Life After Death

Lionel: little sisters

                 

{Lionel}

In some ways, the watches meant that Porphia was gone longer, but I saw her more often. Eira and Finran were happy with the new arrangement, even if their younger cousins were over. Alessa Sade was five again, and she and Eira played in the living room with one of Eira's castles. Torben was staring outside at his rainstorm, and Marian was just watching Eira and Alessa Sade. I wasn't quite sure where Finran was, but he didn't like to share his toys with his cousins anyway.

"Parsifal should return for the twins as soon as Kalexa gets back to Vercyne," Porphia said, appearing next to me. She kissed me and then sat down on the couch. "How are the children?"

"Calmer than last time," I replied. "But we had a hailstorm in our living room last time. The rain seems to have contented Torben for now."

One of the stranger parts of the watch I now wore constantly was that I knew what time it was for both Porphia and me. If she was floating about time, I knew when. But the best part was when she was here, and it was now. It was wonderful.

"Do we want to make dinner?" I inquired. "Or wait for Parsifal to collect his children?"

"Let's wait," she said. "Torben doesn't like grilled cheese sandwiches, but that's what I'd like to fix. It's too much of a rainy day for more exciting foods."

"Did you find Arthur?" I asked, remembering what she was gone to do.

She shrugged. "Yes and no. I know where they are, but as soon as I physically find them, they move. Arthur's not interested in interference. Dagonet had the best luck contacting him via a demon; Gawain thought it was a bit insensitive give Larachime's background. Dagonet doesn't care."

"They're together, but safe?" I surmised.

"The next time they show up in Donlin, Arthur has a crazy amount of children," Porphia said. "Safe is relative."

"I'll never understand my brothers." Lightning crackled only a couple feet from our window, and the house shook violently with the rumbling. To my surprise, no one seemed bothered by it but me.

"Torben, keep the lightning away from the house, okay?" Porphia called to him.

The little boy nodded and the next lightning strike was out past the yard.

"I don't think your brothers understand you that well either, Lionel," my wife told me. "You married a woman who you were married to the first day you met, only to meet her for the first time the following week. Some faeries would call that crazy."

"But I never ran off with you," I pointed out. "And that's happened twice now. No one approves of Kalexa and Parsifal or Dagonet and Nimue."

"That's not their fault," Porphia tried, but then stopped, thinking of Nimue and Dagonet. Everyone knew they shouldn't get married, but it didn't matter, not to my brother. He was going to marry Nimue or die trying, after some of the fights I'd seen and Porphia told me about, who knew how long they would last.

"Is it weird not seeing your brothers regularly?" Porphia asked me. "Do you miss it?"

"Not in the slightest," I answered. "That I can promise you. I moved up onto the roof because I was trying to escape my family. I love my brothers, but with eight of us, it's overwhelming."

We heard footsteps behind us and I turned, seeing Parsifal and Hazel, an odd combination.

"Hello," Parsifal said with a wave. "Thank you for watching them on such short notice."

"Not a problem," I assured him, giving a wink to my wife.

Torben and Marian heard their father and ran over to him, chattering and smiling.

"What brings you here, Hazel?" I questioned, gesturing at a seat. My little sister sat on the couch next to Porphia.

"Adele and Westley caught me at Vercyne with Tristan," she admitted, though she didn't look very apologetic. "I'm confident that Adele is furious, and I didn't want to go home and explain it to Mom and Dad quite yet." She laughed. "I am in so much trouble."

"You can stay in the spare bedroom," Porphia suggested. "Since Parsifal remembered to get his children this time."

Parsifal had one twin in each arm, but still he flushed. "That only happened once," he protested. "Kalexa and I were trying to catch a murderer. We were tired. I'm heading home now; good night, Lionel." With a sniff, he dropped a transport spell and vanished.

Hazel and I laughed at our brother.

"I would love to stay," she said. "I'd like to have some time to formulate a decent argument."

"We're having grilled cheese sandwiches," Porphia told her and rose from the couch. "I'm going to tell Finran his cousins are gone."

"Do you have a plan for keeping Tristan?" I inquired.

"Of course. Five girls are his age in the aristocracy," she explained. "Two are his sisters. One is me. The second girl is head over heels infatuated with him and is convinced he'll propose at any moment. The third girl is convinced that the Guerre family is a blight on the universe, and would try to remove our family from the government the moment she was Queen. Tristan caught wind of that plan, and wants nothing to do with her. Both of his sisters are dating or are married to Guerres. So that leaves me. I like him well enough; I'm not crazy and I would be a beneficial asset to Vercyne."

"Hm," was my reply. I didn't like the idea that my sister could be a part of the next Cabinet, but it could be that I thought of her as my little sister. She wasn't supposed to be bothered by those kinds of things.

"Adele thinks Mom is behind this, trying to take the throne. That is stupid. Anyone can tell our mother doesn't give a damn about taking anything over. She's more concerned with her garden, at least right now."

"I don't think it would hurt to get on Adele's good side," I remarked. "She's still powerful, and she can ship her son to any number of countries as a diplomat. Not to mention, you don't want to be Guinevere in a couple of years, living away from family just to defy her."

"I may have cursed Adele," Hazel told me, with a sort of half grin. I wasn't sure whether to be horrified or impressed. "To calm down and stop destroying any family she had for the sake of the country."

"Not a bad curse, as curses go," I allowed. "Not a smart move, however."

"We were both yelling, I don't think she noticed the magic," Hazel shrugged. "At any rate, I didn't mean to. But since it already happened, I'm not sorry."

"If it means that she relaxes from being Queen all the time, then I'm inclined to agree with you," I replied. "But cursing royalty doesn't seem like a good solution every time."

"Lionel, you're too passive," Hazel complained. "I don't want to just lie down and get walked all over because she's decided our family is evil. We're not. We're powerful and influential. Either she has a raging jealousy streak or she just decided let being a ruler cloud her every waking second. And either way, she will push everyone away until she ends up alone. I'm not saying that our parents are the best sources of inspiration at Vercyne, but at least they enjoy life as well. Even Dad knows when to step out of the politics for a while. Adele doesn't."

"So I can't convince you to take the curse off?" I asked.

"Not a chance," she responded. "Tristan is the only child now that Nimue and Guinevere refuse to be anywhere near Vercyne. He has to put up with all politics, drama, and the duty of being only son in a family of wayward children. I like him enough not to believe what I said to Adele wasn't necessary."

"Still," I tried. "I'm all for family peace, but I don't think creating it with a curse is a good thing."

Hazel smiled at me. "It's completely worth it,"she assured me.