[Flashback] Promises (Shai)

[Dhalvasha]

Fall 37 503 AV

Eagerly pale hands fumbled the edges of bandages, tying them together over the splint twice before satisfied. The Symenestra on the table stared at the doctor suspiciously, testing the tenacity of his work before swinging his legs over the operating table. Another accident with climbing, surprisingly common for a a spider-like people. The small hairs on their body often times did not find the support they needed, especially on slippery walls.

The climber left without a word, limping on his leg gingerly.

Dhalvasha rubbed his hands together, black claws clacking against each other with swift optimism. He'd been smiling all day and now worked with terse haste to clean the supplies from the medical chamber. Weeks had been spent laying out the possibilities for a wild course of action. Sleepless nights and waking days of listless pondering had finally shattered beneath eager expectation. Stuffing jars beneath the operating table and scooting needles and extra bandages into stone drawers, he worked himself into a frenzy in the hopes of overtaking time itself and turning back the clock. Admittedly the decision was not a hard one to make, he knew the answer the moment the notion had time to simmer in his brain. However, details were the poisoned tips to kill ambitions and kings...all had to be planned perfectly.

His feet clattered in the hallways, raising the attention of the other Doctors, tuting disapprovingly at the uncouth speed by which Dhalvasha passed them. Still, the hunter turned doctor could care less about their cloak and dagger accusations, poor opinions...useless, the lot of it. Not even the appraising eye of his father could dislodge him from the perch he'd clamored to.

He almost lost himself to inattention, losing his way among the strands above the quiet depths of Kalinor. Thrice he had to arrest his steps and take another path, propelling the young man near the length and breadth of the spider city. Abandoned houses yawned at him from beneath gossamer webs, but he paid their haunting abscess no mind. Up walls he clamored, hand over pale hand. By now both had grown too large for the small niche above the Grotto. Instead, in youth, they'd build a clubhouse in one of the abandoned homes of Kalinor. It was a grim reminder of their own mortality, the dwindling power of their race, but the cool rooms and space left time and area for their imaginations to unwind. Chalk drawings seasons old marked their territory from the inside, pictures of monsters and spiders, riddles, and promises they'd written to remind themselves of who they were and where they were going.

Taking a piece of discarded chalk, the surgeon hastily scrawled a new riddle on the wall, frenzied shrieking to finish before she arrived. Near every day they had met, if but briefly, and today would hopefully be no different.

At least to her knowledge.

"It has no top or bottom but it can hold flesh, bones and blood all at the same time."

Glancing over the stilted letters quickly, smudging and rewriting as needed, Dhalvasha settled against the wall opposite, closing his eyes and allowing himself the opportunity to breathe. Reaching into his clothes, he pulled something from their depths and glanced at it, inspecting it for flaws it could not have accumulated before depositing it back.

So fast had he arrived that now he waited with near held breath, straining his ears to hear the scrabbling of her hands on the roof or outside the door. His father was a hard creature to win over, especially now that his son had left no question as to his abandonment of Hunting. Still, it was not as though the elder had malicious agendas for his second son...so an approval was granted grudgingly.

Still, granted.

His narrow chest rose and fell desperately, calling back life into his spent lungs. In lieu of his Hunting training, his endurance had fallen. In contrast, Shai had become more lithe, acrobatic, faster at moving. Not that she'd abandoned her family's craft, but both understood that weaving wasn't her real passion.

Movement was.

It's what he liked about her.

[Shai]

Shai jogged across the silken streets. She was already running late, and she didn’t want to miss Dhalvasha again. It had been two days since she’d last caught him at their secret meeting place, her family had been receiving orders non-stop with winter’s approach only half a season away. If she judged the time properly he would be walking there now, of course that didn’t account for if he rushed. She wanted to beat him there and try to scare him as he walked in.

Shai giggled as their hiding place came into view. She should have beaten him here this time and she had no other plans tonight so she would get to visit with him. They had remained close friends ever since childhood even though he was four years her senior. It had been Shai’s long standing suspicion that her friend viewed her like a little sister; sometimes underfoot but always kin. The young woman hated it. Since she’d been old enough to become aware of him as a male and not just a friend she’d been attracted to him. But the chance that revealing her feelings might ruin their friendship forever was too great and so she had kept it in. A guaranteed best friend was better than avoidance and awkward meetings with a small chance of more.

As she grew into adulthood Shai came to understand Dhalvasha would need to marry soon, it was expected that each male produced children. Their race’s plight demanded reproduction. The last time she’d spoken with Dhal she’d counseled him to wed, it was time; he had a trade and was of an appropriate age. Some part of her dreaded this very meeting because she knew she’d eventually asked if he had any woman in mind yet. It was morbid curiosity, since she wanted to know which companion he would replace her with. Any woman would be uncomfortable with her husband keeping another female in his close counsel. Slowing as she neared the nest she stalked quietly through the entrance trying to catch him by surprise if he was already there.

She noticed fairly quickly she’d lost this race. “Hey Dhal” She chirped and smiled. Her eyes glanced at the walls and immediately noticed the new addition. Rushing over she inspected the new puzzle. “You’ve brought me a riddle!” the challenge gave her thoughts something to focus on rather than question she wanted to ask.

It has no top or bottom but it can hold flesh, bones and blood all at the same time. No bottom and top meant it was round or unending in some manner. But the line that it could hold something meant it was likely tangible. Something round, tangible, and it names specifically flesh which means it’s meant to carry those things. Her first thought was it was a body but a body didn’t really hold flesh and it definitely had a bottom. So instead of what it held Shai focused her mind on things that held. A manacle? No, Dhal wouldn’t give me such a dark riddle. But it did fit a manacle had no bottom or top and held flesh, bones and blood. She felt she was close to the answer. Something like a shackle but not a shackle?

Finally the answer hit her like a rock in the gut. The answer could also have been a ring. Perhaps Dhal had already found a woman and he’d given her a riddle to tell her. Shai’s posture stiffened at the implications that she might already be losing her friend. Lifting her hand and placing it lightly against the wall hiding a chunk of the riddle. She tried to look pensive, like she hadn’t yet figured out the puzzle. It had been too many years though; Dhal would know her well enough to guess she had the answer already. She let her quiet voice carry, attempting to restrain her tone to neutrality. “The answer is a ring. It was a good riddle.”

[Dhalvasha]

He watched her, pale red eyes drinking her figure as she scuttled through into the abandoned place. So much had happened here, clumsy adolescence divided by a small span of years. Here he had been counseled in his darkest times, when bruises spotted his pale flesh like rot. Here he had spoken soft words with her when the world seemed closed and dark...when her family shifted eyes from her and stared past the top of her head.

They were all incomplete in some way, children that had grown up crooked, using each other as support. The riddle was not difficult, words with an easy solution...deliberately open ended. The real answer to any riddle was always varied, the product of intuition and the perspective of situation. She had the answer quickly, always an intelligent girl...but her shoulders, the language of her body was anything but excited.

Dhalvasha's own confidence wavered, flickering like a candle in the wind. Had she already consented to wed? She was young, certainly, and he was unaware any offers had been made to join Webs...certainly she would have told him.

Wouldn't she have?

Rising up along the wall, he retrieved the ring. It felt heavy in his palm, heavier than anything he'd tried to hold before. Behind it was the weight of years, the sheer heavy power of commitment. The Symenestra was loathe to reveal his emotions around others. His father had always said such lapses of survival indicated weakness, a tragic flaw in any hunter.

He was no hunter, but his father's words clung to his mind.

A lot of him was in this, the weight of the gesture lost on all but Shai.

He put a hand on her shoulder, claws gently coming down upon her skin, the whisper of presence. One of her hands was at her side and to this hand, Dhalvasha slid the ring, bypassing her own black claws and settling the cold object on her own pale skin.

"Correct," He murmured into her neck, bracing his body for the qualing force of emotional whiplash, "I...thought about what you counseled and realized you were...right. I need to take a wife, join Webs, continue our race but..."

He paused, pressing against her, his own willowy body folding along hers, "I could think of no other who understood me, supported me, meant more to me...than yourself."

He pulled away from her, leaving the ring, sliding back on his heels and regarding her as levelly as possible.

"Will you..." he almost swallowed the words, "Will you join your Web with mine?"

[Shai]

The silence seemed to drag on forever, although it was surely less than a chime. Shai refused to turn around, she couldn’t face her dearest friend. She counted her moments by his footsteps, dreading their end and the beginning of his explanation. Whoever she is, she is not better for you than I am Dhalvasha Hysal. I was the one who helped you through bruises and turmoil; I am not just a little sister. Any further phrases to accompany the young woman’s internal dialogue were silenced when Dhal placed his hand on her.

The cold loop of metal on her hand only momentarily confused her before Shai realized her mistake. Her thinking shifted into a new design like a web blown by the wind into its proper alignment, an unforeseeable force had changed their paths in that moment. Allowing him to speak, she understood how difficult it was for Dhalvasha to show his feelings to anyone, even her. As he spoke the tension eased from her muscles and she aimed a secret smile towards the floor, Say it Dhalvasha, you can do it. Just say it the answer is automatic. When he pulled away Shai spun around, worried he had lost his nerve and wouldn’t speak the offer. Trying not to stare at him, she waited; hoping he would find the confidence to ask.

When the words finally came she couldn’t keep back the grin. She wanted to run and embrace him but the spider kept her an even measured pace. Speaking as she closed the distance between them, “Yes. Dhalvasha, I was so scared you wouldn’t ask.” Shai had always kept a safety buffer between them, not wanting her feelings to show but now she broke it. Standing far too close for polite company she looked up to meet his eyes. “I was scared you were going to tell me that you had found your wife in another.” Taking his hand in hers she shifted her amethyst eyes to look at the small band of metal that could mean so much. “Yes, let us make one web between us.”

Shai took a moment to consider the first obstacle that could stand in their way. Her parents would not at all be displeased that she had finally caught his attentions. Dhalvasha was from a strong nest, one with lovely crimson eyes that might redeem her own. The real hitch would be his father, she wasn’t exactly the most appropriate match even for the misfit Hysal. Her family was neither prominent nor wealthy, they were simple tailors. The Nerium were very good tailors, but nothing more. ”You know my parents must approve but if your father has they will certainly relent.”

[Dhalvasha]

Joy was a difficult emotion to wrestle with. From an early age, Dhalvasha's father had answered overt displays of emotion with punishment. Control, poise, confidence...these were tenants tattooed into Dhalvasha's mind whether he approved of them or not. Some had called him cold, and certainly his inability to properly emote was well noted among his patients. He seemed almost robotic, methodical, and to that extent often found it hard to make new friends. Shai knew him, had known him from his earliest to now. Although a span of years gapped them, he felt closer to her than any in all of Kalinor. The shadow of the Webs, of the shimmering silk city, none could do anything to diminish her beauty...here now.

Dhalvasha struggled with the emotion bubbling inside him. Shock fought with ancient pacts of control, contended, wrestled. He was grinning, foolishly perhaps and his arms raised and fell on either side of her, unable or unwilling to commit to the hug. So much had come to this moment, spirals of emotion, self, soul...Viritas be praised and GODS did she smell enamoring.

"I...I" He stuttered, gently letting go of her hand and wrapping his arms around her. She felt frail in his arms, slight and yet so right. She folded against him, completed him, together they were one and all of Kalinor blazed in sudden exuberance at the joining...at least that was how it felt.

"I love you, Shai Nerium. Nothing will stand in our way...not my father, not anyone. He will consent, he must." He stiffened against her, a hint of iron straightening his bones and layering his voice with determination. His father spoke to him little now, save what they had to communicate. Although a bitter old spider, he would bend to this...already once to his son's decision and now...to his son's happiness.

He had to.

Withdrawing from Shai, Dhalvasha reached a hand into his cloak for one last surprise. "Shai," he whispered to her, alone save her in this entire world, "I want to give you something, something we spoke about a long time ago. You are my support, my friend, and soon my webmate...I can only hope this speaks a portion of my love as eloquently as I want to say it."

He held it up to her, but the smell was already there...permeating the abandoned house.

A surface flower, fragile with pale petals and smelling faintly sweet. He offered it to her with a shy smile, blush scuttling across his cheeks in the same gentle shade of red.

"I love you."

He said it again and it felt right.

He leaned in and kissed her.

[Shai]

Wrapping her fingers gingerly around the malachite stem, Shai admired the bloom. It had been so many years ago when her father had brought one to her mother. The young woman couldn’t recall having told Dhalvasha about it, but she had been young and such memories faded quickly.

He kissed her and it was right. Everything Shai had wanted for dozens of seasons had come true and it was almost overwhelming. Summoning all of the breath within her body she answered him with words she’d known as indisputable truth, “I love you too, Dhalvasha.” Letting her lithe frame curl against his.

Dhal was her twilight, he always had been. He was promise of more, that no matter how bad something was it could be worse, no matter how bad; the world would continue regardless. A guarantee that comfortable darkness would follow the harsh lights that illuminated far too much. He was the crepuscular bridge between tenebrous depression and the dream of a fantastical wish that might just come true.

Pressing her body back to his, into the crevice which her figure fit like a key. She spoke against his chest, while looking into the hallow space that made between them to protect the delicate flower. “You’re right; no one may stand in our path. It’s our path to take and only we shall dictate its course. Together.”Shai was utterly unable to stop the enormous grin transforming her lips. “Let us not ask, instead we shall inform. They have had their say in our lives for too long already, in this they are but bystanders.”

[Macabre]

Thread Complete!
“Unbelievable. You, [subject name here], must be the pride of [subject hometown here].”

Dhalvasha
XP: Medicine +1
Lore: A Union of Hysalv and Nerium
Awarded: Chevas Mark

Shai
XP: n/a
Lore: A Union of Hysalv and Nerium
Awarded: Chevas Mark

Congratulations, you’ve both been awarded your Chevas Marks to mark your union. A formality, I’m sure, considering your futures, but if you’d like to choose a design you may add the mark to your characters’ histories.

Very short but enjoyable read. Sorry I could not give more. I am intrigued by your use of traditional exchanging of a ring; it's not an entirely common practice in Mizahar, but in such a small community that thrives on the advancement of their tight-knit families, such a tradition does not seem out of place at all. The flower was a nice touch, too. Good job.