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Cardan peers down at the squalling infant. “I must say, newborns are rather…ruddy.”
Jude pokes him hard in the arm. “He was born a few hours ago, Cardan, of course he’s going to be a little red.” She looks over to her sister then, one of her genuine smiles blooming across her face. It is with no small amount of pleasure that he can say they have become much more frequent in recent months.
Taryn beams back at Jude, a new mother’s pride practically emanating around her. She frowns at him a little though. “I hope you’re not insinuating my child is ugly.”
Cardan snorts at that. “That would require far too much effort on my part.” Leaning down further from where he and Jude are standing next to Taryn’s bed, he observes, “The babe resembles you more.”
“I’m glad of that,” Taryn says, a finality settling on that remark. She smooths the burnt mahogany of her son’s hair, although that doesn’t cease his crying.
“I think he might be hungry.” Jude tugs his hand towards the door. “We’ll leave you to your privacy.”
As he looks over to his wife, he sees that although she is still smiling, there’s a sense of unsteadiness showing in her eyes. She looks as if the world had thrown off her surefooted stance, as if everything had changed in an instance and she was unmoored from the life she knew. But of course, Jude is as she always is and has schooled her countenance back in the next moment.
When they leave, he glances back towards Taryn and understands, gripping Jude’s hand a little tighter.
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“Would you like to speak on it?” The sun is setting as they stroll back towards the palace, its rays warmly painting the landscape from its descent.
“Hm?” Jude resurfaces from her thoughts then, her hastily tied hair swaying and their hands still swinging a bit from her distracted musing. It was precious if Cardan did say so himself.
“Ah, you saw.” She looks ahead of herself, seeming to search for the right word. “It’s just a little…”
A brief moment of silence ensues. “Strange?” he supplies.
“Somewhat,” Jude admits. “I’ve always seen Taryn as my sister that it’s just weird for a second to also see her as someone’s mother. Back when she married Locke, she was still her own person, but now Taryn’s responsible for a new life in the world.”
Cardan rubs his thumb against the side of her palm, hoping to let her know that he was there for the rare instances where she felt off-kilter. He stays silent, letting Jude unspool her thoughts at her own pace.
“And I suppose it is a little strange to reconcile those two roles in my head, even though I know perfectly well she can be both my sister and a mother at once.”
“Well, there is a shift in the existing balance. It’s no trivial act.” Cardan looks up at the sky then. “No matter how inconsequential some may deem it. Though one may discard the responsibility or not, a new life begins to make its way on the land. There is consequence in the marks it will bring on the earth and the lives it will touch.” And as he looks back down towards Jude and sees sorrow in her eyes, he knows that she recalls how his own early years had played out.
He gives her a lighthearted smile. “Now that I am High King, I find myself prone to doling out golden nuggets of wisdom.”
She gives into his attempt to divert and snorts a little bit. “Of course it’s golden nuggets.”
“What else would it be?” Cardan says airily, and their picturesque stroll resumes its peaceful aura. He was perfectly fine observing some iridescent flora in the fading sunlight when Jude decides to interrupt it with, “I suppose if I had ended up with Locke, that could’ve been what our child looked like.”
The nastiest curl of distaste unfurls inside him, so abruptly that even he himself is taken aback for a moment. Cardan halts to a stop, his face pulling down. “Of all the revolting things I have heard in my life, that decidedly falls among the most horrifying. Please don’t ever say that again.” And then it’s Jude laughing heartily, enough to make her bend over from how hard the peals of laughter are escaping her. Cardan still feels disgusted, but it ebbs away. Just a bit.
She grips onto his arm to right herself up. “Alright, I won’t,” she says, her voice a little strained from her amusement at his idyllic expense. Jude lets go to wrap her arms around him, her chin resting on his chest and his hands automatically lacing behind the small of her back. He feels his heart jump and knows that he will never tire of her touch.
Jude affects a solemn air. “If I ever imagine any future children, it shall be with your dark hair and eyes.”
He’s already leaning down when he adds, “And my pretty features, naturally.”
“Heart-stoppingly handsome,” Jude quietly laughs, and his lips catches hers in a kiss.
When they resume their walk, he’s glad to see that Jude’s mind appears lighter. After all their trials and tribulations, they are still learning to reveal their vulnerabilities. And as they near the palace, an image of the future flits to his mind then – a picture where Jude is the one cocooning an infant in her arms, he with his arms around them both. She leans closer into his warmth and holds their babe a little tighter, an unspoken vow between their eyes that their child would receive the unconditional love that had been so sorely lost from their own childhoods.
Although the day is far off, he knows he will cherish it if it comes. And as his mind occasionally settles on that image over the years, he hopes that it will.