What is the meaning of this? | 5.10 midday | open

[Athena]

She re-read the letter for what must have been the thirtieth time. Was she terrified? Not really… Worked up? Absolutely… She sat in the chair at the table, her hands over her stomach, her foot tapping on the floor. It was written in a hand she did not recognize, the signing a symbol she’d never seen before. An up and comer, hoping to make himself a name by declaring a personal war on a Shadowmere? That was Athena’s best guess. But it irked her that she had nothing to go on. What she did? She’d done many things. Best she could come up with was she’d killed somebody and it pissed somebody off. That was more or less the way it worked… but it’d been a while since she’d accepted a solo contract… She had no idea who it could be.

For a moment, she debated taking it straight to… well, somebody of authority. Arryk was not around… was off killing Jinn. Jaeryth or Rowena… well, she did not want to bother either of them with it either. The fact of the matter was, she was certain she could handle it herself. More than anything, she just wanted to figure out who’d written it and who dared threaten a Brother of Twilight, the Lady of House Mercado!

With a stubborn tilt of her chin, she snatched the letter and walked to her trunk where she kept her belongings. It was large enough that she could fit in there if she’d wanted. Within she had a box… it was empty now as it’d been where she’d kept her father’s amulet, but as Arryk had that with him… She put the letter within and set the box back. If she didn’t receive another letter, she’d think nothing of it. If she did, she would store them here until she could discover the identity of the author. It was going to bug her, to be sure, but for now, she had other things to do.

[Belle Shadowmere]

"And how's my lovely little sister feeling today, hm?" Belle called, flouncing into the room and throwing closed the door behind her. She hardly ever cared to knock before barging into her sister's room, and vice versa. She smiled, throwing her hair back and sliding one of Athena's drawers open, to peer inside. She wasn't intentionally prying, just slightly bored.

"Did you happen to see my fan anywhere? The lace one; black, embroidered, with swans on it, my favourite; the one from mother?" She pushed aside some of the stuff in the shelf and then spun around, not having found anything. She was in a strangely good mood, having met a very friendly gentleman in a tavern the night before. Maybe she would meet him again, he had seemed quite eager and she did not mind the attention. She looked Athena up and down and then shrugged. "Are you sure that you haven't seen my fan? Also, you should get out more, Thena-Rose. You'll just wilt, waiting for that husband of yours," she said, not bothering to hide the note of distaste on the word 'husband'.

"How's the babe?"

[Athena]

Her head whipped up at the sound of the door opening, but she relaxed when she realized who it was. Her heart, though pounding as if expecting the person to have been the intruder, did a leap at the sight of her sister, and she had to fight the ridiculous urge to run and embrace her. “Belle?” she questioned, trying to hide the uneasiness in her voice. “The hells? You realize that once my husband returns, you’ll have to learn to knock… Lest you run the risk of seeing something you’d rather not.” Then in a calmer voice, “And I’m doing well today.”

Of all things… She came to look for a fan? Athena shook her head slowly, hoping to the gods that Belle just continued to search where she was searching. If she got the mind to check the chest, however… Well, Athena would have to see if her ability to deflect and distract had gotten a bit addled. “I thought I had, actually,” she said, crossing to the bed to sit at the edge. “Last place I saw it was in your room on your pillow. Perhaps the maids came and accidentally washed it with the sheets?”

She nodded. “Well, I think in the near future I will have some things on my plate… So yes. I do foresee getting out a bit more. And the babe is fine. Isn’t churning my insides as he normally does. That’s something, isn’t it?”

[Belle Shadowmere]

If Belle had not been so distracted by her missing fan, she would have noticed the slight tremor in her sister's voice and would have instantly been suspicious. Unfortunately, she was distracted momentarily. She shrugged when her sister pointed out the obvious problem with her not knocking. "And? It's nothing I haven't seen before. It's not like you're quiet exactly, so I'll know when not to enter," she said, only half joking. She just nodded empathetically when Athena said that she was doing well. "Good, good."

"On my pillow?" She narrowed her eyes, annoyed at the thought of the maid having washed it. "I certainly hope not!" With a sigh she crossed over to where Athena was sitting, but passed her on the way to her nightstand. She pulled that drawer open as well, rummaging through the various clutter that lay in it. "That must have been a while back, I remember having it yesterday. Maybe the maid got confused and put it with your things," she mused, and then closed the drawer with a profound bang. "Not here either. I'll check that chest," she said, pointing towards it and already rushing across the room in order to pull it open.

"It must be here somewhere. I swear that I had it and I really need it tonight. I met a nice man, Liam... I think..." She paused and came to a stop. "I forgot. His name might have been Mitch or Reginald... Uriah? It matters not. He was friendly and a gentleman and promised me a drink."

[Athena]

Normally Belle rummaging through her things was not such a big deal. But some of this stuff was Arryk’s too, and she could not be sure if he would appreciate her sister looking through it all. Her eyes darted towards the chest. She was not worried. The box was latched shut, the key to which being safely hidden. And even if it wasn’t, the box was much too small for her fan to fit within. The odds of her not finding the letter were greater if Athena just sat back and hoped. If she told her to stop, or if she ran forward to grab it… then Belle would know.

“Why do you need it tonight?” Athena questioned, pulling her legs up on the bed. “Oh… Well, I’d be careful of that. I think not being in the guild makes it easy for you to forget that Lazarus has enemies everywhere. Enemies that do not mind using his cousins against him.”

[Belle Shadowmere]

Belle smiled. "I'll be careful, Thena-Rose, don't worry about me. Lazarus thinks that I'm disposable anyway since I am not one of the guild."

She looked over at her sister, just registering now that she was not acting entirely tactful. After all, even though she despised Arryk, her sister's husband was fighting. That was bound to affect Athena. "What are you doing tonight? Are you resting enough? You're not in pain or anything of the sort?" She chewed on her lip and then went to sit down on the bed next to her little sister, momentarily forgetting the chest and her fan.

Now that she looked at Athena for more than just a few seconds, she could tell that something was up. Maybe it was just intuition. She felt the same way around her twin and it was almost impossible for her to have secrets from him, and vice versa. "Are you alright?"

[Athena]

“Lazarus is likely to be thinking differently now that he is a lord. It was not too long ago he was pushing me towards marrying Jaeryth. It is as you say… there is nothing tying you here in his mind. Your decision to remain separate from the guild makes you prime to marry off to the mainland,” she said wisely, hating the truth of the words but was unable to deny them.

Athena shrugged, putting her hand over her stomach. “My child has decided to not give me any difficulty tonight, so I thought I might venture to eat an actual meal. Resting enough is an understatement. I fear all I do is eat and sleep. I worried that I would get fat with child, but as it may happen, at this rate, I’ll just get fat period.” She leaned closer to her sister, instinctively putting her head on her shoulder. “No pain.”

No she was not all right. And there was no point in lying to Belle, but there were many things that were plaguing her thoughts. Saying one and leaving the other out was not a lie. “I just miss him… I want him home… Not that we have a home to be fair, but his home is with me. And I want him here.”