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December 4, 1197
"Ladies," Severin greeted Rina and her visitors as he returned to their home for the day. The sound of high-pitched giggling drew his eyes to the four toddlers on the floor. "Children."
"Papa!" Renalie acknowledged him. The other three ranged from a turn of the head to no response at all. It wasn't surprising; Rina may have sworn to contrary, but Severin suspected that Renalie was the only one of the quads who liked him much. Either that or she simply felt sorry for him.
"Ladies? Children? That's all you have to say?" From her seat at the table beside Rina, Severin's sister rolled her eyes. "Dora's wearing a wedding dress, you dolt! Tell her how lovely she looks!"
Oh. Right. Dora was getting married later in the month.
Not caring to insult one of the few people on the planet he found at all interesting, Severin looked Dora up and down as Tiada fiddled with some adjustments to the dress's back. "You look lovely."
Dora smiled shyly. Why did she look like someone else when she did that? And why could he not for the life of him fathom who? "Thank you."
"Dora has something else to say to you, too," Tiada urged with a wink and a nudge--for Severin and for Dora respectively.
"Oh. Yes. Yes, I do."
"All right, then." Severin shrugged as Dora stepped forward. "What is it?"
"Would you... maybe walk me down the aisle?"
Severin blinked. He hadn't expected anyone to ask that of him until Thetrica or Renalie married, assuming that he grew on them. Sure, Dora didn't have family--and sure, Rina and Alina had befriended her--but weren't the two of them little more than acquaintances, at the end of the day? "Me? Really? Uh... don't you think Orrick or Adwyn or someone would be a better choice?"
Dora shook her head. "Orrick's my boss, so I don't know how appropriate that would be. And it certainly wouldn't be right to ask any of Adonis's family."
"What about Jothein, then? Or Laurie or Orrin?" Alina's husband or Tiada's brothers certainly would have been more approachable for such a shy woman!
"I thought about them, but my mind just kept coming back to you." Dora clasped her hands together, as if she might fall to her knees and start begging him. "Please? For some reason, I find you... I don't know. A little fraternal?"
He didn't have to look to see Alina's raised eyebrow. That was probably the last word any of his siblings would have used to describe him. "Fraternal?"
"I know it's strange. But... but it's just how I feel, I guess." Dora blushed, shy smile returning. That look of someone else returning. "Please?"
Severin sighed. He supposed there were worse jobs a person could get at a wedding. "All right. If it means that much to you, and if you're sure."
"Really?" That smile was not so shy--and she only looked like herself. Perhaps he'd never seen a smile quite like that. "Oh, thank you so much!"
NEXT CHAPTER:
June 21, 1196
"Look, if there really is a God, and you really did piss Him off, killing Rina would be the least imaginative way for an all-powerful deity to punish you." If Florian still had to explain things like that, then he'd failed as a father. At least they'd had Thetis. "I don't know, maybe one of these days you'll wake up with a pair of butterfly wings or something. But Rina's not going to die."
Severin squirmed, dull brown sleeve rustling against its dull brown tunic. Maybe when Rina did survive this dangerous pregnancy, he'd start wearing some more interesting clothes. "There are negative outcomes other than death."
"Again--not going to happen. That punishes Rina, not you."
"Oh, yes, because Rina's never been unjustly punished before."
"Hey, not everything needs a rhyme and reason to it. Maybe God got bored and left us for some other stupid mortal species, and now we're subject to the whims of chaos. If I were God, I would have ditched our sorry asses eons ago, and don't pretend you wouldn't have done the same; you're even more miserable than I am."
"I'm not miserable; I'm just pissed off." As if the uncalled-for thud of his foot didn't say it even better. Not that Florian much minded the motion. It wasn't his floor, and it was an ugly floor anyway. God, this baby was doomed to suffer from horrible taste! "Pissed off, and I'll be a wreck if she dies. I'll be a wreck, and she'll be dead, and I suppose Mother will have to take the baby in because I'll be too drunk off my own self-pity to even care."
"Not going to happen, son. I've had more than enough whining babies under my roof to volunteer to raise someone else's."
"Besides," chimed Thetis's voice from the opening bedroom door, "none of that happened. Rina's as well as any woman I've ever seen."
Ha! There was nothing quite like being right. "Told you. Now, have fun raising one of these perpetual noise-and-shit machines, then apologizing to me for your mere existence. Thetis, what kind is it?"
It was only when her eyes rolled that he noticed just how alike she and Severin looked. "The human kind, Florian."
Florian sniffed. "No need to be snide."
"Never mind that. Severin, come hold the baby."
He did as he was told, probably only because he'd been told, despite the fact he hated doing as he was told. The news of Rina's survival must have rendered him oblivious to everything else. Now might have been an excellent time for Florian to bury his face in Thetis's breasts. "Babies. I guess this one is at least half Rina."
Rina, Rina, Rina. God, Florian's kids were pains in his ass even when they were happy. "It's also half me."
"Nice math, Father."
That was Alina's voice. Florian scowled. "Alina, stop questioning my math and tell me what kind of baby this is."
"That baby, Father?
"Or this one?"
HA! Somehow, the world was a better place knowing that Severin of all people was now stuck with twins. "Both would be nice. Also, I think we've figured out God's plan for Severin's punishment now."
"I guess two half-Rinas makes a whole Rina, right, brother?" Alina teased.
"Anything that stops my eye from twitching."
That, apparently, did not. Florian rubbed his hands together in glee. "I hope they're just as bad as you two were. Now, what kinds are they? Same kind? Different kinds?"
"Same, different? Which baby, compared to which baby?"
Oh, that would have been too good.
Far, far too good! And not. "All right, now there are three of them? And I don't know what kind any of them are?"
At least he knew Severin was probably never going to loose that stunned perma-blink. "Three of them? Really? Three?"
"Three! Hooray, we can all count!" Three new Florians. Or Florianas. Or hell, they could call the girls Florian too, if any of them were girls. It was a manly man's name, but it wasn't ugly. "But seriously, what kinds are they?"
"Father, I think the quantity is the more pressing concern."
Quantity. Florian snorted. "Talk to me about quantity when you have thirteen."
"Most of your thirteen came one at a time." Severin finally managed to curb his rapid-fire eyes--shut. Probably because the inside of his eyelids was now the last baby-free view in his world. "Three. Three. I can't deal with three babies."
"Good thing you don't have three babies, then."
Severin's eyes shot right back open.
"...This seriously can't be happening."
But it was. And God... Florian fucking loved it.
"This is the best day ever!" His most annoying child, now the father of quadruplets. Or more? Nah--surely the world wasn't that kind. "See, that's what you get for yelling at God. Now, are any of you going to tell me what kinds any of them are? Or do I have to unswaddle them myself?"
NEXT CHAPTER:
September 21, 1195
"What's wrong?" Severin demanded as Alina emerged from the bedroom. He'd been seeing a patient when she'd escorted Rina home from the bank, but he would have heard them come in. His usual clinic hours weren't yet over, but she should have guessed that he'd come upstairs anyway. "Is Rina all right? She's not ill, is she?"
"No, she's not ill. Just..." Reminded? Invoked? God--why wasn't there a word for it? "...recovering from an incident."
"What sort of incident?" Her twin brother knew full well that the bank couldn't be open if neither Alina nor Rina were present, and that Alina choosing to close the bank and take Rina home herself rather than letting her go alone or sending someone else would mean something serious indeed.
And, in spite of himself, he would be sensitive enough to take this particular incident seriously, even if the affected individual hadn't been his own wife. If anything, Alina feared he might take matters into his own hands.
"A couple at the bank today. The husband was giving his wife grief for not being pregnant again three years after the birth of their last child. Kept making it about her worth and how he ought to have married her more fertile sister instead."
As she could have guessed--and would have hoped!--her brother scowled. Severin may not have been the warm and cuddly sort of 'good', but their mother had instilled an unbreakable moral code in all of her children. "Who the hell is this man?"
"I don't know his name; they weren't regular clients. I kicked him out and said that we'd only deal with his wife in the future. I set her up with one of the staff, but Rina had heard the whole thing and had to retire to the vault. I sent the other customers way and closed up once the woman had finished with her business."
"Fuck. Despicable enough that he should say such things to his wife in private." It was no doubt the tamest he could manage, but at his sides, her brother's hands clenched into fists. "How is Rina now?"
"She's calmed down, but still shaken up. I gave her some mead and a bit of cake."
"Thank you. And let me know if you ever get that bastard's name; if he ever comes to see me, I'll find some medical reason to castrate him." She didn't doubt it. She wasn't sure she agreed with the method, but she appreciated the ire. "Can I see her?"
Alina nodded. "She'll probably want you anyway."
Her brother brushed past her and knocked on the bedroom door. "Rina?"
"Yes?"
Permission granted, he headed in. Alina followed, just in case they needed her, though she told herself she'd leave if asked; Rina didn't react to her presence, so she settled herself on the chair by the window.
Severin joined his wife on the bed, equal parts sympathetic and barely hinged. "Men are the worst."
Beside him, Rina shrugged. "A little bit."
He muttered something, too faintly for Alina to hear, but it seemed to lift Rina's spirits somewhat. Alina dug the nail of her thumb into the tip of her index finger. It hadn't been all that long ago when she'd made her own foolish comment to Rina's face, but at least hers hadn't been meant in malice, and she'd been quick to apologize and change the subject. It wasn't, she knew in her heart, a matter of over-sensitivity. Rina could be around small children and pregnant women without issue. She could even tolerate discussion of other people considering having children, so long as no one asked her about her own plans or passed any judgments on people who seemed to have difficulty.
But some comments were personal. Some hit too close to home without warning.
What sort of sick person would begrudge someone being upset in such cases?
At least Rina was smiling now, even if it was a little tired, a little half-hearted. And at least Severin was smiling for her--even if Alina saw behind it a blazing fury only a twin could see.
NEXT CHAPTER:
May 26, 1194
"Do you think you'll start your leave about a month before again?"
Alina nodded, a gentle pat to her just-showing stomach. She'd credit the high-waisted tunic for the deceptive physique--Ellie's suggestion, based on how Lady Rona dressed when she was expecting. "Don't worry; I don't intend to leave you to fend for yourself until late August."
And she wouldn't be gone long! She loved her children, and she loved being a mother... but, she needed something for herself. Her work at the bank provided that, and by the time she'd gone back after both of her girls, she'd been half out of her mind.
"You know... I kind of think this one will be a boy."
"Oh?" Rina slouched a little. If she was resentful of having to manage the bank on her own for a while, Alina couldn't fathom why. Alina may have had a better rapport with the clients, but Rina had the sharper business sense--and even with the clients, she'd done splendidly the last two times. "Does it... feel different from the last two times?"
"No, I think Thetis and Via varied from each other more than either did from this one. It's just a feeling."
"Uh-huh." Rina picked at one of her fingernails. She never did that at the bank, but for some reason, it was a frequent habit when she made social calls. "Did you get feelings with the other two?"
"Not with Thetis--what with that being my first time and all. But I figured that Via would be a girl. Maybe you develop more of a sense with each pregnancy."
"Or maybe it's just that there aren't many possible outcomes, so any guess has a reasonable chance of being right."
Alina chortled. "Maybe. Perhaps you can verify when--"
She stopped herself at the sight of her friend's dreary eyes and wilting lips--and cursed herself. Stupid! "Oh. Oh, Rina, I'm so sorry."
"It's fine." But Rina picked at her fingernail again. God damn it, Alina! Think before you say things like that!
"You know... two and a half years of marriage isn't really all that long. Plenty of people have to try a little longer."
"We're not trying."
"Oh."
For all Alina knew, that was true. Or, it was just a way of telling her to shut up.
She wouldn't ask which. It wasn't her business.
"Fair enough."
NEXT CHAPTER:
January 7, 1191
"Alina! Your great taste never fails to impress me." Ellie, looking tasteful herself in a lovely red and gold dress Lady Rona had given her, squealed as she gave her sister a hug. "Yellow and pink. A welcome touch of spring for a winter wedding."
"A winter wedding without snow on the ground," muttered Alyssin from the bench. Beside her, Evera shot her a warning glare, but Thetis let it slide. A comment on the weather was merely a comment on the weather. Alyssin was very much her father's daughter and therefore didn't care much for emotional events--but like her father, she wouldn't ruin Alina's special day in any way Alina herself hadn't sanctioned.
"The colors were a splendid choice, dear," Thetis agreed. Blushing, Alina smiled; she'd probably worried that her parents would question a dress that wasn't pure white, as if they didn't have more important things to worry about. "Don't you agree, Rina?"
"Definitely." Rina must have felt so out of place among all the yellows and golds in the room--and being the only young woman in the room who hadn't spent nine months in Thetis's middle. She would be Thetis's daughter-in-law before the year was up, but her other daughters-in-law had opted not to help Alina prepare, as there would be enough of a crowd and someone needed to mind the children (and Florian). But Rina knew only Alina well, and it was important that she get to know Severin's other siblings.
The three oldest girls would make for a reasonable start. Evera liked everybody. Ellie could be shy at first, but if one made an effort, she'd double it in return. Alyssin could be tough to please, but Severin was even tougher to please and Alyssin knew that--so if Severin loved this young woman, there had to be something Alyssin could at least like about her.
"You should see the fabric Father picked out for Severin's wedding tunic." Alina grinned with wicked glee. "It's so yellow it makes this dress look blue! Mother, promise me you'll let me be there when Father shows it to him."
Thetis sighed. In Severin's mind, love of one's family came with no obligation to love or even tolerate one's family colors as well. In Florian's mind, notice of one's lack of fondness for their family colors came with every obligation to force the colors upon said person whenever possible. "Don't give your brother a hard time."
"Why not?" Alyssin craned her neck to the side and cracked it--to Ellie's obvious alarm. "He always gives everyone else a hard time."
Evera squirmed in her seat. "I don't think it matters anyway. Severin obviously loves Rina more than life itself. He'd still marry her even if he had to wear Alina's dress."
Alyssin snorted. "What do you think of that, Rina?"
Rina allowed herself a quick roll of the eyes before quipping back. "I think it would be a shame to let him stretch the pretty thing."
"As much as I'd love to see it, I have to agree--and the bride is always right on her wedding day." Alina winked. "Make note of that, Rina. The sky can be red if you want it to be, because no one will dare argue otherwise."
"I'm sure I'll find something better to be right about."
Alina laughed--and so did Thetis. "You may not be the bride today, but I believe you're right about that."
NEXT CHAPTER:
August 19, 1189
"So, it's official." Alina's hands fell to her lap, her body wanting to sit after that morning's long walk but too stimulated for complete stillness. "We bought the land--for the bank and for the house. We had to borrow some money from my parents and Jothein's, but we'll be able to pay them back eventually."
"And my grandmother will be happy to reimburse you for some of the bank land. I think I can convince my brother to contribute some money too."
"Excellent!" Oh, how lucky they were that Rina had patched things up with her brother! "I have to say: much as I love school, I'm so excited for what happens next. Jothein and his brothers will get to work on the house as soon as he graduates, so it'll be ready well before we marry."
"Severin and I have been looking at land too. Once we choose a place, Hamrick said he'd set to work on the house. The baron said he'd start recruiting a crew for the bank construction come spring."
"Great. Do promise you'll be near, for all Severin would hate to have his sister for a neighbor."
"I don't think he'd hate it," Rina assured her with a hint of a laugh. "I'll try to convince him."
"I'm sure you will." Her brother was a stubborn ass for everyone else, but damn was he clay in Rina's hands. It was sweet enough that even she found it borderline nauseating. Of course, she'd never admit that to either of them. "This is going to be so much fun! Us, the boys, the bank, Severin's surgery and Jothein's archives, our children growing up together--"
"Our what?"
"Our kids." Why was Rina's mouth twitching? Sure, the prospect was always a little frightening... but good frightening? That was what Alina's older siblings had all said, at least. "You know. They'll be cousins and they'll probably be the same age and they'll grow up close together. Won't it be nice?"
"I guess..."
Her mouth may have said it, but the rest of her face took a while to catch up.
NEXT CHAPTER:
February 10, 1188
"Severin!" Alina burst through the library doors of Leo House, Rina close behind. Primus had told her that her brother would be here, but she hadn't needed the tip. "My God. Do you ever leave this room?"
"Sadly, my professors won't allow for correspondence." Severin shoved aside whatever massive anatomy text he'd been reading and left the table. "Rina, is my sister bothering you?"
"No, of course not." A casual answer--too casual. From what Alina could gather, Rina and Severin had kissed once some months back and then... that had been it. Neither would provide a clear answer of whether or not they were courting now or planned on doing so or what. And Alina had thought Hamrick's string of horrible dates before Esela had been frustrating. "We just saw a guest lecturer."
"I hope they were better than the one Sister Fabia brought in last term."
"The abstinence man?"
"Yes. Nata said Lady Rahileine even apologized to her when she went to complain." Not a surprise. Lady Rahileine was a Kemorin, after all. It had become a crude urban joke that every Kemorin was born sans virginity.
"Maybe the clergy staff are bitter about students having sex," Alina ventured. "You know, since they can't have it themselves."
"Yes, because saying a few words render your genitalia useless forever." Severin rolled his eyes--and Rina, Alina was pleased to hear, snickered. "Really, what their superiors don't know won't hurt them. If Sister Fabia wants to rendezvous with some man in the wine cellar, I'm sure God has more important things to worry about."
"I don't much care to think about Sister Fabia in the wine cellar." Alina made for the couch and collapsed upon it, lounging. Severin and Rina would have to sit together. "Make yourselves comfortable, will you? Rina and I have an announcement."
Shrugging, her brother stepped around her couch and took the nearer side of the other one. Rina, as planned, sat down beside him. "It was a banking lecture."
"Banking?" Severin straightened, no doubt pretending to be interested. Had Alina come alone, he probably would have yawned and told her to stop wasting his time.
"Yes. The speaker was a woman named Rebekah. Her father was a money-lender, and she took over the business after he passed. She had some interesting insights about the intricacies of currency exchange."
"We won't bore you with the details if you don't gross us out with your dissection notes again," Alina offered.
"All right. But if you don't want to share the details, then why are you here?"
"Because," Alina pushed herself up, near to eye level as she could get with her brother. "We have decided to start a bank."
"Not now, of course. When we've graduated." Rina edged herself a little closer to Severin, rather to Alina's amusement. "We spoke with Rebekah after the lecture, and she said she'd love to correspond with us and give us more tips. And my grandmother said that the king just claimed some more land to the west, and she thinks it'll be going cheap in a few years to populate the area, so Alina and Jothein will head out there to lay the foundations, then I'll join them when I graduate."
"Maybe you can start up a practice there too, bro."
"Maybe." Couldn't have him and Rina living in different shires, after all. "You know, I think the kingdom could use an established bank."
"The Bank of Naroni does have a nice ring to it," Rina agreed. "I can probably get my step-grandfather to help with the start-up capital. It shouldn't take long to pay him back if we can win over a lot of the knights and nobility."
"Plus Father has his connections who find him amusing. Perhaps we can finally put his eccentricities to good use."
"Father as a bank mascot." Severin smirked. "I'm sure he'd find some way to make life difficult. You two could handle it, though."
"I don't think your father's that bad." Probably the greatest bit of proof that Rina was destined to become Alina's sister-in-law yet. "Anyway, assuming it all goes to plan, could we leave some pamphlets for the bank in your surgery?"
"Sure." Severin slung his arm over Rina's shoulder, black hair brushing brown as they both leaned inward. "Just as long as I can leave some pamphlets for my surgery in your bank."
NEXT CHAPTER:
