“I know,” Atres grins, “She expects the same kind of honesty that she gives. I tried to tell Argonath that he’d never be able to recruit a paladin because of the oaths. I told her that I understand what she is, and I meant that. I’ve had to explain to Argonath and Korek what those oaths mean. They didn’t believe me. I take it that they came to talk to you?”
“They did,” Benger nods, “I ended up reciting the oaths for them, and we talked a bit about what they mean and what the process is for atoning when you break one. How our powers function, or don’t, until that atonement is complete.”
“I tried to tell them that her bond to her new Goddess is so strong so soon after her consecration because she’d been living like that even while godless,” Atres says, “I don’t know that they quite believe me, but I know this to be true. She’s got no serious past sins to expunge, so this new bond is forming rapidly for her, replacing the bond she had with her old god. If there were a burden of sin there, it would slow the process down, maybe even force her to atone for things she’d done while she was godless.”
“It also probably doesn’t hurt,” Benger shrugs, “that the Goddess says that Nia has an affinity for her magic.”
“I told Korek she was a unicorn,” Atres grins, “and that is perhaps more accurate than I realized.”
Benger gestures for him to explain. “One of a kind. Magical. Precious.” Benger laughs and nods.
“Come on,” Benger says, “She’s been waiting for us.”
“I think my biggest question is just how powerful she was under her old god,” Atres muses following behind Benger, “That would explain why she was looking for a new god.”
Atres follows Benger into the woods to a clearing and comes to a halt. Korek and Argonath are already gone, moving on to the next fair. Emlyn is already there, blindfolded. He watches as she stands there, a blade in each hand, and each one spinning opposite the other. Then he sees both blades stop and start to spin in the other direction, right and left, still opposite of each other. This seems to be part of her warmup routine.
After another few moments of this, Emlyn pulls her blindfold off. “I can’t imagine why you sent those two here to talk to me about that, of all things.” Emlyn frowns at him. “I’m not sure which of the three of us was the most uncomfortable.”
Atres moves to stand in front of Emlyn, “I’m willing to risk your wrath, your discomfort, or whatever else I have to risk, so I can make sure that you know that I will give you the same honesty you give me. You must know that I’m telling you the truth. That’s the foundation of trust. You’re much too important for me to leave anything to chance. If that means you have to have an uncomfortable discussion, then so be it.”
“It’s been a bit shocking,” Emlyn nods, “I didn’t exactly wake up this morning planning to discuss conception with two men I barely know. I’ve been around enough farm animals to grasp the general mechanics. Korek really didn’t need to explain that part.”
Benger makes a tactical retreat, choking on his laughter.
Atres crosses his arms and regards Emlyn, “Plenty of men would lie to you or try to trick you, simply because you are… inexperienced. I’ve promised you that you’re safe with me. If it takes making you a bit uncomfortable to make sure that you know that I’m not lying to you or trying to trick you or looking to take advantage of your lack of experience, then I’ll make you uncomfortable.”
Emlyn is blushing and staring at her toes.
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“Gods above! You are even more delectable when you blush,” Atres grins. “I want you to know that I’ve been candid with you. If we’re going to have a lifetime together, the foundation for that starts now. Now, do you have any questions that you want to ask me?”
“Will we be able to have children when the time comes for that?” Emlyn asks, “It seemed like that might be… problematic.”
“It takes some planning and some preparation,” Atres shrugs, “but plenty of the dragon-blooded have large families. I doubt that it will be much of an issue. I take it this has to do with the whole idea of a founding sire?”
Mutely and blushing furiously, Emlyn nods, “The way that they explained it, it sounded like… it might not be possible.”
“If it were that much of an issue, there wouldn’t be any dragon-blooded left,” Atres laughs, “I’m here at this fair because Harcin’s wife went into labor a few days early, and he’s Valkis. Plenty of the families back in Dotara are as large as the one you grew up in.”
To his surprise, Emlyn heaves a huge sigh of relief.
Curious Atres steps closer and pulls her into his chest, “Hush, now. When the time comes for that, I’ll gladly do my part. Tell me, what had you worried?”
“I thought… I thought I was going to have to go find someone… more suitable.” Emlyn stammers.
“To my knowledge, I’ve never gotten anyone pregnant,” Atres shrugs, “Then again, I’ve never tried to either. I don’t anticipate it being a problem. No more than I would anticipate you having issues in that regard.”
Emlyn mulls this over for a bit and sighs again, leaning into the comfort he offers.
Atres finally asks, “Do you still want to train today?”
From against his chest, he hears her say, “I need to train today.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Atres says and releases her, kissing her forehead.
More comfortable dealing with her well-known practice pattern, Emlyn steps away and pulls her blindfold back on. She turns to face him and salutes him, before launching into a practice pattern that Atres only recognizes parts of. Benger strolls up next to Atres, looking incredibly amused.
“She’s had an interesting morning,” Benger comments dryly.
Atres shrugs, “I’d rather have had our clan’s shaman, Sothra, explain all that to her, but Sothra’s not here. I don’t want to leave any room for her to doubt or wonder. I’d make her uncomfortable a thousand times if it means she knows she can trust what I tell her.”
Benger considers this and nods, “I think you made the right decision. We’ll see how she handles it. Probably best to drop it and move on, for now.”
After a few minutes, Emlyn stops and whips off her blindfold.
“Don’t just stand there,” she grins, “I’m not some display piece. Get your weapons and get over here. You can start working through this with me.”
She directs Benger in using his shield instead of her second blade while Atres watches.
“How do you fight?” she asks.
“The fighting I do is normally in closer quarters, indoors in things like stairwells.” He gestures to a rapier and a dagger.
“That won’t do at all,” Emlyn frowns, “You’re going to hate this, but there’s a much more effective combination. I’m not as good with it as I am with my blades, but I think I’m good enough to teach you at least the basics and a bit more besides. Master Yanthus can probably teach you anything else you might need to know. I don’t have the right style of blade here, but my daggers will do for an approximation. The style of blade I have in mind is longer than my daggers, but shorter than my swords, and has more of a handguard than my daggers. When we get back to Harito, I’ll sketch them out and see if our smiths can’t make them. They’re much more effective than that rapier, and I think, once you get used to them, you’ll find them easier to deal with in close quarters. They’re stout enough to punch through most armor, if you put some force behind the blow and sharp enough to mince an opponent.”
Atres looks at her skeptically, but shrugs, deciding to try it at least.
“I’m not criticizing,” Emlyn says with a small smile, “but I happen to like you, quite a lot, in case you hadn’t noticed. If you’re going to put yourself in danger defending king and kingdom, I will do my best to minimize that danger.”
Reaching down, she tugs on what he thought were just pulls for her knee-high boots and extracts two large, wicked-looking daggers.
Atres takes them from her and hefts them for balance.
“These are well made,” Atres comments, “Where did you get these?”
“Our Temple smiths made them,” Emlyn explains, “We’ve been testing out various metals trying to replicate my blades, and this is as close as we’ve gotten so far.”
Emlyn begins guiding Benger and Atres through one of her most basic practice patterns, and Atres soon realizes that it’s meant to deal with multiple opponents.
Once they’ve been through the practice pattern a couple of times, Emlyn turns to them, “We’ve been doing this rather slowly since you’re just learning the pattern, but let me show you the speed it should be at.”
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