Private Tales Read between the lines

[Talus]

Oh dear.

Talus watched as Zana suddenly rushed off to the bathroom, blinking for a moment and leaving him sitting inside of a puddle of soup. A breath filled his lungs and he shook his head slightly. For a moment he lingered, and then quickly set about cleaning up the mess around him.

It only took a few seconds to wipe it all up, taking the bowl and putting its pieces in the bin before clearing off the rest of the mess and eventually following Zana.

He found her still half hunched over.

"At least you're not..." Talus frowned, he didn't want to finish. "Do you need more water?"

He asked, deciding it was best to just take care of her more.

 

[Zana]

"Our children do not like chicken soup."

Zana grimaced and stood up, wiping her mouth and tugging off her shirt which also smelt of the offensive food. She moved past him and back into the bedroom to pull on some comfier clothes; baggy harem trousers she had got from the Empire and a loose vest.

"Water seems safer," she nodded finally at his suggestion and followed him back into the kitchen to sit at the table.

She sat down heavily.

"Twins..." Zana sounded caught between awe and horror. "I'm going to get so big."

 

[Talus]

As she spoke words of horror Zana would feel a slight trickle of something else entirely through the bond, though it was clear that Talus did his best to hide it.

He crossed the room to her with a smile, sitting himself down on the bed and wrapping one arm around the small of her back while the other gently rubbed her leg. A smile touched his face, his lips pressing against her Temple. "Did you ever see twins?"

Talus asked softly

"I mean none of the visions I got, or the ones you showed me, ever had twins in them." It was rare that Zana could not, or did not, see something coming. The manacles helped with that with some things of course, but he'd have thought that twins would...well would show up like a light in the middle of a dark field.

Seemed odd to him, yet he was over the moon about the fact. A frown touched his face as he suddenly remembered one of the visions, his daughter speaking to someone who wasn't there.

Another where Zana had given a plate to someone absent. Odd.

 

[Zana]

Zana shook her head numbly.

She would have definitely remembered twins.

For a moment all she could do was stare down at his hand as he rubbed up and down her leg. There were a million thoughts going on in her mind and yet nothing at the same time. A part of her debated taking the manacles off and forcing a vision on the matter to see if she could find some answers but... Her hands once more drifted to her stomach and she tried desperately to imagine two lives growing inside of her.

Two lives she had to protect.

"Maybe one of them is gifted with something that means I cannot see their future, or shielded from me in some way," that made her uncomfortable. How would she protect her child if she couldn't tell what would happen to them?

"Is there...." Zana paused and looked up at him, excitement building once more. "Is there a way you can show them to me?"

 

[Talus]

The thought had never even occurred to him. "Kress. Our kids could be stronger than us."

Talus had always assumed that his kids would be gifted with magics, but for some reason the idea that they could be stronger than him had never actually occurred to him before that moment. A frown touched his lips, head shaking.

When she asked her next question he smiled.

The manacles took away her own magic, but they did not make her immune to it's effects. "Here."

Talus said as he reached out and gently touched her arm. There was a flash, and then suddenly Zana would take on the same ghostly visage as he usually did.

"Look down." He said softly, his voice distorted.

 

[Zana]

The wave of nausea that usually came when Talus used his magic on her surprisingly didn't appear this time. If anything it took it away. She stared at him for a moment, a smile literally ghosting her lips, before looking down at where her hands rested.

And there they were.

Two, tiny, perfect little whispers of life.

Zana sucked in a deep breathe and ran her hands slowly over her stomach. It might have been her imagination but they seemed to both flare a little brighter when her hand passed over them.

"Wow..." it was such an underwhelming word but everything else escaped her. Apart from crying, apparently. Huge tears began rolling down her cheek as she happily said.

"I'm s-sorry, they're just so beautiful."

 

[Talus]

"They are." Talus said as he gently eased them back into reality.

Never once had he thought that this would be his life. Ten years ago he'd thought by now he would already be a corpse. Zana had been a gift, and these children? These children were the completion of his entire being. A smile broke out of his lips.

Arms wrapped around her. "Thank you."

The young Dreadlord whispered as he drew her into a tight embrace. A shuddering breath filled his lungs, and pure joy laced through the bond in tidal waves. He didn't know what would come next, what the world would bring, but it didn't matter.

He had her. He had them.

"Thank you for all of this." Talus said softly.

 

[Zana]

Now the tears had started she couldn't stop them, even though nothing but joy was coming from her end of the bond. It was probably the shock, she told herself as her arms wrapped about her fiancés and she soaked his shirt with her emotions.

"You don't have to say thank you, I love you," she mumbled after a while, when she had managed to regain a little bit of control and turn her sobs to small hiccups. "I love you and I want this, want them and you. Oh Talus they're going to be surrounded by such love," she pulled back and looked up at him with a smile.

No, the Morrid Twins would not suffer like their parents. They would know nothing but love.

 

[Talus]

"They are." He would ensure it.

Nothing and no one would come near his children that could ever mean them harm. His fingers tightened on her, and he leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.

"We're gonna need a bigger house." Talus said quietly. "Much bigger."

He hadn't really thought that their first child would be...well children. They would need to set things up, make sure that both kids could be comfortable. Plans began to appear in his head, places he could build up the house, things he could do.

A thousand thing ran through his mind, all of them flush with excitement.

 

[Zana]

Zana could feel the thousand thoughts running through her soon to be husbands mind but she couldn't focus on a single one of them. Her mind was still reeling from the bombshell of being pregnant with twins.

Twins.

Quietly she slid off her seat and sat on Talus' lap instead, curling up against him and running her hand over her stomach.

"Do you want to tell anyone?" Pregnancies were usually something to celebrate with loved ones. Sloan was the only one she would even think of telling but she had also heard it was bad luck to tell people too early.

 

[Talus]

He thought for a moment. The list was short. Sierra maybe, she had told him of her child so it only seemed right. There was really only one other important person in his life aside from Fen. "Riley."

Talus said softly.

"After a little while." He clarified. right now it seemed best to keep it a secret, though Talus did not know of the tradition. He just didn't want anything to get messed up before things really got along.

His arms tightened around her for a moment, and he took in a deep breath. "This is going to be a lot of work, isn't it?"

He laughed, smirking from ear to ear.

 

[Zana]

Zana started to laugh too, wiping the last few tears from her cheeks.

"No. One child is a lot of work, two is going to be a shit load of work. Literally," she pressed a kiss to his cheek and smiled, her ringed hand coming up to cup his other cheek and rub her thumb along his skin. After a moment of searching his eyes she leaned forward and kissed him sweetly. When they broke apart she rested her forehead against his and played with the collar of his shirt.

The smile slowly died.

"This kind of... forces our plans to move along quicker," their plans regarding the city. What they were doing was important work and now there was a time limit. "Twins mean I'm going to get bigger sooner too and if people find out I'm pregnant before we change things... Luana would protect us but," Zana pulled a face. "If they start to show magic..." then they would be taken from them.

 

[Talus]

For a few seconds he stared at her, lips thinning, stomach churning, and then he just took a deep breath.

Talus did not comment on House Luana, deciding that now was neither the time nor the place. "I won't let them into the same system we were in."

The words were strong, confident.

"They won't be Dreadlords." It was already cemented in his head. If they held magic, even if they didn't...his children would have a choice. No matter what. They would get to choose their own path, what they wanted to do. "Our children will get every choice that we didn't have."

She could make no argument against that.

 

[Zana]

Perhaps it was the tiredness. Perhaps it was her happiness at the news. Perhaps it was the fact she was already thinking about a cheese toastie. Whatever it was, Zana completely missed any hint of rage Talus gave off through the bond or in his words. All she could do was smile and nuzzle into him with a small yawn, content in the knowledge that their children would be free. They would finish their task before she gave birth to the twins and they would be able to live as a happy family.

Everything would be fine.

"I think... we would like a cheese toastie," Zana pressed a kiss to Talus' jaw then slid off his lap to make her way back to the kitchen.

 

[Talus]

Just like that, it seemed the conversation was over and done with. He blinked for a moment, having expected her to bring up Luana some more.

After a few seconds he simply shook his head, deciding that trying to redirect her attention would probably be for naught. Zana slipped away from him and Talus stood, pulling himself up and quickly following after her with quick steps. "Guess no soup for a while."

The Dreadlord commented with a smirk.

"I'll put that away." He of course meant eating it himself.

No use in wasting good food.

 

[Zana]

"My hero," Zana patted his stomach with a giggle then went to the cooler box to retrieve the cheese she was craving. Still, apparently, completely oblivious to the argument she had just avoided.

"You best add tuna, pork and prawns to that list too. I thought I had just eaten something bad but now it makes sense..." a slow stroke of her hand over her stomach. Zana made short work of slicing the cheese and brought it to the pan to fry onto the bread.

 

[Talus]

Talus made a mental note of all the ingredients that she had listed, frowning slightly as he realized that it narrowed the option for food quite a bit.

He wasn't a connoisseur of food or anything, but he did like the things that Zana cooked for him when she had down time. It was a selfish thought, but even one missed meal seemed almost painful. Not that he wouldn't do it happily. "Noted."

The Dreadlord said with a smile.

"Anything else?" He asked with a smile as he got himself a new bowl for the soup he had bought.

 

[Zana]

"Not yet, but I've been told it can change and develop as the pregnancy goes on," Zana had that matter of fact tone to her voice she often got when planning things ahead. The grilled cheese sandwich was making her mouth water and she was impatient to have it in her mouth.

But rush she did not. Instead she calmly made two more, putting one of them on a plate for Talus to have with his soup whilst she had the other two.

When she sat down at the table she tore into the food in a similar fashion to Talus and was finished in a worryingly quick time.

"God I needed that... I might make chocolate cake, or pancakes," she mused.

 

[Talus]

"Chocolate cake you say?" Talus said as he turned his head towards her.

He did enjoy cake, though after the display she had just put on he was almost entirely certain that he wouldn't be getting a single piece of it. Amusement played over his lips, and he wondered what the next nine months were going to look like.

"That sounds good." Without being asked to Talus got up from the table and started to put the dishes away. "I'll take care of this."

He said as he kissed her forehead gently.

 

[Zana]

Zana's lips twitched a little at the look on his face. Chocolate cake, they had discovered, was one of Talus' favourites. As he went to see to the dishes Zana went over to where she stashed her baking supplies and set about getting to work.

"I do love you, you know," Zana said quietly after a while of them both quietly working on their separate tasks. Quietly she glanced over at him as she poured the mixture into the tins and offered him a spoon to lick.

"I was wondering if you wanted ... to do the wedding before or after?" She brushed a hand over her stomach to show what she meant if he didnt quite get it. She set about licking the other spoon.

 

[Talus]

"I know." Talus said as he leaned over and licked the small spoon. "And I love you too."

He smiled at her for a brief moment, and then the next question came.

Talus had no idea of the decorum of these things. He wasn't sure if it was 'proper' for them to get married before or after, but he also didn't particularly care about that. He didn't know custom, didn't understand it. So he wanted what he wanted. "Before."

He said softly.

"Soon as we can." That was what he wanted. "Soon as you want."

Talus didn't want to pressure her.

 

[Zana]

Zana leaned forward and kissed a bit of cake mix off of Talus' lips and then looked up at him with a smile. It wasn't a large one, it didn't flash teeth or cause her dimples to appear. But it was one of the most beautiful smiles that she had ever given. It simply lit up her eyes turning them into mesmerising forests of rich green, and it reflected within them nothing but pure love and adoration for the man staring into them.

"Soon is good. Perhaps when I get back from my mission with Blackforge next week?" it wasn't meant to be a long affair. Zana was pretty confident she would be able to destroy this issues in a day or two at tops. It had only been postponed because of her sickness and fatigue but after a week of rest and now she knew what was causing it, she would be more than fit enough for the job.

"I am going to have to get some supplies, some anti-sickness herbs and the like. It might mean a little trip somewhere - Alliria perhaps?" she knew it had been a place Talus had wanted to visit and nobody knew them there. It would be less suspicious. With the portal stones it would only take a day or two.

 

[Talus]

He frowned for a brief moment. "I'd forgotten about that."

Too many things happening. Riley. The Guard. Zana being Pregnant. All of it was starting to jumble up in his head slightly. A frown flickered over his features, lips thinning for just a brief moment before he regarded Zana again.

"That sounds good." He said with a nod.

Talus wasn't entirely sure what the procedure around that would be, but when she mentioned Alliria the young Dreadlord seemed to perk up slightly. His eyes focused on her, a smile pulled at his lips and he stepped forward.

"Alliria." He said with a smirk. "Yes."

Maybe they would see some ships.

 

[Zana]

Zana frowned a little and reached across the table to brush her fingers over the back of his hand. She knew it was going to be hard for him to let her continue with her work whilst she was pregnant. She would be lying if she said she wasn't a little scared and nervous too. Pregnancies were difficult things and this early a fall or a knock could make her lose them. Twins was even more precarious.

"I'm going to be okay, we're going to be okay. My shielding magic will keep us all safe," she twined her fingers with his. A small smile graced her lips when she saw how Alliria excited him more.

"Why don't we go tomorrow? Just a quick trip. Maybe we can find a healer there who can take a look over everything and make sure we're all ok?"

 

[Talus]

Her magic was strong, and getting stronger...at least from what he'd observed over the last few weeks. Still, a frown touched his lips and he couldn't help but wonder if maybe he should go on the mission as well just to make sure.

He knew that he couldn't, but he still wanted to say it. "Alright."

Talus said with a nod of his head, deciding that it would be best not to argue it. Blackforge was a good warrior, at least from the rumors he'd heard. The Man was a General that had lead from the front all his life. He knew how to fight.

A smile touched his face about Alliria.

"Tomorrow, huh?" He smiled. "I think that's a good idea. I'm sure Alliria has quite a few good healers."