makesthings | After

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After

The days after the fight at the Lightning Farm and Milliways pass by quickly as there's much to do. Sameth must be a prince to get the promised land to the refugee Southerlings, he must be Wallmaker in terms of helping to rebuild all that's been broken and he has to figure out how to be Wallmaker.

His first major project is Lirael's hand, which takes a couple of months and lots of adjusting to get right. In between working on the hand, he reads all that he can about Wallmakers and talks with his father about the Great Charter Stones so he can take over mending them.

He knows that he needs to travel the Old Kingdom to see the damage to Charter Stones and go over every part of the Wall to understand what he needs to do. Milliways is always at the back of his thoughts as he wonders if Kait was there for the final battle, if she's well, but there's so much to do that he doesn't have time to look for a door.

One night after working far too late, which seems to be what he does of late, he ends up asleep in a comfortable chair in the family study.

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Sabriel has been busy too, mopping up Dead activity across the Kingdom, and working with Lirael to bring her up to speed on the job. She gets back late, well into the early hours, and a cool hand smooths over Sameth's hair to wake him.

Comfortable or not, sleeping like that cannot be good for him.

(She could have gone straight to bed, but... well, Sameth isn't the only night owl in the family.)

He shifts under her hand and blinks awake, "Hello. Did you just get back?"

She smiles down at him.

"A little while ago, yes. I thought I would save you an aching neck in the morning."

"Yes, thanks. I was down in the reservoir and must have been working more than I expected. I did plan on going up to bed,"

It's just that his room is up some stairs and he didn't have the energy for them.

"Often the way," she says, amused.

"Lirael's gone straight to bed. She's still tiring fast."

Losing a hand... will do that.

"I'll be finished with her hand soon. It's almost there but I don't want her to have any issues. The stones are doing better. I think soon I'll be able to start working on the stones along the roads soon,"

There's a piece of cloth around his right hand where he cut it to bleed for the stones and he winces when he stretches it.

Sabriel tsks at him, despite the fact that she frequently comes back bleeding copiously and occasionally with exciting new infections.

"Don't run yourself into the ground, Sam. There's so much to do, but it's not worth your exhausting yourself."

"I'm not and I enjoy it,"

He starts to say that it's not like what he was doing before but he shouldn't say that.

"Hmm."

Well, she can almost understand.

After all, she derives a certain satisfaction from banishing Dead spirits.

"Do I need to look at that, or will it be all right?"

"It should be fine. I was going to heal it up when I had a moment,"

He unwinds the bandage and it's a clean cut and not bleeding. All the blood went into the stones.

Sabriel peers over with professional interest.

"Looks all right. Still, I may as well..."

It's not as though she isn't going to sleep like the dead - pardon the pun - tonight anyway.

She sketches a Charter Mark onto the skin of his hand near the bleeding, and it sinks in slowly, warming and soothing.

"Thank you," He knows she doesn't need to do the healing but that makes it nice. As it's one of the motherly things she does and he smiles.

Even now that he's Wallmaker, duties make more sense but he still worries that he disappointed her by not being Abhorsen-in-Waiting.

Sabriel nods in satisfaction as the Charter Mark takes hold, then pauses.

Still leaning over the back of his chair, she carefully wraps her arms round his shoulders for a moment, a little awkward.

She missed her family so much, all the time.

The hug is unexpected but nice and he closes his eyes to savor it.

He always wishes he knew how to have more moments like this but doesn't know where to start.

Nor does Sabriel.

Family is hard.

"I missed you," she says quietly. "How are you? And the others?"

"Busy, we're all busy with different things. The Southerling refugees seem to be settling in fairly well and Ellimere doesn't seem too annoyed at the job I did with them,"

Politics is hard and not something he'll ever feel comfortable with.

Sabriel nods.

Still against his shoulder.

It's late.

"That's good," she says softly. "I shall have to speak to her tomorrow."

...Odds are good that Touchstone will wake as soon as she goes into their room. Some instincts have never left him.

"She'll be glad to see you. We always are,"

Talking is harder but at least now he's not hiding as much from her.

"Hm."

She finally stands up again, a little embarrassed.

"We should go up. Lest we both fall asleep here."

"Yes, that makes sense. Will you be here for breakfast? I can show you how some projects are going if you're interested,"

He never knows how much she is but he wants to show her that he knows how to be a Wallmaker. This is something he can do.

Sabriel smiles, tired but genuine.

"I will be here," she promises.

He stands up and stretches, he's aching more than he realized,

"Good, then I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Sameth."

"Good night," Morning arrives rather sooner than Sameth expected but it tends to do that. Breakfast is one of those rare times when the entire family is there which is nice and awkward.

After eating, he starts for his workshop and says to his mother, "Do you want to see what I'm working on?"

"Please," she says, getting up, and ignoring Touchstone's amused look at her haste.

It's not a crime to make up for lost time while she's home.

(She'll get him back for teasing her later.)

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