Room 218, Friday Night

[glacial_queen]

Karla was planning to head upstairs to Warren's room in a few minutes, she just had a few more herbs to mix for brews. It seemed less and less likely that this--whatever if was--was going to end in a fight, but she figured it would be best to be prepared anyway. The last of her spidersilk was spun into Healing webs, there were potions and tinctures and unguents prepared. Hopefully this meant that when it all went down, Karla would be ready for something.

[Open!]

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[glacial_queen]

"I don't know," Karla said waspishly. "In the forest. In the mountains. In Arceria, watching over the Black Widows. I can't imagine why I didn't know instinctively you weren't in Sidra."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton sighed and rolled his eyes. "Karla, if you're going to keep playing stupid games, can you at least tell me the rules? Or is this something like cradle, where me knowing the rules somehow invalidates the game?"

Yeah. Morton held cradle in the same high regard as the rest of the boyos.

"Mountains? Forests? Arceria?"

[glacial_queen]

Arceria was gone.

Karla had to sit down for that. It meant that all the Black Widows she'd tried to usher into safety were gone, too. Haven was gone. All the Arcerian cats were gone. Kaelas was likely gone, too, since he'd been staying there to help sort out any differences between the humans and the kindred.

Gone. All of them. Gone. And now, had never been.

She had to clear her throat before she could continue. "B-before I tell you the rules, you have to answer me a question. Name all the Territories in Kaeleer."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton heaved a great sigh, trying to remember exactly why he'd missed his cousin. "Would my lady like them in alphabetical order or simply in order of the date of their founding?" And then quickly before Karla could answer, he rattled off, "Glacia, Dhemlan, Paw Islands, Nharkhava, and Centauran."

He was a little surprised by Karla's whispered, "Is that all?"

What did she mean, was that all? Of course that was--oh. "Sorry, right. And the forests of the Dea al Mon."

Heh. Gabrielle might have killed him for that.

...Chaosti who?

[glacial_queen]

Katrine, the tiny, pixie-winged female. Kalush, petite and lush and quiet, but with a wicked sense of humor. Astar, the centaur female who could make anything grow. Sceron, who'd been willing to challenge Saetan over Jaenelle when they'd first met. Gabrielle and Chaosti, tall and silver-haired, moving with an almost inhuman grace.

And Jaenelle, of course. Thank the Darkness for Jaenelle. But they were all that was left of the boyos and the coven who had descended on poor, unwitting, Uncle Saetan that first summer. And Karla and Morton, of course.

No Khary. No Morghann. No Aaron. No Sabrina or Zylona or Jonah. No Grezande or Elan. No kindred. No unicorns or Arcerian cats or Sceltie dogs. Ladvarian might still have existed, but odds were Kaetien was gone, too. Lady Ash of the wolves had vanished at least two weeks ago--and there was no guarantee that all of the people Karla was counting as survivors really were.

Karla put her fist in her mouth and bit down hard. No reason to worry Morton even more.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Karla's not-talking was worrying Morton just as much as her talking. "This is getting really weird, Karla," Morton warned. "Are you in some kind of danger? Is this whole weird call just you trying to warn me that something's not right? Bring up Emma again if you need help."

[glacial_queen]

"What? No!" Startled out of her reverie, Karla could almost laugh. "No, I'm safe. I'm just kind of...pensive tonight. I had a call with a good friend who'd lost someone--close to him." Those were both true enough in their own way.

"I'm sorry if I seem weird. I'm just kind of...following my own thoughts tonight."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"Aww, Karla, I'm sorry," Morton said. "...It wasn't because of something dangerous on the island, was it? Because, Karla, you promised. I do not want to have to relive that conversation between Lady Raven and that Jack fellow more than once."

[glacial_queen]

Jack?

Karla's heart broke again as she realized that Morton no longer remembered Dinah. Or Tahiri. Probably not Kennedy, anymore, too. Maybe not Bobby, either. In its own way, this hurt even more than losing them had. Because Morton had no idea anything was amiss. He didn't even remember enough to know what he had lost.

"No, no, nothing is wrong on the island," she said, forcing herself to smile. It wasn't actually a lie, even. "We're all safe and just fine here."

For now.