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Marius' Room (#14535)
The room that lays out before you is not as large as some of the other Journeyman residences that you've seen. With the addition of the large bed that is nestled in one corner, it seems almost cramped. Instead of a window, the opposite wall holds one of the few hearths in this wing of the Hall. Though the Istan nights hardly warrant such a device, the ever-present pot of klah shows that Marius definitely takes advantage of the situation. A small desk resides along one of the other walls, with the stacks of hides constantly growing higher. The glows that light the room are hung above the desk, their light brightly illuminating the room. The only other furniture in the room, an instrument rack and a clothing press, sit precariously close to each other and occupy the final section of wall-space, while a a wovern rug covers most of the stone flooring.
Marius sits at his desk, scanning down the hide and rapidly marking a grade across the top. The 'done' stack towers over the 'to do' stack as Mar flips the next to last hide on the higher mountain of skins. His eyes fall on the last one, and he scans through it once before marking a grade off at the top. Then he sits for a moment, stupidly looking at the empty place where all of the papers had been.
Glancing up from the book she'd been reading, Kae's soft blue eyes focus on Marius and his piles of papers and hides. "Keeping your students busy always results in busy work for you as well, right?" she notes softly as a small piece of hide is slipped between the pages so she can close it.
Marius looks over, a rueful smile on his faces, "Something like that. THough I don't think I've ever just come to the END like that." He waves a hand over the expanse of his desk that's free of its usual clutter, "Not a theory sheet left to grade, no treatises from would-be philosophers to sort through, not even a basic drum code chart to correct." Mar just shakes his head slightly, shifting around in his chair so that he can face her, "I don't think this's happened since I walked the bloody tables!"
"There are advantages to being posted *away* from the majority of the apprentices, you know," Kae can't help but point this little fact out as she leans over to drop her book to the floor. "Especially since I'm not even the weyrharper, lessons my duties a little. Then again, I *am* studying another craft, so... it isn't like I've much available free time." As if being a mom alone wasn't busy enough.
Marius chuckles softly as he pushes himself up out of his chair, stretching his back and neck out in the process. He moves over to sit down besides Kaer, "Aye, I suppose that's one way to go about it." He withdraws an folded piece of hide from where it lay hidden underneath his belt, "Master Delron gave me this after my class this morning. Along with one of his 'significant' looks..."
"Uh oh," Kae frowns and pushes herself into a more upright position so she can look at the piece of hide in his hand. "What's it about? Delron has a tendency to.... well, only be serious most of the time so..." Lifting a hand from the bed, she rests it on his knee, just to feel the closeness of the moment while she waits to see just *what* the Master is up to now.
...Mar's eyes flicks over the formally scripted letter. The skin around his eyes tightens slightly, and he slowly re-folds the letter and turns to Kae. A smile tries to make itself known, but it doesn't really seem that genuine, "I've been re-posted..."
Kaeryn's eyes open wide with disbelief, and she shakes her head, not minding the curls that bounce over her shoulder and into her eyes. "No..." is whispered softly as she continues to shake her head, the hand that rests on Mar's knee tightening it's grip as if it's trying to keep him here where he belongs. Realizing that the actual posting hasn't been revealed, she has to ask, to know, "But...where?"
Marius swallows slightly, taking a few breaths to collect himself. His voice is so soft that it hardly makes itself know above the gently popping fire, "The whole bloody north. Or the eastern half of it, at least." He rubs his temple with his free hand, "Seems that they've a lack of junior journeymen up north. They need someone to ride the Igen-Reaches-Tillek circuit."
"I leave there, and they send you..." Kae sighs softly, shaking her head again, this time much more unhappily than the last time. "They couldn't send you while I was still there, that would have... made things much too easy for us, wouldn't it?" Rambling. That's what she does best, when she's upset, or frustrated.
Marius roughly pushes himself to his feet. He hurls the scrap of hide onto the desk, almost growling to himself, "Five bloody turns of asking for an assignment and they finally assign me as a bloody farking /CIRCUIT/ rider..." He starts pacing (no mean feat in the cramped quarters), "Why now? I mean, we just...and you're right. You /were/ there before. Why now??"
Kae just sits there on the bed, hands folding, or rather wringing, in her lap, watching Mar pace part of the time, and staring toward the fire the other part of the time. She doesn't say anything, mostly because she's afraid that if she does speak, her words would just come out in sobs, to match the tears that are quickly forming in her eyes.
Marius's eyes search for /something/ to break, but his eyes fall only on his guitars and the chairs. He simply growls and stays still for a moment. Then he just runs out of his emotional reserve. After Kae (both the painful and wonderful parts), this just drains him completely. Mar sinks back agains the wall, sliding down until he's sitting on the floor, head in hands.
Watching quietly for several moments, tears silently streaming down her cheeks, Kae finally gets to her feet and moves to Mar's side as he slumps down to the floor. Dropping to her knees beside him, she wraps her arms around him, pulling his upper body against hers, and just holds him close. Only a gentle sobbing sound comes from her while she tries to confort him.
Marius melts into her arms, the tears refusing to come as he sits there almost numb. He simply enfolds her in his arms and holds her close, murmuring softly, "I'm sorry..." into her hair.
With a feathery light touch, Kae lets her fingers slip through his hair, trying to sooth him as much as she can with her touch alone. As the tears continue to streak down her cheeks, she buries her face into his shoulder and allows herself to cry, despite the fact that she was originally trying to comfort *him*.
Marius just sighs and adjusts himself on the floor. One arms drapes around her gently pulling her into his shoulder. The other arm reaches to the nearby desk (everything's nearby in THIS room) and retrieves the damnable letter. He takes a breath and reads it again, looking for /some/ sort of silver lining. "Well-" his voice breaks on that first attempt, but he closes his eyes and tries to collect himself, "Well...it's only for half a Turn. Or so."
"Half a turn," Kae repeats the time frame with a shaking, muffled voice from the position with her face buried against his shoulder. Face is lifted from his shirt to reveal the tears that continue to slip down from her now red eyes, leaving a trail of pink along each of her cheeks. "*Eight* turns I was there... *eight* of them, and you... here. Now, I'm here and you.."
Marius shushes softly, hands maneuvering to cup her face and wipe away those tear tracks. He sighs, leaning forward and resting his forehead against hers, "I'm sorry..." He flat down /refuses/ to launch in to one of those "maybe it's all for the best" speeches. It'd be false, and they'd BOTH know it. Mar just concentrates on breathing, in and out.
Sobbing slowly beginning to cease, Kae allows herself to be calmed by his touch and his closeness, despite both of them knowing that her heart is breaking. Their hearts... "I'd come with you, but..." Realizing the sentence doesn't need to be finished, knowing that Marius knows her well enough to understand why she *can't* go with him, she leaves it as it is, hanging there in the air.
The answering nod to the hanging question is so small that it's almost imperceptable. A smile flickers on his lips, "I know you would, love. If you could..." He sighs and kisses the top of her head, "There's nothing we can do..."
"Brencia," Kae mumbles her daughter's name softly, setting her reasoning down before them both, even knowing that he understands, but feeling that she needs to say it anyway. "She's six months now, you know... but it seems like it was just yesterday, so maybe it won't be....quite so bad?"
Marius nods slightly, "Mayhaps." He doesn't sound too confident, "Mayhaps it will fly by. Who can say?" Mar sighs and shifts slightly under her, moving so that he can stand once more. He leans down and offers her a hand up as well as his softly spoken words, "I've.../we've/ still got the rest of the sevenday..."
Accepting his offered assistance, Kae slips her hand into his and is pulled to her feet, where she immediately wraps her arms around his neck and squeezes him tightly. "Not nearly enough, but I suppose it will have to do, won't it?" she whispers as she takes a step backwards, loosening the embrace.
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