Holiday
AN: By the way, I also added on stuff about Grom to the Rumor Mill. Thanks,
@Massgamer.
You collapse backwards, panting and exhausted. "That's it. I'm finished."
Ashi makes a disappointed sound before laying her body atop yours. "Already?"
"We started before dawn."
She glances at the window. "Sun's not up."
"That's because it just set."
Ashi blinks. "I may have lost track of time." She pauses. "Do you think they heard us?" She makes a vague gesture at the walls, indicating all the inhabitants of Mountain Crown.
"Probably. This is one the place you're not quiet."
Her lips curl into a small grin, and it feels so good to see her smiling again. "In that case, we might have just founded a new holiday. Today is now 'God-Sex Day.'"
You laugh, and, Ancestors, you can't remember the last time you had a real laugh. With Ashi healed, the whole world seems just a little brighter.
Ashi gives you a playful little slap. "Don't laugh at a goddess. It's sacrilegious."
"Worse than slapping a god?"
Your wife strikes a pose that manages to be quite regal, despite her complete lack of clothing. "I say, with all my divine wisdom, that it's much worse."
Chuckling, you pull her back down on top of you and wrap her in an embrace. "By all the gods, including us, it's good to have you back."
"It's good to be back." She replies with just a little less amusement in her voice than before. "Whatever's left of me."
You grip her a little tighter as you think on those words. You saved most of her soul from destruction, but most is not all. After you healed her and recovered from your own exhaustion, you were both busy 'celebrating.' You haven't yet investigated the extent of the damage. Tentatively, you ask, "Do you feel something missing? Any blank spots in your memory?"
"No. But would I notice if something were gone?" You feel her body tense atop yours. "Thorfin-" Her voice is barely a whisper. "Please tell me that we have five children."
You do, if you count your infant by Dagmar and the thirdborn who died. You and Ashi always count your thirdborn. "We do."
She lets out a long sigh of relief. "I feared I might have forgotten one. But I remember them. Brave Rana so far from home. Alya, who you know will be dead-set on becoming a demigod herself now. And little Astah... I hope she'll understand what happened."
She treated you almost like a stranger after your own ascension. You give Ashi a squeeze, "She's older now, and we'll explain things to her together. "
She hugs you back. "It may be a difficult conversation. But I suppose it will make every other difficult conversation seem easier." She chuckles. "When a mommy and daddy love each other very much and also Chaos is attacking, sometimes the mommy and daddy become demigods."
You smile, but you do it sadly. "Ashi, you know you don't have to put a brave face on for me."
"I'm not. I'm.." She looks off to one side, considering her words. "I'm not whole, but I'm not gone, and I'm not corrupted. If I am left with only half of myself, that's still more than I would have if I'd fallen to Khorne. I'm sure there will be pain once I truly know what I've lost, but what's left of my soul is my own, and I still have my loved ones." She nods. "That's enough." Her eyes meet yours. "More than enough."
You smile and hold her tight. You haven't forgotten your troubles: the cult, the Druchii war, the civil war brewing in the south, and a thousand other issues. But, right now, you're with your wife. Neither of you may be 'whole', but together you're complete.
