breathe for just a moment

The noon sun made the manor's surfaces a mirror. Pale marble scooped up the sunlight and slung it back, bouncing brightness to every corner of the courtyards and hallways of her home. Cyndane lounged on a chaise, enjoying the relative peace of Aodh for just the brief respite of a day. She poured another glass of chianti from a decanter and sipped slowly.

Then, the deluge came. The courtyard spilled over with voices, footsteps tumbling over each other, punctuated by more than one splash into the fountain. Her guest—well, guests—had arrived. Lilith was not a mare that seemed comfortable with the concept of alone. Cyndane could remember few times she'd seen her friend without some sort of an entourage—well, few times outside of a bedroom of course. In their younger years it had been suitors, a staggering variety who all seemed to be waiting their turn with varying degrees of patience. Not that Lilith hadn't also cleared swathes of the queue at once on some special nights either.

In the more recent years, the crowd had been switched for a much younger set. Lilith's children could nearly populate a city block by themselves, though she didn't envy them their task of finding dates. Even so, the throng congregated just outside was a fraction of the brood, but Ana had been appropriately warned of the visit. “Ok, ok, who wants to go swimming?” drifted through the door as Ana attempted to entice the kids to another room and give their mother a likely needed break.

“Want a glass?” Cyndane offered as she wrapped the decanter in teke. “Sounds like you need it.”