Life After Death

Guinevere: within their means

                 

{Guinevere}

I loved my house in the city. And I didn't care that we had to scrape together money to pay for it, or that we had to magically create most of our furniture, and we had sandwiches for lunch and dinner most days.

I had a beautiful daughter and a doting husband, and my mother could rot up in her castle for all I cared.

"You going to stare out the window all day, or finish those spells?" Corryn asked me, floating through the doorway. "Also Gawain would like you to know that Lunete is almost asleep."

I sighed and shook my head. "What does this matter to you?"

"It matters because Gawain gets worried about money and talks to me about it so he doesn't bother you about it," Corryn replied, perhaps too honestly. "Mikaela and Quinn are rolling in funds, why don't you just ask them?"

"Because my mother would find out," I told him. "And I want to prove to myself that I can be responsible for my life. I don't need..."

"Your mother? Your family?" Corryn interrupted. "Gawain does. He grew up in a full house of crazy, and say what you will about Mikaela, but she'll have some discretion about you coming over."

"What does this matter to you?" I repeated.

"I'm bored here," he admitted. "Watching a two year old take naps is only so riveting."

"Fine, we'll go," I said, rising from the table of ribbon and cords.

"What? Right now?" he questioned. "Lunete's taking a nap."

Gawain came down the stairs, causing Corryn to shift suddenly to the left.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Corryn wants to go to the Torninc," I explained. "And I'm procrastinating. Just let me run up and set a spell over Lunete and we'll be off."

"This seems impulsive," Gawain remarked, but let me pass him on the stairs.

Lunete's room was adjacent to the library, and though it had no books in there now, it would as soon as I could afford it. I needed spells and resources; all my things were still at Vercyne.

My daughter's trundle bed had stuffed animals covering it, almost hiding her away. Above her bed, I wove a small spell that would let me know when she awoke, or if anything else came into the room. After placing a gentle kiss on my girl's blonde curls, I headed back down.

"Are we ready?" I asked. "Corryn, keep up."

"I'll be fine," he replied and laid a ghostly hand on Gawain's shoulder. We vanished, and reappeared in the entry hall of the Torninc.

"Hello Mom," Gawain called.

But instead, Dinadan rounded the corner. He looked young, younger than he should have been, but that would be because of Martel's time. It was slower than ours.

"She's out back arguing with the garden," he said. "I know how crazy that sounds. Apparently, daisies sprung there overnight, and she wanted violets."

He shrugged it off. Gawain's brother was dressed like a human and looked very odd in a place like this, as well as uncomfortable.

"How long are you here for?" Gawain asked.

Dinadan scowled. "I have to get a job over there," he said. "Either that or college. But that means I'll just be younger and younger than the rest of our brothers. But staying here? Eh. The short answer is I don't know."