Disclaimer: I don't own it, Tamora Pierce does. Now you can't sue.

This is a holiday present for Gem, whom I think is Merrybeans on here (Maybe wrong about that). Hope everything works out for you.

Daine/Numair angst, a reaction to all the fluff out there. Set about six months after Trixkster's Queen.

His voice broke. "Daine-"

"No," she said sharply, hugging little Rikash to her. "Nothing you say will change my mind, Numair. I'm leaving, and that's that."

"Magelet," he said. "Please, just listen to me."

"No. I know what I saw. And I thought that you of all people would have honor. I'm not putting up with this, being the- the wife on the side."

"Daine, won't you listen? I was drunk-"

She laughed, hotly and angrily. "I thought that you don't drink large amounts because it plays havoc with your Gift. And you would have to be plenty drunk to be that out of your senses."

Sarralyn was sobbing into her mother's leg, scared by the tones of the voices her parents were using.

"Is that it?" Daine asked scathingly. "Even after we've had two children you still found me too childish for you? Is that why I found you in bed with- with her?"

"Sweet, Varice is just a friend! She's just visiting Tortall, since Kalasin gave her some time off working all the time!"

"Visiting Tortall and sleeping with you, it would appear."

Rikash looked on from her arms, his eyes wide. She wondered if her baby understood the hateful words she was throwing at his da.

"What of Sarra and Rikash? They'll grow up without a father."

"Well, better no father than one who practices-"

"Practices what?" he asked quietly, dreading the word that he knew would come next.

"Adultery­," she spat. His face darkened, but he knew that it was completely, irrevocably true. Daine turned to leave.

"What about your things?" Asked Numair, still hoping that she would just sit down and consider staying, realize that she loved him even though he had done what she had accused him of, which was having sex with Varice.

"I'll get them- and the children's- later. When you're gone." She said, over her shoulder. "Don't try to contact me. I can't be that forgiving, Numair. If we have to work together from now on, I'm merely someone you know because we both work for the Crown. I'm not your wife, your lover, or the mother of your children anymore."

And so she left.

Numair sat down on their- now his bed and wept.

One corridor away, Daine sat down with Rikash and Sarralyn next to her and cried too. But hers were not tears of sorrow for the husband she had just lost. Her tears were of rage. After a few minutes, she collected herself and stood up. She had money. She could buy a place in Corus, or at the very least request for Jonathan or Thayet to give her rooms on the other side of the palace.

"Mama?" Sarra said to her. "Mama, what happened?"

"Da isn't your Da now, Sarra." She told her two year old daughter. "You know how your last name was Salmalin? Well, how do you like being called Sarralyn Sarrasri now?"

Sarralyn's brow puckered. "That's two Sarras in my name, Mama. I like it."

Daine felt an overwhelming rush of love for her daughter. "Good."

They left.

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