i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[truthwright]

"Watch who you're calling a mortal," Kas snorts.

[alicornucopia]

"The possibility of revenance doesn't make you an immortal," says the cousin dismissively, and she hops on her cloudpine and flies away. The potoo stays behind a moment later, inspecting Kalavar, and then flies after his witch.

[truthwright]

Kas just laughs.

[alicornucopia]

"...So, let's go speak to Narida Memma," says Ranata.

[truthwright]

"Sure."

[alicornucopia]

Ranata leads him to where the queen lives, which is in a handmade-looking but beautiful cottage within the enclave area. She is accompanied by her daemon, stark naked, and sitting in front of her house crosslegged with her eyes closed, apparently in some sort of contemplation.

Ranata lands and stands quietly, waiting for the queen to acknowledge her.

[truthwright]

Petaal shifts into a male tiger and sits, setting Kalavar in front of her. Kas remains female and cuddles his daughter.

[alicornucopia]

After a minute the queen opens her eyes. She sweeps her eyes over the assembled. "What is it, Ranata Ekamma?"

"Hello, Narida Memma. This is Kas. My daughter was Kas's girlfriend. This is their child Helen Ianthe, conceived by magic I don't understand in spite of her departure. I've birth-blessed her and it stuck. My honored cousin Lisset Arainen does not understand where Helen came from, but I fear for the comfort of her childhood if her parentage were widely rumored. Can you assure the clan that Helen is a witch, and under my shadow a member of the Olympics and that I will have charge of her as she learns to be what she is - and that all is well - but say nothing more?"

Narida peers at Kas.

"That the legendary Isabella Amariah could have performed such a feat, I do not doubt. That she would be motivated to do so - I doubt," she comments.

[truthwright]

"Mm?" says Kas.

[alicornucopia]

"Why would she have been motivated to do as Ranata suggests?" Narida asks.

[truthwright]

"I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to get me pregnant with her daughter fifty years after she disappeared," Kas says. "If she did, she didn't tell me, so I couldn't tell you why. She did give me the magic that let me get pregnant without anybody else's help, but I only just figured out that I could use it for that. She might not even have known."

[alicornucopia]

"So you have magic she gave you, under your own control," muses the witch queen, "is that right? What else can you do?"

[truthwright]

He switches sex.

"That," he says. "And I'm the first person she made immortal."

[alicornucopia]

"Interesting," says Narida. Her daemon hops from her knee towards where Petaal and Kalavar are curled up. "Yes, we can surround the inclusion of Helen in the clan with enough vagueness to keep her away from Isabella's shadow, I think. Thank you for coming to me with this matter, Ranata."

[truthwright]

Petaal becomes a lion.

Kas smiles.

[alicornucopia]

"Mysterious motives indeed," mutters Narida's daemon, and he hops back towards his witch.

[truthwright]

"Nope," says Petaal. "That one's all us."

[alicornucopia]

Narida shrugs. "Is there anything else?"

"I think that's all. Thank you," says Ranata, and she hops on her cloudpine again.

[truthwright]

Petaal changes to human form - female - and scoops up Kalavar. She and Kas leave the presence of the witch queen.

"So that's it, huh?" says Kas to Ranata.

[alicornucopia]

"Narida will put the word out that Helen's mother is not a question of interest, and that I'm sort of fostering her," says Ranata, shrugging. "You were never nearly as well known as Isabella, and even people who might recognize you wouldn't expect you to look like this at this time without having gone revenant, and you don't have the - air of shadow about you that revenants do. People might wonder, but no one will know." She looks at Helen and sighs. "Poor Isabella - when she comes home - she'll have missed so many things, but this most of all."

[truthwright]

Kas sighs.

"Yeah."

[alicornucopia]

"She will come home, right? I've got only your word to go on that she'll be home one day," Ranata says quietly.

[truthwright]

"I think she will. I hope she will. I don't know if I believe she will, but that's just because fifty years is a long time to me and it's hard to keep waiting."

[alicornucopia]

"Where did she go?"

[truthwright]

He shrugs helplessly.