@exrosarian from x
Jill watches their children quietly, a small smile on her face. For moments like this, all their sacrifices are worth it. The trauma never truly leaves. The nightmares happen less often now but have never once left. Sometimes she wakes up and half wonders if everything up until now was some dream, that she's still in the Iron Kingdom under their cruel thumb. It's not a dream, though. It's real. This is real: Clive, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Elwin, all real and tangible things that make all of her struggles seem like nothing for the sake of this happiness.
So she laughs a little, giving Clive's hand a gentle squeeze. Down by the shore, their children squeal and laugh and chase each other. It's a life she never thought she would be capable of. “Oh, just thinking, I suppose. Did you ever think that we would have a life like this?” Because she knows that she didn't. Once upon a time, happiness seemed like something always out of reach. “To know that our children don't have to suffer as we did makes me infinitely happy.”
