Magic Box, Sunday, 04/17

[not_every_mage]

Anders had gotten into Fandom on the first portal he could catch after Carys's call, and the rest of the day had been full of strawberry sundaes and craft projects and sticky cuddles and more questions than Anders knew a five-year-old could ask in twelve hours. And, somehow, his fingernails were painted hot pink to match hers by the end of the day

Comments

[spin_kick_mage]

Carys was used to one or the other of her parents being gone for awhile. They were friends with the Champion and sometimes that meant going away for a little while to kill things a lot. So when her Daddy had come back to the island without Mommy, Carys hadn't really questioned it.

But now it was a whole day later, and Mommy hadn't been there to brush her hair or sing her to sleep and she hadn't been there to wake her up with a kiss and make her eat breakfast. And while she might miss one or the other, missing both was practically unheard of.

So while she was coloring in her book, Carys finally asked, "When is Mommy coming back? I miss her."

[not_every_mage]

"I don't know, sweetheart," Anders admitted, trying to keep the way she was twisting his heart out of his facial expression. He went to crouch by the girl. "The thing she's doing right now is important. She doesn't feel like she can leave it. I know she'd rather be with you, though."

He was impressed by how calm and not-bitter he sounded.

[spin_kick_mage]

"Is it more spiders?" Carys asked, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth while she concentrated very hard on staying in the lines. "Mommy hates fighting spiders. She says the guts get everywhere."

Putting the crayon down, she looked up at her Daddy. "Or is it more 'bominations?" she asked in a small voice.

Carys didn't like 'bominations. They gave her scary dreams.

[not_every_mage]

"Thank the Maker, no," Anders said, with an involuntary shiver at both ideas. (Given the choice between a cave full of spiders and a cave full of zombies, he'd take the spiders, but it'd be close.) "It's like corpses. A lot of corpses who can turn other people into the same thing. She's trying to fight them back."

That was a good way to give the child nightmares, but she seemed too sharp to lie to.

"Have you ever heard of zombies?"