Moonshine

Chapter 19- Koryfí

κορυφή: koryfí
Greek
peak
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Selene was babbling.

Sameer peered into her face, "She's quite pale, isn't she?"

Sanya dragged her brother back from her daughter's crib by the scruff of his kurta, "Not too pale, her skin is tan. But yes- she takes after her father, you know."

Her brother seemed very thoughtful, not at all shaken by the violent gesture, "Ed is very white."

"The whitest of all his siblings."
Peter was the least pale of the four- but that was not much of an achievement. "What's it matter to you, Bhai? Weren't you saying you were just here to spend time with your favourite nibling?"

"I know you know everything about language, Aanya, but I will never believe that that is the word for nieces and nephews." Then the 'favourite' part registered in his head, and he let out a squawk of protest. "I do not have a favourite! I love Jem and Selly equally."

Sanya side-eyed him- she wasn't that gullible- before turning to the crib and adjusting the collar of Sel's frock.
She was so cute, her baby. She'd always known that babies were so very cute- but Selene seemed astonishingly adorable. Or was it just because of how much she loved her?

"I know Sel is already talking, but it's hard to understand her. When do they start talking clearly?" Sameer asked, his head tilted as he gazed wonderingly at his sister and niece. "Edmund said she talks perfectly well, it's just that we're too- too-" his sister's husband used complicated words, they really were made for each other, "well, in essence, that we're dumb to understand her."

The High Queen laughed, "Of course he said that. He adores Sel- he'll spoil her something ridiculous as she grows up."
Then again, he was already spoiling her. Sanya had had to talk him out of buying a toy carriage set- the wood of which was platinum painted brown, and the dolls in which were made of gold and wore Galmese silk. Her husband had agreed to not get it only because she had pointed out that the toys would be too heavy for Selene to pick up.
"Where is he, anyway? I always lose track of him when we're in Rihaaya."

"Probably chatting with Abba. They're fast friends. And Jem is with Amma- did you know she's planning to give Edmund Veersaali shawls for his next birthday? I don't think they've given even us a gift halfway nice."

Sanya gave him a look, "Didn't you get a sword inlaid with sapphires on your last birthday?"
He'd turned fourteen. She couldn't believe it- that he was so old now. She could still remember the day he had been born, when she was eight- four and a half months from her ninth birthday. She had spent the whole day and night staring at him in his little bassinet.
He had taken ill with haldi-fever that night- and the healer had told her parents, thinking she couldn't hear, that the baby might have died had she not spotted his cheeks and eyes yellowing.

He looked clueless, "And?"

Sanya laughed, rolling her eyes as well.
"Never change, Bhai. There's a reason you're the person I love the most in the world."
He was the only one she could really be sappy with- and Edmund, sometimes, considering recent developments like their first ‘I love you’s and their second wedding and the honeymoon at her spring palace that they had returned from just last week.

Edmund had wanted to leave their children in Narnia, with his siblings.

Sanya had laughed in his face- Susan and Lucy may have said that the honeymoon was long overdue, but that did not mean that she would be leaving her babies with Peter Peyton Pevensie, who had given Edmund beer as a baby. Her parents were far better caretakers- and, besides, Jem loved Azraq.