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rannadylin · 7 years

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Clan and Court

For this week’s @pillarspromptsweekly prompt, I had an idea that fit great with the prompt but then as I got into writing it, WILD SUBPLOT APPEARED and now I must tackle that beast. So, I present not a finished one-shot, but the first two chapters of...five? several? I think I’m aiming for five. Maybe it will keep growing and I have the next Warriors Such As on my hands. Anyway, here are Violet and Edér and a whole lot of orlans, including one who turns out to be a reminder of a past Violet would rather have left behind. There’s trouble in Dyrford, there’s an old suitor come calling, and there’s so many reasons for Violet and Edér to take a closer look at what they mean to each other...

Rating: G for now, maybe will hit PG when it gets more shippy?

Word count: about 5K in the first two chapters

Pairing: Watcher Violet/Edér Teylecg

Read here or read (and subscribe for when I finish the other chapters :-D) at AO3

Chapter One: Cönyngsdag

Caed Nua. Edér couldn’t hold back a grin as he passed through the outer curtain wall into the grounds of the keep and heard the sounds of life all around. Every time he visited, he was struck by the noises that had replaced the wailing of the specters they’d once driven from the ruins: the pounding of hammers from one side or the other as the Steward found yet another corner of the keep for Violet to renovate, the shouts of merchants from the farmers’ market that gathered just inside the walls every Folcsdag, the booming voices of lecturers in the forum, or just the chatter of Vi’s vassals coming to petition the Watcher of Caed Nua for aid.

Seemed like a lot more chatter than usual this month, he noticed as he drew near to the great hall. Not too many kith hanging around out in the yard, though. Still, the din of voices grew, drifting out through the hall’s open door.

Edér stepped inside, straight into the largest gathering of orlans he had ever seen. Feeling out of place and unnecessarily tall, he looked around for the golden curls of the orlan he’d actually come to see, the priest for whom he bore letters from several of the Night Market’s contacts. “’Scuse me, uh, ma’am,” he muttered more than once as he squeezed carefully through the crowd toward the Steward’s dais.

That was where he found Violet, not sitting in her official capacity upon the Steward’s throne but on the edge of the dais itself, leaning in close to another orlan lass with hair nearly the color of Vi’s own, smiling and nodding at what the young woman was saying.

Then the Watcher glanced up, perhaps noticing the sudden hush spreading through the animated crowd at Edér’s passage. Vi brightened and jumped up at the sight of him, rushing down from the dais to meet him in their accustomed embrace.

“Edér! I wasn’t expecting you for another week,” she said, pulling back to look at him and reaching up to smooth a smudge from his armor.

Something’s come up in Dyrford, and folks need their priest, he almost said, but the weight of eyes on the pair of them reminded him that his business for the Night Market wasn’t exactly official, not even exactly legal in the Dyrwood, and who knew what these orlans thought of Eothasians? Except that they clearly thought highly of the one ruling this keep, and had her trust. So he joked instead, “Takes a whole crowd to keep you company when I’m away, huh?”

She laughed, igniting that spot in his chest that always got a happy little bit of heartburn when he could get a laugh from her. “I wasn’t exactly expecting them either, but…” She glanced around and her smile faltered. Just for a moment, but Edér was watching closely, still basking in the warmth of her laughter.

“Friends of yours?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“Oh,” she said with a wry look, “most of the time.” The golden-haired woman she’d been talking to earlier giggled from back on the dais, and Vi tugged at Edér’s hand. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the clan.”

“Clan?” he echoed.

“Edér, this is my little sister, Audrisa.”

“Audie, to family,” said the girl, standing up to look Edér over carefully. “And to anyone Violet’s that glad to see.” She punctuated this with a wink. Vi punctuated it with a huff.

“All of this…” Edér looked around. “This is your family, Vi?”

“Some of it,” Violet shrugged.

Edér looked around again, more carefully, eyes widening. “There, uh, more of ‘em coming?”

“Gods, I hope not,” Violet rolled her eyes.

Edér chuckled. “So you weren’t kidding, calling it a clan.”

“No, that was literal.” She waved off his look of confusion. “Explanations later. Introductions now.” And with that, her hand was warm in his, tugging him along again to learn and quickly forget the names of half a dozen more siblings, the spouses of four of those, and at least thirteen of Vi’s nieces and nephews. The way their eyes brightened and their ears perked up when she added, at the end of every introduction, “Edér’s one of us. Eothasian,” put his mind at ease, somewhat, regarding his business for the Night Market. Hard to keep such a secret in so big a family, but he reflected that Vi had brought her faith with her from the Plains, from far away where maybe no one strung you up or even blinked if you happened to follow the god the Dyrwood had killed.

Someone’d better enlighten this clan of hers how things stood in said Dyrwood, then. Edér filed that thought away for later.

Vi was introducing him to her eldest brother, one Garivald, a man barely taller than her, who kept his hair (brown, not golden) shorter than any orlan Edér had yet seen. Garivald seemed a stuffy sort, his eyes frequently drawn to the furnishings of the hall with a frown, as if he found them lacking. Next to him stood a black-haired orlan with wide, almond-shaped eyes, her arm looped possessively around his, which made sense when Vi introduced her as Narusa, her brother’s wife.

Violet was glancing around to point out Garivald’s and Narusa’s five children when suddenly for a moment she froze, her face going pale and with the pinched look of someone whose drink has turned out more bitter than she anticipated. Then again, the moment passed and she was putting on a polite smile, as an orlan man with hair as black and eyes as beautiful as Narusa’s approached. Gold glittered on his fingers and his long ears; his attire, uncommonly dapper, stood him out from the crowd.

“Anselm,” Violet said slowly, in that voice she used for the most frustrating of her petitioners; the placid, soothing Lady of Caed Nua voice that settled ruffled feathers while it betrayed not a hint of her personal feelings. “What a surprise. I didn’t realize you would be visiting with my family.”

“Your sisters-in-law,” Anselm answered in a rich, mellifluous tenor that Edér was inclined to hate at once, “are my sisters. Despite the past, we are practically family.”

“An interesting definition,” Vi muttered, still smiling. Anselm’s hand came up as if to take hers in greeting, but she was already sidling away, leading Edér along to meet a young man and woman whom Vi introduced as Xipil and Yolotli, the only set of twins among her many siblings.

They weren’t all as stuffy as Garivald or as off-putting as the tag-along Anselm. Edér was relieved to find most of Vi’s family as sweet and open-hearted as the priest herself, each in their own way. An hour passed, two, as they quickly drew him deeper into their friendly chatter. He’d not intended to leave Vi’s side in this crowd, knowing her discomfort at being the center of attention among so many unless it was while delivering a sermon, but as a gaggle of her nieces and nephews clamored for his attention (and turns sitting on his shoulders to see over their kin’s heads, which had quickly become all the rage among the tiny orlan set), he felt her absence somewhere in the second hour.

A quick glance, given his height, was all it took to find her, sitting again on the dais with Audie. As if sensing his own search, she suddenly looked around as well and grinned to see him surrounded by the children. A wave and a nod, a reassuring smile, then she turned back to talking with her sister, and Edér, satisfied, swapped one nephew for the next to soar above the crowd.

It was already dark by the time this informal soirée broke up. The parents with small children melted away first, until only Violet, Edér, Audie, and a few more of the younger siblings remained. Edér was chatting amiably with the twins when Violet gave a sudden yawn, and halfway through it, covered her mouth in a wide-eyed look of surprise. “Goodness!” she said. “It must be halfway to morning already. There’s just too many of you around to keep track of time!”

Her siblings giggled and, with a few more rounds of goodnights and hugs and good-natured teasing, the last of the guests filtered out of the great hall.

Edér shouldered his travel pack from where he’d stowed it at some point behind the Steward’s throne and turned to go, but Vi caught at his sleeve. “Oh no, wait! I completely forgot. I know we always keep your room ready for you but -- well, so many of them turned up at once -- Brighthollow’s completely full, I’ve even got Audie sharing my room. Do you mind terribly if we make up a bed for you in the barracks, just till they’re all gone?”

“Vi, I’ve slept under the stars often enough when you needed me to,” Edér assured her. “The barracks’ll be great.”

She insisted on helping him make up the bed, though any of the mercenaries hired to defend the keep could have done so, since they were the usual inhabitants of the barracks. Or the maids and such he knew she’d hired somewhere along the years. But Edér was glad to finally have a moment to talk to her alone.

Rummaging through his pack, he found the letters he’d come bearing. “Trouble in Dyrford,” he summed them up as Vi pulled a stack of sheets from a cabinet.

“That’s why you’re visiting a week early,” she gathered.

Edér nodded and helped her unfold a sheet. “Livestock’s been poisoned. At least three farms so far, and as it happens, all three are Eothasian families, regulars at the Night Market.”

Violet frowned, her hands going still in the midst of their task. “A secret grudge? Odd, when no one would blink an eye if an Eothasian is publicly persecuted.”

“Dyrford’s not quite as bad as Gilded Vale,” he reminded her. “But it’s odd all the same, yeah. Could use your help.”

She smiled and returned to tucking the sheet into place. “A mystery to solve? An adventure, for old times’ sake? Another day of hosting the clan, and I’ll be glad to get away from here. I’m in.”

“Aw, I dunno,” Edér smirked. “They seem like fine company. Can’t imagine why you’d want time away.”

“I love them,” Vi said, staring off into the distant corners of the room, “but it’s been five years since I left home and I had forgotten just how loud…”

“C’mon, Vi, between Hiravias and Kana and sometimes Iselmyr, traveling with all of us was even louder sometimes,” Edér teased.

She glared at him, then frowned in thought. “Well. Maybe sometimes. At least no one’s attacking us, screaming out battle cries.”

“Better’n some families,” he said. “You trust ‘em, though? If we head over to Dyrford and leave them all here, no one’s gonna cause trouble?”

“No more than if I were here,” Vi sighed. “And not enough to worry about either way, honestly. It’ll be fine.”

Edér chuckled, paused, then had to ask: “What about that Anselm guy? He’s...not actually your relation?”

There it was again, that sour surprised-by-lemons look. “No. He truly is not.”

Edér tilted his head, studying her. “There’s a story here, isn’t there?”

She stared him down for half a minute, then sighed and plopped down on the edge of his bed, drawing her heels up under her knees and resting her elbows on them, her hands clasped as if in prayer. “Fine. Sit, Edér. Hear my tale.”

That brought his eyebrows up in surprise. Violet rarely enough talked about her past, and it was mostly fond reminiscences of the big (if noisy) family she’d left behind in the Plains. Edér wasted no time in settling himself next to her on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his hands as she spoke.

“Anselm was my betrothed.”

Edér sputtered. “You -- your what now? When were you -- I never --”

“Since before I was born, actually.”

He squinted one eye at her skeptically. “Now how’s that supposed to work? You’re not born yet, how d’your parents know who to betroth you to?”

“Well, it was more of an open contract. Family alliances. My family and Anselm’s, they really are more of clans. Old families, branches all throughout the community, with all the concerns of property, inheritance, legacy, that sort of thing. Clan Itzli -- that’s us -- and Clan Coatl -- that’s Anselm’s family -- have had business dealings for generations, and every few generations they like to keep it official by arranging a marriage or two. So the terms of the contract were more or less ‘Our next kid, whatever you’ve got that’s suitable, it’s a deal’.”

“That’s…”

Vi grinned ruefully at him. “I know, I know, believe me I do.”

“So you were born and then they picked him out for you?”

“Something like that. Oh, and I wasn’t the first. My two older brothers both married Coatl girls. You remember Narusa, Garivald’s wife?”

“Sure. Resembles your man for sure.”

She frowned. “Not my man, remember.”

“At this point in the story…” Edér grinned. “Your second oldest brother, that’s...which one now?”

“Corbus,” she said. “Evine, his wife, is another of Anselm’s sisters. I don’t think you met her tonight. She’s got a new baby and probably left the party early.”

“So,” Edér wondered, “with two sons already taking care of this marriage alliance thing, what’d they need to betroth you for?”

“That,” said Vi, spreading her hands wide, “is the question of my life.”

“You’re...ah...not still betrothed to him, though, I take it?”

“Oh, no,” Vi said. “See, our two families, we pretty much grew up alongside each other, played together, went to school and church together. And at first it was fine. I knew since I was little that I’d been promised for Anselm, but at that age it was such a far-off destiny it hardly seemed to matter. He was just another kid to play with. As I got older, I tried to go along with it, ready myself to be a proper bride, accept my duty to the family. But...well, he’s just…”

“Not very nice?” Edér guessed.

Vi nodded with a weak smile. “See, you’ve only just met him and you can tell that. Took me years to admit it. He was all right when we were kids, I suppose. Spoiled, though. He’s the youngest. And the only Coatl boy. His parents and his sisters all spoiled him horrendously and every year he got more and more...arrogant, demanding, hard-headed…” She huffed and shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. “He liked nice things, fancy things, and believed he deserved all of them. And eventually I realized, to him I was just one of those fancy things.”

“Oh, Vi,” Edér murmured. She’d set her hands down again, and he had a sudden urge to reach for the one nearest him. He was contemplating it, her delicate fingers and the faint sheen of golden hair -- fur -- whatever you called it for orlans, lining the back of her hand. As he was wondering whether it would be wholly appropriate to take her hand in the middle of such a tale, and also wondering when he’d stopped seeing things like orlan fur as strange and exotic and started just seeing it as Vi, dear and familiar, she went on and the moment, whatever it was, was lost.

“We were teens, nearly old enough to go ahead with the marriage, and he’d started acting as if...well, as if it were already done. Expecting me to go everywhere with him, arrange my schedule to his liking, wait on him hand and foot. Expecting...um. Well. More, physically, than I was...comfortable with.” Blushing at memories, she crossed her arms in her lap. “So one day I just realized I couldn’t keep going along with it. So. I didn’t.”

“You...didn’t?”

“I confronted him. Broke off the betrothal.”

“You could do that?”

“Questionable.” She grinned. “But I did anyway.”

“Can’t imagine he took that well…”

“Oh, hardly.” She chuckled. “He was furious. All red-faced, shouting and cursing and then begging a little at the end. Which only strengthened my resolve, really. It was a relief to be done with him. Or so I thought at that moment, anyway. Unfortunately, I’d confronted him in the presence of a number of both our kin. It was something of a minor scandal, and then I had my parents pressuring me to take him back and go through with it for the sake of the alliance.” She glanced up at him with the beginnings of a smile. “Wasn’t all terrible, though. I had an uncle serving in the temple who took me in, trained me as an acolyte just to get me out of the firestorm I’d ignited.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine being anything but a priest, now. Especially not being Anselm’s wife instead of who I became when I stopped trying to be that.”

“Priesthood suits you,” Edér agreed.

The beginnings of a smile grew to the smile itself. “Agreed. Anyway, I spent a few years in the temple, but even that didn’t completely shield me from family strife. I thought it’d all blow over, maybe Anselm would settle for one of my sisters, but he wouldn’t, and my parents kept trying to talk me into a change of heart. In the end, the only way to smooth it over was to leave town. Uncle Patli sent me off into the world with letters of introduction to priests he knew in the temples of Eothas throughout Eora.”

“And that’s how you ended up in Gilded Vale,” he grinned down at her.

“That’s how I ended up in a lot of places. And, eventually, Gilded Vale.” And then she was reaching for his hand, and leaning her head, with a contented little sigh, against his arm.

Edér squeezed her hand, so tiny in his. “So...was it worth it? Giving up your home and family, going through the whole Watcher thing, all to end up here, Lady of Caed Nua?”

“Hm.” She gave the question serious consideration. Edér waited, breathing in the scent of her hair. “I suppose,” she said at last, “that’s one good thing about seeing him again. A reminder of the alternative. But you know what? Even without that, yes. It was worth it, Edér.”

Chapter Two: Mecwynsdag

In the morning, over a breakfast that filled up Brighthollow’s table and spilled over into a sort of sunrise picnic on the grounds, Violet read the letters from Dyrford. After the last of them, she sat lost in thought, tapping on the table with a half-eaten scone still clutched in her hand. Eventually she looked up and across the table to see Edér watching her over his porridge, his brow furrowed with concern that faded as soon as she met his eyes. “Wondered if you were still just thinking or you’d gone Watching souls again,” he explained with a grin as he set his bowl down.

“Nothing so drastic,” she assured him. “What a puzzle. Could it be entirely a coincidence that the families targeted are all in the Night Market?”

Edér shrugged. “Could be. Three’s not much of a pattern. Not yet, at least.”

“Well, we could stake out all the rest of the farms connected with us. If we had an army to delegate it to,” she added dryly. “But if it’s not a coincidence, if someone is really targeting them because of their faith, we have to consider how the culprit knows whom to target. These families...Gjegricg, Uescwyn, Heafric...none of them are openly known as worshippers of Eothas. Outsiders with a grudge against Eothasians would not easily know to pick these farms.”

Edér frowned. “Think it’s an inside job?”

“It’s a terrible possiblity. But I can’t think of one that makes any more sense.”

“Well,” he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, “all we can do from here is speculate.”

Violet looked around at her gathered clan and smiled. “So this definitely calls for an expedition. Caed Nua and Clan Itzli will have to manage without us for a few days.”

Just then, Audie materialized at Violet’s side, slipping into the chair next to her. “What’s this, sister? Had enough of us so soon?”

Violet’s fur ruffled as she turned to her sister. “Of course not! It’s just...well, duty calls, and I…”

“And you’ve had enough of us so soon,” Audie grinned from ear to ear. “Not that I blame you. It’s a lot of crazy to catch up on after all those years away. But don’t think you can get away with this, Violy. Like, literally. If you’re off on an adventure, I’m coming with.”

“Audie…” Violet grimaced, laying a hand on her sister’s knee as she prepared to gently disappoint her.

The younger orlan glanced up at Edér and winked. “What do you say, big man? Strength in numbers, no?”

Edér’s eyes flicked from sister to sister. “Look, Audie...that’s nice of you to offer and all, but I dunno if…”

“I could say you’ll need me,” Audie said, turning her gaze back to Violet. “And it’s true, you will. But I won’t. All I’ll say is, Vi-o-letty, I came across all these countries to see my favorite sister who’s been gone for half a decade, and there’s no way I’m wasting a minute of this visit not spending time with you, darling.”

Violet met her stare for half a minute before she broke. “Oh...fine then. Grab your knives and come put yourself in harm’s way with us.”

“That’s all I ask,” Audie beamed, wrapping Violet in a fierce hug before she vanished to, presumably, grab her knives as directed. From across the table, Edér chuckled.

Violet fixed him with an arched eyebrow. “What?”

Edér shrugged. “I think I’m gonna like that one.”

Violet had hoped to be quietly packed and away by the second hour past breakfast, but word of the impending expedition spread quickly. Garivald hunted her down in her quarters while she and Audie were helping each other into their armor.

“Brother,” she nodded to him.

Garivald returned the nod and began immediately, not looking at her but pacing around her room, picking up objects as if to examine them all the while he spoke to her over his shoulder. “I’m concerned about your intentions,” he said as he turned a pebble of adra between his fingers. “Certainly it is understandable, given your position of responsibility in this community, that you should go to the aid of these people who rely upon you,” he said as he flicked at the edges of a scroll on her shelf.

“That is part of my job description,” Violet said merrily as Audie tightened the straps of her armor.

“Nevertheless,” Garivald went on, “the timing is unfortunate.”

“I know it’s horribly rude of me to wander off when I have company, Gar,” Violet said, adjusting her gloves. “If it were a matter that could wait, I would let it wait.”

“It’s not rudeness that concerns me,” Garivald said, and at that he actually put down the puzzle-box Kana had sent for her last birthday and turned to face his sisters. “I should hate for anything to happen to you, Violet.”

She stared at him, speechless, forgetting to finish lacing her boots. “But I’ve been off on my own for five years now, Gar.”

“And you’ve done admirably for yourself,” he nodded. “However, now that I’m here, I do feel responsible for you. As family,” he added, as if that needed any such explaining.

“Of course,” Violet said, tilting her head in bewilderment.

“I understand that your recent accomplishments have been achieved with the aid of a number of companions, skilled in combat.”

Violet blinked. “I...had friends adventuring with me, yes. Edér, for one, and he’ll be along this time too.”

“Might I advise,” Garivald continued, advancing toward the sisters with his thumbs tucked into his belt, “augmenting your party to a reasonable extent?”

“Take more people with me, you mean?” Violet interpreted.

“Miles ahead of you, Gar,” Audie chimed in cheerfully. “I’m going too.”

Garivald looked at Audrisa in momentary confusion, just now seeming to notice her armor and the daggers at her waist. “Oh. Well, that’s good.”

“You bet your buckles,” Audie winked.

“Perhaps just three more, then?” Garivald said, looking back to Violet.

“I’m guessing,” Violet said, “you have three particular souls in mind.”

Garivald spread his hands. “The twins are quite capable. Almost,” and here he returned Audie’s wink, “as capable as Audrisa.”

“Hm,” Audie tapped her chin, then leaned over to grab her brother’s arm and plant a kiss on his cheek. “For that, you can be my favorite for the hour, Gar.”

“Such a delight,” Garivald retorted dryly.

Violet grinned at this exchange and finally nodded. “All right. If they’re willing to go, I don’t mind having Xipil and Yolotli’s aid, certainly. Who’s the third, though?”

“I think,” Garivald said, watching her closely, “you should take Anselm along.”

Violet blinked at her brother, then at her sister. Audie, still gripping Garivald’s arm, now regarded him through narrowed eyes. Whatever scheme this was, Violet guessed her sister was not in on it. “You must be joking,” she said.

Garivald shook his head. “I know you and he are not on the best of terms any more…” At Violet’s raised eyebrow, he put up his hands in a placating gesture. “But he can be useful. I’m not asking you to marry him, or even to befriend him, Violet. Just let him help.”

“Anselm being helpful,” Violet said slowly, “is not as I recall him.”

“People change,” Garivald said. “I’m certain your temple training featured the concept of redemption?”

“Are you twisting Eothasian doctrine for your own purposes, Gar?” Violet asked, hands on her hips.

Garivald met her stare staunchly. “Am I?”

In the openness of his unexpected appeal, Violet was forced to take the question seriously. Distancing herself from the bitter past, considering the sacred writings she had studied since first entering the temple under her uncle’s tutelage, pondering the problem of Anselm in the light of the sermons she had heard from priests across Eora since embarking on her journeys, and not a few sermons she had delivered herself in the tiny chapel she had built to her god beneath Caed Nua, she had to admit Gar had a point. What use was following a god of redemption and light if in your heart of hearts you were going to jam some people into a little “irredeemable” box and never give them a chance to come out under the sun?

“Fine,” she relented at last. “Anselm can come. But he’ll be on his best behavior. He gives me any reason to doubt him, and he’s walking home. To Ixamitl, not to Caed Nua.”

Garivald favored her with a broad smile of satisfaction. “I’m certain your terms will be agreeable to him.”

In the courtyard of Caed Nua, Violet looked over her hastily and unexpectedly assembled team.

Edér, as always, was her rock and her shield. He stood off to the side a bit, looking faintly bemused in the presence of so many orlans, but she’d seen him exchanging winks with Audie more than once since breakfast and, no surprise, he was completely taken with Xipil’s companion hound, Yaotl. The dog, standing nearly as tall as his own master, had not yet decided what to make of the big human hanging around and was strategically positioning himself between Edér and Violet’s brother.

Xipil himself, his hair as curly as Violet’s but kept short and tending more to a light brown, stood counting his arrows, checking their fletching, and smirking at the little drama playing out between his dog and his big sister’s tall friend. He wouldn’t have much to say, but Violet looked forward to all that her brother’s meaningful looks could convey.

And what Xipil neglected to say, his twin Yolotli would announce on his behalf. Somehow, in the brief time since learning the purpose of their mission, she’d managed to scrounge up several scrolls and tomes on the effects of numerous poisons. Violet couldn’t say for sure whether Yolotli had done this research in Caed Nua’s library or in her own heavy luggage; well-versed in all sorts of esoteric lore, she would surprise none of the clan by happening to have brought a small library on any topic with her.

At this moment, Yolotli was tugging at her braids and bubbling over with the firstfruits of her recent research, and Audrisa was the lucky soul into whom she was pouring the excess of her knowledge. Audie, far from being annoyed, grinned and filled Yolotli in with her own first-hand knowledge of poisons suitable for blade’s edge.

And lastly, off to the side opposite Edér’s position, there was Anselm. Dark-haired among all these fair-headed Itzli siblings, he stood silent, regarding them all with a calculating expression. Garivald had, with admirable circumlocution, managed to avoid specifying just what useful skills Anselm would bring to the expedition. So Violet watched him out of the corner of her eye, seeking clues. He carried a fine sword -- a Coatl family heirloom, she’d guess. He wore padded armor in his family colors of red and gold. A dark brown cloak concealed any other hint.

She set aside her curiosity for the moment and addressed them. “All right, then. It’s more than a day’s march to Dyrford. Let’s make haste while the sun shines.”

#pillars of eternity #pillars prompts weekly #PoE fanfic #pillars of eternity fanfic #eder #violet #PoE #fic #from the desk of ranna

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