He did.
“Look into them.”
He tried.
“Look deeper, Kas. See the chaos.”
“Oh.” Finally, he saw it: Threads of shimmering gold, finer than a spider’s silk, stretched and flowed through—oras—every bit of motion in the atmosphere. Setting his sights on Nes’s profile, he saw chaos whirling about in the air, reaching and grasping for her curls,beingthe strands of her hair as it twisted in the breeze. “Ohhh...”
“Yes.” Beside him, she sighed through a smile that grew twenty-times its original size as she turned to face him. “I can’t believe it worked.”
Her pupils were blown wide, her rosy red lips caressed by a shimmering string of chaos that coiled up around her wayward tresses. His hand followed the thread, brushing a lock of hair from her face as he tried in vain to capture the fleeting glimmer of gold.
“Gods, Nes, I love you so much.”
“I love you too, you wonderful man.”
His eyes dropped from her lips and caught on one of the large paisleys on her dress. The teardrop stretched and unfurled before curling back in on itself. He didn’t think it had behaved like that before. Bringing his index finger to her neckline, he traced the outline of the writhing shape for a moment.
She giggled; as gone as he was, it seemed. In return, Nes grasped the front of his shirt, and tugged him to her. Ever desperate, even a year into their marriage, he thought for a second that she was going to kiss him, but it turned out she wanted to play with his hair.
Kas sat upon the tiled floor and pulled her onto him. For gods only knew how long, he watched the print of her dress ebb and flow, occasionally tracing a beguiling part of the pattern while Nes busied herself with the top of his head. In that way, they wiled away their final day at SummerCottage.
Three academic papers were spurred by his new insights, and honed to perfection by his lovely wife, his muse, his personal tutor, his co-author, and favorite distraction. By the time the next year rolled around, they were expecting their first child.
Over the decades, Nes and Kas found enough inspiration from life to produce a whopping sixty-three research papers. A hiccup with Isahn necessitated finding a new spokesperson for their efforts, but overall, it was a delightful secret career.
They welcomed three children into the world, two chaosweavers—not twins—and a windshifter. One of their children was born abroad in the northern Kingdom of Domos, another was lost at sea, for a short time—and it wasn’ttooterrible in the grand scheme of things.
As far as traumatic experiences and tortured existences went, Nes and Kas kept that to a minimum. They were blissfully fulfilled, and Nesrina found she only had to climb on furniture in a panic on therarestof occasions over the course of their long and happy lives.
