CHAPTER 2 – Cutscenes of Life, the Early Days
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"How does it all work anyway?" Nori asked the healer, and older dwarf by the name of Oin.
The continuing pain, and nearly being caught by the guardsmen because his agility was thrown to shit thanks to his surgical scar, had finally convinced the young red head to see a healer about if it could be made better. Dori's nagging and slapping some coin into his hand that morning certainly hadn't helped make his decision either. Not at all.
"Defect from in-breeding in the early line." The healer answered distractedly, probing the scar tissue across his patient's stomach. "All the First Fathers' lines have some defect or another. Durin's line just ended up with a form of hermaphroditism. Most have corrective surgery as young lads and lasses, if it turns up – choose who they want to be and go from there. Woulda' thought you'd be far enough from the Main Line to have avoided it, honestly. I'd like to see the healer's, who treated you, after-surgery notes."
"Musta' been a genetic throwback. Argh, yeah, I can give you her name, ow, should get a raven through." Nori winced as a particularly tender area was probed. "You're not gonna tell anyone about me, and my, ah, injury, right?"
"Course not!" Oin stood straight, looking his apprehensive patient in the eye. "Ain't no one else's business, and when us Healers make notes, there's no names that are written down. We're professionals, not gossipy washer-women."
"Right. Sorry, just had to ask."
Oin 'harrumphed' and returned to his examination.
"You didn't rest long enough and opened up the internal stitching. I'll have to go back in and re-do it." Was his final evaluation. "Be prepared to be out of work for a few weeks so this doesn't happen again."
Nori swore.
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Albus, current Head of the Black family looked down on the babe being proudly presented to him by its new parents.
"I didn't realise you were expecting Lili, my dear!" The elder dwarf commented, after congratulating his junior family members. "You didn't take time from work, or slow down at all."
"Actually, he's adopted. A young traveller needed help to birth him at my clinic, and asked me and Jamis to take him in." Lili explained, face glowing, happily gazing at the sleeping infant in her arms.
"He's a lovely young lad, to be sure." Albus commented, "But do you think he'll fit in as he grows? After all, what if he doesn't have the Black Family magic, and can't join the Shaman's school with his cousins?"
"I married into this family, and I still had the same Masters as Jamis and even Sirius." Lili frowned at her elder.
"His sire's a Blacklock dwarf, and there's obviously Black blood in there somewhere," Jamis argued. "I mean, just look at that hair!" The smiling new father gently ran his fingers through the thick tufts of pitch-black hair adorning his son's head. "Besides, there's other jobs in the mountain, and we're not of the Main Line anyway. He might be a Guardsman like me, or a Master of Coin like Orion was. Or he might have stone-sense like Artur's eldest and be a Mining Architect!"
"Or a Healer like me?" Lili amusedly hummed at her excitable husband. The dark-haired man chuckled and smiled at his wife.
"Of course, you are right." Albus demurred. "And what have you named this new addition to our illustrious House?"
"Harilaos." Jamis announced. At his Head of House's lifted white eyebrow, he defended, "What? It's a star."
"So it is, my boy, so it is."
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"We're not talking about this with Ori." Dori argued. Nori frowned from where he was completing some embroidery for a recent commission.
Being restricted to 'light duties' sucked, and no one could tell Nori otherwise. Not only did he have to put up with Dori's fussing all day, what work he could do brought in only a fraction of the coin his usual enterprises did, and plain living expenses were eating up the little nest egg he'd been building for the past decade. Once he could move properly again, Nori'd have to start nearly all over again.
"But what if he has the same problem as us?" The younger dwarf argued, frowning. "That wouldn't be a trifecta to be proud of."
"I changed all of Ori's nappies, so I know he's fine." The silver haired dwarf reprimanded.
"You changed some of mine, and still had no clue."
"I didn't know there was anything different I should have been looking out for, then."
"So Amad didn't tell you, you were different then?" Nori looked up from his work in thought. "I don't remember seeing any scars on her, so was she like us?"
"No, she didn't, and no she wasn't." Came Dori's clipped reply. "Now quiet down, Ori will be home soon."
"Why didn't she though? I mean, a little warning would have been nice." The younger dwarf continued, ignoring the older.
"I don't know. And since she's gone, we'll never know. Now, enough."
Spying Dori's clenched jaw, Nori figured that was all the answers he was going to get today.
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Albus fumed, sitting in his office, glaring at his cup of tea like it had offended him greatly. The Lord of the Blacklocks, the venerable Lord Marko was in a right snit at the council meeting that morning, and it was no wonder. Crown prince Ivan had been caught in-flagrante, with a mistress by both his father and Uncle Tuomas, and small cadre of their personal aides.
Damnit, Albus' grandson was supposed to be attractive and charming, yet here was proof Sirius had utterly failed to win over his own damn husband.
When Ivan had royally screwed up the rite to bind Sirius' future line to the future of the Royal Line, and accidentally bound Sirius to himself instead, Albus had seen opportunity and seized it. He'd carefully and sympathetically counselled his horrified and mortified grandson into trying to make the best of the situation, and suggested that perhaps with time and effort, love would grow.
King Marko had flatly told his son, you screwed it up, you live with the consequences.
But now. Now, years later, there were no children, carved, adopted or otherwise; Sirius was publicly humiliated by a life-partner he just would not get along with; Prince Ivan was in disgrace; and the Black family were no closer to having a member of their bloodline on the Shadow Mountain throne.
The Blacks should have married into the line of Forefather Var long ago, in Albus' own opinion. They had the blood of Romestamo the Fallen flowing through their veins, making the Blacks the most powerful Shaman the race of Dwarrow has ever seen. If that could be combined with the descendants of Var, that child would be near unstoppable. And of course, Albus was a very, very proud great-grandfather who would of course offer any and all assistance his beloved great-grandchild could need.
Albus sighed at his now cold teacup.
Perhaps he should check in on Jamis and Lili's little boy. He was showing a lot of promise for having an unknown sire and a foreign 'dam. Whichever of him or his cousin was the more powerful would be the one Albus would convince Sirius to name his heir, since he apparently wasn't going to have dwarflings of his own.
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Yes, I am posting a lot on one day. I have written 7 chapters so far (including the prologue), and this work is cross-posted on AO3. I just decided that the loyal readers of shouldn't miss out simply because I don't often post here anymore (I like being able to rate some of my works MA & sometimes R, because I often write situations that go into some rather heavy topics that aren't suitable for younger readers.)
Regarding this chapter, after a comment on AO3, I thought I'd clarify that my Albus in this not evil. He is very much like the original book character by JK Rowling, in that he is ambitious, machiavellian in his methods, but once the consequences come out upon other people, he feels regret, and I think often wishes he had done something different in the long run.
Happy reading!
-Vengeance