Waiting for the Dawn

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 21st January 2009

Characters: Thalia
Description: Thalia's anxieties plague her
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 13, day 21 of Turn 4
Notes: Mentioned: Penryn, Ishek, Ryalane, Briata

The study wasn't lit terribly well - only the light from a fireplace that wasn't usually there illuminated the room. Aswic was slumped over his desk and facing away from her while her son hiccupped on the rug at his feet. Thalia felt her chest contract as she rushed to Aslian's side and picked him up, only now noticing the dark red wine stains around his mouth.

He'd been poisoned, too.

She turned and ran to the door with Aslian in her arms, but the dark silhouette of a man blocked the way. He stretched his arms toward her; she dodged and continued to run down endless corridors. Aslian slipped in her hands and she struggled to keep from dropping him, as the tapestries billowed in her wake and the figure chased her long into the night.

~*~

Thalia awoke feeling restless and anxious, but not knowing precisely why. She yawned, stretched, and pulled a garnet coloured robe around her shoulders before wandering out of her bedroom and into the main part of her apartment. There was no breakfast laid out for her on the little table by the door, no klah-- she frowned, then glanced at the candle in the corner.

It was still only a few candlemarks after midnight.

**Well, now what?** she thought irritably. The Lady felt far too awake to go back to bed, and it was much too late to go visit... although whom she'd call upon was a mystery. Even Penryn was undoubtedly in bed right now, snuggled up next to his wife, Ryalane... she pushed the thought aside and went into her son's room, feeling the need to check on him.

The nursery was silent and still-- almost too quiet. The eerie quiet made Thalia's heart raced until she was able to peer down into Aslian's crib to see that he was still there, still breathing. He lay on his stomach with his thumb in his mouth, blissfully unaware that he was being watched. Thalia smiled and let the sight of him calm her. She reached down to tuck his blanket closer around his shoulders and brush a gentle hand against his blond hair - as blond as her own.

There was so little of Aswic in him... although if it weren't for the portraits she'd saved, she would barely remember her husband at all. Unlike Ishek and Briata, theirs hadn't been a love match, and what time they'd had together had been exceedingly passionless. But Aswic had been so very kind to her, and their marriage had secured many favourable deals for her home Holding. It was more than any Lady of the Blood could hope for, really. If only he hadn't been killed...

**What will become of you, my little Lord, with no father?** Thalia brushed her hand against her son's cheek and Aslian sighed in his sleep. No father to look up to and admire, to take him riding in the mountains and to teach him to recognise animal tracks in the snow... and as she was unmarried, there would be no siblings to tease or teach or annoy or adore. She sighed in an unconscious echo of her son and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind herself.

She should have married Ishek. It was too late to change her mind now, now that he was engaged, but the fragile security she'd built around herself as she'd grown used to the new dynamic within the Hold was now gone. Briata had changed everything, and no matter how kind she appeared, she was a threatening presence none-the-less. Thalia knew she had been selfish, childish even - if she'd just have married Ishek when he'd asked, she wouldn't have to worry about her son. Instead she'd held out for... what? True love? It didn't exist - the man she cared for had married another. Independence? Now that she was Aslian's mother, she _had_ no independence, and wouldn't until he inherited Garnet Valley. Her life was, by necessity, moulded around her son's. Aswic was not here to speak for them, so she had to speak for Aslian until he could speak for himself.

And now that Ishek was marrying, it was only natural for him to put his new family first-- which meant that Thalia was alone again in beating back the spectres of her husband's murderers... and any other threats.

But it was just so... frightening. Thalia wandered over to the bookshelf in the corner and looked over the books she'd accumulated since she'd moved to Garnet Valley, hoping to find something to take her mind of shadows and lull her back to sleep. Most were romances, cheap quarter-mark novels that travellers sold at Gathers and fairs, that had the literary value equivocal to a puff of corn. She chose one with a particularly lurid cover depicting a woman with a half-torn bodice taking shelter in the arms of a rather stern-jawed man who glared at something off the page. Wish fulfilment, perhaps.

The book was carried back to her bedroom, and Thalia settled beneath the covers of her bed with a small sigh. She opened the book covers and proceeded to read, and in that manner, she passed the rest of the long night.

Last updated on the January 24th 2009

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Waiting for the Dawn