She nods and hands him two gold before taking Celine's hand, "Come on Celine, let's go check on your mommy. Thank you sir." She says before letting Celine walk next to her back to Alethiro and Arista's house. She holds Celine's hand, but the girl seems much more steady on her feet than she was a week ago. Getting back to Arista's home she goes inside with Celine and finds her lying on the couch with a cloth over her head, "Arista? We're back. You should see these boots, they're really cute on Celine. Here, I brought the ones for you and Alethiro. I hope they fit alright. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
She shakes her head, "No...no, but thank you Rajni. I...I hope you and Dillon are very happy and I'll definitely be there okay?"
She nods, "Sure...I'll let you know when we decide to have it for sure. Take care Arista. If you need to take care of stuff tomorrow just bring Celine by anytime okay? I'll be at home." Sighing she and Shamara head out of the house and back to their home.
Getting back to the house she goes inside and looks for her mother, "Mama...I'm back."
"Are you sure?"
Drago stands and picks up Toni's cup, there was a strange sensation, or so he thought. Shaking his head slightly, he looked at Yulia, "Think she'll be the last customer today?"
"Alright," Ylrhea sighs. "We'll give her a chance."
"That's all I ask. If we judged everyone based on their parents...well Drago and Sienna wouldn't fare too well would they?" she says opening the bedroom door to lead the way back downstairs.
Sitting up, she takes the cloth off of her head and puts it back in the bathroom. Going to the living room where she dropped her bag, Arista takes out the books and puzzles for Celine and takes them to her room, "There you go baby. Why don't you play in here for a little while?" She says while taking off Celine's jacket, scarf, and gloves. She hangs up Celine's jacket in the closet and puts the other warm wear in a drawer of her little girls dresser. While Celine plays she goes to her room and gets out the rest of Celine's clothes and starts putting them in her daughter's room. Once she's done putting away all of Celine's things, she hangs up her cloak and jacket in their closet instead of leaving it lying around, and puts her and Alethiro's boots in the closet. She puts their scarves and gloves in the wardrobe and hangs up the jacket she got for him in the closet as well. Satisfied that everything was put away, she goes back out to the living room and starts looking through the new cook book she got.
Yulia nods. "Probably. Let's go home."
Ylrhea chuckles. "Maybe they had better fathers."
Ashram nods. "I'll be fine and you should spend some time with your family while you can."
The cookbook is a thick tome filled with recipes for tasty treats and holiday delights.
---
"Welcome home, Rajni," Asha says. "Was everything alright?"
Toni walks in after Rajni, yawning. "I think I need a nap..."
She heads upstairs.
She shakes her head while rubbing the back of her neck. A troubled look crosses her face, "She couldn't find who she was looking for, but her pack was found abandoned on the beach and one of the sailors she talked to said they saw her out there earlier....but it was snowing too hard to see what she was doing and no one has booked passage on any of the ships. Arista must have gotten a bad feeling about it or something cuz she just looked really upset....I sent her home and took Celine to get her New boots as well as boots for Arista and Alethiro. When I got back to her house she was just laying on the couch with a cloth on her head....I asked her if there was anything I could do....but she said no and seemed pretty....well....upset, so I left. I didn't know what else to do. Did I do the right thing leaving her alone mama? Should I have stayed till Alethiro got back?" She asks, feeling a little lost as to what else she could have done for Arista.
"Definitely a possibility."Sādhanā says with a chuckle, coming down the stairs to see Celia ready and waiting with Magestria.
"Ready?"
"I think you did what you could, Rajni," Asha says, touching the fetchling lightly on the shoulder. "Do not dwell on it too much."
She nods, "I'll try...it's just...I didn't want to say it..but given everything we found out....I think she might have drowned herself. I mean...people don't just disappear do they? I think maybe Arista is thinking the same thing and that's why she's so upset...she probably just can't talk about it right now....but....it's not good to let stuff eat away at you and she's always....I don't know how to say it....but like, she's always taking the weight of the world on her shoulders and if something happened to that person...even if she did it to herself...Arista will blame herself because that's who she is." She shakes her head to try and clear it of the darker thoughts she was having. She was supposed to go out with Dillon tonight and she didn't want all this heavy stuff on her mind when she did. Leaning in slightly she wraps her arms around her mother, "I told Arista that until we get a place built for children Celine's age, that I'd watch her for her whenever she has to take care of business in or out of town. I guess she has a lot of stuff to do and she doesn't like dragging Celine around....so I told her I'd watch her. Depending on if she has to go to Priroda tomorrow or not I might be watching her tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know." Pulling back slightly she looks up into her mother's face, "Also...about Dillon....I saw him after going hunting with Shamara. We were filthy and I needed to talk to him to help me sort things out in my head. I told him that I still wanted to marry him and that I would at the end of the month...but only if you're really okay with it. I realize now how stressed out you must be with all the extra work and I don't want to overburden you with yet more stuff to deal with right away...so if you need time, then that's okay. It's not going to change how I feel about him mama. I love him....he's the only man I've ever been with and I'm okay with that. I don't need a bunch of horrible relationships to know what I want....because it's him, it's always gonna be him. You being comfortable and approving of the man I marry, is more important to me than when I marry him. Okay mama? I love you and I love Dillon....but you're my family and you come first." She says giving her another hug, "Maybe if you get to know him a little better, you'll feel better about it? I asked him to come by this evening to pick me up for a date, provided there's anything open then. I thought he and I could go out to eat and maybe take a short walk before I come back home. Maybe once in a while we can have him over to the house for dinner? I'm not trying to sound pushy or anything...I just...I thought if maybe you got to know him better you'd kinda see him the way I do. I don't know...maybe that sounds silly...but I just really want you to like him...or maybe at least get more comfortable with him and realize that he's not Rafat and he's not going to hurt me like that." She says a little more quietly while looking down. She didn't want to bring up her mother's painful past...but she couldn't help but feel that her mothers reaction to Dillon had something to do with the way that Rafat had treated her. Which she fully understood....but it wasn't fair to judge Dillon before really getting to know him.
"It's not about him being like Rafat. I know Dillon is a nice man with an honest heart, but...I feel like you just got here and now you want to get married," Asha says. "I lose a daughter, gain another one, lose another and get a third. Can you understand how my head is spinning right now?"
Asha laughs to diffuse the tension. "My life is going so fast, my dear daughter, that I can hardly keep up. If you truly want to spend the rest of your life with Dillon, then I am happy for you. I am just so...overwhelmed. Please...give me two weeks into the new year. So I can make you a beautiful dress and so Priya and I can make you a wedding-worthy banquet. Please?"
She nods, "Yeah, we can do that. Just so you know...you could never lose me. You're stuck with me, whether I'm living here with you...or married to Dillon and living with him....but yeah, I can understand how all the changes has your head spinning. Dillon kind of put things in perspective for me."
"You are very lucky to have him," Asha says. "I need to start lunch for everyone."
She smiles, "Can I help?"
Asha nods and leads the way to the kitchen.
Rajni follows her mother into the kitchen to help her with lunch.
"Yeah." Sādhanā replies. "Let's go. I guess we're going to yna and Sienna's place first, to let them now what's going on, and I'm also not too sure where her parent's place is."
Celia nods pulling the hood up on her cloak before they head outside.
Ylrhea walks hand in hand with Sadhana to Cyna and Sienna's. She raps on the door.
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"Wonder who that could be?" Sienna says, getting up and answering the door. She narrows her eyes a bit as she sees the three Anizari and the gnome. "So...what happened now?"
"We need to check out a few things," Ylrhea says. "Can we come in?"
"I guess," Sienna says, letting Celia, Magestreia Sadhana and Ylrhea enter. "Cutie, we have company."
She looks at the newest Anizari. "And you are?"
"Magestreia. A friend."
Tesia, Rhy, and Ammon get there just in time as Ylrhea is talking to Sienna.
"Uh huh..." Sienna says, seeing the next group approaching. "Guess I should have made some drinks or something..."
Seeing them starting to go inside she hurries the last little bit to get there before Sienna closes the door, "Hey there Sienna...did we come at a bad time?"
"No, we were just sitting around," Sienna says. "Come on in."
She nods and goes inside with Rhy and Ammon coming in after her.
"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Cyna asks standing from her seat.
Looking at Sadhana she looks back at Cyna, "Well...there were just a couple things we wanted to let you know. So...first off and not most importantly...the ley lines...the things that were connecting to the tower of order and giving protection to the places that we've been destroying shards in....is off. I mean...the protection is active again....but there's something wrong with the ley lines and at some point we'll need to check that out by going to the tower of order...which Pandi wants to go to anyways...but I think that can wait a while." She takes a deep breath and lets it out before continuing, "The other thing is the Anizari caves that Jarrah was using...the ones that were corrupted and stuff by the devils? Well...we've been talking and Sadhana and the rest of us think we should check out the caves and make sure that if there were any survivors that we do what we can to help them. You and Sienna don't have to come with us if you're busy planning stuff...but we were kind of hoping that Fae could maybe go with us...or do like she did last time and make sure the caves are clear or at least that we're not walking straight into a trap....I'm not sure what we'll find there...but it's better than not knowing. We just...we didn't know where your folks lived and wanted to know if you could tell us so we could talk to her. I'm sorry...I'm not good at this and things are..complicated." Taking another breath she lets it out slowly, "Basically we just wanted to let you know what we were planning on doing and see if we could talk to Fae about it. I can fly us out there and back so it wouldn't be a long drawn out trip or anything...." She kind of looks at Sadhana and then Rhy as she wasn't sure if anything she was saying was actually making sense or not. Rubbing her temples lightly she asks, "Did that make sense? I'm not sure if I'm making sense right now..."
"I get the gist of it. I'll take you to her, let me grab my stuff." Cyna answers.
Letting out a breath she didn't even know she was holding she nods, "Okay, thanks Cyna. So, how's everything going with the planning? Sorry we just sorta dropped all of this on you without so much as a how do you do."
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"It's alright. At least some ancient evil hasn't broken free today." Cyna says.
She nods, "Yeah...at least there's that. But...but just because it got away for now....doesn't mean we won't catch up to it and kick it's ass later. Right now we just deal with what's in front of us and take it one thing at a time. You guys will be getting married in a few days and there is no way in all nine hells that we're gonna let anything screw that up." She says with a decisive nod of her head.
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Sādhanā takes a breath. "It's pretty crazy that we're at the point where 'it's not apocalyptic' is a positive forecast." she says with a chuckle.
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"Um thanks, but that was just a joke Tesia. No need to be so tense." Cyna says.
Rhadaya puts an arm around Tesia, gently rubbing her wife's back to help ease her stress.
She nods, "Right....sorry." She kind of leans into Rhadaya and lets her wife's touch ease her mind and spirit while trying to give her a little smile. She was trying not to stress out about stuff and she just didn't want anyone feeling bad about one or two bad guys getting away because she was sure they would each get what was coming to them in time.
"So, who's telling Arista? Or are we leaving her out of this one?" Sienna asks.
Ashram waves at Alethiro as he heads to the next house.
Yulia locks up the cafe and heads home, arm in arm, with Drago.
She shakes her head, "After how many times we've gotten onto her for not telling us stuff...we need to tell her. If we didn't it wouldn't be fair and it would look like we made up one set of rules for her while doing whatever we want." She sighs a little and looks at Sadhana while holding Rhy's hand, "Should you and I go talk to her, or would that look like we were ganging up on her. I'm okay with telling her....but I really think we should suggest in a kind supportive way that she should maybe just stay home and take it easy. She doesn't need to be out in this weather....and who knows, she's been home for a little bit now....maybe with all the craziness yesterday she'll want to stay home?" She asks with a hint of hopefulness to her voice.
"Um thanks, but that was just a joke Tesia. No need to be so tense." Cyna says.