November 23 - Day 4
Children / Visions
Their meetings had started as a formal summons, nearly a year after the Regent Lord Theron had made her acquaintance on the transportation ring of Oribos.
Just them, alone in his office with a small stack of intelligence reports about her and dozens of his own questions to fill in the gaps. He understood her desire for privacy at least — the less people who knew she was a true Veilstrider, with some of the powers of the Val’kyr, the better. One meeting turned into a series of ten to discuss it all; she couldn’t leave her infant son alone with other family members for too long, nor did she want to.
That series of ten official meetings became more informal chats, set under a secret name with the Court clerk that managed the Regent Lord’s calendar. They were both old soldiers, burdened with responsibility they wouldn’t wish on others. It could be lonely, even in rooms surrounded by people, but in the confines of his office, bordered on either side by a set start and end time, they were just people— maybe even friends —who could connect over their similar pasts, the love of their home and what it could become in a time of peace.
But he was still the Regent Lord, and she was still a Veilstrider. When their time was up the yearning set in, gnawing at the edges of the solid foundation she’d built for herself. She’d had another friend like this, once. Someone she could go, sit with and truly connect for hours. A comfortable home away from home until she’d fucked it all up trying to make more out of it than she had any right to.
Four years of doing her best not to bother or infringe was enough, perhaps. Three of those years had changed her so much that she knew her many past lives, all lived within this one, would never recognize her. Children had a way of doing that, though.
“Hi Dice, it’s Lyn. Would you like to get lunch?”
She hadn’t hit send, yet. It didn’t feel right. It hadn’t for the hours she’d backspaced it out and rewritten it. Did she need to say her name? He’d never seemed the type to delete people out of his comm unless they’d severely wronged him.
But she had pretty severely wronged him, so maybe.
“Hi Dice, it’s Lyn. Would you like to get lunch sometime? No pressure if not.”
That didn’t feel right either. Too… uncertain.
“Hi Dice, it’s Lyn. Would you like to get lunch sometime”
She left the cursor blinking and stared at the screen a moment before putting the comm down on the coffee table so she could take a break, step out onto the cabin porch for a deep breath of ocean air and get the overthinking under control. This was something she’d worked on. A text wasn’t the end of the world. The worst he could say was no, in his polite way, and that would be that.
Lyn stepped back inside and was immediately hit with a pang of deep dread. Ash smiled at her from the living room, her comm in his tiny hands, awake early from his nap. He loved her comm so much that she’d gotten him a fake one to play with. But, she’d left hers in easy reach, and that quiet, mental chorus of ‘oh no’ verified when she scooped him up and looked at the screen.
“Hi Dice, it’s Lyn. Would you like to get lunch sometime🌿⭐️🧀🧀🧀🙂😒👻🤞//349MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM” Sent, 1:35pm
It was enough to make her laugh, at least. Ash did love the ‘pictures’ and had just smeared his finger across most of the ones that had risen to the top of her favorites, but he had ultimately solved her problem in a way only a child could, and that text did now very much need an explanation.
“Sorry. My son found my comm. Lots to catch up on if you would like @ a place of your choosing.”
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