[Carillon]

They were seated on the rug by the fire when he arrived home. Finn and Lissa were playing with Aislin while Jaelle looked on. Aislin was on her tummy, working on holding herself up and rocking backwards and forwards. Anna had told her that it meant she was getting ready to crawl. Should she not have been crawling months ago? Jaelle wondered to herself sometimes. She was so small for her age, and seemed to do everything at her own pace, which was often slower than Jaelle's expectations. Still, there was plenty of time ... and so many other things to worry about.

It eased the bitterness inside her a little to see the children smile, and to hear her daughter laugh. The baby was the only member of the household who was mostly oblivious to the painful absence of two children who should be there but weren't. Nonetheless, Jaelle had noticed Aislin was sensitive to mood. Often, she would become fussy or start to cry if Jaelle's thoughts drifted to Rhiannon or Liam or the half-orcs when she was feeding or holding her, and she would rarely settle down if Jaelle was already upset or angry.

Jaelle looked up as she heard Connor's footsteps, and met his eyes for a moment. One look, and she felt a chill forming deep in her gut. He didn't look happy, which meant he hadn't found Phillis, or he had found Phillis but hadn't found his answers ... or even that he had found both Phillis and his answers, but that the answers weren't the ones they had been hoping for. With a few murmured words, she asked Finn to mind Aislin for a moment and pushed herself up off the rug to go find out which it was, and to start planning again.