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 Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:05 pm
Peace and Quiet, once two words synonymous with the apartments of Number and the Spirit guide, in recent times chaos and noise were far more apt. Occasionally, however, peace and quiet returned to their realm, in the evening when the children were in bed and the others had retired to their rooms.
Cosine was enjoying one of those moments, soaking in the relaxing waters of the nice deep bath. She had morphed a little, her wings gone. It was easier to relax without them, the goddess tilted her head back and looked up at the stars through the glass ceiling. As much as she was enjoying the silence it left her with her thoughts. She was worried, not about her children but Ankou, he was stressed, trying to do too much and beating himself up about the fact he could not be everywhere at once. She sighed a little and stood, exiting the sunken baths by the steps. She dried herself and grabbed her robe, made out of a delicate silk by Lisana's seamstress. She tied it loosely and walked out of their private rooms, across the atrium and to the one place she would always find Ankou, his work room.
She leaned against the doorframe, her silk robe slipping a little on her left shoulder.
"Enough is enough." She said softly, smiling. "Time for a break."
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Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:23 pm
Work room might have been more apt a wording than it had ever been - with the maps, books, and all the objects overtaking the whole place. Not one carving project was laying about - he'd simply not had the time.
He was looking though the lore of Azeroth, trying to see what the origins of this so-called Lich King had been, to gauge if he would have to take care of the source or not.
The other tomes were lore of the valkyries and the Underworld. Now that he knew that his memory had more sizeable holes than he thought, he would not help but wonder what else he might not be aware of.
Given how good Ankou was with actual book research, it was a toss up as to if he could even read straight or not at this point. Truth was, he was not - all the words seemed to blur in his mind. Cosine would stumble on her husband nearly ready to pull his hair out, and would manage to startle him at that.
"Probably." The open book would be glared at for good measure.
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 7:57 am
It certainly did look like her library more than anything belonging to him at that moment. She smirked a little at his response and picked her way through the room, stepping over errant books and maps carefully.
"It wasn't a suggestion. You need a break." She always had a teacher voice, now she was equipped with a mother one too. "Even the mind of the divine can only take in so much information." An eyebrow was raised and she perched on top of a pile of books he hand in front of him.
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 5:27 pm
"That is assuming I do still have a mind at this point." Honestly, he was starting to ponder this much, himself. Multitasking was not unusual to him, no, but this was way more than he could honestly handle. Had been more than he could handle quite a bit ago, to be honest.
Ankou leaned back in his chair, sighing. "Maybe I should just bribe Akakios to do the reading." Ha. If only.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:31 pm
Cosine smirked a little and reached out to place a supportive hand on his knee.
"Well if you have no mind left I hardly see the point in staring at empty words. I can help you later, but not until you have taken a break from the books." She peered up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Are you really going to make me beg?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:46 pm
"No." Really, he had no intention to fight anyone or anything right now. He was not sure if he even had the will for it right now, to be honest. "Simply complaining, I suppose."
Which was certainly useless in it's own way. "So, what do you have planned for me now that you have caught me ?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:41 am
Exhausted, fed up, unhappy, stressed and fading. Just a few words that he could use to describe how her husband was looking at that moment. It made her sad to see and angry too. Why should he ... no they, have to bare the full burden of all this? She was an empathetic goddess by nature, if he felt it then she did too.
At his words she gave a small smile. Not what she wanted that was for sure, he looked miserable and that was no fun for anyone. She pulled her robe back up her shoulder, tied it tighter and stood.
"You are going to talk." She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cool forehead. "I'm fed up with trying to guess what you are carrying around in that supposedly empty head of yours and watching you bare it all yourself like a martyr" She held her hand out to him. "But not here, come with me."
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Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:53 am
He would move after she had risen, lifting himself from the chair in turn. Really, what else could he do at this point ? The guilt at stopping would start nagging at him quickly, but what a little ore for the pile ?
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Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:22 pm
Cosine would take his hand and lead him from the workroom, to their room where it was certainly more comfortable and hopefully more relaxing. As they entered candles around the room danced to life, casting light over the furniture and tiled walls.
She sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at him.
"Tell me what I can do to help you."
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:07 am
Yes, the bedroom would definitively be more comfortable, and he would flop on the bed like a dead fish - his wings vanishing. Their bed was certainly big enough to accommodate, but right now he had little want to bother with them.
"Other than what you are doing ?" Basically raising three children on her lonesome, to be exact. "I do not know. I really do not know." He sighed. "I did not want it to come to this..."
It was why he had asked what he had of Glyph and Xun Jiang, in hope that they could help out. The Dragon King was just as over his head as he was at the moment, and Forest seemed to have outright vanished just as his brother had. "I really do not know."
He did not know what to do. It seemed like no matter what he focused on, something else would suffer.
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:40 am
It pained her to watch him, to see him struggle with so much and to feel so helpless. She wanted to share it and help him, though she knew she could not.
"You do not need to worry about us so much." She said, reaching out to place her hand on his cheek. "We're fine, the children are happy and healthy, they love you, I love you. I know you would be here more if you could, you are here all you can be."
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:33 am
"And they will grow up barely knowing their father." Which indeed seemed like a familiar scenario. "I was hoping Nergal would return, but... Now I am not so sure." Underworld had never reacted to anything he was doing, and perhaps Valyrmora's rebirth was a sign. It seemed strange that she would come to them after so much time had passed.
Or perhaps it meant nothing, and the Twin Crown had only been able to gather her mana recently.
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:52 am
At those words she knew exactly what he was thinking and who he was thinking of. Really Nergal was lucky he wasn't around, because she'd like nothing better than to hunt him down and give him a massive slice of what was coming to him. His disappearance had left so much hurt among the people she loved and cared for.
"Don't you dare." She said softly, feeling a sense of dejavu. Hadn't they had this conversation before? "You are not him, never will be, I don't care how much you think, they know who you are, you come home and you spend time with them when you can, you try and that makes all the difference." She sighed a little. "Hopefully the appearance of Valyrmora will make a difference. I know it will be a while before she is able to have command over the underworld, but perhaps she can aid you in other ways as she grows?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:20 am
It was indeed a road he knew well and had traveled often. It was definitively something that had come up before. "I know... I just..." The guilt was eating at him from the inside out, and some days it was harder to push past it than others. "It seems that no matter what I do, something will fall short somewhere."
"It will, but the truth of it is that she not only cannot do much right now, it would be dangerous for her to even try." The Underworld would likely be fatal to Alva, if the trip down was not. It had never been meant to house the living at all. He had supported it just fine once he'd at least taken his host's body in part,so then they could probably try and see what could be done. Before then, however, he was unwilling to risk anything.
One of the realities of the rooms of the Spirit Guide and Numbers was that just because things were quiet, did not mean that they truly were.
Caelia was honestly not up to any mischief, as surprising as such a thing might be. She had been startled out of her dreams unexpectedly, and had sneaked into the kitchen for a glass of milk. It was the sound of her parents' voice from their bedroom that made her pause in mid-yawn, and she carefully slid in against the wall to get a better listen.
It sounded like her father was being silly again, though perhaps this time she would get to hear more than last time. She had caught her mother's reply and that was enough to make her decide to stick around for now, in spite of the fact she was probably going to be scolded if she was caught.
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:56 pm
Cosine shifted to flop back and curl up next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. She hated feeling helpless as much as he did, but she would do all she could. It was frustrating for the meticulous number goddess to come across a problem she could not solve.
"Is there no way she could help you train the Valkyries? There really must be something somehow. It seems too perfect that she has been reborn now when we need her most."
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