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  RYST

  Dream Journal

  The casita had a prism above it. Shaped like a pyramid, or an outline of a pyramid made of light—all colors of the rainbow. Then there were blueprints rising up out of the ground. Then musical scores. There were notes and treble clefs pouring out of the ground—

  I woke up to buzzing.

  “Strintch!” Nayth cursed softly, then said something else I didn’t understand and left the bedroom. I grabbed my journal and flicked on the lamp next to the bed, recording the dream I’d just had.

  I could hear forced, angry whispers coming from the living room, so I pulled on a robe and went to see what was going on. Nayth’s voice rose as he felt me coming towards him, and he switched to Universal.

  “Please, Freya, tell my wife why you called us before dawn on our first night in our home on Shurwinn,” Nayth invited with his strangler smile on his sexy face.

  Looking at the floor, pissed, and not at all sorry, Freya said in a monotone voice, “It’s midday here, but point taken. I should have looked at the time there. I am pissed because I wanted you to stay in Floria for a few days when you picked up Ren and Peydran because I wanted to have a big engagement party with tons of people and publicity because I’m a selfish, crappy sister. I’m sorry you were sick on your honeymoon, Ryst. I’m an idiot, and you deserve better.”

  “What exactly did Nayth say to get you to be so fake-ly apologetic right now?” I asked.

  She looked at me with a wry look on her face, “That if I thought for one second that this behavior was acceptable for adults, I needed to re-examine my life values and that he isn’t going to put his wife through my childish games. And that I need to grow up and think about other people for once. That you both already gave the family a wedding. That you were sick for part of your honeymoon and that you have an introvert side, no matter how you appear on the outside and you like having a quiet life in a quiet village in the middle of nowhere. And that if I pull another stunt like this, he’ll tell you that our villa on Floria is a pit, and that you’ll never want to come visit the family there,” she sulked.

  “Okay, I appreciate the sort-of apology, Freya. And Nayth isn’t wrong. My health is a concern. And I am an introvert. It’s actually difficult for me to be in crowds of people for long periods of time, even though I like it sometimes. But mostly, don’t you think that Nayth and I both deserve some peace and quiet?"

  I kept going, making sure she got the facts. "We’re having a huge wedding in less than a year, so let’s keep the public face of our relationship to that one event, okay? And if you want to do something like that in the future, can’t you just ask us? Not plan it and then get mad about it if it doesn’t go your way? Is that reasonable?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  She smiled, and it was a real smile. “Yeah, Ryst. I knew you were good for Iqui. I really am sorry. I didn’t know about your health, or I guess I just ignored the fact that you eat the way you do because you have a reason for it. I am sorry. I promise to ask next time.”

  “Then all can be forgiven. At least you got a couple weeks with Ren, and, hey, you even got him to publish a pop song. He’s still mortified by it, by the way,” I sniggered.

  “Ha!” she barked out. “It’s so awesome. They are too fun. I hope they come back sometime. I’m sorry, Iqui. You’re right. I’ll re-evaluate my life priorities. Maybe I’ll grow up someday. Sorry. Love you.”

  “Love you too, Freya,” Nayth said, closing the video and wrapping an arm around my waist.

  “I had a dream, and I think it means that we need to look at the remodeling plans for the casita. You game?” I asked my husband.

  “Sure. Do you want to get back in bed since neither of us has to work for several more hours? We can have a cuddle and look at sketches and decide what we want to do.”

  “That sounds perfect. Amran left juices in the cooler. Want one?” He nodded, so I grabbed a few juices, and we settled back in bed looking at sketches.

  “Now that I’m here in the casita, I like Peydran’s ideas even better, with one change. What if we add another room to the east, connecting through the living room wall, about where your bookcase is? That way we can add a dining room on the other side of the kitchen, a staircase to go downstairs, and an office on the other side of the living room. Then downstairs we can have the garage, a small dojo, a second bathroom, and a media room for gaming, movies, and a couple of daybed sofas for guests?” Nayth suggested.

  “Mmm hmm. I like it,” I nodded. “Maybe they can do all the construction and excavation downstairs first, to limit the mess? Then add the upstairs room and connect everything at the end? It’s probably gonna be a ton of noise to excavate all of that. Gosh, I wonder if Borden could do—“

  “Oh!” I exclaimed, clamping my hands to my head. “Ouch! I can’t even think about Borden’s Talent without it throwing painful green lights into my brain. Yikes!”

  “Yeah, it might be best if we try to forget that we know certain things about certain people we are close to. You okay, Ryst?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, as long as I don’t think about it. Okay, I like these sketches. I like your ideas. We can move my bookcase into the office, right?”

  “Ummm hmm.”

  “You wanna go buy a porter?”

  “I can get someone to deliver one. We don’t have to go to Media to shop. Peydran will help me get everything. Anything particular you want?”

  “No, I don’t care. I’d rather not have to think about it. Get whatever you want.” I’d never needed transportation with my simple life in the casita and business headquarters nearby.

  “‘Kay. Once it’s a reasonable hour, I’ll talk to Peydran and get to work on the remodeling plans. How much do you want to be involved?”

  I shook my head. “As long as it matches the design and decor of the casita as it is now—high ceilings, big windows, full of light, I don’t care about anything else. I honestly don’t like building projects. I don’t care about stuff like that, so long as the final product is inviting, warm, and cozy. Make sure you have plenty of storage space for your instruments and everything. Make sure it fits you as much as it fits me.”

  “Okay, Methela. It’ll be pretty, I promise. And I’ll try to work with everyone on the schedule to keep it as quiet and unobtrusive as possible,” he nuzzled my hair.

  “Perfect. Since the sun is coming up, I’m going to go greet it like the Tindin Blacker that I am,” I said, pressing a light kiss to his lips.

  “I’ll join you, love. But first, I wanna talk about middle of the night calls. What do you think of putting a do-not-disturb block on our pads at night, with a reminder to people of the time zone we are in? And tell them we won’t answer before 7:00 am? Anyone wanting me urgently can go through Rahel. He can get past the do not disturb if he needs to, but he never does.”

  I nodded, “Agreed.”

  That was how we started our new life in Shurwinn: setting boundaries, planning our home renovation, and greeting the sun. Nayth moved through his kata, and I progressed through my flow. Each doing our own tradition, but moving in sync with the dawning light of the morning sun illuminating the world around us.