05 Frey and Freya
07/09/2007

GM: On the morning of her due date, Alma summons you and Saras to her Ways. After a polite breakfast, she takes a long bathroom break, and then comes out to settle herself in the birthing chair she's been carving over the last month. With you holding one hand, Loren the other, and Saras positioned as 'catcher,' she quietly announces that it is time... and goes into labor.

An hour of concentration (no screaming or fussing) later, Freya crowns and is delivered. Ten or fifteen minutes later, Frey follows her into the world. Both come out perfect, each crowned with a touch of dark golden hair.

Helena: The deliveries are textbook normal, it seems?

GM: Very smooth, especially for twins.

Helena: It seems so.

GM: Would you accept Alma's offer to cut one of the cords?

Helena: If she wants that of me of course I do. (I presume I am told about the color of their hair and so on.)

GM: She offers you Freya's, with Saras' guidance, and Loren cuts Frey's. Yes, all the details are given... Saras even let's you 'see' once they are nestled in Alma's arms

Helena: oh...!

GM: Beautiful, plump, perfect twins. Identical save for the apple stem ;-)

Helena: I sit by her, aching with that beautiful and happy sight of them. Hugging her and father and Loren in turn and back again to whomever is nearest. I "watch" Saras for his pronouncement that everything is done and Alma is well.

GM: Alma shifts back to her more familiar form, and Saras says, "Looks like you've done well."

Alma laughing and smiling. "Maybe now you can stop worrying, Loren."

"I will find new concerns, beloved." Loren laughs.

Helena: "You know he will," I add.

GM: After a few minutes of quiet, the babies start crying differently. "Help me to the rocking chair, please," Alma asks. Each of the men takes a child.

Helena: I help her to stand, if she needs aid. "When they are next resting, we will get you a bath," I say.

GM: She could certainly use your arm, though she is not overly weak. Once seated, she settles in to nurse them. "Thank you, Helena."

"Drinks, anyone?" Loren asks. Saras comes up behind you, his arms around you, again offering to let you see if you wish.

Helena: I nod subtly against him. The part of me present here could drown in happiness, watching them.

GM: "They have quite the appetites. I wonder if I'll need help keeping them fed."

Loren comes back, handing Saras something.

Helena: I accommodate their action, but pull Saras's arms back around me as soon as I am able.

GM: He keeps one arm around you the whole time. Saras sips, makes an approving noise.

Helena: "What have you brought out, Father?"

GM: "Tiger's milk. Would you have one?"

Helena: "I have a taste for the pear brandy if you still have any," I say, inspired for one of Alma's old favorites.

GM: "Of course." A moment later, your embrace with Saras is opened slightly to put a glass in your hand.

Helena: I take it gladly and smell the drink's nostalgic aroma.

GM: "I'll have one for the bath, my dear," Alma says, cooing at the twins all the while, and Loren laughs just a bit. "I suppose you've waited long enough."

Helena: "Father, they are beautiful." The feeling of ready tears disturbs my imagination.

GM: "They are." He kisses Alma. "You've done well, beloved." Alma kisses him fiercely. "You had a hand, good sir."

Helena: I lean back against Saras, holding his arms across my chest.

GM: He kisses your neck, your shoulder, very gently. His hands drift over your middle.

Helena: I put mine over them there for a moment.

GM: Alma actually asks for your help in the bath, once the babies drift off.

Helena: I go with her then, leaving the men alone with them.

GM: She only has a hand on you this time, stronger already. Her bathroom is even more decadent than yours... she stoops to run the water.

Helena: I pull out plush towels from the familiar place and pile them on the tub surround, and then I sit on the bench there, waiting for her.

GM: "May I have you closer, Helena. I want to touch you."

Helena: I lean forward, offering her my hand to hold.

GM: She sighs softly, kissing your fingers. A quiet, and then... "Will you return tomorrow, that I might Look deeper? I have been thinking and thinking, and now I wish to begin doing."

Helena: "If you wish. But I do not want you to do anything that may be too much for you so soon."

GM: "The work is over, Helena. They breathe without my every thought now. By tomorrow, I will be rested."

Helena: "Has Loren told you what his people have said? And Saras?" I do not want her to suffer the disappointment ... as I do.

GM: "Loren tells me little... out of love, I suppose. I do not care what others say. They do not know us as I do."

Helena: "I hope you will ask him, though. There is... power involved." otherwise I would repair this myself, I think.

GM: "Now that my mind is my own, I would reclaim my own Powers, and use them for you."

Helena: I nod at her determination, and pull myself to her to give her a kiss. "As you say."

GM: She kisses you back, on each cheek near your lips. "Carrinne thinks my theories have merit," (the other of Loren's trusted Trump artists)

Helena: "I have not missed my sight as much as I missed it today.

"Saras showed me."

GM: "You may have my memories, too, if you wish them." You feel her mind reaching for yours, so gently.

Helena: I tense in first reaction to the touch of her mind, and then relax as her familiar way overrules my thoughtless instinct.

GM: Alma shares the entire delivery. Her turning them into place, her urging them out... all of it, every wonderful moment. She is crying by the time she is done, pure joy shared.

Helena: I hold her hands so tightly!

***

GM: How are you prepared when you return to visit the next day? Does any optimism remain, or are you mainly humoring your mother?

Helena: She didn't ask me to bring or do anything in particular. I do tell Saras about it after we get home.

GM: "Do you want me to come along? Technical or Moral support?"

There was some subtext of wanting to have you alone, but Alma never came out and said so.

Helena: "Would you be willing to come along, prepared to stand by or be sent off? I'm not sure what Alma has in mind. She seemed... a little secretive. If when we get there you are able to convince her to let you stay, that would be good. Given that you are studying Trump, she may be willing to let you at least listen to her proposals, just as a 'learning experience for you' might sell it."

GM: When he arrives with you, Alma takes him aside, and they have a polite but hushed conversation. He stage whispers enough for you to hear that he uses your angle, but she isn't sold. So you can hear, she tells him, "This is not something you're prepared to parse, old friend, but I promise I will take good care of her while you're away."

Helena: As for attitude, I'm curious what she wants to try. I am also curious why this is something a Trump expert thinks is feasible but is unwilling to try themselves... a question I will ask Alma as we prepare.

GM: Alma greets you, babes in arms. After some kissing and cooing all around, she hands the twins off to nursemaid imps that smell of love and mother's milk. Your guide lemur stays perched on your shoulders for now, alert and ready for whatever.

Helena: When we are settled in (and she has shooed Saras off or let him stay), I will ask her to outline for me what her theories are, and how she plans to proceed.

GM: Before you settle in completely, she hands you an eye patch and asks you to stand by the mirror. When the twins are in the care of the nursemaids to her satisfaction, she joins you there, putting a hand on your shoulder so you can see. "Which side do you prefer it on? I always thought the left was more suggestive of a fencing injury... sort of dashing, as eye patches go."

Helena: I grin wryly. "As you say."

GM: "I believe I can use your stage to create an impulse strong enough to sever the connection to the optical obstruction long enough to move it from you. It will likely not be pleasant, but it should empty one of your eye sockets to make room for an eye, as well as giving you a mental and mystical space to hold one. Are you willing to let me set it up?"

Helena: "It seems a reasonable way to proceed." I nod slowly, and then more surely. "Actually it seems quite useful. I do have a construct in there I need to put away."

GM: "Well, don't just yet. It may save me some groundwork. We can arrange her nap after."

She leads you into her private bedroom, toward the grand pile of sultanas pillows. "I assume our Saras fed you. Shall we make ourselves comfortable and set to work? It will have to be in stages, so the twins can get on a schedule with me."

Alma intends to settle with you, semi-cocooned in the midst of all those cushions. It feels like she is wearing the Entity's form now, and little else. How do you prepare? Do you offer or ask anything regarding the arrangement of your Room (or anything else) before she follows you in?

Helena: "Is there anything you need to know in advance?"

GM: "I don't think so. I've had little else to think about for the last few months, and I trust that you and Saras haven't broken anything I'd need. Anything else I'll have to figure out for myself anyway. I do promise to ask if there is something I'd like your view of, though."

Helena: If not I arrange myself as she requests, and lead her in.

GM: When you arrive, it is not like when Saras visited here. Alma actually appears in your view; a pixelated pixie, like a snapshot of her from some years before her mission and your arrival. She smiles at the locks you have crafted, and leaves opening them to you.

Once inside, she begins to commune with the Saras Helena construct, joining her on the stage and seeming to dance quite intimately with her. With links firmly attached, some small whisper of Alma says, "If you are going to isolate your daughter from the shock, you don't have to yet... this will take a while, and I'm sure you'd rather keep her close until then."

While their dance is oddly fascinating, it can only hold your attention for so long, and more than an hour passes in the real world... maybe several. What do you do to keep your concentration here, if anything?

Helena: Maintaining attention in long waits is not a problem for me, given military and scout training. I settle down, alert for changes of status that require my attention, and simply wait.

GM: Finally, the Saras Helena and Alma's icon are identical. Alma steps down from the stage. "Time to check on the twins." She points up / out and disappears.

Back in the real world, Alma settles and has the twins handed to her. "Did you want to help, Helena, or will it take you a while to get yourself isolated?"

Helena: I do it first and then help if there is anything left to do.

GM: After a few minutes, you have isolated your child such that she is independent within you for several hours; half a Turning if need be.

Alma sends you for towels, for drinks, and then just has you settle in with her and them. A quiet hour later, the nursemaids come for the sleeping twins. "This will hurt like losing an eye... maybe worse. Do you want me to send for Saras to take you home once it is done? I will have to retreat a while myself after, or I would offer." She offers you a clean towel. "I am ready when you are."

Helena: I contemplate what that was like, and what it means to subject myself to that purposely, with forethought.

"Having Saras here afterwards would be a comfort, I am certain."

GM: "I will call him as soon as I am able, then."

Helena: I school myself and make myself ready, and then simply nod to her.

GM: Alma arranges you so you sit facing each other. She takes your hands and places them on her thighs, open. "Squeeze if you can, claw if you must; I'll understand." Then she takes your face in her hands, cupping your jaw such that her thumbs point toward your eyes. Holding you thus, she leans closer and closer, drawing you to her slightly as she comes. The moment your foreheads touch, she speaks a Word of Power -- it is as if the poker had returned, but white hot this time, and driving from the back of your skull out through your right eye and onward into and through Alma. Neither of you can keep from screaming.

When you recover your wits, Saras is untangling your legs from the cushions, trying to lay you down flat. There is still a cold fire in your right eye socket, at least to your nerves, but you also feel a drip of blood, and air within an empty space that had been full of forced darkness before. No eye, but room for one, connections for one; at last, the possibility.

When you begin to move on your own, Saras immediately brings his hands to your midsection. His sigh of relief a moment later states clear enough that the event did not reach your child. "Helena... {beloved}... can you hear me?" Now his hands touch your face, tenderly, hoping you will speak to him.

Helena: "Alma?!" I cry out, alarmed.

GM: "She is all right," he says calmly, keeping you from pulling up too fast. "It was her Trump that brought me. She is bloody and exhausted, and a bit nicked, but fine. Resting. Claiming victory, I might add."

Helena: I slump against him in relief, letting the exhaustion of the experienced pain wash over me.

GM: He sighs softly. "I promised her I would take you home. She wants to see the eye you grow when it can see her back, and not before." He is close enough that you can feel him shake his head.

Holding a towel lightly over the open socket in your face, "Are you ready to go home?"

Helena: I am willing to be helped or even carried at this point. "Yes," I croak out, my voice gravelly.

GM: He ensures your grip on the towel, and then lifts you gingerly into his arms.

It is a long walk... well, carry... but you don't pass out again. At last, you are home. Medicine, food, rest, ? What do you seek and what do you do? Will you let the eye come on its own, or shift one as soon as you are able?

Helena: I start immediately with rest and food. Then an assessment by Saras. As far as letting it grow or shifting it, I follow whatever course Saras believes is best.

GM: You sleep away the afternoon and night, awakening when Saras slips from the bed in the first hour of dawn. He returns when you stir, examining the empty eye after some gentle morning greetings, and then promising you breakfast. "When you are full, I see no reason not to try to shift it whole. If you want my help, I have already extended my regrets to my instructor for today." He returns with a massive breakfast in bed.

After your meal, you begin, and - working in manageable stages - you have a balanced humor and a full socket by evening. "Perhaps you should rest," Saras suggests, "and clear the orb in the morning when you are fresh." (This is about how long you expected it would take to grow back an eye with help, though clearly you've never had the 'pleasure' before.) Still patient, this close to vision?

Helena: Patient, no. Giving in to impatience... also no. Grrr... I wait.

GM: You awaken to a dark blur instead of perfect darkness. After breakfast, this becomes a light blur for your efforts. By lunch, you are able to see the gray blur of Saras' form across the table from you. Reactions after lunch, when the world of light and color returns to you properly at last?

Helena: Slowly, as the light has returned, I have been testing. Reaching first towards Saras occasionally. Then towards objects -- the back of my chair as I approach it to sit; the edge of my plate on the table. As the improvements mounted, I had spent a full twenty minutes watching the cut crystal of my water glass come clear against the contrast of my hand wrapped around it: feeling and seeing, together. Eventually I picked it up, drank from it, set it back down in a different spot.

A long silent minute passes after that.

"Saras," I say quietly. I look up towards him, directly at him, with love and sorrow and hunger to see him. I lower my head, because I can hardly bear it. Months of darkness and the fear that came with it come out of me, suddenly, in wash of uncontrollable tears.

GM: Saras takes your hand, his other reaching for your face, cupping your cheek, letting the tears run down over his fingers. Beyond holding you thus, he does nothing to interrupt your release. His face is younger than you remember, but there is a bit more age behind his eyes now, though your latest step toward freedom does much to ease the weight of those apparent years.

After the anxiety washes itself from you enough for your tears to slow, Saras quietly asks, "I will gladly send word to Alma and Loren... but may I have you to myself until the morning? I have missed you seeing me more than I knew until this moment."

Helena: "I don't think I could take myself away from you right now." I feel Alma and I have finally gotten something back, after being a pawn in the needs of others for a long time.

GM: Saras leads you off the porch and out onto the lawn, seeking a warm place in the grass. There is a slight turn of hill where he chooses to lie down, inviting you down with him. Sky, clouds... and then Saras's face hovering close to kiss you.

Helena: I take delight in his kiss, in his face, in the living sky, in the fact that opening and closing my eyes makes a sweet difference to me. I would follow this man anywhere to see the love in his eyes.

GM: Saras keeps his kisses small, his touch light. It is as if he does not wish to move you to close your eyes. He does, at some small lull, take off his shirt to feel the earth beneath him and you beside him more directly.

Helena: Fine, fine man, I let myself trace him, my fingers guided by my gaze.

GM: Even his body is younger seeming now, though he had never been stooped or twisted by age. There is a fuzzier patch over his breastbone, dark instead of shot with gray, and his musculature is a touch less sinewed than it had been. As your regard sweeps over him, he lets his temples flush with gray, though it seems just a touch out of place on his younger visage.

Helena: I smile at that. "Have you been getting help with your shifting, {beloved husband}? Zaran's disguise is well made."

GM: "I found myself rejuvenated after departing my 200 days of hell. Though I initially wished to be exactly as you remembered, I let the relief mark me as it would, since I knew it would serve my deception well. This seeming pleases you?" he asks, a bit of boyish concern beneath his tease.

Helena: "Greatly, knowing from whence it arises. And given I have apparently afforded you a new lease on life by going to prison, your prior grey doesn't actually suit you as well as it once did."

GM: "Only getting you back, and you know I would sooner be stooped and broken than have you gone as you were." Gentle restatement of fact, to ward off any gloom that might threaten.

His hands begin to roam your torso, stroking your flanks, tracing over your hips, circling back to tease your peaks through your top.

Helena: I purr and lay back with my hands behind my head, not just to invite more of his touch, but also to watch him better, watch how he pays attention to me, and how desire makes small changes to his face.

GM: His hands ease beneath your clothing, keeping his head up between nibblings and kisses so his sweet amusement is clear to see.

Helena: It is almost a shame how much the teasing pleasure he gives me distracts me from watching him... almost. I doubt I can hold myself from giving back for long.

GM: When you break and move, he takes advantage of the opportunity to steal off your top, careful not to trap you with the motion. As you let things move closer, he becomes a shade more aggressive, less cautious and posed... but not too serious yet as your romp on the hillside builds romantic momentum.

Helena: I match him, still following rather than leading, accommodating those moments I must simply watch him...

GM: He is not overly conscious of your desire to see him anymore. How distracting is the world of light and color for you?

Helena: At first, quite, not necessarily in a bad way. It helps that the sight of him is quite... moving, and so each distraction actually sends my attention back to what we are doing.

GM: 'Tis indeed a slow roll in the hay. Again, he finds a lull to dispose of more clothing; his trousers, not quite posing this time

Helena: I am completely appreciative... let me help him with that... I barely resist the request to ask him to pose.

GM: He's not been wearing particularly complex attire, but he does nothing to rebuff your assistance. There's still a bit of space between you... or do your own bottoms stay on a bit longer?

Helena: Well I can't exactly remove them and lavish him with my attention, can I?

GM: He allows the impasse for a while; with some designed intent, you don't know

Helena: I'm pretty sure I can keep him from even thinking about them, between hands and lips and tongue...

GM: It's entirely possible that he may have his first on the spot, if such is your desire.

Helena: "I want to taste you like I can see you..." that whispered phrase mouthed into the line of hair down his belly, in case he has any doubts.

GM: He relaxes a bit, not saving himself anymore. Still takes a little while, comfortable as he is... not that that's a bad thing.

Helena: Not bad at all. Perfect.

GM: Slumps down beside you, a little spent, but not gone. Gentle thank you kisses, with no hesitation

Helena: Mm. That pulls another cat's contented stretch from me.

GM: "Since you seem in the mood for a show," he murmurs, as he finds his steam... his hands working your bottoms away with gentle due dilligence

Helena: I raise an eyebrow, grinning, curious.

GM: Unfastening... tugging... lightly tossing.... Then kisses, beginning just above the navel

Helena: I let my hands play across his shoulders and in his hair lazily.

GM: He pauses just long enough to unclip his hair, but not unbraid it. Gently, he eases your feet closer to your hips, your knees just so....

Helena: I cannot stop smiling, watching him across the landscape of my body.

GM: He begins, very gently at first, just lips at the start.

Helena: I try not to tense or get overly ticklish, so I can completely enjoy what he intends.

GM: He seems to know you well, but does not 'play' you - just offering about what you need. Sometimes it is a bit more or a bit less, but not enough to take you out of the moment. Perhaps it helps that you can see his intent, and he does not seek to surprise.

Helena: It is such a langorous, pampered pleasure... I hold back my response for just a moment to appreciate its inevitability. Finally, my fingers digging into the grass behind me, I let that delicious tension wrack me with a long-voiced sigh.

GM: He continues, very gently, riding the after, and then eases away to let you settle completely. Such a happy grin as he licks his lips.

Helena: I grin back, and after a moment pull him up to me to kiss him deeply and slowly, and to feel the whole length of his body against mine.

GM: Mmmm... No tension, no expectation... just him. And he is happy.

Helena: I burrow under his chin, half-dozing. We have never had this -- what most couples start with before the expectations begin. And now it is a nourishment of ... amazing power. I am sure to open this feeling of love to our daughter within me, basking in it.

GM: He kisses your forehead, settling more fully against the ground. "I have all of you, {beloved}. Thank you." A hint of reflected warmth from your middle.

Helena: "You have all of me. I am sorry it has been so, so long." I am sorry, but it does not make my happiness in this moment any less.

GM: "No regret. I have savored every quest, every challenge. And yet, you have been easy to love all along."

Helena: "Flatterer," I purr happily into his neck.

GM: "Only when necessary." Another kiss, near your new eye.

Helena: "You have a keen ear for the correct moment," I assure him. "Or perhaps I have taught you."

GM: "I think it is your inspiration, but perhaps I am a shade biased."

Helena: "You have been biased since we met, for which I am extremely grateful."

GM: "So... what will we do until dinner? I crave whatever stars you have arranged here, with you to see them again.

"But it is a long time until dark."

Helena: "We could walk? I missed the whole summer in the back gardens... I missed the sight of the meadows. And if we want to go further there are beaches off of Loren's private Ways."

GM: "Yes. Show me everything." He stands as if to leave his clothes behind.

Helena: I don't mind, as long as we come back by here before crossing over to Loren's. "Hand up?" I reach up towards him.

GM: He helps you up. Smiling, kissing you deeply.

Helena: I am in no hurry to do anything other than respond to that kiss. I wrap my arms around his neck.

GM: Curling around you in kind, his arms drawing you close. He stirs, but does not openly ask a change of plans.

Helena: "What do you want, {beloved}?"

GM: "To sneak onto your Loren's beach and deflower his daughter... again."

Helena: I laugh. "In that case we will need a blanket."

GM: "For what?" winking.

Helena: "Because there are places sand does not belong," I reply cheerily.

GM: "Then I will conjure my princess a blanket when we arrive." Big smile

Helena: "I know the key for it, but we'll be crossing out the back of Loren's office. Just so you know."

GM: He laughs. "Sounds like fun."

Helena: "It's not innocent little me he'll be coming after."

GM: With a mock solemness, "Noted." *wink*

Helena: "I'm sure he believes I am having your child by some kind of magical transfer."

GM: "A Conjuration of the Highest Order."

Helena: "I should say so." I point at his clothes. "Pants, then? Or are you sneakier naked?"

GM: "Much sneakier naked. Besides, my demon-form is quite... streamlined." An old euphemism for... well, you can guess.

Helena: "I'll show you the way, then."

GM: "Shall we start with the meadows, or are we eager for more Conjuration?"

Helena: "Meadows are on the way."

GM: "Excellent. I don't want to miss a thing."

Helena: (I do indeed walk him all over the property, talking about what I hope for in work (some trade consulting, perhaps), names for daughters, what he's been doing, what I want to read now that he doesn't have to read for me...

GM: Saras mentions that he'd like to hear your interpretation of the novel he read a month or two ago, "if you favor the shoe on the other foot."

Helena: ... back route to Loren's Ways doesn't touch any public areas, but it's a longish way, maybe a couple of miles. And from there we have to get through his working quarters and the back office to get to the beach. But we don't have to go through the front office at all, so that might work.)

Absolutely I would read to him.

GM: Loren is not in his offices, which is both relief and disappointment - though not in equal measures. Saras is grinning the whole way through Loren's Ways.

Helena: "You are a bad, bad man," I whisper to him.

GM: "You bring out excellence in all my endeavors, heroic or otherwise," whispered back.

Helena: * small suppressed giggle *

GM: Gentle kiss, then an arm around you to hurry as the footsteps of servants approach.

Helena: We make it through, then?

GM: Yes, though excited by a few near misses

Helena: Ah. So I would guess a most enjoyable afternoon ensues :-D

GM: Indeed. Saras is a magnificent swimmer, it turns out, even in human form

Helena: Magnificent in so many ways. And he did say his own Ways back at Hendrake were on the other side of a long swim, I recall.

GM: True. Do you risk a bit of 'water ballet' with him?

Helena: Unless he looks like he's enjoying just the plain workout, in which case I'd just swim also, for the work and for the fine occasion to watch him do something so well.

GM: He seems in the mood to show off, and has a shifter's gill pattern already thought out for you, if you're game.

Helena: I have done gills before, but let him impress upon me the one he has thought of. I like him showing off.

GM: They are more comfortable than you would have thought possible, especially given that you are not a big fan of xeno-shifting.

And he is magnificent underwater too.

At last, you return to air... sun yourselves on the beach a while.

The promised blanket is at last conjured.

Helena: Mmm, sunbathing after water sports. I feel... whole. I know there is another eye to work. I know my shape is not yet my own. But I feel for the first time like these things are not fundamental to me, just things... about me.

It seems silly for so much to hinge on the light, but apparently it does.

GM: Saras is just Saras, here with you, happy.

Helena: After yet another few minutes dose I put my chin up on his chest. "Have I actually told you that you make me happy? That I am happy?"

GM: "I savor hearing it, no matter how often you tell me. You have made me very happy."

Helena: "Are you up to conjuring snacks? I'm starving, I realize."

GM: "How about fresh fish?" he asks, rising from the blanket.

Helena: Knowing how well he does anything to do with food, I just nod at pretty much whatever he suggests.

GM: He goes fishing... with his bare hands.

Helena: I try very hard not to laugh.

GM: At least he succeeds. "Sushi, or tuna steaks?"

Helena: "Yum or yum? You killed it, you get to decide."

GM: He conjures a small fire, setting part of the fish to cook while the parts best served raw he sections with a single shifted claw to feed to you.

Helena: I relax more, let him feed me, watch the fire and him and the sun and the waves...

GM: Two meals from that one great fish, both excellent in their simplicity... though he does cheat up a bit of lemon with his Conjuration.

Helena: A nice touch.

GM: A long, leisurely meal complete... wait for the stars?

Helena: Certainly!

GM: Do these constellations have any names for you to share?

Helena: Of course, the ones Loren taught me when I was small: "the warrior; the World Tree; dancing maid -- there, just the outline of kind of a pentagon -- the Serpent..."

GM: Saras absorbs all your stories, loving it all. Not so much romantic as just intimate and close.

Helena: "I was so serious as a girl -- you probably can't imagine that," I tease, knowing how formal he has seen me, and how well he knows Loren. "So you've known Alma and Loren a long while... wasn't it... weird for them to introduce you to me that way?"

GM: "Alma is... Alma. Even at her worst, she is very persuasive."

Helena: "And at her best.

"What did they say about me?"

GM: "At her best, truly irresistable." He thinks. "She said that she had someone for me to meet. The inflection was... complicated. I'm not sure I can give her first few words their due. I was intrigued."

Helena: "But surely knowing them, you knew of me before?"

GM: "She waited until I had heard about this beautiful blond before she gave away enough for me to recognize the girl from the pictures, {beloved}. I was... concerned, in a way, but she already knew she had me."

Helena: "She is good." I nod, not at all surprised. "She didn't tell me anything at all. I thought she and I were going dancing."

GM: "Well, I suppose her offer was intrigue enough for you, yes?"

Helena: "Obviously so. Here we are, after all."

GM: "True." A small kiss. "She is an amazing woman. That she shared you with me... I can't begin to thank her."

Helena: "I'm sure she'll keep you trying, though." I grin.

GM: "Happy to, {beloved}. I'll be happy to honor you both all my days." A more proper kiss, lingering a little while.

Helena: "Loren is so happy for us, too. You have seen how he is."

GM: "I've not seen him smile so much... ever, I think." A small laugh.

Helena: "To have Mother so much restored... I was going to say you can't imagine, but I suppose you can." Not said to bring any sadness, but just to state the fact of how much we have all risked and gained again.

GM: "He has his family back... and more besides." His eyes say he understands, perhaps completely.

"We are all blessed," his hands trailing over your middle once more.

Helena: "She knows. I know." I whisper.

GM: "Just thanking the stars," he whispers, looking from you to the night sky.

Helena: I watch him again, his dear profile. "I thank you."

GM: He hugs you closer.

Helena: * burrow *

GM: * happy sigh *