4:26 Blood in the eyes.

Aleksei and Mi'ishaen had together set up four long wooden structures in the Raibeart back yard, where the land's spine curled around the back side of the smithy like a large, green-furred, comfortable cat.  At first, the constructions had looked like sawhorses.  When Susanna noted that a few nosey neighbors had begun asking questions, the operation moved to a rooftop that Mi'ishaen selected.  Through Sylvester's machinations and Salone's willingness to go to the market with memorized instructions, Mi'ishaen daily purchased leaves and buds that had to be cut, baked, and prepared in the same day; the tea satchels that resulted kept a flow of small coin just solid enough to keep the home owner beneath her hooves from disallowing the Tiefling's activities.  Against Susanna's better counsel, Aleksei and Silveredge pooled all of their coin to purchase yarrow, nettle, elderberry and calendula.  Pieces of twine had been tied to the long wood beams that were held up by their four legs, and the freshly cut sprigs of those herbs hung upside down from them, in bunches of various sizes. 

Both Iona and Susanna worried that all the money would be wasted in Mi'ishaen's effort, but just as Iordyn had secretly told them might happen, Mi'ishaen set out not only to make good on everyone's investments, but to profit.  With Stephen's quietly amused blessing, Salone and Sylvester worked together in the sitting room, selling neatly labeled poultices, ointments, and balms.  Amadelle, much to her embarrassed parents' shock, made for quite the fearless marketing person, telling anyone who complained of any pain or illness to go to the Raibeart home and purchase some of Bliss's Blessings.  As most Humans in Suzail ran short of Turathi culture and history lessons, Mi'ishaen's tongue-in-cheek name for the most honest operation in which she'd taken part in years absolutely escaped their awareness.  Only Sylvester felt the need to cross promise himself against telling anyone, even his parents, that the awe-inspiring arboretum of Bliss had once been the campground of the rich in Vor Kragal.  In return, Mi'ishaen promised not to knowingly brew anything harmful.

This day, a few days more than three weeks after the drying rigs had been built and placed, Mi'ishaen braided her hair tightly to the back of her head, tied the old dress that Susanna had loaned her up to her mid-thigh, then knelt next to a bundle of dried leafy stems to begin the slow, careful process of untying it from the calf-high wooden frame.  As she worked, she muttered along with the drone of the Raven Queen's adherents, gathered in the building opposite the rooftop upon which she worked.

"Turn your face westward, children of eternal cold;
Cast down your dark gaze, lest the sun you should behold-"

"You've mixed that up," a voice said jokingly.  "They're holed up in there so that they sun won't see them, not so that they won't see the sun."

Mi'ishaen didn't bother to look up.  "Greyscale has the report."

Cypher, who hadn't expected Mi'ishaen to be quite that curt with her, sighed heavily as she continued to slowly walk past the low wooden fixtures.  "Okay, you're still angry with me.  You have every right to still be angry with me."

"I know, but I'm not," Mi'ishaen replied, undaunted, all her focus pinned to her work with the brittle branches in her hands.  "What I am is busy.  Greyscale has the report."

"He told me," Cypher argued, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried her hardest to find a collection of drying bunches more interesting than the others.  "But this is an ongoing issue.  And we're light on operatives that can do what you do."

Mi'ishaen stopped what she was doing and looked up at last, finding Cypher's eyes and staring into them with an unnerving calm.  "If you and Cloud are going to use the same playbook on me, please tell one another when one of your maneuvers don't work.  And don't touch any of these; I don't have another twenty days to wait for another set to dry properly."

Cypher glanced around herself again, then gave an approving huff, despite not recognizing a single plant, dried or not, on the entire roof.  "All these specimens are well kept; you'd probably make a good alchemist's apprentice." 

"That's 'cause I was one," Mi'ishaen sniped, her glare unmoving.  "Tiefling alchemy is different to the greedy, gold-centric Human echo of it.  Nothing back there on the table needs 'purifying' with blood or feces, and nothing drying over here gets anyone high.  That's why you don't recognize anything."

Cypher looked around herself again uncomfortably, then walked back to the far side of the wooden drying stands to sit down.  "Look, I asked Greyscale to give you some support.  I've been on your side-"

"Don't start that shit," Mi'ishaen interrupted sharply.  "You told Greyscale to pull me entirely."

"We were wrong, and I apologize," Cypher urged.

"You're not apologizing to me," Mi'ishaen argued.  "You're apologizing to yourself; leave me out of that.  Far as I'm concerned, I'm done."  That said, the Tiefling turned her attentions back to the group of dried stems and blooms with which she'd been working, putting the stripped leaves and blossoms into a plate on her left side.

"Wait- you're saying you're done working with Coalwater?" Cypher asked, frustration lacing her voice as she watched Mi'ishaen return her focus to her work.

"No, but you don't have work that I want right now, and I'm- okay, look.  These are for pain poultices.  The stuff on the table is for morning tea satchels.  I'm also casing the taverns at night.  Not easy to get away from the babysitter, but he's got a lot of something going on with his family, so he can't watch me every second.  When I'm at a good pause point, and when Greyscale has a project that I'm interested in, I'll be back, okay?"

"He runs the whole operation, you know," Cypher sniped.  "Your royal highness doesn't get to see him any time she wants.  Cloud and I are good enough for you."

Mi'ishaen squeezed her eyes shut and allowed her hands to fall onto her lap.  "And somehow, out of everything I just said, all you heard was me apparently slighting you in favor of Greyscale.  If m'lady would be so kind as to fuck the hell off out of here, I'd be truly grateful."

"Fine!" Cypher spat, hopping up from her seated position.  "To think I even worried about-"

And when she turned around, her words were stopped cold in her mouth by the sight of Silveredge's platinum eyed stare.  Her hair was braided into a single strap and wound around her head like a crown, and she wore the simple stained cotton dress that Mi'ishaen had received as prison garb.  It was too short for her, of course, and was only slightly better than being entirely unclothed.

"Good morning," the Shadar-kai soothed, knowing that her presence was more of a surprise than she'd planned.  "May calm and good fortune follow you."

"Out, in case that part wasn't clear," Mi'ishaen added, laying the twine and bare branches to one side, then selecting another bunch with which to work.  "May all that pleasant shit follow you out."

"So short of temper so soon?" Silveredge smiled genuinely, leaning slightly to the side in order to get a clear view of Mi'ishaen.  "It's barely the ninth hour."

"What are you doing here?" Cypher managed, barely recovering from the fact that she hadn't heard Silveredge come up almost directly behind her.  "We were supposed to meet later."

"I intended to spend this day with the most beloved," Silveredge replied, passing by Cypher entirely in favor of getting a closer look at Mi'ishaen's work.  "I left everything upon which I have been working at the prescribed location.  If additional work is required, I'll be happy to look at it with Niku tomorrow."

Cypher pressed her lips between her teeth for a few moments in the vain effort to calm herself.  "If you're going to sit next to Mishka all day, you might try convincing her to finish the monitoring job.  We could really use her skill."

Silveredge turned politely frigid eyes to Cypher with a hint of a smirk on her face.  "Your handmaiden cannot find fault with the most beloved's refusal to return to that particular assignment."

"Oh, wow," Cypher groaned, rubbing the back of her neck and refocusing on the Tiefling.  "Mishka, you're good at what you do.  We were wrong to doubt your skills, and we really need you to finish this Illance job.  I don't know what else you want me to say."

" 'Goodbye' works for me, but it's obvious that you don't get the 'why' of that yet," Mi'ishaen replied, looking up from the dried branches.  With a resigned sigh, she carefully handed the branches off to Silveredge, stood up, and walked around the wooden stands to get to Cypher.  "Item one: if I have to work with Cloud again, she's dead as soon as the project's finished.  Item two: if you send me another letter, you better be prepared to check your bed for fire traps every night for the rest of your life.  Item three: I abso-fucking-lutely will not do any type of favor or service, irrespective of any-fucking-body's net gain, for any-fucking-body who has in any fucking way benefitted from the slave trade.  If you have a problem with any of that, tell Greyscale to fire me, like Cloud said she was going to do.  I guarantee you he will remind you that I am a free agent, and wonder why you are being such a thrice damned, dried up, baby-eating bitch about it."

Cypher raised her right hand to slap Mi'ishaen, only to have that hand blocked by Mi'ishaen's powerful left forearm.

"Here's a thought- how come the raw handbag's suddenly okay with casually protecting a guy who arranged to have a pregnant woman sent to Sembia to do gods-know-what for gods-know-who, after you just served that same guy an open court worthy check on a game that was more than a year in the playing?  'The job's not commissioned.'  Of course it's not.  Or do you think what happened to the Sunfire can only happen to the Sunfire?  Hmm, I wonder who Greyscale's Howler is- who might mean just that much to him.  Wonder what they did- or maybe what they used to do, and for whom?"

"How delicate these blossoms are," Silveredge commented quietly as she gazed at the tea satchels on the low table behind her.  "I nearly feel pity for the plant who believed that it would flower, only to have its tender buds cut so quickly and cleanly away."

Mi'ishaen shoved Cypher's arm back and turned away sharply, denying herself the pleasure of allowing her red-eyed stare to further irritate the Human woman.

"You talk as if I'd snatched someone's child out of a cradle," she huffed as she made her way back to Silveredge's side.  "Reflections in stones and the fragility of plants- between you and Aleksei, you'll make a nun out of me."

Cypher pushed her thick tongue around her dry mouth for a few moments, having been left with too much to think about and nothing to say.

"I could never force the most beloved into an order," Silveredge said slyly, handing the dried branches back to Mi'ishaen, purposefully brushing the side of the Tiefling's ruddy hand as she did.  "But of course, if she will decide to become a dedicant to some god, I will rejoice with her."

For the first time, Cypher noticed that neither the Tiefling nor the Shadar-kai were armed or armored.  The anguished jealousy that throbbed in her heart felt as though it would explode.

He couldn't do that even for a day, could he?  Just be with me.  For one day.  And now this bitch makes me wonder why.  It's not for lack of coin.  And Dark does have a very light reign-holding hand.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Silveredge gently looked up at Cypher.

"Perhaps Yulian is looking for you, Dortana."

"Grey-" Mi'ishaen began to correct absent-mindedly as she put the bare dry branches that she held aside in favor of starting to untie a new bunch.

"No," Silveredge replied firmly.  "Yulian."

Mi'ishaen looked up at Silveredge, looked at Cypher, gave a short grunt of satisfaction, and refocused on her work.

Cypher turned to leave, and both of the women left behind her sat in silence until her careful footfalls were too far to hear.

"Any shadows?" Mi'ishaen asked very quietly.

"Bright midday," Silveredge responded after a few seconds of wordless divination.

"Well, I'm guessing I won't hear from either her or Greyscale for a while," Mi'ishaen commented with a gusty sigh.  "Hand me that dish?"

"If she suspected nothing before this moment, she must be struck," Silveredge replied as she traded the empty clay plate that was next to her for the one Mi'ishaen had filled with dried white flowers and leaves.  "She is supposed to be his second in command, yet her face was empty of anything but pain; I don't envy her."

"He's smart, no matter how much he does the 'dumb lizard' thing," Mi'ishaen said with the faintest trace of concern.  "I'm not surprised that he can get big stuff by her, but if he's stuck, he must be really stuck.  She'd better get over herself and help him.  And somebody'd better come clean to Dark."

"While I doubt our patron lady of twilight is truly without the necessary information, a few pieces of our more recent reading practice were scribed with the assumption that Greyscale will not come completely clean to either her or his wife," Silveredge replied.  "Ser Bann is understandably tired of any shade of intrigue, and Ser Mordren and his shadow barely have heart for their own company, let alone anyone else's, but Ser Kronmyr has become quite interested in following up on certain details.  To that end, he lends me his study for all my work, in exchange for a copy of it always finding its way to his hands.  As his more trusted compatriots are currently weary or distracted, he has begun to whisper in the ear of Ser Howler, who is as attentive as any of his well-trained brothers.  Since their separate recoveries, my lords' animosity for each other has been largely for show."

"Just being on speaking terms isn't trust.  If I had gods, I'd pray," Mi'ishaen groaned quietly.  "And be careful with the leaking.  Dark's kids play cruel; that's why I can threaten lives and mean it."

"You are being friendly by offering advanced notice; Lyosha would approve," Silveredge said with a quiet firmness that reminded Mi'ishaen immediately of the strange jewelry seller in her dream-vision.   The Shadar-kai ran a finger down the center of Mi'ishaen's dark, tightly woven hair.  "Neither Cypher nor Ser Mordren suspect much of me, if anything at all, because I am not so kind.  Also, both sets of current friends play familiar games.  Ides-Raz made many enemies in the Underdark, where betrayal is thanked with a dinner party invitation sent to someone with an unmarked grave waiting outside the citadel.  I learned much through silent observation."

Mi'ishaen stopped working and shot a wickedly pleased look at Silveredge.  "I just love it when you get mean," she enthused.  "You stop talking in spider webs and start sounding like cold steel."

"With such dangerous company, how could your handmaiden help but sound dangerous?" Silveredge grinned, gently placing the hand that had been caressing Mi'ishaen's hair across the Tiefling's forearms so that she would put the dried branches down.  "I've always been ever so impressionable."

"Vaya, mentirosa," Mi'ishaen whispered, allowing herself to be slowly wrapped in Silveredge's chilly periwinkle blue arms and kissed.

4:25 Viewpoints.

In the cool of the early summer evening, Dani sat peacefully in a sturdy wooden chair that had been fetched from inside her house, both of her feet comfortably resting on the slightly warm, grassy ground.  On her right sat her grocery basket, which she had lined with cloth that morning.  Within it lay twelve fresh laurel branches and a ball of twine.  In her lap, she was working on making a sturdy twine braid.  Just to the left of her, sitting on a wooden stool, sat the natural muscle bound beauty of Meridha, who had reported that Hindy had been prevented from leaving campus.  In her lap was the four page letter that had come from Hindy's mother; Cimaretto, knowing how important the letter was, had sent Meridha in Hindy's stead. 

While Dani had been caught off guard by the tall young woman, she welcomed her inside without much delay.  She had braced herself for the same strong mountain accent with which Hindy spoke, only to be pleasantly surprised- and then terribly embarrassed- to discover that Meridha sounded much more like a heartland Cormyrean.  Fortunately enough, Meridha wasn't wounded by Dani's assumption, and explained that most of her Suzailian commanders had the same expectation.  With the ice between them broken, the off-duty Purple Dragon had gone on to explain just what kept Hindy away from Dani's house.

The explanation, given over the finding and moving of a lantern, a chair, a stool, and the basket into the grassy area between Dani's house and the houses on the street behind hers, had taken the better part of twenty minutes.

"...so now we're all back on alert again," Meridha finished, turning the last page over and leaning closer to the lantern that she'd brought to see if there were any sort of secret writing or seal on the back.  "We're lucky this letter got to us before all of that happened.  Chimi's crying 'we're being set up' as loudly as he can, but top brass hasn't forgotten that Garimond made him defend himself in open court, two days before Greengrass, for not confessing his spectral companion- neither during his basic training and testing, nor at any retest or check-in after that."

Dani gave a disgusted grunt.  "I very strongly suspect that if any of the College's educating staff had suspected the nightwatch's commanding officer would do them any harm with magic, between all- what, twenty of them?  Thirty?  More than that, if you count all the assistants that actually teach the classes, but... someone would have done something about it."

Meridha shrugged, a slow, eventual movement that tumbled a few coppery tresses over her square and freckled shoulders.

"I'm telling you, they would have," Dani argued, looking up from her braiding momentarily.  "No mage trusts a fighter to handle magical matters."

"They're sore that Chimi didn't admit that he was both," Meridha reminded.  "And he's another Skullwatch soldier to turn up with 'spell-like abilities' without having said anything about them."

"Oh, really- they can't have expected any of those boys to have been honest about anything at the first!" Dani huffed, returning her attentions to the twine braid.  "Some of them were torn away from their families to fight Zhentarim at such a tender age that they hadn't even yet learned a trade!"

"Ugh!" Meridha exclaimed, wondering if Cimaretto had been enlisted then, or at some point afterward.

"Further, the Drow uses both weapons and spells with some degree of dexterity; didn't they remember the way he warded that poor girl's cottage while he tortured her within?  Whoever is skirtfasted to her now had better be just as good, if not better."

"I'd certainly hope so," Meridha sighed as she looked back down into her lap.  "But that's not the-"

"And further still," Dani pressed on, ignoring Meridha, "what is the point of having any nightwatch on duty at all, if you're going to ignore what they say is happening at night?"

"It didn't happen at night; it was discovered at night," Meridha explained, taking her beautiful hazel eyes off the letter to look up at Dani, whose face was still pinched.  "Chimi said the poison rig alone would have taken hours to build and disguise, and that even though the stun spell was probably just a failsafe, it still required a good bit of work.  So either the Drow, or some other new threat, got into campus during the day, set the rig and the spell up, disguised all of it with some kind of illusion spell work, and then left.  The day guards all just walked right past it."

"They must be embarrassed," Dani huffed, "since half of them are supposed to be actively casting or powering protective wards."

Meridha tapped her nose a few times to indicate that Dani had hit upon the correct answer.  "Well, when Chimi came onto campus for the night, he got some feeling, like he always does, sent the patrolling guard back to base without saying anything, and went after what felt- or possibly smelled, knowing him- wrong by himself.  Only took about half the damage the poison should've done him, and gods be praised his sword is enchanted against mind-effecting spells, or we might be burying him instead of worrying whether or not he'll get suspended again."

Dani crunched her fingers around the twine in her hands for a few seconds.  "Idiot weapon draggers-"

Meridha winced as though she'd been threatened with a backhand, and Dani took a breath.

"My dear, I pray you take no offense.  Diego... and yourself, clearly... you're exceptions.  But I find most fighters to be tragically stupid.  Make decisions that a town fool would blush at.  The underlings mindlessly carry out orders that are utterly bankrupt of intelligence, and... well, I hope no one is seriously thinking of suspending Diego for actually doing his job.  Just think if Kagran had actually been heading for his house at the time- what did the assailant have in store for him?"

"If he'd been lost or killed, Braunie'd wail the loudest, you ask me," Meridha said, trying to lighten the mood.  "She keeps saying she's so glad she kept him that extra hour, that she's never been so thankful to have had an argument over a bar tab in her life.  Now, don't get me wrong, she's always been demonstrative, but there was something about how she said it- makes one think, you know?"

"I remember when Kagran and Eydla were married," Dani lamented, picking up one of the laurel branches and the twine that was still in the basket.  She held all the items in her lap for a moment as she gazed into mid-distance.  "I'd married Marcel just the springtide before, and he closed his stall for the morning, so that we might attend together.  They had a painful ceremony- they couldn't afford a priest of Lathander, or a registrar to properly change either of their names- and we all had to stand, shivering in the early Tarsakh cold like vagrants, huddled up nervously outside the Pillars because the gathering was technically illegal, and there were so many soldiers nearby, but... they were so happy... ah, well.  That hefty old bar wench can pine all she wants to.  In his own mind, Kagran Riversley is still a happily married man, and he will be until he lays down next to his so much beloved Eydla for the last time.  I wonder if he won't be too upset to come by at week's end?  I might send him a discreet message and ask."

Meridha bit her lips, unsure of what to say in response.  Dani, looking down and noting her discomfort, sighed deeply and began cutting twine to tie the laurel branch to the braid she'd just finished.

"In the meantime, I shall pray that Lathander keeps him clear of all evil intents upon his person, and I'll have the news of whether or not Diego's been suspended again from that man himself.  Now, dear, what does Hindy's letter say?"

"It starts off with village business, if you want to hear that?" Meridha offered, rustling the papers so that the first page was on top of the pile again.  "It's not in Common, so I have to kind of translate as I go."

"If you think it's proper, then yes," Dani replied as she leaned over to put her scissors back into the basket.  Seconds later, she righted herself sharply and looked down at Meridha.  "Wait, girl- what language is it in?"

"I... I don't know," the strongly build young woman stammered with a touch of embarrassment.  "It might be some kind of a mash of Lowland Draconic and Common, but all spelled out in Common.  I only know that because when Hindy first came out of her mouth with it, Keegan Tanner- a classmate of hers- about fell out of his chair with surprise.  Said it sounded like listening to a pair of kobolds, and at first, I really took offense, but then I realized he was too utterly gobsmacked to have been trying to make a bad joke.  Turns out he'd earned his entrance to the College by doing a sociological study of the creatures, and he'd taught himself their language in order to really dig into their culture."

Dani gave a short puff of voiced surprise as she picked up the second laurel branch.  "And how did Hindy take it?"

"How'd she take it?" Meridha chuckled with a smirk.  "She handfasted herself to the kid.  They came apart three ice breakings ago, but never came far enough apart, you ask me.  He's not creepy about it, but if she stays in one place long enough, he'll drift toward her and plant himself."

"I believe I might have seen or heard of the boy once or twice, but I can't say I paid very much attention," Dani said apologetically as she cut the twine for the second branch and placed both the scissors and the twine back in her basket.  "I might ask Hindy, when she's able to visit again."

Meridha smiled a bit more as she skimmed the letter.  "Ah, yes, well... okay, so Aunty Delyth- that's Hindy's mum- says another pack of missionaries have come to the village, on the same nonsense of how they must 'turn to the sun of healing,' or whatever," she began after a few moments of silence.  "The villagers are treating them normally, if not necessarily respectfully- bit of price gouging, bit of language twisting, bit of giving them bad directions so that the militia folk have time to find someone who wants to guide them up the various wildland paths before they get themselves killed by beasts while trying to visit the recluses on their own.  Or killed by the recluses once they get there, to be quite honest- one or two of those folks are still cannibals.  Anyway, they're all alive, despite their own best efforts, and everybody's doing their fair share to keep them that way."

"I suppose that's kind enough of them," Dani noted.  "What is the village's common faith, if there is one?"

"Most of them are followers of Mielikki," Meridha replied.  "Aunty Boudica is agnostic, and my mum is kind of... I don't know... she believes in everybody's gods, I guess.  She and my pop raised us all to respect nature, but that was about it; they were big into each of us finding faith on our own.  Anyway, Aunty Delyth says the War Wizards came for Aunty Boudica, again, and she rejected them, again.  She's getting a reputation for loading them up with nonsense spells before putting them out of her house; Aunty Delyth thinks she's trying her hardest to pretend she's crazy so that they'll leave her alone."

"Why are the War Wizards after Boudica?" Dani asked, cutting a piece of twine to begin work on the the third laurel branch.

"I don't know- no one tells me anything," Meridha shrugged.  "Nothing magic related, anyway.  Which is just as well, since I wouldn't understand a word.  I do know that unlike Aunty Delyth, who's just a druid, Aunty Boudica's a proper wizard; she trained with some full-blooded Elf somewhere."

"There's no such thing as 'just a druid,' dear," Dani scolded gently.  "There's plenty of folk strutting about the College who would have you think that wizards are the best casters, but frankly, a wizard is fairly lost without their spell book.  Michi often marveled at how the so-called 'wild mages' worked.  Every day, she had to look over her book and factor how much arcane energy she'd need to power a select few of the spells written there, whereas the magic workers with whom she lived simply carried all the spells they were capable of within themselves somehow, just naturally supplied with the potential force necessary to cast anything they needed.  No factoring, no hour long meditation sessions, just use what you need as you need it.  That kind of flexibility is to be respected."

"Like I said, I wouldn't know the first thing," Meridha shrugged with a pleasant smile.  "Mum's a bard, so she can do a bit of magic-y stuff, but she didn't pass any of it down to me.  I train with my swords and hammer every morning; if I didn't, I wouldn't feel ready for the day.  I've seen bandits, adventurers, and mercenaries just pick up a blade, a staff, or a bow and put a natural hurting on other people, but I certainly take my pride in being better than most of them.  Maybe wizards feel the same toward druids and bards."

"Perhaps," Dani noted, thinking of Cimaretto's humming blue ward and Hindy's hissing black one.  "But I don't know that it's as simple as that."

Meridha watched the shadows of contemplation cross Dani's face for a few moments, then returned to scanning the letter.  "Anyway, Aunty Delyth says that even though it's a big risk, Aunty Boudica's wanting to visit with Hindy, and she'll see what help she can be while she's here.  She's going to Daerlun to visit our Uncle Kleggie after Memmy's handfasting, and plans to be here before midsummer, so-"

"Wait, shouldn't you and Hindy be present for Memmy's handfasting?" Dani asked.  "I understand that whatever Hindy did down here was impermanent and therefore didn't call for the family to be nearby, but if there's some sort of event back in her home-"

"Oh, no, no, all springtide handfastings are impermanent," Meridha corrected.  "All that made Hindy's different was that it wasn't done at the festival- and that at first, Tanner was truly upset over Hindy's not caring whether he told his parents or not because he thought they were getting proper married.  Now, if the match lasts the year, and Memmy and- wait, who is it?- oh, Triton Surrey.  If she and Surrey want to make a real go of marriage, then there'll be a party to seal the bond."

"I'll bet the missionaries felt confirmed in their belief that the village needed conversion when that was explained to them, if it was at all," Dani said.  "For we who believe in Lathander, the handfasting is permanent."

"There wasn't any confusion before the first pack of them showed up, to be honest," Meridha noted as she pulled some of the hair that had fallen into her face back over her head.  "Now, we have the same word for two different events.  I didn't think to tell Hindy about that, since I haven't handfasted myself even once, but until recently, she chose herself a boy per year.  Once he sorted things out, Tanner was a good sport.  Unfortunately, the other two guys she handfasted herself to- one was Isak Pentreig, I don't remember the other one's name- they were both awful about it.  The one went around campus telling crude stories about her.  Pentreig tried to sue her for falsifying marriage claims, or something of that tune.  Dunno how he got on the docket, but all the judges must've understood the confusion.  The first judge asks, 'Miss Keymun, when did you handfast yourself to Ser Pentreig?'  She was all exasperated, she just said, 'Lahst sprengteide, a'caurse!'  Everybody laughed, and out went the case.  She hasn't done anything this season, but Tanner's hanging around more often for a reason, you ask me."

"He's likely more understanding because, having made a study of an entirely different race already, he's aware that this is simply a difference in societal vocabulary and norms- one with which he can easily make peace," Dani shrugged as she picked up the wreath and checked it from different directions.

"How do you all do it?" Meridha asked suddenly.  "I mean, you and your husband, and Kagran and his wife, and others... it seems you're all quite lucky, to have married the correct person the first time."

"It's not a perfect system," Dani scoffed.  "Parents do most of the work, if you're fortunate.  You do get the odd aldermaiden or toy anchor, but for the most part, most of us are appropriately matched up by adults who are well aware of who they raised.  I... can't say that Marcel and I did Michele justice... in that area.  We... never seemed to find the right time."

"Well, she kind of handfasted herself to Chimi," Meridha suggested hopefully. 

"That seems quite likely, yes," Dani sighed.  "I wonder precisely when she did."

Meridha stole a glance up at Dani's distant, wistful eyes and made a solid decision to change the subject, no matter how awkwardly.  "The reason spring handfasting isn't permanent is because sometimes, you start to live with someone, and then you realize you can't stand them.  I wonder what happens to heartlanders who get stuck with people they hate."

Dani put the wreath in her lap and laughed.  "We sue for divorce, dear!" she exclaimed.  "Well, that is to say you incite your husband to do it, as women can't initiate the proceedings.  First, have your friends to gossip unkindly about you amongst each other where their husbands can hear it.  They must lament that the reason you're gadding about is sexual dissatisfaction.  He'll get word one way or another, and he'll be counseled by all and sundry to put in a suit to be rid of you.  Now, if you were to come to open court, as you're supposed to do when you're being sued for divorce, you would have to confess whether or not you are gadding and why.  However, the prospect of being branded as a rusted toy anchor- a man who can't keep hold of the woman he married- is so mortifying that your husband will almost certainly meet with a representative from the Pillars and pay whatever it takes to get a writ of divorce without the case ever gracing the docket.  Next, gather your things together and return to your parents.  Or, if they're no longer living, request housing from an order of priestesses- the deliquents who call themselves priestesses of Lliira are the best choice for an active woman.  Finally, and especially if by chance the rumors have taken real hold, you must find an unmarried man who might bring a defamation of character suit against your former husband.  You'll find that quite a few travelling mercenaries provide this service for a very low fee, although you must avoid the unscrupulous sorts who demand alternate payment methods, if you catch my meaning.  Once you've hired a good man, you must be seen with him a few times in public, so that it may be understood that he is courting you.  Otherwise, he'd have no reason to be offended by the rumors, you see.  Have him noise it abroad that he intends to bring the suit, and either your former husband will pay him to keep the matter quiet, or you'll be proven innocent and awarded, since there won't be a shred of real evidence that you ever did gad about in the first place.  A lot of divorced women with no surviving parents do that part simply to get enough coin to make a proper start to their new lives."

For a few moments, Meridha simply stared at Dani, who smiled tenderly down at her.

"A dear friend of mine had dotish parents who married her off to a wicked brute.  She was desperate; told me it was either divorce or murder.  And since she'd inherited every bit of her parents' smarts, I knew she'd get herself hung.  So, I gathered our knitting circle, we hired one of the Coalwater mercenaries to be her defamation defendant, and we took care of her from the beginning to the end.  It was only fortunate that she took a fabulous liking to the mercenary.  Married him a few years later."

"I don't know what to think of that," Meridha admitted, her glossy hazel eyes lending truth to her words.

"It's a very long-winded way of admitting that your way is much more honest," Dani chuckled, picking up the wreath to inspect it again.  "More egalitarian as well- is it always the women who handfast themselves, or can men do it too?"

"No, it's always the women," Meridha replied.  "We're the ones gotta bear the children, so we're the ones that do the picking of who we might want to do it for.  Did she have children by that first man?  Your friend?"

"Yes; two," Dani admitted.  "At the time, the first was of five years, and the other, four.  Of good humor and quite loving, shockingly enough- a testament to that woman's strength and patience in the face of the beastly man who gave them to her.  They were all for the scheme to get her free of their father, but their imaginations were so fantastic that we- the knitting circle, that is- had to teach them how to lie properly.  I'd tell you everyone's names, understand, but you might know them.  And in your position... well... you'd have to turn us all in, wouldn't you?"

Meridha blinked at Dani for a few seconds, then reached over to tug lightly at Dani's forearm so that she would put the wreath back down.  "First, I'm not for tattling.  Second, the Pillars closed both cases, and that's all.  Last, that woman risked losing her children or being hung to get the life she has now.  She deserves to have it without me so much as thinking a bad thought in her direction.  May her gods protect her and hers, whoever they are."

Dani, who had turned to look at Meridha when her arm had been tugged, let go of the wreath entirely and took both of Meridha's hands in her own.  "Don't let all this frighten you, my dear.  I'm certain that there's other men like Keegan and Diego, who would accept you for exactly who you are and exactly what you believe.  Or women, if that's what you find you prefer."

Meridha bit her lips and blushed profusely, and Dani smiled as she let go of the powerful fighter's hands.  Again she took up the wreath to inspect the underside of it, and Meridha watched her carefully twist a few wiggly branches so that the leaves would lay without poking the person wearing it in the eye or the side of the head.

"That'll be a lucky person, whoever they are," she pronounced firmly as she cut a few small pieces of twine to tie the branches she had just fixed more securely.  "Now, did the letter say anything else?"

"Well, after that, it's just Aunty Delyth admonishing Hindy to keep at her studies, not to fall slack in anything no matter what is going on around her.  She tells her to confide in me, or Chimi, or you."

Dani unceremoniously turned and sat the wreath on Meridha's head, and the latter turned surprised, but clear hazel eyes up to the former.  The wreath, snagged at once on the wealth of radiant red hair, didn't slide an inch.

"Well, one down, three to go," Dani proclaimed, fascinated at once by Meridha's plain, open face.  "If it fits you, it'll be too small for Diego.  Do you want to keep it, or do you want me to hold on to it until the end of the ten-day?"

"Am I going somewhere at week's end?" Meridha asked simply.  "I might have to put in a request for leave, and with things as they are, I might not get it."

"Marcel always showed a bit of his filthy Westgate colors at Greengrass," Dani smiled sadly.  "He drank like a pirate the entire week, staggering from one friend's house to another until he returned to throw a scandalously wild party at our own house at week's end.  I kept myself separate from his friends' jealous, backstabbing wives, but I do still throw a week's end bash of sorts for my own family and friends. And if you weren't invited to it properly, then I pray you accept my apology and my invitation both at once.  I would be remiss if I did not, at this late date, accept the man whom Michi chose for herself, after the manner of the culture from which that man came.  And as Delyth preaches me to be as good to Hindy as are you and Diego, I ought to walk worthy of her words."

"Heartlanders use a lot of words for simple stuff," Meridha smiled gratefully.  "All that you can say with, 'Krew mie'nnua.'  'Krew' can be either blood or wine; you fight hard with someone, or you drink hard with someone, you're family.  Not an 'I bequeath you my name' kind of thing.  You, Hindy, and Chimi are buckling down to finish the fight Michi started; all Aunty Delyth did was tell Hindy to trust that bond a bit earlier than normal."

And Dani sat back and chuckled, folding her hands into her lap.