Blood from Stone [AU]

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill nods, not thinking to mention they won't be shelving books or anything like that. I love reading to the little kids! Bouncing a little, she beams. "Thank you so much! I really hate to disappoint or make Carver cancel his plans with Jass. He'd offered but... Jass won't be here forever and they're so cute together."

[Marian Hawke]

"They are, aren't they?" asks Liz, and her tone is soft, almost endearing. 

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Alright, I brought clotted cream, butter, some preserves, and the good oil with some herbs," says Cindy, returning with an armload of supplies. "This should make a wonderful luncheon."

[Tethras Clan]

Merrill claps softly and nods. "The sandwiches with the dark brown crust are shaved beef, cheese and mayo. Light brown is watercress, cucumber and cream cheese. And the crustless ones are peanut butter, honey and this neat fruit dad got us called bananananananananas." That last word seems to have... gotten away from her a little. One hopes anyway.

[Coquette Blacquin]

"That's.. quite a fruit," says Cindy, with a small, controlled smile, as though she's afraid to laugh at Merrill. "Shall we?"

[Helene Dakesh]

They settle in, then, making further small talk as sandwiches are served, tea fixed, and so forth. Finally, as they're all settled in, Helene says, "This one had an ulterior motive to this meeting."

[Marian Hawke]

"We suspected as much," says Liz wryly.

[Helene Dakesh]

"Indeed. This one has discovered news about Miss Cindy, and this one wanted to deliver said news in a pleasing, relaxed atmosphere."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"About.. me?" says Cindy, hesitantly. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Nananas," Merrill mumbles a little, then forces herself to focus. "About your family, in truth, but you're part of your family, even the bad parts of it, so about you too."

[Vigile]

Perhaps drawn by the voices- or the scent of food- a large cat slinks into the room and hops onto the sofa between Cindy and Liz.

[Marian Hawke]

"Vig," coos Liz, pulling the cat into her lap to stroke and fuss over him. 

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene nods. "This one has been developing a spell that can more easily locate people based on a familial or shared-blood relationship. This one was testing the spell against known quantities, when this one noticed an irregularity. This one determined quickly that it was due to one of the known quantities actually being unknown, which is to say, that there were more blood relatives than this one had anticipated. This one... This one discovered, in short, that you have siblings. Blood siblings. This one determined that one was known to you previously--"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"My sister, Alisenne," she agrees.

[Helene Dakesh]

"But there are two other living siblings that this spell was able to detect," finishes Helene.