Joyful surprise and meeting

The evening was beautiful as she sat in her room. Sully and Arimil had just woken from a nap and she was getting them ready to go as Night was coming to introduce her to her new childe. Though Lasc had severed her, that didn’t sever the feelings she felt for the woman, or her children. Jade still treated Night like one of her own children and it pleased her when the woman would contact her.

”Are you two ready to see your big sister Night?” she asked with a wide grin, dropping down to her knees in the middle of the room. Immediately two little children toddled over, their faces alight. Jade shot Arimil a wink, thankful that her elder birth daughter was helping Sully with the adjustment since Lasc had left with the twins. He’d had his little sisters in his life every day since their birth, over a year, then they were ripped away. He’d gone with his Momma Lasc too, but he missed his Momma Jade too much and had drawn upon a power he’d not known he had, shimmering home. Ever since then, Arimil had been living as a two year old with occasional ‘time off’ to go hang out with a friend.

Jadeleath rose and took one of Sully’s hands while the young looking Arimil took her brother’s other hand and they toddled off to meet up with Nightmistress. ”Now Nightmistress has someone special for us to meet, someone that was her childe once a long while ago. I think I met him once but it’s been a while. You two be good and she might just play with you a little,” she said with a smile, looking down upon her daughter and her one and a half year old son.

From the lounge she heard Night’s voice and so she called back, ”On the way dear!” A few moments later they rounded a corner and came into the lounge through another door. The moment they were inside Jade paused, her face lighting as she first saw her daughter Night, then her eyes rounded at the sight of the twins there. ”Alaine and Margaret,” she breathed, moving shakily toward the group, beat to her goal by the little ones.

Arimil and Sully beat her to the trio, despite the fact that her legs were longer than theirs. The two little ones gave Night’s knees hugs, beaming at them, then Sully zeroed in on his baby sisters. Immediately there was this far off look between all three, though they did not say a thing. Arimil looked between the two adults at that, a questioning look in her eyes, then the little girl ran out of the room. Jadeleath didn’t stop her, didn’t even consider it even with the girl appearing two years old.

Tears poured from Jadeleath’s eyes as she made it to Night and immediately gave her a warm hug, holding her tight even as she whispered, ”Thank you dear… thank you…” She just stood there, holding her and crying for a few minutes, unable to express herself just yet. She loved Night all the more in that moment as she held her.

While Jade still held the woman, an adult Arimil returned. She wore a simple pink dress and moved with grace, not interrupting the embrace between her mother and sister, but she went to the children. Extricating the girls from their carriers, she settled them down with their brother. From there she moved over to a corner chest and pulled out a blanket, which she spread upon the carpet, then she got out a variety of baby toys. Karnayna didn’t know that there were random chests of toys and blankets through her house, but it had become easier to do that than to carry them from room to room. She urged the little ones onto the blanket and sat playing with them.

Finally Jade released Night and chuckled, trying to wipe off her own tear streaked face. She’d taken care of these girls since their birth, when their mother had gone to sleep for months, she was always there. She’d hidden the pain at having them ripped away from her. It had been easy. Everyone else just thought that she’d been hurting at the loss of the one woman she’d thought she was spending the rest of eternity with, and that had nearly killed her. Losing the girls though, she’d felt like she’d been carved down to nothing, as if she couldn’t go on. Even still, after she tucked Sully and Arimil in for bed, she’d slip from her room, find a corner somewhere away, and break down.

She sank to her knees on the blanket and picked up Alaine, as she was the closest, and hugged her close, just held her and kissed her forehead. Then she scooped up Margaret as well, never relinquishing Alaine, and did the same. The little ones hugged her back, giving her cheeks wet kisses, which got her tears rolling again. She set them back down, so that they could play with their brother and sister, and just sat there, alternating between, ”Thank you Night,” and, ”I love you.” When she said that last her eyes flickered between all there, both grown daughters and all three little ones.

The little boy had begun to show his baby sisters some of the toys there when his mother scooped first one, then the other, up into her arms. He sat watching in confusion for a few moments , the boy that had been ever silent. He watched, looking between the twins and his mother’s face, a look of intense concentration, as if he were in the midst of a quick fire conversation. Jade knew that the little ones weren’t dumb, just special in their own way, and so it hadn’t bothered her that Sully hadn’t spoken aloud as yet. For all she knew the girls might have, in the time spent away, but Sully had still been silent.

”Momma,” the lad said, his first word aloud in his entire life. The single word brought a gasp from both Jadeleath and Arimil, but what followed had their jaws dropping. ”Momma, why are you crying?” he asked, his syntax perfect, no slurring like baby talk and he looked at her as though he had been speaking for years.

Jadeleath sat there a few moments, her mouth agape, until she finally found her voice, ”I’m happy Sully sweetheart. I’m happy to see Lainy and Maggie again and to get to have all of you together for a little while.” She smiled at him, wiping the rest of her tears away, beaming with pride at his accomplishment. She didn’t want to shower him with baby talk like a child that had just learned to speak. Given his phrasing of the simple sentence, he knew for quite some time and had just chosen to wait.

The little boy looked at his mother again and smiled, nodded, then he sat down and waved for his sisters to come and play with him. Jadeleath released the girls so that they could still sit with her if they wanted, or they could go play with their brother. Her amber eyes gleamed as she looked between Arimil, who still sat dumbfounded, Night and the kids.