[The Sanctuary] Do We Expand Or Not?

[Vanator]

Vanator paid no heed as his sister hoisted the dark infant to her breast, grateful that she was healthy enough to feed her children her own milk. It also gave him comfort to see Kavala eating so well, it helped assure him that the Konti was recovering from the traumatic birth and the effort to nurture Ia.

Van scooted his seat back, not offering to help Tasival into his lap. The boy was a climber, a knack the uncle encouraged. Any skill or inclination the youngster displayed Vanator tried to nurture. Success bred confidence, a trait necessary for a man to possess. As the Akontak clambered up onto Vanator, the Drykas pulled over a scone and set it before his nephew.

In the few chimes they had spoken, it was apparent that the concept had great potential. Kavala had funds to support the start up, but Vanator knew her supply was not endless, and there was upkeep and expansion still planned at Sanctuary itself. "What I have to spare I would gladly kick in, and labor could come from folks here, to help repay the money." When Kavala mentioned a location by the port, where goods could be transported via her boat, Vanator hesitated. He had been thrown into the role of sailor by Caelum when theywent to look for Kavala, after she ran off to birth the Ralac and Inadan. It was interesting to say the least. "That makes sense," he confessed. "We could move a lot more cargo that way. Get the first business off the ships too."

Van nodded to Kavala in agreement. Vanator realized that Sanctuary would most likely become the legacy of Kavala's and his children. The Denusks would become influential by means of their business, and their business would support the work of the Cytali. Becoming prominent citizens, stockpiling and fortifying the compound, all would lend to growth and strength.

Tasival had begun to tug on Van's torc, and he slipped it from his neck and placed the weighty gold ornament around the toddlers neck. "Just to borrow, you will have to find your own girlfriend to buy you one." He teased the boy. When Kavala mentioned their children, including Caelum's, Vanator did a double take. Caelum, daughter? "Wait, what, what do you mean, a daughter?" Van's brows furrowed quizzically.

[Caelum]

"If I never have to commandeer a boat again, it will be too soon," Caelum announced emphatically. There was a ghost of humor in his eyes, but it was certainly a pale ghost. He had not enjoyed his war with the catamaran when the life of his friend and her children had been at stake. No, he had not enjoyed it at all. He opened his mouth to remark further, but Kavala's words and Vanator's understandably baffled follow up question rang him right into silence. He blinked and did not know that his arms automatically tightened about Ia'del, causing the tiny little konti to cuddle even closer against his chest, above his heart that was suddenly lurching ahead of his breaths. Unaware that he had gone dangerously pale beneath his sun burnish, he gazed at the Denusk siblings with a lost expression. His chin dropped and his eyes followed, sinking like a stone right at the infant in his arms. That failed to help. He shifted her carefully and unraveled to his feet, his hide near twitching with the sudden burst of anxious energy and tangled emotion. "My dead wife's daughter," he snapped in response to Vanator's question. He wasn't actually angry. Or, rather, his anger was not actually for anyone in the room. It was an old anger, a stale bitterness lodged deep within his stomach that surfaced with vicious alacrity. Like a shadow passing over the sun, the very room almost seemed to dim as his mood decayed at the edges, harking back to the worst of his hours on this earth since his fall. "Kavala, what do you mean I need to find her? She has her actual father, doesn't she? What possible right do I have to take her from him?" He did not ask how Kavala knew. He knew how she knew. Dreams, dreams, dangerous, continually darkening dreams.

[Kavala]

The Konti felt distinctly uncomfortable. When Caelum got like this, his intensity was hard to face head on. She glanced at the Konti infant in his arms, and then down at the child feeding at her breast. Was it fair to tell him now? Or should she claim she didn't know? Lying to Caelum wasn't an option. But telling him the truth didn't seem like such a good idea either.

"I don't want to tell you how to feel, Caelum. But I want you to promise me that you will not angry with me - if you are going too - until you hear me totally out." Kavala said. If he nodded or met her eyes or gave her any indication of his agreement, she'd continue.


"I've been watching over her. How could I not? In a way living her mother's life, a part of it, brought me close to her. And when I relived Lillis De'Nerys' memories, I became her for a time. You know how that is... or you once did. I felt for her child what she felt for her child and that feeling has stayed with me, Caelum. I know you know how bad the world can be sometimes. Children.. are the most vulnerable of us all. How could I not watch out for her. During the Djed Storm of 512, her human father was killed. She was orphaned. She went to an orphanage and that orphanage was later raided by Drykas looking for children to replace their losses during the plagues that followed the Djed Storm." Kavala said. She looked thoughtful.

"They were not thrilled one of the females taken was a Konti, but she was mixed in with the others, and ended up getting swept out onto the grasses with the other captured children. She's in a pavilion now, safe, but she's... not among her own kind and since she has no blood ties with them, her odds of bonding with a strider there and growing up as truly part of them are slim. The pavilion she lives in has fallen on hard times and has had three different Ankals in the last season. They will be close in spring. It would be an easy thing to take them our cull striders and trade for her. I had been meaning to tell you since you returned, but I've had other things to worry about and I know for the time being she's safe. One more season won't hurt her. And by spring, we'll have Strider foals to cull, I can travel more and perhaps Ia'del will be safe to leave here with Chalce and Cadra." Kavala said softly, slowly meeting Caelum's eyes.

"I don't want you to be upset. She's safe. She's not being harmed. But it's just not an ideal situation for her long term happiness. They are not her family. And while I am not her mother and you are not her father, we are as of right now all that is left of family she has in this world." Kavala said, being sincere, but also emphasizing the child was safe for the time being.

Kavala glanced at Vanator, her eyes apologetic. She wasn't speaking badly of the Drykas, just badly of an orphaned Konti among them.

[Vanator]

The subject of this daughter of Caelum's jarred the atmosphere at the table like a wagon losing a wheel. The Ethaefal's countenance tightened, eyes darting between them, reflecting uncertain emotion before launching to his feet, the baby girl still in his hands. Vanator's confusion compounded when the agitated man barked out his response. Van had seen Caelum distressed, situations where the Ranuri plagued him, but this was a whole different variety of anxiety. Vanator could see it was not really directed at him, but was couched in the emergence of a deeper angst.

Then, Kavala revealed what she knew. Vanator mused to himself, wondering why Akajia had not shown up to mark his sister as well. Kavala was a keeper of secrets, no...she simply held the truth in confidence until wisdom dictated the appropriate time for revelation. Her ability to venture into the Chevana, tap the Web, and note the finest of detail afforded Kavala insight and knowledge about many things. Vanator accepted this and trusted that, if the Dreamwalking healer knew something important, it would be uncovered at the right time.

Apparently, now was the time for Caelum to learn the fate of the girl. Van could see Kavala didn't like to speak badly of any Drykas in front of her brother, but Van gave his head the slightest nod, assuring the Konti she was not out of line. Vanator did not condone the raids into Syliras, though he understood the desperation that drove them. Vanator also understood the power of family, no matter how convoluted the ties. Sanctuary was itself a hodgepodge. Aweston was the son of Vanator's childhood sweetheart, His own children were born of a Kelvic and were Kelvics too, and Kavala's children were born of two different fathers. The Denusk family consisted of members from four different races. Five, if you count Caelum, who was very nearly family.

"Kavala is right." Vanator offered, eyes turned towards the fidgeting Eth, his voice soft, hoping not to upset Caelum by intervening. "She will be alright, but she should be somewhere where she is accepted as real family. Caelum, we would all do that here."

[Caelum]

"Yes," Caelum agreed with rising anger with Vanator, yellow eyes darkened in eclipse. "She should be here. She should have family, real family, that values and protects her. I may not be the girl's father, but I loved her mother. I loved Lillis whether or not I deserved her." By then, his regard had settled on the object of his fury -- Kavala. His best friend, his fellow healer, and his boss. It was Kavala whom he was pissed off at right now, and it was also pretty plain that he didn't know how to handle that. Ia'del was cradled gently, there was no question in that regard, but he hummed like a bell fresh struck and it was with ill emotions. The more charming aspects of his personality sloughed aside like dead skin, but he was a skinwalker, wasn't he? At every sunset and every sunrise, the frame of him changed. Beneath kindness and warmth, dedication and good intentions, there always lurked in him bitterness and desperation. It had built itself up to ruthless proportions in a past he did not often speak of since his return to Riverfall, preferring to be judged for the man he was now rather than man he had been. "How many opportunities to tell me about her have you passed up, Kavala?" He demanded. "You claim you don't want to tell me how to feel, but you have withheld this information from me for months. And for what? To what end? Why have you waited so long?"

[Kavala]

Sooner or later the healer knew she'd have to face this moment. Sooner or later she knew she'd have to tell him the truth. Kavala didn't waiver from the truth. It was what it was, and it wasn't her decision to accept it or to explode about it. But what she could do is stand before him honestly and tell him why. After all, that's simply what he asked. And it was the truth she owed him.

Kavala glanced at Vanator a moment, resigned to her brother witnessing this weakness... this character flaw so blatant that she wished she didn't have to admit it.

"I didn't tell you because I'm selfish. That's it in a nutshell. When you showed up just in time to be here for last stages of a very traumatic pregnancy and the birth... I knew things would be alright. I didn't know before that. I was walking on eggshells and on the verge of panic. I was already struggling with a difficult pregnancy. I didn't know why, Caelum, because I never gave you a chance to look at me. But it comforted me to know you were here. Somehow I knew that you being here would make things alright. And it did." She wanted to point out the timing, how his arrival corresponded to the difficulties with her pregnancy and how he'd been a stoic presence, following her around for days towards the end. And true, she'd in the end slipped past him to go birth in the sea, but if he hadn't been with her family when they found her, there was a huge likelihood that her children and herself wouldn't have survived.

"I loved Ralac, even though I'd never met him, and I wanted him to live. I wanted Ia'del to live too even though I didn't realize that's why he was waiting. Caelum, if you hadn't found us at Reverie Isle that day... I was so weak. I would have never made it back. I would not have survived. I wouldn't have been there to keep Ia'del breathing. And how about all the times afterwards when you spelled me from counting her breaths so I could sleep... and how you started her breathing again more times than I can even begin to count. If both of us weren't here, she wouldn't have been here." Kavala said softly, her eyes wide almost like an animal caught by surprise in a light that suddenly burst forth in the darkness of night.

"If I told you the truth about her, you would have thrown a yvas back on your strider and rode him half to the ground to get to that little girl. They are down by Ektyol and even if you would have been successful getting them to bargain for her life or trade, you couldn't have ridden hard enough to make it back. I knew she'd be fine. I've been watching. I promise I've been watching closely. And I want to apologize to you badly, Caelum, but I'm not sorry. I wouldn't change anything. They will be here in spring. In spring we can help the Drykas and they will gladly hand her over. Then everyone gets what they want and need. Sixty days... ninety days... to me it's a good bargain for for the lives of my children and myself. " Kavala said gently, facing him, and gently stroking Ralac's shock of white hair. She leaned over and kissed the boys' head, not minding that he was sound asleep at her breast.

"I know I haven't properly thanked you for all three of us, so I'm going to do so now. Thank you. But Caelum, I'd keep a secret from you a thousand times to keep people I love from Dira. And that's the honest truth, Caelum. I know you are mad... I would be too in your shoes. Furious in fact. You have every right in the world to be absolutely engulfed in rage. I would be. And you can go ride off and try and get her, take her from yet another situation to sit on the back of a horse and race off to yet again something new... or you can wait, let her ride out the winter in a warm safe pavilion, and when they get close, we'll ride out with fine horses and food and whatever else we think it will take... and invite her to come home with us. It's no less than what I was going to do anyhow, before you even arrived." Kavala said, saying her peace and hoping like mad Caelum would someday forgive her. Kavala wasn't certain, if she were in his shoes, that forgiveness would come so easy to her.

"I should have let you choose. I really should have. If you had the information, then you could have made a decision for yourself. But.. even with Vanator and Riaris being here, they aren't the healers you are. And love can't keep someone alive. You kept all of us alive. That was my decision, selfish I know, but it was what I wanted. I wanted you to be here in case the worst happened, and it did... and I'm alive.. they are alive... because you were." It wasn't an apology at all. Kavala knew it. But she also knew that Caelum much preferred straight up facts to pandering and ass kissing. If he was mad and rode off in the next five minutes to save his daughter, then she'd understand completely. She'd even take the time to pack his yvas bags. But she wouldn't change the past.. not now.. not ever.

Kavala took another glance at her brother, wondering for the first time if he was ashamed of her.

[Vanator]

The tension thickened in the room as Caelum's temper flared. Vanator had not witness the Ethaefal's anger before, though Caelum was certainly a man of passions. But the horned celestial had always seemed to keep even keeled (a term he had heard Riaris use, Van thought it has something to do with boats) and to see him angry at Kavala was an unexpected turn of events. Demands were made for explanations, and frankly, Vanator wondered for what reason the information about the girl was withheld. Kavala was no fool, but wise, and her brother believed there would be a viable excuse for the secret.

Vanator expected some spit from his sister. Certainly she would have a good reason, one that would make perfect sense and assuage Caelums wrath. He expected her to defend her decision with a set jaw and direct words. When she spoke, Kavala's words were direct, but they were not delivered with confident validation. Cerulean eyes widened, darted to Vanator before averting the gaze. Van saw it in that moment, it was not confidence that glimmered in Kavala's eyes, it was defensiveness.

As his sister plead her case, the truth behind her actions, Vanator watched silently, trying to occupy Tasival as the boy picked at the scone in front of him. He looked at all the children in the room. Kavala clutching Ralac to her chest, Caelum holding Ia'del, Tasival on his lap and Cadra and Larik sitting nearby. Kavala, the Denusks, put the highest value on family. Vanator knew well enough that if that girl was in any trouble, she would have gone straight to Caelum. Vanator could not argue with Kavala's reasoning. Caelum had really been a godsend, and most likely a savior. No one else could have done what the Eth had for Kavala. And when he helped save her and her babies, Van became indebted to him.

Caelum had a right to be angry. But looking at it from an eagle's view, all was not so muddled. "Caelum." Vanator lifted his voice, even and steady. "If it were not for Kavala, you may have never learned about the girl at all. And if you had, and gone after her, you would not have been here for Kavala. Her children, and maybe even Kavala herself, may not have been alive when you returned. You have every right to be furious. But please look at what came of Kavala's decision." His eyes lowered pointedly to the infant Konti cradled in Caelum's arms.

[Caelum]

It had been a long time since Caelum had felt close enough to someone to experience betrayal. Logically, he understood that it was not a true betrayal, nor was it a deep one. There was love in all of Kavala's intentions, but there was selfishness and fear in them as well. She had not trusted him to make what she viewed as the right choice. Whether or not it even was the right choice was also debatable. The world they lived in was rarely black and white, the choices they were confronted with almost never neatly divided into right and wrong. Monsters could not always be known by their faces and even liars spoke the truth sometimes. Heroes faltered, villains had hearts, and all the gods Caelum had ever known were fallible. He remembered an old city and an urgent hand, remembered trying desperately to explain to Lillis De'Nerys that he had to do what was right, even when it was wrong. Maybe he hadn't deserved her, maybe he hadn't deserved her any more than he had Syna, but it wasn't for lack of trying. "You had no right." Words came to him to length, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of both her case and her gratitude. He did not know if he felt worthy of the Denusk family's gratitude. Of a sudden, he didn't feel worthy of much at all. "You should have told me, trusted me, had enough faith to know that I would try to do my best by all of you. I would have tried, Kavala." Gold eyes lifted at last from the delicate little face of Ia'del, still cradled in his arms. There was a wealth of sorrow in them, the surface of those giants depths that had followed him out of the Ukalas a decade back. His anger was but drops in that sea and he turned from them to pace towards the hearth, to give his hands something to do which was dip into his pockets to tug loose tea packets and tuck them into the bottom of cups. "I'll wait 'til spring," he told them. "Insolong as she's safe, then it would be wisest to fetch her from Endrykas then." There was still anger in him, but he was managing it. A part of him wanted to shout and let out all of the shadows sealed tightly away inside of him. The brightest lights often threw the darkest shadows, it was said, and he had proved that more than once. Only there was an infant tucked against his heart who was alive because of him, and he didn't know how to hate that. He didn't know how to hate Kavala or her choices or Vanator and his support of his sister. He loved them, was the problem, and he felt let down.

[Kavala]

“You had no right...”…

Kavala faced the emotion she’d caused. And she watched the fire of anger blaze to life in Caelum’s soul. She stared at him without blinking or flinching, not turning and walking away like she longed to do. Kavala didn’t want this conversation. Instead she wanted silence and peace and love and time to rest and heal. Selfish? Yes… of course it was. But she’d had so very little of it in her life and needed it so badly now. Kavala wanted to say a thousand things to him, yell at him even, but there was so little point. He had every right to his anger and every right to feel whatever he picked was appropriate to feel in the situation.

Would she feel any different if the roles were reversed? No, probably not. Had she been playing God? Yes, even if it was for the best of reasons.

The Konti Healer knew Caelum would have tried. That was the problem. He would have tried to find his daughter. He would have tried to be back in time for Kavala’s birthing. He would have split himself a thousand ways to do everything he deemed correct and suitable to the circumstance with no thought to himself. But he wasn’t all powerful for all that he was immortal. The Ethaefal had a certain arrogance to themselves, innate, that drove them to always somehow dwell in that perfect realm of divinity. It was when they were reminded they were no longer there that their sadness rose. But when they were angry there was almost never any room for sadness and they rose again to the heights they fell from.

It was exhausting to watch.

“Yes. I should have told you. I should have trusted you. I know you would have done the right thing, whatever it was that you decided to do.” She acknowledged. He wasn’t wrong. And she did believe him. It was with that admission that Kavala closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She was tired again; too tired to eat whatever it was that had been in her hand. She dropped it without thought.

“I will watch. I will let you know if things change and she is not safe. If that happens, you will have all the help we can give you to make sure she gets whatever you want her to get…. “ She should have worded it more eloquently… but there was nothing left of the Konti. She felt like the broken shell she was in that moment. Her eyes flicked open and she checked first the tiny Konti infant in Caelum’s arms, then Ralac who she slowly returned to his bouncing seat. The woman had no strength to hold him suddenly.

A bone thin hand rose and dragged itself through lackluster hair. Would it ever get better? Was there any point in planning for the future if this was all they had to look forward too? Mistrust? Greed? Selfishness? Was that why Riaris had left? The Konti wanted to weep. The past merged with the future for a moment and she could find no good in any of it. Even the babies, whom she loved beyond measure, were being brought into a world the Konti knew wasn’t safe for them to exist in. They’d all been together before. She knew it. But those times had been happy. Their lives had been long and full of laughter. At this table there was no laughter. And the Konti acutely felt the lack of it.

Kavala tried. The Gods knew she tried. But it was at times like this she felt utterly unworthy of being here, surviving, and having the people around her that she did. Her hand dropped from her hair and back onto the table. Blue eyes gone grey from fatigue and frustration dropped to study the thin digits. She wondered if this was what it was like to get old. None of them had any chance of living into their geriatric years. The world was too rough, too unforgiving for people to be allowed to age gracefully. Kavala looked up, her eyes darting to Vanator.

Why was he even defending her? Caelum had been right with all of it. Suddenly the Konti just wanted to go back to bed. There was no future here. There was no need to make plans to expand. Why was she continuously pushing for more? Was not what they had enough? It was enough. It surely was enough.

Kavala caught Cadra’s eye as the girl moved about the kitchen. She pointedly glanced at Ralac and Cadra nodded. The infant was bouncing in his seat, content for the moment, and bound to take a nap now that he’d fed from his mother. But if Kavala was going to get any rest, Cadra would have to watch the baby. He seemed to like her and she was good at mothering him. Her nod indicated she’d watch, and that was all Kavala needed.

Sometimes it would be nice to see the future as easily as Kavala could see the past. If she had such power, she would have looked forward and saw how Caelum would have reacted. She would look forward and see if the expansion was necessary too. She’d even look further to see if Ia’del would indeed grow to have a life worth the effort they were putting in to make sure she had a chance. But none of that was within the Konti’s abilities. None of that would ever be within the Konti’s abilities. Instead, she simply had the power to react once events had already occurred. She’d use her best judgment, but even that wasn’t infallible. Today had proven that true enough. So Kavala did the only thing she could think of to do.

She took a deep breath, pushed back her seat, and awkwardly stood up. “I will make better choices next time.” She said simply, glancing at the people sitting around the table. Would there be a next time? Maybe. But for now Kavala had to be satisfied with what was and stop pushing for expansion and for the future. She’d leave Vanator and Caelum to talk about it more if they so decided. For now, she’d leave them to their own devices. The meeting had given her enough trouble for the day and she was tired to the bone. So she turned, stepped away from the table, pushed in her chair and awkwardly headed back to her suite. There was a lot to do, and none of it Kavala realistically could complete. And so she retreated, perhaps a bit gracelessly, because there was nothing else she could think to do.

Count: 1119

[Mayhem1]

You're an excited PC roaming around a thread.

You're not paying attention that the story's over.

Then...BAM! You're hit with a Grade.

I'm Mayhem, the ever-present Junior ST of Cyphrus. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this grade, please don't hesitate to shoot me a PM! And please, please remove or edit your grading request once you see this. Thank you!

 

Kavala

XP

• Negotiation - 1

LORES

• Caelum's Business Plan
• Being the Focal Point of Caelum's Anger
• Betraying a Friend
• Admitting a Flaw
• Apologizing to Caelum
• Worry for the Future

 

Caelum

XP

• Socialization - 1
• Organization - 1
• Persuasion - 1
• Rhetoric - 1

LORES

• Acception of a Business Plan
• Learning Your Daughter's Fate
• Anger at Kavala
• Kavala: is Grateful
• Kavala's Reasoning
• Feeling Betrayed

 

Vanator

XP

• Socialization - 2

LORES

• Caelum's Business Plan
• Caelum: Has a Daughter
• Kavala's Reasoning

Notes: I absolutely loved the emotion portrayed in the thread. It felt so real, and the little bits and side pieces about the children and inner thoughts were really nice.

With Regards,
- Mayhem