Echos

Waking up to an empty bed was a complicated thing, something that he was still trying to navigate in a grief that he did not yet know to cope with. But as the first rays of sunlight began to creep into the bedroom through the open window, Faelyn got up out of bed with a soft sigh and began to press through his morning routine. Though that day was different. Instead of trying to wrangle his hair back into a braid, it was swept up into a messy bun high atop his head, dressing himself into a soft pair of linen pants and a tunic that's sleeves were short, his feet left bare. 

It made him look far younger, a recollection of a younger time with children under foot that needed breakfast on the table, that hair needed brushed, and whatever new wild animal that Crow had brought home needed to be cared for. Such days were long gone, but that did not erase their importance. Nor did it remove the possibility of days like that finding their counterpart in the current days. 

That was a day that had come. Expecting both Cian and Athera home that day brought a lightness about the elf that he had been unable to contain. The night before he'd left the repository at a reasonable hour, having asked a local bakery to prepare him something to take him with him, and those pastries sat on the table, along with juice, and fruit, and cheese. Everything had to be just so. 

With a soft hum, Faelyn set to pulling the curtains back in the cottage, their windows already open to try and stave off the already sweltering heat, just as the door was open to get what cross breeze they could. Maybe, just for a little while, they could all find comfort in the softer things in life. Echos of the past could still be a part of their present, and of their future, if they could only hold on.

Time was no match for Clan Korath. Because it would never matter how many stretched between their meetings, they would never break. Sure, things would change, experiences would be had, life would be lived but in the end they were who they'd always been, a family. A family that surpassed the name she now bore. She was only a Nero in the sense that she sat at the head of the faction they liked to call family. Very few of them were actually related and everyone else was acquired much in the way refuse collected on the street curb, all of them piling on each other in a stinking, festering pile of amorality. That was the part she played and now she was the ostentatiois head of the Nero Family, First of her Name, Sixth Talon of the Antivan Crow syndicate, and dangerously sweet viper siren of Antiva City. It was all too often that people fell for her trap, expecting her to be too young and naive to understand how The Game was played. She played the part so well that even some of her closest advisors were lulled into that false calm at times. 

She played it well because it was the essence of who she was. Aethra Korath. Chaser of rabbits and overly precocious daughter of Faelyn, Cian and Silas. 

Though she'd never let herself forget her name, it took it being spoken aloud after too many years to reminder her of what she'd been foolishly avoiding all this time. So with no small amount of encouragement from Faelyn, Aethra agreed to come home. She wouldn't be able to stay, but she could entertain the hidden parts of herself enough to make a difference in her sanity. It would have to be enough for now. 

Parts of Arlathan were on fire but she was here, with a heart full of vulnerabilities to drop at her father's feet. 

Leaving the door open is a risky decision. She stepped in the doorway, knocking on the open door to alert her presence. Sneaking up on him was a risk she would level another time when disaster wasn't looming so close above them. Instead she smoothed sweat matted hair from her temples and smiled at the man she called father.

faelyn had seen her coming up the walkway, past the low stone wall and through the garden gate. It was a good deal smaller than the cabin they all had called home, little more than a bedroom, washroom, and living area. But still, it echoed of home. That was the benefits to living on the very outskirts of the city. He could do as he saw fit with the place, still remind himself of that lost home. That implies that it was not open for you, specifically, will-o-wisp. 

Stepping back from the curtains, Faelyn crossed the living space to hug his daughter, squeezing her just a bit before he let her go again. Come and sit, have some breakfast. I assume since you're so early you haven't set eaten. Athera was brought in around the deep, comfortable looking couch to cross into the hardly used kitchen, it's hearth devoid of a fire in the weather. Your Da should be home today or tomorrow. I'm not too sure when. There's been a lot to handle in the Free Marches. that was putting it lightly.

He smelled of woodsmoke. Of fire. The acrid scent stuck in his nose. He smelled of sweat. Disheveled, hair plastered to his neck, soot smeared as he was he did not care. They could be righted with soft scented soaps and long soak. He wanted to be home. His pace reflected that all but ignoring the hawkers crying there wares. Although he noted that they ignored him as well and he wondered if it was the exhaustion that held him in a vice grip that made them shy away.

Faldon'din hadn’t seen fit to stop his gambit until Cian had stumbled in his magic. Since then it had been blessedly quiet. It still hadn't stopped him from getting in the middle of things though. Such has this recent forest fire spanning a swath. 

He didn't think the door being open all that odd. Stepping through the threshold his voice rang out. Lovely. looking up then to be struck dumb. Shaking his head as if he were still dreaming and trying to wake. He had been told that Aethra was awake. It seemed like the ghost of the past were slowly coming out of the woodwork. He was overjoyed in this sense. A smile broke his features. Quickly looking to Faelyn and back to her. My willow-o-wisp. My daughter! looking down at the state of himself. I  am in no state to hug you, but I have missed you. I love you little one. 

She was not so little anymore but that wasn't going to stop him from calling her as such.

Hesitant as she had been at first, there was no denying that coming home was exactly what she needed. Her needs fit neatly within these walls, a place she had never visited before but knew all the same. There were some things so quintessentially Faelyn that were hard to miss. It was the parts of him he left where he went, bearing little meaning to anyone save for the ones who knew him best. 

She smiled was relief coloring her expression, as he greeted her. After that she wasted little time and crossed the space between them, launching into a tight hug, lips lifting to press a chaste kiss to his cheek before she hooked her chin over his shoulder. Father She answered in turn. And when they parted after several moments of silence, her head cocked sideways. I'm older than some of the trees in this glade, you know. You don't have to fuss over- are those elderberry cream pasties? She gasped, her eyes catching the spread of food over the table. Maybe she did need fussing over after all. 

With her eyes bright she reached for one of the finely arranged pasties and smiled like she was looking at a lover. Is he? She chirped excitedly, at the same time she bit down on the treat. I can't wai- She'd never be able to finish a sentence at this rate. Mid-chew was when Cian appeared where she had moments earlier, looking valiant as always and smelling of the brimstone that permeated these lands like a sickness. Aethra nearly choked on her favorite food until she remembered to chew first, exclaim later. 

She'd never chewed anything quicker. Setting the rest down on the table, she broke out into a run towards the warden. Da! She was sobbing with glee by the time she launched at him, blatantly ignoring his comment about said hug. If he accepted her into his arms, she would wrap her arms around his neck and leap off the ground in the hopes he would reciprocate like he used to. Her next words were muffled by emotion but sentiments of i missed you and i love you were tossed around liberally in their native tongue.

Yes, elderberry. Faelyn knew very well that they were a favorite of hers and had made a point of having them made the night before. That, along with the small custard and fruit tarts that were awaiting Cian's arrival home, not that they needed to wait very long for such a thing. There was a warm, rich laugh as he turned around and watched Athera launch herself at her father as he entered into their little cottage. 

Faelyn leaned himself against the edge of the couch, his smile bright and giving him crow's feet with the way he lit up. Welcome home, sweet one. He knew in the back of his mind that he would need to draw him a bath, or at the very least a cloth, basin, and a change of clothing. Faelyn was somewhat unsurprised that he'd been close to the fires, most of the free marches were once large swath of flame at that point; part of him wondered if he should have sent Cian along with his fireproofed robes next time he went...

He was unprepared for his daughter to launch herself at him so there was a small wheezed breath for him as he corrected, spinning her about as his grip tightened to hold her steady.  Bear hugging her. His native tongue spilling forth in the same exclamations of endearment just as his tears were. It was not everyday he was given part of his family back. He thought it all lost. Everything.  To have it back was a whiplash he wasn't ready for. Looking up red eyed at Faeyln when he spoke to reach a hand out. Still not having let go Aethra. Join us Lovely?

It felt good to come home. To her, home was never a physical location, it was family. Her home was wherever and whenever they happened to exist. Still pressed tightly against Cian, she dropped to her feet and leaned back only to cup his face with both hands and gaze with adoration, patting his cheeks reverently. Salt heavy tears rimmed her irises as she smiled wide unable to contain the mirth that unceremoniously burst from her lungs. Her body was alight with so many sensations she could hardly make sense of them all. 

Aethra twisted in Cian's arms to peer at Faelyn, beckoning him with her own inviting expression. Should he step close enough, she would sling an arm across his shoulders while her other hooked onto Cian anew. Her fathers. This was real. It's been too long. I don't think I can stand to live that again. Considering what she'd done on her own accord (becoming the head of a crime syndicate was no wholesome task), she was decidedly at her best when she could rely on them.

So easy it was to bring himself to them, wrapping his arms around them both and welcoming them home. There was a quiet joy in this, even if there were still pieces missing. This, if nothing else, was whole. For a moment, he could pretend like there was nothing wrong, nothing that had gone one for so long so very broken. Come, both of you. It's time to sit, and have breakfast, and then a bath for you, my sweet one. moving so he could steal a kiss from his husband. The baker has been hard at work all morning with these pastries. And I even made tea. Come and sit and tell me all about the mischief you two have gotten yourselves into this time. He never let go of them properly, only moving to steer them both towards the kitchen.