Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Thirty-Two (8/25/15)

[intl_incident]

Ha ha.  I like Nella too, and that facial expression of hers was too perfect to not use.

Kake, thanks for your compliment about the scenery.  I am having a lot of fun building for this story, because I get to do so many things you would never see in a more "normal" house or neighborhood.  I'm glad you liked the romantic update, too. 

As for the root, and getting Savna's family back to normal, well... as Lord Mithren said "we shall see."  (Imagine me laughing evilly at this point. Mwaha ha ha ha.)

But seriously, I am going to try to move the plot along a little faster now in some of the next scenes, by having Meridel narrate some of the important points rather than writing dialogue for everything.  I admit that I love writing Lord Radal's nastiness a little too much to let the opportunity slip by in the next scene, but after that, Meri will take over for a bit.

So happy that I am still keeping some readers!

Oh! And Eldridge, you asked about Savna's messy braided hairstyle a couple of posts back, and I meant to answer you but forgot.  It's from the Store -- it's called Wilderness Braid.

[intl_incident]

And so there we were again in the courtyard, for the second time that day, this time to face Lord Radal and his sons, who must have ridden through the night to get here so soon. My mother had been talking quietly to my brother as we walked down to the front doors, but I was too far behind him to hear what they said. 
 
Outside, Lord Radal was seated astride a great black horse, his sons beside him on their own mounts.  And though I found it hard to believe, he really did seem as awful as Savna had described him.  Before any of us could say a word, Lord Radal barked his daughter's name. 



"Savna! You will come down here."

She stepped forward in reflexive response, but my brother took her arm and she paused, caught between two worlds.

"Get your hands off of her, boy. She belongs to the Pembina." 

"She doesn't belong to anyone but herself," Jaffaran said firmly. "She's a person, not a thing."

"You 'noble' den'Rhelys..." Lord Radal sneered, his tone making our name into an insult. "Always so superior. Fine. So, let go of her arm and watch her walk down here on her own. She knows where her duty is."



My brother gave Savna's arm a small squeeze, then let go and took one step away from her side.  She stayed where she was, and took hold of his hand again, as he must have known she would.  "Father, I'm not going back." Her voice was shaking, but her head was held high.

"You will come back," Stellan interjected, standing up in his stirrups.   Lord Radal held up a hand to quiet him.

"Of course she will. Our dear friend Lord Mithren would never permit his son to kidnap my daughter, nor keep her from her family." Though there was a definite sarcastic overtone, Lord Radal spoke matter of factly, as if this was all a foregone conclusion. 



Savna shook her head. "Jaffaran didn't kidnap me.  I came willingly, and I won't go back. We want to be married."

"Who cares what you want?  I want the sun to rise in the west, do you think it will happen?" Lord Radal shifted in his saddle, frowning, then grudgingly tried a more tender note.  "Come, now. Your family loves you. Your mother misses you.  You've made a mistake, but every child does.  It's time to put this aside and return home. You'll see I can forgive you."

"There's nothing to forgive."

"NOTHING? Nothing to forgive?" Lord Radal's head snapped up, and he thrust a finger at my brother.  The moment of tenderness was gone in a flash.  "This boy has lied.  He has abused our hospitality, snuck into our home like a snake and stolen you from your family's house!  And now you tell me you came along willingly? WILLINGLY? And YOU!" Now he rounded on my father. "You condone this!  You may let your own daughters run around with any kind of man they please, but my family is still respectable, and that boy will not have his way with--"

"LORD RADAL, ENOUGH."  My father's voice boomed through the courtyard. "Nothing has transpired between my son and your daughter. There is no engagement. There is no marriage."



"It's not marriage I'm talking about." Lord Radal's rude insinuation caused frowns and murmuring among the scholars and staff who were witnessing this whole scene. He held out an imperious hand for Savna, whose cheeks were bright red as she fought back tears.  "Come! You come down here now, or you don't ever come back."

"Father, please." Torin spurred his horse forward a step, and attempted to mediate.  "You love Savna too well for this. We do love you, Sanni.  We just want you home."

But Savna wasn't listening anymore.  She had turned to look at my brother, and now she had eyes for him alone.  His lopsided smile -- the same one he'd always had -- cleared up her doubts, her confusion, and her tears.  She smiled back at him as if all the pieces of the world had just settled into place.  Then she took his hand, and then turned back to face Lord Radal and her brothers. "Goodbye, father."



"You little--"
"Sanni, wait!"

As Savna's brothers shouted over each other, one disgusted and one horrified, Lord Radal was beside himself. "WE ARE DONE," he thundered at Savna. "You are lost. No one will take you in. No one will give you food. No one will give you shelter. Not so much as a tent to shade you from the sun, you traitorous little ingrate.  All of our family's doors are closed to you, and so will be the doors of all the other houses of Ajri. You'll live your days in misery, as an outcast.  And you--"

"Very well," my mother interrupted quietly. "Then Lady Savna will stay here.   And now you, Lord Radal, must leave.  Along with your sons."

"She defies me, and you give her sanctuary for it?" Lord Radal was spluttering.

"Lord Radal, this is now your doing, not mine.  You called her an outcast.  You said your doors were closed to her.  You released her from your house and authority, and so you have no claim over her any longer. I am sorry you've done it, and I suspect you would be as well, if you were in your right mind. But you have done it, and the laws are clear.  We claim her as our own, as those laws require." 

"How dare you? No one has invoked that section of the law in generations!"



My mother and the Pembina lord argued back and forth for a few more moments, but it was clear that my mother was in the right, as strange as this turn of events might have seemed.  The ancient laws of Ajri stated that if any of the houses were to cast out any members for any reason other than a violent crime, the next house that the outcasts came to was required to accept them as part of the family.  Lord Radal was correct -- no one had used that section of the law in generations.  But no one had cast out any member of their house in generations either.   My father looked troubled, Savna's brother Torin looked distraught, and Savna and Jaffaran looked confused but extremely pleased.  For my part, I found it very oddly convenient that a problem that had seemed so insurmountable this morning was now, apparently, resolved in their favor with nothing but a few words.  It was no coincidence, as we would later discover, but for now, it seemed to be the answer to my brother's and Savna's wishes.

Eventually, Lord Radal was forced to retreat, faced with the fact that his own choice of actions had given his daughter the very thing she wanted most.    After he and his sons had passed through our gates -- Torin looking back at Savna with a forlorn expression as he rode off -- my mother turned to face us with a weary expression.

"You did it!" Nella shouted happily. "Mother you did it!"



"Hush now," my mother said in her quiet but firm way. "This is a serious matter, not a fairy tale.  Lady Savna has lost her family, through no fault of her own or her father's.  There is strong evil in this, and I did what I did to protect her from that evil, not to indulge her or your brother, nor to satisfy your romantic notions, Nellaska.  The Pembina are clearly affected by stronger forces than I was expecting, and there are dark matters in the future that I cannot yet discern.  The shadows are troubling. Very troubling." She shook her head, as if to dispel whatever she was seeing in her mind, then turned her worried eyes to my father, who had been silent throughout the last few moments, as he usually was when these sorts of mystical matters were afoot.  Alchemy and the magical arts were very much my mother's realm. My father's expertise lay with the more practical matters of running the house.

And so when Lady Savna stepped forward with a question, it was he who answered.

"Lord Mithren," she said timidly. "I'm not sure I understand what's happened.  Am I right, that I'm now den'Rhelys?"

"If you accept the offer, then you are," my father said solemnly.  "It is your choice.  Choose wisely, for make no mistake, there is no going back."

"Does it mean I can marry Jaffaran?" Savna asked.

My father frowned at the question, either because he thought it a shallow concern in the overall situation, or because he was going to have to accept what this morning had been totally unacceptable.  He shared a frustrated glance with my mother, who tilted her head to the side in a sort of shrug, and then lifted one corner of her mouth up into a tired smile, confirming what he already knew. "What's done is done," she said. "No matter the reasons that brought this about, if she accepts, she is family." 

"Then yes," my father said reluctantly.  "It would mean you can marry."

"I accept," Savna cried. "With all my heart."  And she threw her arms around my brother's neck, right there on the staircase. 

[Gwendy]

Whew, I was so worried there for a minute! Seriously, Savna/Jaffaran is like, my One True Pairing on this whole site. And the way you just took the air out of the sails when Jaffaran brought her home, as much as had realistic consequences which I can appreciate, it still really got me right in the worry-feels. Like, "No fair, Radal! You can't just barge in demanding Savna back! She escaped, and as far as story rules go, that means she can do whatever she wants now! Go back to Arji, Grumpy McGroucherson!" But I don't think it was even that as much as it was the fact that even Jaffaran was worried and almost seemed resigned to the fact that Savna had to go back. Because then it's, "No, Jaffaran! You went out of your way to drag the lady here, you're not allowed to give up now! Fight for your love, goshdarnit! What kind of romantic hero are you?!"

Honestly, I'm so relieved that Savna stuck to her guns and all is well . . . for now, at least.

Also, does this story kind of remind anyone else of The Princess Bride at all?

[intl_incident]

Whew, I was so worried there for a minute! Seriously, Savna/Jaffaran is like, my One True Pairing on this whole site. And the way you just took the air out of the sails when Jaffaran brought her home, as much as had realistic consequences which I can appreciate, it still really got me right in the worry-feels. Like, "No fair, Radal! You can't just barge in demanding Savna back! She escaped, and as far as story rules go, that means she can do whatever she wants now! Go back to Arji, Grumpy McGroucherson!" But I don't think it was even that as much as it was the fact that even Jaffaran was worried and almost seemed resigned to the fact that Savna had to go back. Because then it's, "No, Jaffaran! You went out of your way to drag the lady here, you're not allowed to give up now! Fight for your love, goshdarnit! What kind of romantic hero are you?!"

Honestly, I'm so relieved that Savna stuck to her guns and all is well . . . for now, at least.

Also, does this story kind of remind anyone else of The Princess Bride at all?

Aww... Thanks, Gwendy -- I'm so glad you're enjoying the story and that I was able to create some dramatic tension for bit.  But like you said, the 'rules of storytelling' dictated that Savna had to be able to marry Jaffaran at some point.

I love the Princess Bride, btw, so anything that makes you think of that story from my story is quite a flattering comparison.  Our Farm Boy should get his princess soon.  I got called out of town on an unexpected business trip, and my travel laptop is not really suited for gaming. So the next chapter will be up as soon as I get home this weekend!  I hear wedding bells! (Finally!)

[intl_incident]

Savna and Jaffaran didn't marry immediately, of course.  There were plans to be made first.  And more importantly, Jaffaran was occupied with my mother and the senior scholars, going over his research and explaining what he'd found in the Pembina lands. 



Nella and I were put in charge of familiarizing Savna with her new family, and of finding a place for her to fit in.  Part of that task included bringing her before the family's elders, who needed to approve the marriage.  Normally this was a mere formality, but in Savna's case it was a more serious discussion.  Though they liked Savna herself, they were not pleased by the break with tradition, nor the thought of Jaffaran's eventual children being only half den'Rheyls.  It was true that technically Savna was den'Rhelys now as well, but we all knew what the elders meant:  that Jaffaran and Savna's children would likely only have half of the skills and gifts that came with being part of our family, and it would take generations to repair that damage to our genetic heritage.   



They said it was unusual, and that it was unwise. My uncle lectured my father about the problem with the younger generation, and about my brother's poor judgement and lack of responsibility.  My aunts questioned Savna about her loyalties to her former family, and her reasons for marrying Jaffaran.  Eventually, though, they had no strong reason to object to the marriage, and so they approved it, and wished good fortune to the bride and groom.

All that was left was to consult one of the scholars about the best day for the wedding, and for Nella and I to help Savna choose her dress.



The day of the wedding dawned even brighter and sunnier than usual, and as the staff busied themselves carrying flowers to the garden, or making treats for the party that would follow, Nella and I were helping Savna get ready for the ceremony.  My mother and father were in Jaffaran's room, doing the same for him.



"You look beautiful," my sister said.

But I could see that something was troubling Savna as she looked in the mirror and ran a finger over the straps of her gown.  "Is someting not right?  Are they too tight?"

"No no," Savna said quickly, dropping her hands away from the dress.  "Everything is lovely. More than I could have hoped.  The silk... your family's jewels..."

"They're your family's jewels now too," I replied.

"I know," she said with a smile. And as she gazed once more at her reflection, toying with the fabric of the dress that looked nothing like a Pembina gown, I thought I knew the problem.
 
"You can be part of our family and still miss your own," I told her with a reassuring hug. She hugged me back, and this time her smile was more purely happy.



"And you're really sure about this?" my father asked for what had to have been the hundredth time. "It's possible for a young man to be mistaken about these things. To think he's in love when he's not.  Love comes when you really know a woman, not when you've just met her, and--

"Mithren, stop," my mother said quietly.  She was smiling as she fastened the buckle at the back of my brother's ceremonial armor.  She was, after all, the woman my father knew best and loved most.  "Our son knows his mind."

"Well, but--"

"It's too late, father."  Jaffaran interrupted, pulling away from my mother's fussing. "I was in love with her from the moment I met her.  Whenever I'm asleep, I dream about her. Whenever I'm not with her, I wonder where she is. My soul is is in her wake, and I'll be pulled along behind no matter where she goes. There's no breaking free of it now."

My father harrumphed, but it was more for show than anything else.  And as they all stepped out to the hall on their way to the wedding, he took hold of my mother's hand, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

The ceremony took place in our family's garden, the site of all of the weddings that anyone could remember.  The breeze was blowing gently over the water, so that the palm branches cast moving shadows on the manicured lawn and the scent of flowers was carried to all of the family and scholars who had come to watch.  Savna's veil blew out behind her as one of the senior scholars escorted her to the table where my brother waited with our parents.



As my brother took hold of her hands, they repeated the traditional words that would join them together, calling on the sun and stars to witness their love for one another and their intention to marry.  My brother's voice was strong and confident.  Savna's words caught in her throat for a moment as she blinked back tears of happiness. And then my mother was calling them to the table to share a drink from the same cup and finish the ceremony.



"Lady Savna, newest daughter of the den'Rhelys, have you come here to pledge your love and your life to my son, and to bind yourself to him as his wife?"

"I have," Savna replied, taking a sip of the golden wine.



"Lord Jaffaran, heir of the den'Rhelys, have you come here to pledge your love and your life to Lady Savna, and to bind yourself to her as her husband?"

"I have," said Jaffaran, taking the cup from Savna and finishing the wine.



My mother waited until he set the cup back onto the table and then announced in a clear, loud voice for all of the garden to hear: "With that, it is done. The sun and stars bear witness that you are husband and wife. May you have good fortune for all of your days."

As the guests applauded their approval and bells rang out from the towers of our home, Jaffaran took hold of his bride, both of them laughing with pure joy, and sealed the words with a kiss.  It was as perfect a day as I had ever seen, and more perfect than any since.

[intl_incident]

The wedding was a welcome distraction, but as soon as it was over, we were back at the task of trying to determine what was causing the appearance of the root from beyond The Gate.  I could see that my mother and the other scholars were very concerned by the reports that Jaffaran had brought back, even to the point of testing the locks on The Gate -- locks which had been untouched for thousands of years, and which had been crafted by our ancestors to withstand any conceivable force from the other side. 
 


They found no flaw in the mechanism or magic that sealed The Gate, but posted a scholar there day and night to monitor it and to report any change in the room, no matter how slight.  My sister and I were dispatched to visit to our old postings with the Nelayan and the jah'Itan, this time to look for any evidence that the same power -- whatever it was -- was making inroads into their lands, or affecting any of the other great families.
 

 
We found nothing.  My sister reported that the Nelayan community was as peaceful and simple as always, with no evidence of any disruption, no sign of a root or any other incursion from beyond The Gate, and no change in any of the people or the environment. 
 

 
For my part, I found the jah'Itan to be largely unchanged as well, though they had numerous questions and concerns about the stories they had heard of Jaffaran's time with the Pembina, and about his marriage to Savna.  Their lands were between our hills and the Pembina's peninsula, and so they had already been accused by Lord Radal of aiding in the abduction of his daughter, simply because Jaffaran and Savna had ridden along their trails.  They were especially worried now that the Pembina had started to patrol the borders of their lands with archers and mounted scouts.  There hadn't been soldiers on Ajri for generations, and so the jah'Itan were understandably concerned.
 

 
The Pembina, as was expected, refused to let any of our family onto their lands, and even scholars who had originally come from the Pembina as children were chased away from the ruins by armed guards when they tried to slip over unnoticed to monitor the root.
 

 
We had to resort to other methods of surveillance to see what was going on.  My mother was able to keep track of the growth of the root by using magical tools and techniques passed down from our predecessors, but only she had the ability to manipulate the old crystal viewing stones as needed. My siblings and I didn’t yet have the skill to be able to see as far or as clearly as she could, especially given the need to avoid detection by the root, and the older generations didn’t have the necessary fortitude anymore. The process was a taxing one, and left my mother exhausted each time she conjured up a view of the ruins.



While my mother rested between viewing sessions and while Nella and I were at our old postings, Jaffaran spent his time analyzing the information my mother and the other observers had acquired.  Our libraries contained diagrams and descriptions of various forms the forces on the other side of The Gate had tried to take in years past. There was a whole catalog of the shapes and colors that had been seen in previous roots, and it was vital that we determine which ones were closest to what we were seeing now so that we knew how to destroy it.  We had to know which tools would were needed for this particular job, or we would be as helpless as one of the jah’Itan trying to stitch a dress with a blade of grass instead of a needle.

So far, Jaffaran’s research had been nothing but frustration. The color of the root seemed to indicate that it was an extension of Galar, one of the weaker forces that was primarily associated with disease and death.  But normally, Galar would appear as multiple small and weak roots that were easily detectable because they would kill nearby vegetation.  The shape of this root looked like the spirals normally seen with Cliste, the force that embodied deviousness and deceit.  And this root, which now looked to be twice as large as when Jaffaran and Savna had left the Peninsula, seemed to be powerful enough to hide itself for years, and to affect the minds of a entire great house.   That was power that had only ever been detected in roots associated with Tirna, the force of domination, subjugation, and other negative types of leadership.  It was perplexing to say the least, and Jaffaran reportedly looked almost as tired as my mother, after long days and nights spent studying old texts in his study.



He was there again the night that Savna returned from another meeting with the elders.  Shaking her head at the sight of his bowed shoulders, she left him to his work while she bathed and changed into her sleepwear, but when he still showed no sign of coming to bed, she approached him with a gentle touch.  “The books have been there for thousands of years,” she said softly. “They will be there in the morning.”

Jaffaran tilted his head back to look at her, sliding his chair away from the desk.  “And so will the root,” he replied pragmatically.  “Which is why I need to keep at this.”



Savna simply brushed my brother’s thick hair back from his forehead, then leaned down and kissed his brow. “Have you eaten dinner? I can call for some fruit and bread.”

“After I finish this,” Jaffaran said, starting to turn back to the hefty tome in front of him. “Just a few more pages first, then—“

Savna stood up and took my brother’s hands, tugging on them to pull him around so that he could stand up. “In a moment,” she said. “I need to tell you something first, husband.”

“Well all right then, wife,” Jaffaran said with an affectionate, indulgent smile.  The novelty of their new titles hadn’t worn off; nor had their complete devotion to one another.  He dropped his pencil to the desk, and stretched his stiff shoulders before following Savna out to the middle of the room, where she reached up to put her arms around his neck. 



“I spoke to your grandmother and your uncle today,” she said after a quick caress.  “Your Uncle Granger.”

“Mmm hmm,” Jaffaran replied absently, his mind still elsewhere.  The significance had clearly escaped him for the moment, but my Uncle Granger was the family member in charge of setting the dates for births and deaths.  Like everything else on Ajri, these basic functions were largely within our complete control thanks to the magic we used to manipulate our nature and the nature of the world around us, and so when a young den’Rhelys woman was pregnant or an elder had decided they were ready to move on to the next life, my Uncle Granger would schedule the proper ceremonies and arrange for the proper rituals, and…

“Wait.  Did you say Uncle Granger?”  The light was slowly dawning in my brother’s fatigue-addled brain.



“Mmm hmm,” Savna said back, mimicking his earlier response.  She couldn’t contain her smile as she leaned in and whispered to him that they were scheduled to meet their first child in just over a week. 



Then she added, with sly smile and a deliberately casual toss of her head, “So that’s my mundane news for the day.  Shall I call for that fruit and bread now?”

Jaffaran caught her around the waist with a laugh at her flippancy.  “I love you,” he said simply. “And more than fruit and bread, what I want most right now is to climb into bed with you, and sleep until morning.  The books,” he added, “will still be there tomorrow.”

The two of them retired to Jaffaran’s giant oak bed, with the giant oak horses, which he’d commissioned from her family’s workshops years before he’d ever met her.  Though he said he wanted to sleep, instead they talked for hours, about all of the dreams and fears that all parents have, and the specific dreams and fears that they had for their child. 



Eventually, as the sun was coming up, they finally  fell asleep in each other’s arms, their smiles as full of hope and promise as the start of any new day or the start of any new life.  No one could yet foresee, at that point in time, where such hope and promise would actually lead.

[intl_incident]

It will be interesting to see how this new, controversial marriage influences the dynamics between the people in Ajri. Having a nooboo that is heir of the den'Rhelys family but only possesses half of their abilities seems like it will raise several issues. Then again, their nooboo may master both Pembina and den'Rhelys abilities, which also disturbs the balance... I can't wait to read future updates!

You won't have long to wait, as you can probably tell from the last post (above this one, if any of you missed it, and came straight to the 'most recent post.')  Nooboo incoming soon, and problems as well.

[Rhoxi]

Wow. Just: WOW!! How have I missed noticing this incredibly epic story for so long?! I have stayed up long past my usual "reading hour" to read this beginning to end. It's . . . well, I knew you were a great builder. But now I also know that you're great with poses, screenshots, and writing too! This is a fantastic story, and I am way too eager to find out what happens next.

Call me a pessimist, but I don't have high hopes for the results of Jaffaran and Savna's marriage. This happiness seems but a prelude to a more tragic scenario. It would be too simple to just defy tradition and live all happy and willy-nilly. Something bad is clearly brewing!

Again, I am in awe. Bookmarking, and count me in as another devoted follower!

[Gwendy]

Call me a pessimist, but I don't have high hopes for the results of Jaffaran and Savna's marriage. This happiness seems but a prelude to a more tragic scenario. It would be too simple to just defy tradition and live all happy and willy-nilly. Something bad is clearly brewing!

But . . . but True Love is the greatest power of all, Rhoxi! No matter what happens, they just have to pull through! D:

(And I full-heartedly agree with your statements that Intl-Incident is just about the bestest ever at everything. Seriously, I wish she'd write a tutorial on how to be as awesome, or something. Or at least how she comes up with her names.)

[Pam]

Well, I have to agree with the others.  This is simply fabulous!  I'm going to feature this story on our Facebook page. 

[intl_incident]

Oh my gosh -- thanks to all three of you, Pam, Rhoxi and Gwendy!  This was really nice to see when I checked for messages this morning, and it means a lot coming from three amazingly talented, veteran story writers like you.

I noted in the first post that this was my first ever story, and to be honest I wasn't sure I would either enjoy it or be very good at it.  It really started out (as everything does with me) as an excuse for more building.  I had a lot of fun building for ombradellarosa's Bachelorette story, trying to make sets and buildings to fit the characters/theme/story, and so I thought I'd give it a whirl on my own.  I am now amazed at how much fun I am having.

I am also even more in awe than I previously was at how FAST some of you are able to produce chapter after chapter for your stories.  Seriously, how do you do that?  I work at a snail's pace, and actual real life work keeps getting in the way.  Speaking of moving forward...

Call me a pessimist, but I don't have high hopes for the results of Jaffaran and Savna's marriage. This happiness seems but a prelude to a more tragic scenario. It would be too simple to just defy tradition and live all happy and willy-nilly. Something bad is clearly brewing!

But . . . but True Love is the greatest power of all, Rhoxi! No matter what happens, they just have to pull through! D:

Yeah, sorry Gwendy, but I have been dropping hints for a while that things are not going to turn out 100% well for our happy couple.  I mean, it is true love, which doesn't happen every day, and true love may be the greatest thing in the world (except for a nice MLT – mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe), but quite often it's also the prelude to disastrous consequences. For never was a story of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo.  Not saying Jaff and Savna will mistake one or the other for dead and then poison and/or stab themselves with misguided grief in some over-contrived scene in a tomb or anything... but not saying they won't.   Sometimes things are darkest just before dawn.  You'll have to wait and see if omnia vincit amor! (And to see if I can cram any other literary references into one paragraph!)

(And I full-heartedly agree with your statements that Intl-Incident is just about the bestest ever at everything. Seriously, I wish she'd write a tutorial on how to be as awesome, or something. Or at least how she comes up with her names.)

Well, there are much better qualified people on here to write tutorials on generally being awesome, but I can at least oblige you on the names.  The secrets are Google Translate and a prior history of Internet-based roleplaying. For the names of the families, I just plugged some basic words like 'fisherman,' or 'builder' into Google, and then poked around in various island languages until I found words I liked.  For the names of the 'forces' in the last chapter, I translated words like 'disease' and 'trick' (or something similar) into Irish.  I used to do the same thing when I played Star Wars games online -- for example, one of my old characters lived on a water-based planet called Zheglash, which is roughly how an American would pronounce zeglarz, which is Polish for 'sailor.'  That has kind of a history with Star Wars itself, actually.  When C3PO asks if Jabba is at home, he says something that sounds remarkably like "Tutaj mieszka Jabba du Hutt?"  which is also Polish.

Anyway, for most of the first names, I either used names of prior characters I or my friends had on old online roleplaying games (Nellaska, Meridel, Stellan, Granger...) or I just made things up. For the ones I just made up, I think the trick is that I travel a LOT for work, and so I hear a lot of foreign languages spoken all of the time.  And eventually I kind of developed an ear for what a particular language would sound like, or what some common non-English syllables or sounds might be. I lived in Nepal for two years, for example, and when I say Savna or Jaffaran's name in my head, it sounds like something I could imagine hearing on the street there.

Again, thanks to all three of you for the nice comments -- you really made my day!

[intl_incident]

All of the great houses of Ajri had a space somewhere in their lands that was used for the ceremonies of birth and death and other important rituals.   We made the potions for the ceremonies, and imbued with magic the charms or orbs or bowls or other artifacts used in each of the great houses. But the chambers themselves were designed by each family to reflect their own traditions and talents.



I had seen the room that the jah'Itan used when I was posted there.  As might be expected, given their love of beautiful fabrics and gems, it was an ornate chamber lined with tapestries depicting scenes of the sun and stars.  Each of the known constellations was embroidered in silken thread and then highlighted with colored jewels.  The pillars of the room represented the surrounding starfield, which old legends told us were the souls of our ancestors.   They were smooth lapis of the very deepest blue, set with thousands of tiny diamonds that glimmered in the candlelight. 



Nella told me that the Nelayan held their ceremonies outdoors, in a tall grove of palms that formed a canopy over a flat beach, where before each ritual one of the house elders drew the required glyphs and symbols on the ground with colored sand.    It was a fitting place and a fitting method for the Nelayan, who found pleasure in nothing so much as nature, and who believed that the only permanent mark we should leave on the world should be the light of our eventual star in the heavens.



I'm sure the Pembina had a similarly beautiful space set aside for their family's important days.  I'm sure it was full of gilded wood carvings and complex stonework, and all of the other arts that Savna's family was known for.  I'm sure that she, like her brothers and her cousins and her distant relations, had always assumed she would stand in it at some point, either with a husband, for a child, or alone, as an elder.

But instead, she found herself in the ceremonial chamber of the den'Rhelys, which was a deceptively simple white room with a deceptively blank white floor.    If not for the ancient golden frieze that showed a personification of the sun crossing the sky, or for the small platform holding an orb of the sun and moon, it would look like an empty storage chamber, waiting to be filled with books or boxes.



But when someone came to the chamber for a ritual and stepped onto the marble, the simple white stone rippled away like water, revealing a star map so dark and so deep that it looked endless.   Savna, unprepared for the effect, stumbled as the floor fell away, made dizzy by the spectacle.



Jaffaran caught her with a steadying grip, smiling at her expression of wonder as the shock of the transition wore away and she took a tentative step out into the field of stars.   "It's beautiful," she whispered.  "How..."  But she stopped before the question was fully formed, and shook her head instead.  It was another example of the magic our family could craft, and that she would never be able to copy.  It was another reminder that their child might never wield the same power.  If there was a moment of regret or hesitation reflected in her rueful expression, it was banished by Jaffaran, who led her to the potions my uncle had put in place for them. 

"Come," he said softly.  "Let's meet her, shall we?"

The troubled lines disappeared from Savna's expression, replaced by the sort of glowing expectation more suitable for the day. She took hold of the glass bottle holding her potion, then shared a nervous but eager smile with her husband.  He nodded back, and they both lifted the bottles to their lips at the same time. 



The magic was already starting to take hold as they stepped to their designated places on the large, glowing glyph, bowing to the center sun. 
 

 
Their feet lifted from the floor as the magic grew stronger, pulling energy from them both to create the vortex where their child would appear.   Though the magic itself was complex, the process was simple -- my brother and Savna were already physically combined in the child that was inside her womb; the magic would take that child from her and fill it with a combination of their mental traits and abilities. 
 

 
The magic pulled basic memories and bits of knowledge from each parent -- memories and knowledge that in older times would have passed along as the child aged up from a helpless infant. It pulled basic skills like walking and talking.  It pulled pieces of the specialized functions that were the hereditary gift of each family. It bound these parts from both parents into a combined child, and then accelerated the child's growth to an age where it could begin to function on its own.
 

 
In Jaffaran and Savna's case, when it was done, there was a perfectly formed, perfectly articulate, and very curious little girl standing on the center sun, looking back at them with eyes that were both strange and yet familiar, as she turned from one to the other. "Mother," she said as she saw Savna.  "And father."
 
They wrapped her in pale golden silk to take her from the chamber, pausing first to wrap her in the warmth of their arms, to name her Ajiana after the sweet golden flowers of Savna's home peninsula, and to tell her that they would love her until the stars burned out and the skies went dark.
 


A few of my cousins helped Savna to tie her new daughter's hair into a traditional den'Rhelys style, and they dressed her in traditional den'Rhelys clothes. 



I couldn't help but smile at the scene when Jaffaran and Savna brought her to the garden to present her to the household.  Everyone had gathered to see what she would look like -- this unheard of combination of two houses.  But Ajiana looked no different than any other of the den'Rhelys children we'd seen over the years. Jaffaran and Savna, smiling with pride as they looked to my mother and father for approval and encouraged their daughter forward into the strange new world, were no different than any other parents.



And my father, who had remained disappointed by Jaffaran's choice of a spouse right up until that very moment -- who had continued to use an apologetic tone when discussing the matter with the elders, or with anyone from the other houses -- was completely and irretrievably won over by the sound of Ajiana's tiny voice piping "Grandfather!" as she ran forward to throw her arms around his neck.  He rested a protective hand on her hair, finally gave Jaffaran a nod of approval, and never again questioned the wisdom of the marriage.

[Rhoxi]

Aw, very sweet that even old gramps is approving! The importance of the parent's contributions/talents to the child makes more sense now that I know the birthing process is itself magical. I mean, I just accepted the sci-fi marriage for genetics things before, but it being a mystical birth ties in well with that idea. The jah'Itan sanctuary, in particular, is gorgeous!

As for how fast some of us update, well, we don't exactly set up elaborate poses and sets like you do. You know, if you wanted to write a little guide about what mods you use and how you get these poses, I for one, would be curious to read it. It's really extraordinary.

[intl_incident]

Aw, very sweet that even old gramps is approving! The importance of the parent's contributions/talents to the child makes more sense now that I know the birthing process is itself magical. I mean, I just accepted the sci-fi marriage for genetics things before, but it being a mystical birth ties in well with that idea. The jah'Itan sanctuary, in particular, is gorgeous!

As for how fast some of us update, well, we don't exactly set up elaborate poses and sets like you do. You know, if you wanted to write a little guide about what mods you use and how you get these poses, I for one, would be curious to read it. It's really extraordinary.

Ha ha, yeah, the birth is magic mostly because I hate dealing with babies and toddlers, and because the plot wouldn't have waited for Ajiana to age up.   But it does work well with the rest of the story, too.

I'm glad you like the jah'Itan décor-- I also like it the best of all three. 

I'll definitely consider writing up a tutorial.  It's not particularly complicated, from a mod or technical standpoint.  It's really just a lot of use of pose player and the OMSP.  The time consuming or complicated part of it is trying to figure out which poses from different sets might work in different scenes, and then occasionally using Photoshop to mash two poses together -- like in the scene where Radal, Stellan and Torin are on horseback in the courtyard.  There aren't a lot of horseback poses that use gestures and facial expressions, so I took two shots for each scene -- one with the characters on horseback, and one with the characters posed however I wanted their upper bodies to look, moved into place with an OMSP.  Then I layered them in Photoshop and erased the legs of the standing poses where they were sticking through the horses.

Anyway,  I'll see if there are any other little tips and tricks I can cobble together for a post or two.

Speaking of posts... here comes the next installment of the story!

[intl_incident]

Ajiana continued to charm everyone around her.  In her classes she was vivacious, quick to learn, and eager to please.



Jaffaran spent every minute he could with her when he was free of his research, and it was a delight to all of us to see how he'd changed.  When he had left for the Pembina's homelands it had been clear my parents thought he was ready for the responsibility they were giving him, but to me, he had still seemed like the same little brother I had always known, with his lopsided smile and quick laughter.  Now he was a husband and father, and his research into the current root was as serious a matter as there could be.

Of course, he still found time to laugh.



Savna, on the other hand, was struggling.  She had nothing to do in our home -- she had worked all of her life in the craft rooms of her own family, and now she had no scheduled tasks to fill her days. She loved her daughter, of course, and she was blissfully happy with Jaffaran.  But Ajiana's upbringing in our home was very different than Savna's had been with the Pembina.  I know she felt excluded from much of it, and lonely without her own parents and siblings.   More than once, I saw her looking with sadness and a touch of envy as Jaffaran and Ajiana played with Nellaska and I in the pool, or Jaffaran and my mother taught her daughter the basics of alchemy. 



It was especially evident when my father doted on his granddaughter. The more Jaffaran shared with Savna about the forces that were affecting her old home, and especially the father she had once adored, the more she worried about her family and longed for news about their well being. 



We were still working, of course, to put an end to those forces and their effects.  But it was getting harder and harder without being able to study the root directly.  Jaffaran had found all of the information he could in the books and scrolls he'd dug out of the very depths of our library, and he had developed a theory about what was happening.  But the last time my mother had tried to use the seeing stone, it had nearly ended in disaster. 



"Lady Ybeline!"
"Catch hold of her! Be careful!"
"Get the physician. And call for Lord Mithren!"



Our family's physician was able to heal my mother's physical injuries -- her hands and face had been burned when the stone had exploded with magic -- but she tossed and turned throughout the afternoon, moaning from time to time, or calling out incoherently.  We waited at her beside, trying to comfort her, and each other, as best we could.



When she finally woke, late into the evening, she grabbed hold of my brother's hand with a vice-like grip.

"They know," she said frantically. "They know we're watching them. They're trying... they're trying..." 



Her eyes rolled back as her shoulders stiffened and her head fell once more to the pillow. Jaffaran darted out of the way so that one of the physicians could move closer and hold a potion to my mother's lips.

As the glowing liquid eased my mother into a quiet, restorative sleep, the healers bustled around to cover her with blankets and began to remove the pins and jewels from her hair.  "You should eat," they said to my father, moving him gently toward the door. "She'll sleep through the night now, and all will be well in the morning. Let us get her comfortable."

My father hesitated, but Jaffaran took over steering him toward the dining room, and the two of them shared a cold supper of fish and rice. They barely spoke as the staff placed plates and glasses on the table.  Both were lost in their own thoughts, and both were worn out by the events of the day. 

It was Jaffaran who finally spoke:  "She said 'they.'"



"Hmm?"  My father turned toward him with halfhearted interest.

"She said they knew we were watching them.  If she'd meant a single root, she would have said 'it,' not they."

"Your mother has been unconscious for most of the day. I think we can forgive her a few grammatical errors."

"No no," Jaffaran said, rubbing at his forehead. "That's not what I mean.  I've been thinking that the more I've looked into this root, the more I think it's a hybrid of some kind.  A combination of a number of different forces."

"Can't be," my father said flatly, poking at his dinner. "Every root is tied to a single force."

"Every root so far has been, yes," Jaffaran replied. "But this root isn't like any of the others in any of the histories.  It's a bit like some of them, and a bit like others -- like it's taking the strongest parts of each.  We may not have seen something like this before, but that doesn't mean it can't happen now."

"Hmm," my father said again. It didn't take a scholar to recognize the truth in Jaffaran's observation.  "That would be a problem, given that we've got no access to the Peninsula to either test your theory or combat whatever's there.  And I'll not have your mother put herself in danger again.  She could have been killed.  Not to mention the danger the Pembina are in, or the entire island for that matter, all because Lord Radal holds a grudge against--"

My father stopped midsentence.  Jaffaran had fallen silent, gazing down at the table with a guilty sort of frown.

"I'm sorry," my brother said quietly. "I never intended for any of this to happen."

"No," my father said gently, laying a hand on Jaffan's sleeve. "I know you didn't, son. And you must never think that I believe any of this is your fault."



"But some of it is, isn't it?" Jaffaran asked. "If I'd stayed there, if I'd never left with Savna..."

"Then whatever force is behind that root would have found another way to stop us from interfering with its plans.  It's uncommonly strong, Jaffaran.  You know that -- you're the one who reported it was able to control the entire region.  Make no mistake, you did not cause any of this evil.  It may be making use of your actions, but you took Savna out of a very bad situation, both for her own good and because you love her.  Nothing evil comes from love."

Jaffaran rallied up a small smile of thanks for my father's reassurance. "That may be," he allowed. "But regardless, we need to find a way to reconcile with Lord Radal, and to get access to the Peninsula.  If we don't do something soon, we may as well just open the Gate ourselves."

"Shh," my father held up a hand to ward off my brother's reckless words. "Don't speak like that. We'll find a way.  We always do.  And in this case... you and Savna may have a very good reason for the Pembina to want to reconcile."