Raiha was not sleeping tonight, even as her fingers traced Rath’s side, just looking at him. Lithe fingers glided over his muscles and bone structure. She had something to tell him, after all, but she was waiting for the opportune moment, as well as wrestling with herself. It was a secret, at least for now, and Raiha was instinctively, naturally, disinclined to share it. Being a Nightstalker had amplified and expanded her love of finding out things, of ferreting out secrets and when she found them, she held them tightly to herself. What Rath was. How often, and how easily they came together. Kavala’s secrets. Rath’s secrets. What she watched and saw. She held them tightly, never breathing of them to another person. Rath doubtless understood at least part of it - he had seen the dark, inky blue triangle emblazoned between her shoulder blades, Akajia’s mark, that she never spoke about and did not talk about her meeting with the Goddess. She was quiet about her own life before she had come to Riverfall, but slowly, bit by bit, she told him things, gave him another piece of the puzzle. It wasn’t always connected - one part might not fit in until she gave him more information later. And yet, there was so much she kept to herself.
Her long white hair was loosely braided to one side - she liked to have it that way at night, though sometimes she left it loose, letting it drape over both of them, forming a curtain that made the nighttime world their own, the thick white locks concealing and framing, to let him comb his fingers through it, and play with it if he so chose. Raiha never cut her hair, preferring to just let it grow. She rested on her side, one arm folded under her head, bent back, cradling it, playing with her own hair as gold eyes watched him in the darkened mews. She drew her hand back after a little while, and just watched him, letting it rest on her, for now, flat belly. It wouldn’t stay flat. In the coming season, it would show, and it would no longer be a secret.
It would no longer be a secret.
She wasn’t sure it was entirely now - she knew Kavala watched her, because Kanikra watched the Konti, and her ability to eat whatever came her way had been curbed. Not only because her best friend was encouraging healthy, full, and balanced meals, even though she was on her seaweed and seafood diet, but because she had random bouts of nausea that she did her utmost to hide. It didn't seem attributable to any particular food source, and Raiha was determined to keep eating as much as she could from a variety of sources. She was drinking plenty of ginger tea and mint tea just to keep her stomach calm, and while Kanikra thought Kavala was many things, both of them knew she was not a fool. She was a practiced healer, and she had gone through this herself. She was sure she suspected... and she would tell her when the opportunity arose. If she already knew, it was hardly a secret. But for now...
She owed it to Rath and Uruk to tell them first. She was carrying their child. Raiha never nudged him awake, but preferred to watch and let him wake up on his own. When he did, he’d find her smiling at him, her hand that had been touching his muscles resting now on the curve of her hip and over her belly, her fingers splayed. “When was the last time you practiced Auristics?” her voice was barely audible over the quiet, contented hoots of the owlets in the wooden crate beside their bed.
