"Please, sit," Ran said once I had entered the room. Both he and Dav stayed standing as I took a seat on one of the softer outer chairs in the room.
"Why don't you two sit as well?" I asked them, and they stared at me as if I had grown a second head.
"W-we couldn't sit in front of you..." Dav said, his voice panicked. "It would be rude beyond belief."
"I won't take offense," I said. "And I would feel much better if you would join me in sitting. It would make me quite a bit more comfortable."
"I-if you say so..." Dav said, not sounding sure of what he said.
"I insist."
Both of them looked toward the open door before moving as one to take two of the chairs on the opposite side of the room. Now, the room wasn't a particularly large one, but it was still large enough that chairs lining opposite walls were a distance apart that made conversation awkward. I don't think either one of them realized that when they sat, and that they were both thinking something about not being rude by sitting near me. But, it still bothered me.
"Please, come a little closer," I said. "I don't bite, and I don't think that we can have a very good talk if you two are sitting all the way over there." I felt almost like I did when I tried to buy my first horse, before Kiren. The beast had been skittish, and hadn't wanted anything to do with me, fresh off the clan lands as I was. He had circled the small area he was kept in multiple times, trying to edge away from me without panicking, and I had eventually given up on him, deciding that I needed a mount that would at least approach me.
About five minutes of coaxing later, I managed to get them on a pair of chairs that were on the same wall as mine. There was a nice buffer of at least five or six chairs between us, but at least it was a comfortable distance to converse from. And, from the way they were clinging to each other, I had already frightened him close to the point of witlessness.
"Now, about this talent that Siowyn mentioned..." I said. This earned me another look of surprise, this one one that I didn't quite understand.
"You call the Mother by her name?" Ran asked, his voice amazed, after I paused in confusion for a few moments.
I looked at him. "She's my friend, of course I do," I said.
"But she's the Mother," he said. "And even if you're not fae like us, you're still just a male."
I silently apologized to Siowyn for what I was about to say, before I said it. I may not have quite agreed with her race's tradition of keeping their males shut away and trained to be obedient, but that didn't mean that I had any right to try and change it. It worked for them, and it seemed like their males were, by nature, a bit more like many human females in that regard. But, I had to explain to them that that was not the way the world worked, even if it meant causing Siowyn trouble when I finally returned them. So I had to say what I had to say.
"Were you aware that outside of fae settlements, males are generally in charge?" I asked them. "And that most of us in the clans are neither male nor female? I'm a bit of an exception there, since I'm a half-breed, but still." They both shook their heads, in unison like many of their movements had been. I wondered if they were even aware that they were doing it. My guess was that they weren't, but I wasn't about to ask. It was proving to be difficult enough to get information out of them without complicating things more.
"What I mean to say is that, because of what Siowyn decided on her own, you two will be coming with me for a while," I said, continuing with my previous train of thought. "And outside of this place, females are rarely in charge. It may seem strange to you, but that is the way things work in the outside world. Do you understand?"
They nodded again, but didn't say anything, and I had to stop myself from sighing. I was afraid that if I did they would take it as me being angry with them. I had encountered people with similar reactions to theirs before, notably the women of a very small tribe of humans tucked away in a corner land that very few outsiders ever visited. The women there were kept as slaves, trained to obey without questioning, no matter what the orders given to them, and they had reacted with complete and utter horror and guilt the moment a male displayed any sort of unhappiness around them, whether they were the cause of said unhappiness or not.
I was afraid that Dav and Ran would react that way. I didn't want to test it, so I kept back the sigh that I was tempted to let out. They weren't the problem, at least, not quite. The problem was the way they had been raised, the way that Siowyn and her fellow females had expected them to be, not that I felt I had any sort of right to criticize the fae way of life. I just found it frustrating, when I was being forced to deal with some of their males, who were usually never supposed to deal with anyone but other fae. I hadn't chosen to deal with them in the first place, but neither had they, so I couldn't blame them for it.
"I am used to being my own master," I told the two of them, which earned me an astonished stare from Dav, as if he didn't quite believe me and wasn't quite able to wrap his mind around that idea. But the look I earned from Ran was different; surprised, but thoughtful in a way that suggested to me that maybe I would be able to get him to act a little less subservient, given some time. "And while I will need you two to obey me at times once we are traveling, particularly once we reach the clan lands, I would prefer it if you did not treat me as a master."
"But..."
Dav choked back whatever he had been about to say as Ran leaned a little closer to him. He started to talk to the other boy, using a tone of voice just above a whisper, so that I could occasionally pick out random words from his speech. I might have been able to piece together what he was telling Dav, except that the words I did hear were all in the fae tongue, and thus incomprehensible for me.
Instead, I waited as Ran continued to talk to Dav. A few moments passed after he finished, after which Dav looked at him with a shocked expression plastered across his face. He asked a single word question, his voice a little louder than the other's so that the incredulous tone carried quite clearly to my ears, even if the word was still one that I didn't quite understand. Then, after Ran answered him, he finally looked over at me one last time, hesitation evident in every movement, and then nodded reluctantly.
I didn't ask what they had talked about. They would tell me if they felt the need to tell me, and as long as it didn't negatively affect me, I didn't really care. And pressing them for the information would just make the situation worse, since it would probably drive them to the same reaction that I had been trying to avoid earlier. Besides, by the way Dav had looked at me, and the way he had sounded when he asked Ran his question, I had the feeling that whatever they had been talking about had been connected to me, and the conversation just before that. And if it was, I would be able to tell if it would negatively affect me without much problem.
I decided that it would be easier to just try and continue with the business at hand, if Dav would cooperate. With that in mind, I took a deep breath and focused my attention on him. "Now," I said. "What exactly is this "ability" that Siowyn mentioned earlier?"
"I..." Dav said, his voice quavering a little before he stopped to take his own deep breath and start again. "I see the threads that bind people together."
I waited for him to supply more information, but he just sat there, staring at a point on the floor somewhere between where he and Ran were sitting, and where I was sitting. I had almost no clue what he was talking about, though I had a guess that I wasn't too unsure of if I had to try and figure it out on my own. But, especially with the person in question sitting right in front of me, I much preferred getting a better explanation from the one who had the gift.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, trying not to sound particularly impatient, though I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep that up if his second answer was as vague as the first one.
"W-when two people are tied together..." he said, pausing for a moment, but continuing after Ran placed an encouraging hand on his shoulder. This caused him to brighten up noticeably, as well as increase the volume of his voice to a point where I no longer had to strain my hearing to understand his words. "When two people are tied together, like in friendship, or love, or even just being related to each other, there's always a sort of spiritual residue that connects them. It's not anything real, but it stays there as long as the two people are still connected. Sometimes it even forms before they become connected. I... I can see that residue, even though I've been told that the Mother has never heard of anyone else who could. She says that she was aware that the threads existed, but had never seen any sort of proof of that before she found out that I could see them."
"So when you say "threads that bind people together," you didn't really mean it literally?" I asked him.
He shook his head quickly. "They're not really threads," he said slowly, though this time I saw the slow response to be more a result of his being unable to find the right words to describe what he wanted to say, rather than reluctance to answer in the first place. "They don't really stretch from person to person either, or they'd get all tangled up when everyone moves around. They're just... there, and when I see them I can tell who they connect to most of the time, if I'm familiar with the other person."
"And you told Siowyn that there was something strange about me?"
He nodded. "Your threads are all there..." he said. "Well, I think they all are. I'm not really sure, but you don't seem to have any less than most people. I can't see who most of them point to, but they're there. It's just that all of them, except the one between you and the man inside the one on the horse are... I'm not sure how to put it. They strange, unstable, maybe about to break. And there's one more that's stronger and more powerful than any thread I've ever seen before. I can't see who it points to, but it's not normal. It's too much. Not even the thread binding you to the woman in you is that strong."
"You can see things about Fa'lyr?"
"Only the threads that bind you to her," he said. "And the one that binds her to the one inside the man on the horse. That one's weak, almost like it should really be broken, and strange, but not the same way that yours are strange."
"He told me after you were here last time that you and your spirit are much closer than the Mother and her spirit," Ran said, which surprised me. Even though he seemed like he might be a little less subservient than Dav, I hadn't expected him to try and take part in the conversation. Though apparently it also surprised Dav, who turned to face the other boy with an almost hurt look of shock on his face.
"Ran!" he protested, though weakly. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone that..."
"Why?" Ran replied. "It's not like it's anything bad, and I'm sure he knows that he and his spirit are close."
"But the Mother..."
"She would know that you didn't mean anything bad, Nya." I assumed that nya was a word in the fae tongue, since the only other place I had heard it used was as a sound that a cat makes (in one of the human tongues, though not the common one), and I saw no reason for him to be saying that.
Dav turned to face Ran, his face turning red and a look of complete and utter mortification spreading across his face. He started babbling in the fae tongue then, and though I didn't understand the words, I was fairly sure that he was embarrassed, and thus partially angry with the other boy. From that, I came to the decision that nya was probably some sort of affectionate pet name, or something like that, especially after I noted that Dav's face turned brighter and brighter red every time Ran said the word in a teasing voice.
Finally, after I was fairly sure that it couldn't be healthy for Dav to be still blushing that much, Ran decided to stop, and he explained something in a lighthearted voice to the other boy. He didn't seem bothered in the slightest by what was going on, and from the tone of his voice, he was trying to convince Dav not to be bothered by it either. Unfortunately for him, it didn't seem to work, because after a frantically shouted last sentence, the green-haired boy fled the room, leaving a slightly confused, but grinning the entire time, Ran behind with me.
He looked right at me after it became fairly obvious that Dav wasn't returning and smiled. "I'm fairly sure the Mother told you about us," he said. "Since there's no way in all of the fires of Ithydd that I would put up with her sending him away and not me. But it looks like he hasn't quite figured that out yet."
I was surprised for a few moments. Before he had been acting almost as submissive as Dav had, like he would start cringing in fear if I so much as batted an eyelash at him. But now that Dav was gone, he had all of a sudden started acting more aggressive and confident, more like he thought of me as an equal. But, even as it surprised me, I realized that I preferred it to having him huddled in a corner on the far side of the room, not willing to come near me. I wondered if it was Dav's presence that made him act the other way, or if he had simply been putting on an act before. Or, perhaps the newfound confidence was the act.
"She did mention that you were inseparable," I said, and he smiled again.
"It's more than just that," he said, not specifying what that was, though I was fairly sure I could guess without much trouble. "Dav's gift doesn't quite work right when I'm not around for too long. It's there, and he can use it, but it's not controllable. Sometimes he can only see the threads, and not even the people who they come from. Sometimes the threads get tangled up all by themselves, connecting one person to someone else they've never had anything to do with before. It's random, and we're not quite sure why I stop it, but I do. Sending just him with you, besides making him so depressed that he'd probably die, would be completely useless without the key to making his gift work."
He stood up, stretching his arms out behind his head as he did so. "But that really doesn't matter right now, does it? It looks like you already agreed to the Mother's request to take both of us. And now I've gone and made Dav too flustered to get anything done." He flashed me another quick smile, and then just stood there and stared at me, grinning the entire time. I realized after a few moments that he didn't look anywhere near as similar to Dav as he had when I first saw them together. And then we stood there, staring at each other, for several minutes.
"Is there something you want from me?" I finally asked him, after I had gotten tired of waiting for him to say or do something else.
"Actually, yes," he said. "But that can wait until later. I wouldn't want to get that started until after we leave the settlement. For now, aren't you going to ask me why I changed all of a sudden? You can't have not noticed it..."
"I had noticed. But I figured you would tell me if you felt like it."
"And if I didn't feel like it?"
"I doubt you would have brought it up yourself if you did want me to know the reason," I said, and he grimaced slightly, before grinning.
"You have a point there," he said. "So, do you want to know?" This time I didn't bother to answer him. I just stared at him, hoping that he would stop dancing around the subject sometime soon. Yes, I did want to know what had caused his sudden change in behavior, especially since it seemed to be something that would impact any contact I had with him in the future. But he would tell me when he was ready, and I wasn't going to force it out of him before then.
"Okay, okay..." he said, apparently reading a little more into my stare than I thought he would, since he seemed to have picked up on my impatience. "How much do you know about us?"
"Us as in...?" I asked him.
"Fae males. How much do you know about us?"
"Only that you are never seen by non-fae and that your women are the ones in control, not you," I said.
"Well, actually we're naturally submissive," he said. "I know more about this, well, more about how to explain it really, than most of the other guys here do. They all know the reality of it, since they live it, but because of what I am, a few of the women have let me do some studying, so I know more about the theory and how we actually differ from human males, besides physically.
"So yeah, we're naturally submissive. The humans have a similar thing, with their women, though it's much, much less pronounced, and starting to die out. Human nature is changing, I guess. I'm sure, as not-quite-human, you've noticed it yourself, particularly in some of the less developed human societies out there. And, on the other hand, our women are naturally dominant. It's not just that the women have control and are keeping us men slaves. That's just how things are for fae, and we wouldn't be comfortable any other way.
"But, of course, there are exceptions. Just like with humans, not all of us are born the same as the general rule would say we should be. You see it more with humans, because their dominant and submissive tendencies are so much weaker than ours are, and have been more or less repressed for centuries, but it does happen in our people as well. Every now and then we have a girl who is born wanting to serve and be submissive, or a boy who's born wanting to be in charge. It doesn't usually go over well; especially if the abnormal one is a boy, but it does happen."
"And you're one of those abnormalities?" I asked him, seeing where he was headed as clearly as if he had held up a sign.
"Of course I am," he said. "I'm very good at playing a good little slave boy, but that doesn't mean I like it. Mother Siowyn would even have let me be more like myself if I'd really wanted to, except Dav doesn't like it when I make waves, so I play the good little slave boy for his sake." He frowned a little, and then grinned weakly at me. "And in exchange, I get to do things when I'm not around others that the other guys wouldn't normally get to do, and wouldn't really want to do. Dav doesn't seem to realize yet that I'm going to be fully myself while we're traveling, and it's probably going to make him very uncomfortable for a bit once he realizes it, but there is no way in all of the fires of Ithydd that I am going to play the good little slave boy when we're not in the settlement, especially not around you and your boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" I asked.
"The guy you brought in on the horse who got himself all cut up," he said. "You two are like Dav and me, aren't you?"
I sighed, and tried not to get angry. I had no idea where Ran had gotten the idea that that was the relationship between Darhim and myself, though I suspected it was from Siowyn. I wasn't sure when she had given him the idea, since I didn't recall her talking to Ran other than what she said in front of me between when I told her about Darhim and that moment, but I was still fairly sure that that was where the idea came from. Or maybe he had gotten it from Dav, who had talked with Siowyn enough to hear about that idea of hers from her.
"No, we aren't," I said, sighing again. "I just met him recently, and to be completely honest I wouldn't be too terribly bothered if he were to drop dead right here and now."
"That's not how Mother Siowyn seems to think it is."
"I know, but that's the truth."
"Dav doesn't agree with you," he added. "Well, not completely. He said there was something between you and him, but not really, and it's more with the actual owner of the body, but not really either. He was really confused over the whole matter. I don't think he likes working with you Bound warriors all that much. Too confusing." He smiled at me, the kind of smile that said that he wasn't telling me something that he wasn't supposed to be telling me, probably something that he had told Dav he wouldn't tell me.
"I've never even met the real owner of the body," I told him. "Darhim was already Bound to him the first time I even heard of him."
"That doesn't really matter for Dav's ability. Sometimes he sees ties that aren't actually established yet. Sometimes he sees ties that haven't existed for centuries, but were once there. So just because you haven't met the real owner of your companion's body doesn't mean that you won't ever meet him, and that you won't develop that kind of relationship with him in the future."
"I'm not like that," I said, even though as I said it I realized that I wasn't sure of that myself. How was I to know, when the only involvement of that sort that I had ever had was being kissed by Darhim? Particularly considering the fact that I had more or less enjoyed it, in a way. I think he realized that as well, even without knowing the specifics of my particular situation, because his only response was a flat, unbelieving stare.
In fact, he didn't say anything else to me. He just stared, and after a few moments of that slightly uncomfortable silence, when it became evident that I wasn't going to say anything else at the moment, he gave a slight shrug, almost as if he were saying "Okay, have it your way, but I know you're wrong." Then he stood up and walked out of the room, leaving me behind to find my way out of the Temple by myself. That, by the way, turned out to be much more of an undertaking than I thought it would be, and that was after I assumed what I thought was the worst. It hadn't been bad before, but apparently we had gone just far enough inside the maze of hallways this time that it was near impossible for me to remember this time.
I found both Siowyn and Ran waiting for me outside of the Temple. Ran was grinning, though Siowyn didn't look terribly amused. I assumed it was because of the amount of time it took me to get out of the Temple, but I wasn't about to ask, especially when I saw Siowyn turn to Ran and have a few words with him the moment she saw me come through the doors of the building. He left, with a look on his face that was almost a pout, and then she came up to me.
"I hear he told you about himself," she said. I nodded, and she smiled. "I figured he would. He's been wanting to see what the world is like outside of the forest for a few years now, but at the same time he doesn't want to leave Dav alone. I wanted to let him get out, but I needed to find a good reason to send them both away, especially since this is going to be very hard on Dav."
"Then why are you doing it?" I asked her. "I got the impression that Ran wouldn't mind staying here for Dav's sake."
"I told you before, there's that not-quite prophecy that tells me that I need to send him along with you because of what he saw. Even if he doesn't like it, it'll be a good experience for Dav, no doubt about it. And based on what he told me he sees in you, I'm worried about you. Whatever it is with you, it's not natural, and that can't be a good thing."
"He's convinced that I'm in a relationship with Darhim," I muttered, low enough that Siowyn had to listen very carefully, and even then it took her a few moments to actually register what I had said. After that, she started laughing.
"Wouldn't that be because it's true?"
"No, no it wouldn't. I told you what I think of him. Besides, I don't think Fa'lyr would let me live it down if anything happened along those lines."
"She's a woman," she commented. "And he's a man. She'd like it more than you'd think." This caused my face to heat up, in what I think might have been a blush, based on Fa'lyr's reaction. Of course, considering that as far as I can remember, than was the first time in over two decades that I had blushed, I wasn't quite sure.
"Siowyn," I said, trying to ignore the rush of warmth in my face and act like nothing had changed. "She hates Darhim."
She didn't even dignify that particular statement with a response. All she did was smile at me, and then start walking off toward the edge of the clearing in which the Temple was located. A quick glance back over her shoulder accompanied by a slight wave of her hand indicated that she wanted me to follow her, which I did, though I was starting to wish that I had never thought to stop back in the forest to get help.
It turned out she was leading me to the same small shelter where I had slept the last time I had been there. This time, however, there were three cots, and even a bed in the room, as opposed to the single small cot I had slept on before. Darhim was on the bed, in a way. He had apparently regained consciousness, and there were two fae warriors trying to pin him to the bed and keep him from getting up, while also trying to avoid pressing on any of the many bandaged parts of his body. I couldn't say that I envied them, since it was obvious just by looking that they wouldn't be able to keep him down too much longer.
The same healer who had come to tend Darhim earlier was there, though she jumped up and started complaining to Siowyn the moment we passed through the doorway of the hut. Unfortunately, everything she said was in the fae tongue, so I understood nothing but the tone. Of course, based on what I had seen of the males in Siowyn's village, I had a feeling that at least some of her quite obvious annoyance was from the fact that he must have been the absolute worst behaved male she had ever had to deal with. That is, unless she had experience outside of the village, which I doubted was the case.
Siowyn responded with calming words, which did what they were supposed to do and apparently convinced the woman to stay a little longer. Then she turned to me. "Arynn didn't manage to finish stitching all of his wounds," she said. "But he woke up and wanted nothing to do with her the moment his eyes opened. She's about to give up on him, even though he's a patient. Could you at least get him to calm down enough for her to finish her work?"
"I can try, I guess," I said. I was standing facing Siowyn and the door, my back toward Darhim so that I couldn't see what he was doing. But I could feel his eyes, trying to burn two holes in my back, he was staring that hard at me, and I realized that he could hear every word we were saying. I got the feeling that he wasn't going to cooperate, but I had to try anyway.
I turned around to face him and tried not to grimace. "You really should let her finish stitching you up," I said.
"I do not need to have some woman sew me up!" he growled. "I'm not some dress."
"No, you're just bleeding. Besides, it's your own fault that you need to be stitched up in the first place. If you had actually tried to defend yourself you might not be in this state right now."
"I'm a god," he said angrily. "I don't do those kinds of things."
What bothered me was that he actually seemed to believe what he was saying. Not only did he not have even the slightest hint of hesitation in his voice, but he seemed fully confident that he didn't need medical attention. And I would have believed it, had he not been inhabiting the body of a very much not divine human prince. Darhim may have been a god, but that didn't mean that the prince was. And as a Bound warrior, he had very little of whatever physical abilities he had had in his own body.
"I believe you when you say you're a god," I said to him. "But you seem to forget that just because you're a god doesn't mean that the boy whose body you are in at the moment is as well. He is just a human boy, barely an adult, and not some all-powerful, instantly healing being like you may be in your proper form. Right now, you are just as human as the body you are in, and that means that you need the same medical attention that the body does."
I don't think anything I said to him actually affected how he was thinking. He just sort of stared at me with a look on his face as if to say that I didn't know the slightest thing about what I was saying. He was obviously right, just because he was a god. But, I also think that he was starting to get tired of having people nagging him, since almost right after that he gave a huge sigh and then stopped struggling to let the healer finish stitching him up. He grumbled the entire time, but at least he let her do it, which made pretty much everyone involved quite a bit happier than they had been just a bit earlier.
In the end, what I was most worried about was what I was supposed to do when it came time to tell Darhim that we would be taking Dav and Ran with us. It wasn't really any of his business, since I was technically the one in charge for our journey, but I still was not looking forward to his reaction, especially once he figured out that the two fae boys were in a relationship. I was almost certain that he would not let that rest with me.
So, when the next morning arrived, I still hadn't told him about Dav and Ran. We slept in the same shelter, him on the bed, under orders from the healer to stay put until the absolute latest possible moment. The less he moved, she told me, the better it would be for his wounds, since moving about much would open them all up again. Maybe, just maybe, if he managed to stay put through the night, they would have closed up enough that he could travel in the morning. I was put in charge of making sure that he stayed put, and I decided that the best way of accomplishing this would be to tell him flat out that we would have to stay another day, still with him immobile in the bed, if he didn't behave himself that night.
To my surprise, the thought of having to stay another day was apparently worse than the thought of staying still until the morning, and he cooperated. He was rather vocally opposed to it, but at least he didn't try to get up and walk around. Still, it was not a peaceful night, since he refused to sleep as long as I was still awake, complaining the entire time, and I found it impossible to sleep while he continued to talk. Needless to say, when I finally did manage to get to sleep, it was very late, and I felt like the walking dead the next morning when I woke.
I'm not quite sure how, but I had somehow managed to forget about Dav and Ran by the time, I woke up. It was rather pleasant, since I didn't have the constant nagging worry about what in the world Da'syrr, let alone Oya, would do when word reached them that I had entered the clan lands with not just the prince in tow, but two fae males as well. Of course, that pleasant absence of worry was gone the moment Dav peeked his head in the shelter, calling out softly to see if Darhim and I were awake yet.
He didn't say a word when he came around to see if we were awake. He just stuck his head in the door and looked around. In fact, I wouldn't have even noticed him if I hadn't been vaguely staring in the direction of the door when it happened, he was that quiet. And that bothered me a little, since I didn't like the thought that he would have been able to look in on us without me ever noticing if it hadn't been for that. That was the kind of carelessness, or at least the kind of gap in my awareness, that might someday get me killed if I found myself somewhere where I had to always be on my guard.
But, it didn't matter in the end, because I had been staring at the doorway, almost. And, even if I hadn't been, Darhim noticed Dav when he came by, sitting straight up in bed the moment the door cracked open. I would have sworn that he was fast asleep before that, and I doubted that it was very good for his injuries, but it was still impressive, and proof that there was something about him, or about the body he was using maybe, that put him a level above me in warrior terms. Luckily, I've never claimed to be one of the top warriors. My fame comes from my combination of magic and sword, not from either one on its own.
"What is it, Dav?" I asked, before Darhim could start demanding to know what was going on, which he looked like he was about to do.
"I was sent to see if you were awake yet, Master Marril." I groaned at hearing him call me "Master Marril" again, even though I had asked him not to the day before. But I wasn't in the mood to try again at the moment, not in front of a very much awake Darhim who looked like he had gotten quite a bit more sleep than I had, even though I knew that he hadn't.
"As you can see, we're both awake," I said, and he nodded.
"The Mother would like you to join her for breakfast," he said, and then his eyes flicked over to Darhim. "But just you, Master Marril. She said Master Darhim should still be resting, so she will have someone bring in a tray for him."
"She doesn't need to treat me like I'm made of glass..." Darhim grumbled, but that was about all he did. He didn't try to get out of bed when I did. He just lay back down, closed his eyes, and apparently went back to sleep, though I had the feeling that somewhere deep inside he wasn't quite as far gone as he looked. I was sure that he was only sleeping lightly enough to rest himself some more, ready to come to immediately should anything happen, the same way he had the moment Dav showed up.
I, on the other hand, did not have the choice of going back to sleep. As much as I would have liked it (and after the amount of actual sleep I got that night, it would have been a very nice idea), I was being summoned. And I knew that no matter how much she was being nice to me, letting me stay overnight and treating Darhim's wounds for me, Siowyn's patience and hospitality would fade to nothing the moment I seemed slightly reluctant to leave her domain at the first possible opportunity, even if that meant going on little sleep with an injured companion.
In the end it wasn't like I had never had to press forward after a night of little to no sleep before. It wasn't my preferred state to be in, since I knew very well that my reflexes were dulled and my concentration would be completely shot if I wasn't careful, but I had done it countless times before while in the middle of certain tasks that simply couldn't be postponed. It was part of being what I was, and I was used to it, so the only choice was to force myself another step into wakefulness, splash some water from the basin in the corner of the room onto my face, and follow Dav as he led me back to Siowyn's Temple.
It seemed odd at first that he led me to the Temple. I was used to being in and out of the Temple back "home," having been trained there since I could walk more or less in hopes that I would one day prove myself worthy of the Binding. But I had always resided in Oya's home, even if he wasn't there most of the time. I had slept and ate there, most of the time joined by a less than happy Nhara, and never in the Temple itself. I merely traveled to the middle of the village every day to get my training in the Temple.
So being brought to the Temple in order to join Siowyn for breakfast seemed slightly odd. Of course, once that thought crossed my mind, I realized that Siowyn was quite a bit more involved with her Temple than I ever would be to the one in Syrr village. She was acting as Elder for her Temple, not just as one of the Bound warriors attached to it, and as such, she was expected to be there whenever possible. Like the Elder in the Syrr Temple, she would not only spend her days there, but her nights, and her meals as well. And if I were to eat breakfast with her, it would be there. Though it still felt odd, knowing that I was going into the Temple to have a meal.
"Marril, morning!" Siowyn greeted me as Dav led me into one of the many rooms of the Temple. This one was no different from most of those I had seen so far, except that it had just a table with some chairs around it in the middle of it. Siowyn was already seated at the table, though she had apparently waited for me before starting to eat. The breakfast in question was laid out in front of her, waiting for me apparently, and consisted almost entirely of fruit and vegetables. Meatless, like almost all fae cooking.
"This is breakfast?" Fa'lyr commented as I looked over the table. "How in the world are you supposed to have the energy to travel after eating this?"
"The fae do know what they're doing with their meals," I commented, though I realized that she was just complaining for the sake of complaining, because I hadn't yet left the fae village and she felt like sulking because of that. In fact, she didn't respond to my comment, and just went back to sulking silently in the corner of my mind after that.
"Good morning," I said, taking a seat across from Siowyn so that I could look at her as we ate. She flashed me a smile, and then made a gesture toward the far side of the room. Ran emerged from the door across from the one I had entered through, grabbing Dav by the arm as he passed by, and proceeded to seat himself right next to me. He plopped Dav down in the seat next to him, though I heard a squeaked protest from him as this happened. The whole time, Siowyn just continued to grin at us, as if she was finding the whole situation amusing.
"Morning!" Ran greeted me, with a smile just as sunny as his greeting was, though I could see Dav almost shaking with nervousness, and possibly a bit of fright, just to the other side of him.
"Good morning," I said, again, even as Ran started to serve himself from the various plates arrayed on table.
This seemed to bother Dav, who whispered something urgently that I could barely hear, and probably wouldn't have understood even if I could. I saw him making small motions miming serving Siowyn and myself, and realized that he was trying to tell Ran that he should be serving us first. Ran's reply was louder, to the point where I could tell for sure that it was in the fae tongue, and based on the tone, reassuring and calm, I figured he was telling Dav that it was all right, and that he didn't need to worry about anything. But even so, I decided that it wouldn't matter if I just served myself before anyone else could do it, so I started doing the same thing that Ran had just done.
Sure enough, this got another squeak out of Dav. "Master Marril, let..." he started to say, but he was cut off by Siowyn.
"I'm sure you've realized by now that Marril is not going to let you serve him on your journey, Dav," she said, her voice not quite hard, but certainly not soft and kind either. "You should try to start getting used to that now."
And with that, Siowyn started serving herself. Dav looked back and forth between us, looking panicked and lost. The distress on his face was almost painful to look at, and after a few moments Ran starting talking to him again, still in the fae tongue. The words, as before, were in a calm and reassuring tone, and I would have been confident in betting that more or less the entirety of what he said could be summed up as "there, there, it's all right." That didn't take the lost and bewildered look off of Dav's face, but at least it got him to start helping himself to the food. I did notice that he waited until he was that both Siowyn and I had started eating before he even touched the food on his plates, however.
Despite Dav, and his constantly bewildered presence, we ate in peace. Siowyn and I chatted, about things that had absolutely nothing to do with anything important. Ran even joined in on the conversation after a bit, though this just sent Dav even further into his state of confusion and bewilderment. Ran even proved himself to be quite intelligent, if a little lacking in knowledge because of his rather sheltered upbringing as a fae male. He may not have always known exactly what we were talking about right away, but he picked things up quite quickly, which I figured would be a great help with getting Dav to adjust to things once we were back on the road.
Not too much later, since I could tell that Siowyn still wanted to get Darhim and myself out of her territory as soon as possible, we had finished eating, and Dav received orders to see me back to the hut where Darhim awaited us. And then, after a brief flurry of fae, both healers to look to Darhim's wounds one last time and males to help bring together all of the packs, we were out on the road. Had I turned back, which was exactly what both Dav and Ran were doing from the backs of their little ponies, I would have been able to see Siowyn, who would stand there and see us off happily as long as we continued to move forward. But I had no need to prove to myself that she was indeed waiting there as we left, because I knew that she would not chance us not leaving, even if I had sworn to her by the Old One that I would do just that. And so it was that we rode out of the fae territory at a snail's pace, since Dav was finally coming to the realization that he was being forced to leave everything that was familiar to him, and he wasn't taking it well.