A/N: Well I'm losing inspiration. I need a drink. A very large one. But since I'm unlikely to get that, a review or two may help. *Not so small hint.* Been having my annual lockjaw experience and it hasn't been at all fun, but it has meant that I haven't been able to sit at my computer and get anything out. This is the last of my banked chapters. So I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back on the stick for the next two weeks before my next scheduled update for this chapter is due. But I just wanted to give you a heads up.

Like, Subscribe, Favorite, Follow and Review, (and consider following or supporting on P-atreon and Ko-fi. Cause you know adulting.)

Much Love

JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (Edit: There is a poll up on my P-atreon page now! You can help me choose my 2021 NaNoWriMo project!)

Pps. I've begun posting on Ao3 beginning with older stories. Any deleted "scenes" of the oldest stories will be posted there as well. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. Eventually, when I am caught up to present stories the snippets and deleted scenes will be posted first to patrons, then to Ao3. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Chapter 3

Nothing happened until later on as the shadowy gloom of the storm outside began to darken. Shadows melded together and close in on themselves as the night crept on. Mists followed on the darkness' heels until the air was so thick it could be termed soup. Not a star shone in the sky.

And though he was nervous about what the coming hours would bring, so much that he had begun pacing, it seemed like she held an endless well of patience. She had pulled him into a game earlier. At least she called it a game but he had a feeling that it was more designed to get information from an unknowing participant.

He had learned quite a bit about her as well, some of it inconsequential but some of it was as precious as gold. She had never had ice cream, but adored a fruit he had never heard of. It didn't really matter that he had never seen it but now he knew something personal about her, however small. She had several siblings, but she was the firstborn. She had an extremely dry and dark sense of humor. But never did she reveal her name. "Names have power Finnick Odair." She whispered into a gust of wind. "And while I may have need to reveal my name in future, for now it is mine alone."

A jerk of movement and a sudden stillness in which she seemed to not even breathe, her head cocked to the side as if listening past the driving rain for something beyond it, made him go rigid. Almost before he could see her move, she was up and out the door to the darkening beach beyond.

Following her, he swallowed as he saw her fuzzily through the mists and rain launch herself at a man who was as big as his father had been but twice as muscled and as dark and swarthy as a nut from long years in the sun. He doubted he'd be able to look the man in the eye when they finally were face to face. Behind him stood a woman that was almost the girl's copy. Just as dark as the girl he had spent two days with, there seemed to be something otherworldly about the way she moved.

The girl hugged the man, who hugged her back so tightly that his arms bulged around her waist as he lifted her from the sands like a doll and swung her in a circle before setting her before the woman. The woman hugged her just as fiercely, and then as one they all turned to the shack and the door Finnick filled.

Instantly on alert, the man began to move in front of the two females only to stop when the girl lay a hand on his expansive shoulder. He seemed to relax then slid both of his arms around each female. He turned to yell something over his shoulder and Finnick saw three more males materialize from the gloom. They nodded and headed off. One seemed to be heading in the direction of the Victor's village. The other two to the stretch of beach that he had walked, was it only yesterday?

While he watched them, the group of the two females and the large male had been making their way to him. Almost before he realized it, they were before him. And he was uncomfortably correct, the man made him feel like a child. But remembering her advice, Finnick swallowed back the nerves that would make him tend to be defensive and stepped back from the door as they approached.

The man came in first, wearing a similar outfit to the girl of what looked like skintight leather pants but where she wore only a halter he wore a softer long sleeved shirt that seemed to shed the rain water as easily as seal skin. The woman with him, copied the girl but for the net tunic that covered her to her thighs decorated with shells and sea glass and coral. There was also a collar of pearl and mother of pearl around her neck.

"Finnick Odair." The girl introduced him with a wave of her hand. "This is the Chieftain and Wise Woman of my clan. They are the ones you must speak to about your situation. My brother has gone to fetch your mother. She will be here soon."

Turning to the woman and man she bowed her head in respect and, hoping that he was correct, he followed her example. Giddily, he wondered if people before the climate shift and wars felt as he did when they met kings and queens of old.

"Would you like something to drink?" She asked the pair.

The man chuckled, a sound that reminded him of the cracking thunder outside. "We know your supplies run low child." Cupping her face gently in a hand that reminded him of oars, the man raised her inclined head. Then, a smile in his voice, he looked over her shoulder to the covered bucket and the carefully drying sea weed. "But not as low as I feared it seems."

"I remember my lessons." She answered quietly.

"You will need to." The older woman whispered, her own hand curling under Finnick's chin. "I have seen such." Instead of explaining, she smiled. "We will wait to begin until your mother joins us, Finnick Odair, son of Stormsa and Keellin Odair. In the meantime, your brothers will dig up your glass and return it to the boat for you to work on later. I imagine it will be a very interesting piece."

The girl nodded and turned to the bucket still full of crabs even though they had eaten their fill at lunch. Going with her, the woman began talking in a language that he had never heard before, although that wasn't hard. No one in the capital of districts believed that there were languages any more other than the standard one that they all spoke now.

"You watch her." The man said, watching him just as intently. "Why?"

Glancing up at the chieftain, Finnick shrugged. "I could say it's because she's a mystery. I could say it's because I'm curious. I could say it's because I'm nervous and she's the only one I know here." He forced in a breath that puffed out his chest before it whooshed out. "The truth is I don't know. I've been watching her for two days and there's something that just won't let me look away."

"Be careful with your truths." The older man warned, his swarthy face clouding over until it looked like there was a storm of wrath in his eyes. "For that is my daughter you look at. And if I didn't know her as well as I do, you would be gutted like a fish and used as chum for the sharks already. Experience in the Arena or no." And just as quickly as it came, the storm was gone. "Your father was a good man. I am glad to see he and his wife raised you to be the same."

"How would you know that?" Finnick asked, unable to keep the defensive tone from his voice. "You don't know me."

The older man smirked and Finnick could see where the girl got it. That knowing look as if she had seen everything with eyes as old as the ocean itself and could laugh at the worst of storms. "If you were not who I know you to be, my daughter would not ask me to hear you. Neither would she ask her mother to see you. And she would have left before you woke this morning."

Just then Stormsa blew into the room on a gust of wind and wrapped her arms around him. "Are you alright?" She asked, barely pausing to nod a greeting to the chieftain and the wise woman. "Of course you are. Have you asked them yet? No, you couldn't have, the one who came to get me said that they wouldn't begin until I got here. Have you eaten today?"

"Mrs. Odair," the chieftain kindly broke in through the flood of words. "Your son was with my daughter. She would not let him starve. It would be an insult to her family. Now, please. It seems that she and her mother have prepared an evening meal. Shall we sit and eat then after, discuss the matter that your son wishes to ask me?"

He was such an intimidating presence, like staring out into the power of a storm at sea that his mother only nodded. There was no other way to describe the chieftain accurately, and certainly none for anyone that has spent their life on the shore to describe that kind of raw visceral power. And if one looked at his wife, one would see that the chieftain was not as unfeeling as the ocean. She was his heart and his rudder in turbulent seas. And the chieftain certainly looked at his wife, often, like she was the center of his sun and stars.

It wasn't until much later that the chieftain heard him out. He sat silent and still, leaning back on his braced arms, his head laying on his left shoulder while the wise woman and the girl huddled together whispering to each other every now and then.

"You want us to put you in contact with the rebels." The chieftain finally summarized. "Act as a spy inside the capital. And have backup?" He snorted. "Not asking much are you?"

"I have to try."

The chieftain stared at him, long and hard as if weighing him. Measuring his worth and value. After a time, he frowned as if he was displeased by what he saw. "There are rebels already in the capital. What possible good could you do as the bedfellow of the idiotic rich and privileged?"

He didn't pull any punches, Finnick thought, grinding his teeth together. "Everyone has secrets." He answered with something the girl told him earlier. "I'd be in a unique position to hear them."

The chieftain snorted, looking to the Wise Woman who quietly murmured, "true enough." She smiled at him. "But what would we get out of this? You've already been warned that we don't help for nothing."

This was where his plan fell apart. But the girl piped up with a tiny smile. "He also wants R'an Marin." It was as the chieftain and the Wise Woman were hit with the lightning that she made her glass from.

"That makes thing's more complicated and less." The Wise Woman murmured, her eyes flicking to the girl before they swung back to Finnick. "As what exactly?"

Finnick's jaw worked again but surprisingly it was his mother that answered. "He has the same look whenever she is mentioned that his father did about me." She smiled a smile of fond remembrance. "I know it's not the best of timing or situations but he wants to marry her. Only saw her once but he's not gonna change his mind any more than is father did. And it took him ten years to get what he wanted but he never changed his mind."

"It would make relations easier between us and the shore." The Wise Woman murmured to the Chieftain who frowned, his eyebrows drawing together over dark eyes. "If we had someone here."

The chieftain stiffened, rolling his shoulders like a storm cloud rolling into shore. "Woman, take your daughter outside and make sure she understands what she is doing bringing this up."

Snorting, the Wise Woman pushed to her feet followed quickly by the girl, who smiled a sly little smile. As soon as the door shut behind them there was a thump against the door as if someone was slammed bodily against it. There was a howl and then silence.

Worried about what was going on outside, Finnick began to rise but the chieftain waved him back and his mother pulled him back to his seat. "Let the women sort it out." The Chieftain growled, shoveling a bite of crab into his mouth with a groan. Swallowing, the man's jaw worked for a minute as he considered the problem of the young man before him. Definitely not someone that he would want as "family" if all was right in the world. Which, unfortunately, it wasn't.

But he did present a possibility. A useful one if he was open to training. Because while he had faith in R'an, he didn't know about Finnick. The pretty boy was annoying him with just what he looked like, and the idea of what he would have to do? Rather made him want to pummel someone into a paste.

The opening of the door broke him out of his revelry. And when the Wise Woman walked in alone, his eyebrows drew down in worry. The girl walked in a few seconds later, wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand but otherwise, she looked no worse for wear. "And the consensus is?"

Mouth tight, the Wise Woman nodded. "She knows and accepts the consequences. And R'an gave him glass."

"How old was she?"

"Five."

The man was fairly glowering at that. "No one will hold a child to that."

"She does." The wise woman sighed, retaking her seat. "Our word is all we have, chieftain. This is what she says."

The chieftain growled, his entire chest rumbling in his displeasure. Turning his ire toward the girl, they both stared at each other as he moved to stand before her. She didn't flinch, didn't cower. Even when his massive paddle-like hand cupped her jaw. She looked up at him as calm as the ocean on a still day. "Are you sure?" He asked so quietly that they couldn't hear him over the crashing waves.

"Honestly?" She smirked, patting his hand that held her face calmly. Then, eyes turning dark and hooded, her face grew still and somber. "We face danger either way and walk on the edge of a razor clam. But either we disappear entirely and leave Panem forever to its own devices. Or we have a share in making it. But to have a share we must choose a side." She bit her lips thoughtfully, looking down before she continued. "The poisoned president or the coined one?"

Shaking her head slowly, she took the giant of a man's face between her small hands. "I choose neither. I trust neither. But the only way to protect our people is to walk the shell's edge without wavering. And I will walk it without flinching. But I'd rather have your blessing."

Sighing, the giant chieftain's shoulders slumped and for one moment he looked so very old to Finnick's eyes before he straightened once more. "You have it." He murmured, kissing her forehead.

Like the lightning bolt that had brought the girl into his world, Finnick suddenly understood. He could see the resemblance in the set of her jaw and the light of her eyes. The girl he had been looking at, pouring his heart out to for nearly two days, was the daughter of this imposing man and the otherworldly Wise Woman. And what had she said? Their daughter was R'an Marin.

She was R'an Marin.

R'an Marin was the next Wise Woman.

She had confessed that she had given him a tiny piece of Sea Glass as a child, which was apparently significant.

She had also confessed that he wanted to marry her even though they had only met once as children. Definitely not the way that he had wanted to go about that.

And she was apparently willing to tie herself to him even knowing what Snow was going to make him do. He didn't know if he should be angered or humbled by that fact.

"But he goes through training every second that he can get away from capital eyes." The chieftain continued, his voice pitching lower like the rolling waves. "I suggest you go tramping up and down the coast frequently when you are home. Call it stress relief. Your president will buy that."

"And next year his mother comes to us." The Wise Woman added, turning to Finnick with ancient all-seeing eyes. "We will not tell you where or when so that your shock and surprise is real when you find out." Continuing, and not taking her eyes from him for even a moment, the Wise Woman pinned him to his seat. "R'an will come to the land to be your anchor to the fleet, to reality. And while on land, under the eyes of the Capital, R'an can be no more than a passing acquaintance. Husband to her you may be, but you can not acknowledge her any more than absolutely necessary. And when you are both pressed into a closer acquaintance, as you undoubtedly will be, you will both act as if you barely tolerate each other. The only place you can behave as normal mates will be among the fleet."

"That means no children, my daughter." The chieftain whispered, still holding his daughter's face. "For we do not know how long. Maybe never."

Finnick looked down to R'an's flat stomach. He had pictured children with the R'an that all his imaginings had conjured. He hadn't pictured thinking about them so seriously yet, considering that until this very moment he hadn't known where R'an was, let alone had the possibility of marrying her. And he was only sixteen for crying out loud. This was just too much, he thought, first the deal with snow then marriage and children within the same conversation. Almost the same breath even?

But at the same moment he had that thought, he knew that he wanted to see their children. He wanted to see a little girl with her eyes and his winning smile. Or a little boy that would be just wild as R'an seemed to be and could charm his way out of anything as he could.

"What if we set a time limit?" Finnick asked. "Say five years. If nothing has happened then R'an goes back to the sea and I only see her when I can disappear."

The Chieftain and the Wise Woman both snorted. "You know nothing of wars and revolutions boy." He growled, countering. "But it is a sound idea. Ten years."

"Eight." The wise woman broke in before they could continue the posturing. "At the end of eight years, you come with her and we reevaluate the options then." Smiling mysteriously, she chuckled. "Unless you're in the middle of a war." Beginning to turn away and take her seat on the floor once more, she stopped and turned to face him again. "Also I put in a request for four grandchildren at least. I would like six but I will settle for four. So bare that in mind."

As if she hadn't just made a rather embarrassing demand she sank to the floor opposite his mother and smiled. "Do you have anything you wish to add, Mrs. Odair?"

"She's your daughter?" The stunned land-dwelling woman asked, looking over the girl who had just been identified as R'an. She had only got a fleeting glimpse of the girl her son was stuck on nearly ten years ago and couldn't remember much about her. Other than her dark hair and sun-kissed skin there wasn't much that reminded her of the little girl she had seen for but a moment.

"Yes."

"And you're the Wise Woman?" She asked for clarification.

"Correct."

"And he," she pointed to the large male. "Is the chieftain?"

"Also correct."

"High Chieftain?" She asked, remembering the term her husband had used years ago. Mariners didn't have kings or presidents. They had the chieftains who ruled over their fleet, and the High Chieftain who ruled over all the fleets and was the one that the chieftains answered to.

"That would be correct."

"And she is your eldest?"

"Third child actually." The wise woman countered with a smile. "Only girl of five children." She waved a hand dismissively before picking up the kettle that was currently bubbling away on the brazier. "Not currently in line for anything but her own fleet if she chooses it, and being trained as a Wise Woman. She will probably be The Wise Woman for the fleets, according to my aunt who currently holds the title but she holds promise."

"Like queen?" Finnick asked, confused.

"Not quite," R'an whispered in an aside to him. "More like advisor and spiritual leader to the High Chieftain and his wife, who is a wise woman in her own right. Generally, The Wise Woman is related to the High Chieftain, sister or cousin or something, so but not married to him because that would be too much power and control in one hand. Bad." She shuddered then shrugged. "Also I have no interest in ruling."

"So if Finnick marries R'an," his mother began putting pieces together out loud. "He'll be a chieftain?"

"Possibly." The chieftain corrected. "If he passes his training and proves himself. And since he has chosen the capital as his path, that is where he must prove himself. Otherwise, she can rule her fleet or she can hand it to her brother and travel between fleets as needed."

Smirking, R'an shrugged and clapped her hands together before rubbing them quickly. "Shall we get under way then?"

The Chieftain chuckled and grunted something in a language that neither Finnick nor his mother understood making R'an roll her eyes and snap a response that had her father laughing heartily. The Wise Woman rolled her eyes as she turned to Stormsa and muttered. "Men. Can't take them anywhere."

Turning back to her daughter and Finnick, she smiled. "Any objection to binding now?" At his confused look she explained. "Marrying. At least the official ceremony, you can always have the public one later but Mariners don't really have big fancy weddings. It's more a blessing by the Chieftain and Wise Woman, a blood bond, and then the couple in question moves into shared quarters. Although you may have to wait on that one for a bit, you can do the rest and have your wedding night."

When he looked at her, Ran did not seem at all surprised. Instead, she looked content like one of the fat cats that he had seen wandering around the docks and the fish cleaning shacks on the pier who chased the rats and kept them under control. Like she knew what was going to happen, with that almost mischievous shimmer in her eyes.

"Now?" His mother and he gasped at the same time. Well, Stormsa gasped, Finnick gulped with wide eyes.

"Do you have other plans?" The Wise Woman teased with a smile that matched her daughter. "A gala at the presidential mansion perhaps?"

"Uh…"

"How do they do this?" Stormsa asked, pushing her heavy blond hair back over her shoulder.

"Hands." Came the reply as R'an's mother moved quickly to her knees and scooted around her large mate to the young couple. When they moved aside for her, she slid between them resting on her knees but stayed in the darkness so that only the children were illuminated by the crackling fire in the brazier.

A smile still curling her lips, R'an held up her hand to her mother and Finnick mirrored her. As quickly as a flash, the wise woman pulled a knife from her calf that he hadn't even noticed and sliced a line across both of their palms. It barely cut the surface, almost a paper cut, and the blood that seeped from the wound was more sluggish than he knew it could be.

He had been cut there during the games, and it was the only scar that his stylist allowed him to keep. It was after all a wonderful story to tell at parties as he had gotten the scar in his last fight of the games. And this shallow slice was right across it.

R'an didn't even flinch, though he noticed that she had a slice or two on her arm. Older, silvered with age, and no longer raised. Filing that information away for later, he relaxed as the Wise Woman joined their hands together and bound it with a small strip of woven net that she pulled from the small satchel that rested on her hip.

"Just as this net is made of cord, the cords of your life have brought you here." She smiled, wrapping the ends around their hands and forearms until they couldn't pull their hands apart even if they tried. "The four cords, one for each of you and one each for the tides and sands of time. And as your hands are bound, your decisions have bound you together. As they form a net, may your decisions and actions catch and hold each other during the rough seas of life." Brushing her daughter's hair away from her cheek, she kissed it tenderly. "May you have the strength of the rope to anchor each other. To guide each other off the rocks of troubles that befall you. And to hold each other's sails tight when your plans are underway."

Turning to him, the wise woman's dark stormy eyes searched his for a long moment. "Do you, son of Keellin and Stormsa Odair and the shore, victor of the games, take this woman as your mate? As the helm and the rudder are to the ship, will you follow her and guide her in turn through the following seas and fair? As the nets provide food will you work to provide through tides and times?"

Finnick blinked in confusion, unfamiliar with the ceremony of the Mariners but nodded. "Yes."

When the Wise Woman turned to R'an and asked the same questions, R'an looked down for a moment as if she was thinking before her gaze came back up and her words came clear and strong. "Until the seas run dry and the stones go soft."

Her mother smiled proudly and called the ceremony to a close after giving them both a sip of tea from the same cup. Turning to Stormsa the Wise Woman cradled their hands, one of her own above them and the other below, and explained. "Their hands will remain bound until the bleeding stops. At which point we will consider them blood-bound and married. Any celebration can either happen in the fleet or wait until after Finnick's role in the capital is done."

"Uh," Stormsa began, worrying her lower lip before she asked. "On land weddings are ended by a kiss. Is that not the case with Mariners?"

Shaking his head, the chieftain chuckled. "In our world, the first kiss given to anyone is sacred and private. Parent to child, husband to wife, and the like."

"So we have to leave before they kiss?" She asked, disbelief filling her voice.

"I had fully intended to leave before my daughter spent her wedding night with her new husband." The Chieftain admitted wryly, pushing to his feet before offering his hand to the two older women. "Shall we ladies? We'll make sure your mother gets home safely Finnick." Turning to pin his daughter with a steady look, he reminded, "we'll see you the night before Finnick returns to the capital."

"Should I show him the…" She trailed off, knowing her father would understand the unspoken question.

He shook his head. "We'll wait until after he gives his answer to Snow." His eyes slid over to the boy in question and settled there, growing dark and haunted. "I have no doubt that Snow will want to make sure of him before he begins his assignment. Better for him to have almost nothing to give away." With a pained smile, he nodded to them and led the two mothers out the door into the night beyond.

They were silent for a moment in the wake that the parents left behind them. This morning he had woken up next to a girl that he didn't have a name for, and the sinking suspicion that would become normal for him in years to come and gone from mourning for the life he had always imagined to married to the girl he had been dreaming about for years and having hope the size of a grain of sand. He wasn't honestly sure if he should laugh in relief or cry.

"So what do we do now?" He asked so quietly it was nearly lost on the blowing wind that whistled outside the shack walls.

R'an turned to him with a grin. "This."