Necun returned to consciousness at a languid pace. Pieces of sensation blurring together in her mind, unprocessed and soon to be forgotten. Any initial spike of fear was smoothed over before it could break the trance like state, smothered under the happy purring flames of her aura. Even days later the settled power was still riding high. Recent events had allowed it to play to it's strengths, hunting with her bond and protecting her clan, even in a wounded state had been exhilarating.

She drew in a deep breath of warm air, her ribs tender but not pained. As she opened her eyes Nickolas's face came into view from the side, a look of deep concern reflected in his bright eyes.

“Don't try to get up.” her bond warned.

Getting up seemed like a silly notion when she was this relaxed, so Necun hummed in agreement and wiggled to settle deeper into the soft cot.

“Your mother is alright, in a better condition than you were.” Nickolas said. “When we took care of the Mage circle a few pods redirected to find us. Any remaining traitors are in the wind, either hiding deep enough it will take days to find them or disappearing into the Green to get eaten by something. BlackVine's people are back in their own territory. They handled their own traitors suspiciously fast, but then so did the other clans. RazorRiver had the most to deal with, the building we attacked seems like it was used as their main gathering place. We'll know more when it's done burning. The traitors had some ringleader that we haven't caught yet, she might be gone already.”

Necun closed her eyes as she listened to her bond ramble about the situation. The truth was she didn't care much once she knew that he and her mother would be safe. The rest was for someone else to handle, but it was an excuse to listen to her love talk.

Sleep seemed close, and though she wished to languish in her bond's company the Hunter began to drift towards the warm dark embrace. A cool water soaked cloth touched her brow, pulling her back into the moment.

“According to the healers you're to rest for a long time.” Nickolas said as he dabbed her forehead. “Thirty days at least, you had a lot of strain on your body that they couldn't fully heal. Nothing more than light exercise. Absolutely no hunts, understand?”

Nodding slightly as she enjoyed the new sensation Necun considered her bond's words. He was worried, that much was clear, the fear that she would hurt herself on his mind. It was understandable. Necun herself had seen more than one Hunter push themselves back into a hunting pod before they had healed properly. She herself had tried after her first dire injury. It was foolish. The sort of idiocy that put her peers at risk. Short of Nickolas being in danger she would avoid anything strenuous until her muscles lost that tingling sensation that always came with deep magical healing.

Well, perhaps she would participate in certain strenuous activities involving Nickolas, but the healers didn't need to know that.

Necun decided she needed the break in any case. From the moment she had left with the caravan her life had been a gauntlet of stress. Some of that stress was well worth the price, and there had certainly been more than a fair share of enjoyable moments. Even so, she needed a long period of quiet. Time without combat, or looking over her shoulder, or her mother.

Just her and Nickolas laying the foundations of their new life together.

The thought still gave her a tingle deep in her chest.

“We'll need to speak to my father.” she whispered, throat raw. “I don't want to recover in his house the whole time, it's too...”

“I know what you mean.” Nickolas replied with a smile. “It will be lovely to have a bigger bed to cuddle in.”

Necun felt her cheeks burning for some reason. She tried to ignore it, fumbling at the nearby table looking for water instead. Nickolas pressed a cup into her hand.

“Besides, we'll need a home big enough for a 'household'” the Mage said. “Which we will need to discuss in more detail at some point. I'm still not sure how we're meant to meet these other couples. Is it something your parents will arrange?”

“There are events we can go to.” Necun murmured. “More common during dry season. Couples looking to form together. Others will approach on their own, but we can ignore most of those.”

The Hunter opened her eyes, shuffling to rest on her side to get a better view of her bond. He seemed to be considering something as he put away the bowl of water he was using to dab her brow. Necun sipped from her cup awkwardly as he thought, examining his body for any sign of injury.

She had no memory of him taking a wound, but she had fallen unconscious at an inopportune moment. Ensuring he was safe set her mind at ease.

It also helped her mood to follow the lines of her bond's body, her mind filling in what he looked like under his robe. Her blush deepened, but Nickolas didn't seem to care.

“There was a woman, I didn't catch her name in the excitement.” her bond eventually said. “She helped me get to where you were, she even let me ride on her back to get to you faster.”

Jealousy and possessiveness spiked, but Necun wrangled them back down. Nickolas had been rushing to get to her, she reasoned, not growing close to any random woman.

It still hurt, just the smallest bit. As uncomfortable as carrying Nickolas the whole way to the city had been for the pair it was a level of intimacy Necun hadn't known she wanted in her life until she experienced it first hand. That Nickolas had so quickly had a similar experience with another woman was unpleasant to think about even if her bond meant nothing by it.

“What I'm saying is that she was quite sweet and if she happens to be bonded I would like to approach her.” Nickolas said. “She was kind enough to stop, and reasonable enough to listen to my request. It's the kind of attitude I would like in our household.”

Necun's first jealously driven instinct was to reject the idea. Terrible visions of Nickolas growing attached to another woman so soon danced in her mind. Households had been torn apart by less, and the horror stories were traded in whispers amongst the newly bonded.

The Hunter forced herself to consider things deeper.

For all that she knew their household would expand it was a distant thing, much like bonding had first been. And as she turned Nickolas's suggestion over in her mind Necun realized it was something she had been glad her bond was resistant too.

She didn't want to share him, even in the smallest degree. Perhaps as the cycles passed, and she grew used to their housemates that sentiment would shift. For now the blunt reaction was to push away any perceived threat.

I need to talk to father about this. Necun realized.

The Hunter knew her father wouldn't judge her about these feelings. She wondered if he had gone through something similar with his own bonding. The Chief's household was an intimidating house to join with at the best of times.

“I'll ask around.” Necun finally said. “See if there are any problems, or if she is even bonded. Though that may change in the dry season anyway. There's a similar set of events for singles looking to bond. Lots of food and music...do you have festivals?”

“Yes, we had festivals in my homeland.” her bond replied dryly.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Right, well, we have a few of those specifically for bondings.” Necun said, embarrassment settling in for the long haul. “It's more colourful than the events for household forming, lots of plays and such that couples can attend.”

“Sounds to me like we have something to look forward too.” Nickolas said with a smile. “I would bet your father even has recommendations on the best troupes.”

Of all the worries Necun had fostered, she was glad she could put the creeping anxiety that her father would fight with Nickolas to rest. Her fiery bond was so unlike her father, yet the men had not shown a single shred of dislike for each other. Nickolas had even changed her father's mind regarding the tithe, even if it was a single exception for her bond in particular.

“That sounds good.” Necun said easily. “We'll do a circuit of the most popular stories when they start up.”

The Hunter had personally found the romantic fare put on during the dry season to be dull compared to the more dramatic plays common after the rot season. She would bear with it without complaint regardless. Nickolas deserved that much, it would be his first time seeing a proper orcish play and she wouldn't dampen his mood with her overly critical eye.

Shifting again in her bed Necun looked around the room. The medical room was sparsely populated and orderly, a good sign after such a messy battle. The elder healers napped in their own cots, or sat over the few heavily wounded women remaining, often with a younger man at their side watching intently. It was a quiet and comforting sight after her blood soaked final memories.

Combined with Nickolas at her side it was the most calming major healing she had ever received.

**********

Nickolas strained to keep the concern off his face as Necun pulled herself into a sitting position. His wife was pale, noticeably so even in the lantern light of the medical room. It only emphasized the bruising, which had formed into deep black splotches against her light skin. There was no angle from which the damaged skin wasn't visible. Below her neck the Hunter was more bruise than unblemished flesh.

The scars were worse.

The War Mage had watched the healing process from behind the elder's shoulder, and the images still surfaced in his mind each time his eyes drifted to his wife's side. Necun had been put to sleep with a herbal powder so she wouldn't wake as they pulled the splinters and iron scraps from the wound. So much blood had flowed into waiting buckets. More than a Knight could have survived. Nickolas had cracked three of his nails gripping a nearby chair as he watched Necun's shallow breathing.

A dozen pieces of debris the size of a finger or larger had been pulled from his wife's side in the end, along with innumerable smaller shards. The scarring was horrific, red and angry even when the healers had finished their work. Nickolas knew his eyes would be drawn to it, and that each time he would be reminded that his wife took the blow because he approached the fight clumsily.

Pouring water over them and demanding a surrender? he thought bitterly. How was that the best plan I had? What fool would even surrender to that? I wouldn't have!

The shame of his performance burned in his chest, though it was tempered by the small relief that he hadn't killed again. Each of the enemy Mages was recovered, in various states of pained shock, but he had been assured they would all survive. As much as he wanted to be rid of the concern for people who wanted to kill him Nickolas was still relieved when the healers informed him.

He now knew he would pay the price for that relief each time he caught his wife wincing from her wounds.

At the moment Necun was still swimming in healing magic, practically immune to pain. The strange techniques of the orcish healers had long lasting effects Nickolas was unfamiliar with compared to the blunt force of potions or the masterful sealing of human healing Mages.

From what he could tell the elder healing his wife had used her aura to guide the magic, something Nickolas had not even considered as a possibility. Every major treaties on the the interaction of spells and auras reinforced the notion that the forces were fundamentally incomparable. It was why a charging warrior at full strength could ignore all but the strongest spells. Nickolas himself had felt clever beyond his years when he managed to latch his spells onto auras consistently. Preventing his target from shuffling the magic off before the spell could finish it's work was a potent offensive tool.

Yet what he just witnessed made his custom runework look like the practice spells of a child. The orcs had been able to use Necun's aura as a guideline, pushing their concentrated healing magic into her body without resistance. It completely bypassed the troubles a healer might have with an unconscious or troublesome patients aura institutionally refusing the magic's intrusion. Simultaneously it guided the magic to the wound from within, ensuring not a scrap of power was lost.

Nickolas burned with the desperate desire to drink in the orcish Mages' secrets, and the certainty that no runes could replicated the incredible feat of magic he had witnessed. He didn't have the tools to grasp what he had seen, not fully. Attempting to copy the feat into his own magical tradition was doomed to failure, the only way forward was the difficult path. A humble path. The War Mage would need to start over at the lowest level of student. Assuming a circle would still take him, he wasn't too sure they would, even if he traded human magic in turn.

That would all wait until later. After he had made his amends to Necun, and ensured his wife had a comfortable recovery. He would be the perfect husband for her, Nickolas had decided. The Hunter deserved nothing less for her act of bravery, and his own ambitions were on hold until the caravan arrived in any case, he could afford the time.

He wondered if Melat knew of a market that carried flour, and if Necun liked cake.

**********

Necun needed crutches as she stumbled out of the command station. While the tools were embarrassing to use the Hunter knew that overstressing her body now would only add that many more days to her recovery. Just because she couldn't feel the pain didn't mean her body wasn't still hurting, the healing magics could only do so much.

She wished she had access to her bond's Medicine Man. The potion she had taken after swearing her vows to Nickolas had tasted awful and hurt as they worked it's way through her system, but the aftereffects were nearly non-existant. The Hunter had been at full strength by morning.

If it weren't a terrible idea to form houses with pre-existing friends she would have brought the man in as soon as she could. As it was Necun was planning to talk to Marious into providing his services to a few pods she knew could use the wonderful potions. If the magical drinks could be safely carried on hunts all the better.

Luckily that would have to wait until the caravan arrived, Necun assumed she would be recovered enough by then to introduce her bond's friend to her fellow Hunters at the very least. It was something to consider as she made her way back to her father's house, Nickolas hovering protectively at her side.

The streets were a mess. Boxes and buckets strewn about, the occasional bloodstain darkened the boards of a path or bridge, and dozens of doors and walls were shattered into scrap. In places the damage was so severe, or the refuse piled so high, that workers had to cut a path to allow regular traffic to pass through. The breath of the fight was startling considering the relatively low number of women involved, but the clan enforcers hadn't been gentle in their pursuit.

Just under a hundred women in RazorRiver territory had been involved with the traitors enough to resort to violence or attempt fleeing into the Green. Yet more petty criminals and troublemakers used the opportunity to start fights, excited by the bloodshed heavy in the air. These opportunists were smarter than the traitors and assassins, disappearing back into the anonymity of the crowd just as the fights were winding down. Most wouldn't be caught, and the few that were could only be punished to a small extent. As disruptive as they were they weren't traitors, and the city would have it's fill of bloodshed for the foreseeable future. If the clans were too heavy handed there would be rumblings, households growing cautious, which would in turn cause headaches for the clan leadership.

Instead whatever lesser criminals they rounded up would receive minor punishment, save for the most egregious offenders. The streets would require cleaning regardless, and there was always a need for muscle in the city. Only the unluckiest would be sent to the Scavengers to sort out the infamous 'smelly pile' of gathered goods.

Many women weren't the same after such duties, and the threat of such work kept the other captured offenders honest.

Nickolas opened the door for her, and Necun grunted her thanks as she stepped into her father's home. She looked forward to giving her feet a break, they had already grown sore.

The clutter in the house was already encroaching on the free space. Cleared floors now home to new piles of cloth or relocated masks. A massive block of wood took up a corner, nearly barring the door to her father's workshop.

And the smell was worse than usual.

Necun released a long sigh of annoyance, but the sight of her bond rushing around to clean up a space for her improved her mood significantly. The Mage was moving fast, shifting piles once again, kicking tools under larger stacks as he ensured a clear road to the bed. Magic was employed, clutter moved at a rapid pace once her bond's hands glowed with bright circles of human runes. Soon her father's horde was more precariously stacked than ever, but she had a full bed to lie down upon.

Dropping into the sheets before they were dusted elicited a click of the tongue form her bond, but Necun cared more about resting her legs, setting her ankles on the wooden baseboard. Puffs of wind carried the dust away. Necun wondered why her bond didn't use water again, but decided the air felt nice regardless, tickling her tender skin.

Shifting in bed to scratch an itch between her shoulders, Necun flopped an arm to her side.

“Lay with me?” she asked hopefully.

There was a clamor as Nickolas shoved a pile of something to the side and nearly leapt into her arms in his hurry.

Her bond was acting strange. It made sense, she had been seriously wounded, and he had been left alone to handle the situation. As tough as her bond was he was already having troubles with the stress of combat. The Hunter would have to keep her love away from anything dangerous while they recovered.

She was grateful for the dry season. It would have been impossible to keep Nickolas away from the fight during rot season.

Preparing her bond for the rot, on an emotional level at least, as well as informing him of all the necessary safety precautions was critical. Necun figured she might as well cover the topic while she was resting.

But that was a task for tomorrow. Today Necun would laze in bed with her bond in her arms.

Nickolas snuggled close with a sigh, his hair tickled Necun's skin. Humming in contentment Necun draped her other arm over her eyes as she allowed her thoughts to drift. Nickolas gently pulled her arm around himself, still using her bicep as a pillow as he settled against her sore side carefully.

He felt warm. Just like he did in the Green.

Necun's thumb began to stroke Nickolas's hand in small circles as her breath steadied. It seemed like a good time for a nap. Her aura and bond agreed.