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Verchovai Daxia Yurisdotter

Dazi just giggled when her sister gave her that look of hers. She wasn’t a toddler anymore and teasing her sister was a Very Important Thing! In her estimation, Bekkah didn’t smile enough. Dazi was a fierce warrior with several sharp and pointy things. It was her job, sometimes, to smash and bash and slash... to poke and prod and jab... to let arrows fly from the bow oh so silently... to keep bad things and bad people away from good people.

Well, sure... sometimes she used her words to the same effect.

But Bekkah was just... well... if there was anyone walking the Heartwood in this Age who was most like Lady Attera — at least, what Daxia imagined Lady Attera to be — it was her big sister. The more Bekkah smiled, the more of her happiness and love worked the magic of Lady Attera. Or so it seemed to a simple Dayalan warrior.

“Now, Bekkah, even if Sir Kevin isn’t standing here with us to hear tales of woe, it seems all the tales I could tell — the fantastic ones, at any rate — contain as much or more woe as they contain cheer.”

The redhead shrugged pragmatically. “I expect it’s simply because I am my Lady’s humble servant. Her Children’s stories have usually not been the most joyous ones. We are the one who are always just buying time... or perhaps begging our Lady for a day or a moment more of Her grace to protect those who cannot defend themselves. Sometimes we ultimately fail, as my sisters did here at the end of the First Age, as Jeminy and her warriors did when the Second Age’s ending was beginning. And sometimes we do not fail,” she said as she touched the intertwined star pendant at her throat, “but suffer for it just the same. Sometimes we merely hold a bridge until others can arrive.”

Dazi wrapped an arm around her sister. “Oh, Bekkah, how I wish you could understand that what you and Lady Artemesia and Romana and all your Sisters who serve Lady Attera are doing is so enormous! You bring healing and comfort and mercy to so many. You do not cause harm.

“How angry was Lady Kay when she learned of those we ultimately rescued in Bordertown? Surely you could see how much it pained her to know she couldn’t save them... and yet, she sat with them in their last hours and gave them the Mercy of your Lady. They passed beyond to guard the Dark Patch, they died together but not alone...

“Your Sister, the Lady Kay, made sure of that.

“We all did our part in those three days. Yes, I set that chain of events into motion, so perhaps you might think it’s one of my fantastic tales. But really? I merely pushed the first tile, and events tumbled forward the way they did.

“And didn’t you and Lady Kay wear yourselves to almost nothing trying to heal everyone who had been hurt in that final battle? Yes, you did.”

Dazi shook her head and then kissed the side of her sister’s head.

“Don’t tell your tales, then. I might tell them for you. But please don’t insist that yours are less fantastic than mine.”

She glanced at the two Imperials.

“Pay us no attention in our minor squabble here,” Dazi said cheerfully. “It’s a topic I’m sure we’ll still be bickering over when we’re old and wrinkled and gray. This one will have grandchildren tugging at her tunics in a village where she oversees the local hospice. I will be forced to teach young girls how to think so they don’t need to use their fine swords as often. And I will be calling them cobble blocks at least as often as my dear Unicorn calls me a cobble block.”

With a twinkle in her eyes, she added, “And if you say you are already old, Lady Bekkah, I shall be forced to thump your head again. And perhaps call you a cobble block.”

Bekkah

"I suppose we shall agree to disagree."

"I do not think I'm old, quite the opposite in fact, but I keep being told by others that I am. But as far as grandchildren, unless my Lady has divine ways to help me in that regard, I do not think that may be in my future."

She turned to their hosts.

"Please save me from my sister. Is it too early to meet the boats returning?" she said with a pitying look.

Verchovai Daxia Yurisdotter

“Yes, Bekkah! Let’s agree to disagree on this topic forever and ever! Of course, that means you’ll also be disagreeing with Mistress Kisa, but she is very thoughtful and considerate and I’m sure she wouldn’t take offense. Probably not.”

She did release her sister, however.

But in doing so, she rolled her eyes toward the sky... realized her Lady certainly couldn’t guide her in this, and so she shrugged.

“Oh, flee all you want, sister mine,” Dazi said with a smile. “But I’ll stop teasing now, if that would make you feel better. Besides...”

She looked at Brother Perrin, then at the grand building that towered above them, and back to the Brother again.

“I have been unable to think of a reason why your western tower might have fallen. Surely there is a story there, even if it is ordinary and perhaps dull.”

The Heartwood
Talesan’s Village
The First Cathedral
Rameday, the Eleventh Day of Scholar

Bekkah, Daxia, Lady Felli and Brother Llewelyn

“Actually I don’t believe our good Father will be waxing poetical about corn and its silk.”

Brother Llewelyn simply shook his head, lifting it from his hands.

“I hope you are planning on being here for a while. He may not release your companion until he is certain that when she goes home, it will nae be without a sack of seed-grain and the knowledge to make her own field and raise her own crop.

“And he will be expecting a missive saying so.”

As Daxia spoke, Lady Felia indicated the two extra seats next to their table. With a fancy swoop of her skirts, she settled down and started to collect their gaming pieces, returning them to the finely crafted box that also served as their battlefield.

“I would like to hear of Lord Tray; I have been told that he is a good lad but not well blessed when it comes to health; has this changed?”

She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

“That one, he prefers tales of derring-do, calamity, and combat. I suspect because the closest thing he can come to true swords and shields is when he sharpens his writing quill. It must be a thing about men.

“I prefer hearing tales with less blood. They are rarer and remind folks that every problem doesn’t have to be solved by stabbing in any way whatsoever.”

Brother Llewelyn looked as if he were about to speak. Lady Felia shook a finger at him.

“Hush you, you know it's true.”

The Hastur priest’s shoulders rose and fell.

“It is a fair cop.”

He replied, as he found a sheath of paper and said pen, looking across to Daxia.

“Do you mind if I write while you speak? If it is a rare tale, it is something that should not be left to the drift that always occurs when a story is passed from one to another. The teller cannot help but let their own words create the flavor of a story and embellishment is bound to occur. As well as a bit of forgetfulness and imagination when it comes to making it new and exciting to those who may have heard of it before.”

As the Brother spoke to the Dayalan, Felia nodded to the other Priestess.

“We have time for a tale or two before the ships return.

“And did you somehow think I’d be letting you sit here and rest?

“Cor.

“We work for a living, Bekkah.

“And that’s another thing.”

The mainland’s ranking priestess crossed her arms.

“We are both dedicated to our Lady’s wishes, and both earned our place by what we do... not what we say.

“You are not a follower of Hastur, Rames or Jagnar, nor one of the mainland temples or a worshipper of spirits.

“Drop the lady.

“It’s Felli.”

The young woman snorted, her attention snapping back to Daxia.

“Well?

“Tell!”

Bekkah

"Felli then", she said with a nod and a smile.

Since they faced Dazi, she let her sister tell her story as she saw fit. Or perhaps Dazi would just send their attention back to her. For her part, she explained her part if trey's recovery, along with the ensuing fallout.

Verchovai Daxia Yurisdotter

With a chuckle for the two Imperials, Dazi nodded to Brother Lew and described the zany morning they had met a young man named Dominie, who had been flirting — rather outrageously at times — with Kadri and Romana.

“Romana seemed quite taken with him, in the same way a child might be fascinated with a puppy.”

Dominie’s fantastical and hardly believable tale... although it was metaphorically true...

A visit to the Bordertown Sheriff, wherein she meets young Dominie again...

A request — One that would be thoroughly convoluted and indecipherable if one didn’t have so many puzzle pieces to stitch together...

Dominie swooping into the Commons in his Korie finest on Midwinters Morning to profess his undying love for his Lady Kadri. Lady Kadri declaring that she must follow her heart and let her family think what they will...

“Oh, come now, Brother Lew! Write, write! Yes, we all know the performance they staged was simply that.” Daxia rolled her eyes. “Dominic and Kadri... well, they found a mutually satisfactory solution to problems they both had. But my story is more romantic, and certainly close enough to the tale that was told once we reached Talantal! And besides, they fit well together.”

A mention, no more than that, of a night spent at Highside Heather...

A journey to a farm outside Brockman’s Holdfast, to pay respects to Mikal’s family... where Romana chose the path of Lady Attera... where Dazi gained a last puzzle piece...

And Grand Talantal! Dean defending the Ladies Bekkah, Romana and Kadri! A tumultuous Council session while Bekkah healed Lord Tray. Lord Tray supporting his brother Marcus as Heir. Lord Tray’s appointment as Seneschal in absentia...

“Khorall Dorian and Lord Marcus thought it a bit amusing to give the job to Tray after he’d left. But truthfully? I don’t think Lord Tray will mind much. He strikes me as a man who cares about his people.

“And didn’t he help you and Lady Anastasia work out the finances of the hospice you started in the First Ring, Bekkah? See? A good man.

“Oh, and then the bit about Dawnview and Talantal becoming allies. A story for another time, I suppose. Maybe Kisa should tell that one... although don’t believe her when she tries to tell you I’m some sort of hero. All I did was put puzzle pieces together. After gathering them, of course.”



[Daxia and Kisa will go back to the Inn to have their bath and collect their belongings. Dazi will gather up Romana and Kay, too. And Dean. [DID YOU HEAR THAT, MOKIE?? I’M COMIN’ LOOKIN’ FOR YOU!] They’ll stay at the Cloisters since there isn’t likely to be room at the Inn. Morning Star will go wherever he can find the most apples.]