Chapter Text
It was the winter solstice when the child arrived in the world, a tiny thing with a thick shock of black hair, seemingly more intent on sleeping than being born. Her large, dark eyes stared up at her parents and older brother, then she gave a minuscule yawn and closed them.
They named her Daradi, and she was quiet, if a little willful when pushed, and followed her parents around everywhere as soon as she learned to walk. She charmed visitors as she sat in her father’s lap while he conducted business deals, and nestled next to her mother for naps as she sat at her weaving.
She was, on the whole, a sweet and caring child. She followed goslings around to make sure they got back to their mothers safely, and brought injured animals in for her father to help. Even injured Watchers were pointed out as she begged her father to help them. She didn’t want them to get hurt even more. She pointed them out every time, and every time her father had to explain to her that machines needed to be left alone, that they would hurt her if they saw her. Every time, she cried because they were hurt, and her parents held her close and cuddled her while assuring her that the creatures would be fine.
Her brother didn’t like her. He was used to being an only child, and took offense at her presence and how she took their parents’ attention, no matter how much they gave him. She was kind where he was cruel, so the servants liked her better, as well. When she wasn’t with her parents or the servants, she hid from him. He pushed her into the water reservoir several times, each time claiming it to be an accident, and she learned to fear him.
Still, though, she was a joy to her parents, proof that the Sun had favored them, and they doted on her.
*
“Papa, Papa.” He looked down as Daradi toddled after him and clung to his leg, beaming up at him. “I come, too.”
“What are you doing up so early, little sun? It’s not even dawn.”
“I not tired,” she said as she looked up at him. “I come, too.”
“No, sweetness, not today. I have to go into the city today.”
She shook her head as she pushed her lower lip out, holding him more tightly. “No, Papa, I come, too. I help.”
He knelt and smiled widely at her, brushing a bit of her glossy black hair behind her ear. She took the opportunity to cling to his neck and rub her cheek against his, and he laughed. “Well, I suppose. You will be a good girl, won’t you? Nice and quiet while I work. I have to get rent today.”
“Promise,” she swore seriously. “Ramamam is mean.”
Her father let out a slow sigh and pursed his lips before nodding. “Alright. I’m sorry, sweetness. I will talk with him. Come, get your purse and some food. We will buy you something nice while we’re in town.”
“Purse, purse, purse,” she sang as a servant brought the little pouch to her, along with a small breakfast. She followed her father out the front door after she was done, and after a while he stooped to pick her up when her little legs couldn’t carry her any further.
“We need to get you a cart to sit in,” he laughed as they entered Meridian Village. “Then I could pull you along.”
“Yes!” she giggled. “Cart! Papa, cart!”
“Maybe later, sweetness. Then again …”
It was a long walk to Meridian - the Great Elevators had yet to be finished, and it would be some years before they were. Her father thought a moment as she played with the dangling machine bits on his headdress, then nodded and carried her to a merchant.
It took a little looking, but he was eventually able to find a small cart that he could pull behind him, as well as some pillows and blankets for her to nestle in. She fell asleep during the rest of the walk, waking up to eat lunch and then relieve herself, and only once they were in the noise and bustle of the city did she fully wake.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes, then looked around in awe.
“Papa, big! It big!”
He laughed and looked over his shoulder at her, ignoring the stares from others at the sight of him pulling her along. No child her age was generally out, much less a girl child, much less being pulled along in a cart - and by her own father, at that.
“Yes, sweetness, it is indeed big. Do you like it?”
“Mmm …” She thought and scrunched her face up before shaking her head. “It loud, Papa. Too loud.”
“It is that, darling. But, we must go collect rent. Then we will stay the night here, and go home in the morning. Does that sound fun?”
She looked at him suspiciously, then grinned and nodded. “Yes!”
“Good.” He pulled her up to an inn and helped her out of her cart, then pushed the door open and flung his arms out. “Rent, please!” he bellowed over the cacophony of noise.
Daradi clung to his leg and stared up and around in awe. These people weren’t Carja - they were stocky, burly with muscle, in leather and metal clothing. They smelled funny, too, and a startlingly loud cheer went up at the sight of her father.
“Rent, please!” he bellowed again, and the thick woman at the bar laughed as she wiped her hands off.
“Rent? Already? Surely not, Girtaral! We paid just last week!”
“Hah!” he laughed, strolling up to the bar and leaning on it. He held his money pouch out. “Rent, please!”
Daradi watched as the woman laughed again and handed over a bag that held shards in it when her father dumped it out, counting it carefully. Rent, rent, rent. That was rent. They were here to get rent. He had said she could help.
She turned to the man nearest her and tugged on his pants, and when he looked down at her, held her own money pouch up and beamed at him.
“Rent, please!”
He laughed. “What a tiny little cog you are! You’re adorable.”
She frowned, then shook her pouch a little and smiled again. “Rent, please!”
“Oh, come on, Birtend, pay the little cog rent,” one of the women at the table told him.
He huffed a bit, but fished out a shard and dropped it into her purse. She lit up as she looked in the pouch, then grinned up at him again.
“Thank you!” She turned to the woman and held her pouch out. “Rent, please!”
The woman dropped another shard into her purse as the entire table laughed. “Here you go, little cog.”
“Thank you!”
She made her way around the room, cheerfully asking everyone for rent, and each person ruffled her hair or pinched her cheek as they gave her one shard. She finally made it back to her father, who was still talking with the woman and the man who had joined her. It took a bit to get onto the stool next to her father - a woman finally lifted her onto it - and she held her purse out to the man and woman.
“Rent, please!”
“Oh, is this little Daradi?” the man asked. “She’s adorable, Girtaral. Why haven’t you brought her around before?”
She sighed. “Rent, please!”
“She’s only three,” was the reply, then her father actually looked at her bulging purse. “What the … Daradi, where did you get all this?”
There was laughter behind them as she turned and pointed to the room. “It rent, Papa! I get rent!”
He stared at her for a moment, then at the room, and slowly covered his face. “Oh, Daradi …” She frowned a little. She’d gotten rent like she was supposed to, so she didn’t know why he wasn’t happy with her. “I’m so sorry, everyone,” he said with a raised voice. “Daradi, we get rent from Borund and Elgana, not their patrons. Go give it all back.”
Her lower lip trembled and she hesitantly held the pouch out to him. “But, Papa … rent ...”
“Oh, let her have it,” a man spoke up. Her father looked at him with raised eyebrows. “It’s just a shard each, and she’s an absolute darling.”
“And here’s our rent, too,” Borund said as he gave her two more shards. “You’re a good girl, Daradi.”
She grinned at him. “Thank you!” Then she looked at her father for approval.
He sighed and shook his head, but he was huffing with laughter. “Alright, then,” he said. “I will see you two next month.”
“If you don’t bring her back with you,” Elgana told him as he picked her up, “you’re not getting rent.”
He laughed. “We will certainly do our best.”
“Goodbye, little cog!” she and her husband called as her father walked out the door.
She leaned over his shoulder and waved cheerfully. “Bye-bye!”
Her father crouched as he settled her back in her cart, brushing her hair behind her ear and smiling at her. “You got rent, didn’t you, sweetness?”
She nodded and held her bag up. “Rent!”
“Yes, you did very good today.” He kissed her on the forehead before standing and pulling her down the street. “Do you want a sweet?” he asked over his shoulder.
She perked up and clapped. “Sweet! Yes, please!”
“Our next stop is the bakery, so we’ll get you one there.”
“Thank you, Papa!”
Getting rent at the bakery was a much calmer affair, with Daradi sitting at a table and swinging her legs as she ate a sweet pastry, and her father and another man talking in low voices. She hummed to herself before finishing the pastry off and getting up, wandering around the bakery and looking at everything. It all smelled delicious. Eventually her tummy grumbled and she toddled over to her father, tugging on his pants.
“Papa … ’koose me Papa … I hungry …”
He looked down and smiled at her. “Alright, sweetness. Go sit down, and we’ll bring you food.”
“Thank you!” She turned and went back to her seat, climbing onto the bench and sitting quietly as she waited.
“She is such a well-behaved child,” the man said.
“That she is. She is the sun in my life.”
“I imagine so. Nothing like her brother - ah, my apologies ---”
There was a heavy sigh. “None needed. Ranaman is … a troubled child. We do our best with him, but … Well.”
“Ramamam is mean,” Daradi informed them solemnly. “He push me down.”
Her father sighed again. “And I will punish him for that, sweetness. I’m so sorry he does that.”
She was brought food, then, grilled maize that had been scraped off the cob, sweet maize bread, mashed-up potatoes, and roasted turkey drizzled in gravy. She eagerly started mixing her maize and potatoes - they tasted best when they were mixed together.
“Thank you!” she told the servant cheerfully.
“You’re welcome, my lady,” he told her with a smile.
She hadn’t been given a large portion at all - her parents had discovered that it was best to feed her in small amounts and have her ask for more, rather than give her larger amounts and have to press her to finish her meal. She was brought a small mug of mulberry juice, as well, and sipped it as she ate.
“Both hands,” she whispered to herself as she cradled it. “Both hands.” She was only allowed to hold her own drink if she held it with both hands. She placed it carefully back on the table and ate some more.
“Are you finished, my love?” her father asked a bit later.
Daradi looked up at him and nodded. “Yes, Papa.”
“Alright, then. Into your cart. The rest of the rent has been collected, so we can go to bed, now. See? The sun is going to sleep. What do we do when the sun goes to sleep?”
“We go sleep, too,” she answered dutifully.
“Yes, we do. That’s a good girl.”
They walked for a ways, the sky getting darker and darker, lamps along the road gradually being lit around them, and still there were merchants hawking their wares and musicians playing cheerful tunes. Daradi thought that they ought to be getting ready for bed - that was what one did when the sun went to sleep. Maybe their parents were letting them stay up late.
She was drowsy when they finally got to a medium-sized building and her father picked her up, bringing her blankets with her. He left the cart with a servant and carried her up the stairs and to a small, one-room apartment with a privy in an adjacent room. She was placed gently in the bed, and cocooned herself in the blankets as she watched her father work in nightclothes by dim candlelight.
Then there was a clatter outside, and she jumped. “Papa …”
He looked over his shoulder. “Yes, my little sun?”
“Papa, I scared.”
“Oh? Why are you scared?”
“Monsters,” she answered as voices drifted up through the window.
He smiled and got up, coming over to crouch by the bed. “Monsters?”
“Yes. Outside.”
He tilted his head and listened, then smiled again. “Those aren’t monsters, Daradi. You’re hearing people.”
“People?”
“Yes. Some people are still awake.”
She frowned. “But it bedtime.”
“Yes, for little suns like yourself. Adults sometimes stay up after the sun goes to sleep, and there are lots of them here. The city is always noisy.”
Her lower lip trembled. She didn’t like the noise. “Sleep with me,” she half-whined. “I scared.”
“Oh, darling, I still have work to do. I have to balance the ledgers, write up orders, make sure everyone gets paid …” He trailed off as she started taking huffy breaths, her eyes tearing up. Then he sighed. “Alright. I’ll lay down with you until you go to sleep. Is that fine?”
“Yes,” she whispered. He started to get in the bed with her and she shook her head. “Papa, monsters.”
“Oh, right.” He knelt down and looked under the bed. “Excuse me, monsters, please leave Daradi alone tonight. I know that she is new here, but she is very sweet. She is also far too tiny to make a good meal.” She giggled. He was always polite to the monsters. “Alright? You will leave her alone? Thank you very much.”
“Thank you, monsters,” she whispered once he straightened.
He got in the bed and tucked the covers tightly around her, holding her against his side. She relaxed, now that he was with her and he’d asked the monsters to please leave her alone. They wouldn’t get her if he asked them not to. He started humming to her after a while, and the low, steady rhythm of it lulled her. She yawned - she was tired, warm, full from dinner, and comfortable.
Eventually everything blurred, and her eyes drooped shut as her breathing evened out.