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May 9th, 2005
Riven: A Visit With Airi

Anen had visited her a few days agao and now Airi was starring at a small note laying in her lap. A letter from Riven who wanted for her to meet his daughter. His daughter? How strange ... Airi remembered that Riven was all to keen on becoming an Ancient. Why would he have a daughter?

She carefully put the paper on the table near her and floated up from the chari to look at the garden outside her window. The time written in the letter indicated that the two would be here in a few minutes. Airi had already asked Fluorine to lead the guests to her room. Now, all she could do was wait and wonder ...

Airyn made soft noises, gumming the toy of the day eagerly as her father carried her down the path to Fa'e HQ. Riven winced as she kicked a bit, then squirmed and settled into what was apparently a more comfortable position. "Be good," he told her.

"Abababebe," she responded, looking up with wide blue eyes and kicking again.

He rolled his eyes and opened the door to HQ - seeing no-one, he began to call out. "Um... Lady Airi? It's Riven, Lady Airi...?"

"Come in ... Riven" - was the quiet answer from behind the door. As Riven entered he saw a small bedroom with a large armchair facing the open window. Airi was floating in front of the window, her eyes on the two guests, her multicolored hair moved gently by the breeze - a picture of ghostly etherealness.

Riven smiled at Airi and nodded respectfully to her. "Hello, Lady. Um... how are you?" Airyn kicked again, and he quickly held her up so Airi could see. "I brought the baby... uh, our daughter. My daughter and Ghlyssa's too, I mean. Um." He felt very awkward, suddenly. "Her name is, um, Airyn." Riven said the name shyly, and wondered if she would approve.

Airyn herself squirmed to peer at Airi with wide-open blue eyes, one tentacle from her octopus plushie still crammed in her mouth. "Ah-BE," she proclaimed, though her voice was muffled.

Airi floated up to the child and looked at her curiously: "Hello Airyn." - she nodded to the baby politely. "She looks like Ghlyssa. But she has swirls like you." - she observed. "And she is not a fa'e. Why is it, then, that she was born to you both?"

"Abawrrr," Airyn babbled through the toy in her mouth, kicking both feet out energetically towards Airi. Then she stared at her toes as if fascinated by them.

Riven looked sheepish. "No, she's not... um, we... Purr-Purr's Guardian, Kamiki, she helped us... like with Kia and Taka?"

"Oh yes. Of course." - Airi nodded and pointed at the smaller chair by the window - "She must be hard to hold. Please sit down."

"Why is it that you wanted to talk to me today, Riven." - she then asked.

Riven coiled his tail and lowered himself awkwardly onto the chair - it was somewhat of a challenge to hold a baby without a proper lap, but he'd figured something out. "Um... I guess because of the baby," he said. Why HAD he come, anyway? Airi seemed as fragile and aloof as ever. He remembered the last time they'd spoken, when she'd seemed... angry. "Ghlyssa really wanted a baby, but we had to stay Fa'e... we want to become Ancients. So we can... I can do my duty still."

He felt like he was babbling, and looked down quickly at Airyn to hide his discomfiture. She looked up at him, hiccuped, then began tugging energetically at his shirt. "Bawbaaaaah."

Airi was watching the baby now. She hadn't been around many children at all so she was not sure what to do about this one. It looked like a fa'e but was human. It looked like a fa'e Ghlyssa and Riven would hvae given brith to but didn't have the powers or a destiny. At first Airi foudn that dissapointing but then she thought that this child is also not burdened with all the responcibility that came with power. This little girl, Airyn, was free of destiny, of the past. She could create her own future, and be free.

"You are such a lucky child, Airyn" - she uttered, taking the tiny hand into hers. "You are not bound by duty liek your mother and father. Like me. Your life is all your own ..."
Airyn peered curiously at Airi and wrapped her fingers around one of Airi's, holding on tight. "Bbbbbbb," she gurgled, drooling a bit on the plushie. Riven grinned sheepishly at her. "I hope we can do a good job with her," he said, quietly. "Our Guardians will help us if... duty, like you said, calls us away."

Ah yes, duty. That brought to mind another thought, one that he'd been avoiding - the real reason why he'd come. Airyn had been a useful excuse. "Lady Airi, there is something else... about duty, I guess... have you noticed anything odd? Er, lately?" He looked down, and avoided her gaze.

Still being held by Airyn's little hand, Airi looked up at Riven: "I have not been feelign well and I had expended a lot of my magic to give brith to the last three fa'e, so ... I was not able to really ... notice anythign much recently. Anen has told me however that he met a man named Conrad. Have you met him before as well?"

Riven bit his lip and looked down at Airyn's hair as though it were the most interesting thing in the world. "You, um, know my duty? Last time you asked me about..." He took another deep breath. "If it was fair to keep Chaos imprisoned..."

Airi's eyes went a bit blank and she uttered in an even, emotionless voice: "Yes. What are your thoughts about it?"

Riven was about to blurt out what had happened with Chaos and the Barrier and those... things, whatever they were, that had escaped, but.... that had been months ago, hadn't it? And nothing had happened since, right? Maybe they'd all died. Or been lost. Or something. And the little part of him that squirmed with guilt whenever he remembered that incident was urging him not to say anything...

He gave in. "... nothing. Ah, I mean, er... I'm still not sure I understand what you meant, but, um... I guess I was afraid you were angry?" His voice trailed off then, and he looked down at Airyn, annoyed at himself. She giggled and slapped the drool-soaked plush on his arm. Lovely.

Airi was quiet for a little while lookign down, probably tryign to reign in her emotions on the subject. When she looked up she was the usual Airi again - peacefull, serene, enigmatic. "I am not angry at you, Riven. I have considered your duty and I understand why you carry it out still. You are afraid. The one's who have created you so long ago also were afraid. And I have to admitt that I, too am afraid of him."

"But look inside your heart. Do you think that imprisoning anyone for such a long time is right?"

Riven shook his head; Airyn caught sight of the bright feather swinging above her and made a grab for it. Fortunately, she missed, but she blew an irritated raspberry at Riven and gummed the plushie ferociously. "Mrr."

"That's what I don't understand," Riven said, after re-settling Airyn. "I really don't... how is it fair to... Chaos wants to destroy everything, I know that. Is Chaos being free worth more to you than... than everything?" He gave her a look of frustration, mixed with confusion... and a little fear.

"I understand the danger, but eventually I hop that there will be enough power to stop Chaos and so to undo a great wrong. You see, without Chaos the Universe has lost the freedom it once had. Because Chaos is hidden away, the worlds are stable, the magic few and far between and the gods only exist if they are worshiped. This Universe is stiffled by the laws of science and the rule of mortals." - Airi whispered quietly, not sure whater she should be sharing such information with the one who guards him.

"... at least the universe exists," Riven mumbled. "I... I am sorry, Lady Airi. Maybe you know something I can't understand, because I... I just don't. But I'll think about it," he added.

He got up off the chair so quickly that Airyn let out a loud "Abah!" of surprise. "Thank you for letting us come and visit you." His voice was full of regret, but also confusion - it was obvious that try as he might, the Fa'e really couldn't comprehend what Airi was saying...

Quickly, before she could say anything else that would give him sleepless nights, Riven left, Airyn peering wide-eyed over his shoulder at Airi before the door closed.

Monday 23rd, 2005
Ghlyssa: Gardening

The soil near the glade was pleasantly dark and fragrant, the sort that Ghlyssa loved to sink her toes into. It was teeming with life, with the potential for life.

It would make a good garden, Ghlyssa had decided.

So, in a patch of earth near the house, she had spent some time persuading the grass to move elsewhere so that she could plant a few things in it. She had loosened up the earth, and was, with a sense of great accomplishment, planting radishes.

She had already planted some carrots, and some marigolds, tomatoes, and some poppies and sunflowers. There wasn't really any organization; things were planted wherever Ghlyssa thought they wanted to be.

Airyn was nearby, on a blanket than had been laid out on the grass. She babbled happily to her octopus, wrapped happily in her bunny-ear towel. She was full, her diaper was dry, and the sun was warm. Life, for Airyn, was good, as good as life could possibly be for someone who was not toilet trained.

She babbled, but she watched her mother intently.

It was very peculiar, this whole putting-things-into-the-dirt.

Ghlyssa sat back on her heels, peering at her haphazard garden plot. "We'll have lots of good thing to eat," she told Airyn, "and we won't even have to go to the store."

"Um-baaah." Airyn saw this as a summons and crawled forward on her stomach; Ghlyssa brushed her hands off on her skirt and scooped up Airyn, who giggled.

Glee pressed her free hand to the ground, eyes closed; sprouts sprang up. A few were weeds; Glee just made sure they didn't harm her intended plants, and let them be.

Weeding in the traditional sense was out of the question.

Airyn squealed in delight. "Bu-bu-bu-bu-ba!" Ghlyssa let her down on the ground; Airyn grabbed at a plant and pulled.

"Oh no! No, Airyn, give that back to me." Distressed, Glee wrenched the sprout from her daughter's tight fist, and replaced it in the earth. It was a little crushed and slightly wobbly, but... with any luck, it would recover.

Airyn screwed up her face for a moment, and began to wail; she had lost her wonderful new prize, this wonderful green thing, and she didn't even get to find out if it was any good to eat! Unfair!

"Oh, don't cry, don't cry! Please, Airyn, don't cry."

Airyn kept screaming, reaching for the garden in great distress. Glee made a grab for the octopus. "Here, Airyn. See? This is much better."

She hesitated, sniffed, and began to cry again, though perhaps with not quite as much gusto as previously.

Glee got up and bounced Airyn gently in her arms. She tried reasoning. "If you pull out all my garden, what will we eat?"

This, unsurprisingly, did not work.

"Please, Airyn. Um. Look!"

Ghlyssa reached out to the nearest tree branch that emerged from the house. A few new leafs unfurled under her fingers. Airyn blinked at this, and giggled.

"Isn't that much nicer?" Ghlyssa sighed. She pulled a flower form her own hair--no harm in picking that--and tucked it behind Airyn's ear.

Babies were... complicated.

Backdated
Ghlyssa's Diary

Ghlyssa peered around the corner from the next room; she'd just left Airyn there for a minute, and the sudden outburst had startled, and slightly worried her.

She stared for a moment, and dropped the diaper she'd been carrying.

"Dadadadada," Airyn burbled happily through a mouthful of rabbit ear.

Ghlyssa picked up the diaper, twisting it in her hands. "Hello, Riven," she said, her voice small and far away. "I was..."

She didn't know what to say. She wanted to hug him, kiss him, scream at him, burst into tears, everything all at once. Glee scooped Airyn up into her arms, seeking some sort of comfort; Airyn reached for her father excitedly.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back," Glee managed to choke out.

"You could've... you could've... I don't know... wrote a letter or called or even told Sunny, I don't know!" Glee took a moment to try to compose herself, breathing hard, her voice shrill. "You.. you could have been dead, or in trouble, or just... forgotten about me... or..." She wavered on the edge of tears, unable to speak.

Airyn was growing distressed; Riven would not pick her up, and now her mother was getting upset, and while she certainly didn't know why, she knew she didn't like that at all. "Da-DADADA!"

"You could've... well, you could've done something." Ghlyssa stared miserably at the floor, hugging herself. "It doesn't matter if I would've liked it, because I wasn't there. I was here. With Airyn. And we were by ourselves."

She added, after a moment, "For a really long time."