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runicloreBetrayal
Author: Amber Michelle
Pairing: Lehran/Sanaki
Fandom: Fire Emblem 9/10
Theme: 19 - red
Words: 4865
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Fire Emblem is copyrighted by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo. I'm not getting any money out of this, just satisfaction~
Notes: PART TWO. I don't get to edit for two days. That hurts, it really does.
What a dramatic title.
Previous Installments:
1. Judgment
2. Initiation
3. Blessing
.......................................
The streets of Sienne were as alien a land to Sanaki as the far reaches of Daein. She'd ridden up and down the main thoroughfare many times, visited the outer walls and the theater, and the coliseum when she spoke publically or conducted open ceremonies on the holidays. Once she commanded Marcia and one of the other trainees to escort her to the bathhouse for a tour of the spa facilities. She hadn't been there before - why not? Why not have her toenails manicured, or try the blueberry face mask? But they gave Tanith such a scare by disappearing all day she wouldn't leave Sanaki's presence for over a week, and the other girls were sentenced to polishing every doorknob, lock, hook, and lamp in the palace.
When the last of Gallia's citizens passed the gates and Sanaki saw no signs indicating the other goddess had arrived among them, she told Tanith to prepare for a descent to the city proper. If their prey wasn't among the new refugees, she might be among those who arrived before she decided to search in Lehran's place. If they found nothing in Sienne, she would make a trip to the settlements beyond the city walls and find something to bless or dedicate to Ashera to explain herself.
Lehran pinned her hair up in a twist and found a veil of black lace and mesh to conceal her hair. I suppose you're in mourning today, he said, securing it with pins and arranging it over her shoulders. Try to act the part, and be careful.
That wouldn't be difficult. Tanith and Marcia will be with me.
Sanaki knew he wanted to go with her. His hands lingered on her shoulders, tickling her throat and the nape of her neck. The citizens wouldn't know him on sight if he hid his wings, but Yune would. He was convinced his failure was just a matter of their history. She remembers I chose to serve Ashera. It was my voice that sealed her. I cannot fault her for avoiding me. She loved humans, he said. She wouldn't avoid Sanaki - she might even be curious enough to risk speaking with her. Certainly she would not be fooled by a disguise.
He stopped her again before she left, fingers curling tightly around her arms. "Be careful," he said again, his jaw working and his brows contracting. "I don't trust them. If someone recognizes you, two knights may not be enough."
"I asked Tanith to find a warp staff just in case." She reached up to smooth the lines on his forehead and stood on her toes to kiss the corner of his mouth. "I'll come back the minute I feel uneasy. I promise."
Lehran didn't say anything else. He inclined his head, and Sanaki felt his wing curve around her when she embraced him, the feathers brushing her arm. It was hard to turn her back and go out to the antechamber where Tanith and Marcia were waiting. She would have liked him to come with her. They could have pretended to be two normal people taking a stroll, wandered into shops, perhaps stopped at a cafe for refreshment. They could have walked a circuit around the park by the coliseum and remembered the ornately-screened walks at his manor in Persis. The memory, she suspected, would be happier than a visit.
They started in the market, because it was the most logical place for a newcomer to acquaint herself with the city. The vendors were helpful when she asked questions, and swallowed her story whole - she was from Crimea, from a town at the Gallian border, and she was looking for someone from her town, anyone, it didn't matter who. She created the characters as she went - there was a fire sage with beautiful golden hair, a family of warriors, one of them even a knight, a huge berserker with scruffy hair and an unbearably loud voice. Tanith told her the last one was a bit much when they left the carpenter's workshop, but they were all real. Marcia confirmed it. Ask Commander Sigrun - she was there when they swore to the throne. That guy was a riot.
Nothing came of their search the first day. Sanaki didn't expect to find what she was looking for right away, but when she returned to her rooms and realized she still had to read the day's reports and climb the tower, she threw herself onto her bed and pulled a pillow over her head. Lehran rubbed her back and removed the veil when she refused to move, unpinned her hair. He combed it over the curve of her back with his fingers.
"How do you expect to find her?" He pressed his fingers into a knotted muscle and she whined into the sheets for him to stop. He sighed. "She didn't tell you anything, did she."
Sanaki's hands clenched and loosened in the sheets. She would have liked a hint as to what, exactly, Ashera's blessing would do to alert her to Yune's presence, but the goddess was never in a talkative mood. "Not a word."
"Of course."
She kicked the mattress, and he shifted, rubbing her shoulders. "You're not surprised, are you?"
Lehran swept her hair from her back. "No, I suppose not."
His wing brushed her ankle, and Sanaki held the pillow more tightly over her head, wishing he would pull it out of the way. Her face flushed, even her arms, or so it seemed; she wondered if he would let her touch them again and examine their structure. Were they like a bird's wings, or was there something that set them apart? She'd only reached for them twice in her life, and the first time she betrayed his trust and hurt him. It was only a feather, but he'd yelled-- his voice, the startled crack of sound, had echoed in her ears for weeks after he left. She never apologized, and now it seemed silly to mention the incident.
"Lehran."
His hands paused. "Sanaki."
She turned onto her back and caught them when he started to withdraw. "Give me something to think about while I'm walking up those stairs."
Lehran's lips twitched up. "Is that your idea of a smooth proposition?"
"I'm not trying to be subtle. Now come here--"
He laughed and let her pull him onto the bed wings spread, beating once to keep from falling. "Whatever you're thinking," he said, "you're too young."
Sanaki stretched her arms up, around his neck. His hair slithered over the wings, his shoulder, to fall and curl over her arm and around her breasts. "I'm old enough to marry," she said, hooking her leg behind his knee. "But why bother with that?"
His eyes narrowed, but he didn't deny her. Ashera did not demonstrate any irritation over Sanaki's tardiness when she finally made her trip to the tower, though she did feel the goddess's gaze linger on her back when she departed. It left the area between her shoulderblades itchy and warm.
.
She was told to keep trying, so Sanaki arranged for Lehran to look over her daily work and recruited Elincia to help her knights find clothing appropriate for her story. It wouldn't be convincing if she were pressed, but if she looked the part of Crimean refugee, most of her citizens would not be inclined to question. That was the problem with commoners - they simply accepted whatever lies were handed out to them.
Sienne's market and entertainment districts were always crowded when she descended to walk through them, but they weren't what Sanaki remembered seeing from dragonback when flying over the city, or from the windows high in the cathedral. There was room to walk, room to stretch one's arms out. She didn't have to fight for a space at the fruit vendor's stand, or push her way into the toy shop. The commoners made way for her - it's your posture, my lady, try to lower your chin a little at least - and the shopkeepers spoke to her personally.
She purchased something on every trip: a stuffed bear, a porcelain doll, a box of peanut brittle, a canister of tea grown in Crimea for a price she was sure was obscene. The store was so hot, or perhaps she felt the exertion of so much walking, but jasmine tea sounded refreshing, and shipments from the north were no longer allowed. What he had he brought with him, the tea master said, and understandably, nobody was interested when he quoted the price. They need patronage, she said to Lehran after her third trip, glaring over the bear's head. My decision was economically sound. He shook his head, and she threw it at him.
But he was right; the palace coffers weren't bottomless, especially with so little tax revenue. The price of the tea made her wince once it was deducted from her personal funds. What possessed her to make such a purchase?
"This isn't working, your majesty," Tanith said one afternoon when they were preparing to leave. "Let us do this. You should be here working--"
"Where it's safe, so Lehran won't bother you every night with questions about the security measures you've taken?" Sanaki tugged at the laces of her shoes, tying them twice and pulling to make sure. She would not trip and embarrass herself in these stupid things. "How do you expect to find her without me?"
"With all due respect, I would like to know how you plan to pull this miracle out of your sleeve, my lady."
She sighed and leaned over, pulling the laces on her other shoe around their hooks. That was exactly what she expected to do - pull a miracle from her sleeve. Or from her gloves, if Ashera's marks were worth anything. So far they'd required her to make adjustments to her fashion preferences and chafed her wrists, nothing else. "Ashera promised her help."
"As if she can't do this herself, she's a goddess--"
"My thoughts exactly." Sanaki tied the second shoe, checked the knot, and stood up. "These walks are getting dull, but listening to gossip is more interesting than hearing Ashera tell me the same thing over and over again."
Find Yune.
She is a danger to my peace.
I grow tired of your failures.
Find her, find her, find her find her--
She liked these common boots better for the winter months than the sandals she wore in the palace. It hadn't occurred to her to ask for something else until she tried walking outside every day, and felt her toes freeze when she decided to be clever and walk out early in the morning. She couldn't count on the areas she visited to be crowded enough for a semblance of warmth. Some days she had to shed her cloak, roll up her sleeves, and hated her gloves; never for long - the heat was always in passing, but it left her shaky and uncomfortable. Tanith told her she needed more exercise.
They found a book shop in the lower south district, and Sanaki wished they'd come across it sooner. She had the Archives, but those were all serious books, and these people had fiction - not literary classics, not epic poetry, but adventure novels and romances. Tanith refused to pay for the one about the queen who carried on an affair with her knight-errant, so Sanaki sent her outside and had Marcia purchase it instead. Only if you let me read it too. If the commander is going to yell at me-- yes yes, fine. How many times could one read a book before it became boring? She'd give it to the knight for her naming day - or maybe her promotion to deputy.
They took the steps down to the street two at a time, Tanith waiting at the bottom with a scathing comment for the book in Marcia's hand, and the wintery air thickened around her arms. She paused mid-step, almost tripped, and grabbed the rail to regain her balance. Marcia was at her side in an instant, an arm around her waist to steady her.
Sanaki gripped the flat iron rail until the edges bit into her fingers. A warm breath of air heated her skin, banished the chill. Tanith came up and put a hand to her forehead, murmuring something about being sick. A hint of flowers, gone as soon as she caught it, reminded her of the sea of glass beneath Ashera's feet, the illusion of the floor under the influence of the goddess's aura. Marcia helped her down the stairs.
"Maybe we should go home--"
No, Sanaki said - no, I think she's close by.
Tanith frowned. "But your m-- you nearly fell down the stairs. Something is wrong."
"Do you feel dizzy?" Marcia fit the book behind her belt with one hand. "Does your head hurt?"
Which way was the wind coming from? Sanaki looked over her knight's shoulder, down the street to the right. No, it was the other direction - left, to the north, across the walk. It smelled like flowers when she turned that way, like lilies and marigold carried on the wind, like grass. She didn't feel dizzy; maybe light-headed, a little hot in her wool riding dress and the heavy cloak, but she was able to walk straight across the street despite Tanith's protests, dragging Marcia when the other girl tried to dig her heels in and hold her back.
Stop it, she said, turning down a side street. I think we must be there.
The residential areas of Sienne were laid out on a grid. The streets were numbered, ascending south to north, the names chiseled on short stone obliesks at each corner. In the district they'd chosen the cross-streets were named after blossoming plants: Kerria was one, which she liked immediately, and Paulownia, Mulberry. The crowd trickled almost to nothing as they walked farther from the main street, until the only sign of human habitation was the bleed of lights between shutters, and sometimes the smell of something savory cooking.
At the intersection of Camellia and Sixth she heard two young, female voices, and a gruffer, masculine voice in reply. She could smell it - the mulberries, the camellias. No wonder they called it the 'flower quarter.' Sanaki waited for them to come closer, slowing her step as they neared Seventh. She saw Tanith's hand rest on her hip, near her knife.
I told you to be more careful. There were two sets of footsteps, and one of them scuffed the flagstones, loud enough to be made by heels - a smooth step and a clomp, then another step and another clumsy sound, and the male voice said, If you'd gotten those new shoes instead of spending on those staves--
Stop complaining, Sothe. Nobody else joined in. Perhaps she'd imagined the second voice. We've done a lot of good with those.
And now they're gone, and that heel--
Sanaki stopped short when they rounded the corner. The male cursed, reached for a pocket, seemed not to find what he was looking for. His arm was around his companion's waist, and she saw his grip tighten in her coat until she whispered for him to calm down. "Sorry," she said with a smile. Her hair gleamed like silver. "We weren't watching where we were going."
"N-no, it was my fault." Sanaki stepped to the side, resting her hand on the stone wall. The sun was beating down on her. Moisture beaded at her hairline, the wind of the couple's passage cool on the back of her neck. The silver-haired girl limped, her right foot strapped into a sandal with a wobbling heel, all black and blue. She leaned on Tanith and twisted around. "Wait--"
The man's posture stiffened. The girl looked back. "Yes?"
Sanaki bit her lip. "You're hurt," she said, when she thought the pause lasted a second too long. She reached inside her cloak, ignoring Tanith's whispered warning, and pulled one of her staves from the loop on her belt. "Let me take care of it for you."
There was a discussion, but it was short; we have no money, she heard the girl say, and the rest was muffled. She waited for the stranger to turn around and tilt her head before she approached. "Thank you," she said, using 'Sothe' as leverage to sink to the ground and stretch her leg out. "We were on our way to the neighborhood temple."
Sanaki knelt on the flagstones, winced. The girl's ankle was swelling; the ribbon straps cut into her flesh, the bluish bruising tinged red. She held it carefully, pressing as little as she could to be sure there weren't any bones out of place. The red was dried blood - just a little, where the strap sliced the skin. "What on Tellius did you do to yourself?"
Sothe crouched next to her. "Tripped."
The girl elbowed him. "We were chasing someone down the stairs and I fell."
"Was something stolen?" Tanith asked, and when Sothe's gaze snapped up she hurried to add, "We heard you talking just before you came around the corner."
An odd coincidence. Sanaki missed the reply and raised the staff, whispered the activating charm. She'd learned to use staves because the goddess insisted, but she hadn't yet been able to make them work without saying the prayers out loud. The only compliment she ever received from Ashera had to do with her affinity for the magic, the ease with which she used the more powerful artifacts - and even that was colored by the comment your skill will be unparalleled if you ever learn to use them like an adult.
Children said their prayers out loud. Third-rate magicians chanted their spells with voice - that was the goddess's opinion, but she compared her subjects to Lehran, who snapped his fingers and set an entire practice yard on fire to demonstrate silent casting, then extinguished the flames just as quickly to lecture her on how to adjust the effective range of her attacks.
What are you doing here, anyway? Sothe.
Sanaki watched the swelling recede, the skin fade from blue to dark pink. Her arms felt like they were wrapped in hot towels. She should have dispensed with the gloves--
We're looking for Mandrake Apothecary, Marcia, and her hand flickered into Sanaki's field of vision, gesturing. My brother runs a, uh, business out back and some jerk came asking me for money--
The pink faded to white, and the girl's sandal straps loosened and slithered around her ankle, drooping to the ground. Sanaki lowered her staff. It slipped in her hands, slicked by sweat. "Are you--"
"I think we need to go," the girl said, twisting her legs under and leaning on Sothe's shoulder to stand up. "Come on."
Tanith pulled Sanaki up. The staff clattered onto the flagstones. "Wait..." It was the girl pulling Sothe away now, saying I'm sorry and thank you and we need to catch those thugs, and Sanaki reached out to pluck the girl's sleeve. "Yune?"
"No," she answered quickly over her shoulder. "Good luck!"
They disappeared around the corner of Sixth. Sanaki rubbed her forehead, and her fingers came away wet. The heat around her arms faded.
Marcia leaned down to retrieve the staff. "At least we know what she looks like. I guess."
.
Sanaki shed her dress and crawled into bed as soon as they returned to her rooms. She'd had a fever once, before Ashera's blessing protected her from such things, and it felt like she was revisiting that dream-like night, when she shivered and kicked the blankets off by turns, the heat pounding in her head until she thought her skull would crack from the pressure. Marcia stayed to watch her, but she left eventually, and the windows dimmed as the sun set. It was time to go to the tower.
If this was the ability the goddess promised, Sanaki didn't want it. She'd listen to Ashera tell her to find Yune a hundred times a day if it would mean an end to her headache.
Was it true? Was that girl really Yune, or was it a coincidence? She looked so frail. A body like that couldn't contain the essence of a goddess equal to Ashera.
Sanaki fell asleep waiting for her knights to return, while the room darkened around her. She wanted to peel her shift off, but if they brought a priest in - they surely would, if the thought she was sick - her state of undress would be awkward. Several times she pulled her eyes open, positive the silver-haired girl was speaking to her again, but no one was ever there. She could have been, for how hot Sanaki felt, like someone had tucked a dozen warming pans into her sheets without asking if she felt cold.
The curtains were drawn when she woke next. A lamp was lit on her night table, and she squeezed her eyes shut again when she turned her face that way. Sanaki turned onto her stomach and dug her arms under the pillows. It was getting worse - they throbbed, and her skin was starting to itch. She scratched the marks through her gloves and let the pillow cushion her forehead.
What would have happened if Ashera remained asleep? Sanaki wished she had. Lehran would have had to speak with her about his plans eventually - she wouldn't have stayed oblivious.
She drifted off again, and woke to someone stroking her hair over her back. She smelled mint and sugar - tea?
"Tanith told me you found Yune," Lehran said. She turned her head to look at him through a screen of her hair. His hand paused and rested on her back. "But Yune would not do this to you."
Her skin itched. Sanaki's fingers twitched, but she held her arms rigid beneath the pillow. "Maybe. How am I supposed to know?" She pressed her forehead into the silk. "I tripped and almost fell, but I'm fine."
"Tripped, fell, and contracted a sudden fever?"
The itch became a sting. She gave in and dug her nails into her arm. "You speak as if you know her. How can you be sure she wouldn't--"
"Yune is many things," Lehran said, leaning over and reaching under the pillow, seizing her arm. He pulled and yanked the buttons loose and peeled the sweaty silk from her arm. "But she--"
The lines were puffy and irritated, the skin around them pink and prickled. The goddess called the shape a phoenix - a mythical creature, but a form she took on occasion when the world was young. It was rather snake-like in Sanaki's opinion, and it stung when the strokes flared red. She reached to scratch it. Lehran grabbed her hand. His fingers dug into her skin and it was almost a relief.
It looked rather like a heron, she thought, though with a long tail. It could have been beautiful.
He released her hand and let her scratch, reaching past the edge of the mattress for something on the floor. It jingled - she recognized the Matrona staff when he lifted it, with its tassles and charms.
Sanaki tried to pull her arm back. "They would have tried this."
He ignored her and braced the staff against the floor, pulling her arm straight. The gold glowed and the air around them warmed, but it still wasn't as warm as she was. The red faded, the stinging reduced to a pricking, as of needles pushing on her skin. The lines were still hot. Lehran pressed his thumb into a wide feathery curl and watched the glow disperse into the skin.
"Why did you do this?" She wished he would yell. "Why did you let her? What made you think this-- that it would--" He lifted his wings, one of them striking a bedpost, and Matrona clanked against the plaster when he leaned it on the wall. "I knew you were hiding something, but I thought--"
Sanaki threw herself onto her back and used her weight to pull free. "It was no use saying anything." She let her arm flop over her stomach and stared at the canopy. The staff's heat was soothing, not really hot, and she wanted it back. The air in her room was stuffy, dusty, hard to breathe. She rubbed her other arm through the glove.
No use he repeated, and again, his voice sharpening. She didn't look at him. She'd never seen him angry, never seen him hurt, and tears were already gathering behind her eyes, waiting. "Are you insane?" Lehran yanked on the bedsheets and her eyes snapped to his. "Did you learn nothing from Kilvas, from watching Lekain? How could you think any oath, under any circumstances--"
"You don't know anything!" Sanaki sat up and immediately choked, blinking back tears, and sucked in deep breaths until the sickness passed. The muscles in her throat felt tight when she pressed the skin with her fingers; Lehran reached for the staff again, and she shook hear head - slowly, and pulled on his sleeve until he sat back. There was nothing in her body to bring up. She couldn't remember the last time she sipped water.
He helped her move to the edge of the bed and slide her legs over. "If Ashera asks for a contract--"
"She didn't ask." Sanaki pressed the juncture of her throat where it met her jaw, but it didn't help. It felt like she was speaking through water. "She said she would give me what I needed."
His hand trembled when he gathered her hair and lifted it from her neck. The draft of air was cool for a moment on her moist skin. "That is not a temporary mark, Sanaki."
So she was branded like her ancestors - but not really, because Sanaki didn't possess their long lives or the ability to heal or sing, unless Ashera willed it. The half-blooded were not made of her will; as far as she was capable, the goddess displayed surprise when she was told about the Branded and the sentences passed on mixed-race parents. It was not a particularly happy surprise, but Sanaki never found out what bothered the goddess: the intolerance, or the existence of something she didn't understand.
Sanaki was not half-blooded. She was beorc, with a strain of magic in her veins. Was she wrong to wish for more when it was given for so little?
"She grows tired of my disobedience," she said, echoing a phrase she heard often when still a child. The marks heated again, prickling again in an itch, demanding something. Even when she obeyed, Ashera was not satisfied. "Why is it doing that?"
Lehran let go of her hair and called loudly for Sigrun. It felt like he dropped a quilt over her shoulders. "She is calling you." He cramped his wings to his back and helped her lie down again, straightening her sheets and pushing the blankets to the other side. "Didn't you ask her how it worked?"
Sanaki scratched her arm, wished she could dig her nails in without making it hurt more. "She never tells me anything, even when I ask."
The door opened and Sigrun stepped in. Lehran smoothed the sheet over her waist. "Watch her, please. If her condition worsens, the Crimean princess should have the skill to use this staff." His hand rested on Matrona when he backed away, eluding her grasping hand, and stood. "I'll visit again later."
"Wait." Sanaki's hand clenched around the sheet. "Where are you going?"
"Someone must answer her summons, or it will only get worse." Her knight held the door open at his approach. He said something softly to Sigrun, then glanced back. "Don't try to follow. It will only aggravate your condition."
"You idiot! She won't speak to you--"
"She will tonight." Lehran turned his back on her. "Be still until I return."
...............................................................
Mandrake Apothecary has no affiliation with me, by the way, and their business doesn't involve Makalov selling "herbs" out back. I've even tried their perfume. :D In fact, I should really try their coffee/chocolate scents, because all I ordered before were florals, and florals die horribly with my skin chemistry. I didn't know. These things take time. ;_;
I might drop this fic for a while. I don't know.
Author: Amber Michelle
Pairing: Lehran/Sanaki
Fandom: Fire Emblem 9/10
Theme: 19 - red
Words: 4865
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Fire Emblem is copyrighted by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo. I'm not getting any money out of this, just satisfaction~
Notes: PART TWO. I don't get to edit for two days. That hurts, it really does.
What a dramatic title.
Previous Installments:
1. Judgment
2. Initiation
3. Blessing
.......................................
The streets of Sienne were as alien a land to Sanaki as the far reaches of Daein. She'd ridden up and down the main thoroughfare many times, visited the outer walls and the theater, and the coliseum when she spoke publically or conducted open ceremonies on the holidays. Once she commanded Marcia and one of the other trainees to escort her to the bathhouse for a tour of the spa facilities. She hadn't been there before - why not? Why not have her toenails manicured, or try the blueberry face mask? But they gave Tanith such a scare by disappearing all day she wouldn't leave Sanaki's presence for over a week, and the other girls were sentenced to polishing every doorknob, lock, hook, and lamp in the palace.
When the last of Gallia's citizens passed the gates and Sanaki saw no signs indicating the other goddess had arrived among them, she told Tanith to prepare for a descent to the city proper. If their prey wasn't among the new refugees, she might be among those who arrived before she decided to search in Lehran's place. If they found nothing in Sienne, she would make a trip to the settlements beyond the city walls and find something to bless or dedicate to Ashera to explain herself.
Lehran pinned her hair up in a twist and found a veil of black lace and mesh to conceal her hair. I suppose you're in mourning today, he said, securing it with pins and arranging it over her shoulders. Try to act the part, and be careful.
That wouldn't be difficult. Tanith and Marcia will be with me.
Sanaki knew he wanted to go with her. His hands lingered on her shoulders, tickling her throat and the nape of her neck. The citizens wouldn't know him on sight if he hid his wings, but Yune would. He was convinced his failure was just a matter of their history. She remembers I chose to serve Ashera. It was my voice that sealed her. I cannot fault her for avoiding me. She loved humans, he said. She wouldn't avoid Sanaki - she might even be curious enough to risk speaking with her. Certainly she would not be fooled by a disguise.
He stopped her again before she left, fingers curling tightly around her arms. "Be careful," he said again, his jaw working and his brows contracting. "I don't trust them. If someone recognizes you, two knights may not be enough."
"I asked Tanith to find a warp staff just in case." She reached up to smooth the lines on his forehead and stood on her toes to kiss the corner of his mouth. "I'll come back the minute I feel uneasy. I promise."
Lehran didn't say anything else. He inclined his head, and Sanaki felt his wing curve around her when she embraced him, the feathers brushing her arm. It was hard to turn her back and go out to the antechamber where Tanith and Marcia were waiting. She would have liked him to come with her. They could have pretended to be two normal people taking a stroll, wandered into shops, perhaps stopped at a cafe for refreshment. They could have walked a circuit around the park by the coliseum and remembered the ornately-screened walks at his manor in Persis. The memory, she suspected, would be happier than a visit.
They started in the market, because it was the most logical place for a newcomer to acquaint herself with the city. The vendors were helpful when she asked questions, and swallowed her story whole - she was from Crimea, from a town at the Gallian border, and she was looking for someone from her town, anyone, it didn't matter who. She created the characters as she went - there was a fire sage with beautiful golden hair, a family of warriors, one of them even a knight, a huge berserker with scruffy hair and an unbearably loud voice. Tanith told her the last one was a bit much when they left the carpenter's workshop, but they were all real. Marcia confirmed it. Ask Commander Sigrun - she was there when they swore to the throne. That guy was a riot.
Nothing came of their search the first day. Sanaki didn't expect to find what she was looking for right away, but when she returned to her rooms and realized she still had to read the day's reports and climb the tower, she threw herself onto her bed and pulled a pillow over her head. Lehran rubbed her back and removed the veil when she refused to move, unpinned her hair. He combed it over the curve of her back with his fingers.
"How do you expect to find her?" He pressed his fingers into a knotted muscle and she whined into the sheets for him to stop. He sighed. "She didn't tell you anything, did she."
Sanaki's hands clenched and loosened in the sheets. She would have liked a hint as to what, exactly, Ashera's blessing would do to alert her to Yune's presence, but the goddess was never in a talkative mood. "Not a word."
"Of course."
She kicked the mattress, and he shifted, rubbing her shoulders. "You're not surprised, are you?"
Lehran swept her hair from her back. "No, I suppose not."
His wing brushed her ankle, and Sanaki held the pillow more tightly over her head, wishing he would pull it out of the way. Her face flushed, even her arms, or so it seemed; she wondered if he would let her touch them again and examine their structure. Were they like a bird's wings, or was there something that set them apart? She'd only reached for them twice in her life, and the first time she betrayed his trust and hurt him. It was only a feather, but he'd yelled-- his voice, the startled crack of sound, had echoed in her ears for weeks after he left. She never apologized, and now it seemed silly to mention the incident.
"Lehran."
His hands paused. "Sanaki."
She turned onto her back and caught them when he started to withdraw. "Give me something to think about while I'm walking up those stairs."
Lehran's lips twitched up. "Is that your idea of a smooth proposition?"
"I'm not trying to be subtle. Now come here--"
He laughed and let her pull him onto the bed wings spread, beating once to keep from falling. "Whatever you're thinking," he said, "you're too young."
Sanaki stretched her arms up, around his neck. His hair slithered over the wings, his shoulder, to fall and curl over her arm and around her breasts. "I'm old enough to marry," she said, hooking her leg behind his knee. "But why bother with that?"
His eyes narrowed, but he didn't deny her. Ashera did not demonstrate any irritation over Sanaki's tardiness when she finally made her trip to the tower, though she did feel the goddess's gaze linger on her back when she departed. It left the area between her shoulderblades itchy and warm.
.
She was told to keep trying, so Sanaki arranged for Lehran to look over her daily work and recruited Elincia to help her knights find clothing appropriate for her story. It wouldn't be convincing if she were pressed, but if she looked the part of Crimean refugee, most of her citizens would not be inclined to question. That was the problem with commoners - they simply accepted whatever lies were handed out to them.
Sienne's market and entertainment districts were always crowded when she descended to walk through them, but they weren't what Sanaki remembered seeing from dragonback when flying over the city, or from the windows high in the cathedral. There was room to walk, room to stretch one's arms out. She didn't have to fight for a space at the fruit vendor's stand, or push her way into the toy shop. The commoners made way for her - it's your posture, my lady, try to lower your chin a little at least - and the shopkeepers spoke to her personally.
She purchased something on every trip: a stuffed bear, a porcelain doll, a box of peanut brittle, a canister of tea grown in Crimea for a price she was sure was obscene. The store was so hot, or perhaps she felt the exertion of so much walking, but jasmine tea sounded refreshing, and shipments from the north were no longer allowed. What he had he brought with him, the tea master said, and understandably, nobody was interested when he quoted the price. They need patronage, she said to Lehran after her third trip, glaring over the bear's head. My decision was economically sound. He shook his head, and she threw it at him.
But he was right; the palace coffers weren't bottomless, especially with so little tax revenue. The price of the tea made her wince once it was deducted from her personal funds. What possessed her to make such a purchase?
"This isn't working, your majesty," Tanith said one afternoon when they were preparing to leave. "Let us do this. You should be here working--"
"Where it's safe, so Lehran won't bother you every night with questions about the security measures you've taken?" Sanaki tugged at the laces of her shoes, tying them twice and pulling to make sure. She would not trip and embarrass herself in these stupid things. "How do you expect to find her without me?"
"With all due respect, I would like to know how you plan to pull this miracle out of your sleeve, my lady."
She sighed and leaned over, pulling the laces on her other shoe around their hooks. That was exactly what she expected to do - pull a miracle from her sleeve. Or from her gloves, if Ashera's marks were worth anything. So far they'd required her to make adjustments to her fashion preferences and chafed her wrists, nothing else. "Ashera promised her help."
"As if she can't do this herself, she's a goddess--"
"My thoughts exactly." Sanaki tied the second shoe, checked the knot, and stood up. "These walks are getting dull, but listening to gossip is more interesting than hearing Ashera tell me the same thing over and over again."
Find Yune.
She is a danger to my peace.
I grow tired of your failures.
Find her, find her, find her find her--
She liked these common boots better for the winter months than the sandals she wore in the palace. It hadn't occurred to her to ask for something else until she tried walking outside every day, and felt her toes freeze when she decided to be clever and walk out early in the morning. She couldn't count on the areas she visited to be crowded enough for a semblance of warmth. Some days she had to shed her cloak, roll up her sleeves, and hated her gloves; never for long - the heat was always in passing, but it left her shaky and uncomfortable. Tanith told her she needed more exercise.
They found a book shop in the lower south district, and Sanaki wished they'd come across it sooner. She had the Archives, but those were all serious books, and these people had fiction - not literary classics, not epic poetry, but adventure novels and romances. Tanith refused to pay for the one about the queen who carried on an affair with her knight-errant, so Sanaki sent her outside and had Marcia purchase it instead. Only if you let me read it too. If the commander is going to yell at me-- yes yes, fine. How many times could one read a book before it became boring? She'd give it to the knight for her naming day - or maybe her promotion to deputy.
They took the steps down to the street two at a time, Tanith waiting at the bottom with a scathing comment for the book in Marcia's hand, and the wintery air thickened around her arms. She paused mid-step, almost tripped, and grabbed the rail to regain her balance. Marcia was at her side in an instant, an arm around her waist to steady her.
Sanaki gripped the flat iron rail until the edges bit into her fingers. A warm breath of air heated her skin, banished the chill. Tanith came up and put a hand to her forehead, murmuring something about being sick. A hint of flowers, gone as soon as she caught it, reminded her of the sea of glass beneath Ashera's feet, the illusion of the floor under the influence of the goddess's aura. Marcia helped her down the stairs.
"Maybe we should go home--"
No, Sanaki said - no, I think she's close by.
Tanith frowned. "But your m-- you nearly fell down the stairs. Something is wrong."
"Do you feel dizzy?" Marcia fit the book behind her belt with one hand. "Does your head hurt?"
Which way was the wind coming from? Sanaki looked over her knight's shoulder, down the street to the right. No, it was the other direction - left, to the north, across the walk. It smelled like flowers when she turned that way, like lilies and marigold carried on the wind, like grass. She didn't feel dizzy; maybe light-headed, a little hot in her wool riding dress and the heavy cloak, but she was able to walk straight across the street despite Tanith's protests, dragging Marcia when the other girl tried to dig her heels in and hold her back.
Stop it, she said, turning down a side street. I think we must be there.
The residential areas of Sienne were laid out on a grid. The streets were numbered, ascending south to north, the names chiseled on short stone obliesks at each corner. In the district they'd chosen the cross-streets were named after blossoming plants: Kerria was one, which she liked immediately, and Paulownia, Mulberry. The crowd trickled almost to nothing as they walked farther from the main street, until the only sign of human habitation was the bleed of lights between shutters, and sometimes the smell of something savory cooking.
At the intersection of Camellia and Sixth she heard two young, female voices, and a gruffer, masculine voice in reply. She could smell it - the mulberries, the camellias. No wonder they called it the 'flower quarter.' Sanaki waited for them to come closer, slowing her step as they neared Seventh. She saw Tanith's hand rest on her hip, near her knife.
I told you to be more careful. There were two sets of footsteps, and one of them scuffed the flagstones, loud enough to be made by heels - a smooth step and a clomp, then another step and another clumsy sound, and the male voice said, If you'd gotten those new shoes instead of spending on those staves--
Stop complaining, Sothe. Nobody else joined in. Perhaps she'd imagined the second voice. We've done a lot of good with those.
And now they're gone, and that heel--
Sanaki stopped short when they rounded the corner. The male cursed, reached for a pocket, seemed not to find what he was looking for. His arm was around his companion's waist, and she saw his grip tighten in her coat until she whispered for him to calm down. "Sorry," she said with a smile. Her hair gleamed like silver. "We weren't watching where we were going."
"N-no, it was my fault." Sanaki stepped to the side, resting her hand on the stone wall. The sun was beating down on her. Moisture beaded at her hairline, the wind of the couple's passage cool on the back of her neck. The silver-haired girl limped, her right foot strapped into a sandal with a wobbling heel, all black and blue. She leaned on Tanith and twisted around. "Wait--"
The man's posture stiffened. The girl looked back. "Yes?"
Sanaki bit her lip. "You're hurt," she said, when she thought the pause lasted a second too long. She reached inside her cloak, ignoring Tanith's whispered warning, and pulled one of her staves from the loop on her belt. "Let me take care of it for you."
There was a discussion, but it was short; we have no money, she heard the girl say, and the rest was muffled. She waited for the stranger to turn around and tilt her head before she approached. "Thank you," she said, using 'Sothe' as leverage to sink to the ground and stretch her leg out. "We were on our way to the neighborhood temple."
Sanaki knelt on the flagstones, winced. The girl's ankle was swelling; the ribbon straps cut into her flesh, the bluish bruising tinged red. She held it carefully, pressing as little as she could to be sure there weren't any bones out of place. The red was dried blood - just a little, where the strap sliced the skin. "What on Tellius did you do to yourself?"
Sothe crouched next to her. "Tripped."
The girl elbowed him. "We were chasing someone down the stairs and I fell."
"Was something stolen?" Tanith asked, and when Sothe's gaze snapped up she hurried to add, "We heard you talking just before you came around the corner."
An odd coincidence. Sanaki missed the reply and raised the staff, whispered the activating charm. She'd learned to use staves because the goddess insisted, but she hadn't yet been able to make them work without saying the prayers out loud. The only compliment she ever received from Ashera had to do with her affinity for the magic, the ease with which she used the more powerful artifacts - and even that was colored by the comment your skill will be unparalleled if you ever learn to use them like an adult.
Children said their prayers out loud. Third-rate magicians chanted their spells with voice - that was the goddess's opinion, but she compared her subjects to Lehran, who snapped his fingers and set an entire practice yard on fire to demonstrate silent casting, then extinguished the flames just as quickly to lecture her on how to adjust the effective range of her attacks.
What are you doing here, anyway? Sothe.
Sanaki watched the swelling recede, the skin fade from blue to dark pink. Her arms felt like they were wrapped in hot towels. She should have dispensed with the gloves--
We're looking for Mandrake Apothecary, Marcia, and her hand flickered into Sanaki's field of vision, gesturing. My brother runs a, uh, business out back and some jerk came asking me for money--
The pink faded to white, and the girl's sandal straps loosened and slithered around her ankle, drooping to the ground. Sanaki lowered her staff. It slipped in her hands, slicked by sweat. "Are you--"
"I think we need to go," the girl said, twisting her legs under and leaning on Sothe's shoulder to stand up. "Come on."
Tanith pulled Sanaki up. The staff clattered onto the flagstones. "Wait..." It was the girl pulling Sothe away now, saying I'm sorry and thank you and we need to catch those thugs, and Sanaki reached out to pluck the girl's sleeve. "Yune?"
"No," she answered quickly over her shoulder. "Good luck!"
They disappeared around the corner of Sixth. Sanaki rubbed her forehead, and her fingers came away wet. The heat around her arms faded.
Marcia leaned down to retrieve the staff. "At least we know what she looks like. I guess."
.
Sanaki shed her dress and crawled into bed as soon as they returned to her rooms. She'd had a fever once, before Ashera's blessing protected her from such things, and it felt like she was revisiting that dream-like night, when she shivered and kicked the blankets off by turns, the heat pounding in her head until she thought her skull would crack from the pressure. Marcia stayed to watch her, but she left eventually, and the windows dimmed as the sun set. It was time to go to the tower.
If this was the ability the goddess promised, Sanaki didn't want it. She'd listen to Ashera tell her to find Yune a hundred times a day if it would mean an end to her headache.
Was it true? Was that girl really Yune, or was it a coincidence? She looked so frail. A body like that couldn't contain the essence of a goddess equal to Ashera.
Sanaki fell asleep waiting for her knights to return, while the room darkened around her. She wanted to peel her shift off, but if they brought a priest in - they surely would, if the thought she was sick - her state of undress would be awkward. Several times she pulled her eyes open, positive the silver-haired girl was speaking to her again, but no one was ever there. She could have been, for how hot Sanaki felt, like someone had tucked a dozen warming pans into her sheets without asking if she felt cold.
The curtains were drawn when she woke next. A lamp was lit on her night table, and she squeezed her eyes shut again when she turned her face that way. Sanaki turned onto her stomach and dug her arms under the pillows. It was getting worse - they throbbed, and her skin was starting to itch. She scratched the marks through her gloves and let the pillow cushion her forehead.
What would have happened if Ashera remained asleep? Sanaki wished she had. Lehran would have had to speak with her about his plans eventually - she wouldn't have stayed oblivious.
She drifted off again, and woke to someone stroking her hair over her back. She smelled mint and sugar - tea?
"Tanith told me you found Yune," Lehran said. She turned her head to look at him through a screen of her hair. His hand paused and rested on her back. "But Yune would not do this to you."
Her skin itched. Sanaki's fingers twitched, but she held her arms rigid beneath the pillow. "Maybe. How am I supposed to know?" She pressed her forehead into the silk. "I tripped and almost fell, but I'm fine."
"Tripped, fell, and contracted a sudden fever?"
The itch became a sting. She gave in and dug her nails into her arm. "You speak as if you know her. How can you be sure she wouldn't--"
"Yune is many things," Lehran said, leaning over and reaching under the pillow, seizing her arm. He pulled and yanked the buttons loose and peeled the sweaty silk from her arm. "But she--"
The lines were puffy and irritated, the skin around them pink and prickled. The goddess called the shape a phoenix - a mythical creature, but a form she took on occasion when the world was young. It was rather snake-like in Sanaki's opinion, and it stung when the strokes flared red. She reached to scratch it. Lehran grabbed her hand. His fingers dug into her skin and it was almost a relief.
It looked rather like a heron, she thought, though with a long tail. It could have been beautiful.
He released her hand and let her scratch, reaching past the edge of the mattress for something on the floor. It jingled - she recognized the Matrona staff when he lifted it, with its tassles and charms.
Sanaki tried to pull her arm back. "They would have tried this."
He ignored her and braced the staff against the floor, pulling her arm straight. The gold glowed and the air around them warmed, but it still wasn't as warm as she was. The red faded, the stinging reduced to a pricking, as of needles pushing on her skin. The lines were still hot. Lehran pressed his thumb into a wide feathery curl and watched the glow disperse into the skin.
"Why did you do this?" She wished he would yell. "Why did you let her? What made you think this-- that it would--" He lifted his wings, one of them striking a bedpost, and Matrona clanked against the plaster when he leaned it on the wall. "I knew you were hiding something, but I thought--"
Sanaki threw herself onto her back and used her weight to pull free. "It was no use saying anything." She let her arm flop over her stomach and stared at the canopy. The staff's heat was soothing, not really hot, and she wanted it back. The air in her room was stuffy, dusty, hard to breathe. She rubbed her other arm through the glove.
No use he repeated, and again, his voice sharpening. She didn't look at him. She'd never seen him angry, never seen him hurt, and tears were already gathering behind her eyes, waiting. "Are you insane?" Lehran yanked on the bedsheets and her eyes snapped to his. "Did you learn nothing from Kilvas, from watching Lekain? How could you think any oath, under any circumstances--"
"You don't know anything!" Sanaki sat up and immediately choked, blinking back tears, and sucked in deep breaths until the sickness passed. The muscles in her throat felt tight when she pressed the skin with her fingers; Lehran reached for the staff again, and she shook hear head - slowly, and pulled on his sleeve until he sat back. There was nothing in her body to bring up. She couldn't remember the last time she sipped water.
He helped her move to the edge of the bed and slide her legs over. "If Ashera asks for a contract--"
"She didn't ask." Sanaki pressed the juncture of her throat where it met her jaw, but it didn't help. It felt like she was speaking through water. "She said she would give me what I needed."
His hand trembled when he gathered her hair and lifted it from her neck. The draft of air was cool for a moment on her moist skin. "That is not a temporary mark, Sanaki."
So she was branded like her ancestors - but not really, because Sanaki didn't possess their long lives or the ability to heal or sing, unless Ashera willed it. The half-blooded were not made of her will; as far as she was capable, the goddess displayed surprise when she was told about the Branded and the sentences passed on mixed-race parents. It was not a particularly happy surprise, but Sanaki never found out what bothered the goddess: the intolerance, or the existence of something she didn't understand.
Sanaki was not half-blooded. She was beorc, with a strain of magic in her veins. Was she wrong to wish for more when it was given for so little?
"She grows tired of my disobedience," she said, echoing a phrase she heard often when still a child. The marks heated again, prickling again in an itch, demanding something. Even when she obeyed, Ashera was not satisfied. "Why is it doing that?"
Lehran let go of her hair and called loudly for Sigrun. It felt like he dropped a quilt over her shoulders. "She is calling you." He cramped his wings to his back and helped her lie down again, straightening her sheets and pushing the blankets to the other side. "Didn't you ask her how it worked?"
Sanaki scratched her arm, wished she could dig her nails in without making it hurt more. "She never tells me anything, even when I ask."
The door opened and Sigrun stepped in. Lehran smoothed the sheet over her waist. "Watch her, please. If her condition worsens, the Crimean princess should have the skill to use this staff." His hand rested on Matrona when he backed away, eluding her grasping hand, and stood. "I'll visit again later."
"Wait." Sanaki's hand clenched around the sheet. "Where are you going?"
"Someone must answer her summons, or it will only get worse." Her knight held the door open at his approach. He said something softly to Sigrun, then glanced back. "Don't try to follow. It will only aggravate your condition."
"You idiot! She won't speak to you--"
"She will tonight." Lehran turned his back on her. "Be still until I return."
...............................................................
Mandrake Apothecary has no affiliation with me, by the way, and their business doesn't involve Makalov selling "herbs" out back. I've even tried their perfume. :D In fact, I should really try their coffee/chocolate scents, because all I ordered before were florals, and florals die horribly with my skin chemistry. I didn't know. These things take time. ;_;
I might drop this fic for a while. I don't know.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 10:16 pm (UTC)-Um, good? Well, good until you realize that they're all dead now because of the flood. I think that's what you meant to do.
-It was a little confusing. I think right after the first time she hit on him (at the end of the previous part) I was like 'well, that's going to be shot down'. And then at the end of the first scene of this part I was like 'wait what? When did this happen?' It took me a while to figure out that she wasn't shot down. It was a little confusing, but I think it's partially my fault?
Ashera doesn't seem very Ikelike to me. Ike wouldn't have any clue what to do either, but he'd probably notice that you didn't seem very happy with what he was telling you to do.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 10:58 pm (UTC)contract - I want a scene where Sanaki tells Ashera she screwed up, now. Politely.
laguz - good, that is what I meant, yes.
- I knew I should've added more to that part. Okay. No, that's all my fault. I admit I'm not sure if I want him to turn her down or not the first time. He has no reason to, really.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 11:00 pm (UTC)That would be awesome~
no subject
Date: 2008-11-28 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-29 10:44 am (UTC)Thank you for your comments~
no subject
Date: 2008-11-29 02:25 pm (UTC)And you're quite welcome~