Keezheekoni Vayandar slept when she was able, though it seemed to be only a few winks here and there for if it was not pain that kept her awake, it was her thoughts. Over and over like a broken record, she spun about the events that had landed her in such a position for she had more than plenty of opportunity to think of it during her time alone in the hall. With eyes closed and head hung, she watched the memories flash across her lids, the words, the actions, all of it a nightmare that seemed to have no end until she released a sharp gasp, jerking her head back in place. As her heart slowed to a steady beat, her eyes looked towards the doors and where sorrow and pity towards herself once reigned, determination blossomed.
Nana Yngvarrdottir had just had one hell of a night as she returned to the hall. It was different now. Something flourished in these walls. Not every stone was original, but the part that mattered, the part she’d seen still intact on their arrival . . . She stopped at the bottom of the entrance and looked up at the hanging Savage woman. She wouldn’t say anything as she stared up at her drooping head, just watch until she was noticed . . . and she would be eventually because the colour that drained from her cheeks was having a hard time finding it ways back
The changed woman lifted her eyes and paid attention to the door as it opened revealing the one woman she was waiting patiently to have words with, but she would judge her tongue carefully. Meeting the eyes of the petite Nana, who’s stature spoke nothing of the presence she exuded, a faint “Hou Nan..” left her lips, her tone cautious and respectful. “I know . . . in such . . . position I have no right to ask of aid in anything, but . . . when I have served of lesson and punishment, could you . . . would you show of way to remove of this?” She shifted her leg to reveal the marking.
Nana simply stood there, still silent, but with her eyes locked on the raven maned woman she’d come to call Keez. The woman had sparked interest in Na because like herself was something not often seen this far above the mark unless it was in chains. Na’s night would be a blessing for the woman. Na had finally been told the source of this situation that now hung in the hall built by hands of her kin, her blood, blood of her blood through mixed oaths. She swallowed hard and just switched the stance of her widening hips making room for what she was carrying. The slant of her eyes narrowed as she just continued staring at the woman that had disgraced her home, her name, the woman herself and couldn’t find reason until she’d hung there. And still she stood silent as the girl questioned her of the marking of slavery on her thigh. Na’s eye focused there as her hand dropped to the layers of her skirts that hid her own shame removed by a blade of her people. She then looked back at Keez and just took a deep breath.
Keez lowered her head for a moment, showing her shame and admitted the hardest words anyone should ever have to speak, especially when one clings to pride. “I . . . was . . . wrong.” Her eyes closed and while tears tugged at the corners of her eyes, she did not release them, rather her right hand clenched as if to force them down. “I hang here in silence, when those who show kindness and aid.. and when those who call of me bond and poke at my brand and insult of me leave.. I hang and think. I think over and over and over and over of all that had been done and all I have of done . . . and I . . . am wrong. was wrong. If there be of way I could right these wrongs, I would do of this and swiftly, not for my pride, but because it needs to be of done. I should not have offered gems in way I did and I see now why my action insult of your mate, of Hold Jarl, of HighJarl. I should not have spoken ill to man friend of Hold Jarl, I forgot of place in all of this.” Her limbs trembled, but she could not stop the flow of words once the dam had broken. “I, as ward of Hold and HighJarl, should never have of run, even in fear. I should have stood proud and tall. I should have not argued my views despite how I feel of how things went, because even if I felt right, I was wrong. All of these ‘I should haves’ cannot be changed for past is past, but must be something can be done to right of them?” Her eyes having shifted to Nan and fell silent.
The small Red Hunter woman stood there and switched back to the first hip she’d started on, still silent as she stared at the way the woman’s lips moved. She looked past her to the hall. Something here now made her eerily uneasy and yet calm at the same time. She wasn’t sure whether to walk back to the cabin and hide . . . like the girl hanging here in front of her. She looked up at her again. She was still silent as she started to turn to the right run and paced slowly, looking down the length of hall towards the kitchen. A shadow maybe was she looking for , who knew? She then stepped slow, patient steps to the place before the girl. She looked up at her again in silence. She then looked down at the brand. This girl’s mark of shame. She turned now to the left run and walked the same slow deliberate steps she had on the other side . . . The same glance down the hall of nothingness . . . But if the hall to nowhere was a hall to somewhere certainly . . . and only she knew . . . why? She still found no trace of the Elder that had vanished into thin air again as she now stood back in front of the girl. Another deep breath followed by a slow exhale. She looked up at her now. But still nothing.
Keez released her own slow sigh as her words appeared to be falling upon deaf ears, or purely distracted ones, she did not know which, but for the time she was beyond exhausted and how her body ached from being stretched all day in this position, though she did not complain about it. “I want to thank of you for sending your puddin girl to see to me. She is good bond and did not treat of me horrid like the other did.” While more words might have come from her, she let them die and resumed her hanging. Their eyes met only briefly before her body relaxed as best it could within the chains and she prepared for a long night.
Nana still wouldn’t say anything as she walked to the bucket next to the post, and then returned placing it between the girls out stretched legs, she stepped back and then folded both her arms across her chest. “Do not soil the stone of my blood’s hall,” was all she’d get from her. Her words had not fallen on deaf ears, but that was not her privilege to know while she decorated a hall with more meaning in each stone than this girl was capable of comprehending at this time. But that brand she wore, as soon as Na found out who it was that held the key to the chains, that she would understand. Na knew from experience what exactly it was to understand it. She reached the top of the entrance steps and then looked back at the Savage girl. Again her brother’s words came to her mind and she listened with her heart instead of her ears, and she heard her ako loud and clear. “We are favoured and blessed amongst the mists. Only those that belong will make it this far. The men and their offspring will return a blessing on those below the mists because these men . . . they are the leaders.” She then just turned and headed for the portal . . . There was too much air in this hall, Na needed a clear breath.
Beyond the mist of the Valr 