AUTHORS NOTES:
My shift at work tonight involved about 7 hours of sitting around at a computer with nothing better to do, so why not two chapters?
Archer1eye: Yup, things will be…. Interesting this chapter, but the real escalation is still a while off, there's a shit-storm coming and nobody has invented umbrellas yet ;-) haha…. Only 'technically', *more* revelations regarding Sharein's mother might be forthcoming, but I'm deliberately leaving the workings of deities as vague as I can. In one manner of speaking it could be described that Shareins mother worshipped Tenebrae, but in a general understanding she did not. Technically, anybody who is afraid of the dark would be 'worshipping' Tenebrae ;-)
Chapter 509th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c
After getting dressed and a quick breakfast with Malkarov, I departed his tower and Easthaven to walk back towards my family's farm. It was a very pleasant spring day, butterflies flittered between the flowers that carpeted the roadside and there was only a very slight breeze. The sky was clear and blue with the white of clouds only far away on the horizon. I decided to immediately head straight to Shard's clearing to see her first, before heading home for lunch and dinner. I was reminded of Mother's demand that Shard come for dinner immediately upon her return. I had to inform Shard that both Mother and Illith knew about her.
As I got closer to the farmhouse, I cast Invisibility lest I be sighted and my movements questioned. I had no wish to get immediately stuck answering Kara's one hundred and one questions, I was sure that would come after seeing Shard.
I skipped through the forest and right into her clearing, overjoyed to see her sitting there on her altar patiently awaiting me.
"My Love!" I cried out (and I think she did too) as we crashed into each other.
It felt so good to hold her in my arms once more and to be held by her. The smell of her… had changed? I sniffed her hair in confusion. Instead of inhaling the scent of Winter's Heart flowers, that nose-clearing sharp smell, it was the smell of spring flowers; Lavender, Geranium and Lemon blossom. It was a shock, but a welcome one.
"I've missed you so much!" I sobbed into her shoulder.
"And I you, my love," she replied gently, holding me tight.
We stayed like that for quite some time, just content to hold each other and to be close. I breathed in her changed scent and took comfort in our contact. When we finally broke our hug to kiss it was bliss. It didn't have the fire of our passionate meetings, but a comfortable welcoming feel, a reassurance. It washed away any negative feelings that I might have been carrying and buoyed me up. I felt loved, I felt happy.
"Tonight?" Shard asked and I snapped back to reality. Since we had broken the kiss, I had just been standing there holding her hands in mine and staring into her eyes. Her eyes that were now a bright, vibrant green. She had a laughing smile and her eyes twinkled at me.
"Tonight…" I repeated, trying to remember what was special about tonight…
"Oh!" I started, remembering what I had reminded myself about earlier, "can you… would you…" I stuttered before I rallied my emotions, "Mother has invited you to dinner. Demanded in fact, though I told her that I wasn't sure you could leave here."
She cocked her head, still smiling, "How does your Mother know about me?"
I hummed, "well.." I began, stretching out the word, "that night I went to visit the kobolds, I didn't realise that Illith had followed me and she heard everything that I said to you."
"So your sister is aware of my existence?" Shard asked.
"Yes," I answered simply.
"What about your mother?" She pressed.
"Well, what neither Illith nor I realised was that Mother was following the both of us and also overheard what I said to you," I continued, "I'm not sure she realises exactly who and what you are, just that there is someone I… ahhhh…" I stalled, then continued in a rush, "mayhaveproposedto?"
Shard let out a laugh, "I thought I noticed her there that night, it was hard to tell without being physically here, but I had a feeling. But what do you mean 'may have proposed to'?"
"I wasn't sure when Mother asked me," I explained, "and I told her that I had said 'I would marry you if I could', and she determined that could have amounted to a marriage proposal being that there are ceremonies that could be performed with certain Gods between two women. In any case, she is now demanding that I bring the woman to whom I'm engaged, to dinner."
"Now, now, my love," she said, "I would not hold you to a proposal made without thought of consequence or knowledge of binding."
"You don't want to marry me?" I asked, in shock.
"I didn't say that," she corrected, "just that I am not the sort to hold you to that offer if it was not meant sincerely."
"Not meant sincerely? Knowledge of its binding has only increased my earnestness, if you would have me as your wife there is nothing else I should ever want for!" I exclaimed.
"Although," I said, realising one little problem.
"Although?" Shard echoed.
"Mother has given away her Mother's Right to an unknown deity," I explained.
Shard smiled at me, "that, I do not think, shall be much of a problem. I can talk to whoever she gave it to."
She straightened up and looked me in the eyes, "Sharein, my love, would you take me to wife?"
"Yes!" I shouted, "yes, my love, yes!"
Some time later, as we lay together on the grass at the base of the altar and had recovered from the sharing of love, Shard said to me simply, "I can."
"You can?" I asked, confused.
"I can leave this clearing," she said, "I can come to dinner. Not quite yet, but if you would provide your assistance, I can."
"What do you need?" I asked.
"Just a simple ritual, to link me with you," she said, "it would be permanent and would not be something that I would offer to just anyone. But if we are to be wed…"
"Oh my love, there is nothing that I would not do for you," I gushed.
Although we were both naked this time (and I was surprised at how comfortable I was with that), the ritual was a moment of deja vu from our first meeting. Shard used her black knife to make cuts on both of our palms; that we then joined together. We spoke the words of the prayer together and then placed both of our hands upon her altar. The words were different from those used when I swore the oath to her and the final part was a new addition, as was the feeling that rushed into me when we did so. I felt… full, on the inside. Comfortably so, almost like there was something missing inside of me that was now fixed, replaced.
"Is that?" I asked, "Is that you? Inside me?"
"Yes," she answered with a smile, "sort of at least, a part of me. The part that anchored me to the altar is now anchoring me to you."
"Does that mean," I asked, "if something were to happen to me?"
"I wouldn't die, but I would be lost for a time," she replied, "until I could re-anchor myself to the altar. Most of my power still resides here," she explained touching the black stone, "but I can now move around you, wherever you are as well as return back here."
"So," I said, trying to plan and clarify, "you will come to dinner tonight and then after?"
"Afterwards, you can come back here for the dedication?" She finished.
I nodded, excited, "do you have to come with me when I return home or will you be able to… teleport there?"
"Just call me when you are ready for me to appear," she answered, "and I shall appear and knock on the door to your house."
"I'm not sure," I said, "how tonight will go. Mother seems supportive, but I don't know how Father will react, or my siblings."
Shard just smiled at me, "I'm sure everything will be fine."
"I hope you're right," I said, to which Shard simply laughed.
"Didn't I tell you my love?" she asked, "I'm always right."
I laughed at that, of course she was.
"I had better go," I said regretfully.
"Yes," Shard agreed, "but we shall see each other again very shortly, and you yet carry a part of me within you wherever you are."
I got dressed, slightly irritated at the ease by which Shard merely summoned her dress and underclothes back onto herself.
"What is it?" She asked, making me realise that I was standing there staring at her with only one leg in my trousers.
"You're just so beautiful," I breathed.
"Oh, my heart," she whispered, with a pleased expression as I recommenced my dressing.
We embraced once more in a kiss before I left, with reassurances that we would see each other again soon.
I made my way back through the forest in as buoyant a mood as I had earlier, with very little anxiety or worry.
I was almost knocked over when I entered the farmhouse, by the flying tackling hugs of Illith and Kara.
"Sharein's home Mother!" Illith shouted after a moment.
"Calm yourselves girls!" Mother admonished as she came to greet me, engulfing me into a hug of her own.
"You smell nice Sharein," she said once she broke off the hug, "have you been rolling in a flowering meadow?"
"Not… exactly," I said, flushing a little.
Mother raised one eyebrow in curiosity, but said "go and put your pack away and come into the kitchen so we can talk."
I did as she told me, but carried the sword with me out into the kitchen. Mother saw it and raised an eyebrow.
"A little bit of magic," I said, to Mother and the girls, "to begin with. How long do you think this sword is?"
Mother furrowed her eyebrows in suspicion and spread her arms apart in almost exactly the length of the blade in it's default. Kara spread her arms apart as wide as they could, but Illith looked first at the scabbard and then at mother before spreading her arms in an approximation of Mother's answer.
"Are you sure?" I asked with a smile and laughed when Mother merely raised her eyebrow.
I pictured the great two-handed sword that Malkarov had me imagine, drawing out from the scabbard a blade as long as I was tall. I laughed at how wide Kara and Illith's eyes widened, but louder still when I saw that Mother's eyes had widened the same.
"Malkarov and I discovered this when we studied the enchantments on the scabbard, it will come out any length that you can imagine," I explained.
"May I try?" Illith asked and I put the sword back into the scabbard and handed it over to her.
"All that time," Mother whispered and I laughed a little and asked, "you never knew?"
She shook her head, "no, not at all. It wouldn't have mattered too much to me, the blade the size of the scabbard was perfect for me, but there were occasions that a knife might have been useful."
We watched as Illith drew the sword, only for it to appear normally.
"You have to picture exactly what you want," I suggested to her before turning back to Mother, "would you set an extra place for dinner tonight?"
"She's coming?" Mother asked.
"Yes, Shard will be here at dinner time," I said with a nod.
"Did you happen to clear up any confusion about… the question?" Mother asked carefully.
"Oh yes," I said with a wide smile, "we're definitely engaged to be married."
Mother's eyes widened in shock, she even put her hands over her mouth in a gesture of surprise. Hints of a smile appeared from under her hands, "oh but Shar, I can't give permission, I haven't Mother's Right, I told you that."
I smiled, "I have a feeling that won't be a problem Mother."
"You can't know that Sharein," Mother stated, "you can't know the will of the Gods."
"Just wait and see Mother," I said with a confident smile.
"You really love her then?" She asked.
"I really do," I replied, "with a love so strong that I cannot deny it."
"Well," Mother said finally, "I shall have to warn your Father a little more. I've already spoken to him, carefully, trying to open his mind. We shall see. Dinner then?"
We were distracted by Kara and Illith's cheering as Illith managed to draw from the scabbard a sword more suited to her height, somewhat between its usual size and that of the dagger that I had previously withdrawn.
"We'd better get a start on dinner if we wish to leave a good impression then girls," Mother announced.
"But Mama!" Kara said grumpily, pointing at the sword, "I wanna try!"
"You can try later," Mother said, "If Sharein lets you. But for now, we must start dinner. If you wouldn't mind helping Shar? I shall have to pull out some of my fancier recipes."
