Brencia wriggles in the crib, irritably pushing aside the harper afghan and hiccuping.

Tolia, at the desk reading quietly, glances about the room. Not seeing anyone else having moved yet, she stirs and goes over to the crib. "Good morning," she murmurs quietly, checking the girl over and moving the pillow to a better place.

A soft groan comes from Kae's bed, the blankets covering her move about, showing that she's actually waking up. One blue eye is opened, then immediately closed, with another groan from the unhappy harper. "It can't be morning, I *hurt* too much," she whimpers, pulling her pillow over her head.

At Brencia's urging, Oli lifts the girl from the crib, gently rocking her to calm her sleepy sobs. "Good morning to you, too," she speaks softly, thoughtful of Kaeryn's condition. "How're you feeling?" She carries the baby over to the bed, where she sits on the edge.

"Like a dragon is sitting on my *head*," the usually chipper dolphinsinger complains, even she is speaking softly so as to not hurt her head more. Pillow is lifted from her eyes again, and she looks toward the infant in Oli's arms, and jolts up into a sitting position, whimpering as she does. "Oh shards. Was she fed last night? I hope I didn't..." her voice trails off as she sees Marius sleeping in the nearby chair. "What's *he* doing here?"

Tolia nods reassuringly. "Don't worry, she's fine. Cirrus had plenty for both her son and for Bren, and was more than happy to oblige." She smiles. "She's really very good, you know. Cirrus said she might even wet-nurse her if you wanted to be more involved with your work, but I thought you probably were pretty happy nursing yourself." She glances at Marius. "I think by the time you fell asleep last night, there wasn't a dragon left awake to take him home." She shrugs. Oh, well.

Kae allows herself to fall backwards into her pillows again, and pulls it back over her eyes. "Thank you for taking care of her, Oli, I don't know *what* I was thinking. I should have known better but.. but the past few days, and stress, and tired," she waves her hand about in the air, as if trying to explain." A single blue eye peeks out from behind the pillow, "but why is Marius here *again*? He just went home."

Tolia gets a very small, slightly mischievous grin as she shakes her head. "You made Azae go get him." She rocks the squirmy Brencia in her arms, forestalling loud complaints with gentle motion.

"Oh *shards*," Kae groans and shakes her head, pulling the pillow completely over it again. "And just *why* did I do that? Oooh, T'rell, what if, uh oh..."

"I didn't hear him. I know he had late duty last night, so chances are he didn't come back," Oli reasons, giving the baby her finger to suckle.

"If he did, I hope he didn't get upset," Kae mumbles from behind her pillow. "She's hungry, isn't she?" the motherly insticts may be a little slow this morning, but they are still there. "She didn't keep you up last night, did she?"

Tolia shakes her head as she shifts the baby to her mother's arms. "She didn't, actually. Or maybe I just slept too soundly, but aside from waking up when I did anyway, she's been as good as gold."

Finally giving up on the pillow, Kae forces her eyes to stay opened, the pinkess of them showing how much they must be hurting her. Arms wrap around her daughter and hold her close, and she plants a kiss on Bren's forehead. "Do you think it'll be alright now, with the wine mostly out of my system, or at least it's just making me regret even thinking of it?"

Tolia thinks, then shrugs. "If you're not drunk anymore, chances are it's out of your system."

Kaeryn winces at the word drunk, she'd never been 'drunk' before. "It's still in my head, but I think the rest of me is fine," she mumbles as she manages to push herself up into a seated position without bouncing Brencia around too much. The infant's fingers attach themselves to the silver charm resting near her mother's throat, and Kae gently unattaches them.

Tolia laughs quietly and not unkindly. "Want me to see if there's a hangover cure in the weyr for ye?"

"I'm sure your uncle has *something*," Kae gives Oli an appreciative smile and nod, "if you wouldn't mind, of course." Bren gives a whimper of complaint that her mother is taking so long to feed her, causing Kae to give the girl an apologetic smile before bringing her to her breast to suckle. Once the infant is situated, she leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. "It's going to be a *long* day."

Tolia pats Kaeryn on the knee briefly as she rises from the bed. "Sure thing. I've got to do *something* to earn my keep around here, don't I?"

"Thank you," Kae mumbles tiredly, once again opening one eye to look at her friend before she leaves the room.

Tolia slips out, only returning after a long while. But when she does, it's with a tray. Trying to be quiet so as not to wake Marius, she removes the hide she was reading from the desk to clear a space and sets it down. "Compliments of George," she grins, adding, "I think he's adopted you." On the tray is a mug which contains a thick, rather foul-smelling liquid -- everybody knows that hangovers have cures that are practically worse than the ailment itself. "He said to drink this, it works like a charm. Then breakfast." She wrinkles her nose at it, giving Kaeryn a sympathetic look.

Kae's nose wrinkles as the smell of the liquid reaches it, and she turns a light, very unnatural, shade of green. Waving it away, she hakes her head, "I'm afraid if that gets too close to her, *she'll* be sick as well." With a gulp, she shakes her head, and sighs, "Why do I get the feeling that will help my aches, but will make my stomach *worse*?"

Tolia shrugs. "Sorry. He guarantees it, that's all I know." She sniffs it again experimentally. "Can't be as bad as that draught the healer gave me the other day." She puts the mug back on the tray anyway. "How 'bout some milk instead? Still warm and fresh," she entices.

"I'll drink it," Kae involuntarily wrinkles her nose up again at the idea, "as soon as she's done. I think it will take all of my willpower, don't you?" Bren's suckling slows as the infant begins to drift off to sleep again, causing her mother to laugh. "I think she knows that her mom isn't feeling well," she untangles the tiny fingers from her hair and carefully moves the infant to a clear place on the bed. "Alright, let me give this a try," she closes her eyes and reaches for the mug, her skin turning slightly more green.

Tolia hands the mug back with trepidation, sitting back like she would've to hear someone beat on her apprentice-made drums. She waits, curious.

Kaeryn holds the mug gingerly in her hands, as if worried it's going to bite her, and looks down into it's contents as her color slowly becomes greener and greener. "Are you *sure* about this?" she gulps softly, before squeezing her eyes closed and taking a long drink from it. The mug is quickly pulled away and set on the table beside her, the look on her face as if she's just swallowed an entire pitcher of sour milk. "EEW!" she exclaims, cringing. "He wants me to drink it *all*??"

"Shh!" Oli bites her lip, glancing at the sleeping Marius. "You'll wake him, and after you kept him up last night, it just wouldn't be fair." She muffles a giggle behind her hand. "He said all the riders swear by it."

Kaeryn looks almost like a proddy dragon, the way her skin is glowing green, and she gulps, looking as though she's going to be *very* ill. "I think it's going to make me sick," she warns, before picking the mug up again and gulping the remainder of it's contents down. As the mug is discarded to the bedside table, she gags, and puts her hand to her mouth, curling up into a ball on the bed. "Oooooooh."

Marius stirs in the chair, yawning a bit. His hands reach out, but don't seem to connect with the wall as usual in his room. He cracks an eyelid open and tries to orient himself: back's hurting, air smells different from the Hall, and there's /Kaer/ and Tolia there? How'd /they/ get into his room...

Tolia shakes her head, distressed. "Don't get sick, Kae. It should help in a minute or two... I think..." She reaches for Brencia on the bed, scooping the sleepy child up to take her to the crib when she stops mid-stride. "Good morning," she calls softly to the third in their little gathering of harpers. "Sorry to wake you."

Marius rubs at his eyes as he slowly makes his way back into the land of the living. A bleary looks is sent to Kaer on the bed, then to Tolia putting the baby down to sleep again. The wheels start moving again upstairs, and Mar gives Tolia a slightly tired wave, "G'morning."

"There's some klah in that blue pitcher on the tray," Oli points out in a businesslike manner, settling Brencia down to sleep again. "And a couple of sweetrolls there. Please help yourself." She glances back at Kaeryn sympathetically. "Is it working yet?"

Kae quickly becomes unaware of anyone else in the room, as she just lets herself remain doubled over on the bed, eyes clenched closed, and hands shaking. "Never again. I will *never* drink that much wine *again*," she vows through clenched teeth. "I think George is trying to *kill* me," she whimpers softly.

Marius groans as he stands, stretching out his back, which helpfully *pops* several times. He moves over and pours himself some klah, eyeings Kaer for a moment before looking to Oli, "You didn'a put any of what she drank in here, did you?"

Tolia chuckles to assure Marius that she did no such thing. "Don't worry. There's also fresh milk in the other pitcher, if you'd rather." She returns to the bed to have a seat at the foot of it. "I'm sorry, Kaeryn, he swore up and down it would help." Her forehead wrinkles with concern as she raises her eyebrows. "Maybe a sweetroll would help it settle?"

Kae's bloodshot blue eyes flutter open, and slowly focus on Marius, which then focus on the food beside him, causing her to gulp and roll over to face the wall. "Now I know why I was always the responsible, non-drunk one," she mumbles to the wall as she clutches a pillow to her face to keep from smelling the food.

Marius laughs softly to himself as he pours a mug of klah. He gives Kaer's foot a gently pat on his way back to the Chair, "Y' just need to get used to it again. Asides, whatever possesed you t' get into the white wine?"

"They snookered her," Oli interjects wisely. "There she was, innocently taking a walk, and she was cornered by old friends. Right, Kae?" Instead of nudging playfully, she takes pity on her old mentor and just reaches over to stroke the woman's ankle. "And now look at her. Gone fetal."

"Te-za," Kae puts emphasis on the last part of the 'rider's name, and shakes her head. "We were on the beach, and she offered, and it was Benden White, and it was cold and I was hot and..." With another gulp of fresh air, she turns her head and looks toward Oli and Mars, "It'd been over a *turn* since I had a drink, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it. And they were talking about how they couldn't ever be mothers and it got me wondering about how *I* was."

Marius shakes his head slightly, sipping from his klah, "Remind me to corner Teza the next time I get some good cordial in from Nerat." His lips split in a grin, "She sounds like she could use some herself..."

Tolia laughs -- uh, quietly -- with eyes dancing merrily at Marius's suggestion. "I bet we could get hold of some really vile stuff from the still," she beams, having inherited the trickster genes.

Kae pushes herself up into a somewhat seated position, holding a pillow against her chest as if it's a lifeline. "So, now my head no longer feels like it's beneath a dragon," she notes softly, careful to keep her voice soft for her own good. "I feel like he's sitting on my *body*."

Tolia quirks an eyebrow. "An improvement?"

Marius grins to Tolia, "I'd say so, wouldn't you?"

Kaeryn makes a sound that seems very similar to a hiss, and pushes herself from the bed and onto her feet, which she instantly regrets, reaching out for something to grab. "The room is spinning," she complains as she grabs hold of the bed.

Marius is instantly there, gently reaching out and steadying the Harper with one hand while managing to /avoid/ spilling his steaming klah over her with the other, "Easy does it, lass..."

"It seems to have a tendency to do that," Oli comments blandly. "It helps if you pick a spot and stay there."

Kaeryn's hands grab onto Marius' arm, and she closes her eyes, just letting her body grow accustomed to being upright before trying to force her eyes to look at a moving room. "Wanted to go soak in the baths," she explains her sudden movements.

Marius looks to Tolia, his expression more than slightly doubtfull, "Y' think that we could manage t' get her to the baths in this state?"

Tolia can't help it; she giggles softly as she eyes Kaeryn dubiously. "If you can carry her, I can manage Brencia. Deal?"

Marius grumbles good naturedly to himself and fixes Tolia with a mock-glare for a moment. Then he sighs and gently lifts Kaer up into his arms, careful not to toss her head around too much, "A bloody pack beast, that what's I am..."

Kaeryn squeaks as she is lifted up into Mar's arms, and laughs, "I was planning to walk, you know." But she doesn't complain, instead, wraps her arms around his neck and rests her head against his shoulder.

Marius looks to Tolia from the backside of Kaer, "I'm afraid I still donna know where the Baths are in this Weyr..."

Tolia wraps the baby in her quilt, snuggling her into a comfortable hold. "Gi-ap," she nods at the tall Harper, joking. "Follow me."

Kaeryn closes her eyes as she's carried through the weyr, not willing to let her eyes try to focus on every room they pass through.

Public Bathing Chamber (#2075)
Steam billows, shrouding the many glow-baskets that line the low, tunnel-filled walls or swing down over the variable heated pools of clean water; light dances, lithe and sharp, defining the racks of freshly washed clothes yet to dry, or the tangle of muddled bundles yet to be washed. Shadows play over the large cupboard that holds fresh towels of orange and black, and a variety of bathing items including a vast array of sea-sponges from pumice hard to gentle softness.

Peering into the steam, Oli finds fresh towels and sweetsand. "Uh, you can set her down now, Mar..." She winks as she returns passing by toward a bench.

Marius grins wryly at Oli and promptly crosses his eyes at her for that last remark, "Watch your tongue, youngling." He /does/ gently sit Kaer down on one of the benches, "Steady now, we're here..."

Kaeryn opens her eyes again, letting them focus on Marius as she is settled ever-so-gently down onto the bench. "Thank you, Mar, for everything. Oli tells me you came last night, and you took care of me. Thank you," she expresses her appreciation for all of his assistance, and gives him a tired smile.

Marius nods and gives her a slight wink, "I told you that I'd come if you needed me." He glances over to Oli, "Can you take it from here? I've got to go find a willing dragon to transfer me back to the Hall..."

Tolia waggles her fingers beside an ear with a stuck-out tongue, illustrating her youth to the old harper; then she grins. "We'll be fine. Thanks."

"I honestly don't remember asking for you, but I'm glad you come, nonetheless," Kae admits quietly, as she reaches up to squeeze his hand. "If you ever need me to return the favor... of course, I don't think I could *carry* you but, you know."

Tolia eyes Marius's form appraisingly. "Maybe the two of us..." she suggests quietly, then sits back into the shadows with Bren where she's not so likely to be noticed...

Marius just laughs and throws his hands up, unable to keep up with the onslaught of BOTH the Harpers. He leans down and gives Kaer a quick kiss on the cheek, "I know you'd come, though." Then he turns and quickly flashes Oli a grin before turning to leave.

Kae waves in the direction of Marius' departing figure, before turning her attention to her clothing and starting to fumble with the fasteners on her dress. "I really shouldn't have asked for him to come, you know," she shakes her head.

Tolia grins tolerantly to her friend, leaning back comfortably with her feet up on the bench and a sleeping baby in the cradle of her stomach and arms. "I tried to talk sense into you, but Azae was far too willing to go. Maybe it was because you started threating dire consequences..." Eyes sparkling with the glowlight off the water, she watches Kaeryn in amusement. "All's well that ends well, though."

"We've been friends for so long," Kae explains as she finally manages to unfasten her dress and gets to her feet, slowly, to step out of it. "He's always been there when I needed him, so I guess, when I was scared, he was the first person to come to mind, especially since I knew that T'rell was unobtainable.."

Tolia pats the fresh towel next to her on the bench. "This is here when you're done," she notes. "And Marius came again, when needed. Now you know he will, right?" She makes a guess at Kaeryn's real purpose the previous night, uninhibited by the wine.

"But he has always come when I've needed him," Kae replies softly as she manages to get herself into the steamy water. "Though, I suppose it's possible I was afraid he wouldn't now that, well, now that I've chosen T'rell." With this explanation said, she slips under the water so that her hair and face are covered, and stays below the surface for several moments before rising again.

Tolia waits for Kaeryn to emerge again, and then waits a few seconds longer. "You still don't seem completely happy." Although her tone is soft, she projects it out into the otherwise deserted bath to be sure her friend can hear it through the water in her ears, and the sound echoes around the cavern. In the distance, the drums announce the departure of Rider Annalee.

Kae sighs as she gets herself settled, leaning with her arms and chin resting against the side of the pool and the rest of her body soaking in the warmth of the water. "It's hard, Oli, to... to know that he loves me, and to just let him walk away."

"Oh, Kaeryn, you've got so many people to love you." Oli sighs, smiling. "If everyone had such troubles, the world would be a better place."

"But do you realize how badly I could have, and even did, hurt T'rell in all of this?" Kae replies, her voice sad and distant. "How much Marius was hurt, and, how I'm still feeling... lost about it all?" She shakes her head and continues, "I know I made the right decision, but it doesn't make it any easier."

Tolia shakes her head. "Those sorts of hurt -- they heal, Kaeryn." She uncurls from the bench, bringing a blissfully asleep child with her closer to the pool, but safely away from the edge. Spreading a towel beneath to cusion her seat, she sighs a little. "To tell you the truth, I'm a little jealous of you. Two fellows, each of them so devoted to you..." She shrugs herself out of her delusion. "But I don't think it hasn't been hard on you. You're like a sister to me, Kae, and I want you to know in your heart that you're where you should be."

"I wish you had been here a sevenday or two earlier," Kae forces herself to laugh, and shakes her head before letting her chin rest against her folded hands again. "It would have been helpful to have a friend to talk to, a friend that wasn't wanting me to choose them, instead of just hearing T'rell and Mar and trying to figure out who was right."

"Men." Oli pshaws. "Always competing." She grins crookedly. "I guess these two are as good as you could hope for, though. They didn't swear, they didn't kill each other over you... in fact, you'll still get to see both of them and by golly, I think they'll even stand for each other."

"If I had to pick two men to love," Kae has to agree with that, she does pick them well, "I couldn't have possibly done better. But, I just need to make sure they didn't make this decision for me, because it almost feels as though they did." With a lift of her arms from the wall, she slips back under the water, and resurfaces near the sweetsand, where she grabs a handful of it and begins scrubbing it into her hair.

Tolia cocks her head as she listens to the sounds of the water. "Did either of them force anything on you? Did they say they'd disown you if you didn't choose them?"

Bubbles begin to appear as Kae furiously scrubs the sweetsand into her hair, as if the scrubbing will rid her of the troubles of the past few days. "It's nothing like that," she replies, turning to look Oli in the eye and giving her a small smile. "But it's like they decided what was best for me, and I just kind of floated along with it. I guess it kind of made it easier for me, because I never had to tell Marius my decision, he just...knew."

Tolia digests this. "Okay. So now that they've decided for you, what will you decide?" Even if one of them is related to her, the girl is far too independent a spirit to contemplate being actually tied down when she doesn't want to be.

Kaeryn leans back in the water so the bubbles can be rinsed from her curls, and she closes her eyes so the water can flow over her face as well. "I suppose it's just easiest this way," she replies as soon as she reaches the edge of the pool again. "I couldn't just make a decision for *me*, it needed to be for us," an adoring gaze falls on her sleeping daughter, and she shakes her head. "T'rell, Bren and I, we're family. I could never take her from him, or leave her with him, and Marius, he...he loves Brencia too, but he's not her father."

Tolia presses anyway. "If you could make the decision for *you*... would it be different?" Her tiny but growing cousin shifts with a small sigh in her arms, and the young woman adjusts the quilt around her.

Kaeryn turns away, so that she leans with her back against the wall of the pool, and sighs softly. "I haven't even thought of it that way, Oli. I'm not just me anymore, I'm a 'we'. She can't make decisions for herself yet, so I have to make them for her." Fingers slip through her wet hair, pausing to work on any tangles that might be found within. "I've loved Marius as long as I've been a harper, from the very first day I saw him, but that doesn't mean I love him any more or any less than I love T'rell."

Tolia watches her friend start to get wound up in it all again. "I didn't mean to dredge it up again," she apologizes. "I just want to know that you're happy, that you're not going to resent anyone for leaving or for staying. I don't want to come back and visit and find you just getting more and more dissatisfied."

"I can't imagine loving T'rell any more than I already do," Kae turns again, and gives her friend a warm smile. "He and I, we're perfect together, even if he's just coming to realize it himself. We're... I think we belong together, and..." Slipping into her usual 'deep thought' pose, she chews on her lower lip, silently, for a moment. "I'm used to loving Marius from afar, but I don't know if I could be away from T'rell that way. It's... when we were on the Lady Rose, and I didn't see him for long amounts of time, it was hard. You saw my work... I drew him more than the dolphins."

Tolia thinks back, confirms, and nods. "Yep, you sure did." A grin slides onto her face. "You draw him well, too."

"It's easy to draw something well, when that something is in your mind and on your heart," Kae gives Oli a grin and playfully splashes water at her.

Tolia shields Brencia; not that she really needed to, since the droplets landed a foot or more from her. "Watch it, don't want to wake her up, do you?" she teases.

"At least I'm feeling sturdy enough to be able to hold her now," Kae replies, her face looking decidely more..natural.. as opposed to the green it was not long before.

"So George's cure didn't kill you after all." Oli sounds mildly surprised, and Brencia stirs, stretching her soft limbs as far as they can go, well-supported in the quilt.

"I thought it was going to," Kae admits with another wrinkle of her small nose. "Just, do me a favor, and the next time you see me with an entire 'skin in my hand... take it? Call T'rell, Call Marius, beat me until I surrender it. Just, don't let me do that again."

Tolia would spread both arms wide; with one of them full, she only spreads the one, helpless. "I *tried*. You were too far gone already." She grins at her friend, shaking her head slowly.

"I felt the need to, well, relax, I guess," Kae admits sheepishly. "When Teza handed me the 'skin, and I took a drink, it tasted so good... and then she left, and I was there, with the wine."

"... and pretty soon there was just you, and no wine left." Oli quirks an eyebrow. "It was good wine, though, even if the little bit I got was warm."

Kae nods her head again, the heat of embarrassment rising in her cheeks as she remembers bits and pieces from the previous evening. "So I really drank it *all*?" she asks, disbelief in her voice.

Tolia sits Brencia up, her dark eyes glistening as she smiles happily at Kaeryn while she gurgles, awake, on her cousin's lap. "Well, I'll tell you," the younger harper says, "I found you with the skin two-thirds to three-quarters gone. I had about two sips of it, and I think by the time Marius took charge of you there was... a few swallows left?" she estimates roughly. "More or less, more likely less."

"Shards, no wonder I felt like there was a dragon on my head when I work this morning," Kae winces, shaking her head slowly from side to side. "I've never, in my 26 turns, had more than two glasses of wine at one time, and that skin, it had to be, what... at least six glasses of the stuff."

"I'm sorry, Kae, I shouldn't laugh," Oli apologizes even as she snickers softly, Brencia picking up on the humor to grin broadly at her mom. "You must've felt awful."

"*Never* again," Kae repeats her vow from earlier with a renewed spirit. She sighs at herself and dunks her head under the water again.

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