by Mima
One of the women brought over a tiny wooden rack full of small vials. There were strong scents in each, that when added to an oily body cream would leave a scent on your skin. Freezha chose a delicate floral scent. Of them all, KarRa couldn’t bear to have any of them clinging to her, but liked vanilla and cinnamon very much. Cro laughed—she wore cinnamon herself.
For some reason, that made KarRa choose vanilla, and she allowed the woman to put only one drop instead of the usual four into the lotion. Luxurious. She smoothed it in. As the women all bent to apply it, KarRa saw that some had scraped their body hair, smoothing their skin to bare luster. Freezha had such fair hair that her body hair could hardly be seen. Looking down at her soft slight fur on her arms and legs, dark against her lightly tanned skin, KarRa ran her hands over it. It did not bother her. It was soft. And if she started to smooth herself, she'd have to keep it up or let it grow back rough, like some men's faces. She shook her head. Being a smoothskin was not for her.
Finally the women ate evening meal together, Cro and Fler saying goodnight to return to their families. After the meal Freezha taught KarRa element dice. KarRa learned it easily. The first roll set up your chances. You claimed what element alliance you thought would win and had two more rolls to try to achieve a majority in the alliance. KarRa won the first round with fire allied with air.
Some hours later, Freezha murmured, “I am sad that this is over.” KarRa looked up. “I wanted it to be over, but…we will never be together like this again. We have a week left, but we’ll be busy with our new men. We will have to leave and learn a new place and new women all over again.”
“There is the Autumnal, of course,” KarRa offered. “And I bet our husbands, I mean, mates, will let us visit.”
Freezha nodded, but KarRa could see her eyes were filling up. They went out to the balcony. Finding that several Wolves were playing chase in the moonlit plaza lightened their mood again. Their colors were uncertain in the dark. She now knew there were five packs. Perhaps red, or grey.
KarRa marveled at the strength and speed of the beautiful bodies as they twisted and leaped at each other, tearing around the open space, nails scrabbling on the stone. One stopped and looked up at them laughing and hanging over the railing and howled, and she thought the sound went right to her soul. Wild. Free. Eventually their energy died down and they trotted away, down the steps into the outside. KarRa had not yet braved that open space to see the river she had learned was out the door.
“What Clan do you think I should choose?” Freezha asked. Speculating on Clan strengths occupied Freezha late into the night. Freezha was firm in her thoughts of the mysterious and powerful Lizzeed surrounded by rumors of atypical sexuality. KarRa thought the quick, playful Marten Clan would be a good match for her.
Privately she thought of seeing Rylan on that raised platform, mantled wings and open beak, a perfect hunter. Her brain also flashed to the Wolf howling at them in the shadows, and Merk hovering above her, his hair enclosing their heat.
When they began to get tired, Freezha convinced her they were hungry and trooped down to the food counters to see what had been left unclaimed. Beasts were great eaters and all that was left were some bread rolls.
After sharing a few, KarRa took some and stuffed them in her shirt. “Oh,” she fluttered, tossing her head, “I'm Freezha! Look at my huge breasts.”
Freezha shrieked and attacked her, trying to get at the rolls, and KarRa was off, running the maze of stairs and halls with a sense of being out of time. They ended up in the grand darkmoon meeting hall, Freezha taking up some sort of formal City dance down the middle. KarRa impressed her by scaling one of the two story columns and coming down another.
Next they went to the treasure room, where Freezha piled on jewelry until you could barely see her skin. After a parade, she put it all back.
Freezha asked KarRa for stories behind some of her scars.
“Well, there’s a funny story about this one here.” Pointing to the back of her left elbow, she explained how in the middle of a riot where she and Rylan were outnumbered six to one he had shouted, “Behind you.”
Feeling the fast approaching body, she only had time to brace her hand onto her hip and swing into a rear elbow jab, expecting to connect to a stomach, or ribs.
“Imagine my surprise,” she barked, gasping to remember, “when I looked back and saw that it was a tiny boy the size of my waist! I banged him right in the mouth! It knocked his head back so hard he almost did a back flip, and left me with a perfect print of his upper teeth for two weeks.”
She was snorting with remembering her stunned assessment of his laid out body that had surprised everyone surrounding her into pausing when she realized Freezha was not laughing. Looking at her friend’s distinctly queasy face, she turned the talk to the few scars Freezha had.
Freezha had a surprisingly long scar on her calf from where she dropped one of the long knives she had taken from a guard and to play with.
KarRa gaped at her. “What made you think you could handle a long knife?!” Most in the Dark had used heavy wooden warclubs, as knives were City weapons and hard to come by. Plus, it was too easy to do too much damage quickly, bringing the Beasts down on you.
“Well, I was pretending. I was swirling it around to keep a pack of wild children away from me, sorry KarRa, and it just kept on swinging into my leg. It’s weird to think of that, now. My best friend is a wildling.”
By now, they watched the first merchants wander onto the plaza to set up their wares and tents. One of the other women came out onto the balcony in wonder that they were still up.
Laughing, they helped gather breakfast. KarRa’s thoughts drifted to the men she would soon meet. Men whose skin she would touch. Men she hoped she could trust.
Breakfast was over when the Lizzeed mage KarRa had met with Merk entered the lounge. He called forward one of the other women, who immediately burst into tears and sat down. KarRa was shocked. He went to her, and they whispered, the other women awkwardly trying to give them privacy. Finally she rose, shaking and clinging to him, and he led her out. And so the day started somber.
KarRa was looking through some books, when another man came and took Freezha. His chest was so deep KarRa wondered if he had fully turned back from being a Bear. She waved to KarRa on her way out, eyes feverishly bright, her step jerky. Then it was the other two women she did not know. By now it was time for midday lunch. The other women not going to the brightmoon ceremony kept well away from KarRa.
She went onto the balcony and sat watching the plaza in peaceful silence. She tested their magepath, but Rylan had his door closed. KarRa thought, Today I will be made apart from Rylan in a way I have never been before. I wonder if he will be jealous still?
She worried that it would change his ability to be with her. If he would turn away from her as before. But he had said he would not. That he understood their bond better now, and he had admitted that he loved her. She fretted, sitting in the shadow along the wall, the rock cool at her back. Why hadn’t he come by yet this morning? Was he still mad about Merk?
Then Merk was in the door to the balcony. She looked at him and he was dear to her, though she really knew no more about him than before. They smiled at each other at the same moment.
“You look lovely,” he said, reaching out his hand.
She nodded her thanks and took Merk's hand. It was big and warm and steady. She walked out into the main hallway by his side. They walked along the same general path they had gone on to the souldance, but went beyond it.
There was a man at the door they stopped in front of that surely must be a white Wolf. His skin was pale, his eyes an eerie silver, and his hair was grey and white. Thinking he would be a fine match for Freezha, KarRa wondered at her calm. She was so taken with him that she didn't notice another man leaning against the hallway wall in the shadows beyond.
He stirred and her eyes saw no more than a flash of hair before she knew…”Rylan!”
The Wolf nodded to Merk and went in, leaving the door ajar. KarRa dropped Merk's hand and went forward to Rylan arms. She settled into him as she always did, with a perfect sense of peace, her head perfectly tucked into the hollow of muscle above his chest and below his shoulder.
Stepping back she asked, “What are you doing here?”
The Wolf came back out of the room and said softly, “The Council is ready.”
Merk gestured her forward and KarRa dropped Rylan's hand. “Bye…”
“He's coming, too,” Merk said softly.
KarRa frowned at Merk and he again gestured her in.
Uneasily putting herself between the two men, KarRa entered a fairly large room, about the size of the women's lounge, only it was perfectly round, even up to the ceiling, so that she felt inside the dome of a cheese plate. There was a painted star in the middle of the room and KarRa stopped before it. Merk stepped up onto it, pulling KarRa with him as he did so, and Rylan followed on her other side. They both bowed their heads, so KarRa did too. She had not dared to look up, keeping her gaze down in polite submission. Merk was going to get it for springing this on her. Meeting with the Council was not part of a normal brightmoon ceremony.
A man spoke from directly ahead of her. “Greetings to you, KarRa. Be at ease. We thank you for your efforts in bringing Rylan home to us.”
KarRa looked up and recognized Dom, the dark man in a great deal of black leather from Rylan's bonding. Thinking silence wiser she nodded again. This was the high Council of the Truxet, and it was not normal that she was here, with Rylan.
Dom was seated at a thin curving desk with men spaced on either side of him that continued around in a circle behind KarRa, but she did not turn to look. She knew that there were nine councilmen here.
“We have recently met and accepted Rylan of the Owls, and I believe you all know Merk, a golden Wolf. Merk and the spiritmage Alpha, Quor, came to me this morning, and I've shared with the group that he warned us of an unusual circumstance with you KarRa. Quor told us that he had conferred and agreed with Merk's desired proceeding.”
Merk spoke loudly and clearly. “Thank you, Dom. KarRa has been with us less than a month, and yet I am asking to bring her to her mate choice with only three men.” He paused and KarRa sensed the focus of the group intensify. “One of those men is Rylan, her soulmate. Despite the fact that Rylan has known he was KarRa's soulmate since childhood, he has not consummated the bond.”
A man spoke sharply from behind and to KarRa's left. “The bond is open?!”
Merk turned and spoke to him. “Yes, Wolf Council, it is open.”
Turning back to the front he continued to address Dom. “Rylan turned away from KarRa in his first needs, and has never asked her for a deeper connection. Indeed, he took active steps to weaken the connection.”
Rylan tensed even more, and his hands fisted. She felt a change in his energy as well.
“What steps?” This came from the man to Dom's left.
“There were several, and they continued through his return, Groundbear Council. First, he created distance between them during their work, despite the fact that they had the same jobs. He was then not able to protect her as well and she was raped.”
There was an audible murmur that rippled around the circle, but KarRa didn't hear it over the roaring in her ears.
Turning on Merk she spit viciously, “How dare you! My personal details are not to be shared like common news!”
Merk's face was stony as he faced her fury.
“And you know nothing of the circumstances…”
Dom stood and tried to interrupt but KarRa kept right on going.
“—That place was like the eternal burning of the Untrue and no one escaped rape—not even most of the men!”
Dom shouted louder but she ignored him.
“If this is going to be some sort of attack on Rylan it needs to stop right…”
Rylan's hands came up to her shoulders and jerked her back. She spun and slid away and turned on him, to be brought up short by the high color riding his cheeks and his flat closed expression. His hands said {Stop} {Silence} and she snapped her mouth closed and resumed her position, standing facing front between the two men, stiff as a board. Dom stared at her until she dropped her eyes and he sat.
“KarRa, this is an extraordinary relationship. In fact, Quor thinks it has never happened before in all the history of our people. What Merk shares with us will never leave this room. We often discuss delicate and personal matters, and our people would not trust us if we betrayed confidences. This Council has worked for hundreds of years based on this policy of respect and privacy. Be at ease. Nothing shared here will cause Rylan punishment…” he paused and looked at Rylan, “at least Clan punishment. Continue Merk.”
KarRa heard Merk swallow but his voice was just as loud and embarrassing as before. “He gave her to other men.”
Again an interruption, this time from the man on Dom's right. “He allowed her lovers?”
“Yes, Lizzeed Council. In fact, he literally walked her to another man and handed her to him at one point.”
KarRa bit her tongue until her eyes stung at this unfair view.
“Eventually, she left their shared dwelling entirely, driven out by his coldness to her and his choice of another woman, and he allowed it. He told her he wanted to start a family with the other woman. When he came here, he failed to challenge his Alpha when Grif suggested he allow her to live a separate life. He has consistently and diligently attempted to push KarRa away, yet has remained unable to distance himself, returning to her friendship and her bed often.”
Dom turned to Rylan. “As a small child, you felt the pull of her soul so strongly you abandoned your family to find her and you risked your life to keep her. How has it come to this?”
Rylan stepped forward. “I offer myself up to a souldance with Merk.” A shifting and murmuring ran the circle. “Only then will you believe me when I tell you that every action I've made toward KarRa has been from love. Do you know of any other soulmates who found each other so young?”
He waited, and Dom raised his brow regally at Rylan's demand. “I have already said this is an extraordinary relationship.”
“We grew up together. We survived like animals in a cage, without dignity, but we survived against all odds. My feelings for KarRa grew, and the guilt began. She was as my sister, my best friend. In our world, fucking was not about respect. It was about pleasure if you were lucky, rank and dominance if you weren't. When I began to realize it could have respect as well, when I began to crave a family, I was already trained in my will to hold KarRa innocent. I was protecting her from myself. I felt if I added that role to our relationship I would consume her. Already I worried she was too submissive to me. I wanted, no—I needed to make her as strong and independent as possible so that she could survive.
“Death was on us every day. The times I almost breathed my last are too many to tell, and I shiver to think how many times KarRa came close as well. But it was the way of the people around us. You do not know. You do not know what that dark vicious pit was like. If you are imagining some poor and secret corner of a City, you must then imagine that the people there have no hope, no kindness, no law, and no access to change.
“My desire to hide KarRa away, to keep her by my side, was a possibility in that world. Those women were kept on leashes, chained like pets. That was not the way of my love for KarRa, despite my desire for her safety. If I wouldn't keep her like that, then I had to go the entire other direction—I had to make her so strong she could exist without me, because I would not always be there. All life was on borrowed time in that place.
“It was after my Alpha forced me to see how much our lives have changed now, that my thought to set her free was broken like a mirror. I began to realize that my entire understanding of us was different now. I will not say that my actions in that place were wrong, although I know that you think it was so. KarRa thought so too, I know.”
&n
bsp; “But here, now,” he turned to face her, and KarRa was struck to see his eyes swirling with tears and magic, “my love for her is freed from fear for her.”
This was just like the night he came to her after her despair. Stunned wonderment, awe, and some confusion. His passionate and eloquent words were a marvel to her.
Merk spoke, “The fact remains, whatever Rylan's motivation, that KarRa does not consider him a potential mate.” The words rang out clear and firm.
KarRa blinked from Rylan's gaze and turned to Merk again. His eyes were on her. She began to feel itchy at the center of such exposure.
“She tried to fight for him and lost. I have seen into her soul, and though she has desire, she has accepted their relationship as he chose to make it.”
Rylan spoke quickly, a low rasp adding to his words as his control of emotion slipped. “Her desire will finally be granted freedom. I am her soulmate. You cannot deny us.”
KarRa blinked at him, feeling like an Owl herself, her arms limp by her sides. If an attack came now, she thought, I'd fall like a log.
Merk spoke again. KarRa turned back to him, feeling her neck would be sore tomorrow. “It is my recommendation that KarRa be granted the choice of all three men. To match her to Rylan, despite their soul connection, with their history … it would be cruel. She deserves a choice, after being forced from her natural inclination for so long that it now feels foreign.”
Rylan roared, “She's mine! Our souls are connected! How dare you deny your most sacred bond!” His eyes gone green and his voice a distinct gravel, KarRa reached her hand to his arm, which was so taught it quivered.
“Rylan—stand down. Now you're blowing it.”
She waited until he took a breath and focused on her, appreciating the silence of the watching men. “Rylan, you know that nothing they can do will take away my love for you. They will not take me from you. I am here. I will always be here.”
When his shoulders had dropped and he was purposefully gulping air in measured gasps, she asked, “Do you think that if I have children with another man I will love you any less?”
