They turned their senses towards Lanam, whose thoughts were unusually quiet and withdrawn. She was sitting there somewhere outside… close to the door to their house. She had her collection of stones and was making patterns distractedly and clearly trying not to pay attention to anything else. Her thoughts and feelings were so soft, but, as they paid attention, they realized their daughter was quietly troubled and miserable.

They parted and looked to one another. Without a word, they got out of bed and got dressed. -Please stop? …For now at least. It’s upsetting Lanam.- Kes spoke mind to mind to both her son and her nephew.

Tresit stopped immediately, ducking away from Artem and went to his sister, telling her he was sorry.

Anara bent down next to them and Kes went over to Artem, who was standing there looking confused. ”What’s happened?” He asked as Kes came over to him.

”She’s never seen anyone fighting…” Kes told him softly. ”She… didn’t like the sounds, the way it made her feel. You both told her it was in play, but I think it’s hard for her to really believe that… but I think she was afraid to say, and didn’t know how to process what she was feeling, so she… shrunk away, inside herself. It was a soft, faint thing, but… Sometimes a thing is loudest when it’s not spoken at all. We felt something was wrong… and… not only with her.”

Artem looked at her. ”With… me, you mean.” He spoke, looking guarded. ”Am I…” He sighed. ”Am I always to have you poking about in my head then?” He didn’t sound angry about it, but he clearly didn’t like the idea of it exactly either.

Kes sighed. ”I’m sorry.” She told him. ”If it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t… poking, exactly. My mental abilities seem to just get stronger and stronger though, the more I’m with her…” She felt her gaze drifting like a magnet to Anara. ”Before, I had to try to use them, now… Now it takes effort and attention not to use them.” She looked back to Artem, but his eyes were on Anara, Tresit, and Lanam.

”I’d thought her sight was defective. You’re… wife’s, I mean.” He spoke, clearly still having a little difficulty accommodating the idea or two women marrying. He didn’t revile them for it, it simply didn’t fit into the framework of what he thought life was and it confused him. He also didn’t revile Anara for her ’defectiveness’ either, he’d just stated it as a fact without judgement, so Kes didn’t let herself feel offended, even though it had been her initial reaction.