Mara-Kuru appears in her living room, smiling pleasantly.

...to greet Felina, who's there one-quarter of one-third of a second before her. Felina sticks out her tongue. "Beatcha." Mara does bring out what little silly side she has...and she happens to be good at picking up on any mischief her double's planning about two seconds in advance.

"Oh! You rat!" Mara giggles, eyes gleaming excitedly. "Now you get the bed. Not fair, my love!" Okay, so she had not really made that part of the wager vocally. She was getting around to it.

"Wait...what now?" Felina scritches her head. "Since when is there only one bed to go around? This place is huge."

"Well yes. But most of them are on the roof now, and I don't think you want those my love." Mara smiles her moronic smile, oblivious to the possibility that, hey guess what? Beds on roofs are not normal.

Felina blinks. Twice actually. Then just shakes her head a couple times to clear it. She's also learned not to ask. "Are you sure? I mean, I sleep in trees for goodness' sake, I'd be perfectly comfortable on the couch."

Mara nods most enthusiastically. "Of course I am sure, my love. You are my guest and my guest gets all my love! And my bed. And cake. I have cake somewhere, want some?"

Felina laughs softly. "Love and beds are quite appreciated and enough for me, thank you." Besides, in this house, she's afraid the cake would bite back.

Mara smiles, a bit more seriously, and nods. "Okay. The bedroom is on the right, remember. You can go ahead and go to bed, my love." She tramps into the other room, calling after, "Felina? Do you want some milk or something before bed? Juice?"

Felina stops walking a moment, smiles a little, and shakes her head. "That's okay, Mara. Thank you, though. I really appreciate this." She does like her double. She's the sweet half.

"Okay. Goodnight! Sleep as long as you want to, I will be cleaning!" Mara's voice is a little quieter now, largely because she's in a closet. Heaven knows what kind of nonsense may transpire while she cleans, but for the moment, she is thrilled. It isn't everyday that Felina comes to visit, and it isn't... ever, really... that Felina comes without doom right behind her. Or in front of her.

"I will. You sleep well, too. Eventually." This is nice. Really...Felina's face fades as she heads upstairs, though, and she just looks...tired. It's been a tough few days. And she has a whole hell of a lot to think about, as well. Weapons and, yes, cloak are removed, since she really has no reason to be hidden at the moment. Her usual clothing spell has her in her usual nightgown before long, and she curls up in Mara-kuru's bed--which, really, smells just like her, so that awkwardness of using someone else's bed is alleviated--and some meditation techniques have her asleep before terribly long despite brooding potential.

Mara-kuru pads around her house on silent feet, arranging this, rearranging that. Pots and pans hang on the wall in her living room, shampoo and soaps sit in her kitchen cupboards, and she is in the process of dismantling her downstairs tub to be moved outside when she remembers that no water runs out there. She makes a note that she will have to build a new bathroom with pipes outside, and goes back to happily rearranging her house. This will take her hours, although, once everything is in the improper order, she takes a moment to peek in on Felina, smiles at her and sends her a subliminal hug, and then curls up on her couch for a few hours of sleep. it has been a very productive day.

Felina awakend at least reasonably early the next morning, once the sun's been up a couple of hours. She yawns, closes her eyes again. Sleep is a good thing. But then, so is finding Mi'ehna's double. It's grudging that she crawls out of Mara's bed and gets cleaned up and dressed and tweaking her mindset, beginning to focus on the task at hand.

Downstairs, Mara's little voice can be heard twittering and giggling, but any words she might be saying are a bit unclear. Based on her energy signature, however, she is still sound asleep.

Felina smiles a little. She conjours up a nice breakfast that will keep itself hot and fresh until her double wakes up--and grabs a bowl of rice for herself--and leaves quietly for the other parts of Wu Yuan. She'll be back later, but won't wake Mara up for now. And really, it's probably better she'd used magic instead of cooking, considering what she'd have found in the cabinets. It's really not certain that Felina could tell a dispenser of orange-scented soap from some strange, gelatinous seasoning.

---

By the time Felina arrives at the estate, Mara has already thoroughly hugged Isis and is in the process of hugging Radivishe Moorn, though it certainly is much less than an affectionate embrace. The sorcerer's face over her shoulder looks positively disgusted. Isis is just laughing, and amusing herself by looking through Mara-kuru's disjointed possessions.

Felina snickers. Her eyes go to a strangely-placed pipe that looks like it should be indoors but that prefers to spew water all over the front lawn. The quirkier part is, there's a tipped toilet beside it. "Ahh...innovative firefighting, Mara dear?"

Mara lets go of Moorn, and trots over to Felina, smiling her Mara smile. "Nope! Good luck. I was going to practice that 'fix everything' spell you used to restore Amilei's tavern."

Moorn sighs quietly. "Can this not go any further? Fuzzy kittens turn my stomach, thank you."

"Literally, as often as not. Inside, then, Mara? Or are the kitchen and seating out here now?"

Mara closes her eyes and grins. "On the roof."

Isis bursts out laughing at that.

Felina grins. She'd quite expected the answer, actually. "That works."

---

Ting isn't pleased. She isn't drinking, not yet...she's just curled on a rafter way back in a dark corner where the ceiling is very low, hands wrapped around her knees and chin on her knees. Damnit. It had been such a good day.

Mara appears in her dining room, ears down. "Ting?" she calls, looking around. "Honey, let me explain, please?"

"What's to explain? You like the guy. That's okay." Ting doesn't move.

"Well... yeah. He's everything I'm not. Fearless, wise, mysterious... pale." She looks around again. She knows where Ting is, of course, but still feels the need to look. "Please don't hide, Ting. Please?"

"Aunt, you're as psychic as my mom." Of course she knows where she is.

Mara pulls out a chair and sits, toying with her hair to keep her hands occupied. "I just wanted to see you, is all... Ting, you know I wouldn't have let him hurt you. And you know I would never do anything that might hurt your mom, too. I know how close you two are, though, and if we had let you go without telling you to keep it secret, you might have mentioned it because it seemed like a happy thing. He lied to your mother about her black sword being obselete... you've seen it. It's what she killed him with fifteen hundred years ago. He told her that, but it isn't true. She could still... and she might be tempted if she thought we were in danger from him."

Mara breathes a slow breath and continues. "Only a few years before his death he showed up in the nether realm. Looking for a place to hide his daughter, someone had threatened her to get to him. Korliss, have you met him? Anyway. Korliss took her in for a bit, and asked me to guard the keep, so I did. Radivishe was there almost every day, looking in on her. At first he was cold to me, but Ai loved me. We chatted about girly stuff and then beat the hell out of each other... well, sort of, Ai isn't a physical fighter but anyway I'm rambling."

"She told him about how nice it was with me to keep her company, and the next day he brought me flowers. Gave them to me without a word, a whole bunch of chrysanthemums. I sneezed. But it was sweet." Mara's eyes twinkle a little at the memories. "We had met on and off before, his goings on took him all over everywhere. He and your mom actually tag-teamed my father, who was a crazy power-mad asshole, and we met then, and I called him a dick. He just smiled when I did, like he enjoyed the dig."

"After a few months of guarding Ai, Radivishe found the person who had threatened her. Tossed him into a star, or something, I can't remember. Anyway... he let Ai stay with me a while longer, while he worked to build her a keep that she would be safe in. She named it Niven Ai, which is of course where she got the name she uses now. He still popped in now and again, but he would talk to me whenever we met. He wasn't warm, exactly, I don't think he knows how to be, but he wasn't cold either. Then one day he brought a wrapped box with my name on it, and told me not to open it till he left. Inside I found a new hairbrush and a whole set of prism-earrings." Mara pushes back her hair, showing off the seven rings in each of her ears. The stones glow softly in the tones of a rainbow, shimmering in the light. "And a letter, thanking me for taking care of his daughter, apologizing for being so mean... hinting at things. I don't know why I followed him that day, Ting, but I did. I thought maybe he was feeling something he didn't know how to feel properly. I wanted to help him, because I knew that underneath all those years of people hating him and blood and horrible things there lay, at least, a good father. I knew he had more good in his heart, I knew it and..."

"Aunt, it's okay." Ting's still where she was. "I'm not mad at you, all right? You don't have to justify yourself...you love him. That's...great. He just scared me. He was going to hurt me and you and I both know it. I don't like that Dewei is still with him considering that. And I don't know what to think of its being his energy in mother's injury, and I don't like having to keep all this secret. But that doesn't mean I think you're doing something bad or wrong."

Mara draws her knees up against her chest. "Then please come down and let me see you..." In her mind, Mara has been beating herself up ever since Ting appeared in the stones. She should've let this go way back.

Ting's still a few moments, and then jumps out of the rafters. She doesn't have her mother's full feline resilience, but enough to handle a fair fall. She lands on the floorboards, and isn't sure what to say next.

Mara looks at her, as sad-eyed as she has ever been. "Would it make you feel better if I talked to Felina about this...?"

"I don't know." Ting sighs. "It certainly would make her any happier to know, even if I don't want to keep the secret...and she's so happy right now, she is. It might be better to let that alone."

That said, the half-dumen reaches out and pokes Mara. "Aunt. Stop that. At least you've got your man back, cheer up a bit." She smiles teasingly. Not with her whole heart, but she's trying.

Mara looks at Ting. Now she's worried that Ting might be right, that Dewei might actually be in danger. Just... dammit.

"Let's go talk to Felina, Ting. I can't..." she looks away. "Fucking dammit! Just..." And she vanishes for Helantri Deru, wishing she could just get her head together for a minute.