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Cassandra awoke to the sound of the door creaking open, instincts still sharp from sleeping in a tent for weeks. Little feet padded quietly over the wooden floor and then there was a tug on the bedclothes.
“Mama?” came Allegra’s tiny voice. “You ’wake?”
Cassandra rolled over to face her daughter. “I’m awake. Did you have a bad dream?”
Allegra nodded, the tears in her blue eyes glinting in the moonlight. “Were monsters. Then it was dark.”
Cassandra’s heart broke. She remembered being small and feeling wretched after a nightmare. Of course, in her case it hadn’t helped that she woke up in her rooms in the Necropolis, with embalmed corpses never more than a few feet away.
She shuddered and shook the thought away, lest it fuel her own nightmares.
“Where’s your brother?”
“Tony’s still asleep. He’s not scared of the dark.” Unlike me, was the unspoken thought in her daughter’s mind.
Cassandra was tired; she’d only just gotten back from the Western Approach that day and could do with a good night’s sleep undisturbed by small hands and feet finding their way into the most uncomfortable places. But Allegra was pouting like she had when she’d skinned her knee, and the resulting tears had taken all day to calm. Trevelyan was still asleep and Cassandra wanted to keep it that way. Besides, she never could say no to that face and didn’t want to upset her daughter.
She drew the covers back and scooped Allegra into the bed. The little girl giggled.
Rather than settling into the crook of Cassandra’s arms as planned, she climbed over her mama, arms and legs flying every which way, giggling all the while. Cassandra hissed as a tiny elbow rammed into her sternum, winding her more effectively than any bout in the training yard. Allegra apologised but kept squirming. She eventually flopped down in the warm space between Cassandra and Trevelyan, burrowing like and extremely large and angular vole.
“Careful little one,” came a gruff ans sleepy voice from the other side of the bed. “If you kick mama any more she’ll get grumpy, and then she’ll make you do drills with the practice dummies.”
Allegra giggled as Cassandra made a disgusted noise in her throat. Trevelyan turned over, making no complaint when Allegra took her ma’s face in her hands and planted a wet, sloppy kiss on her cheek. “Love you,” she said, voice as high and happy as when she was playing in the chantry garden.
Cassandra reached for Trevelyan instinctively, their arms forming a protective cage around their daughter. She sighed. “We’ll never get back to sleep now.” While Cassandra could cope quite well on only a few hours of sleep (a trait that had come in quite useful as a parent) she much preferred not to.
“S’ok mama,” Allegra said seriously, “you can lie in.”
“Thank you daughter dearest,” Cassandra said as Trevelyan stifled a laugh.
“Welcome,” said Allegra, snuggling further into Trevelyan’s arms. She yawned theatrically and closed her eyes. The Inquisitor looked at Cassandra, eyes sparkling with mirth and love.
“Welcome home love,” she whispered.
Cassandra smiled and closed her eyes herself. She intended to wring every scrap of sleep out of the night as she possibly could. No doubt Anthony would be awake at some unholy hour and go looking for his sister, which meant there would be four sharp little elbows in the bed before sunrise.
She wouldn’t trade it in for the world.