The courtship rituals of the people of the mountains would have seemed simple to the imperial subjects of the plains. Each man took a single wife, and while affairs were not unheard of, there was no way for the products of such unions to receive recognition under the law.

For this reason, the marriages of noble children were agonised over by their parents. There was no divorce, and no taking of concubines. So the pros and cons of a potential match had to be weighed very carefully.

Of course, this only applied when the parents were physically present. This wasn’t the case for Gaori.

Less than a month since they’d arrived in the Shak’s camp, and Rae’s cousin had already found himself a paramour. To Rae, this was a bitter fact.

“I’m taking Laela to visit the clans in the southwest, while we’re there, we can search for clues on the poisoner,” Gaori said.

They were in Rae’s rooms, halfway through a bottle of wine.

“I’m starting to doubt we’ll ever find anything,”

“Don’t be a defeatist. Yourself being made a target definitely complicates matters, but if we keep looking, we’ll surely find something!”

Since recovering, Rae hadn’t had many chances to investigate himself, so Gaori had been handling the matter of the poisoner in his stead. He had first gotten close to Laela by having her run secret messages between himself and Rae, but by now he had taken her as a confidant. If it weren’t for the Shak allowing her certain privileges, the head housekeeper would have surely banished her from the palace for allowing such indecency.

“Have the others found anything?” Rae asked.

“Nothing new,” Gaori said.

Rae sighed. He wished the thing weighing on him was the existential threat of the poisoner… But the real problem was Ven hadn’t spoken a word to him since the aborted kiss.

Rae had shirked his duties for too long, and the Dukes were sticking to him like glue, so perhaps Ven didn’t want to intrude… but Ven had never worried about such things before!

“What will you do when I’m away?” Gaori asked, painfully oblivious.

“Whatever Bejuk asks, and Ashem demands of me,” Rae said.

A silence passed between them. Rae had been following Gaori around like a duckling since the day he came to Camp Kaolin, so things were rarely awkward between them. Oblivious as he was, Gaori must have at least noticed something was off with his cousin.

“Hey… I don’t have to go if you’re worried. I’m sure you’ll be safe here, so long as you don’t go eating strange-“

“-I’m fine,” Rae said.

“And!- If Ashem gives you a hard time, tell him to fuck off. And Bejuk too for that matter! You’ve been unwell, and recently bereaved, and you're not yet familiar with the ways of this camp…” Gaori might have thought up a dozen more excuses, but Rae had long stopped listening.

He was being fretted over like he was a frail child again. Normally Rae wasn’t opposed to being doted on. Being hugged warm, and wrapped in furs, and fed sweet treats, and hot wine… But there was an itching frustration to having Gaori of all people worrying over him.

“I’ll be fine. And don’t even think about not going, I know Laela’s been looking forward to it,”

With that, Gaori’s worries were set aside. And after the wine was depleted, he retired to his own rooms.

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Rae was not a lightweight, but he happily surrendered himself to the fuzzy feelings lingering at the edge of his consciousness. After the last few days, a little tender intoxication was what he needed.

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Ven.

Ven was surely angered -or disturbed- by Rae’s conduct. Hands pressed over his eyes, Rae agonised over his memory of the incident.

Perhaps, the subtle widening of eyes, the gentle blush, the intake of breath… Maybe Rae had misread them all. Rae didn’t know how to kiss, so maybe he’d gone about it all wrong. Maybe his wanting face was a sight so repulsive that even Ven’s easy affections had shrivelled up and died.

And he couldn’t ask Gaori about it! If Gaori found out, Rae would surely die. It was bad enough considering what Sebi must think of him now.

And Sebi had hit Ven! Guilt gnawed at Rae’s guts. If he had stayed to defend Ven, instead of storming off without a word, maybe things would be salvageable.

Rae had spent many nights since that incident tossing and turning, worrying over every little action. But worry was an old friend to Rae. Far more disturbing, was the impatience he felt to see Ven again. To have another chance at a kiss. To have something more.

He couldn’t tell exactly when Ven’s attention changed from something that bemused and annoyed him, to something he craved. And he craved him, body and soul. The mere thought of him sent his stomach reeling and his heart pounding. So loud he could hear it, pounding in his ears as he tried to sleep.

It was frustrating, enough to make him grit his teeth, how comforting it was to imagine Ven was there with him. His soft smile, his deep voice, his warmth…

Rae had never taken much of an interest in the erotic novels that traders brought over the border into the mountains, but he had glimpsed the illustrations on occasion. Gaori had given him some unwanted insight, so he knew just enough to fantasise. Detailed ink drawings of the imperial nobles enjoying their vast harems flooded his imagination.

He would not touch himself. Even if it was a matter between only himself and the heavens, the humiliation would be too great. But how he wished he was as shameless as Gaori.

There is only so long a person can agonise, trying to find a balance between lust and pride, before exhaustion takes over. During the day, Rae had been worked hard by the Dukes, and the duties of the Shak were weighing heavily on him, so he eventually fell asleep.

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Rae had thought he would never touch sweets again after being poisoned, but the morning Gaori left on his trip, Nana surprised him with homemade berry tarts.

He ate three in one sitting alone before Nana told him to save some for later. The sweet blend of mountain fruits was Nana’s special recipe, one that Rae knew his mother had adored.

“Thank you, Nana. That’s just what I needed,”

“You’re most welcome. I’m just happy to finally be able to make them for you again,” She said, smiling softly.

“Nana, I wonder if you can help me,” Rae said, “do you have any ideas as to who might be behind the poisonings? I’ve been wracking my brain but I just can’t guess what their motive might be,”

“I assumed Duke Ashem would be the one looking into that? Is he failing in his duties?” Nana asked.

It was true that Duke Ashem had decided he would be in charge of bringing his granddaughter’s attacker to justice -Rae had heard as such from Zott- but he was no closer than Rae and his circle had been. Only vague guesses at a motive, and no leads.

“The Ashem really have some nerve, if they had caught the one responsible sooner you would never have gotten sick,” Nana muttered, while Rae turned the possibilities over and over in his mind, “it would be better if they hurried back to their own camp, maybe the poisoner will follow them. Then, your majesty wouldn’t need to worry anymore,”

“Nana, Nana. We can’t have that, one of the victims was a child…” Rae said. The child of an evil temptress, but a child nonetheless.

“Both victims were children,” Nana said.

Rae stared at her for a moment, “Nana… I’m not-“

“-I know, I know,” she cried, “but you’re still a child to me!” Her emotions had gotten the better of her, and tears twinkled in her eyes for a second but she soon blinked them away. Rae smiled fondly at her and didn’t argue any further.

“Nana tell me one of the stories, like the old days,” he asked. He didn’t remember Nana being so sentimental in the past, but if that was so, he knew what would calm her spirit.

“Alright, what sort of story?”

“A true one, one about witches,”

To the mountain people, witches were creatures of the wilds. If, to the people of the empire, the mountain dwellers were savages, witches were more barbaric still. Human in form, but quite different in spirit. They lived in strange places, dark, water-filled caverns, and burnt-out clearings lined with rings of mushrooms.

Some young ones thought the witches were a thing of the past, but every camp had an elder who knew someone who had crossed one and paid for it dearly.

“Witches? You never liked those stories when you were little… maybe you really have grown up,” Nana said.

“Well, do you have one?”

“I do, and it’s definitely true because it’s one your mother told me,”