Putting her keys back into herpurse, she glanced up at the substantial-looking housethat loomed before her. Straightening her skirt andlow cut blue sw...ater, she then began to walk with aseductive swaying of her hips up to the front door.She pressed the doorbell and waited for a response. A woman of middle years answered the door. She wasfairly short, and Father Time was beginning to leavehis mark on her aging features. Lines were plainlyvisible on her face, and a rather crude job at. "I continued, "Yeah, that didn't feel the same today. Felt forced. Do you agree?"She said, "I do. This was fun when we were worried. When we were nervous and eager. You're great but this isn't the same anymore."I said, "I know. I've felt this way for a couple weeks, what about you?"She said, "I started to feel this way when I came over a couple weeks ago while (my wife) was away and you took a couple minutes to get hard. That's never happened and I was worried you were starting to lose. “Just tired. Have to stay awake to keep from letting go of his mana.” I wasn’t really sure how much Jowan knew about what had happened to me when Faren and I had been captured by the Architect; I thought he might have helped with my rescue, but given that I’d been in a magic-induced sleep for days after we’d been freed, I couldn’t be certain. “I’ll live. I’ve done it before, and Aedan should be here in the next day or two. Thanks for the help, though. I feel much better now.”He grimaced.. Slowly, he looked up from the table and into my eyes and said, "It's okay, mom."Chris had a look on his face of relief, although he never said it, and he turned his eyes back down, still sitting silent and motionless."Oh, honey... I'm so sorry." I began to say, but stopped as I began to loose control. I did not want to add the burden of crying in front of Chris to his mind, and so I stood up from the table and walked to the sink. I began to wash some of the pots and pans from the cooking, but I.