okay so it's been a while. we'll pick up the morning after Talya and Yutton's wedding. You may have noticed that the end of that last chapter was the origin of the northerners' tradition of the bride and groom 'casting the net' and the couple that would be 'caught up' destined to be the next to go to the salt formation. Do you suppose that will work out in this primary case? wait and see...

Sanya woke in her own berth, in her own cabin, on her own ship. Jak was still lying asleep beside her.

She gently swept a lock of his wavy black hair out of his face and smiled. He only stirred slightly and mumbled her name.

So they hadn't needed the Lord of the Keep to let them share a room in his castle. And who cared if the proprietor of that fancy inn hadn't wanted to rent out to an unmarried couple? They had still spent the night together.

It had seemed like such a long time since they had picked up Talya and then her sister had kicked Jak out of the cabin while the captain was recuperating from her injuries. He was back where he belonged now and he didn't even seem to mind that her body was still tender and swollen from the fight.

Sanya rubbed her stomach. She didn't remember receiving any body blows so it felt strange that's where she would still be feeling the most discomfort. Maybe Yutton had given her a good kick after she had already fallen unconscious. She wouldn't put it past him. She didn't really want to think of what he was capable of, knowing that Talya was alone with him right now.

And yet that was the reason they were still moored in the Bralyk Keep harbor. Sanya wasn't about to sail away until she knew that Talya was alright in her new position as Lady of the Manor.

The captain of the Bloody Galia was going to march right up to that castle gate and demand to see her sister. And if Talya Harkon… Talya Bralykburn that is, had a single bruise on her body Sanya was going to gut that worthless chirn and the rest of his miserable household just like the Blackwells did so many years ago to the Shechel Clan.

She slipped out of bed and began to dress. Then she began to whistle, positively giddy about the idea of meeting out vengeance on anyone who might harm her sister. She pulled on her boots and then started to strap on her collection of various knives. All of this was an accomplishment on her own considering her hand was still bandaged from the cuts she had suffered from the wine bottle during her fight.

After a while Jak woke and sat up. He sat there with nothing but the sheet covering him to the waist and grinned at her happy mood. "And where are you off to on this fine morning, oh my captain."

She smiled back at him and pointed to her favorite dagger lying on the ledge beside the berth where he was lounging.

He handed it to her and she inserted it into its special sheath at her hip.

Then she leaned over and kissed him. "I'm going to go kill Bralykburn."

He laughed thinking she must be joking. "Any one of them in particular?" He asked.

"Any one of them who comes between me and my sister." She was deadly serious and she headed towards the door of the cabin.

"Now hold on there!" Jak scrambled to stand and hold the sheet up to cover himself as she opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. "Nya!" He followed after her wrapping the sheet more securely around his waist as he went. "Nya, have you thought about the fact that your sister is a Bralykburn now? She might take offense to your dispatching her new kin."

Sanya spun on her heel to face him paying no attention to the audience they were gathering. "Well, if they let me in to see her and she is in good enough condition to inform me of that herself then they won't have a problem, will they?"

She marched determinedly towards the gangplank.

"Captain!" Jak rushed forward only to have the trailing fabric catch on something. He had to stop to yank it free and rearrange his makeshift kilt before continuing in the chase. When he had managed that, he looked up to see that Sanya had stopped at the ship's rail and hadn't advanced down to the dock. He went to see what in salt gods names might have actually caused her to desist.

He came to stand beside her and she pointed with her bandaged hand at the procession that was making its way through the town from the castle to the harbor.

Looked like she wouldn't have to hunt down Yutton Bralykburn. He and Talya led the way to the harbor hand in hand and both blushing fiercely whenever they looked at each other.

Sanya stepped forth to intercept her sister when they reached the docks, but Talya wasn't having it. In quite possibly the greatest social snub anyone had gotten away with giving to Sanya Harkon, Talya turned her back on her sister in favor of kissing her husband. It was a modest kiss, but it was most definitely not chaste and left no doubt as to what the bride and groom had done after their reception last night.

Talya smiled at the completely starstruck Yutton and then deigned to speak to Sanya: "We're going to Harkon Hall to announce our marriage to the family in person," she said. "You and Jak should meet us there. I'm sure they'll approve of the two of you being together. He's a Blackwell after all. I was supposed to be betrothed to him before you went off."

Yutton cracked a grin as if thanking the salt gods that arrangement hadn't panned out and Sanya reached for her favorite blade. The nerve of him!

"Nya." Talya grabbed Sanya's arm, and squeezed. "I won't have you pulling blades in the presence of our family."

Sanya forced down the revulsion that she was now tied however loosely to the house of Bralykburn in favor of speaking to Talya. "How can you do this?" she hissed. "How can you become one of them? You've handed yourself over to them and become like...like a piece of property!"

"Excuse me?" Talya's voice was low and dangerous. None of those assembled had ever heard it before but Yutton knew to take a step back.

Sanya did not. "You said it yourself! 'I am his…'"

"And then I followed it with 'and he is mine!'" Talya snapped. "Yutton and I promised to face the world together. We are a partnership, and you can't talk about my husband the way you… I won't allow it." She took a deep breath and in a second was again the picture of calm and collection. "I've never said anything about the choices you've made, and I ask you to show me the same respect. Now Yutton and I are going to the Hall. You may follow us if you like."

Sanya picked up her jaw from the dock just in time before the newlyweds walked right past her. "Aye."

"Great. We'd love to have you. Oh, and Jak?" Talya turned her sweet gaze in his direction. "Please, find something to wear."

Sanya reached out to stop her sister but only got a handful of the scarf that was draped artfully around her neck. It became immediately apparent however, that fashion and the chill in the air were not the garment's primary function.

Talya quickly raised a hand to cover the small purplish mark that graced the spot just above the pulse point on her throat. Sanya's intent became more urgent. She yanked her sister a ways away from the others and hissed, "He did hurt you, didn't he? I'll kill him!"

"Nya," Talya attempted to explain once again with an exasperated sigh. "No, he didn't." She was a little more flustered now saying these things out loud but she knew that her sister wouldn't let it be. She kept her voice low. "Not any more than what I knew to expect the first time… Dalla told me all about… what mother never prepared us for."

Sanya shrugged knowing this to be true. Her own education on the subject had come from whores before the first time she and Jak shared a bed.

"Besides," Talya pushed her sister's hair back over her shoulder revealing a similar bruise that hadn't been there the previous day. "I'm not the only one who was marked while in a man's passionate embrace last night."

Sanya pulled away and shook her head so that her hair would fall back over the love bite Jak had given her and her black eye. That was none of Talya's business and she was about to say so before she heard the tone shift in her sister's voice.

"Nya, when my… husband and I became one, I began to understand the attachment that you and Jak share." She looked back towards where the men were standing waiting for them. Jak hadn't retreated to his cabin on the ship to dress but was still standing there watching them with a ruping stare. "He loves you. I believe he always has. The match that our parents had planned between him and I would have never worked, but the two of you… Please come back to the Hall with us."

"Maybe," Sanya mumbled. "If we're sailing that direction anyway."

…

"We should follow them, you know," Jak said back in their cabin after he'd located his clothes and the Bloody Galia had left Bralyk Keep behind. "We could stop by the Hold and tell my family as well."

"Why, so we can watch your Lord father boil over with rage?" she scoffed. "He won't react pleasantly."

"We could give him something to react pleasantly about." He took her hands in his own. "We should get married."

"Jak, I…"

"You wouldn't have to wear a dress." He smirked. "You wouldn't have to wear anything. There's this hot spring at Blackhold and we could go skinny dipping and say the words and it would still be in the light of the salt gods."

"Jak, be serious." She rolled her eyes.

"I am serious. Our families wouldn't be opposed to our marriage."

Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Aye, that's what scares me."