It was just as well that Mikhail wasn't convinced that Aleksei and I should be joined in the way that he intended to join himself to Silveredge. Although I'd never asked his age, I figured that Aleksei was probably my senior by at least a decade. The battle that Ivan did manage to win was, to me, more important. I was allowed to keep my horns. Since apparently his horns had been more like his father's than mine, he was able to successfully argue that removal of my horns would be practically fatal to me, as they wound so close to my head. It was decided, however, that my tail would have to be bobbed when I accepted the faith of Bahamut. I accepted this with grit teeth, hoping that something would work out before Mikhail invented a tail-cutting ceremony. Aleksei was sent out to gather his army of kobolds and find Bahlzair. Half of me hoped that he'd never found him, that he simply disappeared the way the Drow had before him. I was returned to the Hall of Horns to sit in the same chair and suffer almost the same treatment. The only difference was that at times, I was brought out into the sunlight at knife point. I'm not sure whether this was to keep me healthy or what, but it always made for interesting conversation among the other camp members.
These daily parades allowed me to notice that a pile of gold began appearing before Mikhail's tent. No one decided to put it into a purse or a pot of some sort- it just laid bare on the ground, and no one touched it. As days passed, this pile grew, and after a certain point, Ivan and two Dragonborn magic workers of some sort formed a circle around it. One of them was robed in dark crimson, while Ivan and the other magic worker wore their normal white robes. All three were terribly serious, and seemed to chant all day and all night without resting for the better part of a week. On day six of it, the gold pile was enough to practically dominate the entrance path to Mikhail's tent, and I finally decided to ask someone about what in Baator was going on.
"It's the Dragon Ritual," one of the soldiers explained as she filed her talons carelessly. While there was still a knife or a sword at my neck every time I moved, the guards seemed comfortable enough when I was returned to that miserable chair in the Hall of Horns. "The Dark Queen doesn't officiate at weddings or other ceremonies herself, but one of her children is almost always glad to do so, provided we have the gold."
"Does it cost so much?" I asked genuinely. I'd heard of making offerings to gods, of course, but I'd never heard of a god whose response was entirely contingent on whether enough gold was offered. The gods I knew could usually be pacified with a sacrificed innocent or a soul-binding pact.
"Well over three hundred thousand gold," the guard replied, nodding slightly. I wasn't sure if it were a "yes, that costs a good deal" nod or a "it could have been higher" nod.
"Nobody had better mess the incantation up, then," I huffed quietly, listening to the voices outside the hall and trying to pick out Ivan's.
"They've gotten it right the last two times, there's no reason they shouldn't get it right now," the guard responded, fixing me with a quizzical look.
"Two times? There's only ever been two other weddings in this camp before this?" I asked incredulously.
"We don't do this for every little wedding or funeral," the guard shrugged. "The first time I remember it being done was because the master had discovered a cave good enough to build a proper hall of worship to Her Dark Majesty. Then after that it was because a pack of Dragonborn that had been chased out of their mountains had found us. They that insisted on revering Bahamut, at least in conjunction with Tiamat. Before they arrived, he wasn't spoken of."
"So the Unified wasn't Unified until after they showed up?" I probed. At first, the guard gave me a look. "You grew up knowing Bahamut. I'm just converting," I reminded her. "Don't you think it best that I learn more about him, and about the Unified?"
"Oh, well, I'm no priest, but I'll try," the guard relented, scooting her chair a bit more closely to my own. "I grew up when it was still mobile, like most other Dragonborn clans out here. We used to be led by a cleric of Io, who accepted everyone no matter who they were. She taught everyone that Io was all things to all of us- to those of us that were evil, he was evil. To those of us born good, he was good. I don't remember us ever attacking anyone while she was in charge, although we traveled very often. She was quite old and nearly blind when she died, and for a while, there was a real struggle over who was going to take her place. In spite of the other contenders, the master and another, who held tightly to the neutral Way of Io, arose. Master wanted them to fight it out honorably, but instead, the follower of Io avoided conflict by taking all those that supported him and leaving. We still don't know where they went. They disappeared in the night or something, and the master decided to move away from the spot where that happened. As he traveled with us, he received a vision from the Dark Queen telling him exactly where to go. Being from the high mountains, he would have never known to have us settle so far down, but she gave him precise directions. So we set up here and began serving her exclusively."
"And then these Bahamut worshipers showed up one day?" I asked, strangely interested by this tale. I had thought this Dragonborn female to be young, but unless all this had happened in the last twenty years or so, she had to be much older than I'd imagined.
"Pretty much," she laughed, showing a comfort in my presence that I hadn't seen before. "A good slice of some group called the Platinum Cadre came up from some city farther south. When the guards tried to charge them the Passing Homage, their leader dressed him down for being a slave to the greatest enemy of the Platinum Dragon." She laughed again, shaking her head. "I mean, he wasn't yelling at him or anything, just calmly talking to him like I am to you now, reasoning with him as though he were the teacher and the guardsman the student."
"Oh, Mikhail must have loved that," I snorted.
"Well, at first he didn't. They spent weeks arguing with each other, and neither seemed to be able to overcome the other. But then Ivan came, literally raising every dead creature as he walked past and setting any living being he looked at on fire. The leader of the Platinum Dragon clan- or whatever they called themselves, I don't know- he gave his life to stop Ivan from destroying everything living and dead. He literally devoted his entire being to some spell. Ivan stopped in his tracks, completely pacified, and the leader just crumpled to the ground. After that, those that had quietly worshiped Bahamut gave him praise aloud. Mikhail had Ivan chained up, then withdrew for a few days- none of us saw him go in to his tent or come out. When he did come out, he began speaking of the Unified, and he had us go out and collect horns to build a sanctuary that the Dark Queen had shown to him in a vision."
"And thus the hall in which we now sit was built," I sighed deeply. "With its two altars and its walls made of carved horn."
"If it makes you feel better," the guard whispered, clearly checking to see if the other guard were anywhere nearby, "Most of this hall was built from the horns of bison and the tusks of dire boars. I don't know where Ivan's horns are- I wasn't stationed while this was built."
"Oh?" I replied. "Why, where were you?"
"Having a miscarriage," the guard shrugged. "It was my third, so my mate took another wife, and I became a guard so I didn't feel so useless."
And I could only blink stupidly for a few moments before managing, "I'm- I'm so sorry-"
"Thank you, but I don't lose sleep over it. Had I had children, I would have only been married to my mate for three years at best. Because I can't have any, and I think he pities me, he has decided to allow me to remain his wife for the time being. His son enjoys having a female about the house, but I try to stay out of the way. We're all good friends."
"So do most Dragonborn marriages only last three years?"
"They last as long as they need to in order to produce a child," the guard explained graciously. "If that takes four or five years, the master will allow it. Both partners have to be willing to continue to try. In my case, my mate was willing to keep trying, but I-"
"You don't have to explain," I broke in. "Any female can only go through so much."
"What are your marriages like?" the guard asked, putting her elbows on her knees and resting her chin on her fists. "Are they very much longer? Must you choose your mates yourself? When you part, do you remain friends, as we usually do?"
I shrugged, biting my lips. "I don't know. I lost all of my family when I was still a child. My mother and father didn't stop at one child, and were still married when I arrived, so I guess they last longer. Aside from that, I have no idea."
"How did you manage to lose your entire family?" the guard replied, shocked. "I'd always heard that your race was evil and cursed, but goodness- there weren't any uncles, grandfathers, any family friends- anyone at all who could have helped?"
The genuine surprise in her voice and the look of concern that clung to her craggy face struck me.
"You know, Aleksei laments my upbringing as well. Wonders why I don't have a nickname," I offered, changing the subject entirely. "He calls it 'little pet name' or something like that."
"Aleksei- you mean the two-tone male?" the guard smiled, letting the conversation pull away. "He seems very honorable, very respectful, even if a bit beat up. I wouldn't want to meet him on a battlefield, I'm sure. You and his second wife are lucky to have him, even if you are improperly paired. Bahamut and Io seem to have a different idea of who can get married to who than the Dark Queen does."
"Your gods personally dictate who gets married to who?" I laughed incredulously. "I thought you said that Tiamat didn't show up herself. What do you do, ask her first?"
"Well, of course," the guard replied seriously. "I can't just go marrying a Human, or a creature like you- no offense. Such a match would be cursed, unable to have children. You don't just get married because you like someone- that's ridiculous. If you like someone, be their friend. When you get married, you're expected to have children, and to better the clan."
"But the master is going to marry someone who's not Dragonborn," I replied simply. "Does the Dark Queen approve of that?"
"Like I said," the guard shrugged. "I'm no priest. Perhaps it's alright because she saw the Platinum Dragon and will undergo the Rite of Rebirth. I've never seen that ritual, but- among those that believe in Bahamut- it's said to be the way that he first made Dragonborn to begin with. I'd be very interested to actually see it, but it will probably take place inside the sacred cave."
"I'd be interested as well," I sighed.
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