Closed Old Scars

[Dravite]

51 Fall, 515 AV
Afternoon, Endrykas
Blackwater Pavilion

Kyanite met them at the entrance with a curious look on his face; who were these strangers with his father? Dravite got down on one knee to let the twins find their feet, both a couple of years older than the inquisitive little toddler that edged near slowly. "Kyan," Dravite summoned the boy with a smile and turned back to glance at Fara when he felt the woman's eyes on him.
She offered a hesitant smile and crouched down near him with Löwe wrapped in her arms, "hello, Kyanite," she cooed softly.
The yellow haired boy smiled his cheeky little smile and came closer still until Dravite could clutch his narrow little shoulder.
"This is Dove and Wolf," he introduced the twins to his son, "and this is their mother Fara."
Again Fara looked at Dravite, though she found it increasingly difficult to look away from her sister’s son, the golden haired, spitting image of the man she had loved, "and this is Löwe," she told him, "he is your brother."
Kyanite looked confused, "Garrison," he smiled then, blurting out the name of the only person he knew to be one of his brothers.

Dravite frowned, he didn't want to confuse his son, it was only right he knew the truth, but Belkaia wasn't going to take the news well and Dravite had discussed that on the way back to camp with Fara. She was already breaking his rules, he didn't want Belkaia to find out through Kyanite; this was something he needed to tell his wife alone.

Wolf was all smiles, though he remained relatively quiet, his twin sister Dove was a lot more outgoing and took Kyanite's hand before giving him a tender little hug. Dravite found his smile once more as he watched the exchange. Löwe seemed reserved, distant, and remained glued to his mother, while the twins seemed content to follow Kyanite around as he introduced them to some of the goats from the Blackwater herd and even let them play with the toy drum Pearl had given him.

Fara put her hand on Dravite's shoulder and got to her feet slowly as Belkaia appeared from somewhere behind the main tent where they kept the firewood. Garrison was following close behind holding a small stack of kindling which he then dropped to join Kyanite and his strange new friends. "Fara?" Belkaia stood gobsmacked.
"Hello sister," Fara smiled softly and Dravite got to his feet, watching Belkaia as if she were an intruding lioness sneaking up on his pride, ready to attack.
Belkaia sprung forward and hugged Fara tightly before standing back to look at her, resting her hand on the woman's thin shoulders, "I never thought I would see you again," she beamed, "are you in the city long?" Belkaia looked back at Dravite and smiled, "Can she stay for dinner?"
"I was hoping to stay a little longer than that, sister."
"Yes of course," Belkaia agreed, "you must." It was then she noticed Löwe and the twins, "are these your children?"
"Yes," Fara pulled Löwe closer, "this is my eldest, Löwe, and my twins Wolf and Dove playing with your little blessing."
"Blessings," Belkaia smiled, correcting her sister, "Garrison is our son too."
"Yes," Fara smiled, "but not quite like this one," she touched her sisters inflated belly, "do you think it will be a boy or a girl?"
Belkaia looked down and giggled, "I'm not sure, in fact I'm quite torn. Let me look at you," she insisted, fussing with her sister’s long dark hair and running an observant eye over the woman, "you're expecting?" Belkaia seemed surprised.
"Yes this winter."
"You look so starved! What's happened?"
Fara looked grave, "heavy news, sister; I feel it's best I spare you the details, but Kade and I are no longer bound."
Belkaia hugged the woman and pointed a questioning look at her husband, "all in good time, you must stay with us until you find your feet."
"Too kind," Fara smiled sadly, "I don't want to impose."
"Not at all!" Belkaia grinned, "It will be nice having you around. Come, I'll show you around the tent and we can set up a place for the four of you to sleep," Belkaia insisted, taking her older sister by the hand to lead her into the main pavilion tent.

Löwe stayed outside and sat down on the grass to watch his siblings play. Dravite took up residence besides the boy and plucked stray strands of grass from the earth, something to busy his hands with while he decided where to point his stare. Each time Löwe looked up to watch Wolf or Dove, Dravite would stare at the boy, mapping the lines and shape of the young boy's face, committing every detail to memory.

The dark hair he decided was due to Fara's blood, while the shape of Löwe's eyes, nose, lips, and brow seemed just like his own, in fact the resemblance was uncanny. The dreadlocks, Dravite thought, were unusual; it wasn't a very common, nor accepted hair style within the Drykas culture and yet Fara had chosen to fashion her son's hair into the unruly long knots, "I like your hair style," Dravite smiled, trying to make light conversation, testing the waters as it were; what was Löwe like when he wasn't latched to his mother?
The boy smiled, "Kade hates it."
Odd, Dravite thought, why did this boy not refer to Kade as his father? "why doesn’t he like it?" The horse lord inquired.
Löwe shrugged, "said it was of low blood."
Dravite felt his brow knot angrily, the Ironhide pavilion always acted as if they were better than everyone else, and it really struck a nerve with the watchman. "Low blood," Dravite scoffed, "it is a warrior’s mane."
Löwe looked at the man and smiled crookedly.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes," Löwe admitted with a short, sharp nod of his head.
"Then forget what others say; if you like it, that's all that really matters."
Again the boy smiled and started picking at the grass like Drivate had been.

The two of them spoke for a while. For Dravite, who had not spoken so in depth with a child in years, found the conversation interesting, having waited so long for his own boy to start talking. There was a lot he could do with Löwe that Kyanite was far too young for, and perhaps more importantly, he looked forward to getting to know his long lost son a little better.
"Do you like riding?"
"Yes," Löwe grinned, "mother says I can get my own horse soon."
"I have lots of horses," Dravite smiled, "perhaps you can ride one of them."
"Would you take me hunting?" Löwe asked.
The horse lord smirked, "aren't you a little young?"

Before the boy could answer, Belkaia stormed out of the main pavilion tent and threw one of the furs down that she had been holding. "She's not staying!" Belkaia spat, "none of them are," and with that she disappeared to go and find Pearl at the River Flower.

.
.
.

[Dravite]

Dravite got to his feet quickly and went to go after his wife when he realised he couldn't leave Kyanite and Garrison alone, especially not with a stranger, for that's all Fara was to them. Instead he called the kids over and asked Löwe and Dove to make sure they all stayed inside of the camp while he went to find Fara and find out what had happened.

Inside the tent, Fara sat sobbing and clutching her left ankle. Dravite rushed to her side and put one hand on the woman's shoulder, the other over her hands, "what happened?"
"Everything was fine," Fara murmured, "until she asked about Löwe."
"Did you tell her?" He growled.
"No!" She promised, "Belkaia isn't stupid, Drav; she can see the boy is your son."
"Are you hurt?"
Fara shook her head but when he tried to help the woman to her feet she hissed and fell back against the bedding, clutching her ankle, "she pushed me, but she didn't mean to hurt me," Fara told him, "Belkaia would never do anything to hurt me."

Dravite found himself torn once again. He hadn't seen Fara for over six years and Belkaia had been his wife for at least four. He couldn't let a misguided summer of romance cloud his vision or his sense; Belkaia was a good woman, a brilliant mother, and a faithful wife; she would never do anything to hurt her family, especially him and she must have known, that even though his flame with her sister was an old one, it had burned out years ago.
"My lion," Dravite closed his eyes at the old name and felt Fara take hold his face in her slender hands, "please don't make us go, we need you; I need you."
When he opened his eyes Fara's mouth was but a breath from his own, her eyes searching his solemnly, "I never stopped loving you," she admitted, "I never stopped planning and scheming, and fighting to escape, to make my way home to you," she whispered.
"Fara," he mouthed, silenced then by her kiss.

She put her hand on the back of his neck, drawing him closer to her. The kiss was tender and slow, trouble free until his heart remembered and his mind forgot, my true love, the muscle thumped hard inside his chest. Rough, unrelenting, and raw, he kissed the woman, their tongues entwined, teeth knocked clumsily, and flesh burned as he took her lower lip and tugged, "oh my lion," Fara hissed, "there you are."

His fingers were lost in the soft tresses of her dark hair, long, loose and luscious. His muscles tightened, breathing grew heavy, and his stomach felt as if it had flipped excitedly. She pulled his leather tabard off and over his head before racing to get him out of his shirt so that she could see him, run her hands over his tight frame and remember the feel of them, skin to skin. Dravite wrestled Fara out of her torn dress and sat back on his knees; she was bare, battered and bruised, and far too thin. Her breasts were not the small, ripe mounds he remembered, now heavy and pointed, and marred with long, white scars. Her ribs were showing despite the large swollen mass of her midsection, where at its base a long, red and purple scar smiled up at him, an old C-section that had either healed poorly or had been crafted by an absolute butcher. Someone else's love, the mass mocked him, someone else's wife.

Dravite scooped up his belongings and fled the room, throwing his tabard and shirt down in his own bed quarters. He dragged in the large tub they used to wash the children in and filled it with cold water before topping it up with a pot of hot water they had left boiling away over the fire pit, "wash," he told her, "my wives will be home soon, Pearl might want to check on you and your baby after the attack to make sure everything is all right," he threw a wash cloth down and left the woman alone to clean up, returning only to offer her one of his clean shirts to wear until he could fetch her something else from the markets in a day or two.

Outside the tent, Dravite watched the children play, keeping an eye on them. Löwe smiled at the man and instead of returning the warm gesture, Dravite looked away, his pulse still thudding in his ears. Belkaia was going to be upset when she returned, Pearl, as level headed as she was, would probably have her own thoughts on the matter that she would confront him with later when the two of them could find some time alone; such seemed to be the way of his second wife. He smiled then, thinking about how different the two of them were and how balanced their binding seemed to be because of it. They would work something out together, or at least he hoped they could.

.
.
.

[Dravite]

Star peeked inside of Pearl's office to make sure that the woman was alone before she interrupted anything the doctor might be working on, "I'm so sorry to disturb you, doctor, but your wife is here to see you," Star stood wide eyed as if to add wordlessly 'and she looks to be very upset'.
Before Pearl had a chance to answer Belkaia pushed past Star and stormed into Pearl’s office and threw her arms around the woman, sinking down onto her knees to fold herself against Pearl's lap and cry and cry until Star left them alone, "I'm sorry," the nurse mouthed before shrinking away from the door to tend to other chores.
"You'll never guess," she looked up at Pearl teary eyed, "Fara, he brought my sister Fara home," her shoulders shook and her chest heaved as she sucked in a shaky breath, "with her children, with a son," she wiped her eyes angrily as if her own upset was some kind of insult to her normally strong resolve, "A boy, a boy she says is his son!"
"You have to tell him," she clutched the sides of her wife's top, "you have to come home now and you have to tell him they cannot stay!" She drew short, shallow breaths then, causing herself to spiral into a panic attack that wouldn't help her or the baby growing inside of her, "she's a liar!" Belkaia cried, "A liar and a manipulator, and a pest! I want her gone!" She fell silent then, head bowed and pressed to the doctor's knee, "The boy can't be his son... Kyanite is his only son, Kyanite is the only Blackwater boy there will ever be," her voice was but a whisper now, tired, strained, and utterly pathetic, "you have to tell him, Pearl... Please."

.
.
.

[Pearl]

Pearl looked up when Star interrupted her, but all she saw was the woman standing behind Star, distraught and frantic. She gave an understanding nod to Star as the woman began to back out, closing the door behind her.

Pearl combed her fingers through Belkaia’s hair as she cried, letting the woman work through her emotions even though she was becoming quite concerned herself over what had Belkaia so distraught. A thousand scenarios entered her mind; something had happened to Dravite, to one or both of the boys. Pearl had to force herself to remain calm, to slow her own breathing and coo soothingly to Belkaia until her wife could stop her crying and tell her exactly what was wrong.

“You’ll never guess, Fara, he brought my sister Fara home with her children, with a son. A boy, a boy she says is his son!” Of all the things Belkaia could have said to her, Pearl had least expected to hear this. Everything she had learned recently about the Windborne Pavilion, the treachery, the manipulation, the death, the broken promises, the deceit, the curse; it all came flooding back causing Pearl’s heart to begin racing within her chest. “You have to tell him, you have to come home now and you have to tell him they cannot stay!” The room began to spin before her and Pearl had to close her eyes to be able to focus. “she’s a liar! A liar and a manipulator and a pest and I want her gone!”

As Belkaia’s outrage and panic began to escalate, Pearl talked herself into calming so she could calm her wife. She focused on slowing her own breathing once again, on the beat of her heart as she willed it to a slower pace. “Shh, my love, I hear you. I hear you very well,” she cooed to her wife while drawing her hands over her hair and helping her to wipe her tears away from her face, using the pads of her thumbs. “We’ll go home. I’ll talk with Dravite.”

“Listen to me. Focus. You need to calm yourself, love, for you and the baby. Look at me, focus on me, breathe with me. Slower, that’s it,” she said as she talked Belkaia into a less upset state of being. When Belkaia had calmed considerably, Pearl stood with her, her arms around her shoulders in a hug. “Come now, let’s go home and sort this matter out. Understand me, okay? I’m here with you, and I will not let this tear our family apart. I’ve made my promise to protect you and our baby. I won’t be breaking that promise.” When Belkaia nodded, she kissed her forehead, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”

***

When the two stepped into camp, Belkaia huffed and went to gather Kyanite and Garrison, “Come on you two, we need to gather some, something,” she growled out the words as she took each of the younger children by the hand and walked towards the edge of camp.
“Belkaia, please do not stray too far,” cautioned Pearl, though she knew Belkaia needed the distance for the time being.
“Of course, my wife,” she said curtly before disappearing with the children.

The walk home had been filled with Belkaia explaining every nuance about the situation that she understood and Pearl doing her best to understand it. As she approached her husband, she smiled to him, as well as to the remaining children. Her eyes searched for Fara, but she could see her nowhere in sight. Seeing no reason to prolong the situation or use flowering words, she simply asked her husband, “I understand we currently have a guest at the pavilion,” her tone was not raised and was pleasant, though it was the professional tone she used with her patients and not the one she reserved for her family and loved ones, “will she be staying with us for an extended time?” Her gaze leveled upon Dravite, expecting no more than an answer to which he gave easily, in the form of a nod.

“Very well then, I shall see that the guest tent is properly prepared for her and her children,” that tone was equally as pleasant as the one she had used before, though it was accompanied by a look that Pearl rarely, if ever, had used with Dravite, though Garrison had seen it on occasion, and when he did, the small boy usually wilted on spot, but Dravite was no young boy.

Pearl’s mind had been made up on the walk home with Belkaia. She couldn’t very well turn out the sister to her wife, regardless of the accusations that had been made, but she meant to keep the woman close enough so that she could watch her, but not so close as to have to be wary of her. And the children deserved a home where they could be safe, especially if one of them actually was Dravite’s blood son, despite Belkaia’s insistence that it was impossible. Pearl hadn’t moved from the spot where she stood before her husband, leveling her gaze upon him, waiting to see if she would be met with resistance.



.
.
.

[Prophet]

Pearl,

If you return, PM me and I will grade this for you.

-Prophet