The baby was crying again.
Adriauna Corelsti heaved an almost hysterical sigh herself, as she rose out of bed tiredly for what seemed like the ninth time that night. Slipping her robe over her modest white nightgown, Adriauna made her way down the hall of her small home, towards the room of her two-week old son, Arminius. She sighed as she opened the door, in what had already become a nightly ritual, and gazed in wearily at the cradle where her infant son lay kicking and wailing.
"I'm right here, Armi honey!" she called out soothingly; hurrying over and lifting her baby into her arms... without looking directly at his face, just in case his eyes were open.
You're so little, and you've already got it so bad... Adriauna sighed wearily, as she moved over to the rocking chair stationed in the corner of the room. Life SHOULD be beautiful right now, SHOULD be perfect for you... but it never will be.
She and Lucian had been so very happy when she became pregnant; his wife of only a few months would give him the child they'd both wanted so badly. And he was a good man; never unfaithful to her, never cross with her even during the worst of her mood swings, and always willing to do what was needed to please her... which wasn't much. He was perfect, and she was proud to be carrying his baby.
They'd spent months pouring over the books of baby names, until at last, he'd sat back and ran a hand through his shoulder-length white hair. Lucian was an albino, as most of his family was, and in her eyes the most beautiful man in the world... It was somewhat sad that they knew her genes for black hair and brown eyes would overpower his for another pure white being as he.
"Arminius," he'd whispered, pointing at the name in the Ferian language, the regional dialect from the area of his birth, the neighboring fiefdom. "Arminius, it means The Visionary."
"And if it's a girl?"
"Arminia." He smiled and shook his head. "But I know it will be a boy."
And she'd agreed, both because of the beauty of the name, and by the look in his eyes whenever he said it. Arminius, the Visionary, would be a name to lead their child to greatness!
If we'd only known...
But then life had taken a downward spiral into despair.
Three days before Arminius' birth, when her pains had been especially severe, Lucian had ridden into town to fetch Jan, the local physician, for her one dark, rainy night... And had met his death on the pointy reckoning of a murderer's blade. They'd found him the next morning, slit from throat to groin, lying on his back and gazing up toward the skies. His eyes were filled with rainwater, as though the dead man were about to weep...
And then you were born...
She'd hardly had a chance to recover from the initial shock, and that's what the town physician said had driven her into labor a day or so before the baby was due. The delivery had gone on with only mild trouble, and after a few hours of struggling and pushing, she'd delivered a baby boy into the world.
"His n-name is A-Arminius!" she announced breathlessly, smiling eagerly as the midwife, her sister, turned and wrote it out on the birth certificate. "V-visionary!"
But nothing had prepared her, as the doctor examined the baby while she lay exhausted, for what Jan announced sadly.
Blind... She gazed down at the baby in her arms, who was now uttering only faint sobs every so often, cuddled up against her breast for protection. My baby... Our little visionary was born blind...
She sighed as she rose slowly, as not to disturb him, and made her way back to her bedroom, carrying him all the while. It seemed to comfort him whenever he lay with her, atop her chest, where he could listen to her heartbeat. He was a beautiful little child, but those eyes never ceased to frighten her...
...Those white, pupil-less eyes...
