Seven days had passed since the fire. Seven days since she and Thalassa had started camping out at the abandoned shrine. Seven days since she had last seen Dhurke. Apparently, seven days was enough time for the universe to decide she hadn't suffered enough. Amara doubled over and held a hand to her chest. “...Thalassa?” "Yes?" "I might have forgotten to tell you about this..." Thalassa tensed. "About what?" "Before the fire—" Amara interrupted herself with a loud groan as she felt her stomach tighten strangely. Thalassa put down the robe she was folding. "Amara?" Amara sucked in a sharp breath, gripping the edge of a nearby table. “I think I'm having the baby.” Thalassa simply stared at her. Amara stared back. “You have a baby?” “Yes!" “And you’re starting labor now?” “Yes!” Amara insisted. "So you were having contractions earlier and you didn't even bother to tell me?!" "I didn’t think they were contractions!" Amara cried. “I was distracted!” “By what?!” Amara didn't respond. “...Never mind, don’t answer that now.” Thalassa's hand started to shake as she rested it on Amara's shoulder. "We're going to get through this together." Several hours later, the shrine was quiet and Thalassa was wrapping a purple haired newborn in some old priests’ robes she had scavenged. “He has your hair,” Thalassa observed. “And Dhurke’s eyes.” Apollo had his father’s eyes too, she thought. Thalassa handed the baby to Amara. “It’s a boy,” she muttered, folding a robe for no particular reason. “What do you think you’ll name him?” “We had a name picked out. Me and Dhurke.” Thalassa smiled reassuringly. “Would you like to tell me the name?” Amara searched Thalassa’s eyes for hints of judgement or condescension, though she knew she wouldn’t find any. This woman, this striking sapphire woman, wouldn’t judge her. She had helped her give birth, after all. Was nothing beyond her? “Nahyuta,” Amara finally whispered. “Could you repeat that?” “Nahyuta,” Amara repeated, a bit firmer. “It means myriad in Khura’inese.” “That’s a beautiful name.” Amara just sighed in reply, staring at the brushstrokes of the pink lotus on top of the ceiling. “What am I gonna do?” “Hmm?” “I’m living in a shrine with a stranger, everyone I love thinks I’m dead, and now I have a child to take care of.” Amara looked into her baby’s gray eyes, twinkling with youth. “...This new life has so many possibilities. They shouldn’t be wasted in an abandoned shrine.” Thalassa nodded sagely. “But there’s nobody I can go back to.” Amara continued, her steady tone starting to falter. “Dhurke… Ga’ran…” And there they were, the first tears she had let herself shed since the fire, sliding down her cheeks. “I have no one now.” She turned away to not let any tears fall on Nahyuta. “No one but my child.” Thalassa didn’t say anything. What was she supposed to say? She couldn’t imagine what it was like to be hunted by a whole country. But she did know what it was like to lose everything you loved. “...You have me,” Thalassa said quietly. Silence. “I’ll do my best to help you through this, Amara,” she continued. “I’ll be here as long as you’ll have me.” Amara laid Nahyuta to rest on the shrine’s woven mats on the floor and covered her face with her hands. Thalassa couldn’t bear to see her like this, so sad when she deserved to be so much happier. She deserved to be at home, resting with her husband peacefully after gaining a new member of her family. Slowly, carefully, as if Amara was a precious vase she might break, Thalassa wrapped her arms around her reassuringly. “I’m here,” Thalassa whispered over Amara’s quiet sobs. “Thalassa!” Amara sobbed. “I'm sorry! I can’t do this, I can’t make you stay here, I can’t live like this!” “Who said you were making me stay?” Thalassa said gently. “I’ve spent this week with you of my own free will. I could have left at any moment.” Thalassa stiffened for a moment as Amara cried harder. “But I didn’t,” she continued. “I chose to stay with you. I want to help you, Amara.” Nahyuta cooed from his spot on the floor. Thalassa smiled at the baby as she rested a hand on Amara's back. “We'll figure things out,” she said. “I promise.” Amara sighed as she let herself rest on top of the makeshift mattress Thalassa had made during her labor. “...What do we do now?” Amara asked, pulling Nahyuta next to her. “That's for tomorrow us to figure out.” Thalassa said, settling down on Amara's other side.
