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Jan 26 13 6:05 PM
Mara laughed again, her shoulder lifting slightly. “It is my sister being married, and I couldn’t tell you half the people here. Someone from the groom’s list, I suppose - or some vagabond. Doesn’t he remind you of a bear? He’s been watching you the past two songs.” Kailee glanced furtively past Mara, but the dusky figure was gone.
A damp breeze chased its way past their boots and across the lawn where they were gathered. It was a clear herald of the anticipated rain and faces turned upward reluctantly to gauge the sky. As Kailee and Mara picked up another tune, the first of the revellers began to disperse as others defiantly ignored the impending weather.
The hosts began to call for servants to break down the tables and decorations. The roads would quickly become impassible for hours after a solid rainfall, and none were foolish enough to travel after dark under a new moon. Horses were slowly retrieved from their hitching posts and carriages pulled up. As each carriage opened its doors, more of the dancers were called away. The bridge and groom saw each guest off personally as the families were handed into their conveyances.
Kailee kept part of her attention to the departures, searching for a carriage with her own familiar red and white banner. The rest of her family had gone into the city for another gathering, but one of the servants was to pick her up later that evening. She wondered if they’d noticed the impending storm and set out early to fetch her.
On all sides people began to scurry as looming, ominous clouds continued to build and grow nearer. The wind had died entirely beneath an oppressive sunlight. The air seemed to hold a dense silence as Mara and Kailee gave in to the end of festivities and packed away their instruments. It was still hours earlier than Kailee had intended to leave. One of the young servants approached, the hem of his borrowed pants hanging long.
“Miss Briin,” he offered, the title sounding overly formal in his young voice. “Lady Ousen asked me to say you could stay the night. She has me putting blankets n’ things in the sitting room - a couple people are already there.”
The floor of the bower. Kailee didn’t need extra time to consider. “Thank you, no.” Kailee replied firmly. Home was only a few miles, if she followed the trails past the river. She had travelled it several times on horseback, and knew it well. She glanced upward, gauging the sun which still shone bright in the sky. It was easily five hours until dark. Her gaze shifted to the looming storm clouds. The longer she debated, the more likely she was to be caught in the weather.
“Give Lady Ousen my regrets.” she offered, even as she dashed over to Mara and offered the woman a tight hug. “It was delightful - call on me tomorrow?”
“If I don’t get recruited to help play hostess” she agreed mournfully. “Watch out for the wisps!”
Kailee just laughed. While she had no desire to get lost beneath a black night, she was not convinced the ‘wisps’ of the area were anything more than bad luck and foolish choices. It was simple common sense - you did not travel by night. “I don’t intend to.”
With a final wave, Kailee set off across the edge of the field towards the forest beyond. Her skirts flattened the plants with each stride, grasshoppers flinging themselves out of her path. An occasional storm-licked breeze lifted and swirled at the strands of hair as she hummed the final song of the day to herself. Back home, she would never have dared walk home alone, nor would she have attended such a function without an escort. She knew her mother disapproved of the informality here, but it was a welcome change from the larger city. She wondered how long the war would continue back home. She found herself hoping they could stay.
She ducked her way into the woods, the early spring leaves still small enough to let speckled light filter down onto the floor. Tall ferns took advantage of the sunlight to unfurl and grow. By mid summer, there would be nothing but shade for them. The trail here was wide, evidence of regular forays from the Ousen’s into the trees. She made her way easily to where the river cut its way through the wood in a deep gully.
Bracing against the pull of gravity, she worked her way down the embankment of the river. The last of the snow’s melt kept the stream swollen and moving quickly. Several large boulders protruded from its surface like bubbles about to burst. Though the furthest apart meant she had to commit to a full jump, she deftly made her way across. She had always been nimble. Her boot squelched in the soft moss at the far side as she finished the crossing and began to work her way up the other side. The final remnants of last years leaves slipped beneath her feet with each step, and she grabbed hold of the trees growing precariously out of the side of the embankment to help pull herself up to the top.
She brushed bits of bark from her hands as she made the top and continued the short distance through the rest of the wood before trees gave way to grasses and she began to skirt the edge of the large, bare hill. A curl of her usually straight hair fell in her vision as the humidity of the day and her travels took effect. She pushed it back, wondering if servants were even now at the Ousen’s to pick her up and her haste had been for nothing. She was always being told that she acted too hastily. The trail she followed at this point was overgrown, but solid enough beneath the spring weeds.
A snap of thunder jerked her from her thoughts. Her heart lept into her throat as the sound continued, a grumbling and sour commentary that spread through the clouds on all sides. She craned her neck to look behind her at the sky - when had it grown so dark? The storm had come up more quickly than she expected, hidden from view within the woods. She was out of time. She hiked her skirts up with both fists and began to run as the wind snapped sharply across the field. Each leaf of the trees lining it flipped upward, showing their bellies to the arrival of the storm.
The rain broke all at once, the heavy drops pelting against her skin like sharp stones. The day turned a sickly shade, cut by the sharp flash of lightning and cracks of thunder that shook the ground. Beneath the weeds, the narrow trail she followed turned quickly into a riverbed. Her boots soaked through and created whirls in the current.
She looked frantically across the meadow for some kind of protection from the weather. The wind pelted rain at her eyes, forcing her gaze down to the ground and her arm up to protect her. There were a few boulders clumped together partway up the hill, they would at least afford her shelter from the wind and stinging debris and rain it hurled. She cried out as a sharp crack of lightning as thick as her thumb touched down nearby. Stumbling blindly,she flung herself the final yards to the meager boulders, hunkering down pressed against the ‘v’ where two stones came together.
The full rage of the storm lasted short minutes, while she clung to the boulders and made herself small from its notice. It was enough to leave her shaking and cold as it passed finally from enraged to merely foul-tempered. As the winds slowed and deluge shifted to simple downpour, she raised her chin to look around.
Her attention stopped in shock at the top of the hill. There was a young man silhouetted against the sky at its crest. He stood with his face upturned to the rain, his arms spread wide above him. She could make out the darkness of his hair against the occasional flash of lightning. She could make out the focused, fey expression on his face. As she watched in confusion at his presence, he began to dance. His movements called to her mind the most elegant of tall grasses on a windswept day. She crouched against the stones, transfixed. As his attention crossed the boulders where she hid and paused, she recognized the man who had been staring at her at the wedding.
Still dancing, he began to work his way down the hill towards her shelter. Even through the weather she could hear his singing now. Though she was trembling from the chill, all she could focus on was his motion and song. It was a sudden shock again when the song silenced and she found him standing within arms reach. He slowly settled to a crouch before her, the raindrops rolling in smooth falls across his cheeks.
He studied her bedraggled form, then asked without preamble and with a rich, soft smile,“Why are you alone, when the sky plays music?” His voice held the same musical tones as the song. She stared at him, stunned and mute. A rakish smile creased his expression, unfazed by her silence. “Come - dance.”
Her mind flashed briefly to how mad this whole thing was. The warnings were crowded out by the image of his dancing, the song which lingered in her memory. He reached out and brushed his finger lightly down her cheek, and she closed her eyes. She imagined the feel of the rhythm of the storm as his fingertip followed the rain down to her chin. Then he slipped his hand to hold her own and drew her to her feet. Her eyes raised to find him holding her gaze. They began to dance.
She lost track of how long they danced beneath the storm, their bodies warm from motion and each other. She knew she would never forget the full, moist feel of his mouth on hers as the rain was sealed away from her lips.
Awakening
Kailee huddled warm beneath a rough blanket, leaning back against Kiron’s chest as his arms encircled her. The rain still drizzled steadily outside of his tent, nestled back against an overhang on the far side of the hill. She hummed softly and his lips brushed the top of her hair.
“I want to show you something.” he stated. She began to turn towards him curiously, but he stopped her shoulders with light pressure from his hands. “Not with your eyes... listen. Keep humming... match my voice.” She closed her eyes contently and shifted her attention to sound. Kiron picked up humming behind her own, their voices blending. As they continued he began to make small adjustments to the sustain of the notes and occasionally their intensity. She matched the emphasis, the air thick and attentive around them.
She continued to reach towards each of his changes, attention focused and fully present on the sound and the energy she could feel between the two of them. Suddenly she was falling forward, her eyes flashing open in disorientation as a glow of magical light began in his hand. His open palm caught and held her against him, then turned upward to show the light once more.
“There - I know you felt it.” He stated with a playful, smug satisfaction. “I could feel the gift in you the first time I heard you play. My songbird.”
Her gaze was locked on the light, disoriented. “I know I didn’t do that... you carried me along.” Casting light onto an object was the most basic spell a mage could cast.
“This time.” he agreed, conditionally. “If you can feel the weave, Kailee, you can shape it. Gather it with your song, shape it with your will. You’ll learn to shape the magic. Try it again.”
She picked up her humming and began, fascinated. His own song guided her towards attunement with the fragile weave as she searched for it time and again. Outside, the rain gradually subsided in the blackness of the night.
“There,” she breathed. She could feel the air tingling with the gathered magic. In resonance with its tendrils, she could feel as his own song gradually realigned it towards him then he shaped it, the faded light rekindling once more. They spent hours exploring the weave before she fell asleep against him, her mind exhausted.
The first hint of dawn began to brighten around them. “On your feet.” Kiron suggested, flashing another rakish grin as he squeezed her waist and squirmed his way out from behind her. “They’ll be out looking for you soon, best be atop the hill where they can find you. I’ll pack up here.”
She climbed back into her smoke laden skirts, now dried from the fire. She paused between many of the motions to renew her humming, fascinated by the shape and play of the weave. She had never noticed it before. Now that she was aware of it, its patterns and webs were entrancing. Kiron began to pack away blankets and kettle, admonishing her to hurry. “I will meet you there.”
She ducked out of the heavy canvas tent into the muggy, steaming morning. She lifted her skirts out of the way of her boots as she climbed back to the top of the hill, the weave scattering as the exertion forced her awareness briefly to her surroundings. She settled onto a log at the top looking down over the trail below. The morning sun as it rose felt warm on her arms. It was not long before she forgot the sunlight to the lure of the magic. Focused inward on the weave and her humming, she quickly lost track of time.
Eventually, riders broke from the cover of the trees below and began to work their way around the base of the hill. The saddle blankets on their horses held the familiar red and white of her family banner. One of the servants spied her and shouted out, and the pair turned from the path to ride up the hillside. Kailee focused on them briefly with a wave. She had just found that she could follow a small thread of the weave away from hearing along its length. They had interrupted her just as she thought she might have tracked it.
“Miss Briin? Are you alright?” the anxious servant queried, tugging her attention outward. She offered him a lopsided, distracted smile.
“Good Morning.” she replied.
His gaze shifted in worry to his companion. Kailee didn’t notice, as she picked up her humming. She loved the feel of -
“We should get you home.” he stated, firmly, as he reached a hand out for her elbow. She let them direct her onto the horse and down the length of the hill. The last thing she remembered about their words before she lost herself into the weave once more was a single, dark comment. “Wisps.”
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