In Which Clia Is Verbose

July 31, 1202

"Thanks for taking those notes for me. Figures, the one time that anything interesting gets discussed in that class, and--" Clia cut herself off just as she remembered who she was talking to. Aside from their shared hatred for their Classical History elective, she and Dani had never had much to bond over, even if they didn't have any explicit distaste for each other. Where would the bonding even start? Clia had no idea what, if anything, Dani found interesting.

But she somehow doubted that her own family problems would have been one such thing. "Sorry. Long story short, my sister-in-law, Nearina--you know, my brother's widow--she took a fall down the stairs, which she probably would have just shrugged off under normal circumstances, but she's with child, and--"

"Sorry?"

"Oh!" And without fail... she'd gone on about her family problems anyway. If only the rest of her could have run like her tongue did, Clia's mother had often teased, she could have gone to Egypt and back every day of her life. And of course her tongue wouldn't consider that someone like Dani wouldn't much care for that manic chatter! Good Lord--did Dani ever say a word without weighing its worth six times in her head? "My apologies. I mean, you know how I just go on and on when I start talking, and I know you've gotten a kick out of it when we're struggling to survive that ridiculously dull class, but now you've gone through all the trouble of doing me a favor and here I am, just talking your ear off about all this--"

"No, no. You're... verbose. I get that." But her brows remained knotted and eyes kept to a squint. "I didn't know that Nearina was pregnant."

"Oh, right. Yes, she hasn't been getting out all that much. She's still mourning Oswald, and now that she's carrying the last child he's ever going to have, she doesn't want to risk anything happening to it, which is why it was important that we were all there--just to be sure that everything was all right after her fall."

"Yes, of course." Dani bit her lip. "She can't be that all far along yet if not many people know, right?"

Clia shook her head. Poor Nearina. It was tragedy enough, a posthumous child, but one whose poor father hadn't even lived long enough to know of its existence... "She had no idea until after he died. Her mother's a midwife, and her guess is that the baby would have been conceived mere days before."

"That's... terrible timing."

"Isn't it?" Clia sighed. As if merely missing her brother wasn't enough as it was! "I mean, even if it had been a month or so earlier, Oswald could have at least known about it."

"Him and Nearina both." Dani pinched a lock of red hair between her fingers and twisted it--an odd burst of fidgeting from someone typically so collected. "I'm sorry. I've been prying into your family's personal business, and I ought to have known better. I should really go and get some work done."

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