(no subject)

[takiena_called]

It is a frigid winter night in Paras Derval, a city near-empty of men (gone to fight a war, a war for which Brennin has been waiting for a thousand years), though the late night does not betray that fact.

Vae and Shahar own a shop, just off the green, and live in the home above it with their son Finn. And if Shahar is gone to war, well, son and mother are there to hear the knocking at the front door.

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[inthetapestry]

She nods, and lets her hands fall to her sides. In the shop, the flickering candlelight makes her seem golden and almost warm-- save for the way she stands, tautly controlled and with her head held high in defense or defiance or for some other, unnameable reason.

"There is one thing more."

[inthetapestry]

One thing more.

Vae closes her eyes.

"Tell me."

[inthetapestry]

If she closes her eyes she will see the green unlight of Starkadh, she knows, and so she does not, but keeps them open instead as she watches Vae.

I will bear his child, she had told Paul. I am going to have a son, and he will be my answer.

Paul hadn't understood. Perhaps no one can, she thinks, but she means to do it still, and now even to survive it-- and so now she needs to do this as well; to name the father, to speak the name, to acknowledge.

"His father is Rakoth Maugrim."

[inthetapestry]

Vae keeps her eyes closed for a long time after the father's name is spoken.

Night and a dream.

Then with more courage than she would ever have guessed she had, Vae opens her eyes and looks at the other woman.

"He will need to be loved a great deal. I will try."

[inthetapestry]

And it is that simple courage in the other woman's quiet acceptance that undoes her, finally, and gives release to something within her that she has been unable to feel, before.

Covering her face with her hands, Jennifer begins to weep.

[inthetapestry]

Vae watches, uncertain of what to say or do, uncertain if there is anything to say or do. So she waits, her pity caught in throat, until the other woman collects herself, only to be racked by a visible spasm of pain.

"We had best go up," Vae says. "This will not be an easy thing. Can you manage the stairs?"

[inthetapestry]

She nods, and Vae puts an arm around her for support as the two of them start together toward the stairway.

As they reach the first step, Jennifer stops, and turns to the other woman.

"If you had had another son," she whispers, "what would his name have been?"

[inthetapestry]

A dream world it is.

"Darien. For my father."

[inthetapestry]

Jennifer nods again, and they go upstairs.



The birth is not easy, but then she had never expected it to be-- and coming as it is two months early, it does not take as long as it might.

The child is small, but not as tiny as she had thought. When Vae places him on her breast, Jennifer looks down at her son for the first time-- and tears of unexpected love and sorrow both begin to fall.

"He's beautiful," she whispers, then closes her eyes.

Clearly and with unmistakeable formality, Jennifer Lowell says,

"His name is Darien. He has been named by his mother."

And then it is done, and she gives him over to Vae and lets her head fall back against the pillows, no longer looking at him.

[inthetapestry]

Taking him, Vae is astonished how easily love comes to her again. There are tears in her own eyes, as she cradles him.

She blames their blurring and the shifting candlelight for the moment -- no more than that -- when his very blue eyes seemed red.