13. Answering the Wind
Tuli was startled awake by a hand encircling her mouth, cutting off her instinctive question behind her own lips.  Oro was huddled over her head, visible as little more than a sillouette in the dim lamplight.  He put a finger over his lips as he leaned down, whispering directly into her ear, “Come with me.  Quietly.”
The Ferruda gave a quizzical look to his back as he moved away, stepping back into the dark hall ahead of them.  She noticed he had the spare lamp in his hand, and a match to light it.  Looking around the little room, Tuli was surprised to see everyone else peacefully asleep and safe, thinking some imminent danger had prompted him to wake her.  But if that were the case, surely he would have also roused Nayeli, and probably Sarahi, too.
Curious, but confident it was no threat that had made him fetch her, Tuli crawled out of her bedroll and followed him, letting her hand against the wall guide her into the dark and stepping very carefully until she saw the flare of the match and the lamp spring to life ahead of her.  “Whew!” she sighed quietly in relief, stepping into the light and adding in a whisper, “That was tense.  Is there something I can do for you?”
“Obviously,” the Rabbit rolled his eyes, motioning for her to follow him, “Or I wouldn’t waste my time taking you for a walk.”
Tuli smiled sheepishly and followed at the edge of the light, concerned both about being left in the dark and putting him to sleep by walking too close.  “Obviously,” she agreed, good-naturedly, “So...why are we going for a walk?  To where?”  He didn’t answer for at least a minute, and she began to think he was keeping it a secret for some reason.  She couldn’t imagine what that reason might be...but something deep in her heart became nervous at that.  The Rabbit’s reasons were rarely what others would call “good”.
“We’re going to answer the Wind,” he growled at last, softly.
Tuli stopped in her tracks for a second, then quickly moved back into the light.  “Already?” she asked in surprise, “You made a decision?  Um...will you tell me what it was?”
“Obviously,” the Rabbit repeated, this time with a sneer, “As soon as we get to where the Wind can hear us.  I don’t like repeating myself.”
“Right,” she nodded as if she’d known that all along, “Sorry.”
“Idiot,” Oro muttered, leading her on through the dark tunnels quietly for the remainder of the way.  It was a long walk, she thought, though easier now that she wasn’t carrying a backpack, and the narrow passage widened out into a much more comfortable cave after a short while.  Thinking back, if she remembered everything that had been said correctly, she realized they would probably keep going for at least another three or four hours...and again wondered why he hadn’t woken anyone else up for this.  They would certainly be waking up all on their own before the pair got back, and Nayeli, at least, would be worried about where they were.
But just as she was feeling tempted to point at least some of that out to him, her nose caught the scent of pine trees, and a faint chill in the air.  Almost before she realized it, they were standing on the mountainside, with open sky overhead and a view of the mountain sloping gently into the valley below.  The night was calm, and full of twinkling stars...if a bit cold, this high up on the mountain.  “Oh wow!” Tuli smiled, taking a deep breath of the fresh air, “That’s beautiful!  And closer than I thought!  The others will be so relieved to hear it when we get back.”
“Yeah,” Oro grunted flatly, setting the lamp on a rock and staring out over the horizon like he’d like to sever the sky from the ground with his sword.
Tuli inclined her head, smiling sweetly and waiting patiently for what he had promised on the way.  After a moment, her brows dipped like she wanted to frown, but her smile stayed easily.  “...It’s not a favorable answer, is it?” she prodded at last.
“Fusk the Wind,” he snarled, “I couldn’t trust the bitch if I wanted to.”
Tuli blinked, a little surprised by the finality of that answer.  “Why not?  You have a common enemy, kind of, and she even made a good-faith offering of me.  I mean...not the best offering to be had, I’m sure, but...”
“Yeah, about that,” the Rabbit began snidely, taking his hand off his sword finally and moving it instead to his belt, which he began slowly, pointedly unfastening, “This bitch said she favors you, right?  Loves you, even?  And yet she pushed you into my mouth knowing exactly how happy I’d have been to eat you, before the vows were blessed.  You tell me if that sounds like something you do to someone you ‘love’,” he sneered, “She never even told you her name...and lied to you when we put a point on it, made you think she was North, for the sake of deceiving us.”
She put her hands over her heart when he dropped his pants, confused, but somehow holding her ground.  He didn’t give her a chance to come to her senses before seizing the front of her dress, right between her breasts, and getting a similar grip at the small of her back with the other hand.  “Tuli,” he stared her hard in the eyes, sounding almost like he pitied her, “You’re not an offering.  You’re a sacrifice.  You’ll understand the difference by the time I’m done with you,” he warned, doubling her over as he tore the entire front off her dress with a firm yank, then pushed her to the ground...
She didn’t scream for a long time.  Optimistic and open-minded to a fault, more accepting of improper behaviors than it had ever been proper to be, Tuli took him as a wife takes an enthusiastic husband.  She thought he might be testing her in some way, when his skin began to eat her fur, and he bruised her face on the rocks.  Even so, it wasn’t until his fingertips started peeling her skin in long, bloody lines that she began to believe what was really happening...and even then, thinking herself aware of her place and worth in the world, she consigned herself to him.  Making no effort to escape, she fought only against the pain, struggling to hold him close while his demon reveled in her delicious defilement...
The battered Ferruda was near to unconscious when he kicked her off of him for the last time, and finally let her just lie in the cold dirt.  A storm had blown in while he abused her, announced by an ominous thunder.  Oro turned to the gathering clouds with a growl of his own.  “Did you think me some dumb animal, that I would like you if you fed me?  Fusk you, bitch!  The damned Matriarch respects me more than that!”  He crossed his arms over his chest, sneering defiance at the growing rush of the clouds.  “Yeah, you’d like me to think you strong, wouldn’t you?  And so what if you are?  It’s a fusking waste.  I hear you fought off all three of your siblings together, when the Order came for you...and then you fusking left them there with that god-devouring monster of a religion!  Did you even try to talk them over to your side, or drag them away with you?  Or did you just push them back into its mouth to save your own skin, like you tried to shove this one into mine?” he spat on Tuli’s cheek, “A coward, a liar, and a traitor...you are everything I loathe.  Fusk you.”
A gust of wind roared in his face, blowing dust into his eyes and ears, but he ignored that one.  It wasn’t South.  “Not that I’m surprised,” he growled at a more natural volume, more than confident now that she was hearing every word he spoke, “That’s the kind of world this is.  That’s why I’m going to eat it all, including you.  Hell, after this stunt, I might just hate you more than the Order itself, but I can’t stand against that one yet.”  Giving a narrow, judging look to the next gust rolling up the mountainside like an invisible snake, he added coldly, “You’d best go run to the Matriarch, and beg for her mercy while you still can...”
This one knocked him down, though he rolled over his own back and held his ground with toes and fingers dug into the dirt until it passed.  Grabbing Tuli by one wrist, he threw her into the lee of a larger rock, between it and the mountain’s face, as something more like a concentrated hurricane than a gust came barreling out of the sky, dragging the clouds down with it.  The Rabbit ran for the cave, barely outpacing the raging Wind to the entrance, and she poured in at his back with a vengeance.  There were voices in that gale, cursing and denying him, vowing vengeance for his mockery and the abuse of her favored child, promising to peel the skin from his flesh and the flesh from his bones with the sand of the salt-deserts when she caught him.  The Rabbit sprinted ahead of it, barely, deep into the tunnel where the light of stars and sun had never reached...
“Where have you been?!” Nayeli gasped when he came sliding into the little chamber where he’d left them, dusty and breathless and radiating self-satisfaction, “Where is Tuli?”
“Is that a storm?  Outside?” Kylan asked, ears perked at the faint sound of strong winds and distant thunder.
“We went to give my answer to the Wind,” the Rabbit chuckled, standing upright and holding himself proudly, “That’s her, regretting the question.”
Every eye widened.  Nayeli’s breath froze in her lungs.  She had to force it out in carefully measured words, assigned to her highest priority first.  “Oro.  Where is Tuli?”
“Oh, she’ll be glad to see you as soon as she can, I don’t doubt,” Oro answered vaguely, “Aaand...there, it’s done,” he sighed, relaxing his posture but retaining the superior smile.
Nayeli noted his state of undress, and the fact that his right ear was conspicuously shorter than usual, and spotted the tendril of Gorgorond trailing off from his heel into the dark in the direction he’d come from, thin as a thread.  “Oh merciful Saints, Oro, what have you done?” she whispered, though a fearful suspicion had already crept into her thoughts.  She had seen him set a trap like this once before, in dark sewers where a Cult had made its alter, and were used to walking the passages without light to avoid being followed.
His bemused snort answered before he’d even opened his mouth.  “Today, I have eaten a Wind.”
“...Oro,” Nayeli hissed through clenched teeth, her hands now clutched tight in front of her heart, “Tuli...?”
He sighed, rolling his eyes like she was spoiling his fun...which, clearly, she was.  “This way,” he growled, snatching up the absent Ferruda’s pack himself, “She’ll be fine until we get there.  Stop worrying.”  Those words, coming from him, where naturally a great cause for worry to Nayeli.  Her one reassurance was that Tuli was obviously still alive, or Oro would not have been able to return to gloat to them.
About a hundred yards up the tunnel they encountered a wall: a thin, scarlet membrane of Gorgorond, stretched across the entire tunnel, sealing it off.  Oro pushed his hand against it as it came within reach, and it released from the rock with a snap to wrap around his body again.  His right ear stretched back out to match the left.
“What was that?” Kylan blinked, waving his own hand carefully in front of him as if worried about encountering some lingering part of it.
Oro just chuckled.  Nayeli answered in an oddly dejected tone, “A trap.  Easy enough to spot with a light, but in this darkness it would have been nigh invisible: a tunnel-wide entrance to Gorgorond’s maw,” she shuddered, “And in these tight quarters...she would have had no choice but to keep driving headlong down the throat, even if she had seen it coming.”
“She couldn’t just turn back?” Kylan asked.
Nayeli shook her head, and continued slowly, as though trying to distract herself with the telling, “The Winds are creatures of motion.  If they cannot move, they die.  Even the brief pause that would be required to double-back on themselves would be deadly.  For that reason, all Winds are wary of caves and confined places.  The North Wind was almost lost to us once, when she got trapped in a hollow beneath a glacier.  Fortunately, she is the smallest of the Winds, and had just enough room to maneuver to keep herself alive.  We did not feel her cool breath again for over fifty years.”
“So that was your answer to her?” Sarahi scowled, “Not an alliance, nor a refusal...a devouring.”
“Best meal I’ve had since that dragon,” Oro nodded.  Nayeli remained quiet, turning over her own thoughts, for the entirety of the walk.  Dawn arrived before they did, casting warm, welcoming light through the mouth of the cave to greet them, inviting them out into its bright embrace once more.
It was a false promise.  The storm that had arrived with the South Wind had departed with her as well, leaving clear, still skies, but the mountain air remained cold.  They found Tuli halfway through the mouth of the cave, a trail of scraped dirt and smeared blood showing where she had crawled from the rocks, obviously alive but struggling to breathe through all the bruises and cuts.  “Oh merciful Saints,” Nayeli hissed as soon as she saw her, dropping her pack and rushing to the Ferruda’s side.
Sarahi stopped in her tracks, chin slack and a little horrified.  “...You...used...her.  For bait.”
“The fusk else do you put in front of a trap?” the Rabbit sneered, “I pissed on the Wind’s offering, character, and history all at—!”  Her hand clapped his cheek hard enough to numb her arm to the elbow, though he hardly seemed to notice, outside the noise.  “How did you think I’d piss her off so bad she’d dive blindly into a tunnel she couldn’t double-back from?” he growled.
“Tuli,” Nayeli called her name gently, pulling the poor girl into her lap, “Can you hear me?  I’m here.”
The Ferruda nodded, peeking her unswollen eye open to look around...and stretched a hand out toward Oro.  It wasn’t an accusing gesture, but the open hand of one reaching for something comforting or important.  Arching a brow, Oro dropped her pack and stepped close enough for her to clutch his ankle, which she seized firmly when she found it.  “You got something to say to me?” the Rabbit sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and giving her his full attention, at least.
“...Let...go,” Tuli begged weakly as Nayeli began whispering prayers over her beaten body.
Arching a brow, Oro squatted beside her, letting the priestess work unhindered.  “Come again?”
“Let...her...go,” Tuli repeated, more carefully, as Nayeli began to lightly run her hands and power over her upper torso, letting her breath come much easier.
“Yeah, I heard that part,” the Rabbit grunted, “Why would I, even if I could?”
“You can,” the Ferruda sighed, almost relaxing her grip on his ankle before she realized it and clenched even harder, as if afraid he would walk away before answering her, “Just like...treasure.  Please.  She is...my friend.”
Oro sneered like she’d insulted him.  “I’m not saying it’s her fault I did what I did to you,” he growled in a low voice, as though daring someone to accuse him of passing blame, “But you do realize that was exactly what she expected me to do, and probably kill you at the end.  Fusking piss-poor excuse for a friend.”
Sarahi stepped up behind him, about to slap him again, but Tuli only shook her head, and pushed Nayeli’s hands away before she could wipe the bruises and swelling from her face.  Rolling to her knees with her mostly-healed body, Tuli took a grip on both his ankles, resting her forehead on one of his knees.  “I heard you.  I heard it all.  I won’t argue.  But I won’t believe you,” she whispered in short, deliberate sentences, “She’s my friend.  My good friend.  Since childhood.  Let her go.”  Taking a deep breath, Tuli offered, “If this is really how you like it, I’ll accept it.  We can do it every night.  So please let her go.”
“Tuli, stop,” Sarahi begged, stepping forward to put her hands under the Ferrud’s shoulders gently.  She was surprised when Tuli shrugged her off, refusing to move until Oro had given his answer.
The Rabbit thought surprisingly long and hard about it.  Nayeli finished casting her healing power over Tuli while they waited, and the Ferruda didn’t argue with that.  “Look at me,” Oro finally demanded, and Tuli sat back on her heels and met his eyes.  She wasn’t smiling anymore, but she looked more sad than angry.  With her watching, he drew his sword from the scabbard and set his elbow on his knee, turning the back of his arm to her.  “I will make you this compromise,” he told her, not smugly nor coldly, but with an earnest severity unusual for him, “Since she could do with a lesson in loyalty, and there could be no better teacher than the mortal she threw away.  She’s a strong soul, anyway.  It’ll take a while for her to digest, so she’s going to survive...mind you, in scorching agony...for at least a century or two in my belly.”  He cut into his arm as he explained, just above the elbow, and began to carve a long sliver out of it like he was peeling a fruit, all the way to his wrist.
Sarahi and Diya had to turn their heads as the bone became visible, and Nayeli sucked air through her teeth.  “Keep your blessing mouth shut,” he interrupted himself to growl at the priestess with his own teeth clenched, already seeing her lips moving quietly.  He paused about halfway up, grinding his own teeth against the pain and adjusting his grip before he continued to carve.  “I will move her to the craw, where things don’t get digested, and she can stay there, in rather more tolerable conditions, for the remainder of your mortal life.  Heh...not a terribly long reprieve, to an immortal, but better than going straight to the gut,” he grimaced in spite of his attempt to smile, as he finished separating the bit of flesh from himself a little below his wrist, “Might even give you a chance to get help from the Order.  The Matriarch might still be able to save her, even from my belly.”  Keeping the severed strip pinched between his thumb and the blade, he offered her the raw meat with his blood still dripping from it.  “I’ll give you just that much hope, if you eat this.”
Tuli had watched and listened dutifully, despite the rising illness in her stomach, the entire time.  She looked understandably squeamish at the offering...but reached out to take it.  Oro pulled it back before her fingers could catch it.  “Just to be clear: she’s part of the bargain, but the contract is with Gorgorond.  You are going to be like me,” he grinned through the pain in his arm, “Understand?”
The Ferruda took a deep breath.  “But she won’t be in pain...and she won’t be...digested,” she clarified.
“For as long as you live,” Oro nodded, extending the flesh once more.  He would not withhold it from her again.
“Tuli,” Nayeli said softly at her back, “I can heal any injury your body might suffer, and even many kinds of wound to the mind or the soul.  But if you eat this cursed meat of your own free will...I cannot undo it.  Heaven respects a mortal’s will, even when it decides to make bonds with a demon.”  She kept her tone neutral, and her face as carefully blank as if it were hidden behind her habit.  But Tuli could tell it was a warning, and Nayeli was trying hard to make her reconsider while following Heaven’s example in respecting her decision.
Tuli nodded her understanding.  She took a deep breath, and swallowed whatever was trying to rise out of her own stomach in protest of putting that into it.  Then she reached forward and took the bloody strip in both hands, and bit into it.  It tasted every bit as foul as she remembered, from that time Gorgorond had used her throat to speak to the kobolds.  Grimacing at the taste, she bit down as hard as she could, and chewed the edge a few times, trying to gnaw a managable piece free.  Oro laughed.  “You can chew that all day and get nowhere,” he smirked, “It’s demon-skin with a hint of Rabbit stuck to the underside.  Just slurp it down, like noodles,” he suggested, imitating the action with his tongue, “He won’t let it choke you.”
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, spit it out!” Sarahi countered, though she did not dare try to take it from the Ferruda.  The will and fate of gods and mortals alike had somehow become wrapped up in this absurd, grotesque meal.  It wasn’t something to be tampered with.
Wincing a little, and swallowing her bile again before she tried, Tuli hooked her tongue behind the strip and folded it into her mouth, swallowing as soon as she touched it to the back.  Surprisingly, the rest seemed to slide in easily, almost accidentally, as if the meat itself wanted to be swallowed.  Then, despite Oro’s promise, she did seem to choke.  Clutching her throat, she coughed, then wheezed...and then screamed.
A hot, violent wind poured from her lips, blowing away the dirt in front of her knees, and a dozen or a hundred voices joined with hers in her pain.  Nayeli threw arms around her from behind, placing fist over sternum and hand over fist, as if to squeeze the offending food out of her.  But Oro clamped one hand on the Ferruda’s head and the other under her chin, forcing her mouth closed.  “Don’t fusking let her out!” he snarled.
Tuli looked at him with teeth gnashed and tears streaming down her cheeks.  “You’re not breathing through that one,” the Rabbit told her, surprisingly soft and bordering on sympathetic, “It’s breathing through you.  Close it.”  She tried to inhale.  Her chest convulsed.  She tried again, and finally managed to pull a deep breath through her nose into her lungs.  Oro let her go, and Tuli leaned back against Nayeli with her mouth open to the sky, fighting the temptation to hyperventiliate as she took deep, deliberate breaths.  Oro also sat back with a sigh.  “Well now you’ve gone and done it,” he huffed, “Guess I’ll have to act like I halfway respect you from here on out, since we share a contract.  Welcome to Hell, Tuli.”  Almost as an afterthought, he added with a finger pointed at her throat, “Do. Not. Let. Her. Go.  It will violate the contract, and Gorgorond will eat you instead.  Of course, you’ll save your friend and kill me at the same time, and probably be named a hero posthumously, so maybe that’s a fair price in your book.”
The Ferruda shook her head quietly, still collecting her breath.  Her throat hurt.  Swallowing at all was painful, but she couldn’t help trying several times.  It still felt like something was stuck there, though everything worked (painfully) as she breathed and swallowed and generally flexed her throat.  She was unable to actually speak again for the rest of the day, even after Nayeli finished healing her.  The priestess also healed Oro’s carved arm...but only the kobolds were willing to speak to the Rabbit again before nightfall.  Unsurprisingly, he seemed to savor the quiet.
They were still on the mountain when night found them again, though far enough down it could be argued that they’d reached the foothills.  Tuli seemed distant and distracted the entire way, pausing to look in random directions like she’d seen or heard something coming from that way, only to start walking again a second later.  She breathed a lot.  Not natural, but slow, deep, deliberate breaths, like she’d forgotten how to do it passively.  Diya walked close beside her in concern, and Nayeli on her other side in case she should lose her footing.  They didn’t speak much, thinking it rude to indulge in light conversation while their companion could not respond at all.
They found a relatively level, sheltered area to set out their bedrolls, not having had a chance to replace their tent yet.  Fortunately the weather was clear, and the night warmer now that they weren’t so close to the mountain’s peak.  In spite of her obviously lingering ire with him, Sarahi invited Nayeli and Oro to her side when the priestess started to pull him aside for their nightly ritual.  Even she seemed to want some assurance he would indeed sleep soundly through this night, and Sarahi was nothing if not dutiful.
What surprised them both was when Tuli joined them, leaning against Oro in exhaustion, but no more reluctant or self-conscious than she’d been on any night leading up to this.  “Tuli, dear...it’s alright,” Nayeli assured her, nodding toward the Ferruda’s waiting bedroll, “We can handle this.  Get some rest.  You’ve—”
Tuli shook her head firmly, patting the hand Nayeli had rested on Oro’s chest out of habit, and lay with her head leaned back against Sarahi’s side and Oro’s cheek tucked in by her neck.  Even the Rabbit looked a little dubious of her, perhaps quietly reassessing exactly how thoroughly she’d been broken...and how much of that had happened before that morning.  In any case, he offered no resistence for once, and they had him out cold within minutes.  Nayeli pulled her bedroll close to Tuli’s, in case the Ferruda needed anything during the night, and Sarahi curled up between Oro and them both with the Heavenly Sun-Blade tucked beneath the blanket with her.
The next morning, Tuli’s smile had returned, and she shared it generously as they ate breakfast and tied their beds to their packs once more.  Leaning on hers like a seat when it was ready, Tuli looked around at her companions while the twins finished packing up, and found their husband leaning against a large rock by the trail they would take the rest of the way down the mountain.  “...Oro,” she said softly, instantly drawing everyone’s attention, and put a hand to her throat like the sound had surprised her.  She sounded understandably hoarse, but mostly like herself at least.  Clearing her throat briefly, she tried again, “Oro...”
He quirked a brow as she paused a second time, then snorted contemptuously.  “Save it until you can say it clearly.  I can’t undo what was done even if I wanted to, so no point in asking.  And if that one has rubbed off on you at all,” he stabbed an accusing finger in Nayeli’s direction, “I don’t need your fusking forgiveness.  You’re a fool to offer it.”
But the busty Ferruda shook her head, taking a deep breath, “I’m glad,” she declared softly, hoarsely, slowly and deliberately forming each word, “I did not lie when you chose me.  Sad to prove it,” she added before she had to inhale again, then promised, “I’ll tell you off later,” with a smile.
The Rabbit scowled.  “Definitely rubbed off on you,” he muttered, stepping onto the trail and motioning for them to follow.
They wound their way down through the wooded foothills into the valley proper, then turned west, following the mountain range along Nazeen’s border.  There were no roads here that any of them knew.  They would have to find a village, or at least a homestead, before they could find easier paths and make better time.  The air was warm and still throughout the day, and Tuli remained quiet for most of it, still practicing the fine art of breathing, but shared soft remarks with her companions again and even laughed roughly at anything they said which amused her.
“Does it still hurt?” Nayeli asked at last, noticing Tuli gently rubbing the front of her throat and swallowing frequently between breaths.  The priestess had done all the healing her power would permit, short of altering the Ferruda’s body.  For her to still be uncomfortable meant that something was still actively attacking her...
“It wants to open,” the busty Ferruda answered softly, carefully exhaling the remainder of her breath and taking another deep one, “Like I have two throats now.  One mine, one...Gorgorond’s, I guess.”  Closing her eyes, she shook her head slowly.  “Hearing voices, too.  South’s.  Lesser winds.”
Quirking a brow at that last bit, Nayeli patted her arm gently, then called to the Rabbit at the head of their line.  “Will you explain any of this for us?” she asked gently after explaining the situtation, certain that he knew at least something of what the demon was up to.  The real question was how much he was willing to divulge.
Oro rolled his eyes.  “She made the pact.  He’s keeping his end.  The South Wind is in the craw.  Probably pissed as the Hell she’s in, if the coward’s not quaking with fear.  I’ve no more interest in her, nor use for her.”  He jerked his thumb at Tuli.  “That one does.  That one likes her, for whatever reason.  So he’s giving that one a connection.  Talk to her,” he suggested to Tuli with a shrug, “Listen to her, if she’s willing to talk back.  Hell, if she’s any kind of grateful, you can probably get her to give orders to her servants for you.”
Tuli nodded, as if she had already figured some of that out.  “It hurts,” she said simply, running her hand up the front of her throat once.
“Yeah...that takes some getting used to,” the Rabbit growled in a slightly more sympathetic tone, “It’s what Gorgorond is.  He can hardly help always nibbling.  You have the lesser pact, so he’s only bothering your throat, at least,” Oro gestured over his complete coat of scarlet fur, “You would not believe how bad this itches.  Give him something more satisfying to chew on and he might leave you alone for a little while.”
Nayeli stopped where she was, frowning at him.  Then the priestess reached out and motioned for Tuli to come closer.  “I warned you I cannot undo what has been done of your own will,” she said softly, carefully placing her fingertips against Tuli’s throat as the other Ferruda tilted her head curiously, “But I am not powerless.”
Taking a deep breath of her own, Nayeli entoned: “By The Authority, vested in me, I command the demon Gorgorond: remove your teeth, and do not let them touch Tuli again.”
Her throat bulged for a second, apparently in protest, and Tuli clutched it with both hands and the sudden fear that the demon might simply burst it!  But after that brief, uncomfortable movement, the demon in her throat settled, and the pain diminished.  Nayeli followed her command with another prayer of healing.
“Oh, that is so much better,” Tuli sighed, smiling gratefully at her fellow Ferruda, “Thank you.”
Nayeli wrapped her in a brief hug (and an awkward one, as they still wore their packs), then resumed walking.  “He did not have me with him in that first year,” the priestess reminded her, then turned to their husband, “Else I would have done all I could to comfort you then, as well as now.”
He waved off her hand as she extended it toward him, though.  “I don’t fusking whine about it,” the Rabbit sneered, marching ahead again, “Hell is what I bargained for.  I’d be fusking stupid to complain about it being what I got.  It’s the price I pay to be always the predator, and never again the prey.”  They let him put some strides between them, as had become his habit now, before Sarahi stepped close to Tuli’s other side.
“The more he talks,” the Sha'khari shook her head, tapping the hilt of the sword on her hip, “The more troublesome it is to carry this.”  Sighing, she gave a sympathetic look to Tuli.  “I don’t know if I should say this or not.  I’m going to ask you to forgive it, Nayeli,” she bowed a little to the priestess on Tuli’s other side, “But the sword says it can break that binding, if you change your mind.  And just to be clear, that does not mean lopping off your head.  I was sure to get the details before opening my mouth.”
Nayeli only nodded, not the least offended that a Heavenly Sun-Blade would wield more power than she did.  But Tuli shook her head quickly.  “No,” the busty Ferruda declined firmly, touching her own throat lightly, “I want her to live.  I will ask the Order for help, when we get to Coras.  I can bear it until then, for her sake.”  Blinking a few times as if surprised by someting, she smiled and added in a modestly louder voice, “Wow, it is nice to talk again.  I was starting to worry I’d be whispering for the rest of my life.”
“I’m glad,” Diya pipped up from behind them, where she and her brother had to work a little harder to keep pace if the taller Ferruda didn’t pay attention, “It’s kind of depressing hearing you whisper for anything but fun.  Your voice is always so happy and loud.  I was starting to miss it, too.”
Tuli giggled, and reached back to pat the smaller girl’s head in thanks for the compliments.  That light, mirthful sound did much to dispel the vague unease hanging over the family for the last two days, and they all breathed easier now that she breathed and spoke freely again.  The leaves of the forest stirred faintly as a soft breeze blew through at their back.
For the second night they unrolled their beds under the stars, thankful for a clear sky and warm weather.  As they gathered around to tuck Oro in, though, Tuli lifted Diya out of her customary spot on the Rabbit’s lap and sat her under his arm, where the Ferruda usually curled up.  Then Tuli knelt astride his thighs with her hands on his chest, as though she might hold him down if he tried to rise.  Oro arched a brow and crossed his arms below her hands.  “Ready to ‘tell me off’, finally?”
She nodded, doing her best to look stern, though her naturally bubbly nature worked hard against it.  She came off more effectively as sad than angry.  “I want you to know...I understand why you did what you did,” she began slowly, “I’m not smart or strong enough to be anything other than a pawn, so I don’t mind being used that way.  And I know Nayeli’s worried about me,” she smiled to the priestess beside her, “But maybe not for the right reasons.  I know what you were trying to do...to give the impression of doing, at least...so you will probably think I sound a lot like her when I point out that I am your wife, and a pretty easy one at that.  You can be pretty violent, but not even you can rape the willing.”
Oro snorted like she’d just issued a challenge.  “Fusking right you sound like her.  Next time—”
She put her hand lightly but brazenly over his mouth.  “Next time I’ll scream again, I don’t doubt.  And I’ll still be willing.  However I can be useful to your plans, or simply a relief to you, I’ll do the best I can.  That is not what hurt me.”  Taking a deep breath, she exhaled against his face.  Her breath was hotter than it had any right to be, and smelled more than faintly of sulfur.  “What hurt me was that I was used to betray a friend.  If I had still had the strength, when I realized what you’d done, I would have slapped you myself.  I thank Sarahi for doing it for me,” she bowed her head in slight embarrassment to the Sha'khari, who looked perfectly happy and eager to do it again right now, if she wished.  “If I had known your plan, I might have fought you in earnest.”
“You would have lost a limb for your efforts,” their husband sneered.
Tuli just nodded, never moving from his lap, or shying from his aggression even now.  “Certainly.  I think I still would have done it.  When you picked me, I said I didn’t want to die, and I still don’t...but now I think I might be a little braver than I gave myself credit for that day, if that’s not too proud a thing to say,” she shrugged, “That it would’ve been futile isn’t the point.  The point is that, if you’d told me, the whole act might have been that much more genuine.  I’ve known you just long enough now to think you knew that, and that might by why you didn’t.  You’ll deny it, I’m sure, but Nayeli knows, and even Sarahi knows, there is a harsh kindness to you, like a rose that guards itself with long thorns.  So...I’m mad at you...but thank you.  And if you ever do it again, I am going to smother you so deep in my scent that you’ll be knocked out for a week.  That’s what I wanted to say,” she finished at last, rubbing her hands anxiously on his chest now, bracing for his reply and possibly retaliation.  It wouldn’t be anything too severe with Nayeli right there beside them, she was sure, but even the priestess wouldn’t rein him in until a certain point.
But it was Nayeli he shot a glare at.  “You,” the Rabbit growled, “Are a fusking poison to malice.  How am I supposed to terrorize kingdoms when I can’t even break one fusking pussy after she’s spent barely a week around you?”
“I would be proud indeed to render all such intents impotent,” Nayeli sighed, looking anything but proud.  In fact, she looked somewhat disappointed in Tuli for letting him off so easy.  But she was not the sort to discourage forgiveness even toward the least deserving, so accepted the Ferruda’s words in grateful silence.  “It’s hard to put him down for a week,” she offered suddenly, laying her own hands on Oro’s arms as if to pin them there, “But you’re certainly welcome to smother him for the night.”
Oro rolled his eyes, looking frankly disgusted, but Tuli managed a giggle as she wrapped her arms around his head and pulled his face in tight between her soft breasts.  She squeezed as tight as she could, as though she could crush the consciousness out of him, and whatever he grumbled in response to her grip was muffled in her belly.  She let him go when she felt his forehead relax, a sign his habitual scowl had fallen into the blankness of sleep.
“Tuli,” Sarahi said softly as the pair released him, letting him lay back against her side as he began to snore, “Are you sure you’re okay?  It’s brave of you to approach him so fearlessly after all that you’ve admitted...but I think Nayeli will agree with me when I say it’s alright to make more of a complaint, too.”
“Certainly,” the priestess nodded firmly, cupping a hand under the Rabbit’s chin to close his mouth and silence the snores, “I never expect anyone to be as forgiving of his misdeeds as I am...and frankly worry for anyone that is.”
The busty Ferruda nodded both her appreciation and understanding.  “That’s surprisingly hypocritical of you, Nayeli,” she winked, leaning over to give the other Ferruda a reassuring nuzzle, “I can’t deny I’m still a little hurt, but I promise I’m at least as fine as you are.”
Sarahi sighed, “And I can’t say with certainty that we aren’t all suffering some degree of slave-delirium.  I suppose it’s better than bitter hatred, though.”  Reaching out with both arms, she pulled the Ferruda into a firm hug before all five wives began to get dressed in their nightclothes once again.  Tuli and Nayeli lifted Oro off of Sarahi’s side so the Sha'khari could pull on a nightskirt, and wrapped him in his own bedroll.  Nayeli pulled hers up snug against his, where she could be confident of noticing any movement he made during the night, while Sarahi insisted Tuli keep close to her, and Diya and Kylan bedded down on her other side.
Tuli awoke some hours later.  The night was bright with a clear sky and nearly full moon.  The radiant warmth of the Sha'khari at her back had disappeared, which may have been what woke her.  Sitting up and looking around with eyes that didn’t really want to fully open, she found Oro still sound asleep at Nayeli’s back, with the kobolds curled up at his feet like faithful dogs.  The twins were similarly curled up nearby, huddled against each other just on the other side of where Sarahi should have been.  But she couldn’t make out the former princess anywhere.
Getting to her feet and taking a deep breath, Tuli opened her throat and whispered, “Can you tell me where she is? ...  Will you take me to her?”  A gentle breeze pressed her shoulder, only the second stirring of the air they had felt since escaping the kobold’s caves.  Walking slowly in the direction it coaxed her, Tuli wandered through the trees and across a small stream, eventually finding a little clearing in the woods, and Sarahi at its center.
The Sha'khari’s fur glowed like sunlight through stained glass, and her hair flowed and flickered behind her head like the flames of a waving torch.  With both hands on her left hip, one clutching the scabbard and the other clutching the hilt of the sword, she danced in a ritual fashion, moving all four paws in careful, deliberate, and graceful steps.  Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be muttering to herself as Tuli got closer.
“Wow,” the Ferruda whispered quietly, smiling admiringly at the beauty literally shining in front of her.
With a gasp, Sarahi turned toward her, eyes flaring wide and bright as daylight.  Reflexively ... instinctively ... and quite accidentally, she drew the sword...
Dawn shattered the night.  The sun rose in a little clearing in the woods, far from the horizon.  And beneath it stood majesty and wrath incarnate.  Even Tuli, warm-hearted and trusting as a niave child, took a shocked step back as her heart clenched in fear.  For one frightful second, it looked to her as though Sarahi...or the spirit Sarahi had become...would crush her beneath its paws, and possibly run through whatever was left of her with that brilliant blade for good measure.  It did, in fact, slash the air above her head, and something unseen wailed its death-cry in the sky.
Sarahi struggled, fighting with both hands to drive the blade back into its sheath.  The light went out with a crack like a whip, and the woods fell dark once more.  “Tuli!” the Sha'khari gasped, panting hard and keeping a tight grip on the sheathed weapon, as though it might draw itself if left unchecked for a moment, “Are you alright?!  I am so sorry!”
The Ferruda shook her head quickly.  “It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I startled you, I’m pretty sure.  I woke up and you were gone, so I came looking for you.  What was that?”
“That...was...,” the Sha'khari looked down at the sword on her hip, as though to make sure it was still in the sheath even with her grip on it, “First, please promise not to tell Nayeli I pulled it.  I think that might scare her, to be honest.”  Tuli nodded slowly, and waited curiously for Sarahi to continue.  “It’s been talking to me, ever since we left the caves.  It wants to train me.  It wants to teach me...things.  Swordwork, especially.  So I brought it out here, well away from camp, to  let it walk me through some drills.  I didn’t intend to draw it, though.  That’s dangerous...as you saw.”
“It’s okay,” Tuli nodded again, gesturing for her to take a deep breath and calm down, as her friend still seemed very shaken by that one moment, “I’m sorry I scared you, but I promise I’m fine.  You were beautiful, though.  Not the usual beautiful, either...like, angelic.  Radiant.  There was sunlight coming off you.”
That made Sarahi blush a little, but she kept the pressure on the sword’s hilt.  “Yeah.  This thing...I don’t just hold it.  It’s like it comes into me when I share its intent.  Or possesses me,” she sighed, losing whatever pride she’d almost taken in the compliments, “I’m sorry again...about your friend.”
Tuli tilted her head.  “What?”
“The breeze?  I think that’s what it was,” the Sha'khari winced, “It was a servant of the South Wind, wasn’t it?  A rebel’s servant shares its master’s fate...or so declares this thing,” she nodded down at the sheathed blade, “I didn’t catch it in time to save the breeze.”
“OH!  Oh...so that’s what happened,” Tuli blinked as understanding finally dawned on her, “Yeah, I asked the Wind to lead me to you, so she summoned a breeze to guide me.  I guess it stuck around a little too long.”
Sarahi nodded, finally (though still a little reluctantly) letting go of her grip on the sword, and pushed her long hair back from her face.  “I’m done for the night, I think.  You ready to head back?” she asked, offering one of her hands to the busty Ferruda.  Tuli accepted it with a smile and a nod, laying her hand in the Sha'khari’s, and they started back toward camp in comfortable closeness.  “Thanks for coming to check on me.  Can I ask you something personal?  Completely unrelated to wind and sword and anything else that’s happened in the last couple of days.”
“Of course,” Tuli answered easily, giving her a smile and a gentle squeeze of the hand.
Sarahi seemed to turn the question over in her head for a long time before asking it, though, as if still unsure either of how to word it or whether it really ought to be voiced.  “I’ve been thinking about what Oro said, back in the Inn,” she explained for context, “Much as I hate to give him the credit...that seemed like sound advice, and some that I need.  This is going to sound absolutely wretched of me,” she cringed, pausing to give Tuli a steadying hand across the stream, “But for the passed day I keep finding myself thinking I could comfort you by...doing it right.  Lovingly.  It’s the most arrogant, narcissistic, disrespectful idea I think I’ve ever had in my life.  And the fact that I can’t get it out of my head suggests to me that I need those rules more than I realized,” she shook her head in shame, though Tuli patted her hand comfortingly, assuring her that the Ferruda did not find the thoughts nearly as offense as she did, “So I wanted to ask your thoughts on it, since you’ve hinted at being...fairly experienced.  How did you decide, before you were married, when you would let a man into your bed?  Or when you wouldn’t.”
The Ferruda smothered a laugh in her hands.  “I might be the worst person to ask that,” she admitted with a sheepish smile, “I’m pretty sure I only asked myself if he...or she,” Tuli winked, “Was attractive, and then asked them if they’d like to.”  Rocking her head from side to side thoughtfully, she soon added, “I didn’t approach anyone until it felt ‘safe’, though.  I needed to know...or think that I knew...they would stop mid-act if I asked them to, and that they wouldn’t be ashamed or furious at being approached in the first place.  I tried to make sure they were comfortable refusing me, too, if they didn’t actually want me.  I don’t remember being turned down often, though,” she grinned.
“Ever?” Sarahi chuckled.
“Weeell...once, I think, but I was young and hadn’t really thought about what I was asking and the spot it put the poor man in.  So I don’t count that one.  Now,” Tuli smiled, lowering her voice as they were getting close to camp again, “If you’re asking me when you should try taking me to bed, or whether that would be a comfort to me...I have always found sex comforting.  Or at least calming, after the fact.  And what I told Oro was the truth, no less for you than anyone else: I’m pretty easy, and no one can rape the willing.  I certainly feel safer with you than with him.  So, if you promise you will refuse me any time you’re not in the mood, I promise you can approach me any time you are.”
The Sha'khari rolled her eyes with a sigh, but smiled, “Yes, you are definitely no help in this.”  Tuli answered that accusation with a giggle and a bump of her hips against Sarahi’s lower shoulders.  Sarahi looked like she wanted to add something to that, but their camp and sleeping companions came into view then, so she kept those thoughts for another day.  The pair padded quietly back into their bedrolls, sharing a brief kiss goodnight, then got what sleep they could before the morning found them again.