After our talk, I reckoned that, since the Hoshiasa race, I had found little hap to talk with Raeonyl my sister. When I sought her, instead I found Mirae her shieldbearer, who has healed from her wound at Saeoel’s Mound. Yet now she wept and, when I asked her bother, answered not and fled. Heedfully I aftersought whence she had come.
I found Raeonyl atop the watchspire, legs dangling. My sister winced when I sat beside. In her mere maidenhalter and waistcloth she looked quite young, moreso like the gawky girl I had met thirteen years ago, and not the grown outrider-maiden. When I asked what befell, she merely answered she had spoken a foolish word. I asked nothing more and hugged her, and she laid head on my breast. Then, like Mirae, she wept. I so let, not seeking her sunderness and withholding mindshare, so she might choose what to shrive.
At last she spoke: ~Ei ari, hei hoerizahi,~ - “There is glory, but it is awful,” meaning the battle at Saeoel’s Mound. She reminded Meiss crippled so woefully it bewailed both him and Sievae, Nellos whom we had watched die, and all else. She reminded Mirae’s wound, who had foolishly afterridden into the fight, and whom she had almost lost. Then she asked how, as an outrider and warrior, she might ever afford love.
~Loae o’sholi hoerizahi,~ - “Love is indeed awful,” I answered, and that from it grows the worst hurt and dreadest fear, even until our self’s loss. Yet I beread love is why we so do, forwhy if we loved not our city, our kin, our shieldmates, our lovers, how could we even bother? To make war lovelessly would lead to madness, since under such an empty heart one must instead love death and harm. Love, even hurtful, I deemed keeps us lashunta.
My word made my sister sob more. While in my arms, we reached mindshare, our antennae twining. At last she stilled, bewaring our touch, my bosom’s warmth, and our thoughts entangling. Wonderfully she looked upward, seeking my eyes. Then she kissed me.
As a teaser for Saturday, here's a snippet from Chapter 30, in which Lady Vaeol deal's with the battle's aftermath and people's hurt as the quest heads back home...
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