Much to Nori's relief, although it is tainted by worry, Briar agrees to becoming her sister along with the contract in Nori and Belladonna's name. When Nori presses to find out if Briar is certain she hands the dwarf a letter that she had received not long after their discussion in the kitchen. The letter makes Nori see red, and if Borden Proudfoot were not currently under lock and key she would take the risk of doing something permanent about him herself. Since he is locked away the risk is too high for Nori to comfortably take it, although before living through the quest she might have done it anyway simply to keep her friend safe.
Then again, had she not lived through the quest and been sent back into her own past Nori would never have considered befriending a hobbit.
The ceremony to make Briar her sister is not all that complicated, one of the few dwarf ceremonies that is kept simple purely due to the fact that many such commitments are made on the road. Every dwarf has their family sign that they wear in some manner. Some have it inked into their skin, common among thieves who will often have it inked somewhere inconspicuous. Nori has hers on the sole of her foot, something which hurt more than she wants to admit and kept her immobile for the better part of two weeks while it healed. More often than not, the symbol is found embroidered into clothes, embossed upon leather or cast in the silver and gold beads so many wear in their hair and beards. Nori's hair is thick these days, and her family beads are large to reflect that, but she still carries one of the smaller beads from her childhood in a pouch around her neck for no other reason than the value of the gold it was made out of rather than the silver she uses now. She kept it with the half formed intention of one day passing it onto her child, should she ever have one, but the idea of giving it to Briar appeals more. The braid is simple enough, even with Briar's thick curls which she seems to habitually braid back these days anyway, and it is only the ritual exchange of blood that seems to make the hobbit hesitate. Nori is careful when she makes the cut on their forearms, keeping it small and shallow, enough for their purposes but little else, and her knives are sharp enough that it takes little more than a flick of her blade. Then she presses their arms together, recites a quick phrase in Khuzdul with Kíli as a witness and the job is done. The two are now considered sisters in the eyes of her people.
If only all such things were as easy as this.
Technically, a bead from the other participants' family should be presented to Nori over the course of this ritual, but given this is not the way of hobbits, Nori understands that Briar does not have anything to give her in its place. It is a surprise, then, when she passes over a delicate silver bead decorated with flowers for Nori to place in her own hair.
"Kíli gave it to me," Briar says, "when I talked to him about it all. I don't know why he has it, he didn't say." Nori arches an eyebrow at her apprentice and he ducks his head with a blush. She suspects she knows why Kíli might have commissioned something like this, but she does not say it. It is not for her to draw Briar's attention to Kíli's feelings, especially if they are not the sort to last until Kíli is of age to choose his own path regardless of what Thorin and Dís want for him. That is a privilege that Fíli will be unlikely to have. Nori knows that Fíli is expected to marry a dwarf of a certain status. "They're briar roses," the hobbit adds, pointing to the flowers that Nori is still staring at.
"His foresight surprises me," Nori says, "but it isn't unwelcome." Still, she will have to discuss it with him at some point. Kíli seems to be skipping a few crucial steps before having beads that bear Briar's mark made. From the way he refuses to meet her eyes once the ceremony is done, she knows that he is aware of it as well.
From the way Kíli vanishes once the contract is signed and completed Nori knows that he has no desire to discuss the bead that has been hidden among the multitude of others which have been threaded through the thick braids she is currently wearing. One of these days she will settle into a style again, much as she had the triple peaks she had once worn for years in her old life, but right now she has no desire to choose something permanent. She doubts she will choose anything more permanent until she has completed the quest once again and Fíli and Kíli are alive and as safe as they can be.
"You could have lied, you know," Briar comments as she watches her mother and Nori sign the formulaic contract which the thief had pulled out of her pack. Always prepared. "You could have told them that you had claimed me for your sister so that you could do this. It isn't like they would have known."
"Better not to take the risk," Nori disagrees, rolling up the contract and putting it away. "You get away with it once, you get tempted to try again, and again, and again until you tell one lie too many and it all falls apart around you. Better never to get in the habit of that risk. I like my head exactly where it is." Briar pales a little. "I did mean it, lass," Nori adds, "I was always going to talk to you about joining the family, I just didn't want to do it this way."
"I understand," Briar insists. "I do, and you're right. Borden's a threat. I plan on going to Michel Delving next week to talk to the Mayor and judge again. He isn't breaking any laws, but there needs to be something in place when he gets out."
"Want us to come with?" Nori asks.
"No," Briar smiles. "I'd rather keep you as nasty surprise in case nothing changes."
Nori smirks and nudges the hobbit. She is very accustomed to being the nasty surprise that people keep in the shadows. She rather likes it, in fact.
They do not linger long in the Shire once the contract is signed and passed over. There is little point in dragging everything out and the sooner they leave the nicer the weather for travelling. It will still take them the better part of a month to get from Hobbiton to Thorinuldum and much as Nori would rather avoid a confrontation with an angry Dís over taking Kíli onto the caravans without permission it cannot be avoided either. She already knows that the lad left a note essentially saying that he was leaving, and she knows what the fallout of that action had been in her previous life.
"You want to tell me what prompted you to get that bead made, lad?" Nori asks as they make their way into the mountains.
"Not really," Kíli mutters. She arches an eyebrow at him.
"I'm not your mother," Nori reminds him, "I'm not going to tell you whether she's suitable for you or not. But I am going to remind you that you've got another four years before you're of age to do anything other than mess around. That's one law you won't even find me helping you to break."
"I know," Kíli replies. "I just… she seems right. She seems like I should know her and I don't know why."
Nori carefully stamps down the alarm she feels at that statement. Kíli had never given any indication of anything like this during the quest, although he was so busy fluctuating between doing everything he could to gain his uncle's approval and then abruptly changing and doing things which were bizarre in the eyes of the rest of the Company it was hard to keep track of what he was doing from one day to the next. If he had felt something like that for the Briar of the quest Nori knows that he would have struggled with the feeling of being something more broken than he already was. Dwarves rarely love outside their own kind and it is unheard of in the line of Durin.
"You've never mentioned that before," she says, careful to keep her tone casual.
"Thought I was imagining it," Kíli shrugs, "and that it was just seeing her pin Fíli so easily that had her stuck in my head. Wasn't until you told me to spend all that time with him and Hela this winter that I thought there might be something to it."
"I don't normally buy into that sort of thing," Nori says, which is the truth regardless of her bizarre relationship with Dwalin. "But in my experience that's something that everyone thinks the first time that they take a real shine to someone."
"You don't think it's real?" Kíli accuses.
"If it is, why rush?" Nori asks. "We're going to spend the next year in Ered Luin, you've got your thief test, maybe your spy test too, to take. We might do another caravan in that time, might not. Would be best if Prince Kíli were seen to do a few official ones as well as those he snuck out to complete."
"But that could be nine, maybe ten years until I was free to court her properly!"
"Yes," Nori nods. "But we'll still drop in on her from time to time, she's my sister now, remember."
"Which would mean I would only get fifty years with her at best," the lad objects and she sighs.
"Maybe," she says, a sympathetic smile twisting her features, "but Briar said that hobbits live as long as they need to. Maybe you'll get longer, maybe illness or battle will take one or other of you after only a year. That lies with Mahal," which sticks in her throat a little because she is fairly certain that their Maker would not have wanted the entire elder line of Durin snuffed out at the foot of Erebor. "But if her growing old with you at her side frightens you that much, maybe it isn't real. And if it is, you have to accept that there may well come a time when she is old and grey while you're still young and in the prime of your days. If you don't think that's something that you can live with, I suggest that you put any thought of courting and marrying Briar Baggins from your mind."
"And if I do decide I can do it?" He demands.
"Then I suggest you learn how hobbits court and marry before you go charging off commissioning beads and blades and courting trinkets," she looks up at the rapidly greying sky. "Just don't ask me. Briar hasn't mentioned it to me. And remember that she's going to be teaching you all about poisons in a few years, so maybe wait to bring it up until you've learnt what you need to, there isn't a need to make it awkward for you both."
"So you don't object?" He frowns, obviously confused.
"I'm not your uncle," she reminds him, "I'm not your mother. I don't have a list of suitable traits for a spouse for you and your brother," he startles and she hides a smile. He is not the only one who has seen that list in Thorin's desk. "If Briar is where your heart really lies I won't get in the way."
She sort of hopes that Briar-Rose Baggins truly is where Kíli's heart and future happiness lies. She cannot bear the thought of her friend, sister, being hurt by this young dwarf in this life as she was in Nori's previous life.
Still, that is a problem for later years.
A.N: My brain hurts, there is so much maths to revise for June! I'm just going to make a start on Dwalin. That'll relax me enough to carry on. Right?