The second story is the tearjerker of the series but it has its heart-warming moments as well. A follow-up on family life and the fickle unfairness of life. One warning: Contains some major angst.

Characters
All original characters (main characters Dera, Fafa, Arafa, other hara and harlings), with concepts, vocabulary, etc., borrowed from Storm Constantine.

Spoilers
Obviously the previous story, Deliverance. No spoilers for any specific book in the Wraeththu trilogy, but it is imagined that this entire storyline takes place after the Ascension. There are still original incepted hara, but Wraeththu civilization has stablized.

Chapter 1

"Oh, please, please, oh, oh, could you--"

My cry of passion was cut off by my lover's fingers, pressed across my lips. His eyes said, "Quiet." So did his silent voice.

I willed myself into the mode Fafara desired, speaking to him using the powers he had helped me to develop. "Is this better?" I asked him.

"Of course, my sweet." His mind-touch, as always, sent shivers of delight down my spine. To be so very connected!

"Finally you begin to master the technique," he continued.

I had to laugh out loud but I managed to keep any actual words unspoken. "No, you're the one who's mastered the technique!" His mouth had fastened to my ouana-lim and in just a few seconds he had worked me to the point where a laugh was entirely inappropriate. Once again, I cried out loud in ecstasy.

"Oh, Dera," he moaned silently, "what am I going to do with you?"

By now ouana-lim was throbbing with desire and ready to bury itself in Fafara's warm, willing flesh. As far as I was concerned, it wasn't what he was going to do with me, but what I was going to do to him. That was the plan for the evening; we were to conceive a child.

Gently I moved his tender lips away from my organ and drew him down on the bed so he lay down beneath me.

"I love you," I said, and almost immediately he was soume for me. Slowly lowering myself down, I eased into him and began the dance that we hoped would create a new life.

We ceased speaking, out loud or otherwise. As was necessary for conception, this would be a spiritual experience and we would need to tune into our most refined powers in order for our union to bear fruit.

Gradually the heat began to rise, the pleasure pulsed in waves, and I felt the climax building to the fever pitch that would bring us to the next level. We were so close!

Suddenly, a swath of light appeared across the bed. Someone had apparently opened the door.

Letting out a groan, I stopped what I was doing. In the increased light, I could see Fafara's look of disappointment.

"Dede?" called out a small, familiar voice. Ilafa, our two-year-old harling, was using his special nickname for me. "What are you doing?" he asked.

I was tempted to tell him that I was trying to make him a new brother, but before I could get a single word out, Fafara withdrew out from under me and pulled himself to a sitting position at the side of the bed.

"Come here, Ila," he said. My son crept over from the door, looking at me anxiously, obviously tuned in to the fact that I was rather annoyed. Fafara would not have any such negative emotions spilling over onto the child.

Pulling Ilafa up on his lap, Fafara gave him a hug and assured him that "Dede" and "Fafa" had simply been playing in bed before going to sleep. The two of us had agreed that it was still too early to discuss aruna with the child, and so Fafara wove a clever excuse.

Ilafa, being a two-year-old harling, had a few questions, such as why, a few minutes ago, he had heard me crying out as if someone had hurt me. He had been standing just outside the door the whole time.

We came up with answers, enough to satisfy him, and then finally I got around to asking him what he had been doing not only awake, but hanging outside our bedroom eavesdropping.

Hadn't Arafa been watching him? Arafa had known our plans for the evening and had been instructed to keep the child occupied.

"He was playing with me and reading me a book when he fell asleep!" Ilafa explained. At first I found it hard to believe but then I remembered that Arafa had been pursuing his own romantic attachment. He had related to me how he had engaged in some rather strenuous aruna the night before. On top of that, just that afternoon, gone out on a house call a long horse ride away. No wonder he had fallen asleep on the job!

After all that talking, my aruna-thoughts had just about disappeared when Fafara leaned forward and attempted to share breath. I accepted his gesture briefly before pulling away.

"Not now," I told him. "I have to put this one to bed." I scooped up my small, sometimes inconvenient package and, waving poor Fafara goodbye, went off to put things in order for the night.