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Seer, of course, didn't give it a second thought as she smiled brightly and made ready to take off. While she still had a little bit of growing left to do, she was close to her full adult size and everything about her fit together wonderfully. Good for her, perhaps not so good for Aear.

It was a bit of a flight; always was, though, since Realm HQ was a ways from Gambino Port and the Place was about a half-hour walk from there in the direction of Mountain. Eventually though, the flight ended, but only after Seer had curiously circled around behind the back where the balcony to the "aerie" was. That was Valefor's room, and Seer's too, now, set up so that the winged residents could come and go from there as they pleased without having to traverse the whole house or risk waking up/bothering/being bothered by anyone downstairs. The doors to the balcony were closed, and the curtains pulled shut, so Seer decided to land in the front and go in through the main room just in case.

With a flurry of multicolored feathers she was on the ground and bounded up to the door and inside almost before Aear had landed. "Hallo everyone! I'm back!" Further inquiries were cut short when she spotted Kitsyn, though, who seemed to be the only one in the room at the moment.

Poor Kitsyn was on the couch, apparently hog-tied with her own scarf. She smiled sheepishly when Aear came in. "Ah... I was watching the boys and I dozed off. ...Bad idea. Uh... help?"

Three kits that must have looked awfully familiar to Aear except for the gender difference chose the space of time while the sailor was still airborn to dive from atop a bookshelf at him. Three thumps and a small crash later Seer dashed over and manhandled the little terrors off of Aear's back and practically layed down on top of them to keep them under control while he got up and helped Kitsyn. "Fawn, Flakes, and Jolly. They're a... pawful."

A chorus of "GET OFF!" and other such similar demands arose from the Christmas kits and Seer playfully nipped at the closest available kit-ear, which happened to be Jolly, the kit with the Santa hat. She then proceeded to quietly scold them, by the end of which Jolly looked rather the opposite of his name and Fawn and Flakes both looked at least slightly repentant.

There was a blush followed by a brief flash of pain quickly hidded as Kitsyn accepted the scarf back and stared thoughtfully at the floor while she tied it back in place. She'd never exactly told anyone why it was that she listened to the either so often...

Seer stood up and herded the kits over Kitsyn, the scarfed female blinking back to her normal, slightly goofy demeanor too quickly for the newly adult angelic to pick up the reaction to his comment, which the sailor himself was probably wondering about. "I'm gonna take Aear up to see Valefor and then I'll come back down and help, ok?"

It didn't even occur to Seer that the pair wouldn't wind up coming back downstairs together to join them, even as she padded up the stairs behind the kitchen with an odd feeling of foreboding. She reached the appropriate door and knocked. "Valefor? Aear wanted to come check on you."

It took what seemed almost a moment too long before the Aeon opened the door. She didn't exactly look unhealthy; there was just something about her that seemed... tired, and maybe a bit ragged. "Ah... my dear friend... I guess my absence worried you? Oh... do come in, I never did get to show you my room..." She also seemed... distracted.

Seer smiled sympathetically at her psuedo-mother, not really knowing what it was that ailed her but feeling for her all the same. "Is it ok if I leave you two? Kitsyn's ah... having some trouble with the boys."

Valefor nodded kindly and Seer trotted off toward the stairwell. The Aeon watched her go sadly and then shook her head and backed up so AearHwesta could enter.

At first glance the room seemed much darker in coloration than one would expect from Valefor... and then when one started looking more closely at the walls it was obvious that there was a purpose for this. There was a strange cityscape painted on the wall as though it were night, and following the painting to the floor the carpet suddenly registered as being colored like the sea. It even had a little ripple pattern in it. The cieling was painted an extremely dark blue, and both it and the walls seemed to be spotted with small... lights?

Valefor walked over to the curtains lining the wall of the balcony and pulled a second set closed, effectively darkening the room to the point where it was difficult to see, and then padded over the slightly elevated pet bed where she slept to flip a switch on the wall. And suddenly all the tiny lights made sense as starry patterns made themselves visible on the walls and cielings and the tiny windows of the cityscape lit up.

"Can you feel it, Aear?... Haisyn made it for me. It's Zanarkand, before it was destroyed. Before I became an Aeon. Home..." There was an ache in her voice that could never be mended when she uttered that last word.

Valefor turned to gaze soulfully at Aear before slipping of her mask. It was odd that she didn't immediately return his affectionate gestures, but given how she was feeling... ah! Her eyes sung of unshed tears and she buried her face in his neckfur with a heavy sigh.

"Truth be told, dear Aear... it's something I loathe to speak even though I know I must." It was so much harder to think about telling him with him here even though his presence made her confused emotions even more keenly felt. She pulled her slightly odd-shaped, finely boned face out of his fur and stared devoutly at the carpet as if wishing it were real water that she could plunge into.

"I do not wish to hurt you Aear, of all people, I do not, I do not..." She said it unthinkingly, obviously to herself, posture and tone of voice distant enough in manner that it was easy to see she didn't realize she'd said it aloud.

"It's easy to sit back and give advice when all you can do is watch." It was unclear for a moment what she was talking about, and then she spoke again. "That was all I could do, then. But now; I have the opportunity to live and feel and be, and doing so is harder than I would have thought."

She was silent for several moments before looking up at him, eyes almost pleading that he would understand what she was about to tell him. "I... these times spent with you, raising her with you, watching her grow... are more precious to me than anything that ever happened Before... but it made me realize..." She sighed again and looked down to the floor. Her... everything felt so heavy right now. "I want a family... of my own blood, Aear... and it doesn't matter how much I love you, or Seer, because it's something you simply can't give. And it hurts... to stay, or to go." By the time she'd finished she'd sagged nearly to the floor.

Valefor finally rested on the floor and curled into Aear. "I don't know if I could even find someone else, Aear... philanderer though you are you're still wonderful." She managed a bit of a playful note in the last bit of her sentence, but it didn't last long and she sobbed softly. That didn't last long either as she shook her head stubbornly. Gentle though she tended to be she was still a fighter.

She gazed up at him, a soft look in her eyes, before she kissed him and hooked a wing with hers. She pressed against him longingly and broke the kiss to whisper, "But I'm not gone yet... and I want to make the most of today while it lasts..." Whether it would genuinely be the last time or not, she needed him right now, and it meant something important to her that she couldn't possibly have put into words to share this with him, this once, in this room made of the starlit sea of her home.