like the dawn, you broke the dark - any/fam

[Kagerus]

kagerus

and in my dreams, i kissed your lips a thousand times

We've known them for months, our children - perhaps we've dreamt them up to some degree, but the part of me that is able to sense the consciousness of those inside of my dreams knows that we haven't dreamt them up at all. Three small lights shine every night as I lay asleep, glowing their hope into their mother's lives with all the ferocity of the sun.

Of course, they glowed other things into their mother's - or rather, their one mother. It's earlier dawn when the contractions hit Solace, pain blossoming through her fat little frame. The patter of my heart leaves my head feeling almost detached from my body, and I have to stop myself from uttering a nonsensical squeal at the excitement that jitters me so. Instead, I focus my energy on my wife, laughing at her little comment - "I promise that it won't be, with the way it makes your toes curl," - and urging her forward. Together, we make our way up the mountainside: slowly, perhaps, but fast enough that we needn't fear for the safety of our arriving triplets.

The labour is as labour will be, but it's different still. It's different from Rapt's labour with Abysm, so alien and gut-wrenching; and it's different than Solace's with the twins, where I felt timid and grateful. No, this time I am proud in my full ownership of this moment, in my place: although I am yet again not a Mother in the natural sense, but a Father, I accept it. Instead of letting it be the demon's voice within my skull, I allow it a different sort of power over me: one of love, and one of gratitude.

"You've got this Sol, just one more push."

But, as it turns out, I needn't've said anything at all; for there beside her sweat-soaked figure, a little bay filly suddenly appears. Her colour is an echo of both mine and her grandfather's, and her blinking eyes find me with a god-given wisdom that leaves me breathless. Solace breathes her name - the name we decided upon for our daughter many months ago - and I do too, my nutmeg eyes huge as if to open them wider would be to prolong this moment forever.

But time waits for no man, and another contraction hits the hard working mother. Side-stepping, I kneel down and begin cleaning Warlight of placenta, eyes never leaving Solace. There are two more babes to be squeezed from her womb, though she has lucked out by the magicks of our daughter.

When the next arrives, it is I to breathe his name, tears swarming in the depths of my eyes as the miracle of our triplets slowly becomes a reality.

"Rhaegor..."