The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

"What?" Rain furrowed her brow.

"That was the condition for Abyss to allow me back here. I suppose I could quit, but that might not get me a very good recommendation." Noble pumped some water into the wash basin and found the soap.

"Mom…" Rain rolled her eyes, "You know he was just kidding."

Noble looked over her shoulder and furrowed her brow.

"What do you mean? You are good enough to get a job here but not me?"

"So, you did hear me and Auntie Sarai!" The teen pursed her lips. "I was just thinking out loud."

"So keep thinking out loud. Pretend I'm not even here. Act like you are simply talking aloud to your shadow." Noble picked up the first dish and began scrubbing.

Rain gave her a complicated expression. "Do you really think that will work?"

"What? I talk to my shadow all the time! Or maybe I am just talking to myself. Either way, I have definitely spoken to your shadow." Noble shrugged.

"Now you are just treating me like a child," Rain scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"All complaints about staff can be taken up with the management." The older woman shrugged.

"Don't think I won't! I have an in with the owner," Rain's tentative smile faded.

She came up beside her mother and grabbed a pan. The soapy water dripped from her delicate hands.

She stared helplessly at it, her voice small.

"I hurt Dad."

"Why do you think that?" Noble stared at the water, not daring to steal a glance at the teen.

"What I want and what he wants are different." Rain frowned.

"What do you want?" The floating woman set a clean pan by the oven to dry.

"You know what I want. To be stronger."

Rain had made the claim many times.

The answer was no surprise to Noble.

"You think your dad doesn't want you to be stronger?"

Pursing her lips, the pale teen shook her head. "I know he wants me to be strong, but he doesn't like the only way that I can truly gain strength."

"You mean by challenging a Nightmare?" Noble filled in the blank for her.

Rain wiped her hand on her apron and brushed back her hair. "Becoming an Awakened is the only way I can be strong like you."

"I see," the Master looked at her evenly as the girl began to attack the next dish. "Why do you need to be strong like me? What's wrong with being strong like you?"

"It isn't enough!" Scrubbing extra hard at a bit of caked-on crumbs, Rain splashed her face. She stepped back from the basin before feeling a towel pressed into her hand.

"What constitutes enough?"

The question caught Rain off guard. Wiping her face of the soapy mess, she sighed. "You don't understand."

"I'm trying to," Noble crossed her arms. "Will being Awakened be enough? Or will you aim to be a Master? A Saint? Where is your end?"

"I want to protect others. I don't like feeling weak." Rain pushed back against the barrage.

"I think even the Sovereigns feel weak at times. Unless you plan to pass them in power, I don't think that is a good metric."

The professor watched her daughter's face fall. Rain plopped onto a stool and dropped her head into her hands. She looked almost identical to how Fort had only a short time ago.

"It doesn't matter anyway. I won't hurt Dad by taking on a Nightmare. You may be better at hiding it, but I don't think you want it either."

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't struggling with the idea. I don't like the idea of something happening to you somewhere that I cannot help."

Noble bent down, floating on an invisible stool beside her daughter.

"Is your Dad hurting? Yes. Sometimes the choices we make hurt our parents, and sometimes the choices our parents make hurt us."

"Like when grandma decided to go to Bastion without us?" Rain lifted her head.

"I was meaning your Dad's decision to talk outside the tent where there was a chance we could be overheard, but that's a better example. Grandma's choice to leave hurt me deeply, but that didn't make her decision wrong. All choices have consequences. And sometimes even the right choice will have some unfortunate side effects."

Noble had heard the reports of how Bastion was doing. While she was suffering from missing her mom, Valor was beginning to organize their mundane people into a society that could function long-term.

Lena was doing excellent work.

"What I'm getting at is that you have to do what you think is best even if it might not make others around you happy." Noble felt a little frustrated with herself.

She didn't want even a chance of losing another child to the Spell, but at the same time, she didn't want to hold Rain back.

No matter what, Noble felt like she lost. So the mother gave the best advice she could without imposing her own will.

"What if I want to make everyone happy and still do what I want to do?" The teen's question was so innocently genuine that Noble couldn't help but laugh.

"If you figure out how to do that, let me know. I think all of humanity wants that secret."

She patted her daughter's back.

"I guess I have some thinking to do," Rain smiled weakly. "I'll let you know if I officially want to enroll in the Pre-Awakened Academy."

"Dreamer Academy," Noble corrected her. "I finally decided on a name."

"That's a good name," Rain agreed. She looked at her mother expectantly.

"What? Oh! When you said you wanted to think…you mean now? I see. Let me just…"

Using her Ability, Noble quickly finished the rest of the dishes and set them by the stove to dry.

"I'll go get some tea and give Abyss the bad news that I quit. Do you want me to let you know if the weather lets up?"

"That sounds good. Thank you."

The two ladies hugged. "No matter what, we love you," Noble added with a kiss to the girl's forehead as she rose.

"Thanks, Mom. See you in a little bit." Rain stayed seated, staring into the fire.

It could have been to check on the bread, but Noble guessed that the girl was already deep in thought.

The Master crept into the hall unnoticed.

Leaning against the wall, Noble exhaled.

Had she said and done the right things? Trying to juggle Rain's and Fort's emotions had taken a toll on her. Neither were wrong to feel the way they did, and that made things even harder.

When Noble added in her thoughts and feelings on the matter, she felt like crying.

Growing up was hard enough without adding in a decision about whether to willingly head into a life-or-death situation. How would the coming generation cope with a choice like that?

Only time would tell.

'Looks like I have some thinking to do as well…' Noble turned to put her hand on the swinging door to the coffee shop when she heard a question that stopped her in her tracks.

"What should I do, shadow?"