[Sanctuary] Loose Tongues, and Lucid Hearts (Kavala, Raiha)

[Ronan]

Kavala's fingers traced his windmarks, her touch cool, inviting, tender. He put hands over hers, feeling the webbing between her fingers, exploring with his own rougher hands.

Pulling the rest of her clothes off, he pulled her closer again. Their bodies touched, yet he felt so comfortable. He was barely aware of the fire in the lower regions of his body, touching her own. And she moved a little, just so they could snuggle comfortably.

Her lips drifted across his neck, like a feather lightly dancing over his skin. He nuzzled closer, sighing quietly. The light scaling on her cheeks brushed against him too, her beauty... it was not just from her exoticness. It was her soul that burned so fiercely, radiant spirit bursting through her skin. A heart of innumerable proportions.

He touched at her body tenderly, fingers dancing down her neck, over her breasts and down to her hips.

When she spoke of ever changing dreams, he nodded gently in understanding, listening closely. Dreams were like that. You couldn't ever quite grasp them, like smoke in the air, pulsing away in the wind. When you met different people they often altered, adapting with time and love.

After the pause, her words left Ronan breathless. His heartbeat sped up, and he gripped her tighter.

Your friend.

"Forever your friend," he whispered into the cool night. Only Kavala and Windsong would hear his words.

Your confidant.

"You know I will always listen, and remember, and share."

Your lover.

He closed his eyes, and held her breathlessly. A course of heat, and he suddenly felt as if his life had been leading to this moment. In a slurry of alcohol and dreams and desires, he replied, kissing her gently, over and over.

"I can be that, Kavala. If you let me. If circumstance permits. I want to be your equal, and hold you like this forever. I want to see everything with you, do everything with you. You're right. Our hearts... their can only be good born from us." He paused, kissing her again. The inevitability, the impossibility... he pushed them aside for just a moment. No one could stifle his dreams. "From this."

He revelled in the moment, and she gently pushed him so that he lay on his back. He rested his shoulders on the ground, but held his arms up to hold her, to feel her. She kissed him several times.

"Staring at the stars..." he began, smiling at her. "So many thoughts run through my head. My brother. My parents. How life could have been. How I wanted life to be. And then... myself. Being alone. A dark, sad future, that I would rather not live to see. And then sometimes, I think on being loved. On being loved absolutely, and purely, and being able to love back in the same way. Security, Kavala. I think on love and security, and being safe, and happy, and able to protect, and care. I think on things I can hold, things that won't be torn away without a moments notice.I think on the sky, and the world, and the God's, and everything... on the reasons for being. On the cycle of life."

He turned away briefly. The drink had gotten the better of him, or so he told himself. A single tear ran from his misty eyes.

"And now... now, I'll look up at the stars in wonder and happiness and hope, and think on you."

He reached up, cupped a hand round her face, and kissed her on the lips again. He did not think on the consequences for now, only that this night would never relinquish its hold.

"And now a question for you. Perhaps, I can answer the same one in return, but that's up to you. I want to know about your faith. Which God's do you hold dear to your heart?"

[Kavala]

As she spoke and he responded, Kavala couldn't help but think two distinctly different thoughts. The first was that their words were like a vow, a mantra of sorts, between them... friend, confidante, and lover. Wrapped in his arms, lost in secret stolen time, Kavala smiled at the man who had only in a short period of time stolen something very precious from her and wrapped it in his love, offering it back. She'd told others she'd loved them, of course, but this was different. There'd be no awkward 'I love you' spoken, not now, not with this man because the proof of what was between them was reinforced every time she touched him and he touched her. Just laying together, like this, was enough to tell her that this was not normal, that instead this was precious and rare and wholly beautiful.

The second thing was that she was deeply in trouble. The Drykas lived hard, died young, and rarely left their grass. If she won her freedom somehow, her life was going to change. She'd ride halfway across the Sea to be with him for days on end... and come back here to take care of things as they came up. She didn't want to leave Sanctuary, not for long, but she'd do what she had to in order to be with this man.

Hers. There was no doubt in Kavala's mind... not after this night, that Ronan Windsong was put on this world to somehow be with her and she with him. Their energies blended too well. Being together just felt too right. She'd have to walk his Chavi and see if they had a past history together.. but something told her they didn't. Ronan felt so new, so unspoiled and unhindered by a long past filled with grief or strife. There was a pureness to him that drew her like some delicate winged thing was often drawn into candlelight.

And kissing him... by the gods... kissing him was embarrassingly delicious. It was like they couldn't stop touching being this close and close wasn't ever close enough. Loving him, really loving him with her body, was going to be amazing. Even now she longed to feel his weight on her, his body wrapped around her, within her, leaving no idea where each of them began and ended. But Kavala was no Oathbreaker. The undanas on her wrist reminded her second by second that she belonged elsewhere.

And when he easily rolled to his back and she sprawled across his chest, she dipped her head to run her lips across scars there, and higher across each of his pectorals, she could do nothing but smile. His taste was delicious. He began to speak and she understood suddenly how much of a dreamer and how inherently good Ronan was. His softly accented voice was beautifully made for Pavi and easy to listen to in the way that Tukant or Common never could be.

The crazy thing was he thought about almost exactly the same things she thought about when staring up at the sky. She caught his head before she could turn it away and gently brushed the tears off his cheek with her thumb. She licked the salt off then kissed the corner of his eye. "You don't have to turn your face away. Don't hide tears from me. I've shed a few myself. They are nothing to be ashamed of." She said gently.

"I wonder," Kavala mused. "If you understand how very much alike we are Ronan. I would have answered that question the very same way." She stated, shaking her head and smiling. "The more I know of you the more it scares me a little." She added.

At his question, she smiled, not minding at all talking faith. She traced her hand down his chest again, out across his stomach, and traced her fingers featherlight back up his arm. "I was born with a Rak'keli mark of a Rak'keli healer. We are all healers of animals though. Always have been for three generations. Healings in my bloodline and I'll always be a healer. She marked me a second time when I recognized the courage and sacrifice of a dog and had to take a Zith's life to defend it. That moment taught me that for healers death is just as important as life. And, of course, we can pick sides." She nuzzled her chin against his lightly furred one and looked thoughtful. "But I honor Rak'keli every time I practice medicine or heal something. Her faith is about recognizing the power to set something to its rights immediately rather than aiding it in naturally restoring itself." Kavala said, settling down once more on Ronan's chest, not minding that her bare torso was pressed intimately against his and absolutely relishing the feeling of his arms around her holding her close.

"I am also marked by Eyris. I made a friend of another Konti Nakivak and she turned out to be Eyris' priestess. She moved through me and we riddled all night long. Every since then whenever I pick up a book or a pen to make some notes I realize all my love of knowledge and curiosity for learning is because of her influence. I never knew her name before the mark, then I realized what it is for. My goals... my desire with the Cytali... Eyris is helping Nysel. And in the end, Ronan, Nysel is my lord... I know that. I've told you of the Cytali. I am a Dreamwalker among them, though you'll never hear another Dreamwalker speak of it. Each mark I have, each devotion, brings me closer to my goals. I want to search the Chevena for lost knowledge about medicines and techniques that can help people. The Gods and Goddesses I follow... Rak'keli, Eyris, and even Nysel all help me with this. I feel like I am in a partnership with them on it. Rak'keli has my gratitude, Eyris my friendship, and Nysel is my Lord." Kavala said very simply.

"There are others I really love too... Semele, Zulrav, Zintila, and even Tanroa. But we are not acquainted and our paths have not crossed. I am content with my faith though, as it is, and quite happy to be what I am in their eyes." Kavala said, leaning forward to simply kiss him gently, lightly, playfully. Ronan, and their stolen time together, was something of a gift for her, and she wondered if even in the gentleness of the moment, if it was one that could last. She wanted it too. She'd fight hard to make it so.

Time for his question though. Kavala wanted something serious, something that would give her more insight into his character.

Kavala looked thoughtful. "You said moments ago you were often thinking about how life could have been... how you wanted life to be. How did you want your life to be, Ronan?" Kavala asked, using that for her question.

[Ronan]

When she spoke of crying, Ronan turned back to face her. She wiped the tears away, and he found himself smiling again. He could cry in front of her - and there was no shame in that.

"I'd been thinking the same thing... we share a lot of qualities. I think. It's rare to find someone who sees the world a little like you do."

He listened to her words on faith. So many God's, but each were so purposeful. She did not pray for the sake of praying, she prayed for healing, for understanding, for knowledge. She prayed for the sum of her parts.

"I love Semele too. I've always held her dear to my heart. She is the mother of the Sea of Grasses, and the Drykas in my eyes. And now... Nysel piques my interest. To dreamwalk is to live... it is like Webbing on a much grander scale. To see the connection of all things is beauty."

He let her kiss him some more, and then she rested on his chest. He breathed slowly, chest rising and falling. But she barely noticed, lost in his embrace. How much time had passed since they had come out here, he wondered. Surely morning would come quick enough, and with it, this fleeting moment. He just wanted to hold her and run away, far from Riverfall. But that would be stupid. He would endanger their lives, and it made no sense. Sanctuary was Kavala's home, contract or no contract.

He looked back down at her as she asked her next question. There was steel in her eyes. Determination. Had she made some sort of decision? It was hard to pin anything down, the wine still working in his body. But he knew this was right. Oh so right. When she had said those words: friend, lover, confidant, his heart had skipped several beats, as if it would never return to its normal rhythm. He wanted that love and security more than anything.

"How did I want life to be...?" he mused, thinking on the past. "Well, I wanted a family. I wanted to find a girl, and marry her, and have my parents there beside me. And my brother - oh, how I wanted my brother around. He taught me so much."

He looked at her again, pushing aside locks of hair, before kissing her several times again.

"I did have a girl... I thought... I thought that was it. But she broke my heart. It took a long time to fix it."

And you helped...

"That's why I just want to love. I just want to love with no barriers, with nothing holding me back. I want to love, and know I can never fall."

He sighed contentedly. Windsong was quiet, seemingly allowing his mistress to have her time of peace and escape.

"I guess I pictured myself like everyone else. Ankal of the Windsong Pavilion, with a wife, and several children. Maybe more than one wife. That was just... a typical future. I never imagined being alone, and then... everything else. Can I ask the same, Kavala? When you were younger. When you first began to learn of your heritage. What did you think would happen? How did you imagine your future?"

[Kavala]

The Konti healer listened to him quietly. She was still sprawled across his frame and simply enjoying the stolen time with in his presence. Semele was it? For some reason, that did not surprise her. Ronan seemed earthly to her, rooted deep in the land, and about as Drykas as one could get if she was being honest with herself. "That makes sense to me, Ronan. I've always seen her as my mother as well, one that was there even after my own died. You have a feeling about you, a groundedness, that makes what you say feel... truthful and right." She accepted his kisses and gifted him with a few more of her own, thinking suddenly this was what normal Drykas youth did when they were first coming into their own and awakening to their adulthood.

She wondered if Ronan ever stole time as a young young man slipping away with a pretty girl to flirt under the stars sprawled across Semele's protective form. Kavala was deceptive about her age. Most thought she was a Konti in her prime, well approaching the hundred year mark, but that was not true. She was in her early thirties, a human equivalent to being in her late teens, and though everything she'd been through in her life had aged her and made her grow up well before her time, there was still that about her which was childish. Even though she had her own son and perhaps another on the way, this ... this night was something she should have been experiencing right about now. Her father, stern as he was, should have been feeling out pavilions that might have wanted a Konti Healer as a second wife, and otherwise getting her ready for marriage.

He kept speaking, in his soft colorful pavi. It was a language made for romance and she smiled at his words and how normally he painted the picture of his life. She reached out a hand and traced his lips as he spoke, nodding silently in the dark womb of the horse blanket and then traced her other hand down his body, across his hips and back up his side. She watched him, not wanting to close her eyes and look away in case he vanished. Ronan was like that, holding the qualities of a dream for her, one that would slip away with the mornings light or with any sharp noise designed to wake a dreamer.

He was a dream and a pleasant one at that. And she didn't want to wake up. He said the right things, in the right language, and concealed nothing of who he was. He let her look her fill and it was if she stared transfixed by what she saw with her eyes, her hands, and her heart.

His question was a violation of the rules of their game, but she didn't mind. He wasn't supposed to ask the same question back at her, but she let it slide. Her smile came softly and she shook her head, looking sad even though she was smiling. "A Konti on the Grass, even one born Drykas, has no future as anything but a second or third wife. I grew up knowing that's what would become of me. My father made that clear as well. You know that, Ronan. As an Ankal's daughter, we are all fodder for marriage. He'd already threatened to gift my older sister to another pavilion. Akela wasn't happy about that. If my father didn't give me away to another Pavilion, Vanator would have. If you would have taken on the role of Ankal or Ankal's son for the Windsongs, I might have even been given to you if you were heir to the Windsongs. They wouldn't have given me to just anyone. Father was too proud for that." She said softly. Konti weren't unheard of on the Sea of Grass, but they weren't common either. Valuable for their visions and healing, they were also known for their exotic beauty and were much sought after. For that reason they were almost never paired up with common men, but reserved for Ankals and kept well hidden in larger pavilions.

She wondered, for a moment, what that would have been like. She imagined, momentarily, how such a meeting would have worked... her father presenting her to the Windsongs and then bargaining in horse flesh and other livestock for her worth. She'd heard stories. Sometimes the Ankal or his heir would request an interview, maybe ask her to demonstrate her healing skills or to dance for them or even recite some of the Drykas' history. It would have been different from a Talvis interview, where he had the right to strip her clothing off and inspect her body - every last inch of it - to see if it was suitable to house his heir. She smiled. Being Drykas, regardless of where they lived now, was a thing to be proud of. Though they did sell off their daughters, they did so with dignity and honor.

It was her turn for a question and she smiled, knowing he broke the rules that she could skirt them as well. She considered, then discarded question after question. Part of the game was getting to know someone, and part of it was getting to see their reactions. She wanted to see his reaction to what she wanted to ask, but part of her was afraid to ask it. But she needed to know, and Kavala suspected he'd not lie to her, not in the least little bit. "I'm getting ahead of myself with this question, but I really want to know. It's assuming a great deal, but ... I've never experienced something like this before..." She said, letting her suddenly worry and nervousness color her voice. It wasn't the current situation. He could tell it was in regards to them. "You are Drykas, Ronan. I know our people move like the winds and blow across the Sea of Grass as our Gods gave us leave too, moving with the seasons and grazing. But what about settling down, having four walls around you, living inside stone by the sea? If I could make a place for you here where there was no fetters on our relationship, would you be able to stand being rooted? Would it be something you'd do though it would half kill you inside? I'd love to know how you feel about it. I am so very happy here, situation notwithstanding, but sometimes it half kills me to stay rooted when the winds blow and the seasons change." She said softly, admitting that even a Konti could know the wanderlust of the Drykas. She was, after all, half her father's daughter.

Kavala traced the hollow of his throat and downward with her hands, learning his form, then laying her palms to rest finally over his heart. The slight labor of it in his chest was perfectly in synch with her own. They were breathing together too, she realized. Kavala half smiled. Such peace, found suddenly, unexpectedly, was so entirely welcome in her turbulent life.

[Ronan]

Kavala returned his kiss, her smile resonant of a woman much younger in age, enjoying and discovering for the first time. In fact, he felt much the same way. This was alien, new, and exciting to him.

"Of course," he whispered with a nod. There were not so many options open, but a life as a Drykas wife was a safer one. A world away from Kavala, bound to her Akalak contract.

If her father hadn't, Vanator would have... he had his own ambitions that man. A man seeking to prove his masculinity through force and strength. Ronan had seen that red glint in his eyes, and it had scared him a little.

She began her question, voice shifting to something even more serious. Something deeper. Her hands ran along his body, eyes twinkling with mystery and question. They came to rest above his heart, and she settled beside him, their breathing slowing in unison.

He thought on her words. It was true, the Drykas were born with the wanderlust in their blood, always moving, seeking new grass, new prey. Endrykas was not a city of stone and ancient buildings. It was cloth, moveable tents, and moveable people.

He looked at her again, holding her tightly. Perhaps, the drink was starting to fade from his system. However, the feelings did not.

"I think... I think that I could stay. Yes, I move as the Drykas do, but I've been searching for too long. And here is the answer to my endless questions. Perhaps I could start a profession here, do something I'm good at, something worthwhile."

His breath shook, a cleft of air holding so much promise.

"And perhaps you could keep me here, Kavala. But how can you make it so?" he looked away slightly, voice dipping. The game was long forgotten in the moment. "We... waste words. We waste our breath. This..."

He pulled away from her somewhat, tear ducts threatening to open.

"Just like everything else. This is impossible. It can never be. The stone and the promises will keep you here. And my nature will destroy everything, until I must walk away from the ruin once again."

[Kavala]

A pained expression crossed her face, one that stamped out the joy that sparked in her heart at his admission that he might one day be happy surrounded by walls. She sat up a little straighter and studied his face in the darkness. She couldn't see all of it, not the details, but she knew by the tone of his voice that something else was creeping in over his joy. It was a vile thing that caused her lips to go thin and her skin to loose color even though the darkness shrouded both happenings.

She met his gaze and stroked a stray lock of hair off his forehead and back into place. It alarmed her, in a dark corner of her mind, that his mood swing effected her so deeply and suddenly. It told her he had the power to affect her happiness, and that was something she wanted no man to have because she wasn't ready for it. Not now, not after all that had happened. But she wondered, in the same instant, if the Gods had seen fit to give her that same power over him. Something mutual she could tolerate, but it was the one sided things in life that were despicable to her.

"No."

She said simply, her rich voice colored with pain. "No. I won't let you think like that, Ronan. Nothing is impossible. I lived through impossible all alone. We can live through impossible together far easier than that. Don't you see that? Ronan, you are curled up under a horse blanket in the dark with a konti who is nothing but a broodmare for the entire city of Riverfall and yet two minutes ago you were smiling and enjoying yourself. I have lain in the dark before, scared, alone, abused thinking there was no hope, and hope appeared. I have thought I knew love, understood it, and accepted all its shortcomings and then love appeared to teach me differently. Please don't let despair overrun the bridge we are building here between ourselves. Please? There are rules, and then there are rules. I must follow certain ones. But there are no rules that say I can't care about someone like you. There are no rules that say I can't be with someone like you and make you happy in all ways but one." Kavala said softly.

"Something.. anything.. is so much better than nothing." She said, an edge of desperation to her voice.

She breathed deeply for a long while, in and out, thinking, contemplating, and giving him time to either blow into full panic or to calm himself.

"And even then, there is much I can do, enough I think that you won't miss the other until I am free to even offer that. You are Drykas, Ronan, and that is something wonderful and beautiful. Semele and Zulrav and the horses you breed grant you freedom. Our people are a lovely proud strong people, Ronan. And as a Drykas male, Ronan, you can have as many wives as you want. It's your privilege and honor. I know you have a lot of love in your heart. Take a first, even a second, but keep me too. Start a pavilion here. Riverfall won't be unwelcoming...." There was still a hint of desperation in her voice. She couldn't find this feeling with someone and have him ride off due to fear. Fear was always a constant enemy, her enemy, and she didn't want it to rule her.

But in a small rational part of her mind, she knew she was asking him the impossible. She was asking him to love an Akalak's whore. And if she was angry at anything, it was at that. Being captured and ruined for marriage to anyone or anything was bad enough, but that hadn't been her fault. Deep down she could forgive herself for that even though she knew most victims couldn't. What she'd accepted as her life and what she'd put up with since was all on her however. Each time one of them came for her, she'd readily accepted them and even gotten pregnant. As a healer she knew ways to prevent that. Kavala knew she didn't have to be meek and compliant or even enjoy it. She had done so because she wanted to feel needed. She'd become a whore because she'd wanted too. Kavala's emotions swirled in her mind.

Kavala almost cried out at the pain that surfaced suddenly, spilling the cold hard truth across her awareness. Akela had rejected her. Her pavilion had adverted their eyes at her kontiness. Her father and brother had dismissed her as second or third wife material. And so she'd been compliant, so lazy, so accepting and one by one the Akalak had even rejected her with first Hatot vanishing and then Cugacon disappearing. And it was enough to cost her Ronan because his doubts were valid, incredibly so, though she didn't understand what he meant about his nature destroying everything. Kavala blinked back tears, not sure what to do or what to say but desperately wanting to deny what he was saying and to prove him wrong.

"I'll go to the Council for you, Ronan." What she didn't say was that she'd tell them she'd done her duty, and beg if they required it. She'd tell them that she was done with her slavery and could abide by it no more. She'd buy back her freedom, even trading them Sanctuary for the right to be her own person and to get the bracelet off. She couldn't clean the taint out of her soul, but she could make sure Ronan's life was free of any of it from her. The Konti completely and utterly wanted him, selfishly, because she knew that with Ronan she could be happy and finally have the type of person she had always dreamed of being with, and someone who was deserving of being taken care of and who wouldn't leave her, not by choice. She could never give him a human heir so she knew he wasn't valuing her for what she cold do for him or give him, but rather for herself.

But it wouldn't be easy, the road they were standing on the edge of wondering if it was safe to walk. Maybe it would be better if they did go their separate ways. His life would be a lot less complicated and she wouldn't have to make promises that were out of her control to actually keep.

"Ronan, if you want to take this night... and just call it a gift and move on from it, I'll understand. 'Us' won't ever be easy. It won't be without pain. Life is full of it. And I think this... this is worth it. But I understand the cost to you is so much higher than it is to me. I see that clearly. I'd spend every day of my life trying to make that right, trying to maybe be something that I'm not, and to make you forget I am their whore." She stumbled over the word, almost chocking on it. "And maybe you'd be okay with what I am or what I was... but maybe you wouldn't be. "

She trailed off, unsure, afraid... but leaving him an escape, a way out, an opening to kiss her and tell her she was lovely but that's all they could ever have between them.

[Ronan]

Ronan was at risk of wallowing. He despised this self pity, and the loathing that came with it. But it took him like a spectre of the past, and once it had him in its grasp, it was oftentimes hard to break free from.

When Kavala spoke, he twisted back towards her, his heart thundering like a galloping Strider. She was right. Something was better than nothing. Even if it was fleeting.

She reeled off her hopes, and he grabbed hold of her again, burying his face in her hair, taking in her scent.

"Yes... I can make a home here. If you're here, then I can stay."

He warmed at the mention of his Drykas heritage. Sometimes he felt so lost he forgot it. The horseclans were proud people, and though they were ever moving, they had a strong enough foundation to lay roots too.

At the mention of the council, he gasped, pulling back, hands framing her face again. "You would do that for me?" he couldn't understand it. How could anyone love him? How could anyone... no. This was true. This was real. He couldn't just let this pass. This night was a one of a kind. "Then that impossibly future... it just became a little more possible."

She seemed upset when she continued, and he kissed her forehead, his lips lingering against the Konti scales.

The word angered him: "You're no whore," he growled huskily, "don't label yourself that. Fate put you in the position you're in, you didn't elect to be in it."

He breathed shakily, fighting back more tears, before kissing her again. She was lovely and beautiful, a perfect soul weathered by the past like himself.

"Yes... it has been a gift. But it is not a present I will soon forget. It is a present I wish to keep, and come back to once we have been to Avanthal. I... I can't let you go now, Kavala."

His tempestuous mood broke, and like the aftermath of a storm over the grasses, his mood changed. He sinked into a more comfortable shade of emotions, a faint smile appearing on his face again.

[Kavala]

Listening to his Pavi in the darkness was magical. She wanted to touch him in more ways than just their kisses. Truthfully she wanted to bare all his flesh to her touch and learn every inch of him until he sang for her with his body and there was no her and no him just something completely and utterly whole. Trailing her hands across his chest where she sprawled on him, Kavala didn't need to guess what it would be like. She knew. But she was no oathbreaker and she knew that if they were ever going to truly be together, it would only be with her being free.

"I would like that, no love that... you being able to be here with some sort of life. The Sea of Grass is beautiful and amazing and will always be our people's home. But there is more to Cyphrus than just the Sea." She said thoughtfully. "So much more." Kavala said, her eyes filled with gratitude and relief, even if he couldn't see them in the near darkness.

"Ronan, there's not much I wouldn't do for you if I knew you needed it or you simply asked. I know you feel it too. We fit. We belong together. I don't know how its possible, but I know it is. Even now, in the dark curled up with you, I know how I feel and its like nothing I've ever felt before. There's so much joy, so much fear, all wrapped up in hope. It's just... not the right time. It's too soon, too early. I feel like we weren't supposed to meet yet." She took his kisses and gave them back, running the softness of her scaled face across the slightly roughness of his own, willing him to understand.

She felt his mood break, like a storm that came, threatened, and didn't after all unleash its fury. And she couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever be this man again. When she spoke again, her words were even softer, pitched so low that he might even have trouble hearing them. "You are going on a journey that will change you forever, Ronan. This person you are right now, in this moment, is not going to be the same man that comes back from the north. When I left the Grass for the first time I was a very different person too. I was young, naive, full of confidence but I came back so differently. The man you'll be when you return might not be the man who has the same needs you have right now. He'll be so very different, older, harder weighed down by the world." She said, laying her chin on his chest and truly curling around him, simply being with him.

"This is our introduction. But when we meet again, it won't be as the same people. I'm going to hold tonight close too, feel your heartbeat, and be thankful that I've met you now... before." She said, yawning without realizing it. Even as she spoke her pale blue eyes were darkening and her eyelids were drooping. Even as she spoke she began to fall asleep. "It might be seasons or years before I see you again. I know you won't be the same man... but I hope you will be... a better one. Then... I'll pray... that then the timing will be right." She said, her voice drifting off. Her breath matched his and her warmth and weight fell lightly across his chest. He felt her soften as her whole body drifted into sleep.

Across the stall Windsong lifted his head and snorted softly. Kavala didn't even blink though her fingers curled into his flesh, holding him to her, her lips slowly moving, briefly, as if she said something else but it was lost in the transfer from the now into Nysel's realm. It sounded like three words, softly breathlessly spoken, but he couldn't be sure.

[Ronan]

Too soon. Too early. It was true. Achingly true. And though that pained him a little, the spark did not dim. The flame could be fanned in the future, he knew.

"I think I knew that, even if I didn't want to believe it."

He looked at her closely, sensing that same conviction in her voice. It was a symbiosis of sorts. They fed off each other in this blessed darkness, hopes and dreams mirrored and amplified.

"I knew this journey would be pivotal to me. And perhaps... perhaps I will return, changed."

As she settled into him again, her breathing slowed. He hoped the timing would be right too. When he returned to Cyphrus, it would be high time to make something of his life. The Watch. Marriage. He needed those solid things, those traditions that would bind his future, giving it semblance.

He kissed her forehead, lingering with the motion as Kavala fell asleep on him. Nothing had ever felt so right. Nothing. It was a connection, that had reached for so long, and now it finally touched, completing the cycle.

Windsong made a sudden noise, Ronan's eyes flitting to the Strider. He realised how heavy they felt. Sleep was coming to him, too. He fell deeper. And words were uttered from the Konti's mouth as slumber took her. He couldn't quite make them out. Three of them.

They seemed significant.

And then the veil of sleep and darkness fell, all the stars twinkling out, bar one. That spark of hope he'd hold on his journey, one he hoped he could exact upon his return to Riverfall.

[Raiha]

Raiha was not a drinker. She had some juice and water and some of her herbal teas, avoided any and all forms of alcohol as general principle, especially since her stomach was being weird at her, and as a result, she was the first one up and moving after the Drykas wedding. She’d left Rath and Uruk sleeping off their hangover, though Kanikra had suggested clanging a pair of shovels at them as a lesson to mind their drinking, and while it might have been a worthy suggestion, that would have woken her birds up more unnecessarily, and they would have been most annoyed by that.

Most annoyed indeed.

So she had gotten dressed in her leathers and a sweater, cleaned the flights, fed the birds, changed the water, dressings, and medicated as necessary, and looked after her pack of deerstalkers, along with Rath’s Fidens, who had apparently moved into the mews with his master, and headed for the kennels to look after the dogs there. They needed to be fed, looked after, weighed, so on and so forth, and these duties were done with lightning efficiency before she headed for the stables to get an early start. It wasn’t her turn today, but turns didn’t really matter to her. If you had a free moment and empty hands, then you found something to do. It was really that simple. The sun was barely up, but Raiha was a light sleeper. Regular nocturnal hours were an absolute waste of time to her, and an affront to Akajia to miss them on something as boring as sleep. Cat naps were better.

Shadowplayer, come, come, come, over here. They sleep, they rest. They talked a very long time, too, one of the shadows whispered to her, and Raiha, still holding the pitchfork, came along to the empty stall where she had been beckoned, and stared at Kavala and Ronan, sleeping so peacefully under the blanket. She pursed her lips, and her throat went dry. What if one of the Council’s outrunners had been poking around here and witnessed this? Just because the shadows were friendly to her here, and she hoped and prayed fervently that they were loyal to her and Akajia, but mostly her alone right now, as compared with other Nightstalkers, didn’t mean others wouldn’t have been here to witness this and share the secret with, say, the Akalak. Then Kavala would be locked up in the Oathmaster’s Tower until her pregnancy ended. However many, many, many seasons that would be from now...

Now you’re thinking, Kanikra praised. See? That’s better. Your mind immediately went to the consequences instead of the soft, ‘I’m so happy Kavala’s happy’ way of thinking you would have gone to. That’s better. Raiha slipped away from the stall, leaving the pitchfork there and going to get a bucket of water from the rain barrel, testing the temperature first. Nice and cold. Really cold. Oh, you are. That’s good. Now, you need to deaden your features and make your eyes ice cold. I know it’s hard, Raiha, but remember, the effect will be worth it.

Sometimes, Raiha wondered about her sister - she had this mischievous side that she didn’t seem to mind nurturing from time to time, but she thought it might have had more to do with the fact there were more outlets for Kanikra here. And there was no denying that Tasival and Shayru had been as good for her sister as they were her and Kavala. Maybe better. But that could have been another one of Kanikra’s schemes, and as such, Raiha was not going to read any more into it. But she was carrying the heavy bucket of ice cold water, that still had little flakes of ice floating in it, back to the stall. Her lips were in a thin line, her eyes were uncharacteristically dark, and she gently, oh so gently, opened the door just enough for her to slip inside. She moved on cat’s feet, gently, carefully as not to disturb the sleepers, leaning the pitchfork down alongside her body after lining it up along Ronan’s throat, making sure that when he jerked upright, as she was sure he was going to do, he wouldn’t impale himself on the iron spikes.

Then she grabbed the bucket of ice cold water, and unceremoniously splashed Kavala and Ronan, making sure to get as much as she could on their exposed faces before tossing the bucket with a clatter and putting her weight behind the pitchfork, holding it in place. It was probably a good thing that Denen wasn’t here to witness this, else his terror of all things blue-skinned would have been firmly cemented forever from watching this play out. That was what Kavala and Ronan had to wake up to so rudely from their comfortable, and far too short, slumber - one very angry looking Akontak, her gold eyes narrowed into slits, her hair pulled back into a bun, and all business. “Have you two lost your godforsaken minds!?”