Two Eyes Cenote sardonyx

this is backdated to aug 22nd for timeline! no posting order; welcoming single replies or rounds, also welcome just for ref! <3

when she had settled @Medusa into blue sleep with wine laced in poppyseed, bound her belly with the leaves, and made sure she was deep in slumber, tavina sidled gently from the examination room. she surveyed the hall both ways and then turned back to the sheepskin pouch in which she had placed four squirming bundles, each swathed in rabbitsfur. 

her heart beat fast; she drew the coverlet up over medusa's slumbering shoulder, checked her breathing, picked up the satchel, and stepped into the corridor.

as a creamy moon rose over muat-riya, the sesh set the cradle-pelt down in front of their hemet. "please don't ask me, @Nazli," tavina half-begged in a hushed voice filled by exhaustion. "four. two boys," @Osiris and @Nokht. "two girls," @Serket and Asenath (@Eopei). 

her eyes searched for nazli's in that soft azure light. "i'll help you with the milk. just — just tell me if you can do this. or say no. you can say no."

she would find a coyote for them if it must be done, but each moment was one dire.

no, she couldn't.
not when she knew what it was like to grow up without a mother, and to be one herself now—of course, there was only one option.

bring them here, she murmurs, not wanting them to wake. aiesha would have siblings! brothers, sisters, as it was meant to be.

nazli watched them and while she felt the emptiness of her heart, this fear which hollowed her, she could not abide the thought of any of them going hungry.

and tavina brought them, handed over the four still wet from birth and helped them latch to nazli's belly.

they would live. who they would become, no one could know for now.

but they would live. tavina stayed as long as she was able before touching the young woman's shoulder and moving out of the room to find medusa. time had no rest, and the sesh would not find her bed for hours.