seemed to lurk over their shoulders, but, for now, she felt that everything would somehow turn out all right.