Rather than Resenting: Ch. 24

Essentially a Family Reunion

Notes:

This is one of those chapters I wrote, couldn't stand, and re-wrote later. Hopefully it's better now. I'm still not in love with it, but we can't not have it....

The inspiration for Leeli's son's name comes from an Ao3 reader I've chatted with on YT, Thags and Yarn, who has a headcanon that Leeli names her son Podo. I didn't want to completely copy her but I liked the idea, so I just changed it a little^^

*****

It was the day before the Redeemer’s Ball, and all of Anniera was bustling and chattering and singing with excitement. Children were bouncing off the walls because they would receive presents in just two days, mothers were making final measurements to ball gowns and suits, fathers were doing their best to keep the presents hidden from ecstatically searching eyes and hands, and everyone was joyfully anticipating the dragons that, led by Hulwen, would sing as a choir so hauntingly beautiful, sweeping over the Isle carefully all the while for the joyous occasion. 

That did not even include the bakers, cooks, decorators, coordinators, sailors, seamstresses, musicians, and all the others working to make the Ball a success as it was every year. All the markets within the vicinity of Castle Rysen were crammed full of people shopping for last minute goods or thread or wrapping paper.

The docks were bustling, too, getting ready for the Hollish ships that would arrive in mere hours. Anything last minute still needed for the Ball and the people would be on those ships, and that was when the fever of rush hour would truly begin.

Janner never liked those days just before, during, and just after the Ball. Everything was pure chaos, pure craziness, and the number of times he had heard, “it'll work, just barely, but I'm sure it'll work,” were more than he could count.

At least his speech was done. He had managed to finish it after he had chosen to listen to the Maker’s instruction. Whether he would actually give it was another question, but he was planning on making it very accessible for both Kalmar and Artham in the event that he wasn't present when the came time for it.

However there was a genuine smile on his face as he stood with Kalmar, Galya, and Artham at the docks, expectantly waiting for the front Hollish ship to come into the port and lay down the gangplank. The ridiculous number of people crowding around made it much less pleasant, but he was willing to put up with it for his younger sister. And his brother-in-law. And his nephew. And Mister Reteep.

Janner saw three individuals frantically waving from on deck, and he could have sworn it was Leeli, Thorn, and Oskar. And he was pretty certain the tallest and wiriest of the three figures was holding someone, likely their two-year-old son, Helmer. “Podo” had been Leeli’s  first choice when it came to naming him, but she hadn’t wanted to make anyone want to cry when they called for him to come, so she settled for “Helmer.” He was still their beloved grandfather’s namesake, just in a different way.

In the next few minutes, the ship had drawn near enough to where  a neatly braided pale-blonde collection of wind-blown curls, a wild mophead of brown hair, a dusting of dirty-blond curls,  and an utterly and completely shining bald head were visible, confirming the three, rather, four, by the railing were indeed Thorn, Leeli, and Helmer O’Sally, with the edition of Oskar N. Reteep.

Janner couldn’t help but think how odd his sister’s name sounded with O’Sally after it instead of Wingfeather or even Igiby — no, scratch that, he thought.“Igiby” sounds weird too, now. It had been almost four years since their marriage, and he still wasn’t quite used to the change.

After Janner finished with his musings, the ship was close enough to where he could tell how much they (or at the very least, Thorn) were just dying to whoop and holler but restrained themselves to keep from distracting the sailors working to dock and from disturbing any of the other passengers.They were waving frantically, though.

Because of that, it was not until a tedious ten minutes later that the gangplank was laid down and people began filing down it as gracefully as possible. Thorn, Leeli, Helmer, and Oskar, as well as Clout and Olumphia, were among the first to reach the docks.

On setting foot there, Olumphia immediately began demanding to know where Nia was and why she wasn’t there to greet her (“After all, I am her best friend,” she complained gruffly), Clout did not bother trying to stop his wife and simply set to work with the diplomatic necessities, which meant shaking Artham’s hand, then Kalmar’s (technically bowing would be the most respectful, but he knew Kalmar enough to know it would not be appreciated), then kissing Galya’s hand, then exchanging greetings, Leeli threw her arms around Janner’s neck (because he was closest to her) and peppered him with questions about Sara that he wanted to answer, but not there, Thorn did his best to greet everyone at once while also juggling Helmer and Helmer’s  satchel filled with clothes, and Oskar sputtered with delight because it really had been too long since he had seen any of them and struggled to verbalize a quote from any material.

As it was, Janner took the satchel, Helmer demanded to be put down, Thorn refused, Helmer began crying, Leeli grew frustrated because of the combination of her son already crying and the fact that she couldn’t learn anything about her sister, the combined efforts of Olumphia and Galya managed to put an end to the tears, and the party made their very noisy way to the two carthorse-drawn sleighs waiting to take them back to Castle Rysen.

Everyone tumbled or wriggled or squeezed out of the sleighs the moment they arrived at the Castle Gates, and soon there was more chattering, more laughing, and more squeezing as multiple people tried greeting Nia at the same time while also talking to each other at the same time.

If Janner was being completely honest, he was growing weary of the constant noise and laughter and almost succeeded in sneaking away from the group to head upstairs and see Sara. Leeli caught him, though, and loudly declared he was going to stay there and talk with her until he decided to take her to see Sara, while Kalmar protested, saying that he would need Janner in the meeting they were going to have in just a few minutes to discuss yet another slew of trade details between Anniera and the Green Hollows.

This turned into a full-blown argument on which of them would lay claim to Janner, which he couldn’t help but smile at. Oskar, who had apparently managed to get his full range of quote-prompted discussions back whispered (noisily, of course, as he had never quite figured out how to do anything subtly): “As Herckle Smigdet once said, ‘I’ve never seen someone fought over so vehemently when cookies were not involved.’ Who do you think is going to win?”

Janner laughed. “Honestly, I’m betting on Leeli. Not just because I want her to win, but also because Kalmar will give in to her pretty easily.”

As he predicted, it was only another minute before Kalmar threw up his hands in humored exasperation. “Fine, you can have him! But please return him after a little bit, because I need him at the meeting.”

“Uh, guys, I’m right here,” Janner pointed out, glad that Leeli had won but not thrilled that he was being treated as property. 

Everyone else apparently found the exchange very funny, so they laughed for a minute before deciding to begin rushing everything all at once. Leeli started dragging Janner upstairs, then paused to pick up Helmer, who was declaring, “See couzes!” (meaning cousins) loudly, Janner took Helmer from her and swung him up onto his shoulders, making him squeal, and they began the giggly trip upstairs, Nia leading them, smiling all the while.

In that same moment, everyone else except for Oskar — meaning Artham, Kalmar, Galya, Clout, Olumphia, and Thorn, who declared he wanted some, “ed-u-catin’ on trades an’ whatnot,” — headed for the conference room so they could discuss the diplomatic pieces of everything that would be the last meeting anyone had to attend before the Ball. Oskar, meanwhile, made a beeline for the library, muttering something about needing to read the few books the Castle Library had that the Ban Ronan Library did not.

It turned out that Sara and Arundelle were in the private sitting room and all the children were scattered around it, playing with each other or doing an assortment of things like coloring or reading. The moment Evnia spotted Helmer, she squealed with delight and he shrieked, trying to squirm down from his perch on Janner’s shoulders on his own. Janner laughed and maneuvered him off his shoulders, setting him on the ground carefully. Then it was Evnia and Helmer “attacking” Elquinn and Laylynne, while Asteria tried playing referee but eventually gave up and joined the fray as a neutral party.

Instead of flying at Sara as she wished, Leeli gave her a side-hug and squeezed her shoulders tightly, then began murmuring loving words about Cerlon and saying that he truly was a beautiful baby, and he looked even better than how Sara had described him in her latest letter the week before.

Janner began wondering why exactly Leeli had demanded that he come upstairs when it didn’t seem as though she was going to ask him any questions, but almost as soon as he thought that, she addressed it. 

Turning to him with a light smile (but her blue eyes were serious) she asked, “Now, what are you planning on doing about Cerlon?”

He was taken aback for a moment and sputtered while trying to answer. “Wait, what?”

Leeli sighed. “You’ve told all of Anniera and essentially most of Skree, except Maraly and Gammon, I guess, that Sara’s still pregnant and hasn’t even given birth to Cerlon yet. But the actual due date is any day now! What are you going to do, fake Cerlon’s birth?”

Janner hadn’t completely thought it out, but the times when he had, that had been the direction his mind had taken. “I mean, we could but—”

“Absolutely not!” Sara retorted, giving him just a hint of a glare, but it wasn't a completely furious one. Janner felt his face flushing anyway. “Keeping up the charade for the past month has been one thing, but making it official to all of Anniera by faking his birth? That just seems wrong.”

Nia had observed the exchange (it wasn't as though it would be difficult since she was standing right there) and whispering with Arundelle about it all the while. “What if you were to announce his birth at the Ball? Kalmar has to do official things anyway, so it wouldn't hurt. Well, it might hurt a bit, but at least it would be a chance to get everything clear so everyone would feel less like they had been deceived.” 

Janner winced at her wording. Unfortunately they (well, largely he) had deceived various people, quite a lot of them, actually, and right to their faces, over the course of the past month and he had a feeling that it would take a little more than an explanation to smooth things over with some of them. He was worried most about people like Lorren and Greston who had asked specifically whether Sara was alright or not. Why hadn't he had the sense to tell them? Why had he been so idiotic over the past what felt like ages?

Everyone else began chattering about just how to announce Cerlon's birth and all sorts of exciting an "aesthetically pleasing" ways of doing it. Janner couldn't stand to be there for it. He couldn't stand the feeling of complete and utter remorse over what he had done. At the same time, though, he had a feeling that he felt remorse because he had been willing to confess his bitterness toward Amrah and because he had decided to meld with her. That meant the remorse truly was a wonderful thing, a blessing in disguise from the Maker, even if it didn't feel like it.

He put a bit of a smile on his face after that and even laughed about some of the more ridiculous suggestions, all the while praying how exactly he would go about telling certain people like Lorren and Greston the truth. They didn't deserve to hear via Kalmar's public announcement at the Ball. No, he needed to tell them directly. They were friends, he shouldn't have lied to them in the first place, and now he was going to confess to them specifically and pray that his foolish actions would not destroy anything precious.

What with his plans to meld with Amrah during the Ball, since that was the only time between that moment and when they would open the Fane of Fire that he could guarantee everyone would be too distracted to lock him in a room, he was going to have a difficult time figuring out just when he could tell them the truth.

Though, I could do it now, he mused, looking around at everyone else in the room who was specifically not focused on him. He slipped out of the room quietly, trying to quell the fear in his heart with prayer.

He prayed it would not end in disaster.

*****

Notes:

And there's where I bring in all the people who needed to be there who weren't there yet (mainly meaning Leeli, Thorn, and Oskar)^^

Just a tiny part added in to point out that Nia knows but that Janner doesn't know that she knows....

Also, please let me know if this chapter is okay, because it seems a little weird to me 😅

EDIT: I'd love to know if it's better now.... 😅