intertwine

Aug. 6th, 2020 11:36 pm
lonespark: Cassidy from "Far Beyond the Stars" (Default)
"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.
lonespark: Cassidy from "Far Beyond the Stars" (Default)
 ...and sometimes my brain is just like, guess what, today we  have a few verses about "His Father's Son," in No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll (https://www.amazon.com/Man-Woman-Born-Rewoven-Tales-ebook/dp/B07C86CX8G)  that kinda scan to "Bar'bry Allen."


I found a home with Hilon's folk
I'd never wish them sorrow
They claimed and loved me as their own
Yet I must leave tomorrow

The master trained me every day
With steel to thrust and parry
And well I knew, if I should stay
His daughters I might marry

But once I had another home
With sisters and with brothers
Guided by the wisdom of 
My six dear loving mothers

But then one night into our camp
An evil man came riding
He burned our home and spilt our blood,
And earned my hate undying

Guyon was the monster's name
All kinships keen to conquer
His doom foretold by Cadfen's son
Each boy he found he'd slaughter

So I must seek my vengeance true
For every murdered brother
He'll learn the day I run him through
My father sired another



constructive criticism welcomed

No Man of Woman Born highly recommended.  (Many stories need content notes/warnings, and they have them! Right there in the book! It's so good!)

"His Father's Son" is probably my favorite story, tho many are in strong contention. I read it again every few weeks & have big feelings.





lonespark: Cassidy from "Far Beyond the Stars" (Default)
The summer was nearly over and the children would be departing soon. It seemed a shame not to spend every minute around them, but they never wanted to come to the temple and Silvis never wanted to push them, especially now, when they valued their hard-earned teenage independence.

"It's fine Papa, just go. We'll stay with Aunt Haleth and go swimming again, after I bake a surprise."

Claudia was already mixing something in a bowl as she absently motioned him toward the door. He stopped and leaned against the doorframe, unable to avoid voicing futile regrets. 

"Sometimes I wish I'd shared more of this culture stuff with you when you were younger."

"Didn't you? You used to sing us to sleep."

Soren looked up from stoking the fire for the oven.

"Yeah, that was nice. After you left Claudia used to get mad cuz Dad didn't know the same songs."

"But he read from the book of myths. And sometimes he made shadow shows, too."

"He did?"

Back when Riva was his boss, she and Silvis used to bond over being unimpressed and disapproving of the soulless uses of magic in Katolis. Yet that had never applied to Viren's shadow shows. Even when the message was political and pragmatic, the pageantry and passion brought the narrative to a more transcendant level. Knowing Viren had used that skill to breathe life into his people's stories for their children touched him deeply.

"Yes. We like the stories.  We just don't really believe them the same way you do. Dad says Katolians worship-"

"-one god, at the most. I remember."

*

Silvis has needed this badly. Spending time with the children makes memories resurface, dragging intense emotion with them. He struggles to seek balance again. He finds it in the dance, the song, familiar, holy rhythms of sharing, and celebration, and sacrifice.

The priestess's voice guides him on an inward journey to meet with the Lady of Harvest. Her hair is gold, like his, and Soren's. Her sickle is as sharp as her smile.

She tells him to remember to choose wisely. Not to hold on to that which should be sacrificed.  Not to sacrifice that which must be kept.

It feels like a truth he's been holding off for years. That things that hurt to lose were never right to keep.  The marriage was wrong, but the children were right, and the love... but where does that leave them? They don't hate each other, but they did for a while, and they had to, or he'd have stayed, and kept fighting, and they'd all be more broken than they are.


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