#tesylmana

Love’s requests have become a part of her everyday life, living with Ess. The bright spirit is always asking her to do this or that, and only about half of them are actually doable. She can’t, after all, actually just explain to Love why she has so many ‘tattered threads’. Nor would she particularly like to, really. Those thoughts plague her at night enough, she’d rather not have them haunt her during the daylight hours too.

(They do, anyway.)

Still, she isn’t adverse to obliging Love occasionally, especially if the intent behind it is to make Ess smile.

“Mmah-muh,” She tries, brow furrowing at how wrong that sounds, pursing her mouth to try and get the words out properly, “Muhma.. Muhmay.. Mamae!”

She grins victoriously, looking up at the target of her attempts and pausing. Ess has ceased all action, staring at her with widespread eyes and mouth slightly agape. Saeris frowns, worried at the bizarre reaction, though it is thankfully brief. A moment later Ess is lifting her straight out of the chair into her arms, delight practically bursting from her.

“You said mamae!” Ess presses a flurry of kisses to her baby-round cheeks, and Saeris can only blink in mild bewilderment, “It is still so early! The books said it’d be a few months, at least! My clever da’vhenan..”

Ah, excitement over baby progress. She should’ve guessed. Still, the joy is infectious, and Saeris doesn’t attempt to curb the urge to babble happily back at Ess, laughter bubbling between them both.

The moment passes and Ess is just moving to settle her down in her chair once more when a bell rings. Saeris watches as Ess blinks in the direction of the door with an air of surprise, before moving to answer it, Saeris along for the ride cradled in her arms. The door is opened, and she wiggles slightly to get a better look at the sudden stranger, and wow.. he is.. very well dressed.

Easily one of the prettiest elves she’s ever seen- and she met the hearth keeper herself... In fact, she hasn’t seen an elf this pretty since she left Sylaise’s tower, and she suddenly feels anxiety coil inside of her. Is he here to take her away from Ess, for some unfathomable reason? She would scream if he was. Wail, and cry, and kick up enough of a fuss until they brought her back. She would. She shoves her fist to her mouth to curb any distressed noises.

“Aelynthi! This is surprise, come in!” A part of her relaxes at Ess’ friendly and familiar greeting, though she still eyes this Aelynthi with large eyes warily as he steps over the threshold.

“I heard your petition had been accepted weeks ago, but I was in the middle of a commission for our Lady,” He explains, dark-lined eyes shifting to her own as he looks at her, looking at him, “And that she’d been found in the..”

“The river,” Ess confirms, lips tight with concealed anger that echoes the look in Aelynthi’s eyes. The only anger she has ever seen Ess show has been when she is reminded of how Saeris was found, come to think of it. ‘It’s alright,’ She wants to reassure them both, ‘There is no evil river-dropping baby-abandoner sneaking around- Just a deluded man who will eventually make some very bad choices’… Perhaps it is better she cannot speak well yet, if that is the only measurement she can think of.

“May I..?” He moves slightly towards her as the two adults shake off their anger for her sake, and Ess hands her off with a nod and weak smile. His hold on her is natural and practised, and she wonders if he has children of his own… Not that she’s really a child, but.. Still. She is curious.

“What is her name?” He gazes down at her with a smile, and she can’t help but return it. Now that she knows he is a friend of Ess, she supposes she need not be so cautious.

“Rosanavir,” Ess supplies as the trio make their way deeper into the living room, taking seats on the simple furniture adorning the room. Aeylnthi looks laughably out of place with his complex outfit, but it does not seem to bother him much.

“That is.. fitting, isn’t it?”

A piece of his jewellery sways above her, and she can’t quite stop herself from batting at it, momentarily struck at how shiny it looks when it’s moving. The laugh it draws from the man holding her startles her out of her momentary lapse, and feels her face heat slightly at having given in to the very baby-like urge.

“Another child, abandoned, just like my El’ena,” He murmurs, disbelief colouring the air around him, and Ess makes a sympathetic noise of agreement across the table. Saeris listens, and stores this information away. Had another child been abandoned and found, recently?

“How is your daughter? She is nearly twenty now, yes?” Maybe not so recent, then.

“I remember when she was this small,” Aelynthi replies wistfully, before standing to hand her back to Ess once more. “I’m afraid I can’t stay; Commissions have been pouring into the workshop, lately. The piece I did for Thenvunin’s wedding seems to have caught some eyes.”

Ess gives a nod of understanding and sees her friend to the door, wishing him well as he goes. He departs with a lingering stare at Saeris and a promise to visit once more. Once the door is shut and it is just them once more, Ess smiles down at her ruefully, walking back to finish the dinner she’d abandoned cooking.

“He certainly outclasses Mamae, doesn’t he?” There is no bitterness in her tone, only an easy acceptance. Still, Saeris does not think that is quite true.

“Nuh,” Saeris refutes, shaking her little head as best as she is able. Aelynthi was beautiful and friendly, but there is a great warmth to Ess that, she thinks, is very hard to measure up to. She is once more grateful that she is a recipient of that love, despite the circumstances in which it came to be.

She has been practicing a lot recently, garnering much attention from Ess and Love as she toddles unsteadily around in Ess’ little living area. Her path is typically to the bookshelf from the coffee table and back again, though Saeris will occasionally wobble her way around the couch for a change of pace. She has learned to wait until Ess is otherwise occupied with her tavern paperwork to begin her practice, lest the woman watch her every move with a mix of delight and worry.

Ess is a wonderful mamae, but the elves of this time are far more awestruck by children than Saeris is comfortable with, being stuck as one as she is.

In the middle of one such practice, she stumbles forward suddenly, her balance so easily lost in this body. A pink tendril wraps around her middle, saving her from a possible tumble, and Love nuzzles fondly into the wavy, wispy hair at her nape.

“Tanks, Wuv,” Her expression of gratitude is reflexive, though Saeris still cringes at the blatant butchered pronunciation. Her linguistic ability has been slow to progress, though she knows she is partly to blame for that. She can’t help it; the fond smile it brings to Ess’ face warms her chest, and creators know the woman has enough stress as it is, with all the work her tavern demands of her. Love curls more firmly around her, humming in delight.

“I want to make her happy too,” Love sighs and Saeris pats the pink tendril in clumsy acknowledgement, before wiggling free. It is better to be practising than to think too deeply of matters of love and happiness, lest she fall into one of her episodes of misery.

Better to do than think, in general.

-

Dreaming in this new world can be an experience fraught with emotions, Saeris has found. Spirits wander the dreaming in an abundance she had never experienced in the past, and there are times it is just too much for her. Times when it seems all she can attract are embodiments of sorrow and hopelessness, and she wakes crying in Ess’ arms in the middle of the night, her kind face pained and worried, trying comfort a grief she does not understand.

Frequent though those nights are, they are not her only new experience with this new place of dreaming. Some nights, when she has had a day full of warmth and wonder with her new mother, she is able to appreciate the magic tied to sleeping. Where she can explore conjured realities without being haunted by her destroyed home, meet new beings without being reminded of old ones.

Love is often by her side on these excursions, acting as a guardian of sorts as the pair of them wander together. They will introduce her to benevolent spirits of Joy and Bliss, and ward off lesser beings of more negative emotions. Sometimes it is just the two of them, and Love will act as a buffer between her and the occasionally overwhelming aspects of her dreams. Plying her with stories of Ess and some of the regular patrons Saeris has yet to meet. Keeping her spirits high, and sadness as far from her mind as they can manage.

It is always those nights she hopes for when she falls asleep, no matter the kind of day she’s had. Those nights when her heart doesn’t feel so heavy, and she feels allowed to feel even a little bit of happiness. A little bit of the love she has been given the second chance to feel.

The first time she wakes up feeling rested and content is the first night she’d managed to sleep without the interruption of Sorrow, and she wakes to Love curled like a soft blanket around her. ‘Thank you,’ She thinks, throat tight with gratitude, reaching out to hug the spirit close.