"...and then they fight until one of them either is killed or feels compelled to concede. Some partners can't bear this, and so concede nearly at once, but that's looked upon poorly by the commune, so only either the very young, who are too tenderhearted, or the very old, who have married before and don't care about the opinions of others, ever do that. There was one older couple, I remember, whose one partner never even made it to the battle ground, because he had suffered a fall farther back. After waiting for hours, his partner left the field to search for him, weathering the thrown objects and the jeers of others as she went. She was bloody and tired by the time she got to him, but threw her arms around him and lifted him up to carry him to the battle ground. I don't know that they spoke along the way, but I feel they must have, because once they returned, he just barely summoned the strength to lift his dagger at her, and she conceded immediately. Some threw things at them again, even offal, and my master insinuated that I should do the same, but since it was not a direct order, I pretended that I hadn't understood him, and did not."
Celeste looked over at Silveredge by the light of the cantrips, enchanted items, and torches that others carried, and for a moment, simply marveled at the small act of courage that could have earned the Shadar-kai woman a beating.
"That's something," the Human woman said at last, unable to put the rest of her thoughts into words. "Humans are definitely not so sanguine, although we are comparatively wildly superstitious. It's hard to tell where one culture's nonsense ends and another begins, because we're all spread out all over the place, for some reason, and we've absorbed a multitude of beliefs from those we've conquered or been conquered by. Bear in mind now, I'm from the far west, from a whole other continent to here. Now, over there, I was called a 'bride,' and my ex was called the 'groom,' I don't know what language those terms are from, but there they are. Or... were, since the marriage is dissolved now. Anyway, I was dressed all up in white- that was to pretend that I was still a virgin-, blindfolded, and taken to a ceremonial area, a circle. The circle keeps evil spirits out, and is supposed to ensure that the bond between the bride and groom remains strong."
"Is anyone else permitted to be in the circle with the bride, since she cannot see?" Silveredge asked meekly.
"No- well, not after my father got me into the circle," Celeste explained. "The father brings the bride- his daughter- to the ring, and puts her hand in the groom's hand. The bride never sees anything until later in the ceremony. It's supposed to signify that the bride no longer belongs to the father, but instead to the groom."
Silveredge said nothing, but nodded in understanding. Niku, who had been padding ahead of the two women, stopped for a moment to sniff at the ground. When the two caught up to him, some three or four strides later, he picked his head up and whined for a pat. Silveredge obliged immediately.
"Anyway, the groom took my hand, and before a priest, we spoke vows to each other. Eternal fealty to each other, the bequeathing of our wealth to each other, even though it really only works one way, and all that ridiculous slave type rot- ah, whoops, I'm sorry. Not real slavery, it just... you know, I was supposed to belong to the fellow, that's all. Like a chair, a turnip, or a cow. I didn't mind the idea at the time, but looking back... well..."
Silveredge had to hustle a few steps to catch up to Celeste, so that she could be heard without having to shout over the din of the moving caravan. "I have served some Human men, at my former master's command," she nodded. "He told them that we were married, and they did not seem to see sufficient difference between their idea of marriage and his idea of ownership to correct him. Further, I do not see much difference myself. I am not offended; please, continue."
In thinking of the ramifications of Silveredge's reply, Celeste shivered. It took her nearly an entire minute to pick up the conversation again.
"Um... so. After the saying of the vows bit, my husband- he's only called the 'groom' during the ceremony, you see- kissed me, picked me up, and carried me to the home he'd prepared for me. If my feet had touched unholy ground before I got home, that would have been bad luck to us. Now, I'd been to the house before, as I'd dug the cellar and planted the garden, but for ceremony's sake, we had to pretend I'd never been. Anyway, he carried me inside, and he took off my blindfold while I was facing him, so that he was the first living thing I saw. That's to keep me loyal to him, you understand; if I were to have seen anyone else, I could be bewitched and start gadding about."
Silveredge looked over at Celeste with a mist of confusion on her face.
"Oh- cheating, stepping out on the partner. Having relations, you know the kind, with someone who's not the partner. That's called 'gadding about'. Not sure where that saying came from either," Celeste explained with a slight shrug. "Anyway, once in the house, we kissed again, this time both of us on purpose. There's a lot of symbolism to Human weddings as well, and that first knowing kiss is supposed to symbolize that the woman accepts the house and the man who's giving it to her, or whatever. The trouble is that even if you don't like the house, or the man, it'd be idiot to try to refuse either one then and there. You may as well wait a year or so and then pay a merc to pretend to cheat with you so that your husband puts you away- so that he divorces you, then. Being suspected of cheating is the easiest way to get a divorce."
"You have to pay a mercenary to help you get a divorce?" Silveredge giggled incredulously. "In the commune, you can publicly challenge an unsatisfactory partner for any reason you wish, or none at all, any time you like. You'll get the chance to fight to the death or to the submission, and the survivor... well, they survive. Not only are they considered eligible for remarriage, they get everything the dead or weak party owned as victor's spoils. Unless their family members want to fight for it. It can be a long process, but you never have to pay anyone to get rid of your partner- unless you want the most permanent removal possible, with the least amount of effort and risk probable to yourself."
"If we fought as often as it sounds like you did in the commune, there'd be utter chaos," Celeste answered back, close to laughing herself. "Anyway, after the kiss, our close friends sprung up from behind the furniture, and we had a grand party. The party isn't for good luck; it's just to relieve everyone's having to sit through such long, formal services. Everyone was drunk inside of an hour, including myself. It was a terrible mess to clean up after, but it was great fun. Even now, I will admit that it was powerfully fun. I suppose if I had to, I'd do it again, but it's hard to imagine it with anyone besides himself. I feel badly for him, really, to be forced. He invited me, but I thought it'd be idiot of me to actually go. The poor woman. He'll learn to love her, I hope. I truly hope; I do."
"There are many Human children that go without parents," Silveredge noted as she glanced around herself for a few moments. "I have seen them in the streets, and have shared food, clothing, or shelter with them, secretly, so that we are all safe from the hands of others more fortunate. It seems odd not to find a way to give such children to the Human adults who go without babies of their making."
"That does happen, but when it does, it's either some well-to-do person offloading a babe they don't want or taking on a babe they can't have," Celeste sighed, fighting hard against the lump in her throat. "It's not for such as Robbie and me. What we were, in those days. I just... he'll be happy, I hope. I just want happiness for him, if he can have it."
"He very likely wants the same for you," Silveredge suggested quietly, refocusing on Celeste completely as she did. "Perhaps he will read of the company you intend to found in the broadsheets someday."
"Ah, you're a ball of toffee," Celeste smiled, deciding to put the matter out of her mind. "Come now, tell me; will you fight this Mishka, then? Will it matter which of you wins? Does that determine who takes whose name?"
Silveredge shrugged. "If we were to fight, in the Shadar-kai way of things, we would have to fight the contenders to our hands. As it stands, there aren't any, so we can't do that. I'm not sure how our names might change, because we have very different naming systems. The compound name of my house is Shuun-Cziou, for my maternal great-grandmother's mother, who cleared the land upon which the manse was built, and my grandmother's first husband, who bought my grandmother along with the manse. My personal compound name is Ceubel-Naja; those are my father and mother's names. But first of all, I've been thinking about replacing my father's name with that of my mother's good friend- that would make my compound name Jhaeldana-Naja."
"Anyone who suspected that you may have had Drow blood in you before would feel certain of it if you did that," Celeste commented. "Not that that's a bad thing, but... you know."
Silveredge smiled. "Yes, I know- and Mishka reminded me, just in case I'd forgotten. I could also take my grandmother's name, making my compound name Althea-Naja- but the real difficulty would be in what our shared house's compound name becomes, because Tieflings don't use the first names of their ancestors as their house or compound name. Her family name is made up of her mother and father's family name- Lucien-Azaroth. In order to make my compound name fit correctly, I'm supposed to attach 'Lucien' to the end of it- Althea-Naja de Lucien, I suppose. The 'de' means 'of or belonging to,' Mishka says- and she hates that."
"Considering how often she's been accused of enslaving you, that makes sense," Celeste frowned. "And it's a little awkward even without that disturbing meaning."
Again Niku stopped to sniff at the ground, and Silveredge laughed sadly as she reached down to scratch his ears again. "If she adds my compound name to the end of her name, it's worse- Lucien-Azaroth de Althea-Naja, or something like that. No matter what we do, it sounds... wrong. To both of us. Mishka suggested that we do without family and compound names altogether, but I fear that our ancestors will be furious at us, if we were to do such a thing."
Celeste pulled and pushed her lips between her teeth for a few moments. "What about just the ceremony bit?"
"No... mainly because she doesn't have any idea what ceremonies her people had. Her cousin wasn't any help, because his father did not marry any of the women with whom he had children. According to all I have read, Tieflings of great means used to wander blindfolded and chained neck to hands to feet- or hooves, as the case may be- in a dangerous maze until they found each other." Silveredge paused for a moment to look around herself, and Niku gave a few discountented grunts.
Celeste, somewhat bewildered by the breakage of the train of thought, looked around herself as well, but not with much attention. "Okay, go on," she said when she felt awkward about continuing to look around for no reason.
Silveredge, who very much still felt as though caution was necessary, began setting inner energy aside for a few minor offensive spells. Celeste reached out and poked her with an armored finger, and she continued, "When they did, they took each other's bindings and fastenings off, then worked together to fight their way out of the maze. Once they emerged through the blood portal, whatever that is, they were pelted with rice or eggs, or both, then considered married. I'm... not even sure if that means they went to some level of the Hells in order to get into or out of the maze. The writings were... very vague. And old. And seemed inappropriate to lower class Tieflings. Other writings with a more religious bent spoke of two people being offered as one flesh to a 'father demon,' whoever that is, but I can't imagine suggesting that, because Mishka is equally suspicious about belief in almost every god. She tolerates, and lately has even encouraged, my adherence to the path of the Raven Queen, but I don't mistake that for a sign that she'll ever walk the way of any belief system herself."
"I hope they won't take offense to my saying so, but Kazmiir and So'ochel are lower class Tieflings," Celeste suggested hopefully. "Perhaps instead of trying to sort out ancient writings that require belief in gods that your partner doesn't care about, you may as well ask living Tieflings what they plan to do to seal their bond. Or if they even intend to do so- to So-sho, they're as good as wedded already, and you saw for yourself how Kaz pointed her out even while dazed as a drunk. That's a functional couple if ever I saw one."
Niku emitted a rolling sound somewhere between a whine and a growl, slowing down so that the distance between himself and Silveredge lessened.
Silveredge mused, almost absent-mindedly, as she continued to scan the area. "My grandparents were a functional couple, I believe, but they did not survive their marriage ceremony. It was my grandmother's second marriage, and her second intended was much more earnest than her first; that's why I consider him my maternal grandfather, despite the fact that my mother was not his child, and he couldn't add his name to the house hame. Since she and my grandfather were both very attractive and highly influential, they decided to fight each other's pretenders to the death to eliminate any possibility of later challenges or demands. According to the legend in my grandfather's home commune, some one of my grandmother's pretenders- whether by accident or out of spite- wounded her instead of him. They claim that my grandfather's rage alone caused the cheater to explode into tiny pieces, but my commune doesn't hold with that story. Both communes do insist that instead of continuing to fight, my grandfather stopped to gather my grandmother into his arms. Seeing that the wound was mortal, he simply cradled her, allowing himself to be run through from the back. My commune claims that the cheater is the one who ran him through; my grandfather's commune claims it was some other man. Either way, the couple died in the battle field, one after the other, and although everyone is aware that they did not die simultaneously, no one will admit to which of them died first, so that we can all pretend that they did."
"Oh gods, I'm sorry Rasha, but that's terrifying," Celeste breathed, shivering. "I mean, it's poetic, in its own way, but... I just can't imagine having to fight for my life on my wedding day."
"It is perfect," Silveredge smiled, her eyes taking on a gleam that echoed moonlight. "How blessed they were, to mingle blood, and then be so quickly flown away together. I can only pray that my last breaths of this life and my first moments of otherlife are shared with the first and most beloved."
"Well, I pray that you have many, many, many happy years between your wedding day and your last breaths," Celeste chuckled uncomfortably, rubbing her hands on her upper arms. They were armored, of course, but for some reason were still cold. Her greaves crackled and grumbled against the cheap steel on her arms.
Over that grinding sound came the whistle of a scout. Both Celeste and Silveredge were caught off guard by it, but Celeste was so surprised that she froze. Silveredge looked up, and watched in cold horror as the scout who had whistled was rewarded by an arrow through the throat.
In front of the two, the carriage horses, who had been trundling along without much energy, seemed to come more alive than they had been since they'd left the city. With iron wills, they attempted to pull in four different directions. The strain of the wooden yoke that held the four of them together caught the Shadar-kai's attention.
"Please help our friends to stay together," she managed with a dry throat, looking down to Niku. Just like that, the battle hound took off, running circles around the horses, his barks and nips keeping them more afraid of him than the commotion going up around them.
In watching Niku's path, Silveredge noticed a blowgunner poised to attack from cover. With a few steps to close some of the distance between herself and the attacker, Silveredge took her chain from around her hips and slung it up to a dangerous speed with a quickness of which Vhalan would have been proud. The blowgunner. who didn't pay the transformation of the shiny belt enough attention due to being focused on attacking someone else, found his throat and upper arms encircled by spikes as painful as they were beautiful. As Silveredge turned herself around and bounded up from the ground to flip over her opponent, an arrow sang through the air that she'd departed, burying itself into a tree trunk. Niku immediately abandoned the shepherding of the horses to chase after the archer who had dared to make Silveredge his target, and as a result, the Shadar-kai got a chance to see the bowman flee, terrified of the large hound, from their position. Silveredge swung her spiked chain in a vicious half circle, willing a wave of bitter winter cold to flow from it to the running archer. The spell connected beautifully, and was slightly more potent than Silveredge believed it would be when she was casting it, perfectly freezing the archer's feet and slowing him to a miserable hobble. Niku took advantage of that, leaping like a wild wolf to grab hold of the back of the archer's neck and rip him down to the ground.
From behind Silveredge, piercing through the clamour of the skirmish like a streak of lightning splitting the dark of a moonless night, came Celeste's agonized holler.
Silveredge turned her back on the battle hound and the archer, searching for her roommate while palming two of her spike shuriken. It wasn't difficult to find the victim or the culprit, and Silveredge knowledgeably put two shuriken in the swordswoman's neck. Rushing to Celeste's prone and bleeding body, Silveredge planted her knees on either side. With closed eyes and bowed head, she allowed energy to flow from the blood, the pain, and the screams that surrounded her into her being, into her memories, into the horrible beatings, the vicious salt baths, and shameful violations that happened night after night. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she took a deep breath, folding her arms over her chest as if to store all that she was sensing and feeling within herself.
For a split second, there was only cold, midnight silence.
And then with a mighty screech of her own, Silveredge pushed her arms out from herself. The vision of glorious, glossy black wings sprung from her back, visible to absolutely no one but Celeste, who- pinned beneath her- could see nothing else.
"Forgive me, Eldath," Celeste whispered, certain that she was hallucinating. She closed her eyes, waiting to open them up to whatever awaited her on the other side of death.
A few yards away, Niku chased and brought down a shortsword wielder, savagely biting through his neck as though it had been he, and not some Urmlaspyr guard, who had betrayed his first owner and imprisoned the second.
Silveredge heard Celeste's prayer, but couldn't spare the energy to respond to it in any way. The warding spell, which froze two other attackers solid when they attempted to cross into its area of effect, took a great deal to maintain, but the Shadar-kai could tell that the battle was still going to be difficult if she did not find a way to be of offensive use. She put her hands together and opened them, as though she were miming a book. Between her palms, the apparition of a small ball of ice formed. She slung it from her left hand toward an attacker, and as it flew, it first became as large as Giant, then as solid and real as one. Rolling the huge ice ball as carefully as she could afford, Silveredge chased and crushed attackers. Many of them seemed to quickly get the idea that this caravan was more trouble than it was worth, and the battle, such as it was, petered to an end some paultry minutes later.
Silveredge beckoned the ice ball back to herself, and Niku came running behind it. She picked herself up from Celeste and laid next to her, grasping one of the Human's hands with both of hers. Celeste, who was drifting between sleep and consciousness, noted the gentle pressure and opened her eyes as much as she could for a few brief moments.
The Sunfire's lead guard didn't survive the attack, but the second-in-command, none other than Kazmiir, began making his rounds to see who had been killed, who had been wounded, and to gather information on who had attacked the caravan in the first place.
"These were a more vicious lot," the caravan leader admitted to the Human-looking Tiefling, "but this is about the time where the attacks happen. 'Bout halfway to Sembia, and bam- just before sundown, so that the sun is against us, blinding us."
"Smart ones, these assholes; that's something we used to be known for doing, just in the opposite direction and thus, in the morning instead of the evening. That and having archers that set fire to their arrows- that's where I was told our company name came from," Kazmiir scoffed, turning over the body of the archer whose neck and throat Niku had shredded with the toe of his boot. "Wait- these are-"
He knelt down and carefully inspected the symbols on the armor, then got up and stood back.
"Problem?" the caravan leader asked, concerned at Kazmiir's surprise.
"Not for you," Kazmiir muttered, striding away from the caravan leader to find other bodies to look at. "Stay where you are. Everyone- unless you're being seen by the healer, stay where you are! Neither touch nor move anything!"
Silveredge dismissed both her spells, not out of true desire, but because her concentration could no longer hold out. Her gal-ralan, in response, dug earnestly through her flesh, seeming to spread teeth outward from itself under her skin, so that most of her lower arm was bathed in soul-anchoring pain. Niku threw himself down in the bloody mud, whining and growling, and his movement drew Kazmiir's eye. He was just going to command the dog to sit and heel when he recognized who he was, and what precisely he was rolling in.
"Healing! Healing here!" Kazmiir commanded, rushing over. When Niku attempted to insert himself between the Tiefling and Silveredge, Kazmiir put one heavy hand just behind the hound's ears and the other on his hindquarters. "Sit, Ha- eh, Niku. Atta boy; sit. Good boy."
The sole actual healing apprentice ignored the Tiefling in favour of continuing to work with the person that they had been attending before the shout came, but a lithe half-Elf archer who'd managed not to get a scratch bounded over to lend what aid he could.
"What's happening?" Celeste uttered, finding her throat sore.
"Look over this one first," Kazmiir ordered as he indicated Celeste. He gathered Silveredge away from the Human so that the half-Elf could focus on just the one patient, and was surprised when the Shadar-kai's dazed silvery eyes fluttered and opened.
"Is... my lord... angry?" Silveredge managed weakly, feeling her eyes roll in her head without enough control over herself to stop them from doing so.
"Your...? No," Kazmiir spat, answering both the actual question and another that had gone entirely unasked. "I imagine my countrywoman would be quite upset, though, if I don't get you back to her. Come on now; stay with us. Are you hurt?"
Silveredge couldn't respond. The darkness of the material plane melted into that of Letherna, then hardened into itself again. The dry caress of a breeze that had rolled over the back of a wing glided across her face. Kazmiir, not finding any wounds just by looking at her, shifted her weight in his arms so that she was sitting up instead of laying halfway in his lap.
The half-Elf, who had to remove Celeste's armor and tear her tunic, quickly stitched Celeste's wound up, cut the dirty thread with a hunting knife, then cast the best healing spell he knew- which still only served to keep the wound from getting an infection or continuing to bleed through the uneven stitches. The actual healer, who was overwhelmed with other people, looked over, considered the half-Elf good enough help, and moved on to another badly wounded swordsman. Kazmiir noted the avoidance, and decided to let it go for the moment; there were too many wounded people to argue with the only healing mage apprentice about his in-field promotion and the new level of obedience to which he was thereby entitled.
Celeste came to herself a few minutes later, and was confused at being able to do so. She noticed her armor, the half-Elf, and the filthy battle hound, all off to her right side. "Niku- and Dharme? I... this is... I'm alive, then."
"What are you, disappointed?" the half-Elf smirked. "I can always open the cut back up for ya."
"Well, now that Cellie's awake, make yourself useful; Rasha's fainted. Mind the hound," Kazmiir grunted. Niku growled threateningly, but Kazmiir again took firm hold of the back of his neck, so that the dog would remain sitting. Once Dharme shifted his focus to Silveredge, the Tiefling smiled, "And welcome back, Cellie. You took quite a scratch."
"I did," Celeste commented slowly, looking at her side. The armor there was badly dented, with a two inch puncture clear through. "The make must have been faulty; I only just bought this armor from Vettilde."
"Why would you buy armor from a farrier?" Kazmiir asked, only half serious. Buying armor from the other blacksmith in Suzail was an expensive venture, and not everyone had come into as much money as he had for his work. "If you decide to demand your coin back, I'll be your witness."
"I might do that," Celeste chuckled quietly, not wanting to try to see how hard she could laugh yet. "Did Rasha take any damage?"
"She's just asleep, I think," Dharme pronounced, sitting on his behind instead of his knees. "That little bauble of hers is terrifying, but I sense some sort of magic about it- good magic. Magic that's doing her good, no matter what kind of horrible physical damage it seems to be wrecking."
"It's a gal-ralan," Kazmiir sighed, finally beckoning Niku over with a nod of his head. "According to what I've heard about such things, it feeds on the blood of the Shadar-kai who wears it, and in return, it compels the spirit to remain with the body, when it would normally be snatched away to Shar."
Niku sniffed desperately at Silveredge, then tried nudging her with his nose, whining all the way.
"Okay, come, boy," Kazmiir commanded firmly. Niku, for once, did as he was told, and Kazmiir tried to give him ear scratches or belly rubs. The battle hound was in the mood for neither action, and simply flopped down as he had when he'd been crated and separated from Silveredge for days.
"Oh no," Celeste breathed, knowing exactly what that type of attitude could mean. "Are you sure she's only asleep?"
"I'm fairly sure," Dharme admitted. "Although now that I hear what Kazmiir's said about her little bracelet, I have to admit that it might be what's keeping her that way. With a better idea of what her magic aura feels like, I bet she cast both those spells that I felt," Dharme huffed. "I dunno what the other one was, but the icy sphere spell itself is demanding, so it makes sense that she's knocked out now."
"I wish she'd shared the findings of those tests she had to take, because the first spell was..." Celeste drifted off, thinking of the beautiful wings that she had seen push their way from Silveredge's back. Scooting herself slowly over to be able to reach the pale-looking Shadar-kai, she asked Kazmiir, "What's the matter with you? If you don't want to hold her, give her to me."
"It's not that... here, see for yourself," Kamiir said, reaching over to pull at a sewn patch that the corpse nearest to him had on a pack.
"That- that's ours," Celeste gasped, horrified. "I mean, Sunfire's-"
"I know what you meant, and you're part of us. You can say 'us' and mean it," Kazmiir counseled. "Might take others a while to think so about the pair of you, but... not me. You've both got what it takes."
"Thanks," Celeste smiled grimly. "Are there others? With... our seal?"
"This is the second I've found, but I don't recognize either person," Kazmiir sighed. "Either Bann is up to more fuckery than they accused him of, or someone's pretending that he is. Or was. The whole matter- I'm not sure who to report it to. And that's if I'm even right."
"That is most definitely the Sunfire seal, and you know it better than I do," Celeste responded immediately. "Niku, would you do Rasha and I a big, big favour?"
Kazmiir was just going to note that this was no way to speak to a trained hound, when Niku picked his head up and began panting expectantly.
"Kaz, give him the seal, would you, please?" Celeste asked, feeling sheepish as she did. But the Tiefling instantly understood the intention.
"Hunt this sign, boy," he ordered, pointing to the Sunfire seal.
"Please find it for us, he means. On the dead ones, specifically," Celeste added. "If it weren't for them, Rasha would be hugging you and giving you pats right now. Find each one, but don't bring them back; just bark when you find one, and then go on to the next. If you do that, I'm sure Rasha will be so proud of you when she wakes up! She's only asleep now, but she'll wake up, and hear of what you've done, and will give you lots of hugs and kisses- maybe even food! So will you do that for Rasha and I? Will you? Will you, Neeks?"
Niku regained a fraction of his normal energy, and first padded the short distance to Celeste to receive an encouraging scratch behind the ears. When he'd received it, he bolted off.
"That was a powerful number of instructions for a-" Dharme began.
He was cut off by a sudden bark. Kazmiir looked at where the dog was, and nodded.
"He understood them. That one he just barked at was the first I found, just a few paces away. I wonder how he got so much smarter than the rest of Howler's pups."
"Rasha talks to him like an equal," Celeste shrugged. "They love each other madly, and I couldn't tell you how or why. If I hadn't mentioned her, he'd not have moved an inch; I know it."
