70th Zi'da, 717
And a song, too!
And a song, too!
"I have never sat down so much in my life," she said with a smile, leaning against him and accepting the cup of tea. "Thank you." She had made the mistake, some moments before, of saying that she thought she'd just make a cup of tea. He'd got up, of course, telling her that he'd get it, she should sit down and be comfortable. The former slave had only really started sitting on furniture when Tristan bought her, but she secretly considered that throughout this pregnancy she had caught up on the eighteen arcs of not being allowed to sit anywhere, only permitted to kneel on the floor. If they had more children, Faith calculated she'd end up in some kind of sitting-down credit. She recognised her own flitting thought pattern there and grinned at him. He was worried about her she knew, so many things had happened to them this season and the one before.
He looked better, much better than he had when he first returned from the expedition which had left him thin, injured and scarred. There was no doubt that it had changed him, too, but then every experience did. Just, some more than others. Placing the tea on the table, she took hold of his hand, her thumb stroking his. She was sleeping better than she had while he was away and while she still felt sick a lot, his prediction on the trial he came back had been right, she was eating more, too.
Yet he was still worried about her, she knew.
It was thirty trials since she had witnessed Noth, or the Prince of Eternal Mercies, kill her friend Aeon. Padraig had been worried about her before that, Cyrus had told him how frantic she had been whilst he was gone and even though she had hidden it from Cyrus and Katie, Faith had spoken to Padraig about the panic attacks and how her greatest fear had been that Alexander had taken him, how she had hallucinated Alexander again, just once, while he was gone. Sometimes, she thought with a smile which was somehow a little melancholy, she was not sure that this whole tell each other everything way of being was the best idea. But they had made an agreement, it was the right thing and Faith knew that.
"I don't want to go back to work at the University," she said, without preamble. Recognising that she was doing it, Faith smiled slightly. "I'm tired, and I know a lot of that is the pregnancy, but Padraig, we are so busy rushing around that some trials we don't see each other and I don't want to do that any more." Exalted of Famula, Adored of Moseke and Favored of Vri and still, she'd been able to do nothing except watch Aeon die. No, Faith knew without a doubt that life threw enough regrets at them both without choosing new ones to add. "And I don't want to carry on my studies, either. Not for a while, at least." Working at Cally's was more than enough of a job, after all. But even there, she said, she wanted to stop working shifts and take on the role of managing the businesses. There was Cally's itself, the two farms, the vineyard, the housing for the trainees and Luna's Dream, the orphanage. They all needed managing and that was a job in and of itself.
"So," she said with a smile, "those are the changes I'd like to make, when Bun comes. What about you?" If he wanted to talk about what was worrying him, it was an opportunity, but equally, if he didn't that was fine too, they could stay on the practical.
He looked better, much better than he had when he first returned from the expedition which had left him thin, injured and scarred. There was no doubt that it had changed him, too, but then every experience did. Just, some more than others. Placing the tea on the table, she took hold of his hand, her thumb stroking his. She was sleeping better than she had while he was away and while she still felt sick a lot, his prediction on the trial he came back had been right, she was eating more, too.
Yet he was still worried about her, she knew.
It was thirty trials since she had witnessed Noth, or the Prince of Eternal Mercies, kill her friend Aeon. Padraig had been worried about her before that, Cyrus had told him how frantic she had been whilst he was gone and even though she had hidden it from Cyrus and Katie, Faith had spoken to Padraig about the panic attacks and how her greatest fear had been that Alexander had taken him, how she had hallucinated Alexander again, just once, while he was gone. Sometimes, she thought with a smile which was somehow a little melancholy, she was not sure that this whole tell each other everything way of being was the best idea. But they had made an agreement, it was the right thing and Faith knew that.
"I don't want to go back to work at the University," she said, without preamble. Recognising that she was doing it, Faith smiled slightly. "I'm tired, and I know a lot of that is the pregnancy, but Padraig, we are so busy rushing around that some trials we don't see each other and I don't want to do that any more." Exalted of Famula, Adored of Moseke and Favored of Vri and still, she'd been able to do nothing except watch Aeon die. No, Faith knew without a doubt that life threw enough regrets at them both without choosing new ones to add. "And I don't want to carry on my studies, either. Not for a while, at least." Working at Cally's was more than enough of a job, after all. But even there, she said, she wanted to stop working shifts and take on the role of managing the businesses. There was Cally's itself, the two farms, the vineyard, the housing for the trainees and Luna's Dream, the orphanage. They all needed managing and that was a job in and of itself.
"So," she said with a smile, "those are the changes I'd like to make, when Bun comes. What about you?" If he wanted to talk about what was worrying him, it was an opportunity, but equally, if he didn't that was fine too, they could stay on the practical.
