Macha's Journey

As Macha stood in the kitchen stuffing the mice with shallots, she listened to the conversation at the dinner table. Tonight Freyr, Luna, and Krystof all came over to enjoy a meal. They were deciding when a good time to have the wedding would be.

The talks about the upcoming marriage made Tyr irritable. To him, it really did not make a difference when the two would be married. They had known each other so long and practically lived together already. Due to his poor att.i.tude, he kept quiet, trying to avoid ruining the moment.

Luna nudged her brother, "When do you think we should hold it?"

Everyone had their own opinions on when it should be held, but she wanted to find out what his thought on the matter was. Aside from Krystof, she held his opinion in the highest regard.

"Up to you," he said dryly. He decided to refill everyone"s gla.s.ses and made a move to get the bottle of wine that Freyr brought over.

Before Tyr could get it, Freyr reached out and began to pour more Pan Tao wine into everyone"s gla.s.ses. He brought four bottles with him since he knew it was Macha"s favorite.

He chuckled as the pink liquid flowed into Macha"s gla.s.s. His blue eyes looked up at the couple, "Come now, you two just started going out. Why the sudden rush to marry?" He paused, and a look of concern washed over his face, "Wait, do not tell me your..." His eyes grew wide at the thought of his cousin being pregnant.

This comment made Macha stop what she was doing. Luna mentioned nothing about that to her.

Luna furiously shook her head and waved her hands in front of her, "No! If I was pregnant before marriage mother would kill me. I would not be asking when we should get married; we would be handing out invitations right now." This idea caused her to laugh.

Freyr chuckled and fixed his dark brown hair. He nodded at Krystof and asked, "When are you planning to have kids, anyway? I would not mind seeing what the next set of Lichnowskys will turn out like."

At the mention of children, Luna reached over to hold Krystof"s hand. Krystof gave a shy smile, "We want to wait till after the political tension settles down. Luna said she wants to have a bunch all at once that way they can grow up close like she and Tyr."

"I didn"t like how Skadi was so much older than Tyr and me." The thought of her older sister made her give a small frown, but she quickly pushed the conversation to a more pleasant topic. "How many children would you want someday?" She asked Freyr.

This was something she was always curious about. In his youth, he had dated a ridiculous amount of women but never talked about marrying them. As far as she remembered, he never even mentioned an "if I had a kid" moment before.

Freyr took a sip of wine. While he raised his gla.s.s; he stole a glance at Macha. She looked beautiful tonight and the pendant light in the kitchen cast a warm glow on her. It filled his heart with longing.

When he put his gla.s.s down, he shrugged his shoulders and gave his cousin a playful smile, "If I ever get married I would probably end up with too many. That is fine though, I think big families are good."

Since he had lost his sister in the war, he always wished he had other siblings. He also knew if he somehow ended up with Macha, he probably would not be able to keep his hands off her. Now he was curious about how many children Macha wanted but given his feelings towards her, he felt he should avoid asking her.

Before he had a chance to become disappointed, Luna"s cheerful, slightly drunk voice called out, "How about you Macha? How many do you want?"

She wanted to know how many nieces and nephews she could expect and realized that her brother was not the person to inquire about this sort of thing. His mood seemed to be poor tonight, anyway.

Macha put the knife down and brought her lips in while she thought about the question. This light-hearted inquiry was difficult to answer.

"Hmm… I personally like big families too. I had a lot of aunts and uncles growing up. I was a single child, so I always wished for siblings. If I could choose, I would say as many as I ended up with."

She tried her best to answer honestly, but keep her uncertainty of Tyr"s opinions in mind.

After she gave her reply, Tyr grabbed his winegla.s.s and went outside to sit on the porch. It annoyed him that Freyr and Macha had similar views on children. He did not understand why people even wanted to have a baby.

In his opinion, the world was a terrible place. As he was walking outside, he reflected, "Why would anyone want to bring a life into this world so it could suffer? Besides, babies are loud when they are little. Force something into this h.e.l.l just so it can overturn your whole world? No thank you."

He opened the door to the patio and shook his head in disgust. Continuing this thought process, he reminded himself, "Children may seem nice when young, but they always become adults. Half the time they ended up like Skadi, Jarnvid, or Fenrir." With that thought, he slammed the door shut so he could have some time alone.

After a while, Macha finished preparing the last of the mice and went outside to check on Tyr. He leaned back with his feet up while looking at the sky.

In a soft voice, she said, "Hey."

He looked behind him and saw her uneasy face. "Hey."

"What are you thinking about?" she asked. Although she inquired, she was pretty sure what it was.

Not feeling talkative, he replied, "Children."

She moved onto the patio and closed the gla.s.s door behind her. "Luna asked what I would want. Just because that is what I ideally want, doesn"t mean that is what I have to get."

Tyr gazed at the city. It was lit up and a cold breeze blew. His face was hard and his voice clear, "What if someday you resent that decision?"

The world of what-ifs always annoyed Macha. She hated whenever she caught herself thinking with that mindset. Instead of answering his question, she countered, "What if one day you change your mind? Life is long here and I am pretty sure I will age the same as you. We never know what might happen."

She could not be positive, but in the past few years, she did not see any white hairs spring from her head. Mathis had said that Longum Auris was the reason their race had extended lifespans compared to the other races. It was something she looked into as she witnessed Unai growing older.

They stood looking at the city for a few minutes. Tyr thought about what she said. "If you did become pregnant, I wouldn"t ask you to get rid of it."

That was as far as he was willing to go for now. The Abyzou pendant he got did not work a hundred percent of the time, so if one day she did conceive, he would not be against it.

Satisfied with how the conversation ended, he gave her fingertips a kiss. "Go entertain the guests. I want to stay here." He wanted to have some time alone to reconsider his position on having children.

Macha rolled her eyes. "They aren"t guests. They"re family. Your sister is trying to ask your opinion on the wedding details and you"re not being very helpful."

"Mmm," he replied.

"Fine, but don"t stay out here too long."

Sometimes he got in these moods. Tyr did not enjoy socializing and often found it tiresome. She left him and joined the others inside. She knew that he always came back after an hour or so.

****

After everyone left, Macha and Tyr cleaned up the apartment. A knock sounded and Tyr opened the front door. Standing in the doorway was Aierim. Tonight her white hair was in a high ponytail and she wore a tunic with a pair of breeches.

She produced a bright smile and a little wave, "Evening Captain!"

"It"s for you," he called and left the door open.

Macha stopped washing the dishes and moved to the door. Her blue dress was wet where she had leaned against the counter and she dried her hands on her skirt.

She gave a friendly smile, "Hey Aierim, what brings you here? Come in, I"ll make some tea."

It was late, so she shook her head and stayed in the hallway. "Oh no, I just came to ask if you wanted to join the gang on a mission. We haven"t asked since the Captain got back from the war because we figured you"d want to catch up with him. It"s been a few months, so I thought I would see if you wanted in on this one."

Macha looked at Tyr, who was listening to their conversation from the kitchen. He was busy drying the dishes and putting them away.

When he realized she wanted his permission, he shrugged his shoulders, "Up to you. I can always go on a mission as well."

While he did not like being separated from her, he had been neglecting his duties. The missions he went on were important for the guild"s improvements and helped them to continue expanding.

"All right! Count me in. What"s the mission we"re going to do?" Although she loved being with Tyr, she still enjoyed bonding with her party and going on adventures.

Aierim clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh, we didn"t choose a mission yet. We wanted to know if you would like to come first. I"ll talk with Zian and figure out which one we want to do. Let you know by the end of the week."