Quiet joy.
The kind that arrived after surviving something terrible and just sat down beside you without making a fuss about it.
Nick brushed one finger gently over the baby’s tiny hand, his knuckle dwarfing her entire fist.“She already has your attitude.”
“That is absolutely not measurable yet.”
“She glared at me earlier.”
“She was literally born a couple of hours ago.”
“She was judging me.”
Aphid looked up from where Torvik had apparently been forcing him to help arrange the carnivorous flowers in a bowl on the low stone table by the wall.One of the petals snapped at his finger.He flicked it back without breaking eye contact with Nick.“For the record, I also judged you earlier.”
Nick narrowed his eyes.“Why are you still here?”
“Because I enjoy watching you suffer.”
“Your day will come.”
Verna smiled faintly as she leaned forward and adjusted the blanket around Kara’s shoulders, tucking the corner under with the absent precision of someone who had done it for many mothers across many lifetimes.“The child needs a name.”
The room quieted immediately.
Even the fire seemed to drop its voice, the crackling settling into a low, attentive hush.Rachel set down her cup.Zara’s arms uncrossed.Torvik froze mid flower arrangement.
Nick looked toward Kara, his eyes catching firelight.
Warmth spread slowly through her chest, soft and full.
They had not really talked about names.Between ancient corruption, collapsing foundations, and almost dying repeatedly, the timing had just never felt ideal.
Weirdly enough.
Verna’s ancient eyes softened as she looked down at the baby, the lines at the corners of her mouth deepening.“She entered this world while the realms trembled.”Her voice grew quieter, the kind of quiet that traveled further than a shout.“And still her first cry became a joyful noise against the darkness.”
The words settled gently through the room and stayed there, like dust catching in a sunbeam.
Kara looked down at her daughter.
The baby yawned dramatically, her tiny mouth stretching wide, one fist popping out of the swaddle just long enough to wave at no one in particular.
Honestly, again, rude.
But then the name slid into place so naturally it felt less chosen and more discovered, like turning over a stone she had been walking past her whole life and finding it had been waiting there all along.
“Joyce,” Kara whispered.
Nick looked at her.Just looked, in that way he had that always made her feel like she was the only person in the room, even when the room contained, apparently, half a realm.
Kara smiled softly, her eyes burning a little.“Because she was our joyful noise when all hell broke loose.”
Verna’s expression warmed fully then, the lines around her eyes deepening with ancient affection, her hand briefly settling over Kara’s blanketed knee.
“Joyce,” Nick repeated quietly, testing the word like it might bruise if he said it wrong.
The baby shifted against Kara’s chest, one tiny eyelid fluttering as if she had heard her name and decided to consider it.
