the stork drops, the snake swallows | Glowfic Constellation

secondchance

Would anybody like to know what Kib looked like when he was a girl? Here is what Kib looked like when he was a girl. Does that help.

That does help. The marriage was obviously proper. And it's not that they should now be apart. But. What was Eru thinking? Also what if it gives Elves the wrong impression about acceptable conduct for Elves?

secondchance

Gosh. That would be terrible, wouldn't it.

Well they don't look much like Elves. And only love each other because they did before. And perhaps the Valar will be able to weigh in.

It is pretty gross, though. And is Kib the girl, because he was before?

At this point Maitimo dismisses people.

secondchance

Oh there are so many things I could say to that question, sighs Kib. But I'm not going to. Congratulate me.

Congratulations! Do I want to know what things you'd say to that question?

secondchance

Oh - 'but I already had my turn being the girl and obviously I got tired of it' - 'we haven't decided yet, would you care to produce detailed opinions about our sex life for us to factor in' - 'we're both this obscure human gender, you wouldn't have heard of it' -

I am very very happy that this all worked out.

secondchance

Good.

I love you. Go to your hard-fought bed, I imagine he's feeling a little lost with all of this.

secondchance

That is actually the first time you've said that, Kib remarks.

Oh, sorry, should I have chosen a stunning vista at Mingling for the occasion? Or return to the site of our first date - but I actually haven't taken you on a single one -

secondchance

It might have been nice if you'd said it under circumstances where I could kiss you for saying it.

Well. You've said no such thing to me so can pick a kissable occasion to do so.

secondchance

Good idea, that. See you later.

And Kib goes back to his husband.

And after that production it's probably not worth chancing it and anyway they had a lovely time in Kib's world so the Elves sleep alone, and wake early, and busy themselves ferrying things for the portals.

secondchance

Aydanci and Kib breakfast together in the basement room and then Kib ferries Aydanci some reading material and ventures out. Does he need to talk to any Valar? (Does Aydanci need to talk to any Valar? He doesn't really want to go wandering about unnecessarily; people stare at him and he was disconcerted by the mindreading incident.) Do people have more intrusive personal questions so that Kib can practice the virtue of not being scathing at them?

The Valar are inclined to summon them both but if Aydanci is unwell they can speak to Kib. People stare in the street but don't ask any intrusive personal questions.

secondchance

Aydanci could be reasonably described as "not well", yes.

The Valar would like Kib to start at the beginning, please.

secondchance

"Forty-two years ago there appeared a human female baby who was found and brought to a creche in the city of Lapis which named her Alymbel Mahri. When she was seventeen she met a boy called Aydanci Evaret and they fell in love and two years later they got married - in the human fashion without any forensically accessible soul marks - and were deliriously happy with each other, sharing projects and a house and fixing each other breakfast and all, until Aly caught a horrible disease and died of it. Shortly thereafter a stork brought a human male baby to a creche in Wrebb, where he was named Akibel Mowar. A couple of years ago I began having unusual dreams in which Aly appeared as a recurring 'character'. They were more coherent and mundane than regular dreams, and after I woke up from them they wouldn't fade like regular dreams, but sort of slide back as though they'd happened before I appeared - during the times they appeared to be set. I knew that Lapis was a real place and that Harthanic, Aly's second language, was a real language, but I never visited the place or met a Harthanic speaker to suggest that my dream information was anything other than fabricated. The dreams came more and more frequently and in greater quantity until they completely displaced standard dreams and I had hours of Aly's life every night; while it was sort of conceptually disconcerting to inhabit the perspective of a girl her personality was otherwise identical to mine.

"I noticed Aly had to have been real when I encountered a real book in Harthanic and its alphabet and grammar were familiar to me. Since we had the same personality and I was inheriting her memories it seemed reasonable to adopt her identity as continuous with mine. Later, I dreamed about Aydanci who had been all but omitted from previous dreams, and was able to find him at home in Lapis based on memory alone. I told him I was Aly reincarnated; it turned out that even her pet magpie answers to me like I'm her, apparently servants' identification of servantmakers is not interrupted by reincarnation. He verified my identity to his satisfaction and was very relieved that his spouse was not permanently lost to him after all; he'd never really recovered from my death."