The Crone, The Matron and The Maid

I can't help but smile, i know she won't listen to me argue but in a little bit she seems to be asleep, and sleep soon claims me, the sweet blackness that had eluded me for so long and now that it doesn't i find myself wanting to stay awake, it is begining to dawn despite all our hardships we really are becoming a family

Dozing in his chair, semiconscious of the agitated voices down the hall, Djehuty drifts in and out of dreams, thinking on half remembered stories and the many things he learned in the courts in his six months abroad. Closing his eyes, he smiles... then cringes as the vision of Liv's troubled face slips through his thoughts as if to accuse him. "Damn it," he grumbles, shaking his head slowly and leaning back to check the hall; Liv's door still hidden from the rest of the household. "And I doubt the room is even there anymore," he mutters darkly, checking a pocket watch drawn from an inside pocket of his coat.

The sounds from Kaija's room had died away some time ago, and he rises, pacing the living area restlessly, occasionally drawing odds and ends from pockets. His sword comes to hand, and after a mumbled word, the hilt grows to three feet, and he runs a form, attempting to calm himself from the restlessness even as he checks the door every few minutes. Returning the sword to the coat, he collapses into the chair again, exhausted but the turmoil of his mind preventing any rest.

"Damn it," He grumbles again, his eyes drifting once more to the hall. "I'm in your room, Liv Na Sruth"

Reality ripples, then tears, swirling around some dark, unseen source in its attempt to reconcile contradiction in his words and his truth. A second more's twisting and the world once again resolves around him, and he drops from the exertion, falling across the bed, narrowly missing the curled form of the otter nesting in the sheets

The otter's sinewy body twists around itself, her long shape rolling like silk in her sleep, and she cuddles against the warm body beside her, her head nuzzling into the man's black vest. The creature lets out a small chitter and a sigh, her sleek head resting on his chest.

Groaning slightly, Djehuty rolls over from his stomach to his back. He tries to open his eyes, but winces them closed again, even in the dim light and covers them with a forearm, while unconsciously stroking the soft form cuddling into his side. "Sylus has got to teach me his trick," he grumbles as his hand traces the spine of otter. "Cause this is going to do some serious damage some day"

The otter opens her eyes lazily, looking almost as if she is smiling. Then her blue eyes fly wide. With a dog-like yelp, she leaps up, and burrows beneath the covers, disappearing from sight. After a moment and a strange series of muffled pops and clicks, Liv's voice rings out, shocked and angry. "Djhuety, damn you by flint and dark water man! I'm naked!! Where did you learn manners, in a wolf's den?!"

Grunting, arm still firmly over his eyes to protect them from the light, "You may find that orphans are rarely the most civilized folk."

There's a sigh beneath the blanket. "Just pass me my clothes, will you?
I manage to pull my clothes on beneath the blankets without too much trouble, and eventually I let the covers fall away. I meet Djhuety's eyes. "I take it you sweet talked the house? You know, sometimes when someone says 'leave me alone', they actually would like to be left alone."

"The house had nothing to do with it... I doubt we're even still attached to it by more then a thread of energy." Djehuty cracks his eyes and pushes his tinted lenses up his nose. "If I could have sweet talked my way in, I doubt I'd have the light of creation exploding in my head." He grimaces.

I shake my head. "Here, let me fix it." Laying my hands on Djhuety's brow, I sing. "That was a daft thing to do, you know." I say, sitting back with a deep breath. "And I didn't need rescuing. I'm fine now. I just needed...some time alone."

He looks at her critically. "You have the oddest tenancy to wander off when something upsets you; and as the indirect cause, it falls to me to chase you down and bring you back." The mark on his chest warms, but he ignores it, focusing instead on Liv, a look of concern mixed with guilt written across his face.

I shake my head, smiling faintly. "Oh, my lad, you never get it. You boys both treat me like a human girl with a few quirks." I lean forward. "I'm not human. Not completely. When I'm as upset as that, what you think is comforting attention feels like needles against my skin, and drives me mad. When I'm that upset, I feel the need for silence and peace. I need to be alone, to...well, lick my wounds, I guess you could say. I need time by myself to do it. Sometimes it's best just to let me have it. You feel better now?"

"Drained but at least I think I can focus now." He sits up as fast as he dares and turns to her again. "And a wounded animal may be left in peace, but its a bad idea to let it wander off, when it might fall prey to things that sense weakness. I can leave the house by many routes, and I know your at least as gifted as me."

I shrug. "Fair enough." Then I raise my head. "I'm fine now. Please let the door open again."
A warm feeling ripples through the room, and the door reappears. I sigh, and stretch. Then I smile. "And maybe you're right. I can be a bit of an ass, when my emotions overwhelm my sense."

"Eh, your fur's soft and warm and I don't mind comforting a friend." He cocks a half smile and lets his glasses slide halfway down his nose, showing sea green eyes. "Now, you haven't eaten in six months; how bout food?"

I smile. "Sounds good. Sounds very good."

Stepping out of Liv's room, the pair look either way down the empty halls, looking for any sign of life, though by first impressions, the house appears to be as asleep as its tenants. Peeking in to Kaija's room through the slightly ajar door, Djehuty witnesses the Liam lying on his back, reposed as a corpse as Kaija curls into his side, cuddling into him. "Guess old habits die hard," whispers Djehuty, indicating Liam's odd posture to Liv before check the other doors; The newest, possibly to Vyros' room, clicks softly as he approaches and he shrugs indifferently. "They're all asleep." He turns back to Liv, "And I think its time to eat out for once. I hear there are some marvelous restaurants uptown."

I cock a brow. "The last few times we've gone out, something nasty has happened...well, all right."
Once we're on the streets, in the hurley-burley of the nightside, I feel myself again, my jacket around my shoulders, my knife where I can reach it, my friend at my side. I'm where I belong.
"Maybe it's true what they say." I comment with gallows humor, "The Nightside collects royalty like a dog does fleas."

"Which goes a long ways to explain why they have to rebuild large portions of it every few years." He smiles sardonically, looking around at the people and traffic rushing by on all sides. "Though you would never know it just by looking at it."

"Wonder how long it'll take for that gash through the west of the city to be built over." I say musingly. "Where are we going?"

"The club. Quieter the Hawkswind and safer then Strangefellows. And you still look like you could use something very stiff." He smiles, turning off the street into an alley that hadn't been there before. Low notes of a violin blending with a sax rise from the grungy stairs curling down into a low hollow nested beneath a much larger building. Leading the way, Djehuty walks down the rotting steps and knocks on the heavy door bound in silver. "We're hear for the music," he mutters in to the flowering wood before it springs open at a touch. "After you, milady," he smiles impishly with a hint of a bow.

"Don't start." I mutter, but I let him usher me in.
It feels surprisingly good to relax into the sweet, sultry music and the low lighting, a double brandy in one hand. I sigh, closing my eyes for a moment. "This must be how you felt when I told you that I saw Sidhe within you." I murmur. "Like the world's weight had just dropped on your head."

"Like you've splashed into a pool only to discover its the Pacific." He smiles sardonically, calling for Scotch and an appetizer as he settles into his seat, shrugging off his coat. "Its not as bad as your making it, you know."

I snort. "Not as bad as I'm making it? I get named as part of some great legend, and you say it's not so bad? I know what happens to kings and queens. They give all their lives in service to their people, and are never free of the duty. And oh yes, they mentioned battles as well, and equality with Titania. That alone is enough to get me a death warrant from her court, being called her equal. Oh, and then of course, there's the possibility that our two worlds will snap back together like a rubber band and throw all the races of Men and Kin together like cats in a sack." I laugh tiredly "What exactly makes this not so bad again? Please tell me, because I'd love to know."

Rolling his eyes, Djehuty leans across the table. "Grandmother explained this much to me; you are already bound in service to the people. As to the rest, you know history better perhaps then any other monarch named in the last five hundred years. And even better, you already recognize the difficulties, putting you one step closer to solutions."

I shake my head, closing my eyes tiredly. "Fifty years, I've been looking for a place where no one would pay attention to me, where I could just be, just be and sing my songs and make people happy and be left alone. I finally find it, and now this." I draw a breath. "I went looking for peace, and this is what I get instead. A doom and a destiny laid on me. Fate's a bitch of a lady."