The Chaos Circles #6

Sudden Appearance

Every morning, Jaque was one of the earliest people to rise before dawn in Enatuh, to bring out the sheep for grazing. He would stay on the grassy hills until late afternoon, before herding them back into their pens and he would continue by chopping wood outside. In the past, it was his stepmother who brought him his meals. Lya took over that duty, mainly because Dydine dottirof Jaymes was now heavy with her fourth child.

The plan was more complicated on Lya's part than Jaque. It would rely heavily on her limited gifts with the Chaos. Her family was to have dinner with the Jaymes that night, to discuss some wedding plans. That way, she could project a perfect image of him, an illusion, to trick others. His illusion would be chopping wood in small area outside the kitchen window. Anybody who looked outside would think that Jaque was busy.

Jaque himself would then take Ned the mule and an axe and go back up the Table Cliff. Once he chopped off one of the oak's roots, the large boulder would fall and rolled away from its place. Supplies such as dry foods, travelling cloaks, the long knife and such things had been smuggled in Lya's basket every time she sent food up the mountains to him. Everything was hidden in that hole under the tree.

"And then what happens next? I wished he would have told me," said Lya sadly.
A surprise, yet gentle knock on her door felt like a bang to her chest in her unexpected state. She accidentally dropped a bucket of hot water into the metal tub, spilling some of the contents out to the side. It was evening time at the Jaymes farm and her family had already arrived and readying themselves for dinner.

"Lya darling, talking to yourself again?" It was her mother's voice.
Lya took a deep breath as she scooped up some water back into the bucket and opened the spare bedroom door slowly.
"No mother, I wasn't. It isn't wise for a lady to mutter secrets on her tongue alone, for ears can be hidden."

Her mother's face beamed. Faerilla Kellingdottir had always been very beautiful, especially when she smiled. She was as very young as her husband was very old when she became a dottirof Samuel, even younger than Lya. The Kellings were famed for producing the best marriage type young women, a tradition that Faerilla intended to incorporate upon the Samuel daughters, starting with her own.

Her mother swept her glossy brown hair behind her. In one hand, she held a cake of herbal soap and some clean cloth while the other is holding on to a large full kettle.
"Come on dear, let us get you cleaned up before dinner starts."
Lya nodded and took the kettle from her mother's hand. Faerilla helped her daughter undress and bathe.

Lya drew in her breath quickly as the hot water was splashed on her bare skin. Faerilla wet the cloth and began scrubbing Lya's back alternately with the soap.
"Lya, you do remember what tonight is, don't you? Fifth day before the wedding? The other reason why we are here?" said Faerilla.
Lya only nodded. Sitting in the hot water with the cold air that creeping between the wooden walls of the bedroom was befuddling her head.
"And that is?" asked Fearilla.
"The Bonding Night."
"That's right, darling."

How could she have forgotten so quickly? In all the while she was helping Jaque for his great escape to freedom, she had given less and less thought about the proper wedding customs she was supposed to be learning. Bonding Night was the first step in the Five Vows, one for each day before she could become a complete wife. She had been going through it all in a daze, while secretly trying to improve her magic at any free moment without her family suspecting anything.

"Lya? I asked if you are nervous."
The memories of Jaque's lips pressing softly upon hers crept up slowly, yet as indistinct as the rising vapours. She pushed it down strongly.
"No mother, I shouldn't be. It is part of the proper rites that each should follow accordingly-"
Faerilla cut her off as she whispered quietly into Lya's ear.
"Imagine Jaque doing his proper rites right now, plunging himself into the cold waters of the river."

The memories in her mind suddenly became too bright. Lya drenched some water to her face a bit too strongly and splashing the drops everywhere.
"Ahh, so you are nervous. Don't worry, I was like you once, dearest." Faerilla chuckled mischievously.

There was no denying, even in Lya's opinion, that some among the Enatuh maidens thought Jaque was too handsome, too thoughtful to simply be a shepherd. There had been rumours that Varns were the direct descendents of the Lost Nobility and Jaque was more Varn than any clansmen to his clan. If the rumours were true, the Jaque would have a chance to go to great heights among Asuqaro's oldest families, just as he once secreted before. If the rumours were true.

Faerilla washed off the soap from Lya's hair with a fresh spurt with the kettle. She had been continuing her babble as though Lya had been listening. But something caught her ear.
"... nervous really, when you've clearly had done it already..."
"Mother!" Lya turned to face Faerilla. She felt her cheeks grew quite warm.
Her mother only grinned wider.
"Well there's no need to turn red about it. I've seen the state how you came back home this morning. A most complete unnatural mess. You and Jaque have at least waited just a bit longer instead of having your own Bonding Day. If you weren't so engaged to that beautiful..."
"Mother!"

If Lya had been fully clothed at that moment, she would have simply walked out of the room as she habitually did every time Faerilla plunged into one of her fanciful chatters, or simply let her continue on with ever listening a word. For some reason, Lya felt like she needed to set her mother straight about what had happened that morning on Table Cliff. If only she could accurately express what she was thinking through her words.

"It didn't... you think, I mean, you don't think... oh, mother, there was nothing... no, really!"
Yet, the brushes of Jaque's fingers down her back, the strong curve of his arm against her waist all felt like it had actually led to the inevitable conclusion. But it was the pressure of his mouth that lingered on her even as Jaque's sheep dogs intervened with their exited barks and hyperactive exercise.

Faerilla pulled Lya up to her feet and rinsed her off with the rest of the water from the spare bucket, which had already cool and drenched her like an icy shock. Even as Lya wrapped herself around a large towel, she still felt very exposed.
"Oh? And so I supposed you gave him his breakfast, then on the way home you untied your hair yourself and disarray your own skirts and lose your shawl so that he'd be the one to return it?" countered Faerilla.

Lya pulled the towel up to her red face. She forgot about her favourite violet-blue shawl, how Jaque slipped it off her shoulders just as Pat the lead dog was pulling a part of it with his teeth.
"No, mother... Jaque, he... He was... just teaching me... how to kiss."
Ooh, how her cheeks burned!
"Tha... that's all."
Faerilla raised a sceptical eyebrow at first, but then her face softened like she was reminiscing something through personal experience.
"I wish your father had just been a tad as romantic before my Bonding Night."

To be continued...