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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orichalcum" data-source="post: 5369418" data-attributes="member: 3722">Continued Excerpt:After her waist-length hair had been trimmed of its coarse ends and elegantly braided by Carwyn, Rian dressed in the simple slave's robe, shoulder bare to show her new brand, that had been brought for her. Carwyn, now eager to help, offered to show her to the slave women's dormitory. Shushila appeared again as they were walking towards it. "Carwyn, before you show her the dormitory, you should both report to the nursery. The infants need feeding and washing. Rian is to care for the white-skinned one."Carwyn looked up in surprise and dismay. "Slavemistress, Ta...the white-skinned infant belonged to Kyla.""The Arawai has been sold. Her new master had no use for a mewling infant. He remains here until he can be profitable," Shushila answered."Then I can care for him; he already knows me well," Carwyn requested."No, you have other duties, like practicing your dancing; more than enough of your time is already spent with your own child. Give him to Rian." Shushila strode off, preventing Carwyn from making another appeal.Carwyn was highly dubious, despite the warm feelings she now felt towards the Szianar girl, of handing over the half-fey child Taharai to her, but she told herself that it was only a temporary measure, until they could all escape.Rian had merely stood silently during the exchange, looking confused. Carwyn spoke up reluctantly, "Well, we'd best go to the nursery, then."The slave nursery of Minister Tang was full of a dozen babies and small children, being cared for by slave women too old to work the fields or clean the house, much less dance for the young lords. It was simple, with bamboo mats laid out on the floor and bamboo sticks and small clay balls as the only toys, but the children seemed happy enough. While most of the children were gathered in groups either playing with a ball or practicing a simple dance under the guidance of a nurse, two children were pointedly being ignored by the others. One, a large study baby boy, just starting to actively crawl, was noticeable mainly for his Northern skin and light eyes. He kept trying to grab the ball from the other children, who persisted in running away each time. The other strange child had skin as white as the snow that fell in the mountains some winters, and pink eyes, and unnatural silver hair. He lay quietly on a mat, looking at the other children solemnly.Carwyn ran to the sturdy Northern boy and swooped him up in her arms. "Hamber! How have you been?""Mama!" he babbled, and turned and pointed. "Ba!" Rian quietly went and fetched another ball that the children weren't playing with. "Here you go; play with this one." Hamber smiled up at her and started rolling the ball. Carwyn smiled at Rian and pointed towards the white-skinned baby. "That is T'harai. For now, he is your responsibility.""Mine??? But...where are his parents? I am a stranger to him! And why does he look so strange?" Rian blurted out, forgetting courtesy in her shock. "His mother is dead; his father is...nowhere near here. His foster-mother was sold last week. He has no one, and so do you. Perhaps you will suit each other.""Is he sick, that he is so pale?""I don't think so. He has looked like that since he was born; I think some babies, at least in the North, just turn out that way. You probably shouldn't keep him outside in direct sun too much, though." Carwyn answered calmly, while trying to keep Hamber from eating his ball.Rian went quietly over to the pale baby's mat and knelt beside him, holding her hand out for his tiny fingers to grab. "Greetings, T'h...T'h....Ta-rai. I will be taking care of you."T'harai slowly reached out his tiny, almost translucent fingers and touched Rian's palm. For a second, as he did so, her palm glowed with light. She gasped, and quickly closed her fingers around his own, shutting out the light from the other nurses. She scooped him up into her lap in a panic, afraid that he would do something more spectacular in the next instant and doom them both to exposure by the Radiant Path."Well," she whispered, "I suppose we do have something in common, little one."</blockquote>

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