Greetings

[Elyna]

92nd Ashan 717

Her bare arms were no longer the same colour as the sheets at least, though the young woman felt that her dark eyes were too large for her face. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail and she wore layers of loose clothes that drowned her. Still cold and prone to shivering, they told her that her body might still be reacting with shock. That it would take longer for the blood to regenerate and perhaps a season till she was back to her full health. At least she had been able to feed her son. He was tucked into the crook of her arm, asleep. His tiny face at peace, which made a change from the screaming that he seemed to prefer. He wasn’t like Elsie, she couldn’t remember her daughter being this much hard work. It was also a lie to think that with Elsie, she hadn’t been as tired, she had. A different type of exhausted though, one that she suspected had everything to do with her daughters speed of growth and development.
Her son was beautiful though, fine dark hair crested his head. He hadn’t inherited Malcolm’s green eyes, much to her disappointment. Instead, his eyes were as dark as her own, despite being tightly shut. His little limbs flinched in his sleep and she pressed a kiss to his forehead. There were footsteps in the corridor and she looked up, hopeful and expected. She’d asked Malcolm to bring Elsie to see her, to meet her new brother. As much as the young woman was eager to return home, she had been forced to accept a few more trials in the infirmary.

[Malcolm]

Elsie was wearing a pretty blue dress, the same colour as the sky in Saun, a gift from her grandmother and an apology that had gone unrecognised by Malcolm. Her hair had been combed to one side and tied up with a matching ribbon, the small tuft tickling Malcolm’s check as he walked the hall and entered the room Elyna had been permitted to stay in. A little white slipper dug into the man’s side, and as he sat down on the chair beside the bed, Elsie stood up on his left thigh to look across at her mother, beaming.
Keeping a secure hold around the girl’s hips, Malcolm made sure she wasn't going anywhere and relaxed into the chair. “Who's that?” he asked, smiling from ear to ear, hopeful that Elsie would repeat the word she had said to him twice on the way to the infirmary.
The girl opened her hands, reaching for Elyna. “Mama!”
Malcolm’s face lit up, and he pulled Elsie close to him to press a kiss to her cheek. She giggled and let out a high pitched squeal before collapsing against him. “Sit still,” he encouraged.
Elsie wriggled and reached for Elyna again, pushing away from the man. “Mamaaa!” she demanded, crocodile tears threatening to fall.
“Okay,” he picked her up and stepped closer to the bed, making sure Elyna was ready for Elsie before he set their daughter down beside her with care.
Elsie leaned into her mother, staring wide-eyed at the sleeping newborn. She looked up at Elyna and grinned, her gummy little smile infectious, the ends of a few white teeth having made an appearance some time after the war.
“Luke,” Malcolm pointed to the new baby. “Elsie's brother, Luke.”
“Kook,” Elsie tried to repeat the name.
“Luke,” the knight encouraged.
“Luca, Luca.” Elsie pointed.
Malcolm bowed and pressed a kiss to Elyna’s temple, and took up his spot on the chair again, watching from beside the bed, and wearing a proud smile. “She was talking the whole way here,” he told Elyna, “Mama, Mama. I think she missed you.”

[Elyna]

Elyna was leaning forward on the bed, anxiously watching the door as the footsteps approached. Then passed, whoever it was, the nurse or healer moved straight past and she sank into the pillows; disappointed. It was later that footsteps returned and she perked up once more, watching for a familiar shadow. Malcolm, with Elsie balanced in his arm, peered around the entrance and she smiled at him. With the mortalborn nearby, she could relax. Confident that she was safe, and more importantly, so was Luke. No one had made any threats against her, and she had no rational reason to be afraid, but thoughts worried at her. Unable to defend or protect herself, she felt hopeless in charge of the baby. What if someone did try and seek revenge against the house of Burhan? Her son was vulnerable. So tiny that he could lie between her wrist and elbow without concern. His tiny fists closed against the blankets.
Elsie looked pretty in her dress with her bow. Though Elyna couldn’t help but be suspicious that Malcolm had had little to do with the choice of outfit. It was sweet to think of him fussing with the bow for her hair and she smiled at them both. Tears were quick to build as Elsie, finally, called for her by name. Elyna shifted, wrapping an arm around her daughter as the girl knelt. Knee pressing into the woman’s side as she fixed her baby brother with a look of adoration.
“Do you want to give Luke a kiss?” Elyna asked the child, serious.
Elsie nodded, pressing herself against her Mother’s shoulder before she leant forward and pressed a kiss to the baby’s cheek and withdrew, content to hide again. All the chatter faded as Luke stirred, lifting his arms, fingers flexing as he wriggled in his sleep and settled once more.
“I don’t have enough arms,” Elyna looked up at Malcolm. She wanted to be able to cuddle them all, her little family. “They said I can come home before the one hundredth,” the woman looked up at him. It was all a confused blur, the last few days. The noblewoman could remember the first pains, and then the memories were confused and tainted with blood and agony. She wasn’t even sure if she was entirely awake even now. The room was blurry around the edges and Malcolm seemed indistinct. What day was it? How close to the one hundredth?
Elsie, tears forgotten snuggled up against her side and pushed her thumb into her mouth, still enraptured. How had Malcolm’s mission to Endor been?
Elyna swallowed, “Mal… they said I couldn’t… I shouldn’t have anymore.”

[Malcolm]

Malcolm wiggled his sock-covered feet free from his boots, and got up to join them on the bed, finding just enough space between Elyna and the edge to sit stretched out, his feet hanging off the side and one arm tucked behind his lover, the other slung across the little ratbag they sometimes referred to as Elsie.
With his family wrapped up in his arms, Malcolm was content just to sit for a while, watching the three of them. His added warmth seemed to relax Elsie, who grew heavier and heavier as he snuggled in and slowly started to drift off.
“There is no rush,” he assured Elyna, “home isn't going anywhere, let's just make sure you get well.”
He brushed the loose strands of Elsie’s hair back from her face, the small curls that had been too short to tie with the ribbon, and watched as she first stopped sucking her thumb, and then saw it fall away altogether, fast asleep after the long walk from grandad’s house to the infirmary.
When Elyna shared the news that the doctors had suggested she have no more children, Malcolm did not feel strongly about the announcement either way. They had never planned to have children. Elsie had been a big surprise, and Luke perhaps even moreso. Still, he would not trade them for the world, and thought if they were the only two they would make together, that they hadn't done too badly.
“We will be careful,” he promised, and leaned close to kiss the woman’s cheek and then lips. “Two is more than I deserve from you.” he smiled. Two was just under the average as far as noble families went, but more than most commoners could afford to raise, especially after a nationwide war.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I'm so proud of you, Ely. We have been so blessed.”

[Elyna]

Glad that he had joined her, Elyna leaned into the man and rested her head beneath his chin. He smelt like Malcolm, she loved that smell. A combination of horse, sweat, metal and leather, it was something all of his own and even now it caused a stirring of interest in her chest and belly. Stupid body, it’s what had put her in this position in the first place. Yet wrapped in his strong arms, she was at peace, content with her family and protected. Tiredness struck her all of the sudden, like lightning from the sky. With her children and lover gathered all in one place, she was able to grant herself permission to take the rest, that her body so badly needed.
Elyna snuggled up against the mortalborn and felt very young in comparison to his centuries of experience. A mother for less than an arc, with a newborn in her arms. Surely she should be stronger, cleverer, and more capable of looking after them all. Perhaps, as she grew older all of those things would come true. She’d always felt like Malcolm’s equal, but he was so calm and experienced. This was not his first family and that was sometimes easy to forget, to look at him. This would not be his last family either. “Two is more than I deserve from you.”
When she was gone or buried, or even before, would he have more children? He had Vaughn and Marcus, were there other sons and daughters out in the world, other families from the other lives that he had lived? She was a chapter in his book of life, and he was the entire novel of hers. He would meet their great, great grandchildren… Elyna felt young in a way she never had before, in comparison to the son of Vri.
Blessed. Elyna nodded and turned her face into his shirt, closing her eyes. They had been blessed with healthy children. She was blessed with a lover who was determined to look after his offspring. There had been no more talk, or questioning Luke’s parentage for which she was grateful, too exhausted to fight. Malcolm loved his son, though she caught him watching her with badly disguised fear more often than not. She couldn’t help but wonder what Vaughn would make of Luke and could only offer a silent prayer to whoever was listening, that he could find enough space in his heart to love a little brother.
“I love you,” she murmured in reply. “I’ll love you long after we part.” Perhaps it was the pain or the continued delirium but she spoke her fears. Confident that one day, his heart would no longer be hers to claim. She would not be Vanessa, not for anything, not for anyone. For the first time she could understand the noblewoman and Vaughn’s Mother. She had chosen the ending for her own chapter, rather than have it dictated.
“Will you love me forever?” She’d been dozing with her babies in her arms and head tucked against his chest. Stirring a little in his embrace. Were they at home yet?

[Malcolm]

He didn't want to hear that kind of talk, he wasn't ready to think it. This was just the beginning and already Elyna was planning the end. Malcolm couldn't live like that, he wouldn't. The Mortalborn pressed a kiss to his lover’s face and combed his fingers through her hair with care. Tomorrow wasn't promised to any of them, and had he died in Krome, truly died, would Elyna still feel the same, or would this happy little picture hold someone else?
Elsie flinched, and Malcolm closed his hand over her’s. She was so sweet and helpless, but she was different in a way that made her gift difficult to hide. Soon people would start asking the questions they were already thinking, when in a year three stood between her and her new baby brother, Luke, who was not meant to be much more than a year younger. What would they do, where could they go?
“I will love you as long as you let me,” Malcolm told her, “and then I will find a way to quiet my heart, and convince myself that my every waking thought, and the last picture in my mind each night before I fall asleep, is one of a woman who found happiness, above all else.”
He watched Elyna as her eyes grew heavy and sleep once again threatened. They had been through so much together, and still Malcolm found himself pondering the question, was he good for her, would she have been better off without him? It felt selfish to touch the lives of those who knew he would long outlive them if sickness, a blade, or even a god didn't strike him down first. He had never thought this until now, but something told him the love he shared with Elyna was different, their connection running so much deeper than one he had ever formed before, and yet he was beginning to feel that this love would be the end of him.
Malcolm had never risked himself for others quite like he had Elyna, or even Elsie. He could have died a handful of times in the last year, and he would again if it meant protecting what he loved, what Elyna loved. What Elyna couldn't understand, was that after four hundred years of life, the thought of dying had been so easy, it was finding a reason not to that made him cherish what he held now in his arms all the more.
“I love you,” he assured her, “I will always love you.”

[Elyna]

“I don’t think I know how to keep happiness,” she murmured her quieter thoughts. A woman who found happiness. Happiness was in the little moments. The moment she was sharing with Malcolm and her children, wrapped up, warm and safe and content in his arms. Her whole world in reach. This was happiness, the feeling that made her chest ache with the strength of it. Yet she knew the sensation would fade. It would be dulled by pain and fatigue. It would be eroded by jealousy and bitter arguments and it would not stay. When you found happiness, such as this, how did you keep it?
“I am happy though, with you,” Elyna turned in his arms with a quiet sigh and tucked her head beneath his chin. Tufts of Elsie’s auburn hair tickled her face and she smiled. Luke lay, wrapped in his blankets and held secure in her arm. So tiny, he seemed reluctant to open his eyes and look at the world. The noble woman smiled again, “he’s just like you,” she whispered, “he loves his sleep.” Immortals forbid that anyone disturb the sleeping babes. Elyna extended a hand to cover Malcolm’s, as it rested on Elsie’s fingers. She stroked the rough skin that was often exposed to the elements.
Perhaps it was the drugs that kept the worst of the pain at bay, but Elyna started to hum, quiet and beneath her breath. Her fingertips exploring the rough surface on the back of his hand before her thumb smoothed over the skin of his forearms. His scars were gone, the ones from his Mother’s fire.

Against the wind, the sea and storm
Through the waves that roar
U’frek guide our ropes and hope
Help us find a place of home
A bed to lay our anchor low.

She sang soft and quiet as she nestled against the man. It was a slow song, lilting like the waves of the ocean and one her own father had taught her as a child. Burhans were storytellers and people of the water. They loved entertaining and singing their stories. Shy, Elyna wasn’t aware of a time she’d sung for Malcolm, but feeling warm and fuzzy, made it easier to her to exist in the moment, without fear.

[Malcolm]

He seldom opened up and indulged Elyna’s willingness to know exactly what went on in that head of his, so when Elyna mentioned the struggle she had with finding happiness, the Mortalborn fell silent. He watched their children and listened to the song, but in the back of his mind, Malcolm couldn't help but think there could be no pleasing Elyna, perhaps because she didn't know what she wanted from life. The noblewoman was still young, and while Malcolm always followed his internal compass, he had to remind himself that Elyna hadn't quite figured out her own path, not yet, only certain that sometimes it ran parallel to his own, where there had been and may once more be happiness again.
Malcolm smiled as Elyna's song ended. It was true she seldom sung to him, but he had heard her sing to herself every now and then, usually when she didn't think he was within earshot. He was guilty of the same, singing to pass the time or just because he was happy. Elsie opened one eye, yawned and stretched, then looked up at her parents. Malcolm took his turn to sing, hoping it would put Elsie to sleep, as his words so often did.

“On U’frek’s winds o'er the sea,
I heard my lover's song.
She sighed to me, she sang my name,
Said love, don't wander long.

From the deck upon the boat,
I heard my lover sighing.
But on the waves of Orm'del,
Adventure, it was calling!

There's gold enough to fill our boat,
A bounty fit for three.
To gild your eyes and arms, my love,
Til shining you will be.”

When singing didn't work, Malcolm knew humming would, and so he hummed a familiar tune, combing Elsie’s hair back from her face with his fingers until she was once more struggling to keep her eyes open. It would have been so easy to fall asleep, Malcolm had thought, the four of them together, warm and safe in each other's arms. He only hoped that they would not be away from home too long, and that Elyna would accept help from Anna or someone who could dedicate more time to watching the children.
“Do you think it would be wrong,” he asked, “for us to purchase a slave?” Of course they wouldn't treat a slave as such, but the faster Elyna could recover and return to what she loved, the happier he hoped she would be.

[Elyna]

His singing seemed to have a profound effect on Elyna, more than even Elise. Lulled into security the young woman found it hard to concentrate on the beautiful lyrics of a song she half-remembered from her childhood. She hummed the last stanza with him, missing notes and dropping from consciousness into warm and comfortable sleep instead. If only they could stay like this forever. Though, what would be better, would be for them to be at home.
The skyrider thought longingly of her own bed. Back home, there would be more space for Malcolm to snuggle down and he could stay and sleep alongside her and the children. She’d feel safer at home as well, without so many strangers walking the corridors just behind the door to the tiny room. The infirmary also had a strange, almost tangy smell. A bitter scent that she suspected was to drown out any scent of blood or decay, but had the adverse reaction of raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Not that she was in any reason to protest.
Had she known of Malcolm’s concerns for her happiness, the young woman would have assured him. She would have made a strenuous protest, instead, she half-slumbered in his arms. Until his question caused her eyes to open with alarm. Had she mis-heard him? Elyna twisted to look at the man in shock. Had she not made her feelings on slaves clear? She wanted to free slaves not own them. The young woman swallowed before shaking her head, “I don’t think it would be right,” she replied in a whisper and slumped against the pillows. The young woman closed her eyes, “but…I do think we need help…are there any alternatives?” They were so often away. Elyna knew it was unlikely she’d be able to spend much time with Luke once she was recovered from his birth.

[Malcolm]

“You're right,” he agreed with her. “We can't work on a big project like the community centre and then promote the kinds of things that drive people to living on the streets in the first place.” Surely there was an alternative, but it wasn't something they had to discuss right now.
Malcolm turned his head to kiss the side of Elyna’s face, and wiggled a little closer, shifting Elsie to try and make them all a bit more comfortable on the single bed. He was doing his best not to fall asleep alongside the rest of them, but having had little sleep himself, a summons from the realm of dreams could have been all too easy to take up.
Soon after Elyna drifted again, Malcolm found himself listening to the rhythm her breathing, as he sometimes did of an evening before sleep, and found that it relaxed him. For a time he was sure he had drifted in and out of sleep, nodding awake every time his head got heavy and fell forward, waking him with a jolt once more.
It was impossible to rest easy thinking one of them might let go of Luke, and so Malcolm returned the babe to his crib and scooped Elsie up into his arms. He took up the chair beside the bed again and Elsie soon settled against him, where they both fell into peaceful rest.