Heirs of the Gods

Ch 73: Black sheep

Brineport's colourful rooftops were already capped with white, and the ice-slicked roads had made it easy to announce a Kingdom-wide ban on travel without alarming the villagers. No one sane intended to leave their homes unless necessary anyway. That was one small mercy they'd had; being able to avoid frightening their people.

"Ella!"

Ella half turned, spotting Val jogging along the snowy terrain, a big grin on her face as she waved a gloved hand.

"Morning, pretty girl," Val puffed, leisurely walking beside Ella, not even wincing at the cold.

Ella grimaced. "Good morning to you. How are you not absolutely freezing? It's dreadful today."

In her double pair of wool stockings, three petticoats, long-sleeved chemise, thick stays, velvet dress and fur-lined coats, Ella could barely waddle along. She was, without exaggeration, wearing half her weight in clothes. Had Katram gotten her way, Ella would have likely ended up with even more layers.

Val, meanwhile, looked dressed for a slightly chilly autumn stroll. Ella would barely move in her woolly prison, and Val was content in her simple, fur-trimmed overcoat.

"I'm never cold," she shrugged. "It's all that dragon blood, we run warm all the time." She even twisted her hair up into a bun, exposing her ears to the chill. Ella's cold-reddened nose and ears shrieked at the thought.

Whether it was dragon blood or not was up for debate, but those Ardowen elves did run warm. The thought of Aedion's body heat seeping into her own and the warmth of his calloused palms on her ribs made Ella's cheeks warm right up.

She shook her head. Well, that was certainly one way to fend off the cold.

"That's a lovely pin," she said, clearing her throat and attempting to steer her mind away from indecent topics. The pin, though, was beautiful.

Val grinned and held forward the object, a double-pinned utensil crafted out of jade, carved with deeply elaborate designs depicting flowers and dragons, topped with a green butterfly pendant.

"Thanks, my mother gave it to me. It was given to her by her own mother. In her culture, it's given as a rite of passage. You stop wearing your hair in braids and begin to wear it in updos. This one though, it's special," Val whispered conspiratorially. Her grin was twenty types of mischievous. "It doubles as a weapon."

The ends, she noticed for the first time, were razor sharp. When Valren pulled the two pins apart, they formed into a gleaming, deadly weapon. Ella's mouth parted into an o, her eyes gleaming bright.

"It's stunning," she breathed, delicately touching the knife-sharp end.

Ella, who loved anything beautiful, had a terrible weak spot for pretty, life-threatening objects. Some might have scoffed at the idea of admiring weapons based on aesthetics, preferring functionality over appearance, but Ella was of the idea that there was no need to choose. There was something particularly magnificent about a weapon that could maim and kill, and look beautiful in her hand at the same time.

She appreciated the art if nothing else. This was an appreciation she shared with Val, who delighted in collecting weapons as well.

Val resumed tying her hair up, twisting her jet-black hair into a perfect bun and setting it with the pin, before pulling out a few strands to frame her pretty face. "So..." she said casually, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Going to visit Cereas?"

Ella's lips twitched in amusement, but she played along. "Why, yes. Are you asking for any particular reason?"

"No reason," Val hummed, looking straight ahead as if the white-topped pine trees were suddenly tremendously interesting. "Are you visiting...friends there?"