Esther: Emerald

The story behind Esther's alias 'Emerald'.

Quick translation: 

mija - my daughter

niña - little one

Spain, 1310

I never really questioned mortality in the first few thousand years of my life. Humans came and went, since Darius I befriended a few but generally never stayed close. That was until my sweet Emerald. I never knew how much you could love a human being until I met her. Although I lived in Italy I did venture out on occasions around France and Spain, my favourite place of all being a little town called Girona in Spain and it would forever hold a piece in my heart as it was where I met a little girl that would change my life.

I walked through the familiar streets, something about it was enchanting. Everyone moving around the courtyard doing their own thing, getting to places they needed to be. I probably wouldn't have heard it if I was a few centuries younger but I could hear a whimper. At first I thought it was an animal but then I realised it resembled the cry of a child. My attention was immediately on where it was coming from and I found a vent leading to the basement of one of the shops. I entered a book store, one for the elite and rich. It was ran by a man in a fancy suit and a hat.

"Excuse me ma'am, you can't go down there" he was calling in Spanish as I walked straight past him to the door to the cellar.

"Hey! Stop!" he called and grabbed my hand. I snatched it away and his eyes widened at my strength.

"Get away from me!" I snarled back as I pried the locked door open with my right hand. He followed me down in astonishment. The room was dark but I could see perfectly. In the corner was a feather bed, on top a small girl, barely seven years old hunched in the corner, sobbing. I ran to her and reached for her.

"Sweetheart" I said softly. The girl lifted her head and her eyes shocked me. They were green, greener than I had ever seen before. Closer to emerald. They were hypnotising.

"Who are you?" she asked in Spanish.

"My name is Esther and I'm going to save you"

"Get away from my daughter!" the man shouted behind me.

"Daughter?" I asked. "Who keeps their daughter in a dark basement and dirty clothes?! what is wrong with you?" I answered and turned to look at the girl sitting up.

"This man is not my papa. My pap died with my mama. I went to find some food when this man took me. I couldn't get away" she explained, giving daggers to her captor. I admired the fire inside her and immediately felt a connection to this green eyed angel. I reached for the young girl.

"Come with me niña, I will protect you," I said. I don't know if it was the striking green eyes  or her being parentless but I felt incredibly drawn to this little girl. She needed someone and I would make sure I saved her from this disgusting man, I hated the thought of what he was doing to her.

"I don't think so" the man raged, stepping towards me. I pulled the girl into my left arm. My right swung around and knocked him out. It took everything in me not to kill him but I had vowed as a young girl to never kill a human being. If I was to be the oldest being I would spend every day making sure I deserved that life.

I carried the girl out of the basement, shop and street. I started to run to my safe house on the border of France and Spain. I knew I was taking a child but this was the time of aristocrats and vagabonds. I couldn't leave this child on the street, no one else would care for her and I could give this child more than a good life. The child fell asleep in my arms not long after leaving the city. she had visibly relaxed as we left and I was glad she felt safe with me.

I had a few homes dotted around Europe. My favourite being the one in Italy. it was close enough to the Volturi to keep an eye on them when needed, but this one was another favourite. I found myself in Spain quite often. I was sure I'd be here for a while now. I already spoke a different mother tongue to the child, I couldn't take her to another country where she didn't understand anyone else too.

I arrived to my small three roomed cottage and immediately brought her to the wash basin. She woke and let me wash her without saying a word. I brought one of my dresses and pulled it over her head. She was too small for it but I would spend the night adjusting some of my dresses for her to fit. she sat on the table. Her hands in her lap and her head down as I brushed through her blonde hair. I had thought it was brunette when I first saw her, but after washing the dirt away, it was revealed to be a light shade of blonde, one very similar to my own. I studied her small frame, small for what I guessed her age was, her little body was covered in bruises and I shivered at the thought of how she got them. This fragile little girl was beautiful and it pained me greatly to think what she had gone through since her parents had died.

"What is your name niña?" I asked her. She shrugged her little shoulders and finally looked up at me with her amazing green eyes.

"My papa called me mija" she said. "I don't remember anything else."

Mija was Spanish for my daughter, a common term of endearment, just like niña.

"Well my name is Esther. I was hoping that maybe we could be friends?" I asked her with a smile. she returned the smile quickly.

"Yes please." she said eagerly

"Then I guess you'll need a name" I smiled at her. "What about Esmeralda or Emerald?" I asked her. she smiled.

"Emerald?" she pronounced the word with difficulty.

"it is the English for Esmeralda." I explained.

"English?" she asked.

"A very pretty language I learnt recently"

"I like it" she smiled.

"Then maybe I shall teach you the language and we can travel there, we can travel to Italy too, the place I am from. I promise to show you the world niña. it has so much to offer" I whispered to her. her smiled widened.

"I would like that very much"

-----------------------------------

I cared for Emerald for years to come. I raised her, I taught her, she was the pride of my life and as she became a woman I knew there would never be someone id see more as a daughter than that beautiful girl.

I found out quickly that Emerald was very intelligent. I had taught her English, Italian and Greek in her life time and we visited all three countries but at the end of the day Emerald was Spanish at heart and we always turned back to our little cottage on the border.

We often paraded as ladies around Europe. Emerald found company in the occasional bachelor and so did I when I felt like it. It was easier for her though, she was human and she had human desires like husbands and families. I wanted to stay supportive but the prospect worried me. I was immortal but Emerald was not, I wanted to make sure she chose the right person. I had given her the best childhood possible now I had to make sure my replacement would give her the best life possible.

"Esther what shall I wear?" Emerald asked. We were going to a ball, hosted by one of the most eligible bachelors in the area. He had taken a liking to Emerald and had been courting her for several weeks. Emerald was smitten.

"The red." I informed her from the other room.

"But you haven't even seen what I look like."

"I know you too well niña, the red brings out your eyes." I told her and I heard her sigh as she rummaged around her room.

After the maids finished getting us both ready we made our way in horse drawn carriage to the ball being held by Emerald's intended. They were engaged by the end of the night and I couldn't be happier for them. I knew one day Emerald would leave me and I was happy that the man she had chosen could provide her well.

I stayed close to her though after she married and had three beautiful daughters. I didn't know what Emerald told her husband about what I was when it was evident I wasn't aging alongside my 'sister' but he never made me uncomfortable or unwelcome in his home. I watched their family grow and age and I also watched them die the most painful death you could imagine.

By 1348 we had heard of a disease making its way across Europe but it was spreading quicker than wild fire. Emerald kept her daughters inside at all times to protect them from the plague but it was futile. I watched entire towns burn to try to contain the plague, I walked through silent villages of corpses and saw every person I ever knew suffer a horrific death. I will never forget those years. afterwards I went back to my house in Italy and didn't visit civilisation for a decade, the things I had seen would forever be etched into my memory.

Emerald was the last to die of her family from The Black Death. Her daughters went first, then her husband until I was the only one left to care for her. I watched her catch the fever and black and purple patches appear on her skin, I watched them form lumps and grow bigger and bigger until she was in so much pain that she regularly passed out or had delirious visions of her family still alive. The disease lasted three days and the victim would be dead on the forth. By the fourth day Emerald was unrecognisable, her beautiful face changed by the plague, the only thing that remained was her green eyes.

I stayed with her until the end, holding her hand the entire time. I hated that I was immune, I hated that I was watching the only thing that mattered to me die such a horrible death. it was torturous and I wanted to die with her.

"es-est-es" she was struggling to speak in her last moments and I shh'd her, encouraging her to save her energy.

"Esther." she said defiantly.

"shhh sweet girl. sleep" I said kissing her forehead.

"thank you" she croaked and started to cough. I lifted her so that the blood escaping her mouth wouldn't choke her.

"what are you saying that for?" I asked, my throat tight with emotion.

"thank you for rescuing me when I was a child. thank you for the amazing life you have given me. thank you for being my mother" she said, tears falling from her eyes as she looked at me above her. I cradled her head in my lap, tears falling from my own eyes.

"I am so sorry mija" I sobbed and she cried with me.

"don't be. I got everything I ever wanted, don't blame yourself mama. I die happy" she sighed as her eyes closed.

The emotion that wracked my body was nothing like I had ever felt. Not even when Darius, my first love died. I had raised this little girl like my daughter, I knew one day she would die but I never imagined like this, and so soon.

The Black Death was so extreme that they were burying people in mass graves and throwing them into rivers to be taken to the ocean but I made sure that Emerald and her family were buried with respect and had their own graves and headstones carved by myself.

After losing friends from the village and my little family I vowed to stop this disease. If I was immune then I had a chance to warn people and help as much as I could. The village in Spain that I lived with Emerald was wiped out, everyone I ever knew was gone and so after I cleaned up the best I could there I moved on. Helping who I could and providing quarantines to help stop the plague from spreading until eventually it started to die down two years later.

After losing everyone I knew I went back into hiding for about a decade, letting the human race recover from the worst pandemic in recorded history. But i would never forget those forty years of my life. It showed me mortality at its finest. I saw half the population of Europe wiped out and felt and saw the extent a human can love.

Infinite.