#earthrunes

"Wow!" Impressed. "Very nice, Zara!" He pauses. "I'll call mine, of course."

Slightly pensive.

"You should. She's a sweet lady."

A grin. "She is. I appreciate everything she'd done; I know if can't have been easy."

"Ha. I bet you were the easiest kid."

He shakes his head. "August... before me? Wasn't easy. And after me?" He shrugs. "It was a big change, a big adjustment." He sighs. "And then all that back and forth last year about college and... and what I couldn't tell them about the Truthbranches....."

"Right, because they don't know. But things seem to be settling?"

A faintly pained expression. "Well. I might blow it up again over the summer."

"Why? What's up?"

"Well."

"When I moved out here, it was to support Derynwydd. And... the Rachfords kind of assumed, and I let them, that she and I were.... ah, dating. And living together." Awkwardly.

"When I told them I was moving to Kansas City and not going to college in Scarsdale, my dad actually asked 'Which redhead?'"

"Oh...."

"Right."

"Does Sparrow know? That they think that?"

"Yes."

"And she's okay with it?"

He chuckles. "I think she understood the necessity."

"I'm wondering if this summer is the time to correct the record. Tell them, somehow, that it's Coradel and not Derynwydd."

"Oh, and that eventually it'll be here and not Kansas City."

"Not sure if that'd be better or worse... I mean, you are oathed, but they don't know that..."

"I want to be as honest as I can with them."

"Yeah... but it'll be hard, especially if you are financially dependent..."

He shakes his head. "Between the fund and savings I've been ok so far. I'll work and save over the summer. The hard part is splitting life between the two places."

"If I could live here, get a job here, be in the area regularly enough to work... that would help. But I can get by between the two."

"So changing schools and being here full time..." A sigh.

"You've really built you entire life around her. Does she change for you at all?"

"Coradel?" He shrugs. "She doesn't have to." Quietly. "But..." A shy grin. "... she's coming with me to Mass tomorrow." He glows softly.

"Ah."

"I don't expect anything, of course, but it will be nice to have her company."

"Right." She shrugs. "I hope it works out."

"It will." Supremely confident. "I don't expect her to share my faith, but I'd welcome it, of course."

"Anyway, that's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it? Build a life with her, around her?"

"With, August. The both of you, nu?"

He nods. "Well, it has to be -here.-" Logically.

"I guess."

"Because, well, she's the Baroness."

"Exactly."

"If I could? I'd move out here, get a small apartment, enroll, get a job...." Wistful. ".... but, Derynwydd needs me and neither Coradel nor I want to take that support away. Really, I'm -happy- to be there for her. It's just... well, wanting both."

He shrugs. "I just need to be patient."

"She's a wilder - what did she do before you?"

"Derynwydd? She wasn't Oathed to the House, not really fostered.... she was in need of support. As we all are, in various ways."

"Don't I know that one... I mean, I don't feel ready to leave home yet. I know... wilder... but."

He grins. "Zara, when you're ready you will, and not before. No harm, or shame, in that."

"Well, next year is looking at colleges... pity I can't just jump ahead to being a librarian."

"You can here." He points out.

"I mean, be a librarian here, and learn to be one out there."

"Going to school so far from home?" A worried expression. "Well, it's a long way away."

"There's this.."

He tilts his head, curious.