Irritable Wishes|Naurorod

[Northen Light36]

This has been a bad twelve months for being my horse, Ann thought, glancing irritably at the packhorse she'd brought off one of the Char clanners. More like pack pony. At least it's calm enough for Aly to ride, so we don't have to double up on Stormfire. I am not looking forward to telling Tres I need another riding horse though.

And before she could go home to the joking and teasing about carelessness she'd undoubtedly face in Fira, she still had to drag herself to Linnod and Flare so there wouldn't be grumbling about favouristim. Not an attractive prospet when she was tired, headachy and feeling frustrated.

And even in Fira, she was unlikely to get a chance to vent off her bad temper. While Aideen would be a willing listener, the chances of them getting enough privacy for Ann to vent without offending someone were slim. The only time she'd had that level of peace and freedom was... Tuono.

Ann closed her eyes for a minute. Forces, she missed him. And Aly had never even had a chance to meet her father. It wasn't as though Ann could just slip away anymore. Not without losing the respect she'd struggled to get from her people.

No one ever caged in Uncle Damien, she thought bitterly. No one dared challenge or question him. Forces, just once I'd like to be able to go somewhere or do something without having to think about who's going to get mad at me this time. Is a little freedom so very much to ask for?

She sighed, tired and frustrated.

[Kender Bard]

There was a sudden chill at her back as if something had sucked away the traditional desert heat from the air behind her. A masculine voice remarked, "I think you'll find your assumptions about your late uncle are false, but seeking a little peace from life is a wish that I've heard many, many times."

Taed smiled slightly to himself not that it could be seen within his cowl. The only thing visible from within his garment were two pinpricks of ghost light where his eyes would have been.

[Northen Light36]

Ann blinked at the chill - and the voice. She hadn't spoken aloud had she? And how had she missed hearing someone coming up behind her? Turning, she gasped at the sight now before her, knowing instantly who, and what, this person had to be.

"Taed," she breathed, awe, shock and just a touch of curiousity colouring the word. What could bring him here? She didn't think this was her time to pass beyond the veil, or that Taed was inclined to be so personal about collecting those who were... She couldn't seem to drag up the energy to be afraid for herself, but she glanced at her daughter in concern.

[Kender Bard]

Taed waved a hand dismissively when she looked to her daughter. The skin on it was not only pale but cracked and dry, dessicated. It disappeared within the folds of his robes. "I actually do take a personal interest in most deaths." His tone turned wry. "It's what I do. But I am not here for you or your child. I do, however, offer a kind of death. You are so desperate to escape your duties. Yet you refuse to step down. It seems to me that there are several choices to end what you consider so onerous but you take none. Yet, you suffer on."

"The desert is a hard place. It is a place where my sister Worg and I are strongly intertwined and at odds simultaneously. Only the strong survive here."

He let out a gusty sigh and a breeze kicked up the sand and blew it all about them. "Do you wish to leave it all behind? To cast off the burden of your life?"

[Northen Light36]

Yes, Ann thought, but said tiredly, "This is my responsiblity and duty. It's what my uncle and mother expected of me and I can't let them down."

There has to be at least someone I manage not to disappoint, even if no one else would care.

[Kender Bard]

"They're dead," Taed replied simply. "And while it is a refreshing change to see one honoring their dead with such fierce dedication, you are not precisely beholden to their wishes. And besides. I can read your heart. What if I could offer you not the death of the body but the death of who you are?"

"If you feel so embittered towards the Fires, then I can take you away from them. And you from you; you would be whoever you wanted to be, but it would not be Honored Leader Ann of Naurorod any longer. Perhaps simply a housewife of a certain thief, hm?"

[Northen Light36]

"Tuono," Ann murmured wistfully. My family would understand, wouldn't they? I miss him so much. And if I was gone, I'm sure a better leader would step up quickly enough. Probably with a sigh of relief that they didn't need to put up with me anymore.

She hesitated a moment longer, but hadn't she just been thinking about how much she missed her lover and that she wanted Aly to know her father? Aideen might miss her, and maybe Gemma, but they would get over it. And she was just so tired of trying to live up to her uncle and failing. She'd lost her childhood to this. Wasn't that enough without sacrificing her happiness for people who mostly wouldn't notice if she was gone? She looked at Taed and nodded slowly. "I'd like that," she murmured.

[Kender Bard]

Taed just nodded and passed a hand over Ann's eyes to momentarily daze her. He did the same for the dozing child with her to insure she stayed asleep. Then, with a wrinkled, leathery thumb he reached out and ran his thumb over the Fire sign on Ann's forehead, wiping it away, leaving her as a two-signer.

I'll even throw a little travel into the mix, Taed thought with wry amusement. With but an effort of will they no longer stood in Naurorod desert but within Maelstrom.

"Enjoy your small death, Ann," Taed remarked, part amused but also with a touch of menace. "I brook no self-pity softness in my desert home," he added in a whisper. When he disappeared, the daze on woman and child was broken.

[Northen Light36]

Ann blinked and looked around, concerned. Where am I? How did I get here? From where? Why can't I remember?

Alyssa choose now to wake with a whining protest at the sudden cold, then pause and look around, startled. "Mama?" she asked in confusion.

"Aly..." Ann reached out to hold her daughter. She remembered her little girl at least. Tuono. Her father... Maybe I can find him. He might know what's happened. But where should she look for a thief? No, she'd take care of the horse and pony first and find an inn... A careful search revealed a coin purse tucked in among her belongings, so she could at least get stabling and a place to sleep. So that was where she'd start. "Aly, do you know how we got... where ever here is?"

Alyssa shook her head and reached up to hold her mother's hand as Ann led the horse and pony through the streets in search of an inn. Both mother and child paused when a startled voice called, "Ann?"

Ann turned and gave a sigh of relief at seeing Tuono. "Tuono?"

Tuono hurried across the street to the pair, a mixture of puzzlement and pleasure on his face. "By the forces, Ann. What are you doing in this part of Maelstrom? Surely Shadow would have-"

Ann cut him off with a curious, "Shadow?" At the shocked look on her lover's face, Ann added, "Is that someone I know? Tuono, I don't know what's going on. I don't remember anything except you and our daughter, Alyssa. I don't even know how I got here."

You're missing a sign too, Tuono thought grimly, but from the stress in his lover's voice he thought it better not to say so just yet. He hugged Ann and began to speak soothingly, "I don't know what's happened, Ann. But we'll figure- Wait." He paused, her earlier words sinking in. "Our daughter? As in, yours and mine?"

Ann nodded silently, suddenly afraid. What would she do if he rejected them? She had nowhere else to go. At least, nowhere she knew of. She watched at Tuono studied Alyssa for a long moment, then relaxed as he smiled.

"She has my nose," Tuono remarked. This wasn't exactly how he'd expected to learn he was a father, but he hadn't been careful before that last night with Ann. And apparently, neither had she. Well, I like kids. And she's a cute little thing. "What did you say her name was? Alyssa? Well, hello Alyssa. I'm Tuono and it seems I'm your daddy."

Alyssa looked up and the man and smiled, deciding she liked this man since he made her mummy smile. "I'm Aly," she corrected quietly. "Hello."

Tuono chuckled. His daughter had spirit, even if she was a quiet one. "Well, I think the first thing to do is get you two somewhere comfortable. We're not too likely to work out what's happened to the pair of you standing in the middle of the street." He gave Ann a soothing pat on the shoulder and lifted Alyssa back onto the pony. "I have a house in a small village about half a day's walk for here. There's plenty of room for both of you, if you don't mind staying with me?"

"I can't think of anything I'd want more right now," Ann sighed. "I'm so confused."

Tuono smiled warmly at her. "So am I, Ann. But at least we can be confused together." He took her hand and led the way towards the guild. His guildmates would understand as soon as he could pull someone aside and get the gossip chain started.