Torgan Wine Ch. 59

"Scarlet isn't widely worn in Ara, and I don't think I've ever seen it on a child there." Isonei took the dress from him and ran her hands over it with a smile, "The ribbons are this shade because of our lavendela fields."

"I will make certain the young Daga still grows the scarlet dianthus I favored, you can have them on your gowns."

Laughing she passed him the dress, allowing it to be put away. "They were still in the garden the last time I was here." Isonei tilted her head and asked with a smile, "Have you ever heard of a flower called Soldier's Wife? Draeseth kept it in his winter garden. I think he grows it out of spite because they told him he couldn't. It has beautiful scarlet blossoms and a faint, delicate scent, but the stems and leaves are covered in thorns."

"It wasn't called Soldier's Wife when I learned of it. The Torgan who brought it said the Phaethians called it King's Daughter. When he was asked why, we were told 'because it's just as foolish to touch one as the other.'" He gave her a wry smile, "It grew too well in the garden, I think they had to destroy it to keep it from spreading."

"It was one of the few things I was very fond of in the Kroscur." She shifted the way she knelt to lean against him, choosing to tease him, "There were Torgans and Phaethians when you were still outside of your sarg?"

He narrowed his eyes at her again and they flickered and flashed. "This is why Lothlaerith calls you a little thorned blossom." His tone was slightly reproachful and her smile faded.

"I like to tease, I meant no offense." Isonei moved so that she was no longer leaning on him and reminded herself that her father would have been chiding her for her behavior for good reason.

Iehmarthe stood and helped her to her feet. "Of all the things you need to understand this one is most important. I am the Daga. I am the thread that connects the generations. Part of me is reborn with each new son, but daughters are life itself.

"We share it with other Dagas that it might be shared with us again in turn. Daughters," he put a finger under her chin and kept her face tilted upward, "are precious. I would not have you pull away from me. It's been such a long time since I've heard my name and allowed myself to be more than the thread..."

"You're not used to being teased anymore."

Iehmarthe laughed softly, "Not many teased me in life, either. I was the vessel of Liad. But no one has told you of how we came to be here."

"I'll look forward to that, my Daga." He frowned at her and she inclined her head, "Iehmarthe. Why does no one call you by your name?"

"It's a dangerous thing to speak a Daga's name. You open yourself a great deal."

"But, you're our Daga. It would make sense that, perhaps, I shouldn't have spoken Daga Lothlaerith's name, but..."

"When you go to another Daga, you will take my name with you." He ran his fingertips around the edge of her face and began to laugh as she opened her mouth to speak. "I would see you matched. As much as I would enjoy keeping you here, you are so young and full of life. I will welcome you back and trust that my name will not be told to your new Daga when, someday, you have one."

"You do have a very striking name, perhaps-" His almost vicious grin stopped her and she folded her arms giving him an annoyed look.

"My name is out of fashion. If you give your child a name like mine the elder Dagas of your match will know what you've done, and see it as claiming the child for Liadith."

"Someone should bring it back into fashion because I like it." She beamed as he kissed her head.

A polite knock came from the door behind her. "There's quite a gathering downstairs."

Isonei turned to see the young Daga standing in the doorway with a look of amusement on his face.

"Tell your wife we will come down at a time of my choosing." Iehmarthe sounded mildly peeved. "Daughters of Gildith are impatient."

"Daughters of Liadith like to linger." The young Daga gave her a mischievous smile.

"As do I." As Iehmarthe narrowed his eyes Isonei wrapped her arms around him.

"What that means, my Daga, is that we could spend so long talking and enjoying each other's company that we'd miss the party entirely if no one fetched us."

He sighed and gave her an annoyed look, "I have never liked parties."

"I love them. If you gave me the opportunity, I could probably organize one you'd enjoy."

The green lightning flickered behind his eyes for a moment before he looked back to the younger Daga. "This one should have been brought to me the moment she was found."

"Daughters aren't brought to you until they're of age. And Isonei-"

"Should not have been permitted to leave Leria once she was found." Iehmarthe's face set in a stern frown.

Very gently, Isonei pressed a finger into his back and he looked down at her incredulously. "My Daga, I love you, but I'm Aran and we need our families. I can't be confined to just one place. You would have made me as miserable as Draeseth did."

Iehmarthe studied her face thoughtfully for a moment, "Allowing them to visit is not enough?"

"No. I have a very large family in Ara. Now that my father has relented and will allow me to see the two sisters I share a mother with and visit my mother's House it's growing larger. I..." at a loss of how to explain her attachment she stepped back and took his hand placing it on her chest over her heart, "I don't know if you can feel-"

His other hand moved to the back of her head and he leaned close peering into her eyes. It made her feel dizzy, her skull tingled and the hand over her heart was warmer than any hand she'd ever felt. Flashes of memory, riding in the fields with her father and following her mothers around the house, laughing and playing with her brothers and sisters, sitting beneath the elder Daga's arm and listening to stories, running through Daga Gildith's garden with his younger daughters, washed over her in waves.

When she came back to herself she was curled in her bed, held tightly by Iehmarthe. Isonei took a deep breath and turned to bury her face in his shoulder.

He murmured in her ear, "I saw and felt the bonds. You should have been building them here as well. Come and go as you please but know that you are always wanted here. You are precious and your absence is a hardship."

Nodding, she turned her head just enough to ask, "Did we miss the party?"

His answer was a soft laugh, "There will be another. Rest."