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[iluminar]

Are we truly on the moon?

[ She sounds curious, curious enough to ask again but this time to the network now that she's been given proper instruction on how to work it and the device given to her. Lucrezia's already asked both her mother and her brother, but asking network-wide means making friends. ]

Has it always been this bleak? We see it high up in the sky, unable to ever touch it. It shines down light should we happen to lose our way—and this is how it really is? What a lonely place to be.

And space—God’s light must not reach far.

[ It doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t be possible. Yet here they all are. And she'll put behind her the chaotic welcome she had been greeted with, monsters and carnage, death littering the corridors a week ago. ]

I cannot help but think that space is a far darker world than that of Rome.

[ But how could such a thing even be possible? ]

Comments

[matre]

Nor would he.

[ she tries not to miss rodrigo. she tries not to think of him. vanozza does not know how he would take to such a place and if were to come while still weak...

safer for him upon his golden throne. may he never know these trials. he has still many of his own to endure. ]

[iluminar]

Then we can only hope that he remains safe in our absence, and that he watches over little Giovanni.

[ her murmured words trail off as her hands pause over her device. it lowers down to her lap and lucrezia lowers her gaze with it, lashes shuttering. she misses her son. as much as she loves having her brother and mother both near, it's giovanni she misses the most right now.

but this place... the zombies. she shudders to think what might have happened had he arrived with her in her arms and they had been both attacked. ]

[matre]

[ vanozza reaches out to take lucrezia's hand in hers. she gives it a comforting squeeze. ]

The Holy Father will protect him. He loves him as much as he loves all you children.

[iluminar]

[ lucrezia returns the squeeze and nods. her mother is right. and she remembers all the times she was there with giovanni and her father, watching how he doted on the infant boy, held him, played with him. her father would do whatever it took to see his grandson kept safe. ]

You're right.

[ and then in a softer tone between them, from one mother to another. ]

If only he were here where I might keep my own watchful eye on him. Here where I can hold him in my arms, rock him to sleep. Hum to him a lullaby.

He should be with his mother, as we are with you.

[matre]

Oh, Lucrezia.

[ vanozza folds her into an embrace. her heart hurts for her grieving daughter, for her grandson. she kisses lucrezia's temple. ]

I will not lie. It will ache, every moment he is away. To have children means to have your heart outside of you. Take comfort in him being loved, and being safe. We will return soon, my daughter. They cannot hold us long.

[ or rather they will learn the error of pretending a borgia is theirs to do with as they will. ]

[iluminar]

[ she sits in silence and welcomes the press of warm lips to her temple, leaning into the embrace. lucrezia closes her eyes and for that small moment allows herself to be young again, having her mother close and tucking her in with the warm glow of a candle at her bedside.

the familiar scents of her childhood are with her mother especially and right now, it does wonders to calm her, to soothe the ache in her chest as temporary as it may be. ]

Then no one will object should I choose to unsheathe my claws and snap my teeth.

[ they will rue the day they thought they could use a borgia as a pawn to their game, these initiative. ]

[matre]

[ vanozza studies lucrezia under the guise of a concerned mother. is this what she was like when she was as young? filled with this fire that could raze a kingdom? she doesn't remember. she doesn't believe so.

she brushes the backs of her fingers against lucrezia's cheek. she smiles. ]

Remember when to purr, my dear, and when to bite.

[iluminar]

I learned from only the best after all.

[ she gives her mother a teasing little smile as she leans into the touch once more, already her mind working through when to purr and when would be the best moment to bite. ]

[matre]

[ she answers with a quiet laugh. ]

And surpassed the teacher.

[iluminar]

Is that not how it should be? We as mothers teach to our children everything we know so that one day our children will surpass us?

[matre]

That is our hope.

[ learn from the parents' mistakes. but there are a million new mistakes for them to make, which no one could have predicted. ]

[iluminar]

If the three of us are here in this base on the moon, that would mean Father and Juan are back home. I cannot help but wonder which of us has the advantage for safety.

Being here or being back in Rome.

[matre]

[ she's far too practiced by now to let her face fall at the mention of her second son. ]

Nobody is looking for us here. But I cannot say we are safe. Safe in a different way, perhaps.