Sowws if there are a billion typos, I’ve been waiting MONTHS to write this thing that took me twenty minutes. And yes, this is a week o two early, but the last articulo was like, a week o two late, so I'm pretending that they cancelar out. I know tu guys are probs like OH LOOK más DRAMA OOOOOH FUN with the deepest sarcasm, but juuust to keep anyone who wants to filled in...

It was delightfully quiet in the room. There was no más screaming o shouting o rushing about the room. Yet it was far from over. The world would be set into fast adelante, hacia adelante again soon, but for the moment Aryess was allowed wonder at the bright eyes staring up at her. The girl’s were a dark, steel gray, and the boy’s two azure lakes laced with the white froth of waterfalls. Their mother tried to savor the weight of both newborns in either arm, of the dark curls on her daughter’s head and dimples at the corners of her mouth. Aryess knew it would be a long time before she stared into her daughter’s eyes again, if ever again.

Surprisingly, the fear that had been shadowing her every mover for the past few months was no longer present. She felt tired and sore all over, but not afraid. Both her children were strong and healthy, ten finger and ten toes each. No matter what happened, the twins had the same blood as Aryess’s tenacious mother and hopefully más luck. The soft-heartedness from their’s fathers side might even keep them from hardening into cold, inflexible creatures. It was reassuring despite the continuous turmoil. Not an hora old and the twins would be separated for an indefinite amount of time. The boy became restless and began to whimper and squirm while his sister made no sound, only stared back at her mother. Amara was a hero, not a sacrificial lamb, Aryess believed, in being the one to be raised por the League of Shadows so that the rest of her family would no longer be threatened por them.

“Be brave, Amara. I amor you,” Aryess whispered to her daughter, besar her little forehead. The nurse finally took her and left the hut the twins had been born in. Not long after, mother and brother were strapped into a sled of wolves, guided por one of the few assassins still loyal to her family. The musher guided the sled through the snow, avoiding rocks and ravines and producing a smooth ride all the way to the air strip.

Aryess anticipated the Shadows expecting her to leave right away. Why stay behind and try to hold onto her child when she now belonged to the assassins? The air base was clear of the League and anyone else on a mission to stop her. The only detectable presence was that of a small plane, ready and running. The motor was deafening on the still mountain side, but it only attracted Aryess’s tired nerves and nothing more. Nonetheless, she was quick to thank her musher for the ride with a wad yuan, then a kiss on the head for each of the eight dogs. The last wolf, a mother of two others on the sled team, sniffed the sleeping bundle in Aryess’s arm and nudged him gently as if for good luck. The girl then boarded the plane alone.

The pilot stayed in the cockpit the entire time, never once making contact with his passengers. Aryess had known that her ideal pilot, a red-haired woman named Cassy, had been killed two years before, so she instead requested the segundo best flier anonymously. He knew only to take the passengers to the coast of India. The pilot was familiar with mysterious passengers; curiosity was suppressed por payment.

Eight months of secrecy and sixteen hours of labor required their own payment- in energy and emotion. Aryess would have cried for Amara if there was energy to spend. Focus on the relief, she told herself. Both son and daughter were healthy and strong. One would be raised based on that strength and become educated in languages and cultures and skills that would keep her safe. The other would be seguro with his mother, never to be threatened por the force that had hunted the family for three rebellious generation. They would travel to America incognito with enough food, money, and diapers to last the trip. Then... that would come later. Aryess instead spent the energy to feed herself and tiny Kai before they both fell asleep on the plane toward home.

So... how is Ary as a mom so far?