May 7, 2013

In Which Lonriad Measures the Luck

September 5, 1181

"So you splurged for a room with the fireplace, I see." It was barely September, but the pouring rains and piercing cold had gotten ahead of themselves. An hour or so after finding an inn and Lonriad still hadn't removed his heavy wool tunic and leather surcoat--and neither had Isidro, despite the crackling hearth in front of him. "Smart bastard. If I don't freeze to death tonight, I'm strangling Ashe in his sleep for being such a tightwad."

"I told you to bring more money."

"Yeah, well, my wife told me otherwise and she sleeps with me." In hindsight, he should have begged Asalaye to come. She'd always been better with money. Plus, of course, then he wouldn't have been missing her. "It better not be raining tomorrow."

"Knowing our luck, it will be." Knowing our luck. Isidro had used that phrase a few times since they'd left his grandfather's place the day before, though the visit had gone... better than Lonriad had expected, and no doubt better than Isidro had too. Just like any other family visit, with the bitter knowledge that the family that seemed to care was not the family who'd raised him. Knowing Isidro's luck indeed. "Did Ashe manage to get all that mud out of his hair?"

And knowing Ashe's luck, he would have been the one whose horse bucked in the middle of what might as well have been a swamp. "Well, the innkeeper's wife just looked at him and said there wasn't enough bathwater in the world. Riona's giving him a haircut right now."

He shut the door and stepped to the fire, hands well in need of a warming. Maybe Ashe would go for a room upgrade once he no longer had that mane of hair for added warmth. "Is Riona any good at that? Does she cut your hair?"

"It stops at around this length."

"Should cut it anyway--thin ends, you know." Not that Isidro was the sort to care. Hell, Lonriad himself probably wouldn't have been if Asalaye never cut his for him. God, he missed her! "I envy you, you know--since your wife came along. Even if I'll never guess what you see in her."

"Missing yours, I take it?"

"So much I might even brave her cooking again!" Not that Asalaye had any illusions about her cooking--hell, she was the first to crack a joke about it! He missed that too. If they'd been traveling in a manner that had allowed for free hands, he would have spent the rest of the return trip listing all the things he loved about her. What better souvenir was there than a record of how one was missed? "But seriously. Lucky."

Isidro grunted--but as Lonriad turned his head, he thought he caught a small smile. "Ah-ha! Either you know you're lucky, or you're imagining the most hilarious and disastrous possible result of Ashe's haircut."

"I think both are givens."

"Of course they are. Especially the latter." And especially the former. "You know... maybe it's just me feeling alone, but I think I might be ready to try for another kid, if Asalaye's feeling up to it." That was a big 'if', and Isidro's raised brow seemed to agree. Still. "A daughter, hopefully. I mean, I love my sons and all, but I think I'd be a good daddy to a little girl."

"I'm sure you would be. Girls are easier than boys." Isidro slouched, nearly slumping off the stool before he remembered at the last second that it had no back. It was Lonriad's turn to stare and frown. "Riona wants a brother for Nato."

Huh. That was... odd. Was Nato even a year old? "Already?"

"No, not yet, but eventually. My grandfather brought it up at some point and she told me later she agreed. I'm still not even sure how to raise one boy." Isidro scuffed a boot across the floor, like Roddie or Falidor whenever they were reminded they weren't so grown-up after all. It wasn't that hard, raising boys--or, it was, but it was the good sort of hard, the rewarding sort of hard. Surely not much different than raising a girl?

Or... "After the way my father raised me, I mean."

"You turned out fine." And Riona had to put up with this every day. Isidro was luckier than he'd ever know. "As for Nato, just do the opposite of what your dad did. Don't be an asshole. Teach him not to be an asshole."

Asalaye's face flashed in front of his eyes again. For Isidro, it must have been Riona. "Teach him to love."

NEXT CHAPTER:

3 comments:

Van said...

Okay, so the next post will be... longer than I am used to for this blog. I have more pictures for next post than I have for some real-life weeks. It should be up some point Wednesday night/Thursday evening as usual, but there's a chance that I'll need an extra day or so to finish it up.

Anonymous said...

D'aww, Lonriad is awfully cute when he's thinking about Asalaye. I hope he tells her this sometime, even if he can't quite make her that list.

And Izzy ... oh, Izzy. Well, since Naroni seems to have a case of the Law of Inverse Fertility, maybe he shouldn't worry too much about having a boy -- maybe he and Riona might just make more girls. Nobody could argue with that! (Except Ietrin, and it's none of his business.)

... Hmm ... maybe when Izzy gets back, he should start a club/support group with Elarys, Neilor, Tivie, and Mona if Mona ever comes back to Naroni and ever has a kid. They can call it the "Helping Each Other Not F--- Up Our Children as Our Parents F---ed Us Up Club." Or HEONFUOCAOPFUUC for short!

And lastly, I really hope Ashe gets a nice haircut from Riona. With everything that's been going wrong in his life lately, he needs every break he can get!

Van said...

He does seem to like her to the point of cute, doesn't he? ;) And I'm sure she knows, even if he's more likely to let her know this in the form of a nose joke.

Naroni does have a serious case of the Law of Inverse Fertility! That, plus the Kemorin fertility and the frequency with which Izzy and Riona exchange fluids and the fact that they're both still very young, suggests to me that there are both more boys and more girls in their future, regardless of what Ietrin would think if he somehow made anyone else's reproduction his business (both Izzy and Riona think Ietrin is full of shit anyway).

A support group for parents with shitty parents? Oh, Naroni could benefit from that. Maybe the fabled therapist can organize it.

I promise that Ashe's haircut will not be nearly as bad as Lonriad hopes it is. And even if it is, it'll be temporary (the Doylist explanation is that I sort of want to see Ashe with short hair, but I like his current hair too much to change it permanently).