Drago wasn't sure how to answer Rajni, but he did giver a curious look.
Taking the offered book, "Thanks, how much?"
"Three copper," Halfpocket answers.
Knowing that Drago wouldn't get her joke since he lived with his beloved, she just chuckles as she heads to the back to start getting her paper and ribbons organized and ready for wrapping. Soon, the sounds of humming, paper being cut, and other noises associated with her wrapping methods can be heard from the back room. A sign that she is in her "creative" zone.
After Cyna returns with Rex, she scratches the dog behind the ears. "Gwen will be here soon. Don't miss us too much."
Rex cocks his head to the side and wags his tail.
Drago reached into his pouch, pulled three coppers, and handed them to the merchant. "Thanks Halfpocket. This should help a lot. Have a pleasant day."
He turned to Fetchling, "You as well Rajni." Not to his surprise, she might not have hear him while in her own little world.
Stowing the book away, he exited and headed to Konstantyná's.
As he thought, Rajni is so absorbed in her work and humming that she doesn't even hear him or look up from her task.
Konstantyná opens the door when Drago arrives. "Good morning, Drago. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
After they finish up breakfast, she takes the dishes to the sink to wash them. Once finished she goes over to Alethiro and gives him a hug and a kiss, "I'm going to go in our bedroom and read that scroll that the other Arista gave to me from my parents. Could you please keep Celine out here? I think I just need to be alone for this."
Thinking for a bit she looks at Rhydaya, "Hey, could we go check on Blaze before meeting up with the others? I don't know how long we're gonna be gone this time and I just want to see him before we go."
Alethiro nods. "Of course, love."
She gives Celine a kiss on her forehead, "Mommy has to go look at something really quick for a moment, but I'll be right back okay? Be a good girl for daddy." After Celine nods and goes to get her bear and dolly from her backpack, Arista goes into their bedroom and closes the door behind her.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself she goes to her bag and pulls out the scroll that she had put in there from the other Arista. It was still all so weird to her, she didn't know what to make of it. Going to the bed she sits down as she breaks the seal on the scroll and opens it.
"Good morning Konstantyná, you're looking well. I've come to see if perhaps you have any sort of medicine that might help with nausea? Julia is having a bad bout today."
"I have some tea that will help with that," Konstantyná says, going to a cupboard. She pulls out a small bag. "Just steep a pinch of this in hot water and drink it. It should help."
She hands the bag to Drago. "Anything else I can help with?"
Stowing the bag in one of his pouches, Drago asked, "How's the child doing?"
"Last I checked, she was doing fine. Are you worried?"
Arista opens the letter and sees that it is in her father's writing with a lot of words scratched out, the way he would write whenever he was frustrated:
If this should ever find its way into your hands, Arista,
I was never a very good writer, but your mother's vision has begun to go. I barely have the strength to make the pen meet the paper. We are not long for this world and it is only now that we are learning the truth. Firstly, your mother apologizes for how she treated you growing up and I
I failed you and Theon. There is nothing else I can say but that. I am truly sorry for not protecting you both.
This other Arista Your sister, not your real one, but this one that came to us, loved us. She took care of us after Philla left. Please don't be mad at her should you meet her. The kindness she showed us was more than anyone could expect from a stranger. She gave up a chance to leave with Philla and stayed even though the sickness here became worse. I hope that she found happiness. We were never alone. Please take comfort in that.
Your mother and I love you, Arista. I hope that whatever happened to you that you are happy. I hope that Theon is happy too. My heart cannot bear to believe that you are both truly gone.
The letter ends without a signature, simply a line of ink trailing downward.
"Not entirely. I know that her binding wasn't something that was supposed to happen, and just wanted to make sure she wasn't suffering. Since my.....disconnection, things have been a little weird for me." Drago was lost in thought for a moment, then shook it off, "Anyway, how much for the herbs?"
She holds the letter to her chest and cries quietly. They were really gone and she wouldn't see them again, but they were never alone. The other Arista had no more say in what happened to her than she did, but she stayed and took care of her family for her when she couldn't. She shouldn't have gotten so upset when they met in Lysse, but the shock of it was just too much and she wasn't ready to learn that someone else had gotten to have the life with her family that she missed out on.
Filled with regret she takes out some parchment and a quill and begins to write a letter to....well, she guessed it would be her sister for all intents and purposes.
Sitting at the little desk in her room she begins after wiping the tears from her eyes.
Dear Sister,
I am so sorry for how I reacted to meeting you in Lysse. Your appearance was more than a shock to me, and I reacted badly. I read the letter that you gave me from our parents and it is clear to me now that you were there for them in a way that I couldn't have been. While I would have stayed with them and taken care of them, circumstances beyond both of our control made that impossible and I guess I'm just grateful that there was someone that was able to be there with them. I'm sorry for everything you've been through, but it can't rain forever and someday the sun will shine again for you. I am just so sorry for everything I said and I know that seeing me must have been painful for you as well, so if you really never want to see me again I'll understand. I'm hoping that my friends will run into you and give you this letter for me since I am unable to be there. I'm at a point in my pregnancy where it would be dangerous for me and the baby to be out in battle.
We are trying to stop an unimaginable evil from destroying everything in the universe. It is called Cthulhu, and wishes nothing more than the absolute destruction of everything. That is why they had to go there to Ilneas. There is some kind of command word that is rumored to be there somewhere in Ilneas. It is part of an Elder Sign that is supposed to stop Cthulhu.
I'm not asking you to go out of your way to help them or anything, but if you know anything your knowledge of that area would be of a great help to them. I wish I could have come to see you and say all these things in person. I...like our father, am not very good at putting my feelings down on paper...but I can't bear the thought of leaving things as they stood when you left, or you spending the rest of your life thinking that you deserve to be alone. We still have family left here in Valwick, and if you ever feel like it...well, I guess I'm just trying to say that you will always be welcome here.
Please forgive me for being so immature, childish, and hateful when I first met you. I didn't think they would actually pass before I got the chance to see them again...but I shouldn't have taken my grief out on you. I don't know how many times I can apologize for my horrible behavior...but I pray that one day you will forgive me and we can meet again. Okay, I better go before this becomes a book. I won't blame you if you don't want to, but if you have a chance and are willing...could you maybe send a letter back with my friends? I'd just like to hear how you are doing and if there is anything we can do to help you, just let me or my friends know. I'm going to talk to them before they leave when I give them this letter and let them know what my feelings are. Maybe we can help each other out?
Anyways, I really don't know what else to say without sounding like a broken record so I'll just leave you with this final thought. Your life is not over, not by far, and you can still have a wonderful one. We can't let the past dictate our future to us...either of us. We have to decide that we are going to have good life, a happy life, regardless of the circumstances that it might throw at us. Anything we can do to help you, we will...I promise you that.
Sincerely,
Arista Milocathe
Taking a deep breath she folds up the letter and fits it into an envelope, sealing it with her family's crest. Putting the letter from her parents and the one for her sister in one of her pockets she goes back out to the living room and sits next to Alethiro on the couch, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"A silver will do," the midwife answers.
"You okay?" Alethiro asks.
She shakes her head before burying her face in his chest.
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Pulling a silver piece from his pouch, he handed it to the Midwife. As he turned around to head out the door, an idea struck him. With a snap of his fingers, Drago turned to Konstantyná again, "Are you busy later today? I'm starting to learn how to cook, and I seem to recall you helping Arista initially. Would you be willing to help me? So I don't burn down the house."
"As far as I am aware, I have no plans," Konstantyná says. "Drop by a little later and I'll give you some pointers."
Alethiro holds his wife and runs his fingers through her hair comfortingly.
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"Thanks, I'll be sure to listen carefully. I'll see you later." Drago, again, turned and left to head back to his house.
She sniffles and hands him the letter from her father, "I think he passed while writing it. I was so angry that I missed my chance with making things right with them that I took it all out on her, but she was the only one that they had to take care of them when they got sick and Philla just ran off....but she stayed...and she loved them and cared for them when I couldn't. She had no more choice in what happened to her than I did...but I took all my grief out on her anyways. I feel like a childish fool." She says through bitter tears of regret and remorse.
Drago finds Yulia tidying up the house when he returns.
"You didn't know," Alethiro says, after reading the letter. "But now that you do...what are you going to do about it?"
She sniffles, "It's too dangerous for me to go with the others, so I wrote her a letter telling her how sorry I am and asking her to forgive me for acting like such a hateful child. I thought I would give it to Tesia or Sadhana to give to her since they have to go that way anyways."
"That's probably a good idea."
"Maybe someday...when things are a little safer, or she feels ready to...we can meet again and I won't act like an ass."
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Celine looks up at her mommy from the floor, "Mommy....nice words."
Alethiro laughs in spite of himself.
"Sorry Celine, mommy is just frustrated." She nudges him lightly in the side, "Heyyy....I guess I need to be more careful. Things were so much easier when I didn't have to be so careful, but I wouldn't trade it for anything either." She says, giving his cheek a kiss.
Approaching Yulia, Drago said, "Well, a successful trip. Got a recipe book, and Konstantyná gave me some tea that should help."
Yulia smiles. "As long as it doesn't smell like feet. So when do you want to give your book a try?"
Alethiro kisses Arista's forehead. "I didn't mean anything by it. Celine was just being cute."
Hearing her name and the word "cute" associated with it again she stops what she's doing and gets up off the floor and goes to her parents, "I'm cute!" She says with a big grin.
This time Arista laughs before kissing her daughter on the top of her head, "Yes...yes you are." She then turns her head to her husbands face and gives him a sweet kiss.
"Oh dear, she's learning what that word means," Alethiro says.
She nods, "I'm afraid so my love, I'm thinking the sooner I can get a school started for these younger ones, well..the older kids in town too...but the sooner I can get specifically her in school the quicker she will begin catching up to others of her age and the more she will understand. I think by the time the baby comes she could be reading." She says with a proud note to her voice.
Celine looks from her mommy to her daddy, "Baby? Where baby?" She gets up on the couch and looks behind the pillows, "Baby...where you are baby?"
Arista just looks at Alethiro, "Uhoh...."
Alethiro shakes his head. "I don't know if she's serious or not..."
At the sound of her calling, Honey comes out into the living room and gets up on the couch with Celine licking her. Celine laughs and puts the puppy down on the floor while petting her, "You not baby, you honey." Looking back at her parents she asks them again, "Where the baby?"
She looks from Celine to her husband, "I'm not sure she's ever seen a baby before love. She really might not know....and I don't know if that's a conversation I'm ready to have with her yet."
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Hanging his cloak up, Drago responded, "I was thinking later today. I've actually asked Konstantyná to come over and give me some instruction. She help Arista initially with her cooking, so I figured it might not hurt to have someone here that knows what their doing in the kitchen while your not here. You know, to help me not burn the place down."
Clara looks into Celia's eyes, her gaze unwavering. "I feel the same way...You take all the pain in my past away. You...give my heart warmth. You take all the walls I've built up and tear them down. And it's just me here, a vulnerable and scared me. But I don't want to hide anymore...I don't want to live in the shadows of my sorrows anymore...I...I love you, Celia. And, I know it might be a little soon, but...I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I think...no, I feel like I can trust you. Unlike with Sadhana...I'm healing with you. And I think we're right for each other."
"I....I love you too Clara. As sudden as it is I feel it in the very core of who I am. You are perfect for me, we....we heal each other, and I can't imagine not having you in my life now." Celia replies, her emotion equal to Clara's in intensity.