Sandra Hults
Author
Into the fire
Current listening: My husband’s mouse clicks while he plays Diablo
Current reading: Taking suggestions.
Almost half way through Nanowrimo and here is where I stand:
To everyone participating in this event, I hope your coffee is strong and your words flow easily. To my readers, Guardian’s Redemption is well underway. I hope you all enjoy the new story and are currently enjoying Shadow’s Journey. To those of you that receive the Maeseloria Monthly, the newsletter is currently on hiatus until January while I re-evaluate what I want to do with the publication.
So this week I decided to have a little fun with the vague prompt this week on Ink and Quill. I go into these usually having a good idea where I want to go with any prompt I post. So, I bugged one of my group members who is familiar with Maes and said the following:
“Pick a prompt and a character. I’ll see what I can pull together on the fly.” She did not disappoint. 🙂 Here is this weeks vague prompt:
The house was quiet this Isean. Marc Jade enjoyed a rare moment of peace. Jade Manor had few occupants as of late. Most of the time, the capital and realm business consumed he and Alexandra’s time. “A family, beyond us.” He murmured and focused his skill on the hearth before him. Alexandra had always had a knack for the finer graces of magic. She could manage many feats that he could not. He told no on that the torching of Catriona’s keep was more her power than his. Nicholas said once he felt it wiser that people believed those powers were balanced between them. “People need to believe.” The old man said. “If they knew all that she could do, they would fear her that much more.”
Marc reflected on that conversation. He asked not long after the war’s end. Had it really been more than a year? In that time, he met Lily and proposed. In Mornesse he became a father. The thought made him smile with a warmth he was still getting used to. Layla Eisen was a whirlwind of action and affection that made him laugh. He could not help but love the girl and her ways. She trusted him as much as a daughter could trust a parent.
“And then there are your own children.” A warm, much loved and familiar voice spoke from the door way. His sister, Alexandra, stood in the doorway watching him manipulate the hearth. This was often their custom when they were thinking, or brooding depending on the situation. Lily would give him twins come mid Adryn. “Fate above Marcus, do we both really have every blessing we talked about?” With a small smile she strode into the room. The house, as was usual, seemed to welcome her. The hearth’s brightened, the candelabra’s blossomed.
“We do, dear sister. We do.” He agreed as she settled in beside him. Alexandra’s warmth beside him was one they were used to. They spent many a night talking, planning for their future with no indication as to what it may truly hold. It was before a fire that they decided to come home all those years ago. That return was the beginning of everything they were now, if he thought about it. “We have that much more to lose.”
In that moment’s silence, she agreed. They would spend the night here before returning to the capital. These moments were rare and Marc Jade valued them. They sat the long night together, talking and planning not their future, but their children’s.
Sandra Hults 