Author's Notes: What more can I say? Disclaimers, as usual, and most of
the lot of the characters, places, theologies, etc., belong to Square and
not me. And a word to all you impatient for some S&Y action - good things
come to those who wait is my philosophy. Do I hate you? No. But
sometimes, you hafta have a little patience. ^.^ That said..chapter 5!
Life went on, in Spira. After the last of the parties in celebration of the joining of two major families in the land, things quieted down for a while. Then the rumors began trickling out. Whispered in every marketplace and on every street corner, they spread like wildfire through the ears of the worst gossips in Bevelle.
Lord Aubrey and Lady Ailani were both harlots.
Lady Ailani kept her bed with an Al Bhed heathen, and Lord Aubrey was left alone.
Lady Ailani was a witch, and was pregnant with the bastard child of one of the other continent's strange races.
Lord Aubrey beat Lady Ailani because she was an insolent minx.
Only two of the rumors had any sort of truth in them; Lady Ailani was a witch, bearing the blue crescent of the Isle of Avalon. She had been trained there since she was a young child; she had not the ability to see through the mists of time, but she could summon it with herbs; skilled was she in Druid-craft and Mage-craft. Herb lore was also known to her; when one of her neighbors became ill, Ailani had brought the elderly woman a mix of herbs that grew in her garden, and the woman had been well in a day. Sorcery, the old aunties said, and heathendom. But most thought Lady Ailani was simply well-versed in doctoring.
The other truth was that Aubrey beat her.
Unfortunate was it that he did; he had not had the time to know that if Ailani was pushed beyond her limit, her first instinct was to push back. And she did; but in a different way than expected. She grew more passive- aggressive, not directly harming her husband but deliberately making events happen. People thought it strange, too, that she was not yet with child; other women who married around that time, near to a year ago, already had children. Ailani had no children and did not even have a sign of being pregnant. Her courses came regularly; and so did the beatings.
Which was what Aubrey was brooding about that night as he sat before the fire in the parlor. Ailani had already taken herself off to bed; Aubrey had gone up to make sure she was asleep. The blue-black of the bruises stood out starkly against her pale skin, and Aubrey had, very lightly, run his fingertips along one. What have I become? He wondered. There had been a time when he would not have dreamed of hurting anyone, no matter what they did. Now it seemed he could not control himself; whenever he heard an insult, pretended or real, in Ailani's clipped words to him, he simply went mad. Worse yet were the glares she gave him while his fists pummeled her and as she tried to fight him. They were like twin beams of ice, concealing a fire that he had seen at their marriage.
The ice had worn thin.
~*~
Calix drew his cloak tight about him, even though he was followed by two of his most trusted friends: one, an elf named Alastair Celes, and his panther friend Cloudchaser. Between the three - for Calix and Alastair were mounted on very fine horses of elfin breeding - they cut a path right up to the gate of the great mansion. Calix's horse pushed open the gate with his nose, and the trio walked into the courtyard. As he dismounted, the elf-prince noted that a small garden had been planted on the grounds, near the formal gardens. To Calix's delight, it grew herbs that were common things in medicines - and in dweomers and certain Black arts. That thought sobered him, but what really brought him to reality was the sight of a dark shadow on Ailani's cheek when she opened the door.
Ailani looked tired, but she still carried herself with an aura of indifference and arrogance. She blinked at him (Does she not remember me? Calix wondered) and said, in a short voice, "Who, might I ask, are you?"
Calix and Alastair bowed, and Cloudchaser sunk into a feline version of a bow. "I am Calix Gwydion, my lady Ailani, and this is Alastair Baruch and Cloudchaser. Both are friends of mine, and Alastair is attendant to the High Court of Caleb Gwydion, my father, High King of the Elves."
Ailani curtsied in a very stiff way, and said, "My Lord Aubrey is - "
Calix cut her off. "I wish not to see Lord Aubrey. It is you I have concern for; tell me, Lady Ailani, did you not once wander the forests of Anash?"
Aliani caught her breath. "You are that elf I met?"
"I am, Lady Ailani. Might we be allowed in and not be made to stand out in the elements like common servants?"
Ailani blinked, and for a fleeting moment something other than hatred and thinly veiled rage showed in her tropical eyes; then the iciness was back, and she bowed her head. "You may. Corina -" she called out to one of the maids, "Please bring some warm tea to the parlor, please."
The maid Corina took their cloaks and patted Cloudchaser on the head affectionately before taking herself off to the kitchens. Ailani led them to the parlor room, and they sat; Cloudchaser curled up at Calix's feet, purring contentedly. The panther did not like the heat, as its coat was a shiny blue-black; here, in the cool of the house, was much more comfortable. Corina brought the tea, and Ailani sipped it before speaking.
"Why have you come here?"
"Because, My Lady - news travels fast, especially scandal. It has been said, Lady Ailani, that you are not being treated as befits a woman of your station and birth."
Ailani straightened. "I am being treated very well, here, Prince Calix, and - "
Calix reached out and touched one of the bruises on Ailani's face, healing it with a spell unknown to the priestess, then touched the fading crescent on her brow. "You are not."
The woman looked down, then back up again. "What do you care?"
"Is it not customary for a priestess vowed to the Goddess to keep the crescent on her brow fresh?"
"My Lord Aubrey would not have such symbols displayed in this Yevonite household."
Calix drew back his sleeve; the serpents of Avalon twined around his wrist. "I too was trained in Avalon," he said gravely. "I know, too, that a priestess does not have to bow to anyone she does not wish to."
Ailani scowled. "My Lord Aubrey would - "
Alastair spoke for the first time. "Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey is not what he seems. You know this."
Calix smiled. Alastair was a Mind-seer, someone who could see into the minds of others and pull out their thoughts. "Lady Ailani - "
"Who are these people, Ailani?"
All three turned to see Aubrey standing in the doorway of the parlor. Cloudchaser's ears flattened, and he growled low. Calix saw the deadly claws lower out of the paws, and absently patted the panther's head. Aubrey strode over to Calix, who stood.
"You.who are you, that would presume to be alone in my house with my wife?"
Calix looked Aubrey calmly in the eye. "I am simply holding a conversation with the Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey. And I am Calix Gwydion, son of Caleb Gwydion, High King of the Elves. This is my friend and attendant Alastair Baruch, and my dear friend and pet Cloudchaser."
The panther growled again. Alastair's eyes were half-closed, and he was looking at the young Lord with a wary eye. Aliani looked between all of them and sighed in frustration. "Lord Aubrey, these elves meant nothing more than to talk - "
"Ailani, do no speak!"
"I will if I feel like it, Lord Aubrey, and who am I to take orders from you - I, a priestess of Avalon, and you nothing more than a - a demon prince!"
Aubrey slapped her, and a deathly silence fell on the room. Ailani's head was facing left over her shoulder, and even from this angle Calix could see the look of murderous rage on her fair face. "How do you dare," she said softly.
Alastair slipped out; Calix knew not where he was going. Ailani turned very slowly to fully face Aubrey. "You hellspawn. I do not know why I did not kill you when I had the chance. You men are so very vulnerable after a bedding."
Aubrey didn't even flush. "You are the hellspawn, witch," he said. "You have not shown hint of pregnancy since I wed you, when other wives your age have already had their first children and are carrying their second. What did you do, Lady Ailani? Put a spell on yourself as to cast any babe from you the moment it was conceived? Or did you put some curse on me?"
Ailani drew herself up to her full height; she was nearly as tall as her father, a full six feet, and she too stood eye to eye with Aubrey. "Neither, my Lord."
Aubrey's eyes glowed red, and the fireplace exploded into flames. It seemed he grew taller and darker, and even Ailani shrank back. "Witch! Harlot! You keep your bed with this elf when I am gone, don't you? Answer me!"
Calix leapt between them, drawing his scimitars and holding one in defense across his chest, the other pointing at the demon Aubrey. "You keep away from her, demon prince, or my blade shall find its place in your heart!"
Ailani, behind him, was muttering something, and Calix could only see the flurry of ice for a second before she was ducking out from behind him and sprinting down the hall. She threw open a closet and drew out her cloak and a pack, and a sword and belt. Calix ran after her, and the last thing she did before following the elf out the door was point her sword at the demon standing in the parlor and say, "You bastard, I'll see you in hell if ever you come after me!"
Running out, Calix saw that Alastair held their horses. Cloudchaser was beside him, kneading her claws in the flagstones and growling. He also held Ailani's stallion, fully tacked, and as she exited the house, spitting at the door, she took two strides and vaulted effortlessly into the saddle. Her dress bunched up to her knees, but she tapped her horse's sides and he bolted from the mansion walls, his ears flat to his head. Calix took off after her, and Cloudchaser was right beside him, Alastair just behind. The four rode hard out of Bevelle, not slowing their pace until they reached a broad plain to the south of the city. Only then did Ailani slow her stallion to anything below a trot, stopping in a grove of trees. Calix's horse was nearly spent, but he gallantly trotted into the grove. Calix and Alastair dismounted and untacked their horses, which gladly got a drink from the stream running through the grove and then lay down in the patch of sunlight in the middle of the grove, closing their eyes.
Ailani emerged from behind a tree, changed into the robes of a priestess of Avalon. Calix knew the reason; a priestess, traveling with an escort, would not be questioned. They would rest here this night; tomorrow, the road would be their home again.
Life went on, in Spira. After the last of the parties in celebration of the joining of two major families in the land, things quieted down for a while. Then the rumors began trickling out. Whispered in every marketplace and on every street corner, they spread like wildfire through the ears of the worst gossips in Bevelle.
Lord Aubrey and Lady Ailani were both harlots.
Lady Ailani kept her bed with an Al Bhed heathen, and Lord Aubrey was left alone.
Lady Ailani was a witch, and was pregnant with the bastard child of one of the other continent's strange races.
Lord Aubrey beat Lady Ailani because she was an insolent minx.
Only two of the rumors had any sort of truth in them; Lady Ailani was a witch, bearing the blue crescent of the Isle of Avalon. She had been trained there since she was a young child; she had not the ability to see through the mists of time, but she could summon it with herbs; skilled was she in Druid-craft and Mage-craft. Herb lore was also known to her; when one of her neighbors became ill, Ailani had brought the elderly woman a mix of herbs that grew in her garden, and the woman had been well in a day. Sorcery, the old aunties said, and heathendom. But most thought Lady Ailani was simply well-versed in doctoring.
The other truth was that Aubrey beat her.
Unfortunate was it that he did; he had not had the time to know that if Ailani was pushed beyond her limit, her first instinct was to push back. And she did; but in a different way than expected. She grew more passive- aggressive, not directly harming her husband but deliberately making events happen. People thought it strange, too, that she was not yet with child; other women who married around that time, near to a year ago, already had children. Ailani had no children and did not even have a sign of being pregnant. Her courses came regularly; and so did the beatings.
Which was what Aubrey was brooding about that night as he sat before the fire in the parlor. Ailani had already taken herself off to bed; Aubrey had gone up to make sure she was asleep. The blue-black of the bruises stood out starkly against her pale skin, and Aubrey had, very lightly, run his fingertips along one. What have I become? He wondered. There had been a time when he would not have dreamed of hurting anyone, no matter what they did. Now it seemed he could not control himself; whenever he heard an insult, pretended or real, in Ailani's clipped words to him, he simply went mad. Worse yet were the glares she gave him while his fists pummeled her and as she tried to fight him. They were like twin beams of ice, concealing a fire that he had seen at their marriage.
The ice had worn thin.
~*~
Calix drew his cloak tight about him, even though he was followed by two of his most trusted friends: one, an elf named Alastair Celes, and his panther friend Cloudchaser. Between the three - for Calix and Alastair were mounted on very fine horses of elfin breeding - they cut a path right up to the gate of the great mansion. Calix's horse pushed open the gate with his nose, and the trio walked into the courtyard. As he dismounted, the elf-prince noted that a small garden had been planted on the grounds, near the formal gardens. To Calix's delight, it grew herbs that were common things in medicines - and in dweomers and certain Black arts. That thought sobered him, but what really brought him to reality was the sight of a dark shadow on Ailani's cheek when she opened the door.
Ailani looked tired, but she still carried herself with an aura of indifference and arrogance. She blinked at him (Does she not remember me? Calix wondered) and said, in a short voice, "Who, might I ask, are you?"
Calix and Alastair bowed, and Cloudchaser sunk into a feline version of a bow. "I am Calix Gwydion, my lady Ailani, and this is Alastair Baruch and Cloudchaser. Both are friends of mine, and Alastair is attendant to the High Court of Caleb Gwydion, my father, High King of the Elves."
Ailani curtsied in a very stiff way, and said, "My Lord Aubrey is - "
Calix cut her off. "I wish not to see Lord Aubrey. It is you I have concern for; tell me, Lady Ailani, did you not once wander the forests of Anash?"
Aliani caught her breath. "You are that elf I met?"
"I am, Lady Ailani. Might we be allowed in and not be made to stand out in the elements like common servants?"
Ailani blinked, and for a fleeting moment something other than hatred and thinly veiled rage showed in her tropical eyes; then the iciness was back, and she bowed her head. "You may. Corina -" she called out to one of the maids, "Please bring some warm tea to the parlor, please."
The maid Corina took their cloaks and patted Cloudchaser on the head affectionately before taking herself off to the kitchens. Ailani led them to the parlor room, and they sat; Cloudchaser curled up at Calix's feet, purring contentedly. The panther did not like the heat, as its coat was a shiny blue-black; here, in the cool of the house, was much more comfortable. Corina brought the tea, and Ailani sipped it before speaking.
"Why have you come here?"
"Because, My Lady - news travels fast, especially scandal. It has been said, Lady Ailani, that you are not being treated as befits a woman of your station and birth."
Ailani straightened. "I am being treated very well, here, Prince Calix, and - "
Calix reached out and touched one of the bruises on Ailani's face, healing it with a spell unknown to the priestess, then touched the fading crescent on her brow. "You are not."
The woman looked down, then back up again. "What do you care?"
"Is it not customary for a priestess vowed to the Goddess to keep the crescent on her brow fresh?"
"My Lord Aubrey would not have such symbols displayed in this Yevonite household."
Calix drew back his sleeve; the serpents of Avalon twined around his wrist. "I too was trained in Avalon," he said gravely. "I know, too, that a priestess does not have to bow to anyone she does not wish to."
Ailani scowled. "My Lord Aubrey would - "
Alastair spoke for the first time. "Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey is not what he seems. You know this."
Calix smiled. Alastair was a Mind-seer, someone who could see into the minds of others and pull out their thoughts. "Lady Ailani - "
"Who are these people, Ailani?"
All three turned to see Aubrey standing in the doorway of the parlor. Cloudchaser's ears flattened, and he growled low. Calix saw the deadly claws lower out of the paws, and absently patted the panther's head. Aubrey strode over to Calix, who stood.
"You.who are you, that would presume to be alone in my house with my wife?"
Calix looked Aubrey calmly in the eye. "I am simply holding a conversation with the Lady Ailani, Lord Aubrey. And I am Calix Gwydion, son of Caleb Gwydion, High King of the Elves. This is my friend and attendant Alastair Baruch, and my dear friend and pet Cloudchaser."
The panther growled again. Alastair's eyes were half-closed, and he was looking at the young Lord with a wary eye. Aliani looked between all of them and sighed in frustration. "Lord Aubrey, these elves meant nothing more than to talk - "
"Ailani, do no speak!"
"I will if I feel like it, Lord Aubrey, and who am I to take orders from you - I, a priestess of Avalon, and you nothing more than a - a demon prince!"
Aubrey slapped her, and a deathly silence fell on the room. Ailani's head was facing left over her shoulder, and even from this angle Calix could see the look of murderous rage on her fair face. "How do you dare," she said softly.
Alastair slipped out; Calix knew not where he was going. Ailani turned very slowly to fully face Aubrey. "You hellspawn. I do not know why I did not kill you when I had the chance. You men are so very vulnerable after a bedding."
Aubrey didn't even flush. "You are the hellspawn, witch," he said. "You have not shown hint of pregnancy since I wed you, when other wives your age have already had their first children and are carrying their second. What did you do, Lady Ailani? Put a spell on yourself as to cast any babe from you the moment it was conceived? Or did you put some curse on me?"
Ailani drew herself up to her full height; she was nearly as tall as her father, a full six feet, and she too stood eye to eye with Aubrey. "Neither, my Lord."
Aubrey's eyes glowed red, and the fireplace exploded into flames. It seemed he grew taller and darker, and even Ailani shrank back. "Witch! Harlot! You keep your bed with this elf when I am gone, don't you? Answer me!"
Calix leapt between them, drawing his scimitars and holding one in defense across his chest, the other pointing at the demon Aubrey. "You keep away from her, demon prince, or my blade shall find its place in your heart!"
Ailani, behind him, was muttering something, and Calix could only see the flurry of ice for a second before she was ducking out from behind him and sprinting down the hall. She threw open a closet and drew out her cloak and a pack, and a sword and belt. Calix ran after her, and the last thing she did before following the elf out the door was point her sword at the demon standing in the parlor and say, "You bastard, I'll see you in hell if ever you come after me!"
Running out, Calix saw that Alastair held their horses. Cloudchaser was beside him, kneading her claws in the flagstones and growling. He also held Ailani's stallion, fully tacked, and as she exited the house, spitting at the door, she took two strides and vaulted effortlessly into the saddle. Her dress bunched up to her knees, but she tapped her horse's sides and he bolted from the mansion walls, his ears flat to his head. Calix took off after her, and Cloudchaser was right beside him, Alastair just behind. The four rode hard out of Bevelle, not slowing their pace until they reached a broad plain to the south of the city. Only then did Ailani slow her stallion to anything below a trot, stopping in a grove of trees. Calix's horse was nearly spent, but he gallantly trotted into the grove. Calix and Alastair dismounted and untacked their horses, which gladly got a drink from the stream running through the grove and then lay down in the patch of sunlight in the middle of the grove, closing their eyes.
Ailani emerged from behind a tree, changed into the robes of a priestess of Avalon. Calix knew the reason; a priestess, traveling with an escort, would not be questioned. They would rest here this night; tomorrow, the road would be their home again.