intertwine
Aug. 6th, 2020 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lonespark"May I cut a lock or your hair?"
"I suppose. What for?"
Viren frowns slightly, cutting the hair and stroking it between his fingers as he answers.
"My grandmother - not Claudia, the other one - was a wild mage in the mountains. One of her stocks in trade was protection charms. There's one for childbirth, with a braid of all the family's hair. I've already got mine, and Soren's... A bit foolish, perhaps, but I've had terrible dreams..."
Silvis shakes his head.
"It doesn't sound foolish to me. I've got no reason to be snobby about types of magic." He peers at the hair in Viren's other hand. "But yours are so short, how can you make a braid?"
"Maybe... spin it first?" Viren's tone indicates he knows precisely nothing about spinning.
"That works with wool and... flax?" Silvis doesn't know much more. "But I don't think you'd get the same results with human hair. It's so... slippery."
In the end the hair is sort of twisted together, around braided thread, and placed in a pouch embroidered with runes for health and protection. He's wearing it over his heart, and it's certainly imbued with love and care, which ought to be enough.
*
Storms on the road from Camboria keep the birth priest delayed. Labor starts sooner this time, and drags on. Viren talks, at times with nervous energy, and Silvis mostly naps. He does find the energy to grumble in response to musing about names, "if the child is a girl."
"We won't know that," he says tiredly, "Until she tells us."
Viren nods quickly. "Right, yes, sorry. If we'd adopted your people's approach it would have saved Harrow some grief... But we haven't, and we won't. I thought we agreed to bestow a name on the seventh day again."
"Yes, that's fine. That's different from claiming we know what we can't."
He's expecting to be part of the ceremony, but fate has other plans.
"I suppose. What for?"
Viren frowns slightly, cutting the hair and stroking it between his fingers as he answers.
"My grandmother - not Claudia, the other one - was a wild mage in the mountains. One of her stocks in trade was protection charms. There's one for childbirth, with a braid of all the family's hair. I've already got mine, and Soren's... A bit foolish, perhaps, but I've had terrible dreams..."
Silvis shakes his head.
"It doesn't sound foolish to me. I've got no reason to be snobby about types of magic." He peers at the hair in Viren's other hand. "But yours are so short, how can you make a braid?"
"Maybe... spin it first?" Viren's tone indicates he knows precisely nothing about spinning.
"That works with wool and... flax?" Silvis doesn't know much more. "But I don't think you'd get the same results with human hair. It's so... slippery."
In the end the hair is sort of twisted together, around braided thread, and placed in a pouch embroidered with runes for health and protection. He's wearing it over his heart, and it's certainly imbued with love and care, which ought to be enough.
*
Storms on the road from Camboria keep the birth priest delayed. Labor starts sooner this time, and drags on. Viren talks, at times with nervous energy, and Silvis mostly naps. He does find the energy to grumble in response to musing about names, "if the child is a girl."
"We won't know that," he says tiredly, "Until she tells us."
Viren nods quickly. "Right, yes, sorry. If we'd adopted your people's approach it would have saved Harrow some grief... But we haven't, and we won't. I thought we agreed to bestow a name on the seventh day again."
"Yes, that's fine. That's different from claiming we know what we can't."
He's expecting to be part of the ceremony, but fate has other plans.
