2024-07-02 - [ 3-2 ] savoir faire

The interloper that rouses Mother’s ire sparks a flash of a more intense emotion
—how dare he!—
It didn’t matter that Sunbeam understood nothing of the words themselves, but in this time of tremendous growth and language acquisition, it was easy to sense the intent behind those words.
Mother wields authority.

At the same time, in spite of all of this (and Mother’s apparent distaste), Sunbeam found an irresistible urge to understand the interloper too. What would rouse her like this?
Of course, Sunbeam could scarcely conceptualize slighting Mother in any way, but to elicit such a response from she, the most divine and powerful, this was surely a power worth understanding too.
It felt unnatural to even articulate and practically forbidden, but it could be important to understand.

Alongside this, it developed an intense fascination.
The snatches of conversation that it captures and collects are like priceless jeweled moths in a net when Pertemarth and Gwillanth speak to each other.
In these exchanges, their words are mellifluous and smooth. In fact, Mother’s edges even seem to soften with the unusual fondness that she affords Pertemarth.
While Sunbeam can’t understand any more than the very broadest strokes, it’s not difficult for it to understand that Pertemarth is one to be held in a special estimation. Any opportunity to overhear them, regard them, they are of great interest to Sunbeam.

Of even greater interest?
Shayled
and the mysteries she represents.
A mind so alien and unfamiliar…
Yet still possessing some strange affinity.
Shayled does not make Mother bloom like Pertemarth.
It’s a strange sleight of understanding, but Sunbeam understands this: the way Shayled and Mother regard one another is with tenderness, of course, but it is different.
They are not the same?
They are not the same.
They are NOT the same.
Pertemarth and Shayled both exist, though, and they both uplift Mother.
This is surely a powerful notion worth understanding.