ACH: Empty Cradles (1): Where Are They?

Writers: Estelle, Lexy, Nici
Date Posted: 13th April 2005

Characters: Anaia, Lindria, Alajeran
Description: Anaia, Lindria and Alajeran return to the Hold after the party at the Vintner Hall, and Anaia's daughters are discovered to be missing.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 4, day 28 of Turn 3

"Well, that was a wonderful party!" Anaia smiled over at Lindria and Alajeran as they walked into the Hold and started up the stairs toward the nursery. They had left the babies with the nursery staff while they'd gone to enjoy the wine tasting and were just managing to make it back. Though it wasn't _too_ late, as none of them were able to stay away from the babies for long, the three little ones would have been long asleep by the time they arrived.

The Hold itself was quiet as most had managed to get away to the wine tasting and were enjoying the time for as long as they could. In fact, the party was still going strong as they made their way back to get their children.

"You look tired, love..." Alajeran smiled at his wife as he took her arm. "Or are you just worried you've been away from Calrian too long?"

"Do you think he missed me?" Lindria asked plaintively, and giggled at the expression on her husband's face. "Don't be silly - I know the nurse will have taken good care of him. I had a lovely evening and only thought of him - oh, once every five minutes."

Anaia grinned. "Only every five minutes? Considering how often you mentioned him, I would have thought it was more like every _two_!" Not that she was much better, worrying about her daughters and wondering if she shouldn't have bowed out of the party and stayed with them.

"I'm sure it wasn't that often!" Lindria protested, not sounding entirely certain. She knocked softly at the door to the nursery and, hearing no answer, pushed it open. The light in the room was dim in deference to the sleeping babies, with only the faintest glow so that the nurse could be seen drowsing in her chair. Lindria tiptoed across the room and lifted her son from his cradle for a welcoming kiss.

Stepping over to the cradle that held Alalia, Anaia pulled the blanket back and blinked in shock. A gasp escaped her as she lifted up the small, cloth body of a small doll.

Alajeran grinned as his son blinked sleepy eyes at his mother and was so enraptured at the expression on his face--they both swore it was a smile no matter what the nurse said about gas--that they barely heard Anaia's horrified gasp.

"What is it...Anaia!" Alajeran rushed over and barely caught her as she swooned. She had lost her son because of illness and he hoped sincerely that the babes were all right!

"What is this?" she asked, a thread of panic in her tone as he lowered her to a nearby chair.

"What is what?" Lindria hurried to her husband's side, cradling Calrian close to her, and stared at the limp, unmoving shape in Anaia's hand.

"It's..a doll! In Alalia's cradle...where is my daughter?"

"Perhaps the nurse took her out to look after her and put her back in the wrong crib," Lindria suggested reasonably, the pace of her heart slowing a little. Of course that had to be what had happened - where else could the baby girl be? If anything had happened to her, surely someone would have been sent to fetch them.

She forced herself back to her feet and hurried over to Faraline's crib quickly, wondering if perhaps someone had laid her youngest daughter down with her oldest. Reaching in gently, her hand came away with a blanket and her mind refused to grasp what she saw there.

Lindria, looking over her shoulder, stared down at another pair of glassy doll eyes in disbelief. "I'll wake Serala. I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation...Alajeran, you look after Anaia." She hurried over to the sleeping nurse and shook her shoulder, a little more vigorously than might have been polite.

"Lady Anaia's daughters - where are they?"

Serala blinked at her in confusion. "Lady Lindria, what do you mean? The younger one is in that crib, and the elder in that one over there."

"Not any more!" Lindria hugged Calrian tightly as if he might vanish at any moment. "There are two dolls in those cribs, but the babies are missing. Where are they?"

The nurse was fully awake now, and her eyes glazed over with terror. "I don't know, my Lady! I fed and changed them both only an hour or two ago and put them back in their cribs - I swear!"

"Then _where_ are the children!" Alajeran's voice was loud enough to startle Calrian into crying and he gave Lindria an apologetic look before leaving Anaia long enough to tug at the bell pull. If the two girls had been taken, they needed to be found immediately and the only way to insure that was to garner more aid.

"Where are they? Where are my children?!" She strode over to the nurse and grabbed her arm, her eyes desperate as fear gripped her. What if someone had taken them? What if Enrizial had somehow sent someone to take them in a desperate attempt to make her return home? Where could they have gone?!

"Ana..." Lindria handed over the wailing baby to her husband and interceded between her sister and the terrified nurse, taking her shoulders and looking into her eyes. "Listen to me - I'm going to go to the fosterling's dormitory and look there. Perhaps some of those silly girls have decided to take the babies and play at being mothers for a while. As we speak, Alajeran is summoning holdfolk to organise an immediate search. We will find them - I promise!"

"They have to be here somewhere, Lindria! They have to be! How could someone just walk off with my babies?" She was nearly hysterical, something that was highly unusual for the Lady Holder, but the young woman had been through so much the past turn, the thought of losing her children was beyond terrifying for her.

Last updated on the July 10th 2006

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ACH: Empty Cradles (1): Where Are They?