All For Them

Writers: Chelle, Eimi
Date Posted: 25th April 2010

Characters: Ioven, Narys
Description: Ioven remembers a promise made...
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 8, day 19 of Turn 5
Notes: Follows "A Happy Family"

Ioven didn't walk back to the Smith Hall directly. Instead, his feet
carried him along paths that he had wandered when he was an apprentice
more than twenty turns before. They were quiet, and few people walked
them any more. He could tell by the fall leaves that had been hidden
under snow, and yet not trampled down after the thaw, and by branches
that had probably been blown off in some spring gale that still littered
the path.

His mind was playing over the scene once more. His two little girls on
a blanket, laughing and chatting with a woman who was old enough to be
their mother. From all Ioven could guess, she and Narys would be about
the same age, had she been alive. Parale looked nothing like his
beloved wife, but she did look every bit the mother, and his daughters
reveled in the attention.

The thought that ran through his mind over and over again with each step
he took was the same -
**My girls need a mother...**

He stopped to sit heavily on a moss covered stone, his elbows leaning on
his knees as he stared off into the trees, and straight back into the
past.

~~ FLASHBACK ~~

It hadn't been the best of days. Narys had suffered from a headache and
nausea half the day, and he had tried to juggle the needs of a
five-turn-old with the tantrums of one barely two. Adding on top of
that the washing, the straightening, the cooking, all tasks that were
unfamiliar to him, and they had taken up almost the whole of his day,
which he resented. Every moment he spent washing dishes and cleaning up
toys were moments he could not spend with his wife. He would rather
have given in to the mess, and handed their children off to a nurse in
the creche to care for, but Narys was counting on him now. She
shouldn't have any cares or burdens, and she wanted her children around
her, even if she was too sick to really play.

But it made these moments when they were alone in the dark all the more
precious. Even as he held her close, he could feel how thin she had
become over the last sevendays. How frail. And though there were a
thousand things he always wanted to say, they often found that there
were no words.

"Ioven..the girls.." She licked her lips, which were dry. She wondered
just how she could tell him. "When it's over, I need to know they'll be
okay." Her hand clutched him as best as it could. She fingered the
fabric of his tunic, smelling him.

"Of course they will be," he assured her, arms wrapping a bit tighter
around her. "I won't ever let anything happen to them."

"They'll need a mother, someone to take care of them, and teach them
about women things." She was beginning to hurt, but she had to say
what she needed to before she subsided into rest.

Ioven opened his mouth to protest that they had a mother. That _she_
was their mother, and always would be. No woman could take her place!
She shouldn't even think such a thing! And yet he couldn't disagree
with her. He could barely scrape together a meal. How could he teach
his daughters what a woman should know? The sound that finally came
from his lips was supposed to be one of understanding, but it sounded
painful.

"I love you. You've given me so much." She smiled and stroked his face.
"She will be so happy, whoever she is. You will make her so happy."

"No," he finally protested. "I don't want to marry again. I'll find
someone to teach them all they need to know, but I will not marry
another. You're my wife, and you always will be."

"Not always," she said it quietly, but firmly. "You may not want to
now, but someday the day will come. And for you and my girls, I
pray that it does. You all deserve happiness again, Venny." It was
hurting again and she gasped softly.

"Promise me. Promise me that you will heed what I say. For me,
don't keep yourself all locked up for the rest of your turns. Live
again, love again, smile again. Please Venny?" Her face pinched together
as she fought off the waves.

Ioven could see the pain in her face, not all of it physical. Maybe if
their situations had been reversed, he would have said the same thing.
Faranth, what he wouldn't give to trade places with her! She would
never have to know a life without him, but every beat of her tired
heart was bringing him closer to life without her. How could she ask
this of him? How could he refuse her? "I promise... I will try."

"For the girls? Give them what I can't." And at that, she gave over and
closed her eyes, seeking solace in sleep, still in his arms.

~~~**~~~**~~~

Ioven wiped away the tears that trickled down his cheeks. The pain was
still so fresh sometimes. He ached to hold his Narys again. She had
been, and still was, the love of his life. Perhaps he could learn to
care for another woman, maybe even love to a degree. But he had loved a
woman down in the deepest parts of his soul, and had watched her fade
away before his eyes, a helpless bystander. He didn't ever want to do
that again.

But he had made her a promise. He would take care of his daughters, and
find them a mother. Every step he took, every breath he breathed from
the moment his Narys had left him, it was all for the sake of their
children. He would not have chosen Parale, and who even knew if she
would want him. But did it matter who the woman was? His daughters had
chosen her. If she was the one that could give them what they needed,
who could fulfill his promise, shouldn't he at least consider the
possibility? For them...?

Last updated on the May 3rd 2010

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All For Them