Aether has a tagalong.

"Hi, Amariah," says Aether, when she and her tagalong have arrived. "Wow, you're - what's wrong?"

"Went home," says Amariah in clipped tones. "Saw Kas napping on the floor. Curled up, napped a bit too, woke up, there was hugging and crying, I've been gone sixty-six years, he wrote me a lot of postcards, I started reading them - and then who should appear - but his thirteen year old daughter who looks just like Yseult or Damaris."

...Celo blinks. (His aura, previously expressing that he is a friendly minor deity, now also announces him to be sympathetic. The low-key rendition of his name remains constant.)

"I'm. I'm really not a qualified therapist."

"I'll take suggestions for other people to vent to besides Kas or the innocent thirteen-year-old girl with half my genes running around in Alethia."

"You can vent to me," Celo offers. "I'm not a qualified therapist either, but I can care with the best of 'em."

Ama glances at him with vague wariness. "You're also a Joker, though, I - don't know to what extent the thing Kas did is a Joker thing."

"Juliet also acquired a spontaneous teenage relative! She recommends ranting to a Tony. Do you want me to ask some Tonies?"

"Juliet acquired a - what? She didn't get stranded."

"Nope, she has a magically constructed sister and her opacity prevented the memory implant from working."

The conversation seems to have temporarily moved on from Celo; he waits.

"She deliberately forked and merged with a copy of herself who did have the sister-related memories. After addressing the problem that precipitated the magic sister, that is."

"Yeah, that's -" Amariah shakes her head. "That's not going to work for me."

"What exactly did Kas do?" says Celo.

"It was an accident, I guess," says Amariah, hugging her knees. "He got lonely. He wanted a kid. He turned female and wished himself pregnant and didn't - think - it - through - and the wish filled me in for the other parent."

"...I want to hug you," says Celo, "you look like you need a hug."

Path fluffs up on her shoulder and huddles close to her neck under some of her hair. "I need to figure out how to solve the approximately twelve problems I have now," she says. "And I don't want to put Path down while I'm upset." (She lets her aura out. Path is Not To Be Touched.)

"Okay," says Celo, "then I want to help you solve your problems. And then maybe hug you."

"I don't want a kid. I wasn't ready. I'm not even old enough to have a kid her age, I'm subjectively twenty. We never talked about having kids. Witches don't - can't - conceive accidentally, not the first time at least, we're sterile till we first want to get pregnant and I still am. Hell, Golden was older than I am when her half-vampire child looked thirteen. I have no idea how he's been bringing her up or what she thinks of me or anything. And maybe this shouldn't even be my business, maybe I should go back and ignore her, but one, I can't ignore her, because she's Kas's kid and she'd be relevant even if she weren't mine - and two I can't because she is mine, even if I wasn't there, even if I didn't decide to have her, because she's the firstborn Bell-and-Joker-kid template, she is the kid I would've had if I had ever wanted one, if we ever have one together now she'll be a - a Griffin, they call themselves - instead - my firstborn child has been stolen from me by the person I love most of anyone -"

"It means he wasn't setting out to hurt me. That he was just careless. It's different. It means I can't just scream at him, stab him somewhere squishy, and dump him and have done with it. It doesn't hurt less, it just means the hurt is - undirected."

"...Is stabbing a usual method of expressing displeasure in your, er, culture?"

"Hm? Yes, actually, I mean I wouldn't do it under normal circumstances but I'm pretty sure if I wanted to dump him he'd rather I get a good hit in first than not. Or maybe he wouldn't. It's been sixty-six years, what do I know."