GODS AND MONSTERS

Gaia stays close to her, and Virgil smiles at the youth, her heiress. She grows so big and strong, and she hopes she will take after her Aunt Natalya; wise and confident, brave and wise. Next comes Hephaestus, smiling softly at him. Nemesis trods after, howling with his mother. She laughs in happiness when her own note concludes, proud her boy has chosen to follow her example, finding happiness in his own excitement. Andromeda comes with a question, and Virgil has an answer. ?Not everyone in Ebony knows we are Raisa?s family. It is simply precautionary, to avoid provoking feelings of ill-will,? she notes. They are, of course, welcome in these lands just as much as Raisa would be in her own.
Kassander is the first to arrive, offering a shy greeting. ?Kassander, my love, it is has been too long,? she offers the boy, she seeks to move close enough to offer a lick to his head. Svetlana comes after, announcing they have all missed her. ?I have missed you so dearly. Look how beautiful you are, Svetlana. I promise I will not be so distant anymore,? she swears. It makes her heart ache, how many memories she has missed. She watches a fox approach, letting him speak to her son as he would.
Alas, it is then that Sigmarr arrives, greeting her as Mom, and then Virgil. ?Mom,? she corrects. Of course if Sigmarr prefers not to address her as such he does not have to, but she is stating her preference, the relationship she is supposed to have. The news he bares breaks her heart; she feels pain lance through her hot and fierce. She can?t breathe for a moment. Abandoned. ?She?she didn?t even say?goodbye,? she notes. But she cannot cry. How could she? This news will kill her children, the children that are now all solely hers, and now have no reason to be so divided.

?I am so sorry, my loves. I am so, so sorry,? she offers to them all. She seeks to pull all of her children close to her (by her children meaning both her biological and the ones she and Raisa raised together). She doesn?t know what to think, what to say, but for now she needs to hold them close. She has lost not only a love, but a child, and it feels like these days all she knows is a life of being left behind.