Ahri Arete
Judging from Cassy’s exasperated inflection and the frantic way she was shaking my shoulders, I must haven slept like a baby. Dwarven ingenuity kept the water clean and warm and I had the best pillow one could possible imagine.
“Damn it, Ahri. Please move! I can’t even get up…” I groaned and rolled around until I managed to wiggle an arm in between her and the tub’s wall to pull her closer. “Just 5 more minutes…”
“You said that 10 minutes ago,” she laughed. Hmm, I couldn’t remember, so it didn’t count. And I was much too comfortable to willingly get up. She’d have to… ouch. The vixen had pinched one of my tails! And not gently. That called for revenge!
The ensuing water fight didn’t last long but still filled the dark room with unrestrained laughter and splashing water. We managed to flood most of the baths and were panting heavily at the end of it, both of us red in the cheeks and grinning widely. Before things could get too out of hand, Cassy raised hers.
“You win, I surrender. But if we don’t get down to the others now, they’ll send someone after us. Could we please avoid that?” I grudgingly agreed and while we slipped into our new clothes, I asked:
“How long was I out?”
“About two hours, maybe a little more. I would’ve let you rest for longer but Xorlosh sent a message to the quartermaster and he came knocking 15 minutes ago. Oh, by the way, he left a a small package for you, over there. He said you asked them to make it. Care to tell me what it is?” Hell no, not like this. I could feel the blood rushing to my face while I suddenly became more insecure than I had in years. I would’ve bet the bearded midget had done that on purpose. I had asked for two engraved bracelets, silly as it was. They were a symbol, a tradition I remembered from when I had grown up, similar to engagement rings among humans and for all I knew, Cassy’s tribe used them as well. I thought it fitting that, while our tattoos already were close to the same thing, we’d have something else that would be recognisable for others.
I had meant it as a gesture, a little present she might enjoy, but now, when I imagined telling her, it felt much more important. As I looked into her silvery eyes and feverishly searched for something to say, my confidence evaporated completely and my mind became blank. I couldn’t come up with an elaborate story. Maybe it was better this way, if I couldn’t muster the courage to tell her now, I probably wouldn’t be able to in the future.
I clenched my teeth and instead of answering, I trotted over to the corner she had indicated and picked up the little bundle of linen, Cassy watching me curiously. When I stood in front of her again, I clumsily removed the layers of cloth until the first silvery reflections sparkled under the lantern light. I heard her gasp. She had recognised the jewellery for what it was. There was no turning back, now. Should I get down on my knees? Oh well, I couldn’t feel more like a klutz anyways. At least I didn’t topple over or got entangled in my tails when I did.
When I had removed the last bits of protective covering with trembling fingers, two beautiful bangles made of mithril shimmered under the light. I might have been just as surprised as her, I had handed over one of my blades, with a decent amount of silver inlays along the ridge and on the hilt, but it wouldn’t have made up for a fraction of what the material I held in my hands must be worth. Not to mention the intricate, glowing runes that ran along both pieces and the perfect craftsmanship.
They were slim and elegant, the distinct blue sheen of the metal mixing with the faint, green glow of the carvings. Both bands were formed in the shape of two wings, which nearly touched at the tips. Each feather was immaculately sculpted, row upon row of tiny masterworks, wrought together to turn heart shaped at the top, where the bases of the wings were seamlessly welded together, and tapered down towards the bottom where the wing tips were. The broader side carried the runes, inlaid with small emeralds, each one carefully inserted into a single feather. They were too small to decipher in the dim light, but I was certain that half of them belonged to the draconic alphabet, their flowing lines and hard edges reminiscent of the spell work I had seen when Ignus and Mephisto had created the dagger. The other half was distinctly similar to the formations that appeared on Erya’s horns when she cast powerful magic. In their entirety they formed a dwarven rune I recognised: unity.
I wasn’t sure when they had found the time, but it seemed like Viyara and Erya had had a hand in the forging and if I had had to guess, I would’ve said that Mordred and Helena had probably paid for the materials. I had asked them before I had commissioned the dwarfs, after all. They were Cassy’s closest family and it had just felt… proper to ask for permission. Apparently they had also added quite a lot of extras to the design I had originally described.
“They’re beautiful,” Cassandra breathed, her eyes sparkling even more brightly than the jewellery in my hand. I swallowed dryly, desperately searching for something to say, but in the end, I couldn’t come up with anything original.
“Not as beautiful as you,” I stammered. “Cassy, I… you know I love you, I have for longer than most civilisations exist… Will you allow me to stay by your side, in this life and the ones to come?” She squealed and instead of answering she fell to her knees, slung her arms and tails around me and kissed me feverishly. For a few moments I felt like I was dreaming, everything was right in the world for as long as I could stay there, the girl I loved in my embrace.
“Yes, yes a million times over,” she whispered against my lips. I gingerly pulled back and fumbled with the wing tips of one of the bracelets to push them apart and slide the band across her wrist. It went over smoothly but as soon as it came to rest around her forearm, she flinched. “Ouch,” she said, more in surprise than pain. Before I could react, the glow of the runes intensified and a drop of blood trickled from beneath the mithril and left a crimson trail on her pearly white skin. The engraved sigils lit up, one after the other, until a soft halo of warm, flickering light made it look like the feathers were moving in the wind.
“Your turn,” she smiled and gently took the second piece to slip it across my arm while she leaned forward again, her lips sealing mine with another kiss. Distracted as I was, I didn’t feel the tiny pinprick when the cold metal settled against my skin, but both of us gasped when the magic fully activated.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
A small patch of light appeared in my mind, like an extension of my thoughts. In a way it felt as if I had gotten another limb, one that wasn’t physically attached to my body but instead had some sort of vision of its own. Fuzzy images reached me as soon as I focused on it and I knew without a doubt that I’d be able to make the wings fly and move, like a tamed bird whose eyes I could use.
Cassy had been a little faster on the uptake. She was still wrapped around me tightly, but her gaze was following a sparkling trail of silvery reflections, her face lighting up with childish glee. The two wings of her bangle had unravelled and were gracefully moving through the air, a faint sound, almost like metallic music, following them in their wake.
With a thought I sent mine chasing after hers, the images I received becoming clearer by the second. It wasn’t too difficult to control and we quickly had them dance around one another, a beautiful display of flickering light in green and silver.
“You’re amazing,” Cassandra murmured as the band of mithril settled back around her arm. “I love you, I always will.” She paused to kiss me again. “I’ve never before felt so…” Three thundering knocks on the door interrupted her and a deep, grumpy voice rang out:
“Lasses, I’ve given yah more than an hour now. We’ll be leaving for the gathering and if yah don’t come out, yah’ll be the ones to clean and dry the baths, yah hear me?”
Grinning from ear to ear, Cassy called back: “we’ll be out in a minute. I’m sorry. We won’t keep you waiting any longer.” After a final kiss she scrambled to her feet and extended her hand. I allowed her to pull me up with a sigh, wondering how many instances of bad timing one could suffer through. Between our dreams, our battles and our friends, something always came up.
“Come on,” she said. “Everyone is waiting for us. It’s already late in the afternoon and since we disappeared the dwarfs have changed their plans. They’ve put together everything for a proper burial feast and I still have to talk to Mephisto, get back a jewel from a greedy dragon and a magical seed from an equally difficulty fey on the behest of an even worse demon, beforehand. And maybe search for Schrödinger’s rope, if I have the time,” she added under her breath. “Oh, and… thank you. What you just did… you don’t know how much it means to me. You’re the only reason I’m still alive and not just because you saved me more than once.” She gave me a peck on the cheek and sauntered off, her hips swinging hypnotically from side to side. I stared after her dreamily, my imagination still very much occupied with the last half hour, before I could muster the presence of mind to follow her and ask:
“Schrödinger’s rope?”
“Uh, I told you Mordred carried a rope with him when we entered the tomb for the first time, remember? Right now, it could either be where he took it from or where he left it, I’m just wondering which of the two it is.”
“Yeah, I get that, but who is Schrödinger? And why do you create so much about that rope?”
“He was a scientist on earth, at least I think he was and isn’t going to be, I’m not sure when we are in relation to earth, but he had quite a thing for perspectives. Most of what he wrote can be applied to time travel, but basically it was a rather lame joke, especially if you don’t know of him.”
“And why do you care?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s bugging me like crazy, I just need to know. If it’s still in storage…”
She placed her hand on the door handle, but she didn’t open it, just yet. “If it’s still there, I’ll have a theory on what might have happened. If it isn’t… well, than the laws of time travel are beyond me.”
“Care to enlighten me?” She sighed.
“I’m immune to magic, maybe even most forms of energy and in the end, a temporal condition is nothing more than a certain… amount, no… direction, maybe, of energy. I am who I am, which would explain why the promise I gave you down there is still in me and why I’ve disappeared from the tent when I went back through time. Everything else reset.”
“That’s plenty interesting, but again, why do you care so much?”
“Because I could build a truly objective clock? Seriously, though… It would also mean that I won’t have to deal with any kind of paradox while time travelling and it would explain the warning, Lucifer gave me when we met. I can’t change so I have to live through the possible consequences of my actions… but mainly I’m just curious.” She shrugged and opened the door. “Like I said, if I have the time, I’ll go looking. Why’s that the part you picked out anyways?”
“The rest seemed pretty obvious. Except… what do you want from Mephisto?”
“I want to know if he has seen enough of the seed and heart to reconstruct some of their magic. Some sort of device than can tell us when the heart is active and in what condition it is. I’m not expecting it to work, but you never know.” She paused when we reached the end of the corridor and climbed up the set of wooden stairs to the deck. A quartet of dwarfs, armed with brooms and towels were already waiting for us. Their beards twitched when we emerged, their eyes roaming over our bracelets.
“About time,” the tallest of the bunch said, barely suppressing his amusement. “Another couple of minutes and me and the lads would’ve been gone. Shoo now, get off me ship. Yah can canoodle elsewhere.” Without another word, they pushed past us and as soon as the door fell shut behind them, we heard their deep, rumbling laughter through the planks. Cassy stared after them and said:
“A good thing chivalry isn’t dead, isn’t it? I don’t know how I would feel, if they made our love life an important part of the camp gossip after everything we have been through.”
“You shouldn’t think about it like that. One, take it as a compliment, they’re invested enough in us to care and two, it’s nice to have something to talk about besides death and carnage. Take tonight for example, the dwarfs are burying friends and brothers. I’ll gladly give them a reason to laugh or even celebrate, especially if it’s something that makes me happy. Now that I come to think about it… would you mind if I asked Xorlosh whether or not it’d be appropriate to celebrate our engagement?”
“Of course not, but I can’t imagine that it’d be… proper. Tonight should be about the fallen, not the future.”
“I’m not so sure. For many cultures death is a reason to celebrate life… and we are alive because of what they did. Whatever we do will be a part of their legacy. But I don’t know that much about the dwarfs. That’s why I wanted to ask Xorlosh beforehand. He’ll know.”
Cassandra remained silent until we came to the edges of the ship and her wings appeared, lightning come to life behind her back. She gracefully floated upwards until she stood on the railing, her eyes lingering on the low sun in the west and the storm front that was brewing on the horizon. It would reach us shortly after sunset, maybe a little later.
“You’re right,” she said. “But… I have to talk to my mom first. I’m not going to allow her any say in the matter, but these bracelets,” her fingers absentmindedly played with the enchanted mithril, a dreamy smile fluttering across her features, “they’re a part of our culture. And as things have turned out, I’m still stuck with all the noble nonsense. I have to tell her before anyone else.”
“She already knows,” I replied, with a little pride in my voice, glad that I had taken the time to talk to Helena beforehand. “I… I thought I should ask your mother for permission and not just because you’re a princess and intend to keep the title. If I want to replace her as your guardian, officially, so to say, she has got a right to know. Fortunately, she likes me and thinks me capable of keeping you out of trouble.”
“We’ll see about that,” Cassy replied with a smile before she helped me climb up to her side. With an exhilarating laugh she slung her tails around me and propelled us off the ship. The blue sky, already streaked with lines of gold as the sunset approached, rushed by and I pulled her close for another kiss before I unfurled my wings and allowed the winds to carry me along. Side by side we descended to the camp, the smell of slow roasting venison heavy in the air while we could watch tiny silhouettes run hither and to, heavy barrels, filled bowls and buckets of water in their arms.