Wen Spencer - Wolf Who Rules

Something about Lain's tone, the lack of surprise, her uneasiness got through, and after a stunned moment, Tinker cried, "You knew!"

"Yes, I knew."

"You've known all along!"

"Yes."

"How could you lie to me all this time? I thought you…" She swallowed down the word "loved", terrified to have to hear it denied. "…cared for me."

"I love you. I have wanted to tell you about Esme for so very long, but you have to understand, I couldn't."

"Couldn't?"

Lain sighed and her breath misted in the freezing cold. "You don't know everything. There's so much that I had to keep from you."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means what it means." Lain busied herself labeling the jar; the contents wriggled like worms. "Don't come storming in here all hurt and emotional about something that can't be changed."

"You could have told me!"

"No, I couldn't have," Lain said.

" Tinker, my sister is your mother. See how easy!" And then cause and effect kicked in. "Oh my gods, you're my aunt."

"Yes, I am."

"But what about those tests you did to show Oilcan and I were still related? You used your own DNA as a comparison."

"I didn't use my own. I used a stored test result. I wanted to make it clear that you and Oilcan are still cousins."

Tinker could only stare, feeling betrayed.

"Oh put the hurt eyes away. I have been here for you, loving you as much as humanly possible. What does it matter you called me Lain instead of Aunt Lain? I have always given you the care I would give my niece, no matter what you or anyone else might know." Lain snorted with disgust. "I always thought that Esme was a result of lavish parenting until you came along - daily I've been stunned to realize it was all actually genetic."

"That hurts." Tinker snapped.

"What does?"

"That you could look at me and see my mother and never share that with me."

"Nothing about your birth and life has been cut and dried. I suppose that was one reason I wasn't that surprised when - out of the blue - you changed species."

A sound of hurt forced itself out of Tinker, and Lain came to fold her into a hug.

"Oh ladybug, I'm sorry, but I did my best."

"Can we get out of here and talk? It's very creepy and cold."

"Oh, love." Lain sighed, rubbing Tinker on her back. "This is the only time I'm actually going to be able to do this."

Tinker pulled out of her hold. "What are you doing that's so damn important?"

"I'm justifying all your hard work at preserving this." Lain gave her a hard look that meant that she thought Tinker was acting spoiled. "I'm scanning the structure of living limbs before this thing wakes up."

"What are these?" Tinker picked one of the jars. Inside, small reddish-brown capsules had broken open, spilling out tiny, hairy green seed-like things, all wriggling like worms.

"Those are its seeds," Lain said. "It's possible that the Ghostlands somehow drained the tree of magic and made it inactive. It hasn't accumulated enough to wake, but the seeds need less magic."

"Seeds - are - fruit, aren't they?"

"Yes, dear." Lain focused on the limbs.

Okay, I have the fruit. Now what? Tinker eyed the seeds as they wriggled about. "I think -"

"Yes?"

"I think - Esme is trying to drive me nuts."

"Ah, that means you're family."

Tinker shoved the jar at Pony to keep while she continued her argument. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you and Grandpa keep it a secret? Why Esme? Was she in love with my father?"

"I never knew why Esme did any of the things she did. She certainly never explained herself. I don't think she ever knew your father. I didn't think she knew your grandfather and yet - somehow - they managed to create you. She called me from a roadside pay phone right before she left Earth. She told that she'd hidden clues to her greatest treasure in my house the last time she had visited but wouldn't say anything more. She kept repeating, 'the evil empire might be listening, and I don't want them to have it' like she was some type of rebel spy."

"Huh?" Tinker felt as if the conversation just veered around a blind corner. "What evil empire?"

"That's what we called our family; the empire of evil. Our stepfather was Ming the Merciless, his son was Crown Prince Kiss Butt and our half brothers were Flying Monkeys Four and Five."

Tinker fought to ignore the sudden intrusion of Wizard of Oz into the conversation. "I was her greatest treasure?"

"Yes." Lain went back to examining the limbs. "Although I'm stunned that she had the maturity to recognize that. I was expecting something more trivial like her diary, or bearer bonds she'd stolen off our stepfather. But no, it was a copy of that form, and your grandfather's address, and a note saying 'Watch over my child. Don't tell the empire of evil - or a world away won't be far enough.' No please, no thank you, no why she had done it."

"So you're not happy that I was born?"

"Don't you twist that into something personal. I thought - and still think - it was horribly selfish and irresponsible of her, as if a child needed no more care than a dandelion seed. Throw it to the wind and hope for best." Lain made a sound of disgust. "Which is so like Esme."

"I don't understand, though, why you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't think it was wise to trust such a secret to a child. Could you have kept it from Oilcan?"

"Oilcan wouldn't have told anyone."

"Tooloo?"

Tinker looked away. Yes she would have trusted Tooloo, but who knew what Tooloo would have done with the information. Just look at what the half-elf was doing now - spreading lies about her not being married. "You could have told me when Grandpa died."

"Yes, I could have, but I didn't." Lain found another wriggling bundle and dropped it into a specimen jar. "My family are takers. If there was something they want, they have the money and power to take it. No one can stand against them for every long. They go above, around and sometimes through people to get what they want."

"But-But- what does that have to do with not telling me about Esme?"

"I don't think until you met Windwolf and had seen the kind of power he wields that you could have possibly understood our family. One word to the wrong person, and they could have snatched you back to Earth, and nothing that you, your grandfather, or even I could have done would stop them."

Tinker fled the freezing cold of Reinhold's and stumbled out into the baking heat of the summer evening. Oh gods, could her life get any more fucked over? Everyone she thought she knew was turning into total strangers. Tooloo was telling everyone she wasn't married, Lain was her aunt and her grandfather had lied and lied and lied. He had always told her that her mother was dead at the time of her conception and that her egg had been stored at the same donor bank as her father's sperm. He maintained that he randomly selected the egg from a vast list of anonymous donors. He took the truth to his grave, not breathing one word that she had living family as close as Lain. He died and left her and Oilcan with no one to turn to. She'd gone nearly mad with fear and grief, and he had lied about everything, and then left them all alone.

" Domi, where are we going?" Pony asked quietly beside her.

She blinked and paid attention for the first time to where they were. They were walking up Ohio River Boulevard, half way to McKees Rocks Bridge. The two Rolls Royces followed slowly behind her, effectively blocking traffic - not that there was any on this lonely stretch of road late in the evening. "I don't know. How the hell am I supposed to know. What day is it? I never know what day it is anymore. Do you know how long it's been since I've seen a calendar? Thursday I destroyed the world and Friday I slept. Saturday we moved to the enclave and slept some more. Sunday a dragon used me for a straw. Monday I was on the front cover of the newspaper. Tuesday I got another person to follow along behind me and ask me impossible questions and I dreamed about my mother - who may or may not be dead - and this mystery person, Black. Wednesday. Today is Wednesday."