Bitterosemary: I'm not sure where that idea came from, I just ended up writing it! I'm glad it's working. I was really worried about this story. Goldeneyedwildmage: I love Bones! There are a few good fics as well, with lots of fluff on the bones community. Glad you reviewed, I would really miss it if you didn't! Myrtle Riddle: Thank you! Keep on reading! Silverlake: It took about two evenings of research, it could have been less, but I got quite absorbed in it. Sonnet Lacewing: I think I wrote 11,000 words this weekend! I am speeding up – trying to match your pace! Twilight Shades: Thank you! Celuna Cirrus: That made me feel happy that your friend says its accurate – I just hope the next seven will be as well! Daine's Daughter: I will alter Dad to Pappa – which is what I actually use later on. Thank you for pointing it out. Neals Chick: Here's the update! Dolphindreamer: I think that was because I didn't really have in my head what he looked like. Thank you for mentioning it. NB44: Many thanks, and congratulations! Wild Mage Lioness: The stones will be very fluffy! Aikia Riyen: Many thanks for being my first reviewer of this story!
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Chapter 2 – Fortunes and Family
Before they left the bone-fire to return to Pirate's Swoop Alanna lit a log from the fire's roaring flames to take back with them to light the hearth in their sitting room. It was tradition to keep the flame of the bone-fire burning until the first day of spring, and as much as Alanna had scorned the children's outfits, some traditions she adored, and this was one of them.
They headed back in their small group, consisting of Alanna, George and their children, Daine and Numair and the prince and princess. Away from the palace Alanna liked to keep gatherings as informal as possible, and tonight she just wanted her family and close friends around her. Even Coram, who had had a good hand in bringing her up, was spending the remainder of the festival with his wife Rispah in the rooms that they stayed in while they were at Pirate's Swoop, along with some of their own close friends.
They returned to the suite of rooms that were kept private for times like this. The rooms had been furnished by George to make them look as much like an ordinary house as possible, with soft padded chairs, old, wooden bookcases filled full with books that weren't about battle strategies or spy work and the children's toys lingering from when they had been played with. Apart from the presence of the Lioness, and to a certain extent her husband, it seemed very much like a normal family home.
The twins were put to bed almost immediately by their mother. It had been a long day for them and their excitement over dressing up and the bone-fire had tired them out so no arguments over bed were given. Kally, Roald and Thom were allowed a little longer, although the boys had also begun to flag.
Daine slumped down in a large chair, covered in a soft, red velvety material. The ride had been quick, but it had still tired her and she felt her body relaxing with the heat from the roaring fire and the glass of warm mulled wine that George had passed to her.
Through half closed eyes she saw George begin to hand around pieces of paper and quills to write with. Bringing herself to wake up from her half sleep, she sat prone on the chair and accepted the tools form George, looking at Numair curiously as he smiled, writing something down that had obviously caused him some thought.
Alanna laughed at Daine's puzzled face, a look that was also mirrored on Kally's. "This is for you to write down a habit you have, or a weakness, which you want to rid yourself of. You then think or meditate on it and then burn it in the fire, hoping that the weakness or habit will no longer be with you in the New Year." Alanna looked at Numair who was smiling with his eyebrows raised at the Lioness.
"Did I explain that well enough?" She asked, concerned that she may have been a little confusing.
Numair laughed. "It sounded like you were reading a text book! Are you after Harailt's job, by any chance?"
Alanna scowled. "Never! That would just be…"
George pulled an amused face at his wife. "My, my, the Lioness is lost for words… Wonders will never cease!"
Alanna playfully bashed him over the head with a cushion.
"Have you managed to think of something to write, Daine," Numair asked, sat on the floor, his back leaning against the chair that Daine was sat on.
"I'm sure she's not that perfect!" George teased. He had found it most entertaining seeing the tall, sometimes rather stately mage completely besotted with his former student, and enjoyed gently provoking embarrassed reactions from him from time to time. George had regarded Numair in rather the same way that Alanna had; as a younger brother, who was there to be made fun of occasionally to help his feet stay on the ground and keep his head somewhere in the land of reality.
Numair looked up at the Baron of Pirate's Swoop with some puzzlement.
"I said," George began to repeat, "That although ye think tha' Daine is perfect, she most have some bad habits somewhere, or she could make ye more cups o' tea, or be more generous with foot massages…"
Alanna began to laugh in mock astonishment at her husband. "Shall I offer to write all your faults and bad habits down, laddybuck? I can think of a few things that I could do with you improving!"
Daine and Numair laughed at the look of horror on George's face as he considered what sort of things Alanna would have him do. The two younger people were trying to hide their grins, their mouth too full of sticky toffee to be able to laugh.
The noise subsided for a few minutes as they wrote down on the papers what habits they would like to be rid of in the coming year. Daine looked at what Numair had written from her vantage point over his shoulder and smiled with amusement when she read what he had put.
They each folded the pieces of paper – Alanna and Numair had written on two - and in turn dropped them into the flames of the fire, watching as they quickly curled and blackened.
For a moment longer they were all silent, listening to the quiet sounds of the roaring fire and each of them feeling comfortable and at ease.
"What did you put?" Roald broke the silence by asking Kalasin.
"To stop holding grudges when things don't go my way," his sister replied. "What about you?"
"To not be lazy or complain about the amount of work we get," Roald pulled his face, knowing that he was going to need a lot of help from the gods to break that habit.
George turned to his wife. "An' what about you?" He asked. "What habits have you asked for help in ridding?"
"I will be less impatient," Alanna answered solemnly.
"An' what was t'other one?" George had spied her putting a second slip of paper into the fire.
Alanna glanced at Numair and then looked at the floor, a stubborn look still haunting her eyes.
"To not lose friendships because of pride," she muttered. The room fell silent as they took in what Alanna had said.
"I asked for help in being more approachable with different people," Numair admitted. He knew that some of the pages and squires were a little afraid to ask him questions and involve him in their talk. Daine hadn't realised that it bothered him before.
"What was the other one?" Daine asked her lover, her fingers gently playing with his black mane of hair.
Numair angled his body to look at her as she sat behind him. "I'll tell you that one later!"
George let out a wolf whistle, his expression filled with amusement.
Alanna laughed, "So what about you?" She prodded her husband in the ribs. "What false promises did you make?"
"Ta tidy the dishes after meself and always make the bed when I get up last," George replied, a twinkle in his eye.
Alanna harrumphed, folding her legs underneath her as she sat on the seat next to her husband. "Could you not think of anything a little more apt? Like to not break the heart of every poor girl you meet?"
George laughed. "I never broke yours, did I, lass? If anything, it were the other way round!"
Daine remembered meeting George for the first time, when she had come with the trainees to the summer camp three years ago when it was held at Pirate's Swoop. George had been charming, and someone had warned him not to break her heart. She looked at the couple with affection and a little bit of awe. They had clearly built an amazingly strong relationship to be able to withstand many of the events that had occurred. Diane sometimes wondered how George dealt with the fact that his King and employer had been his wife's lover. His friendship with Jon was as firm as the friendship between the king and Numair. George appeared to harbour no grudges, or even any thoughts about the past.
"Here, lass," she heard George say to her. "That's what has already been. No use in dwellin' on those things, else you'll never get anywhere." His arm had crept around Alanna's shoulder and the red-headed woman was resting her head in the crook of his neck. She had forgotten that George had the Sight, and her thoughts must have been strong enough for him to bother picking up on them.
"So, my lad. How're you going to improve yourself this coming year?" George asked his eldest son.
Thom looked up; his eyes had been intent on the fire that he was sat next to. "To be tidier," he replied. "I did think about putting that I wanted to work harder, but I thought it would be more important to be tidy."
Alana grinned and reached forward to rub her son's shock of red hair. "I think you work hard enough," she murmured to him proudly.
The evening passed gently, any noise from outside had disappeared; people still didn't like to be outside in the darkness for very long on Samhain. Kalasin relit the candle that had been sat on the windowsill so that any spirits of loved ones that had passed could find their way.
The heat of the room and the vast quantity of food - and in Alanna's case, mulled wine – that had been consumed had begun to make the elders drowsy. Kalasin stood up, stretching her legs, and took a large rosy apple from the bowl next to the fire. She quietly left the room, not wishing to face any questions from her occasionally annoying brother who was now snoring gently in a seat near the fire and wandered into the nearby chamber room, collecting a sharp knife from the small kitchen along the way.
Kalasin sat in a chair facing a long, wide mirror where she knew her Aunt Alanna sat when she was applying paints to her face. She lit a candle to light the room, its glimmer giving the place an eerie atmosphere. With great care she cut the apple in nine pieces, and with her back to the mirror began to eat eight of them, thinking all the time about the arranged marriage that she knew was being planned for in a few years time. She knew that her parents had settled whom it was to be with, but they hadn't told her.
"You don't need to know at the moment," her mother had responded to Kally's persuasion. "Enjoy being a child for a bit longer. Remember that your father and I would only arrange this with someone we thought was right for you, so don't worry and forget about it for now."
Kalasin had thought of nothing else since, and her uncle Numair's lecture on the way to Pirate's Swoop had given her an idea of how to find out who her future suitor might be. She ate the eighth piece of apple. Taking the final piece she threw it over her shoulder, she turned to look over the same shoulder that she had thrown the apple and letting her focus grow soft she looked into the mirror, hoping to see the answer to her question in the form of an image or a symbol. What she saw both surprised her and erased any fears she'd had. Her mother had been right. They had chosen someone she thought might be right for her.
Kalasin returned to the sitting room; everyone else had now drifted into sleep. She settled down at the foot of her brother's chair and watched the flames flicker, still mesmerised by what she had seen in the mirror.
Daine began to stir, wriggling her leg from Numair's sleepy grip. She had heard the sound of an animal in distress, probably a deer that someone had tried to hunt but had only succeeded in injuring it and causing it pain. Getting up, she grabbed Numair's thick, warm robe and went to leave the room, unperturbed by the fact that most people would not step foot outside this close to the midnight hour when the faerie folk were meant to be at their most playfully wicked.
Halfway down the corridor towards the nearest exit she felt the presence of someone following her. Turning round sharply she saw Kalasin, draped in a thick coat that Daine recognised as Alanna's.
"Wait for me!" Kalasin called to Daine as she hurried to catch up. "Where are you going?"
Daine waited for the girl to reach her rather than shout down the corridors and disturb people who were sleeping or were otherwise engaged in divination. "I can hear an injured deer or elk outside in the forests. I have to go and help it."
"Is it alright if I come with you?" Kally asked, reminding Daine of their first time together at Pirate's Swoop when Kalasin, Roald and Thom had followed her round much to the amusement of Thayet.
"It's fine, although I don't know how long I'll be," Daine warned the girl.
Kalasin shook her head. She wasn't bothered by the time. She wanted to talk to Daine about what she had seen in the mirror a few minutes earlier. Daine would be a good person to confide in, Kally knew. She could keep secrets, and she could also tell Kalasin a little about Kaddar having spent time with him when she was in Carthak.
They stepped outside, the air filled with a thin veil of smoke caused by the bone-fire that had now gone out. The night was chilly and there was a still atmosphere that was almost uncomfortable. No sounds could be heard from outside at all, except the odd calling of an owl or the rustling of leaves where a hedgehog was delving for its supper. Candle lights flickered from the windowsills, and Daine wondered if any souls of the dead had joined their loved ones this evening, briefly thinking of her grandda and whether he would have thought to have come to see her. Shadows in one of the far rooms in Alanna home told her that people were still being merry and celebrating the new year, although there would be a few who would see the morning in with bad headaches and a trip to Maude's rooms, requesting something to ease the pain.
They walked into the forest for only a few minutes when Daine spotted the injured deer. She spoke to it gently, speaking aloud so that Kally was aware of what was going on.
"He's been shot by an arrow," she informed the girl. "The shot missed killing him and now he's in some pain as it's pierced one of his lungs." She knelt down by the deer, moving Numair's cloak out of the way so that she could move her hands freely. She went inside herself and found the pool of copper that was her magic, pulling a thread out with her mind and began to heal where the arrow had injured.
Kalasin watched, amazed by Daine's ability as the deer went from being almost at the door of the Black God to looking as if it was ready to bound off. She was too intent on what was happening before her to notice the man who stood next to her, watching the scene as she was doing.
The deer stood up, butting Daine with its head and trotting off into the depths of the trees that surrounded Pirate's Swoop on its eastern side. Daine looked toward the girl, hoping that she hadn't been too cold a while she was waiting for Daine to finish with the animal.
Surprise over took her as she noticed the man stood a short distance away from the princess.
"Da!" She cried and ran to him, her face alight as she recognised the man to be her father who she had only really met twice before. She kissed him on his cheek as he embraced her in a hug. "You've met Princess Kalasin before at Mabon, haven't you?" She asked, by way of reintroduction.
"Indeed I have," the god of the hunt responded. "I remember that your mother was also very charming," he nodded at the small girl, smiling.
"It's an honour to meet you again, sir," Kalasin replied, curtsying as best she could.
"Where's Ma?" Daine asked, looking around for Sarra.
"She's had a busy night. There have been five complicated births up in the northern area, so she's been occupied with them. I decided to come, however. It isn't often that we're able to cross into your realms, so I thought I'd better make the most of tonight," Weiryn told her. "Where's your lover?"
Daine blushed as her referred to Numair in that way.
He father laughed at his daughter's embarrassment. "Well how else do I refer to him? There's no shame in it, Veralidaine!"
Daine shook her head, her eyes fixing in the ground in front of her, a smile playing at her lips. They sat down on the fallen tree trunk where Numair and Alanna had been earlier. Kalasin placed herself next to Daine, full of interest in this man who was also a god. She had seen him once before, at Mabon, when he and the Green Lady had come to visit their daughter. He was much the same as he had been then, large antlers on his head, dark skin that had a tinge of green to it in places and dressed in only a loin cloth made of animal skin.
"I see that there has been little trouble since that man was sent to Tyra," Weiryn began, a little awkwardly.
Daine nodded, not quite sure what to say. Previously, when she had been with her father her mother had always been nearby or someone else had been present. Now she wasn't quite sure what they could talk to each other about.
"Has Ma seen anything of Grandda?" She asked hesitantly.
Weiryn shook his head, "She had hoped to see him today, as with you. But she had been too busy."
"How's Queenclaw and Broad Foot?" She asked of the two gods of the people that she had met when she had ended up in the divine realms over summer.
"Queenclaw is as annoying as your typical cat and Broad Foot is well too. They send their regards," Weiryn answered, obviously feeling as uncomfortable as she did.
"I don't suppose you saw a hunter while you were going through the forests, did you?" Daine enquired, thinking of the bad shot that had injured the deer.
Weiryn nodded. "A short man with no hair was running east when he passed me. He carried a bow, not a very good one. Why? Surely the daughter of the hunt god is not berating hunters now?" His tone became indignant.
Daine shook her head rapidly. "No, I hunt myself. But I always make sure I get a clean shot. He went for a deer and his arrow pierced the deer's lung but didn't kill it. I'd just healed it before you came."
"I saw you at your work," Weiryn replied. "You'd make your ma proud."
Daine flushed with pleasure. She had always wanted to please her Ma, but had never thought that she would be able to heal until she had met Numair. She looked up into her father's eyes and wasn't sure of the emotion that was in them.
"I'm proud too, little one," he told her. "Although I would've hoped you would be inclined to hunt more."
Daine shrugged. "I've been hunted myself," she said simply, knowing that they had been through this when she had been in his house in the realms of the gods. She looked at the younger girl who was sat beside her, obviously cold outside, even with Alanna's warm coat around her.
"Da, we really must be getting back inside. Kally's freezing out here," she explained, partly relieved to have an excuse to leave as she could think of no more to say.
Her father nodded and stood up with them. "I must go too. The veil between the worlds begins to thicken was midnight is called. I hope to see you soon. I will tell your mother that you are well and that we'll let the mage live for awhile longer!" Daine smiled, although not really appreciating the joke at Numair's expense. She had thought that he and Weiryn had gotten along fine at Mabon, and it had been much easier to talk with her father when Numair was around. She knew that she and her father had no experiences in common and she imagined that he must feel some guilt at not being around for her when she was younger. It would be hard for him too.
She stood up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for coming, Da," she whispered. "When will you next be able to cross over?"
"Possibly at Imbolc, but that will depend on many things," he answered, taking her hand and squeezing it. "It has been good to see you again."
He nodded once more to Kalasin and departed back into the forests.
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Daine breathed a heavy sigh and looked at Kalasin with wide eyes. "I wish we had more to say to each other," she said wistfully. "I feel fair awkward when Numair's not here with us. At least he and Numair can always have an argument so there are never any silences."
Kalasin nodded, her mind wondering if she and her future betrothed would have too many silences. She looked up at the older woman with worried eyes.
Daine ushered her inside and into the room that she and Numair were sharing. Numair was still asleep in the sitting room, to all appearances, as he hadn't returned to their chamber room yet.
She sat Kally down on the bed, wondering what was causing the girl such worries.
"I did one of the divination spells that Numair told us about on the way here," Kalasin began. Daine remained quiet, letting her speak.
"I wanted to know who mamma and papa had planned for me – you know that they've set up an arranged marriage?" Daine nodded at Kally's question.
"Well, I did the apple spell, and when I threw the final piece of apple and looked around I saw Kaddar in the mirror," she finished in a rush, her eyes looking anxiously over Daine's face searching for her reaction.
Daine nodded. She wasn't surprised by Kalasin's revelation. She knew that Jon had been in the process of arranging a marriage for her to take place in five or six year's time but it hadn't been announced to who as of yet, but Daine had suspected it would be Kaddar.
He was a good man, intelligent and caring, and Daine was sure that he would be a good husband for the eldest daughter of Thayet and Jonathan; there were certainly many worse kings or princes that she could have been betrothed to.
"I think you will be very happy with him, Kalasin," she reassured her friend. "He's a nice man, he's kind, intelligent… he's open minded too, so he will let you have a big say in how things are done and if you want to change anything in the future."
Kally nodded, her eyes still filled with apprehension. "I just worry… I don't know. I was relieved when I saw him in the mirror. I have met him before and I did like him. But do you think he will like me?"
Daine laughed gently, giving the girl a hug. "How could he not? And besides, he's arranged this marriage too. Your father did it on your behalf, but it would have been Kaddar's choice and I bet he's had lots of princesses offered to him for marriage."
Kally's eyes brightened. "Do you think I should write to him, so we can get to know each other?"
"That might be a good idea, but I'd check with your ma first," Daine said, unsure if that would be the done thing.
She walked a tired Kalasin back to her room that she was sharing with Alanna's daughter, much to Alianne's delight. Seeing that Numair was still asleep on the chair where she had been sat she placed a blanket over him and crept back into their bed, into dreams of Weiryn, Kaddar and Kalasin.
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Numair had not woken when Alanna and George escorted Thom and Roald to bed, departing to their own bed chamber themselves. They had left the mage to sleep, assuming that Daine would wake him when she and Kalasin returned from wherever they had been. George had merely passed a smile at the tall man, who lay uncomfortably on the floor, his mouth slightly agape and muttering frequent non-sensical word that would have probably meant more to Daine than anybody else.
Numair had woken as the fire had begun to dim and the warmth in the room evaporating. He half opened his eyes, wondering where he was, briefly, before he remembered.
His eyes gazed over at the fire and what he saw made them open wide as the shadow of a man arose from the embers.
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Please review.
Also, dilemma – after this story there will be seven more, each with roughly the same amount of chapters.
Would you, as the reader, rather have each as a separate story or have them following on from this one, so you'd go to a new chapter of Festival Sequence, rather than a new story every 4/5 days? I would re label the chapters, so it would be Samhain Part 1, Samhain Part 11 etc. Let me know – the decision is yours!