The next morning, as soon as sunlight peeked through the tops of the trees, the group gathered themselves and took stock of their conditions. Aleksei's eye had cleared and healed completely, Silveredge was steady on her feet and Rafa was in relatively good health, considering that he'd narrowly survived acid arrows before. Iordyn, however, seemed worse for wear than he had the night before, and Silveredge volunteered to make a health potion from scratch, if the right ingredients were found. Iordyn claimed that the effort wasn't necessary, since Marsember was so close by, but Rafa thought it would be a good idea to go to an apothecary there and buy materials enough to make at least enough health potions for everyone to have two. He made the executive decision to separate and rearm everyone, which dropped Iordyn's jaw nearly off his face.
"None of their weapons are peacebonded," he managed after a few moments of silent staring. "What will you do when you're caught?"
Rafa, who was busy partitioning the rest of the food supplies between everyone's packs, first looked up into the trees as though they would comfort him, then back over his shoulder at Iordyn, who was leaning on a tree. The bow at the young archer's side had already been partially unstrung, and a beautiful green satin ribbon waited in his other hand.
"What lovely trinket, ser, shall I use to peacebond all four daggers here?" Rafa challenged. "Further, what delicate bit of tat shall I use to stay the sword whose pommel is little more than a sharpened claw? Best of all, how shall I peacebond a spiked chain?"
Iordyn wrapped part of his ribbon around the grip of his bow, then looked up. "A what?"
Rafa looked from Silveredge to Mi'ishaen, then bowed his head slightly with an outstretched hand of permission. Mi'ishaen pulled both daggers as Silveredge unwrapped her chain from her hips and began to sling it up to true fighting speed. Niku, excited at the challenge, pushed his tail stump high into the air and panted with his tongue lolled out. Valeria seemed somehow confused about this reaction, and whined at Iordyn's side for a few moments before falling silent again.
"What manner of evil instrument is that?" Iordyn asked as he reached over to rub Valeria's side comfortingly. "Nowhere in my weapon mastery class-"
"Then back up and take note," Rafa counseled with amusement in his voice as he turned back to divvying the group's things. "Ser Voyonov- a hand here?"
"Da, ser," Aleksei replied, getting up to join Rafa.
"Your commanding officer I am not, ser," the Human laughed bitterly. "I'll be lucky to be wearing the dragon after this march."
"Then may good luck kiss you as hard as she can," Aleksei answered jovially.
Mi'ishaen began moving in a slow semicircle as Silveredge continued to pull the chain around and around in the air. When she moved far enough away from any trees, the Tiefling whipped herself into a somersault up and over Silveredge's head. The Shadar-kai easily pivoted and adjusted, slinging the chain out for Mi'ishaen's left arm. Mi'ishaen blocked with her dagger, but noticed that Silveredge had dropped down to the ground just a little too late. The low kick itself didn't reach her, but the chain, which Silveredge had spun under herself as she kicked, ensnared Mi'ishaen's ankles easily. Niku barked sharply as though he were pronouncing the end of the fight.
"I'm gonna have to get used to the way that thing can move," Mi'ishaen sighed, looking from the tender pricks to the pleased hound. "You really learned some tricks in that hole, Edge."
"You now leap and dart over my head as though I were as small as a stone," Silveredge reminded with a gentle smile. "You and your friends also learned much together."
"That's an instrument of the wilds," Iordyn proclaimed stoutly as he finished peace bonding his bow. "It whirls like a morning star flail, but there seems to be no proper way to hold it at all- the fighter must hurt as much as his target for its use."
"Not so, my lord," Silveredge noted, rolling over onto her knees for a moment. "It embraces the handmaiden, but does her no harm, unless she takes hold of the places where the spikes start."
"And when it's not in use, it's about her waist like a belt," Rafa added, checking over Aleksei's work. He got up and turned to note the seriously concerned look on Iordyn's face. "It was so convincing there that the eyes of five Purple Dragons glanced over it without a second thought. Any ideas, ser?"
"Well, it can't go about her waist again, obviously," the archer nodded simply as he watched Silveredge turn to disentangle Mi'ishaen's ankles. "It's a shame for delicate flowers to grow such thorns."
"You going to call my armor a dainty dress again?" Mi'ishaen charged bitterly.
"It is as fit for you as satin is for me," Iordyn replied politely, with a genuine smile. "Yet, I am certain that you will discover for yourself that this is so."
Aleksei looked over his shoulder at Iordyn for a few moments, but Rafa merely chuckled, knowing that the Tiefling was quite likely to answer for herself.
"By the hells-" Mi'ishaen began. Niku, as if to give extra physical expression to Mi'ishaen's words, rolled over on to his back and issued a series of low grunts of protest.
"Is not a rose beautiful and dangerous at once?" Silveredge counseled quietly, standing up a breath away from Mi'ishaen's body. "Or if you will have a patron of the hells, then there must be some devils more handsomely shaped than others; lethal to deal with, but lovely to look upon."
With her cheeks a bit redder than usual, Mi'ishaen found herself unable to respond. Niku, meanwhile, began running around in small circles again, drawing yips from a vaguely concerned Valeria.
"Does this closeness not concern you, Blade Unessmus?" Iordyn puzzled, scratching Valeria between her ears to calm her down. "Does it not seem to you that they are not married to the Dragonborn at all?"
"Aleksei is the prisoner, ser," Rafa reminded Iordyn bluntly. "I'll be the marshal to his actions, as duty bids me. Mi'ishaen and Silveredge are free, and have every right to carry themselves according to whatever customs they follow."
"If you will marshal the Dragonborn, then do it wisely," Iordyn shot back, crossing his arms. "My knowledge of Dragonborn culture tells me that their marriages are not permanent, and that any match's sole purpose is procreation. Why then, should he take not one, but two other creatures to wife, knowing that they are incapable of bearing his seed to term?"
"Dear gods- prisoner or no, you can't ask-" Rafa cried, utterly embarrassed.
"It is good question," Aleksei interrupted, pulling his sword from the rest of the things assigned to him and whipping it up and around himself for the first time in weeks. Rafa noted the working of the Dragonborn's wrist, and how the handling of his strangely weighted weapon seemed like both fine art and child's play at once. "First, I must tell you that not all Dragonborn marriages are ending quickly. Both of these with their own eyes are seeing Dragonborn female who, though she is unable to make children, is still living with her husband, helping to rear his children who are coming by other females."
"Your answer, ser," Rafa managed. "Now, let us-"
Iordyn raised an eyebrow at Aleksei suspiciously and held up a hand to give Rafa pause. "Though I put no store in any of them, I was also taught of the Dragonborn gods- Io, and Tiamat- and of the Rite of Bahamut-"
"My lord will forgive me for interrupting, I hope," Silveredge began, turning to kneel as she spoke, "but the priest who would have worked our conversion is dead."
Mi'ishaen let out a sharp, short laugh, then hocked and spat over her left shoulder. This done, she leaned over and took Silveredge by the elbows to bring her to her feet again.
"This is Mishka's blessing for that priest, and all those with him," Aleksei explained as he considered the talon end of his weapon. "You must understand that they are treating her very badly, because she is Tiefling. They are wanting to cut her horns and tail from her... asking even that I do this myself-"
"And now they're all roasting in the Hells," Mi'ishaen shot venomously, stepping around Silveredge and moving to gather her things. "Just down the hall from my kind. I hope the devils play pleasant lullabies with all their bones."
Silveredge, whose memory of Aleksei's brief change in the Dragonborn camp still put a undeniable chill in her bones, found Niku bounding over to her to comfort her nearly at once. She squatted to get down to his level, and with concerned whines and half-barks, he nuzzled about her neck and face until she hugged him.
"You see how this is not good memory for any of us," Aleksei sighed heavily, sheathing his kilij at last.
"I still don't understand," Iordyn mused with crossed arms, "how or why you would take up with her at all. The war's only just over- so many dead, and you want to marry one of the killers' number?"
"Live longer, mal'chik," Aleksei replied, his tone suddenly much lower than before, "and you will see many things that are not now understandable for you."
"That's not a real answer. I'll keep my doubts about your companions, whom wives I will not call," Iordyn said with an overly-polite tone. "Further, Blade Unessmus, I shall move nowhere until all weapons be peacebonded, and I shall report you-"
"Oh, cram it," Rafa grunted, taking off his cuirass and tossing it to the ground with annoyance. Stripping off his shirt, he snapped his fingers and pointed to one of Silveredge's katars. Niku hopped off her, and she wordlessly knelt before the Purple Dragon to hand it over, much to Mi'ishaen's displeasure.
Aleksei was only mildly surprised when the soldier began shredding his shirt, but still thought to warn him against it.
"This will make armor very uncomfortable, when you are putting it back on," he noted as he shouldered Shesua's old pack.
"Let that pup bear a tale, and it's like that I'll lose it entirely," Rafa snorted as he handed Silveredge back her blades. "Now each of you take a tat, and tie a good knot between your hilt and your sheath. It ought to be tight enough to give you pause, but not to stop you completely- that's a peacebond. A show of faith in a settlement, so that no one thinks that you're lurking about to cause trouble."
Mi'ishaen was about to give a smart remark when she caught a steely glare from Silveredge. Strangely pleased at the Shadar-kai's new form of giving commands, the rogue took the strip of fabric without another word.
"And the chain?" Iordyn reminded Rafa as he watched the interaction between the two females.
"My lord will take it, of course," Silveredge soothed, laying her coiled chain on top of Rafa's things and bowing her head to the ground.
"What manners, gentle mistress," Iordyn purred, watching Silveredge get up and take Hophni's pack.
"Oh, grown fond already?" Rafa whispered, again looking up into the trees in comical exasperation. "No wonder we want to poke holes in marriage bands."
"He will learn what my protection is when he is no longer having it," Aleksei whispered back. "Mishka will be worse to him than Bahlzair, if he will cross her."
Silveredge wordlessly shifted under Hophni's pack, which now held her things along with a few provisions. Niku sniffed at her knees for a few moments, then turned around in circles, prompting Valeria to begin barking at him again.
"By all means, allow me-" Iordyn began, moving toward Silveredge.
"Oh, you want to carry things for the dainty women?" Mi'ishaen said in a mock child voice. "Go catch an arrow with your eye."
Aleksei opened his hand in a small gesture of demonstration, and Rafa shrugged his reply.
"You could not be my wife without meeting the back of my hand at least once for that mouth!" Iordyn frowned, rubbing some stiffness out of one shoulder.
Mi'ishaen put her things back down and stared at Iordyn. "I. Dare. You."
"Careful now," Rafa warned quietly. "The swordcaptain did but tap her shoulder with his sword, and you see what fate befell him. Ser Voyonov's practically on the books for life, so no greater punishment can fright him. Worse, no one will even know that he's killed you, since I shall not hazard angering him myself by telling of his acts."
"Sentenced for life?" Iordyn asked with a trace of alarm. "What did you-"
"Assault, treason and indecency," Aleksei smiled, enjoying Iordyn's reaction. "But I am adding murder, while I am yet in my cell. They can put no man with me safely."
And Iordyn finally fell into a stunned silence.
"Ladies, I expect your packs are weighted properly?" Rafa asked as he began to move off.
"I won't drown if we cross a river, if that's what you're asking," Mi'ishaen replied derisively as she put her things back in order.
"That's fortunate, since there's another river yet before us," Rafa shrugged. "Gods protect-"
"Haven't you learned anything about your gods these past few days?" Mi'ishaen groaned. "When you get to a proper temple, ask for their protection all you like- see if the ceiling won't come down on you in response."
"Lathander forbid!" Iordyn cried at once, fixing the Tiefling with a stare somewhere between offense and horror.
"Oh, excellent; now we'll be fried alive by dragons or walloped by walking trees," Mi'ishaen growled as she began marching off without the rest of the group.
"My vote's for hags and flying hogs," Rafa laughed. "C'mon, off with us."
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