Agnus sat quietly next to Morten.
They had actually placed a lounge for him to lay on and he had pretty much dozed off immediately.
Figures, he was drugged up to the high heavens.
Agnus looked around the yard,
Kur was standing with Siu, his brother and sister in law.
They were talking animatedly. He wondered where her parents were.
Aya had been a slave, she had no clue about her parentage herself.
So, it didn't matter. But all the others must have families?
Teddy was conversing with his own parents, but Four and one were with him.
Ivana, two, was talking to Libby.
Several other councilors had joined them.
Which made him wonder who his mother was verbally destroying, she wasn't anywhere to be seen. He stood, scanning the courtyard.
They had set up a table with food, which was just out of view for him.
She must be there and he stepped around some ferns and lilies to see.
Morten's Brother was there with his wife, they were debating some food. Agnus had the strong sense the wife was pregnant, he wouldn't be surprised if they were trying to figure out what she could eat.
His brain slapped him around the ears with sudden realization.
His Mother was behind them, calmly talking to Aya.
He started walking their way before he could stop himself.
He cringed, what was he doing? And redirected to getting food.
It was fine! His mother and Aya could talk!
Why was that even a problem?
As he tried to get his brain back in some type of line he realized he could overhear their conversation.
He desperately started looking for a plate and tried to ignore their conversation.
"So you're not even sure if you are a Green?"
his mother's voice intruding on his thoughts.
"No, it doesn't really matter though."
Came Aya's smaller voice.
He realized he was straining to hear her,
stop it! He told himself.
Ge did quite well ignoring the conversation for the next 5 minutes as he looked at Mortens brother and sister in law discussing scallops.
But Then his burning ears heard it.
"How many children did you have as a concubine?"
He held his breath.
"None... successfully."
"That is sad and lucky at the same time."
"Do you know what this is?" Said a voice right next to him and Agnus almost dropped the plate he had pretended to fill.
Agnus sputtered, trying to collect his thoughts, looking at Morten's brother before him.
A slightly rougher, wider and pudgier version of Morten.
"That's, some kind of sea fruit. It's mostly served raw so I.."
He stopped talking, realizing he was acting on the assumption his wife was pregnant which may not be true or a secret.
Morten's brother shrugged and turned back towards his wife.
"No," he called, turning around,
"No, honey! Don't" he shouted at her as she was actually moving something to her mouth.
Agnus was now caught not trying to listen to either conversation as they had a some words.
He tried to focus intensely on the food,
caught a few more sentences which was his mother telling the truth about his nipple loss and decided to vacate.
Morten was actually awake as he arrived back.
"Holy cow, these painkillers just take you out sporadically!" He smiled.
" Sorry about that, what I miss? "
Agnus sat back down, " Nothing. "
He said while his brain offered him 25 options between the suspected pregnancy and Aya talking to his mother.
Morten noticed it way faster, for one he was laying in a way that offered him a view of the buffet, secondly he was probably looking for his family,
"Oh, Aya is talking to your mom."
"I noticed," Agnus growled, " probably wheeling out all the embarrassing stories." he said, folding his arms.
Morten sighed, "You staying?"
"Probably join the guard or something." Agnus said in a brooding monotone trying to ignore his, what was this anyway? Embarrassment? No.
Morten nodded, "Same, I think."
his eyes lingered on his brother at the buffet.
"They seem just fine without me."
Agnus nodded, "That's my only..
if my mother wants me to come home I will."
"Really?" Said Morten, moving around uncomfortably, not being able to sit up.
"You're surprised?" Agnus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well," Morten seem to think a moment, "You don't want to see if Aya is still up," He wiggled his shoulders in a questioning way, "for... your deal? Assuming you actually made a deal with her."
Agnus couldn't stop himself, he let out a bark laugh.
"Oh sorry, Morten?" He rubbed at his beard.
"Aya has known nothing but abuse from men I'm guessing, I highly doubt she would have spend any time within arms length of me if it wasn't for that courtship thing they made us do."
Morten's lips tightened and he frowned deeply, seemingly wanting to argue.
" Look, " said Agnus.
" Are you going to try and court four any further? "
Morten snickered,
" I'm sorry, but I don't think we compared in any way to you and Aya. You guys had this whole secret plot where she fed you information. By the sound of it you spend quite a lot of t... "
Agnus cut him off,
"Morten, look at me?"
He said, slapping his chest.
" You don't know Aya well enough to understand, but if she'd ever go with a guy it is not me.
Big, loud and stupid. Not a bone in my body without damage and a long list of names taken."
He snorted then.
"Worse, the one name I really had to take. The one that really mattered?
I couldn't and she had to take care of him herself."
He raised his shoulders and sagged them again in some kind of defeat.
" Oh, boohoe, a girl saved your arse." Smiled Morten.
" At least she did it with your dagger.
If not we would have all been dead as doornails now anyway! "
Both of them sighed at the same time.
" You remember when we first got here?" Asked Morten.
Agnus nodded, " they were all so concerned with the five being pretty."
Morten laughed, cringing at his injury.
" Remember the girl in my bath? " He said when he recovered.
Both of them laughed now.
Things had been so innocent then,
especially for Morten.
He had not known what he was getting himself into.
~
Agnus was standing at the top of the stairs, the stairs into the council.
The left stairs, through which he had come that night.
He had glanced inside, the council had been completely rebuild.
The had constructed it almost like a pit in Agnus's opinion, a theater but rather steep and round.
There was a catwalk, ending in the middle of the pit facing the seating of the five, where speakers would take place to propose and discuss matters.
"First council as counselors, are you ready? " His mother said, plucking at his sleeve.
They were both dressed as councilors, his mother was wearing sandy and pinkish dress with golden embroidery and a woven waist belt. The colors that represented the plains.
No jewelry, she had rebuffed any offered, she was there to represent people like her and lavish jewelry didn't have a place there.
Agnus felt rather... ridiculous in his outfit.
He was there as a councilor with combat and defense experience.
He was wearing a black cloak with accented shoulders, probably a hint to armor.
The cloak had no sleeves, it just lay over the shoulders covering your arms and under it was a well constructed equally black shirt that showed a lot of chest, he had thanked the gods he got at least a thick waist belt that he had customized to hold weapons as soon as he got it and plains classic well constructed black riding pants.
It was all black but it was made from a combination of fabrics and leathers of different textures and stitched precisely.
This was fine. beautiful even, if you were build like Kur.
But Agnus looked like he ate babies.
He had tried to improve it by braiding his hair back, thinking it being loose made him look wild.
Which only made his face angular and his green eyes stand out. So now he was stuck looking angry. His resting grump frown on full display.
Agnus nodded to his mother who turned towards the open door, " I'm waiting here for Kur."
The council had personally invited his mother, her background and life experiences valuable.
She had dragged Agnus into it, who was actually enjoying teaching new guard recruits.
He had agreed to try this as it would be important to have people of more walks of life in council and this was a perfect opportunity to do so.
"Agnus?" A soft voice to his right.
Aya was standing there, she was wearing an outfit like his in emerald and green.
But with a bodice instead of a waist belt.
Which made him very confused for a minute as she had mostly been in very wide things, followed by the instant urge to punch the man that passed behind her.
She stepped at him, smiling brightly, "You are joining the council?"
She stopped closer to him than expected.
"Yes, well," he glanced sideways into the room,
"I thought I'd give it a try. But maybe it's just me trying to deal with the trauma in this room."
She joined him in glancing into the room.
" I don't remember much of it."
He looked back at her, " Well, I had almost erased the image of you crumpled onto the floor out of my memory. But there it is again."
" I don't think I can ever stop having scary dreams of you kneeling there, about to get ended by him," she whispered, staring at the right of the room.
She seemed stuck there.
Agnus decided to touch her,
just her arm to wake her out of her reverie.
She did a little sway and looked back at him.
" I should have definitely not let it get to that point, sorry about that." He said.
She shrugged, "Well, from the sounds of it you were tortured before that,
Ivana called you the bleeding guy for two days afterwards. So I think you had kinda.. "
she turned and looked him straight in the eyes,
" I think it was time someone came to rescue you? "
Agnus felt a sensation as if he had been dropped in icy cold water slam into his chest.
For a moment his brain played him the moment where she fell onto him after she had stabbed Ualan in the neck.
That had been a good moment.
That was also here.
Aya walked away, in response to a wildly waving Ivana.
"See you next council?" She said as she moved.
"Maybe not," Agnus said.
She turned, "around then?"
He shook his head, "I'm considering a teacher's position at Durbin. "
Durbin was a training facility for army and guard on the edges with the plains. He had gotten the offer and had considered it on and off.
She looked at him for a moment, blinked and turned to join Ivana.
"Why don't you ask her to have some tea sometimes?" His mother, interrupting his thoughts.
She had halted her travels into the room when Aya had approached.
He looked at her, frowning. "Why would she want to have tea with me?"
She laughed quietly, " I think she rather enjoyed your company during the... trials?"
" I don't know, I think if she had a choice." He said.
"Do you? Did you ask her?" His mother took his arm and started walking him through the door and down the stairs on the other side.
"No, but, I'm an ugly red thing with a bad mouth on me. You know what she's been through?"
He asked, not realizing he was supposed to meet Kur.
His mother smiled, looking into the room, "Yes, I also know she thinks you want children."
He had been looking at his feet on the steps, the robe annoyingly clinging to them.
" What? What does that have to do with anything?"
His mother looked around at him, " Really Agnus?"
She sighed, " I will just give you a few days to figure that one out. "