”Whatever you need. We don’t even have to talk about it if you want, now or ever.” Kes replied solicitously.

Anara sighed and snuggled up to her more. ”Just hold me like this… If you do, I’ll be brave enough.” Anara told her.

Kes was silent and did as she was asked, and waited.

”I have another child… younger than Lanam… his name is Vastu…” Anara spoke softly.

Kes was surprised, of course, but didn’t speak or question.

”I gave birth to him only weeks before my husband was slain…” Anara told her. ”Tulk, my brother, has him now…” There was a silence between them then. ”Please, say something…?” She asked.

”…Why haven’t you told me before?” Kes asked softly.

”Because… I am ashamed and… afraid for him. And because I didn’t, do not, want Lanam to know that she has another brother… it would only hurt her.” Anara confessed.

”But Tresit, he knows?” Kes asked. It made sense that he would, but she had to ask anyway.

”Of course. Lanam was too young, she doesn’t remember him, but Tresit was old enough.” Anara told her. ”I… didn’t feel I had a choice though. I had no means of caring for him, many times I wished Tresit would have stayed too… if only so that he might live.” And it was true, Kes considered. If Anara had had another child to feed, she and her family almost surely would have been dead from starvation by the time Kes happened by. She likely never would have even noticed they were there… The thought made her feel cold and sad inside. ”It was… only good fortune… amazing, wonderful good fortune that brought you to me, to us, in time…”

”…There’s something else, isn’t there?” Kes asked softly. They were talking aloud, but their minds were still connected. She could still sense very easily that Anara was holding something else back. It would be easy for her to look to find out what that was with her mind, but she, of course, would never let herself do that. What she had, the trust she had with her wife, had fast become the most precious thing to her, and she held it sacred in her heart.

”Yes… Tulk… I fear for what kind of man he will raise my son to be. I wonder… I almost think that maybe death would have been better for him than that… but I could never… he’s my son…” Tears were falling from Anara’s eyes now.