Someone spots one! He's alarmed. He pulls over the nearest cleric to cast Detect Magic on it.

Nope, not magical.

Then probably not dangerous?

Detect Poison?

Yes, it is that.

- huh. 

This is communicated to this person's superior and then to this person's superior who orders the place carefully searched for more of them.

There are more of them.

Perhaps they should evacuate this temple for the time being while it is determined what kind of trap this person is setting and how dangerous it is.

They give the order to do that.

When the alarm goes off she's almost there. She breaks into a run and - nope, someone already has the baby, they're quick about evacuations here. She picks up a random toddler, chases the cleric with the baby out. "I banged my shoulder - trade me, he's heavy -"

He hands her the baby, takes the toddler. They spill out into the street. "This way," he says to her.

She goes this way. She falls behind the rest of the pack gradually.

She steps into a side alley and runs as fast as she can.

No one calls out to her. Or stops her. Some people in this alley look startled to see a running woman with a baby but by the time they think anything of it she's past them.

The bystanders won't notice anything but the clerics will; any moment that one will notice that he's never seen her before, that they don't have the right number of babies, and then a woman running with a baby will be suspicious. She runs two blocks, slows down as she rounds a corner, walks.

The baby starts crying. She is wearing stolen cleric robes and they are not designed for breastfeeding babies. A crying baby will draw attention. She needs somewhere to go take the robes off, then she'll be able to calm her down - she can't just shrug them over her head in the middle of the street, even if there weren't a baby in her arms -

"Baby be quiet," she coos, drifting automatically into melody, "baby be still, baby I love you, I always will - baby be quiet, and I'll show you the moon... baby be quiet, it'll rise soon -" She babbles her way through verses and starts making them up. For the moment it's keeping her from hollering. She will show this baby the sea, the woods, the desert, the Starstone, all of the previous things only upside-down, she will show this baby everything, what rhymes with "boat".

His security looks mildly annoyed when he detours to listen to the cleric singing beautifully to a baby, but only mildly - Telcar has probably adjusted their expectations for a reasonable amount of detouring, and Abadar's more effective at screening than any security system run by humans. 

He is slightly surprised when he actually gets a closer look at her.

"Baby be quiet, I'll show you the shore, it'll be lovely, can't ask for more..." - dude over there is kneeling. What.

She looks over her shoulder and ohshitthat'stheprince and she leaves off singing to walk as briskly as she can directly away from him, barely resisting the urge to break into a flat run again. You're allowed to just, like, leave, right, if they haven't stopped you, that's why traffic is weird around them, people just detour -

And that's weird - suspicious, really, and he's not even a very suspiciously-minded person -

Those robes don't really fit her and the baby's not dressed to take outside and -

"Stop her," he says, and a spell stops her barely a second after that.

The baby starts crying again, when she stops singing.

"Well, don't scare her to death -"

And he approaches, surrounded by guards.

He waves his hand impatiently and the spell stops holding her. 

...well. This is no longer "if they haven't stopped you". She falls to her knees, knuckles pale around fistfuls of the baby's clothes.

"  - it's okay, it'll be okay, please calm down, I'm not trying to be the worst thing that ever happened to you," he says. "Uh - could you explain what's going on here, please - what temple are you with -"

Maybe he won't follow up. "First of Little Katapesh your grace?"

"The baby too?"

"Y...es?"

The guards shuffle nervously.

"Why're you out with the baby?"

"The alarm went off and we got the kids out."

"What's your name -"

"Jamila."

He nods to one of the guards, who peels off. "I'm sorry to have frightened you."

"Um, it's... all right, your grace...?"

"I was enjoying the song."

"Baby be quiet, I'll show you the sky, goes on forever, no one knows why..."

He smiles encouragingly at her and sits back to listen.

Okay, she'll, uh, kneel in the street and invent verses to "Baby Be Quiet" and sing them to her baby for Prince Masaharta.

The guard comes back. 

"They're missing the baby, at the temple, but not her," he says.

Shit.

" - huh.

- do you want to explain what is actually going on?" he says mildly. "At this point I'm curious."

"She's mine."

" - husband didn't want her?"

"I don't have one of those your grace."

" - okay. So you - stole your baby?"

"They stole her first."

"Do you happen to know anything about the disruption at the temple earlier?"

"- it was just to get the alarn set off. It's paint."

He looks at her, up at his guards. " - what happens next."

"- am I supposed to know?"

"It's hard to predict how a court would see the packages, your grace. If they were intended to do damage that'd be straightforward, but as they weren't -"

"It's just littering, I should think."

She starts trying to take off the robe - she's got normal clothes on under it - without putting the baby down, or looking like anyone might not get their hand bitten off if they tried to take her. She gets one arm out of a sleeve and moves the baby to that arm.

They continue their conversation. 

"And kidnapping, your grace."

"And that," he agrees. 

"And impersonating a priest. And lying to you and to your security."

"- yes, I guess, those." 

She is NOT LISTENING LA LA LA she is getting this robe off and tugging on her dress and sticking a boob in this baby's face. This... prevents the baby from crying which makes it harder to be NOT LISTENING but it's good in its own right.

"What if I want her," he says to his guard.

       "I would expect, your grace, that that might affect a court's determination of the likelihood she'd commit similar crimes again. Though it would not change the need to accept punishment for these ones."

"Mmhmm."

Okay maybe she's listening a little. "- your grace?"

"Little bit of a mess you caused, here. I don't particularly want to tell them to take that baby away, though I can't change the law any more than you can. If you don't care to have me involved then I won't be."

"She's mine. She's mine and I want her."

"Will your household take her?"

"I thought they were going to but they took her away and gave her to the temple as soon as I fell asleep."

"So then you need a household that will take her to get to keep her."

"Well now I do."

"What were you planning to do before, if you'd escaped with her?"

"I was going to see if Desert Rose'd take me on. Even though I probably wouldn't be healed enough to do full service for a few weeks."

"And what's your plan now?"

"...kinda don't have one your grace."

"The plan that we were discussing would be that you join my household. Then she could, too. This doesn't necessarily mean you don't face punishment for the crimes you committed retrieving her, though."

"- how would I -?"

"Do you think you could stay out of trouble in the future, if no one takes the baby?"

"I wasn't in trouble before... uh, before conceiving her... I think so?"

"Then I think we can make it work." He stands up. "Let them know that the baby's been found, and the person responsible for the parcels," he says, "and then tell them they have to go through palace security for more." 

And to Rabiah, "I can't take you as a wife, under the circumstances, right, but I can say you're mine, and the baby."

"Yes your grace, thank you."

"And we'll see how many of the legal problems that solves."

He squeezes her arm. 

"I don't have any money for fines. ...that I didn't take from my dad."

"I have a lot of money. Should I perhaps also have a full list of all of the crime that's been done here."

"I think we covered it all. Uh. I was alone with a guy about nine months ago. And this morning I took some silver out of my dad's petty cash and took that robe out of the temple laundry and... littered... in the temple and took my baby and ran. ...and my name isn't Jamila. And I took the paint from my sister but I don't think she would be mad?"

"What is your name?"

"Rabiah Hadiqa."

"And when was the baby born?"

"Yesterday."

"The court should consider that, I'd think, that all this happened while you were still dizzy with it. I expect it'll probably be all right. Some fines. One of those spells that shows you where you're headed if you don't cut it out."

"Uh-huh."

And they walk towards the Dome.

She manages to find a way to hold the baby so she can keep feeding her while they walk.

"She's so tiny."

"Uh-huh. With a little nose and little fingers."

"Is the father's household going to complain?"

"Adventurer. I think he was from Galt or something. My dad tried to find him but he'd already left town."

"You really can't trust foreign men," he says.

"Yeah. I know."

He squeezes her arm again. "They're going to have questions for you, when we reach the dome. Just answer everything honestly and it won't last too long."

"Yes your grace."

They reach the Dome. 

Confused security people are apprised of the situation. 

They hit her with some spells, ask some questions. 

What all crimes has she committed? Did she know the prince was around? Was she trying to get his attention? 

She lists all the crimes, including taking her sister's paint even though she is not actually sure the law is interested in whether she took her sister's paint. She knew the prince was around and figured that would make it easier to make the alarm go off but she was not trying to get his attention and tried to skip off when she accidentally got it.

Does she know that if she is joining his household then she should not do more crimes and is not, actually, permitted to skip off. Does she harbor any ill will against anyone in the palace, or have plans to hurt them, or want to overthrow the government, or so on.

She is not planning on doing more crimes or runnng away and doesn't have anything against any royalty.

Does she understand that the prince's women are not permitted to other men and that he can turn her out if she commits more crimes?

"Girls are still okay, right?"

"Yes, there's no laws about that."

"Yeah I understand."

And eventually they are satisfied that she's not very much trouble and tell the prince so.

"Thank you. Come on, then, Rabiah -"

"Yes your grace." She follows him, baby in one arm.

It's cool inside the dome. The houses are all expensive and pretty. People kneel for them, but don't particularly gawk; probably the princes are not a rare sight here.

"Where are we going?"

"I live in the palace. They should be able to arrange a room for you and for the baby. It seems like you might need a little time - to process everything that happened -"

"Wouldn't hurt. ... Then what?"

"Honestly I am still figuring that out. Usually I pick women more systematically and make sure they like me and so on. It just - seemed like such a pointlessly tragic situation. And it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been singing so beautifully."

"I got to go to one of your concerts one time for my fifteenth birthday."

"When was that? What did I sing?"

She remembers the tunes of her favorites. Hums the instrumental intro and chimes in with the lyric line after the first two bars.

Oh, that's lovely, they can sing it together.

Yeah!!! They can!!! That's awesome!!!

He seems delighted about it too! And they can go into the palace and to his rooms, which are shaped like a concert hall and rather stuffed with instruments, and he can teach her another melody line for that song, and apparently forget entirely that he said she might need some time to rest or something.

That's okay, she has also totally forgotten! She has her arms full of baby but looks longingly at the instruments.

He can summon someone and ask them to hold the baby so he can show her the instruments.

She is slightly nervous about handing over her baby. She will watch the person for a minute to see if they are going to leave with the baby.

But then INSTRUMENTS! She has played the lyre before but that's it.

He has a lyre and a harp and a dulcimer and a citole and a glockenspiel and a clarinet and a flute and a pipe organ and a rebab and a couple things he's working on that don't have a name.

"You invent your own? Wowwwww."

"Sometimes an instrument just doesn't have quite the range you want, or quite the sound, and you can just figure out what it's missing and try a different variant."

She plucks a string. "Oooh - do you carve them yourself -"

"Some of them aren't physically possible and I have them conjured but some of them, yes."

"Ooooh, which?"

See this whole line of variant citoles, some of them physically possible to make and some of them not, they all sound different.

"Oooh, this one is my favorite."

"You can keep it, then!"

"You're joking."

" - no, actually. You like it, I'd like you to learn to play it, I can have another one made..."

"...wow! Okay!"

"Enjoy! - I said I was going to give you a break to collect yourself."

"Oh. Yeah. Also I'm thirsty."

He beckons to the woman holding the baby.

       "Your grace?"

"This is Rabiah. Show her where to find everything?"

      "Yes, your grace."

She will take her baby back and be shown everything.

The girls are responsible for bringing him food or water when asked for, and interrupting him if he hasn't eaten in a really long while, and keeping his rooms tidy, and helping him dress. And, you know, sex. If she thinks she can't handle it she asks the floor manager about a transfer, get assigned to one of the princesses. - possibly she would have an unusually hard time with this since he seems to have brought her in in particular.

"Probably. Where's the food and water come from?"

The kitchens, accessible via the grand staircase they don't use and these hidden staircases which they do. They can get food for themselves that way too. From a different shelf if they might be expecting.

"How might is might?"

"Some people like to be cautious but you don't get in trouble if you're not or anything."

"Okay! Is there like a schedule or does he say who he wants doing whatever when he feels like it?"

"There's a schedule and he mostly doesn't have opinions about it but if he does that overrides the schedule. I am not entirely sure he knows there's a schedule."

"Okay. Is it written down or something, who'll watch my baby while I'm working..."

"There's other kids, and people who mostly take shifts watching them. It's written down, do you read?"

"Yeah, I can."

"Do you know what you prefer to do? You might not get it, especially while you're new, but they make an effort."

"Probably the sex part but I can't so much right away, I had the baby yesterday."

"Palace has healing. If you want it. You can say there's lingering phantom pains, though, if you want to stay abed a while longer, some people get that."

"I don't really wanna do that. Where do I go to get healed?"

"I'll show you!"

"Thanks!"

Healing is in the palace temple, which is elaborate and fragrant and glittering and quiet. A couple people are sitting quietly at altars, praying. 

"She had a baby yesterday and needs healing," her companion tells a gold-robed priest. He taps her.

"Oh, thanks, that's much better!"

"You can come by here for healing whenever you need it. You can come by right before sunrise, if you need anything more complicated - they hold all their spells in case they're needed for anything important and right before sunrise if they're not they'll do whatever."

"Cool!"

"It's great! I got Owl's Wisdom once and the world made so much sense and I felt all - alive, and peaceful, and sure of myself -"

"Ooh, I didn't even think of that..."

"It's mostly not that good. Mostly they have, like, combat spells prepared. But talk to the right people and eventually you can find most anything you're particularly looking for."

"Maybe I'll just wander down here any time the baby's keeping me up around then and see what they've got."

"There you go."

"What happens if you cast the smartness spells on kids?"

"I dunno, I haven't done it."

"I bet it's funny, kids are weird and then they'd be weird differently I bet. Wouldn't be interesting on one this little though." She tickles her baby's cheek.

"Yeah, she doesn't have enough life experience. - is she the prince's?"

"No."

"Huh."

"I did a dumb thing. My lovebird dumped me but I should've just looked harder for a new one."

"Wow. Well I guess it worked out for you."

"I guess!"

"How did you meet him, in that case?"

"...he stopped me on the street after I stole my baby out of the temple my parents dumped her at."

" - what, and just, like, announced he was bringing you home with him?"

"We had, like, a conversation first and six or seven made up verses of Baby Be Quiet."

"I guess it's allowed because sometimes it's right."

"...huh?"

"I mean, if the royal family wasn't supposed to do that sometimes, then they wouldn't be allowed to do that sometimes, so they're supposed to do that sometimes even if it sounds pretty weird."

"Guess so."

"Are you religious?"

"I'm not very good at it."

"One mistake with a boy won't cost you Axis."

"Yeah, I dunno whether to expect it or not, but like, there's 'gets into Axis' and there's 'actually really good at it'? I'm not really good at it."

"Well, I don't really think women can win men over with virtue anyway. 's not how men are."

"He liked my singing, he said."

"That's good," she says encouragingly. "See, there you go."

"Is the sex part actually on a schedule, he doesn't usually care which?" she wonders as they head back to the residential area.

"No, he picks people. But sometimes he'll pick whoever's listening to him practice that afternoon, you know, so we try to rotate that sort of thing to give everyone who wants it a chance."

"That makes sense. How many of us even are there -"

"Six."

"Do you know anybody who wants a lovebird?"

"Maybe talk to Amina. She's probably playing flute right now, that's usually what she's doing."

"Okay!"

She goes to her room. She feeds her baby and finds Amina and attempts to hook up with Amina and has to feed the baby again and fobs off the baby on another household girl along with both of Amina's kids and tries again more successfully. She gets herself dinner, not off the might-be-pregnant shelf since she currently definitely is not. She takes her baby back and feeds her again. She goes to bed and wakes up with the baby about five times and eventually staggers down the hidden staircase to get breakfast at nearly noon the next day, baby still attached to her.

Luckily no one expects her to do much in the way of chores while she has a brand new baby but the prince asked after her so once she's had breakfast she should go find him.

She gives the baby to Amina and Amina's friend to look after between them and reports to the prince's rooms!

He's practicing music and doesn't notice her at first.

Her job description includes Prince Masaharta concerts on a routine basis and she is so lucky. Thanks Abadar probably!

She sits and listens raptly.

Eventually he finishes. "Rabiah! Settled in all right?"

"Yeah-huh! I got healed and met some of the other girls and learned where the food is and stuff."

"Oh good. Did you get a chance to practice with your citole?"

"The baby didn't let me sleep much, I'd just gotten breakfast before I heard you wanted me."

"They're like that, when they're new. Sometimes I have Amina pass hers upstairs to my brother's girls, they haven't any babies of their own so it's nice for everyone."

"But then what do the babies eat?"

"Oh, hers are a bit older, they're not eating every few minutes anymore."

"Right."

"I think when they're new it's just very hard. Should I let you go?"

"Oh, no, it's okay, Amina's got her."

"Oh, good. C'mere."

Eeee over there she traipses!

"It's good to see you happier."

"It's really good being here!"

"I'm glad." He kisses her.

Kisses are good!!!!

"I feel that I got rather fortunate."

"I'm so glad, your grace!"

Desert Rose is missing out, and now he has her all to himself!

And he's very pleased about it.

Probably at some point he will remember that the mothers of newborns need to feed them frequently and let her go.

In a couple of days he will be able to be reminded of this when he gets milk on him but for now she will settle for his innate sense of time! She kisses him and traipses off to fetch the baby.

The next time he sees her he is less distracted and can hold onto her a bit longer. 

"How're you finding everything?"

"Everybody's been friendly, especially Amina! And the food's yummy even skipping that spicy fish thing I had my first day."

"Do you think the baby'll do all right here?"

"The other kids seem fine? I guess maybe things'll be different for her since she's not yours but I don't know how."

"I think it shouldn't matter very much because she's a girl. The boys who Abadar might want get a whole pile of added political education but with the girls there's a bit more flexibility, we can make sure she doesn't feel left out."

"Aw, thank you!"

Petpet. "I want to teach them all music. Once they're older, they're mostly too little to get anything out of it yet."

"They can be a little children's choir!"

"I know! It'll be so cute! And if any of them really take to it we can send them to music school, even the girls though of course it's not a boarding school for girls."

"Did you go to music school?"

"I did! It was good for me. Got to get out in the world and meet people, and I improved a lot."

"I bet it was fun. I had to beg for nearly a year just to get a lyre, my mother kept telling me that singing was free and why didn't I just do that."

"You poor thing." Pat pat. " - your parents actually seem very terrible, in more important ways, but that'd still frustrate me to no end."

"They were mostly fine. I thought they'd keep her and I could hash it out in more detail if I ever found somebody who'd marry me."

"Did they explain why they didn't?"

"No."

"Are you going to write to them? The palace did, to tell them you're here, but it didn't cover anything else."

"Maybe I'll write to my brother. I don't really want to talk to my parents."

"That makes sense."

"How do I send a letter from here?"

" - I'd give one to you, if I wanted one sent. So probably ask one of the other girls."

"Okay, I'll do that then."

"You aren't obliged to. - you mostly aren't obliged to do things, I'll make it clear if you are, rather than it being the other way around."

"Okay, thank you. That's easier."

"It really is! The other way 'round makes me feel like - I have a knife in my hand all the time and I have no idea how much people are just trying to stay out of range of it."

"I wasn't really worried, I figure there's no reason to bother being worried ahead of time."

"You didn't seem very worried!"

She giggles and snuggles up in a most unworried fashion.

"But I dunno, it seems like there's something I want that's not just - like, say, if we were married, then you could be more than choosing not to worry."

"I guess, but we're not? I don't think I'm allowed to get married at this point actually."

"You can't marry me - unless he forced you? I didn't ask -"

"Not... really? I think? I told my brother about it and he went and looked up the law and said no."

" - well whether I can marry you goes by the law but still, most situations aren't - close enough that it depends on how the law's worded."

"I went up to his room alone on purpose and I wasn't beat up and he didn't hold a knife to my throat or anything."

"But you didn't want -"

"I thought -

I dunno. I guess I have learned about myself that I am the kinda person who needs to have a lovebird handy all the time even if it's kind of inconvenient to find them by the time your friends start getting married and that is... worth knowing."

Pat pat. "Hopefully it's easier here?"

"Yeah even if you, like, lose interest in me there's the other girls and stuff and I should be okay."

"I'm not very inclined to losing interest in people but it'd be silly to try to guarantee it. I will, like, if you're inclined to do something really stupid you should come interrupt me instead, I'd much rather bail you out before you do it."

"...I can try? I guess it would be dumb to figure I've already run into all the things that could make me do something stupid since one of them happened last week."

"And I have lots of latitude to avoid stupid things being necessary but only so much to fix them once they've happened."

"I'll try to tell you first if anything happens."

"Thank you. 

Before all this happened to you had you thought about what'd make you happy? In life, I mean?"

"I figured I'd get married, I guess? And sing to my kids which I can still do."

Nod.

"I'm okay now though. Thank you."

"Of course. I want you to feel happy here, and on a stable footing, and like you can get most of the things you want."

"Mm-hm, I do!"

"Then we're all set."

Snuggles!!

Yep!

He also asks Amina how she's settling in.

"Pretty good, I guess. Got some pipes on her, doesn't she, I swear she sings to that baby in her sleep and you could charge."

"I know! It's how I found her."

"Well, good find. I think she'll be just fine."

Kiss. "Oh good."

Kiss! "And doesn't she have the most adorable squirm to her?"

"Makes one feel very talented."

"Well, you are anyhow."

"I pay you to say that. In flutes." Kiss.

"So if I didn't say it I might not get to have my weird flutes conjured and then where would I be? So you are talented and handsome and, let's see, I had a checklist..."

"A checklist! Are you aiming for another, weirder flute?"

"I don't have all the design worked out yet." Nibble.

"Did you need some test versions to work it out?"

"I thought you'd never ask." She pushes a sketch into his chest and kisses him again.

He manufactures it in the air, catches it in his hand. 

She tries it. It makes a honking noise. "Well damn. I'll figure it out."

"Later."

"Mm-hm." Smooch.

It is after all his duty to distract her from the disappointing flute.

Eventually Amina's elder toddler has some sort of problem that can apparently ONLY be solved by Mommy and his frazzled babysitter is unable to stop him from yelling at Daddy's door about it but by then they were pretty much done anyway.

The kid can come on in and get sung to. This is terrible incentives but, you know, when they're really little they don't need to understand all that.

Amina does not have a singing voice to speak of so she will have to accompany rather than sing with one of the non-weird flutes, and then she can carry off the kid to solve the problem he was having with his blocks.

After Rabiah's letter gets sent off there are a couple of teenagers at the entrance to the dome asking if they can visit their sister, who according to this here letter is one of Prince Masaharta's girls.

Security will ask Prince Masaharta about it. 

Security will allow this if they'll answer a lot of questions about whether they are secretly planning any crimes.

Neither Ilisaba nor Yahia is planning any crimes!

Then they can go in and see their sister if she's not too busy.

She is busy with the baby but that doesn't preclude seeing her brother and sister! They hold the baby in between her ravenings. They are introduced to non-busy co-occupants of the harem.

Nice to meet them! Rabiah seems lovely. How'd the family take the news.

"...our parents are not super thrilled but they figure maybe there are good influences around and she can't go too far if she goes nuts again," says Yahia.

"If I'd known he'd take her I woulda told her to apply to go here as soon as she was old enough," Ilisaba opines. "You should've seen her the time she came home from the concert on her birthday, a few years ago."

"It's a bit hard to predict who he'll take. He's talked about just doing a singing contest and taking the winner, that'd make it more straightforward."

"I would've entered that!" says Rabiah.

"Doesn't he have enough yet?" wonders Yahia.

Sigh. "You'd think. It's not like he ignores anyone mostly."

Rabiah and her sister exchange looks and start giggling at each other.

" -hmm?"

"...I'm glad she's not being ignored," says Ilisaba. And then she starts giggling again.

And they can have some tasty palace snacks and a ghost of a look around and then eventually be shown out again.

"Aww, we didn't even see him," says Ilisaba.

"We came to see Rabiah," says Yahia.

"Yeah, I know..."

They only missed him by a couple hours! He goes and finds Rabiah because he wants to show her a new song.

"Ooh, a new song, what's it about?"

"It's about a rich and powerful man who dies and can't get any women in Axis."

"Now why would that happen?"

"He is fat, unpleasant, and talentless!"

"Are fat people still fat when they're dead? I never thought about that, I guess..."

"I have no idea! I didn't seen any fat people in Axis but then most people aren't fat and Aktun's a prestigious part of Axis."

"I guess songs don't have to be perfectly accurate anyway. How's it go?"

So he sings his song. It's very silly and has a lot of wordplay and the tune's awfully catchy.

She laughs very softly and leans across his lap.

"Think people will like it?"

"I bet fat talentless unpleasant people won't but that's probably fine, right?"

"That'll make it more popular with everyone else, I hope."

"Then I think they will like it."

"Oh good. 

I put ones like this out secretly so I can see how people actually like it, not knowing it's me. I pay a couple people to play them in a tavern, say they heard them in another city."

"Did you write the one about the paladin who rode a rhinoceros?"

"Maybe." He starts singing it.

She knows a harmony to the rhino paladin song and chimes right in.

Rabiah's life is GREAT.

"I heard your family visited?"

"Yeah. Well, two of them. Ilisaba was sorry she missed you."

"Did she go to the concerts with you?"

"We could only afford the one ticket but she made me sing her everything after."

"And this was the brother who you weren't frustrated with?"

"I'm not frustrated with any of my brothers, it's not Yahia's fault that he found what he found when he looked up the law for me. I pretty much knew it anyway, just wasn't - sure."

"I think it's different in some other places and you'd just have to testify under a truth spell that you tried to stop him."

"I mean he didn't let me move around that much at that point."

"If he used a spell I think that's counted differently."

"I don't think he did? I don't know if he was even a caster. He was just, you know, a lot stronger than me."

Patpat.

Snuggle.

"Now you can tell people that I'll kill them. If you ever get into trouble."

"Are you allowed to just kind of kill people?"

"No, no, not at all, but having sex with you would be a very serious crime."

"If he ever shows up again I will tell him that, I guess."

Hug. "'m assuming you don't want to marry him."

"If we were on friendly terms after the fact I would have asked him to beat me up some before he skipped town."

- nod. "-'s just, if you married him and then he tragically died the next day I could marry you, right, you'd be widowed."

"I dunno where he is.

"And I don't - wanna promise him stuff - like till you fixed it he kind of ruined my life -"

"Yeah. Of course. That's why I'm mad at him. It's - you don't need to worry about it, it's fine."

"It'd be really neat if you wanted to marry me, don't get me wrong."

Patpat. "I don't really like not having the option. But - there's probably no fixing it."

"Yeah. It's okay, how things are is really nice."

"Yeah. I'll be sad if we have a kid who's very suited to be pharaoh but that's pretty unlikely."

"Oh, does Abadar not pick them if their parents aren't married?"

"It's not impossible! But most people think it's less likely so usually you want to straighten it out if you can."

"Okay. Oh well."

Kiss.

Kiss!!!

He is very happy. He will teach her musical instruments and songs and eventually ask if she'd like to participate in a concert.

"YES!" She bounces on her toes and kisses him.

Awwww.

"What are we gonna sing, when is it -"

"Haven't picked our set list yet, you can help. It's in a month."

"I wanna do The Moons of Castrovel."