One dark haired, creamy brown skinned young woman, whose arms were crossed at the chest, just under her wealth of bosom.
One dark haired, harshly tanned male whose sword-calloused hands were firmly planted on his hips.
Between them on the table were the evidences of their stay- a pitcher of beer that had been drained and refilled three times, the male's clean plate, and the female's plate with the remnants of mashed potatoes and boiled grain. It had been obvious from the way she could only push the meal from one side to the other that something was less than settled within her.
On the northern side of the tavern, the owner wiped at a spot on the bar that hadn't existed since five minutes ago, when she first began cleaning. Far to the other side, in a corner purposefully untouched by light, a heavy figure stirred. It was so late at night that it had become early morning, and the two barmaids that lived in the tavern had already bedded down in the kitchen. The owner had considered going upstairs to nap with her child, but then the confrontation between the two patrons who had just rented a room together a few hours ago began.
"I said 'I don't believe you,' and I mean it," the male replied, not at all daunted by either of the onlookers. "I saw those boys."
The woman's face tightened considerably, but she kept her voice level as she spoke. "But you don't know what it is to live with them, day in and out, to give up dreams, to work without rest, to be compelled-"
"You're right; I don't," the male shot back. "But I do know what I saw. And I saw those boys throw their arms around you, kiss you, tell you to come back to them safely. What selfish witch would turn that kind of love into the dirt like a full piss pot? What creature suddenly invents such cruelty for a fool she knows nothing of?"
"Then I'm a creature? A witch? Just for wanting to remember myself as a woman?"
"That is not remembering yourself as a woman, that is reverting into a selfish child, and I won't take part in it," the man declared, turning his back.
"Don't!" the woman screeched at once, her fists clenching by her sides. "I can forgive anything else, I swear it, but don't... don't..."
"Leave. Leave you here." The man turned over his shoulder first, then turned all the way around. "Because it's happened to you before, Karri, I can see it all over how those boys treat you. Yet, that's what you expect me to believe that you'd do to them."
The two looked at each other. The male's gaze was hard and cold- a glare that had been passed down from a stern mother and strengthened by rigorous martial training. The woman withered slightly in it, and when he witnessed the lowering of her eyes and the weakening of her shoulders, he realized himself.
"I'm sor-"
"No, I'm sorry, Raf- Ser Unessmus-" Karri despaired, sinking back into her chair and putting the palms of her hands on her shoulders so that it looked as though she were preparing to rip the shoulders of her peasant blouse off of them. "I knew I shouldn't. I shouldn't have- but I- ugh! I wish I'd not come."
"It's Rafa," the male corrected, coming one step closer to her before checking his motion.
"How could I?" the woman moaned quietly. "You don't know who I am."
"I can forgive it. Someone put you in this situation, I know it. Commanded you to do this, and you did what you were told, because that's what you do. I can forgive that, but tell me," Rafa urged earnestly, moving his chair close to Karri's right side and sitting down. "Confide in me. I won't say anything, won't act outside of what you need. But what I need is to know what's really going on."
"But the confidence of my mistress," Karri began, tears beginning to come to her eyes as she hugged her arms more tightly around herself. "I can't- I-"
"Just yes or no then, yes or no. Did someone- anyone- tell you to tell me lies to get me here?"
The woman couldn't answer. Her lips quivered, but remained silent, and the tears fell like the first few drops of a spring rain from her long lashes. Beyond her, in the dark corner, the figure moved until it looked more like an upright human being.
"I don't believe that you'd leave your sons- that you'd abandon them like that- and with me, for me, this good for nothing fool that other women have already thrown away," Rafa sighed, rising. "I do believe that you are one of the most loyal, caring, sweet creatures that I've ever met, and I wish I'd met you before- whatever it is that this is."
"Are you going home, then?" Karri managed in a choked, small voice.
Rafa took a deep breath, and with it, noticed the figure at the table. It had been sliding in and out of his notice ever since the two had walked into the tavern, but with this public display, it was now an actual concern.
"Not without you."
Karri closed her eyes completely, and the tears that had been dripping from her lashes elected to slide freely down her cheeks instead. "I can't."
"Yes, you can," Rafa urged. "To the Hells with whatever plan, whose ever plan it was- it's failed, now. It's done. If you're fearing that I'll leave you to suffer some punishment for my waywardness-"
"I knew you wouldn't," Karri sniffed quietly. "She left you."
"Technically, she threw me out." The former soldier sighed deeply. "Your boys are really Kirk and Lamar?"
The woman nodded, her loosely pinned bun bobbing slightly as she did.
"Your mother and father-"
"All true- but please, Ser Unessmus, don't question me farther. I can't betray my mistress, but I-"
Rafa turned his head to the side slowly, fixing the wall behind the tavern owner with such a rage-filled glare that both women in the room feared there would be violence. The figure in the back, however, didn't move a muscle.
"You're a wise woman, Karri. Because if I could lay hold of whoever it is pulling your strings, I swear, I'd snap them."
Karri allowed her hands to slide from her shoulders to her elbows, and she hugged herself so tightly that the tips of her fingers first turned pink, then white. She fought hard to keep her shuddering breaths from coming too loudly, but Rafa's jaw stiffened all the same.
"So what, we stay?" he asked very quietly.
"If you... go, Ser... Ser Unessmus, I... can't go... with you. If you... stay, then... I will. I can't... go home alone."
"Rafa, Karri, it's Rafa," the man groaned, realizing himself again. "I just- it hurts, you know? But with you, it's different. I know it is. You were made to do this; I smell it, I feel it. She- she just- she just wanted the other man. That's all. Selfish bitch."
Karri couldn't manage to respond. She bent at the waist as though she would vomit, laying her forehead on her knees. Rafa looked at her for a few moments before he felt a slight push on his midback. Snapping his head back, he discovered that the tavern owner had made her way from the bar to the table.
"G'wan," the woman whispered urgently. "Whaddeva tha game is, play i', won't cha?"
Rafa nodded slowly, then took a deep breath. Stepping back to Karri's side, he knelt down and got his head as close to her left cheek as he could.
"I'm not going anywhere. Let's pretend none of this happened. Lead me, and I'll follow wherever your finger points."
Karri's body shuddered sharply, as though her crying had begun in earnest.
"I played pretend well, when I was a married man," Rafa smirked bitterly. "A man told me to my face that I was infatuated with two women at once, and I lied in his face. This- I deserve this. What you've done. Come, let's go to bed- and I can sleep somewhere else- the floor?"
Karri picked up her head and turned it sideways so that her left temple was lying on her knees as she looked at Rafa's rich, chocolate brown eyes.
"Please don't. The floor. I... enjoyed your... company."
Rafa chuckled softly. "I should hope I'm not the first since that wretch that closed the door on you and your boys."
And Karri smirked pitifully, her eyes red and glistening. "I'm a mother, not a woman."
Rafa picked his head up suddenly, and with a simple motion that swept Karri from the chair to his arms, he stood.
"Both," he said definitely. "You're both; one need not be slave to the other."
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