Notes by D.K.: I first mentioned the Rash family's vacation to Blackhold in chapter 46 of the Ashla Awareness, it seems to have left an impression on more than just Sanjay and his sister.

…

Soon enough they reached harbor and whether she hadn't realized it or whether she hadn't made up her mind and didn't want to face it yet, Shara wasn't just racing down the gangplank to get away from him.

There was, to Jamos's surprise and delight, someone else coming up the to the Polaris' deck almost as soon as they docked.

"Brother!" He called out, welcoming Marlon Blackwell, aboard along with his wife, Lana, and the newest member of the clan, the long awaited Dalla.

They were both beaming over the strong, healthy baby girl.

"It was a good voyage then?" Lana asked.

"Most of it." Jamos wasn't sure how much of the story he was ready to tell them. That and he was just itching to get a chance to hold his niece.

"Looks like an unprecedented catch." Marlon watched as the crates of fish were unloaded.

"Aye. Aye, it was good."

Lana was the first to notice his distraction. "You took on a new beast master for this trip? How is she working out?" There was a definite accent on the word 'she'.

Jamos gave her a pained expression.

Lana passed the baby to her husband put her hands on her brother-in-law's shoulders. "Tell me." It was amazing how the much shorter woman could make him feel so young when she looked so sternly up at him.

"She's amazing, strong, smart, beautiful. Her work with the Brylks…"

"First mate got a holo." Marlon was holding the baby in one arm and a projector in his free hand.

"He did?" Jamos watched the girl in the projection as if she were brighter than a star, and Lana watched him.

"Whoa!" Marlon exclaimed when the girl turned the pod and the shoal with apparent ease. "She's good."

Lana cleared her throat and got a guilty look from her husband before she turned back to Jamos. "She sounds perfect. What's the problem?"

"Well," he took a deep breath. "She married."

"No." Lana said cutting him off right there. "She's off limits. Don't even think about it. Let her go and move on."

"It's not that simple, Lana." He raked his fingers through his hair. "He was awful to her. She came up here to get away from him."

"He hurt her?"

"Not physically, I don't think. No. But if you just hear her talk about it. I can't let her go back to that."

Lana still didn't look convinced she glanced at her husband who gave her a 'leave me out of this' shake of his head. She sighed and took charge. "Did you ever think that maybe this is a personal issue and you shouldn't get yourself and your family involved? I mean do you even know who she is, who her family is, who her husband is?" She emphasized the word as if to remind him that the girl had a husband and he wasn't it.

"Her name is Shara Rash." Jamos told her.

"Rash?" Marlon perked up.

Lana's reaction was incensed. "Rash!"

"Yeah," Jamos looked back and forth between them. "She said it was an important family but it wasn't a name that I thought I remembered. Should I?"

"Maybe not." Lana looked thoughtful.

"It might not be the same one." Marlon suggested, bouncing his daughter in his arms.

Lana smiled at her husband. She obviously loved him now but Jamos knew that his brother and sister-in-law had their problems in the past. "Where is she?" She asked gently.

"First cabin, below deck." Jamos told her.

Lana patted his shoulder. "I'll talk to her."

...

"Beast Master Rash?"

Shara wasn't sure which surprised her more the fact that the voice addressing her from the other side of the door was female or the compassion that she could almost feel radiating through the panel. "Yes?" she called back.

"I'm Lana Blackwell. I'd like to speak to you, if you'll let me in?"

Shara breathed deeply, rose from her tiny bunk, and took the barely two steps necessary to cross the room and open the door. When she did she found that the woman on the other side was not much older than she was herself. Yet the way she carried herself and the confidence in her voice made her appear much more mature than Shara felt at the moment. "You can call me, Shara."

"Shara." Lana smiled and looked around at the tiny cabin. "Cozy in here, isn't it?" She entered without asking and sat on the edge of the bed because it was the only seat. Shara closed the door and also sat.

"You haven't been closeted in here for the whole voyage, I hope. Well other than your marvelous job with the catch, I mean."

Shara shook her head. "No, not all of it. But after... I thought it would be best if I didn't run into...the Captain."

Lana sighed. "What did that brother-in-law of mine do?"

"He," Shara hesitated and then continued. "He kissed me. I-in front of the crew. And I'd told him I wasn't free to... He knew I... have a husband. I suppose the crew didn't know about that but he did and..."

"Tell me about this husband of yours." Lana invited confidence. Shara could already tell she had found a friend the likes of which she had never imagined that she would find again after Melaana's death.

Shara looked down at her hands twisted in her lap and began. "His name is Sanjay Rash and there was once that I thought he loved me, and that I loved him."

She went on to tell Lana about how she had met Sanjay while delivering fruit to the Rash home, how the young man had seemed amazed that she took care of the transaction completely on her own from haggling with the cook over the price to unloading the merchandise. "If you think this is impressive you should see me ride a dalgos," she had joked. But he said he'd like to and that he would find a way to do so.

They started seeing more and more of each other, and he opened up to her about his overbearing mother and all of the expectations of being the oldest son and child of a prominent family.

"He said he wished he could be free, like me, to do as he pleased. Well, I told him I was hardly free, but he didn't see it that way. And then after we'd been seeing each other for a while he said that if he was expected to produce an heir for the family he wanted it to be... with me."

Shara looked up at the other woman who was still listening to her intently. Then looked away again and shrugged. "So we decided to try. I guess it should have been a red flag, the fact that he thought it would be better to introduce me to his mother after I was carrying his child. He was worried that she might not accept the daughter of a merchant but if she had a grandchild that would go a long way to smoothing the path."

Tears filled Shara's eyes realizing just how wrong she had been. Lana put a comforting hand on her arm and though she didn't interrupt, her expression encouraged Shara to continue her story.

Shara smiled sadly. "And then he told me that his sister had met a Beast Rider also. I knew Bremon of course. He was an orphan, raised by all of the clans. He was like my brother. It was sweet to see them together at the Summer Fete. Anyone could see they belonged together but Melaana's family had her betrothed to someone else. She couldn't marry Brem unless there was a representative of the Rash family there as a witness."

Shara's eyes widened as she repeated the words. "She couldn't marry Brem without a representative from the family as a witness!"

Lana's brow creased inquisitively. "Go on."

"Well," Shara continued with more energy than she had thus possessed in her narrative. "Sanjay said that since we had someone right there who could officiate our vows we might as well go ahead. Mel needed an alibi for being away on her honeymoon anyway so it made sense that Sanjay and I could take some of the attention away from them."

"So your marriage was a complete surprise to his whole family?" Lana asked.

"To my father as well." Shara nodded. "At first the news seemed to go over rather well. I was welcomed into their home. There was talk of building on a new addition and when Melaana was away and married to her betrothed, her rooms would be turned into a nursery for the heir… when there was one. Mother Rash even bought a midwife droid to watch over me before and during my pregnancies."

"Thoughtful." Lana shook her head.

"Yes I- I felt like a prisoner. I was so protected I couldn't even get away to explain things to my father. Melaana helped or she tried to. She convinced them that I'd rather have a garden than a new wing of the house and I was able to go and visit my dalgos. And then Mel found out that she was expecting and that took a lot of pressure off Sanjay and I. That was the best time. When Melaana was happy everyone was happy." She smiled and then sorrow filled her expression once again. "And then she was gone. She was in danger somehow, or the baby was. Something about Brem's uncle and an old Sith Lord. Brem told her to go, to fly away from whatever it was and she… she crashed. The baby died with her."

Lana hugged her new friend and let her cry.

"After that things were different." Shara sniffed. "Mother Rash had lost her first chance at a grandchild and Brem's uncle was so angry, he sort of cursed the family, said there would never be a Rash heir. I just saw my friend, my brother really, who had lost his wife and child, grieving and I wanted to be there for him."

"They assumed you were attempting to get a child by someone else?"

Shara nodded and then sobbed before she burst out. "Sanjay called me a whore! I know it was just because of his mother. She'd poisoned him against me. He said we'd…try once more and then he could have the child tested to make sure it was really his."

"He didn't give you a choice in the matter." It wasn't a question. Shara knew the other woman had read between the lines that her husband had forced her.

Shara shook her head. "If there had been a child maybe it could have fixed things."

"No," Lana said gently. "You know it wouldn't have. You were right to leave. It was not right what they did to you and it was not your fault." She tipped up Shara's face and made the younger girl look her in the eye. "Marlon and I had trouble conceiving, too, but it brought us together. It didn't drive us apart. It didn't make us start second guessing our loyalty. It was our battle that we fought together and eventually we won." She smiled. "We have a little girl."

"Con-" Shara hiccuped. "Congratulations."

"We didn't have the best start. It was an arranged marriage."

"R-really?"

Lana smiled. "Can I tell you a story?"

Shara nodded.

"As soon as Jamos said your name was Rash, I knew who your husband was. I met him a long time ago."

"You're Lana Flint! Melaana said…"

Lana laughed, "I was. It's Blackwell now and rightly so. But yes my birth house was Flint. I was only thirteen when my parents announced my betrothal to Marlon. I was devastated. I couldn't imagine being bargained away to some boy I hardly knew. Anyway, the same night that our betrothal was to be announced the Hold was playing host to family from Iziz."

"The Rash family."

"That's right." She told Shara about the grand banquet in the Great Hall. How her own family, the Flints, were given the table just to the right of the dias and the Rashes as esteemed guests were given the table to the left. "So there I was nervous and confused and angry at the unfairness of it all, trying not to make eye contact with Marlon at the head table. And there was this other boy sitting directly across from me, about my age."

"He was 12," Shara spoke up. "Melaana was 9. She told me."

"He was tall for his age, and exotic, from the south, not like the northern boys, and he had that rebellious, brooding expression."

"Yes, that sounds like Sanjay." Shara almost smiled, remembering hearing Melaana tell part of the same story. Then seemingly out of nowhere she asked, "Jamos was there?"

"He was." Lana tried to judge the question. "He says he doesn't remember the Rashes but I was sure he would at least remember Melaana. She convinced him to take her out to see the Brylks. I said they could use my boat. I was just trying to get away from Marlon. Sanjay decided to tag along also." She sighed. "While the two of them were discussing the animals your husband and I were making elaborate plans to run away together. We were going to take my boat and he insisted that we sail someplace warm, with ripe fruit dropping right off the trees."

Shara couldn't help it, she giggled. "That's Sanjay, alright." And then she broke out sobbing once again. "Why did he have to turn out to be such a…" Here she uttered a word in Hutteese that would have shocked Lana had she not grown up around rough sailors herself. As it was it made Lana quite sure that once this poor girl had been given some time to heal, she was going to fit in just fine in the North.

"I don't know." Lana comforted her. "Probably mostly to do with his mother…"

"But Melaana was nothing like that. She was…"

"Your friend Melaana was trying her best not to turn into her mother but she was just as strong."

Shara nodded. "Yes, you're right. Sanjay was always a weak momma's boy. I just chose not to see it."

"It's why you came here, wasn't it?" Lana asked. "You knew they wouldn't follow you to Blackhold."

"I had an idea they wouldn't want to come back here."

"Smart. I doubt Mother Rash would ever want to set foot here again."

"I never understood" Shara sniffed. "Why did she hate it so much? I would have thought if she knew Jamos was around Melaana's age…"

Lana laughed. "Aye, she may have liked that idea once but she was pretty disappointed by their vacation."

"She wasn't hoping that you and Sanjay…"

"No. After they left, I did a little checking. Turns out Mother Rash was originally a Northern girl herself."

Shara gasped.

"Sanda Kretash was her name. Her father was the second mate on a ship that belonged to House Harkon. They had plenty of credits to live comfortably but there was no chance of upward mobility in the society."

"How did she get to Iziz, then?"

Lana laughed again. "She won a pageant."

"What?" Shara asked amazed.

"Aye. She was Miss North Sea, if you can believe it. Won a trip down to the capital, got to wave in a parade, go to a ball, or something like that. I guess she determined never to leave the city. Won the heart of the heir of an up and coming house and broke all ties with her family up here."

"Sanjay never mentioned…"

Lana shook her head, "I don't think she ever told them. Of course when the family came up here for their little holiday, she was hoping that somebody might recognize her and see how far she had risen but nobody did. We all thought they were just some random southern tourists."

"Serves her right." Shara mumbled.

"Sounds like she deserves a lot worse than just a social snub."

"Yeah." Shara agreed. "Yeah she does."

Lana patted her arm and smiled. "Well, you don't have to go through this alone. House Blackwell is with you."

"Thank you."

Shara may have shed more grateful tears but at that moment they heard a deep, panicked cry. "Jamos! What if you accidentally let her go?!"

Lana swore and was up and out of the room in a heartbeat. Shara was quick on her heels.

Jamos was by the rail, flying his niece precariously over the water. "Then I'd dive in after her and catch her before she even hit the water. What kind of an uncle do you think I am?"

The baby was giggling in a high pitched shriek.

"Isn't that right, Chirn Bait?" He pulled the little girl close to his chest and cuddled her, before swinging her back out over the water again.

"Jamos Emoth Blackwell," Lana bellowed. "Don't let me ever catch you doing that again!"

He looked sheepishly at her for a moment, holding his giggling niece more carefully. "I won't," he said seriously and then with a grin and a loud whisper to the baby. "Let her catch me." Then he noticed Shara standing behind his sister-in-law and his entire demeanor changed. Instantly he was the perfect, doting guardian, as if trying to prove to her what a conscientious father he would be someday.

Whatever she saw in him either before or after the about face, it seemed to have a great effect on her. Tears came to her eyes and all she could think was that if only she hadn't made the biggest mistake in recorded history, she could have had a man like that.

Lana went and took the baby from his arms while he continued to stare transfixed at Shara.

Marlon finally broke the silence. "So this must be the new beast master I've heard so much about."

Shara blinked a few times and then turned toward the lord of Blackhold. She gave him a deep respectful curtsy and then rose saying, "My name is Shara Rupingwood. My family has been historically aligned to house Kira but today I pledge myself to House Blackwell."

The lord's eyebrows raised, impressed. Then he smiled. "I accept your pledge and offer all the hospitality and protection of our house."

It all sounded very formal but the words were meant on both sides to convey respect and honor.

After a moment the big man bounded over to her in just few quick steps and wrapped her in a welcoming hug. "Come on, Shara. You're part of the family now."

"Oh!" The action surprised her and she went stiff for a moment but then she relaxed and smiled shyly. "Thank you, my lord."

"Now, none of that. It's Marlon." He winked. "Come and meet my baby girl." He was certainly proud of the infant.

Shara remembered holding Steela when she was that age. Now the Gerreras' little girl would be almost a year old. "May I hold her?" She asked tentatively.

Lana nodded and passed the little girl on to her new friend.

"Hello." Shara said brightly.

"Her name's Dalla." Jamos said close beside her.

"Dalla." She repeated glancing back over her shoulder at him before returning her attention to the baby.

"So you've decided to stay." She didn't need to look at him to hear the smile in his voice.

"I guess I have."

His brother and sister-in-law had moved a few steps away but he still lowered his voice. "Then you really should marry me."

That got her flustered and she blushed. "You know I'm not free to…"

"Well if you were… when you are, I'll still be here asking."

"Jamos, even if I was…"

"Say it again." He grinned.

She looked back at him confused. "Say what?"

"My name. It's been nothing but Captain for a week now. I was beginning to think you forgot."

She raised an eyebrow but didn't rise to the bait. "If I was free, I still…" she frowned and turned her gaze to the baby for distraction from her pain. "I don't know how long it will be, if ever, till I can…"

He put a hand on her shoulder and addressed his niece in a cooing voice but his words were for Shara, "I'll still be here, won't I, Chirn Bait?"

A few steps away Lana whispered to her husband, "What happened to your married to the sea, never going to give up the bachelor life, little brother?"

"No idea." Marlon put his arms around his wife while they watched the other couple. "I thought he was gonna leave the family thing to you and me."

"Well one thing is for sure, we're going to have to keep an eye on these two." Lana leaned back against him.

"Why's that? They look like they could get along pretty well on their own."

She gave him a patient yet pitying look. "Her husband has already accused her of infidelity. It wouldn't do for her to turn up pregnant before her divorce is finalized."

"True." He nodded.

"You know though, there was something she said about her wedding." Lana mused.

"Aye, what's that?"

"They eloped, didn't have any family witnesses."

Marlon frowned. "Is that legal?"

"I don't believe it is."

….

It was the sound of the clinking chain as the anchor was being raised that alerted her. "I thought we were going ashore," said Shara. She was still holding little Dalla and it surprised her that they would be going anywhere with a baby on board even if Lana hadn't just told her that they would get right to work settling whatever needed to be settled with Sanjay. Shara wanted that done with as soon as possible whether or not it meant starting anything with the man beside her now, who still couldn't seem to take his eyes off her.

Jamos looked over his shoulder and then right back at her again. "One more little journey before we go back to the Hold."

"But you're the captain and I didn't hear you give the order." She blushed under his gaze.

"I'm surrendering the wheel to my brother for this occasion."

She gave him a questioning expression.

"It all for this little one actually." Jamos touched his niece's hand and Dalla grasped his finger and pulled it into her mouth. He grinned. "It's a northern custom, probably not one you're familiar with."

Lana joined them and reached out her hands to her daughter. "Today is the day Dalla will be baptized in the light of the salt gods." She held the baby in one arm and with her free hand she pressed her thumb to her lips and then held up the same hand palm facing away from herself.

Jamos repeated the motion and then the words. "In the light of the salt gods."

Shara was intrigued.

"Look there." Marlon Blackwell called from the wheel. He no doubt knew his wife and brother would be explaining things to her even if he couldn't hear the whole conversation from where he stood. He pointed in the direction they were sailing and Shara looked but she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be seeing.

"The white formation standing at the edge of the land, it's the eldest of the salt gods. Well, we call it that. It's supposedly the first one discovered by our ancestor, Aloysius Blackwell." Jamos told her.

"That's a salt god?" she asked trying not to sound disrespectful.

Lana filled in more of the tale. "Aloysius and his followers were traveling in a deep fog when the clouds broke and the sun shone down on the face of the salt god and there they found a place to settle and food and fresh water and everything they needed to survive."

Jamos grinned. "Legend says it looked more like a face back then. The formations have eroded and redeposited so many times over the centuries, we really have no idea what they may have looked like originally."

"Formations? There are more than just this one?" Shara asked. She was fascinated and a little humbled by the fact that the family was including her in such an important occasion.

"They're dotted all through the islands. But wherever a salt god was found we also found water to drink and … look at that." Jamos's hand was on her shoulder again as he pointed out towards the base of the formation.

"The Brylks!" She realized. "The salt gods led your ancestors to the Brylks!"

"Aye. Or the Brylks led them to the salt gods there's some debate on which came first." He gazed into her eyes and after a moment she forced herself to look away.

Shara tried to focus on the sacred salt formation rather than the hand that remained on her shoulder, slid down to just above her elbow and then back again. "So, you still pay your respects to the salt gods for what they did for your ancestors?"

She jumped at the sound of the anchor being lowered once again and Marlon came to join them.

It was he who answered her question. "We also call on them occasionally in our hour of need."

Lana raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Your hour of need? Is that what you're calling it now?"

He laughed and grabbed her, pulling her into his arms. "Well, it worked didn't it. They heard me. Gave us our baby girl."

Shara blushed at the insinuation but Jamos just laughed as he took Dalla from her mother. "Please! Can't you two restrain yourselves in front of my niece."

As much as it embarrassed her, it was also bittersweet to see a couple who loved each other so much. It reminded her of Melaana and Bremon. Oh how they would have enjoyed celebrating their little girl, Shara's niece… She noticed after a moment that they were all preparing to go out in the little ship's boat that had taken her to her beast mastering duties. "I - I guess I'll just wait here till you get back."

"Don't be daft. You're coming with us." Jamos held out his hand toward her to seat her in the boat next to Lana.

Shara hedged. "But I'm not … I'm not a member of the family. I'm not even from the north. I don't know your ways."

Lana patted the seat next to her. "There's no better time to learn. You do want to learn, don't you?"

She hesitated a moment and then glanced over at Jamos who still had his hand extended and looked back at her expectantly. She nodded and moved forward to sit next to Lana. The baby was placed in her arms once again while the boat was lowered. Then the two brothers rowed them out to the foot of the eldest salt god.

"You know," Lana said. "We've never done this before either. I know the words that my mother said over my siblings and my aunts said over my cousins but Dalla is the first Blackwell baby of this generation."

Marlon elbowed his brother. "Hopefully the first of many."

Again Shara blushed when Jamos's eyes locked with hers for a second before she looked back down at the baby she was holding. She shouldn't even be thinking such a thing. She was married and not to him. For two years she had tried unsuccessfully for a child. Even if… No, she wouldn't torture herself. She could not even entertain the idea of adding to the Blackwell family.

"She was the first Blackwell girl in several generations." Lana announced, drawing Shara out of her thoughts.

"Oh, really?"

Marlon laughed. "The midwife asked if we wanted to find out what we were going to have. Lana said we already knew."

"Everyone bought us presents for a boy." Lana smiled down at her daughter. "And we had the perfect name picked out: Thias Modon Blackwell."

"Then Chirn Bait pops out." Jamos grinned.

Marlon feinted hitting his brother with his oar. "Well, we weren't going to name her that."

"Well, you were no help," said Lana. "Staring at her all starry eyed while I was frantically searching the holonet for a decent name so we could announce the delivery of the Blackwell heir."

"I asked the midwife what her name was," Marlon shrugged.

Lana rolled her eyes. "And then when you didn't like Niamh you asked her to spout out every other girl's name she'd ever heard of."

"I liked Niamh." He argued back. "I just didn't want my daughter to have to explain how pronounce it every time somebody saw it in print. Anyway, when she said she had a childhood friend called Dalla, I knew that was the one."

It was Jamos that picked up the story from them. "So they send out the announcement and an hour later we get this comm from Grandmother Flint." He cleared his throat and then went into a high pitched imitation of the old woman. "Of all the names in the universe, you picked the most common one? Do you know how many Dallas I have to keep track of now?"

They all laughed and as they approached the foot of the salt formation Shara assumed she would hand Dalla back to one of her parents for the actual ceremony. Jamos, however took a stone bowl and reached out to fill it with water from the sea. She realized that she was as much a part of this as any of them. Jamos handed the bowl to Marlon and Marlon nodded to Lana.

Lana laid her hand on Dalla's head and recited, "For this child I asked and she was given. Therefore I shall raise her in the light of the salt gods, with the help of these present." Then she looked to Marlon who repeated, "In the light of the salt gods." as he poured the water from the bowl over his daughter's head being careful not to get it into her eyes.

"In the light of the salt gods." Jamos also repeated, smiling down at the baby.

And then they all looked to Shara. "I don't…" she began helplessly.

But Lana smiled at her. "With the help of these present, includes you."

Shara looked around at each of them and then asked, "You mean I should say the words, as well?" She received smiles and nods. Then she looked down at Dalla and knew this child would change her life forever. "Alright. I hardly know what it means but…In the light of the salt gods."

…

Thank you Johnt12345 and Starwarshobbitfics for your reviews on the last chapter and thank you L.S. for allowing me to write Lana. You created her and I know how important she is in Dalla's memory. It is an honor to give her life.

Also, coming soon to our forum will be a little extra information about the religion of the north. Drop by and say hello and L.S. and I will try to answer any questions you might have.