"Rad, this is my decision and it was long overdue," I said, pouring a bit of oil into a skillet and dredging the fish in the flour, herb and spice mixture before laying it gently in the heated pan to cook. The sauce was what truly made the fish, and I'd already slapped it together. Thankfully, one of Rad's kitchen employees was putting a vegetable dish together for Ry and me.
"Who will you live with?" Radolf demanded to know. Now I knew why he seemed so concerned. He and Ilvan were in my house there on Tulgalan. He didn't want to be turned out of it or forced to share. It made me sigh. They'd taken it over as theirs, although it had been a gift from Teeg twenty-five years earlier.
"Rad, if you want the house, I'll sell it to you. Although it's probably still in Teeg's name. You'll have to work it out with him." That caused a lifting of eyebrows, both his and Ilvan's. I never stayed there anymore and none of my things were there any longer. I figured Rad and Ilvan had taken over the master suite long ago.
"Reah, it may be out of our price range," Ilvan pointed out. He was my uncle and Edan's younger brother. He'd been afraid to admit his sexual orientation to his father, Addah Desh, as long as Addah was alive. To say Addah was prejudiced might have been putting things in much too mild a perspective.
"Talk to Teeg. I'm not going to jerk it away from you," I assured him. "Stop worrying about it. I can stay at Aurelius' or Lok's. They're never home anyway."
"I'd like for both of you to stop bothering Reah about this; she will have a place to stay," Ry sounded angry for some reason, and he never angered. He was always diplomacy and discretion, in the highest measures. I was a little miffed, too, but I'd let them live in the house rent-free, so why should things change now?
I finished the fish, we got the vegetables onto our plates and Ry and I sat in the kitchen and had a nice dinner while Ilvan and Radolf kept working. I'd found a good bottle of wine to go with our fish, and Ry and I took the rest of it back to our hotel room in Quezlos.
"Reah, you have to stop allowing them to walk over you," Ry gave me a hug and poured more wine into two glasses the hotel provided. Handing one to me, he bumped his glass with mine.
"I guess I should reevaluate my relationships," I gulped half my wine. "In ninety turns, we'll see if Radolf wants me again."
"Reah, he should want you now. That's how those relationships work."
"Could have fooled me." I gulped the rest of my wine. "All he sees is Ilvan, now."
"Ilvan is your uncle. He needs to see past his lust for a moment or two. If somebody were homesteading in his house and he needed it, you can bet he'd be having a fit."
"I allowed it for the past five turns. They're entrenched, now."
"You have to stop letting people take advantage like that." Ry held my face in his hands for just a moment.
"Yeah. But that's not likely to happen anytime soon, is it?" I walked away from him. He'd taken the bed closest to the door, so I went to flop on mine, wishing I'd taken a second bottle of wine from Dee's. Yes, the restaurant was named after Dee, Teeg's surrogate father and right-hand vampire. He'd bought the business for me, initially, with Teeg's money, but all the profits went back into the business, according to the books I saw. I seldom saw any of the money, and what I did see usually went to help the disabled on Kifirin. I worried whether they'd have proper care, now. Slapping a hand over my eyes, I moaned softly over how my life had gotten so complicated.
"Stop worrying about it," Ry said softly. "Get into your pajamas, Reah, and go to sleep. Dinner was incredible, by the way. It would have been the best ever, if we hadn't had Ilvan and Radolf to contend with."
"Ry, don't let them upset you. We'll just pretend they weren't there." I heaved myself off the bed and went to find my pajamas.
"I want to see Reah."
"Tory, I don't think that's a good idea, right now. Besides, she's working an assignment for Lendill."
"I have to see her. Soon. How will she know I want her back?"
"This is going to take time." Lissa brushed hair back from T0"> back fory's forehead. They were sitting in a nearly-dark kitchen, eating ice cream from Niff's.
"How much time, Mom? I don't think I can wait very long. It feels like years since we—you know."
"Honey, I'm sure it feels the same to Reah, too, and that's not a good thing. You know Wylend didn't give you the whole conversation, don't you? He wasn't being completely truthful when he came to you. He regrets that now, because Reah hasn't spoken to him for a very long time, either. Not really. And she renounced her Karathian citizenship."
"Yeah. Ry told me." Tory dropped his spoon into the empty ice-cream dish. "How could he do this—Em-pah Wylend, I mean? He could have broken Reah and me up forever. Looks like he broke Reah up with him forever."
"He did, honey. She won't ever go back to him. I think that's pretty much a given. Corolan has been heartbroken over it. He won't come around her because he doesn't want to be rejected."
"What about Em-pah Wylend? Is he heartbroken?"
Lissa sighed at her son's question. "Hon, I can't answer that. It doesn’t look like he's debilitated or anything."
"I made a mistake, Mom. Darletta was the worst kind of mistake. She was pretty and she turned my head. Reah is beautiful. Darletta thinks she is, but there's so much ugly inside her."
"Torevik, there's no comparison between the two."
"Yeah. I know that now. When will I see my two babies?"
"That may take a little while. They don't know you, so we need to take it slow on that, all right? Give us a little time to prepare all of you. This is a big adjustment. Are you ready to be a father? Do you want to be? You have to prepare yourself for that."
"That's what upset Reah to begin with. I wasn't ready. I realize that now. But I'm getting there. I think I wouldn't mind holding a little person. Especially if that little person is part of me." Tory raked a hand through his dark hair, his gray eyes troubled.
"Then we'll work on that, baby." Lissa rose from her seat and hugged her second-born.
"Are you going to tell me where Reah is?"
"Not right now, Tory. She's busy and we don't need to upset her any more than she is already. Give it a little more time. Then we'll try to work this out. With her and with your daughters."
"Who's taking care of them? My babies?"
"Your Aunt Glinda and Uncle Jayd are watching over them, as is your father. They're well cared for. You don't have to worry."