Eleanor Zarrin

Eleanor knew that this was probably a longshot, but now that Rhys was actually here, she knew if she didn't at least try, she'd regret it probably for the rest of her life. And Luma's outburst during Kamala's visit only really confirmed for her that she had to at least try whatever she possibly could to start making things right again. Or at least as right as they could be.

So with Luma off sulking and shopping and hopefully not making mincemeat out of any teal deer in the preserve, Eleanor decided to take Rhys with her into the other woods, and to the one place she could think to go and the one person she could think of that might even have an inkling of an idea of what could be done for him.

And as she approached the mansion and took in its creepy facade, all she could think of as she went to go knock on the door was that at least Rhys would feel right at home here. So she knocked a few times and she gave her cousin a hopeful smile as he just stood there, seemingly disconnected from everything him until she spoke, and his attention shifted, dutifully, toward what she had to say.

"Don't worry," she told him. "You'll like Ms. Vess, Rhys. She might not be able to help, but maybe, at least, she'll be able to point me in the right direction."


[[ and clearly for she who lives there! That Eleanor and her cousin visited is all good for broadcast, but the details should be NFB, please! ]]

Yesterday had been an absolute riot of emotions for Eleanor, from the nervousness from talking to Kamala's parents to the elation of declarations of love, and then the shock of seeing that Luma and Rhys and her mother had come, and all the complicated turmoil that came along with that. On the one hand, Rhys was doing slightly better; they weren't sure whether it was time or distance that improved it, but even what little progressed he'd made, it had been marginal, and it was very clear how tied he was to her for purpose. Things were going well at the new house; the legal issues had been 'mostly taken care of,' according to Luma, though she wouldn't elaborate and Eleanor wasn't sure she wanted her to. But they were settling, they were making things work, and it seemed everything might be...okay.

Not great. Definitely different. But okay.

All the things that Muneeba and Yusef had brought her were still waiting in the dorm lobby for her to take to her room, because she'd spent that evening in the hotel with her family, mostly just talking (debating?) with Luma about her being there, until their mother, softly and gently, asked them to keep it down so she could sleep, a deft way of telling them to shut up already in her gentle and circuitous way.

And so they did, and that morning, with Eleanor now there to instruct Rhys to help, they decided to make it up to their mother by taking her down to the beach, where she could slip into the water, and the red polyps that lined one side of her face began to open and breathe and drink in the salt water hungrily as Aurora sighed in relief, closed her eyes, and just enjoyed being there. Eleanor went in with her for a while, though Luma stayed on the stand, always with her excuse of it being too cold, and they shouldn't leave Rhys by himself, anyway, and they didn't want to risk that simply telling him not to drown would be sufficient enough to keep him safe in the water, too.

But, eventually, Aurora wanted to be alone, too, so Eleanor went and joined her sister and her cousin, one looking out over the ocean with a deep, thoughtful frown and the other with a vacant, lifeless expression. Eleanor settled in between them, and for all they had to say to each other the previous night, a silence settled between them.

For now. Eventually, no doubt, the bickering, the debating, the appeals would start again, but for now, it was just the quiet sunrise and the fathomless depths between them. At least until it became late enough in the morning that Eleanor would start to worry about people being out and about, though they'd brought Aurora's veils and her tub, so if she was feeling like she wanted to risk socializing, they could.

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