Page 19 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

"By the way, I'm Ronja." The woman offered Sullha her hand. "I saved the introductions for my safe space."

Sullha laughed. "How do you live in this mess?"

"I don't. This whole house is dedicated to Merlin's work, and at night he comes over to my house, where we have rules about what's allowed inside. I have a teenage daughter living with us, and I want her to have a proper home."

"Smart," Sullha agreed.

"This used to be a bedroom." Ronja motioned for them to sit. "I converted it into a calm space where Merlin can talk with couples seeking his fertility treatments. People don't realize how their state of mind affects their physical well-being, and that's just as true for immortals as it is for humans. To conceive, the body must be in optimal condition." She leaned down and lit the candle. "For the atmosphere. Can I offer you something to drink while you wait for Merlin?"

Sullha shook her head. "I'm too nervous to swallow even a sip of water."

Yaaf took her hand. "Nothing for me, thank you."

Ronja sat in one of the armchairs and regarded them with a small smile. "You two make a cute couple."

"Thank you." Sullha smiled. "I think so too. We grew up together, and the connection was there from the start, but we were torn apart. Fate brought us together again."

Yaaf squeezed her hand because he had no words to add to the summary that had said everything.

"Perhaps fate needs a little help," Ronja said. "I transitioned at fifty-seven. I didn't die because Merlin ensured I had the best chance of transitioning successfully. It took a healthy diet, lots of exercise, and strengthening elixirs that tasted like pond water to bring my body to its best. You are young, but you have been through a lot in a short time, and your body might need a little boost."

Sullha looked at her for a long moment. "You don't look a day over thirty."

"The transition rewinds the clock." Ronja winked. "It also made my hair grow thicker again, which I was very happy about, because out of all the signs of aging, thinning hair bothered me the most." She chuckled. "Well, perhaps that's not entirely true, but the other things that bothered me I'd rather not mention in front of Yaaf."

The door opened, and Merlin came in talking.

Yaaf had seen him once, so he knew what to expect, but Sullha just gaped, and he couldn't blame her.

Merlin looked like a character from a storybook. Long white beard, long white hair tied back with a string, and a lab coat with too many stains to count. It wasn't a confidence-inspiring look, and Yaaf felt Sullha tense beside him.

"It's the water, not the culture, and I'll have to ask Kevin from William's lab about the filtration, though he'll only tell me it's fine. He always says it's fine, everything's fine until it isn't." He stopped in the middle of the room and looked at them as though they'd materialized out of thin air. "Ah. You're... you're..."

"Sullha," Ronja said. "And Yaaf, her partner."

"Sullha and Yaaf. Yes. I knew that." He crossed the room and shook Sullha's hand, then Yaaf's. His grip was strong, and his hand was faintly stained blue. "Forgive my confusion. It's my most consistent quality."

He dropped into the second armchair.

"So," he said. "Tell me about yourself. What does your typical day look like?"

Sullha frowned. "What do you want to know?"

"What time do you wake up, and what do you do after you're up until you go to sleep?"

Sullha blinked. "I wake up at six. Sometimes at five when I know it's going to be a busy day."

"Do you want to wake up at six, or does something or someone wake you?"

"I just wake up. In the enclosure, if you weren't up by five, you were in trouble."

"Mm. And then?"

Yaaf got stressed just from hearing about all the things she had to do in a typical day.

"Busy, busy, busy," Merlin said. "It's good to be busy, but sometimes it gets overwhelming when others' expectations rob you of the time you would have preferred to spend differently."

"I like helping," Sullha said, sounding defensive. "I'm the only one they have."