Ygdis moved through the jubilant crowds, eyes open and searching for white hair or amber eyes- She'd always had a knack for rooting out people that didn't belong.
Different could mean danger, sometimes. If Maia's reaction was anything to go by, it was serious enough that Ygdis could feel the angry concern bubbling over streets away.
Brown-black-grey-grey-white-THERE!
Skirting a group of hornfootmen, she came face to face with a short man with long, whispy white hair. Amber eyes, yes, and Grenwin hadn't mentioned such long whiskers…
She'd want this to seem casual, not to worry anyone.
Ygdis watched out of the corner of her eye, didn't see anyone paying much mind to her. Leaning over to speak lowly, "Are you Tunerk?"
The man nodded with a grin, saluting her in their new fashion, left-handed fist resting in an upraised palm, followed by a short bow at the shoulders. Ygdis didn't get any of why it was so important to some of the hornfoots, only that it was.
"I am Tunerk. Your lady has sent for me, then?" He snorted, long mustaches swaying as he nodded. "Please take me to her."
She studied him, looking for any signs of treachery or harm. The man had sworn to fight, just as Ygdis and everyone else in the new army had. Come to think, he had looked satisfied at the time… Satisfaction in finding a place to belong, or satisfaction from something else?
Of course, there were more pressing questions to ask, questions they'd never had to worry about asking newcomers.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Holding those amber eyes with her own, she demanded answers. She was Maia's sister, just as much as Grenwin was hers. First the Others, now strange men who meddled? Wariness felt the safest option.
"Silk hiding steel, Ygdis. It's one kind of way of looking at the world," Maia said, "Same with keeping your enemies close, closer than allies. You can trust an ally to hold their bargain if you can make one, but you need to watch enemies. We can't underestimate anyone or anything when it comes to our survival. Could you, having met me?"
Tunerk looked normal, yes. A reasonably well-kept elder who looked like he knew well how to use the arms slung on back and waist, but otherwise…
"I said, I'm Tunerk. That's my name," A pause, "Commander."
Ygdis did not blink at the obvious reminder that she outranked him. Giving orders! To an elder!
Wait, that did answer both my questions. In a way, a very Maia way.
Came from outside, acts strange, not running. Most who don't know her personally would, and she hasn't noticed those who have.
Just a few since the slavers, but a few leaving would spread word, and that's what she had wanted to happen, right?
Her eyes opened wide, "Are you her father?"
Tunerk chuckled, a low chortling that started in the belly and grew. Wiping a tear from his eye, "Heh, now that is funny. No, no, she's certainly not mine. If you aren't here to take me to her, why did you seek me?"
"I- I am, I wanted to know if, ah…"
A white brow lifted, "If I am a threat?" He patted his belt knife, "Of course I am. Isn't that the point? How else would I uphold the promise I made when we all swore to defend our people."
Enough of this. She eyed the three silk knots at his shoulder. Two white, one gold.
"Have you had to lead men to war, Ygdis?" Grenwin asked, fire crackling and keeping the chill at bay. "I have. You can't treat everyone the same. Some warriors, you need to lay things out, get them to see what you see. Most are happy enough to place their trust in you and follow your lead. Others, tell them outright. People like to talk, so remember that sometimes you need to give direct, simple orders. Go here, do this, guard that, watch that prisoner. The trick is to put them to work before they notice, and if you do that, they'll keep it up. We like having something to do."
"Captain Tunerk, come with me." She gave him a hard look, ignoring the small twitch of a smile she caught, turned on her heel and strode away purposefully.
She wasn't surprised that the man kept up, matching her stride.
"You won't always have a chance to think. Sometimes, you'll need to act." Tunerk said conversationally. Ygdis shot him a look and he fell quiet with a smirk.
He's not wrong, but you don't have to like it.
Right, now to find Grenwin, and then Maia. Or, wait, why had Tunerk said that Maia sent for him?
"You felt it too?" Ygdis asked, "A few minutes ago."
When Jinhe moved that dirt… Why did it feel like treading water, unable to see the bottom below our feet? At least she understood Maia, mostly. If she said she wouldn't hurt you, she wouldn't. An Ogier? What if they have more who can do that? Grenwin was right to be wary.
The amber-eyed man considered for a moment, "Yes."
She looked at him, sharp gaze searching- Truth.
Rounding a turn ahead of them, Maia stormed out into the street, searching. The moment she saw Ygdis, her gaze softened, but when she saw who she was with-
Grenwin had said that jumping from bearback was the closest thing to flying she'd known.
Ygdis thought she might rather that than be carried aloft by invisible cords of power, unceremoniously brought closer and dropped onto good solid ground. At least jumping was a choice.
Tunerk was standing, relaxed, and only the imprint of his bindings on his uniform showed anything unusual was amiss.
"Lady Maia! I would offer the customary greetings, but…" He wiggled a shoulder and gave her a nonplussed look.
She looks upset. Ygdis thought, tinged with shock. I've never seen her like this before.
She was practically vibrating with anger and concern. It was bad enough that the woman wasn't speaking, and Nana had told Ygdis over and over again that someone who was worried can do far greater harm than someone who was just angry.
"Hey, Maia?" Ygdis tried, receiving a snarling look for her trouble.
Reaching out, she squeezed the shorter woman's shoulder. "It's fine, I don't think he's going to do anything to hurt us. He promised." Ygdis kept her tone even.
Shaking her head, Maia refocused on the amber-eyed man. "Captain Tunerk. I am led to believe that you provoked Jinhe into revealing his people's secrets. You knew. And you said nothing."
He nodded, unruffled. "As soon as I realized, I brought him to you, yes."
She frowned, thinking. Ygdis watched as anger cooled and her sister put the mask back on.
"We will have this conversation in private. Ygdis, can you find Grenwin? We're going to be borrowing one of the engineer's offices."
Meet us in the archive, Ygdis caught. Nodding, she gave another look at Tunerk, "Maia, I don't know if he's against us, but he swore with the rest of us. If he was a threat, I don't think he'd do something dumb enough to get him kicked out."
Exiled, not dead. She left the reminder hanging in the air as she went to follow orders. Worried people can do stupid things sometimes and Ygdis wanted to make sure.
That Maia had told her to leave while they talked hurt. It wasn't right to leave family out like that! Not when it sounded important!
***
Grenwin nearly ran right into Ygdis in her haste to turn a corner. Reflexively reaching out and catching her apprentice, "Have you seen him?"
Ygdis nodded, "I brought him to her, she wanted to talk to him alone for a minute. We're supposed to meet her in the archive hall."
Grenwin relaxed, marginally. She didn't care how odd the man was, if Maia had her eyes on him, he wasn't getting away this time.
"Let's go get answers," she told Ygdis as they set off to push through the crowds in front of the Lodge, and then within. A clamor of celebration, music and singing and the scents of freshly baked sweetsap treats, greeted them through the open doors.
Any other time, Grenwin would have made an excuse for the two of them to grab a few of those treats. Ygdis had been making excellent progress in her training and Grenwin hadn't yet found a way to reward her. After, she thought.
A moment later and they were in the odd white-walled hall, passing a pair of men talking excitedly. She picked up snatches of their conversation, something about leverage and stability, and she resolved to ask later. She had more than a few ideas of her own for weapons that she wanted to follow-up with.
Then they were in the chilly air of the archive hall. Quiet murmurings from the two dozen or so men and women working on plundering the depths of the library.
"Even with the skill to use these terminals and browse around, there's just so much to look through," Maia pointed at the colorful images lit by cold fire, "I'm just glad that it's not incomprehensible. Do you think Symon appreciated the thermite we made?"
Grenwin had answered yes, then, and was glad she had. The Guindilla arrows that they'd later tested had been impressive. Hard to imagine that if any of them had said no, they would have had one less thing to fight the Others with.
Eyeing Ygdis, she wondered how much of what they could make would really stand. The Maulers weren't theirs. Built by a different people for a different war, Maia said, and hadn't said any more than that.
Remembering the way that shadow had been wounded instead of killed by something that should have been the perfect weapon…
Well, there was no perfect weapon, and they'd need to think long and hard about where and how to use those arrows.
As they approached one of the side-offices of the archive, Grenwin heard muffled swearing. Speeding their pace, she and Ygdis burst into the office, prepared for violence should it be necessary.
Maia was angry, but not nearly as bad as she had been. This was the familiar anger of none-can-have-them, not anything immediately murderous. Not like after the slavers.
Grenwin held the smaller woman close, brushing hair and staunchly refusing to flinch at the sparks that danced near the ground. It was hot through her boots, hot enough she dared not touch the earth. Burns were some of the worst wounds she'd had before and she had no great wish to add more to her tally.
Her Da had taught her how to handle an injured direwolf cub, once. The family had been killed by a group of starving nightrunners, far further north than Da said they lived.
"Direwolves are like us, more than we admit. We live by our bears, but the bears do not think like we do. That cub, girl? You would heal something that kills to survive. It is angry, injured, and scared. Act slowly and implacably. Do not flinch from a predator, as flinching signals fear, and fear means prey."
So, Grenwin tried very, very hard to be still, keep her fingers brushing through hair, and murmuring that everyone is safe and that the danger has passed. It took far longer than she would have hoped, several hours at least, but eventually the sparks and unnatural heat died down, and the odd woman acknowledged Grenwin for the first time since the battle.
Tunerk was standing, not sitting, steadily and bearing the full brunt of the young woman's temper.
"-it's not alive, I don't know what you're saying! Just speak clearly!"
To his credit, Tunerk wasn't flinching either. Most would, at least by Grenwin's reckoning, which was unusual. Everybody was scared the first few times Maia had done something flashy, and none of those had been the target of this. The boy who had fled days ago.
"Have you looked at the Weirwood, yet?" Tunerk asked calmly, saluting and bowing to Grenwin and Ygdis.
Who bows?
…Maia did, when we first met. Grenwin realized with a bit of a start. It wasn't identical, but it was odd.
"Grenwin, what did this man do to your tribe?" Maia asked, eyeing the possibly-ex-soldier askance.
Ygdis sat in one of those comfortable chairs that spun, watching with those sapphire eyes of hers.
What had the man done to them?
"Nothing proveaable." Grenwin said, watching Tunerk. "My Da said that an elder from another tribe would visit every few years."
"Not every few years, every summer." Tunerk corrected firmly, "When… The sun can watch over the lands far to the north, I would travel with their tribe for a time."
Grenwin frowned, nodding reluctantly. Put like that, she understood. A little.
"There is an implication here," Maia told him, "That you were present when the Others attacked that tribe."
Oh, Grenwin hadn't thought of that, true as it was. He had been there, but he was as much a victim as anyone else.
Tunerk's whiskers trembled as he blew a sad breath out through his mouth. "I was. I could not save as many as I hoped," he looked at Grenwin, shook his head.
Ygdis slammed her palms on the table. "Alright! Enough of this!" She stood, grabbing Maia's shoulders and shaking her. "We are not lords and ladies! If you have something to say, say it, don't just… Imply! The man was there, fine, but you're suggesting he brought the Others?"
"What else do you want me to think?" Maia snapped back, "Grenwin tells me he might be dangerous, Jinhe tells me he knows things, and you…" She turned back to Tunerk.
Taking a deep breath through her nose, she breathed evenly for a moment, calming herself. "Captain Tunerk, I owe you an apology. I should not have implied that you brought the Others. You yourself only arrived recently and they'd been building in force for a while now."
The elderly man inclined his head. "Accepted."
Grenwin looked, really looked, at the man. He was as old as he'd always been, but Da had said he'd been visiting them before she had been born…
"My arrival here was fortunate." He chuckled, relaxing and inviting everyone to share the joke. Grenwin, especially, for some reason. "I did say I came to your tribe every summer."
She blinked, remembering the odd warmth of the morning. "It was cold enough to freeze a man solid last night, but the snow is melting today."
Maia looked between them, "So? It's been cold, and now it isn't. That's weather, right?"
No, Grenwin thought with a peculiar feeling. Like when she'd squirmed into a bear's den to find it led to a series of caverns. Surrounded by darkness for days before she found her way out, finding the bones of those who starved to death…
She shivered, shaking her head. "Maia, summers are cold, still. There is snow in the summer."
The woman had the decency to look curious, "Then what do you propose happened, Tunerk?"
Shrugging, "I can't say for certain. I've seen Ogier shape their homes out of stone as easily as they do wood, and within a Stedding they are dangerous beyond reckoning. Beyond, and they cannot. The Earth within is alive, it listens to them. When I saw Jinhe writing, I wondered what exactly they had told you about their abilities. It was most likely that you knew, though his reaction said that you did not."
"I can understand how breaking a contract might be bad," Maia started before the aged man cut her off.
"Lethal. Breaking a contract for one as tied to Earth and Wood so strongly as the least spiritual Ogier is lethal. A broken contract for Jinhe would bring rejection from the Earth of his Stedding, his home."
She was quiet for a while. "Spiritual," she said, half question.
Tunerk cocked his head, "You… don't know?"
Grenwin watched in amusement as the man's face twisted in confusion. She'd never seen that look on his face before!
"She doesn't," Ygdis said, "Because nobody has taught her. It… Hasn't been the most important thing?"
Grenwin gave her a look.
Ygdis amended, "It really hasn't been as important as establishing ourselves, safely."
"Safe- Safely?" The man spluttered, shocked. "You build your foundation on mud!" Amber eyes flashed as he looked around between them before focusing square on Maia. "You need to know, fledgling! You have taken a domain in a land that has long since forgotten what that means."
Maia raised her arms in frustration, "Long ago! Forgotten! It's easy to claim! I can just as easily say that men have long since forgotten, I don't know, hagene! I don't care if you think you're telling the truth or not, bring some fucking evidence or stop."
Tunerk smoldered, Ygdis looked surprised and confused, and… Wait, what was that word?
"What did you say?" Grenwin asked, pushing through the sudden tension in the room. The air shouldn't feel thick like this, it was too hot in this small room to be anything but oppressive. She forced herself to speak, anyway. "There are stories of people coming from nowhere and…" She looked at Tunerk, looking away just as quickly. "Great men and women appearing. Usually, they just walk out of the woods and up to a village. Then, they take over, and the people live well. Every time, something happens to those people."
The old man nodded, "What is remembered as Hardhome was one such domain, as I understand."
Maia was listening, she saw. That was good! "Da always said that the people there had…" Glancing at Maia, Grenwin knew what she was about to say might make the woman bristle up again. Had to be said, though. "He said they deserved it. They broke an oath, he said, and the sun rose on Hardhome because of it."
Tunerk shrugged, "The land has been fallow for a long time, but it does remember."
Sitting heavily in a chair, Maia rested fists on the table. "I am trying very hard to listen, but I do not understand what I am hearing."
Tunerk looked at Grenwin, then Ygdis. "I thought… Ellir knows these things. She should have been teaching you how to deal with the spirits of land and river. Though," He frowned, stroking a whisker, "I can see why she didn't."
Maia groaned, "She told me about a curse on Hardhome and I told her it wasn't anything to worry about, just the wind."
Tunerk winced, "Really? She let you off with that?"
Ygdis rolled her chair next to Maia, gesturing at her. "I watched the woman tear an old-growth sentinel out of the ground with, eh, channeling." She said the last word like she might have said, witchery. Grenwin could hear it in that smirk of hers. "I think I understand why she didn't try harder."
Tunerk's mustache-stroking continued as he considered. "Oh." Nodding, he sat up, "Then someone is going to need to teach her."
"Ah," Maia said, "Look, I'm happy with learning about your culture-"
Tunerk reared back, shocked and surprised. "Your? Then you know nothing of this?"
You know nothing of who you are? Grenwin read in those amber eyes.
Shaking her head, oblivious, Maia continued, "Yes, your. I'm not from wherever you think I am, I'm not whoever you think I am. I'm just… Me? Isn't that enough?"
"That word you used earlier, Maia." Grenwin swallowed, "Hago-something?"
Maia looked at her, honestly confused.
"An old word that means iron-shaped-to-steel." Tunerk offered, "And a rarely used one, at that. Where did that come from?"
Maia shook her head, "It's just- It's-" Eyes wide, she locked gazes with Grenwin, then Ygdis. Whatever she was searching for, she didn't find, hurt writ large over her face.
"It happens, sometimes," Tunerk said, "That part of us remembers something when the rest of us can't. Wherever you heard that word, from your reaction, may be related to…" He gestured, "You will need to confront who you are, lest your people suffer your ignorance."
Gold and amber eyes locked- Wait, gold?
Trick of the light, had to have been. Blue and green, like they'd always been. Always, other than right after the slavers had come, and Grenwin was surely misremembering.
"Then say it! Tell me!" Maia pleaded. "They should not suffer for me!"
Tunerk shook his head sadly, "I can not. I do not know your tale, but there are those who have the means to discover it." Shaking his head, "They may not welcome you, as you are."
The oppressive air returned, and the man seemed to feel it just as Grenwin did. Raising his hands in a gesture of peace, "They're… Legends, even to wanderers like myself. Not the kind of people you find easily, but there are clues. They live not far south of the wall, along the eastern coast. There is a natural harbor surrounded by low mountains. Not hills, but mountains that thrum with the living Earth, mountains that spew forth fire and death. Go there and you may find help."
Maia laughed mirthlessly. "A quest, huh? Yes, I should drop everything and leave my people undefended immediately after something tried to kill us all. Good idea, Captain. I will think about it, but for now, get out of my sight."
Tunerk smartly saluted and left the room, door swinging shut behind him with a click.
Maia looked between the two of them, "What do you think?"
"Worth looking into," Ygdis said. "It doesn't have to be now," she hurriedly added at Maia's nonplussed look. "Look, Maia, I know you weren't raised with stories of spirits taking us if we weren't good." She swallowed, "The river took my brother."
"I'm sorry for that. What does that have to do with going south to find mountain harbor?"
"Maia, there aren't any mountains on the eastern coast." Grenwin said, "I've been on raids sailing down around Eastwatch." A thought occurred to her, "One time we disembarked at noon, yet when we were unloading our supplies, night fell on us. When the morning came again, our campground had moved leagues up the coast."
Maia thought about it, eventually nodding.
"Fine, we can look. Just like we can look at Hardhome." She frowned, "I've been putting that off for too long. I… I need to apologize to Ellir."
With an apologetic glance, she rose and left her and Ygdis alone in the room.
"I really want to hit something," Ygdis suggested, expression stormy. "Join me?"
Grenwin held the door for her as they left the bustling archives behind in favor of a clear patch of grassy ground. "First to three strikes?"
Ygdis grinned, "Fair."
She lunged forward and Grenwin met her, laughing as they did their best to pound each other into the dirt.