"As you say, friend Belesama," she replies quietly. "And I see Blythe is here." She nods regretfully in the direction of the gate.

I look, and Blythe smiles at us. She comes over. "Good Eve, Lady Gleannine." I say, walking over, "Hello, Belesama."

"Hello Blythe." I release Gleannine's hand and sit. "Come sit here."

"Good evening," Gleannine greets Blythe. "Before you sit, your lady mother had a message for you. She was not sure she would see you before you arrived here. She said that if she had not seen you, she would meet you here by eight this evening, and that she wished you please to see her before meeting with the Master of the Word."

She moves to sit next to me, nods and says, "That is as I planned. Thank you, Lady Gleannine." She kisses my cheek and smiles.

I move an arm behind Blythe in a protective way. "Your mother, then?" I ask, full of thoughts of mothers, today.

She sighs in relief and leans back into me. "Muirneann." She looks at me and tilts her head. "Your parents?"

"Oh, they are pleased and loving, but I think I take my thoughts too far when I let them escape my head sometimes. On the other hand, their worry let me ask my cousin Eamonn honest questions, which lead him to face his weaknesses when arrayed against the strongest men in Alfar. And that, perhaps, saved his life. But I'm worried that my mother's worry is not..." I glance at Gleannine, and shrug. "I worry she and I can both be right but the differences in how we see things will build a wall between us."

"Do you know my mother well?" I ask Gleannine, and I follow it with a wicked smile, because it will not stay in. My mother has always had good taste.

Gleannine smiles a little, "I know her passing well, yes. But having delivered Blythe's message, I should leave you to your evening. I do not wish to intrude." She bows gently and departs.

Blythe wishes her a good eve while I shake my head, bemused, at the light lady's retreating back. "It is good that Eamonn did not ride," Blythe whispers.

"What is wrong, Blythe?" I ask. "You're hiding."

"I am uneasy. Something comes, Belesama. Something terrible and awful. I would see no more harm and death come… I will find a way... to see Eoghan not ride tomorrow. I would see none of the Word fight for I do not know that they can fight without..." she looks at me and pushes out the words, "there being more Bells."

I look at her, so sad. "I don't believe that. I fought Riochal, and I didn't die. I might have been horribly maimed had Bronn not been called, but without Bronn I'm unsure Riochal could have survived it himself. I would rather Bronn be at the field, that he would lend his services, but I don't feel any of us have a right to ask it of him."

I sigh. "Eoghan has a right to ride, and if he carries Death with him, and he can't turn it aside, then that's a curse we put on him. It's our own curse, and let us share in it then." The tears come unbidden, because I mean this, and I know what meaning it might cost us all.

"But I don't believe it. Riochal can fight without death. Eoghan can love you and here you sit. Bronn can heal me, and I was not the first he'd healed outside the Word - and it wasn't to be possible. Something horrible comes, but I do not believe it is them." I pull back to wipe away the annoying tears. I'm so angry I can barely stand it. I blame myself. I never gave them two thoughts until Riochal showed up on my list.

"I want to be mistaken." Blythe says, tentatively touching my hand. "But I am afraid for my uncle, who Eoghan rides against tomorrow." She pauses. "Their Oaths…what binds them…it changes…weakens…" There is hope in her. "Bronn healed you; last night he healed me and again when the Word first found me near seven summers ago. "Belesama, I would have Eoghan be Eoghan. I would not ask him or want to be what is not in his heart to be. I do not understand Ways and Purpose with any deep..." she puts her hand over her heart, "connection."

She takes my hand firmly, "Is there a way to free them, our Word?"

I think I know a way, but I can't say it. There are things you don't say out loud, and I dare not put a path in her head that love might lead her to follow. I don't know that the consequences wouldn't be worse.

And so, I offer, "If they would all cooperate, and enough others take the risk, perhaps what we must to is assure the oaths are broken, piece by piece and one by one. I don't understand what all it means in their lives, in what ways it binds them. Of course, if they aren't all breakable, then some of us would die trying." I smile. I wonder how many would take the risk. There seem to be women enough, if Riochal wasn't just teasing me.

"We need better understanding of things." She smiles at me, hopeful even with her doubts. "I am to speak with Eoghan tonight, with my mother, if he will answer my Call. "Sometime he is of few words and me taking little meaning, perhaps Bronn or your Riochal will say more if Eoghan can not."

"Ah, let's not start calling him my Riochal until he's properly yielded to me on a field," I laugh, feeling the tears dry away. I can't even picture what the man's face might look like if he heard her calling him that.

She laughs, "I will not call your Riochal...your Riochal."

"Could you perhaps ask Eoghan if he'll call all the Word together for us to poke at and ask questions of? If he understands we only want to help, that we don't condemn them - that we only want to see them free of this... these oaths. Or the consequences of the one oath, whathaveyou. It strikes me, from Bronn's reaction to my standing there, that they don't understand all the nature of the thing themselves."

She nods." I will ask him this. I think you right but..." She shrugs and hugs me. "Will you help me not give into the shadows, Belesama? For sometimes their weight is heavy and I would not go it alone."

I hold her, and hope her love isn't the jealous type. "Of course I will. Your honesty makes me brighter. The world is what it is, people are who they are, but I will find happiness, even if I have to drag it out of dark things."

I squeeze, but gently, before I loosen my hold, not quite letting go. "So, this is a House full of gifts. When I was a girl I used to dream of coming here as a woman, and now..." I say quietly, close, "while amusing, it has so much less meaning. But it almost makes me mourn the girl who I was."

"We have happiness in our friendship." she assures me, and sways, full of comfort. "What was your dream when you were girl?"

"Oh, I wanted to be a Knight, of course. Now that is less important than just proving my Way, proving I have not just been wasting my time. And I thought I would have this charmed existence of lovers and adventures, that when I came to the House of the Lily they would throw their doors open to me and welcome me like a hero; But what I thought then was so lovely and fun now seems quite shallow to me."

I glance over to the fountain, to see if the antics there continue. "There is so much beauty in the world, but I see now it doesn't have to belong *to* me. If I make Knight, it will simply be a recognition of my skills, and not a title unto itself. When I take a lover, I suspect it will not be a pretty, sparkling, perfect thing. I suspect it will be messy."

"You are Belesama. That has great meaning. It is….messy is not how I would colour it." she says, "but for you, maybe it would be so. How would you want it to be?" She looks at the fountain and then back to me with a shrug.

"How would I want it to be?" I sigh. "It is hard to answer, Blythe, because I know what I have wanted for myself before would have been wrong for me, so it makes me wonder if some of what I want now might be wrong."

"I would want it to be passionate and unrelenting. I want it to be hot enough to mark me. That's frightening, but when faced with anything less than that, I hold back. Not that I have been faced with a great deal of temptation. I have been busy," I laugh. "I would like there to be love, and care, but I am not sure I need there to be. I don't like that either."

"If I hear you right it sounds as though the experience...the moment...the act is curious to you and you would know that act... "

I look back at her from this close range, a bit confused over what she's asking. "I think it's a natural enough thing that only someone who plans to be an adept at such need to practice at," I answer quietly, and draw her back down to sit as I motion to indicate some people around here, in particular.

Do you think it can be hot enough to mark you without love and care?" she asks so simply.

"I... I don't know," I answer honestly. "I believe lust exists outside of love, and it seems to me it's the lust that burns, but perhaps I'm wrong."

"How was it for you? Did you know your danger?" I ask, with less mirth.

"It was right." she says, "I called him, to tell him that I would wait for him, if waiting I needed to do and I told him I loved him. He said I did not have to wait, that he would risk this Oath. And we coupled." Blythe smile and laughs, "But I like it better without as many clothes as we still had and find soft bedding better than against trees." She rubs the back of her head, which makes me smile. "But it was Right, Belesama."

A laugh escapes before I can stop it. "You poor thing."

"My danger...what do you mean in that?" I ask, not knowing how to answer that last question. I hesitate. Has he not told her? "Riochal implied to me that until you, none of them had been able to have a love that didn't die of it. He made it sound... more immediate, and that you'd already proven... an oath-breaker."

Blythe sits. "You want to be adept at it...." she frowns, "To be the best at it? Can one be poor skilled at such a thing?" She suddenly looks worried, "How does one know if they are poor skilled?"

She goes ahead, in her haphazard way, rushing on to the next question. "I know some bit of this but much of it is unclear." Her little hand comes up to touch her neck. "Last night I thought I was freeing him further and that was the darkness I drifted to as we coupled; but that was not so. My Eoghan is not mine alone. I...the oath is not entirely gone and… and coupling is not without some danger. But I will be fine...I will live. I know that Eoghan will not harm me beyond calling."

I am very concerned. "Well, first, I don't think anyone is ever poor skilled at it, just new to it, and no, I don't want to... well, I do eventually want to be an adept but in my own way not... not a practiced one. Second, how in the worlds do you know the oath is not entirely gone?"

She frowns and speaks softly. "We spoke last night before coupling....he said to unchain him. We coupled and I… "It was better than the times before like I had reached something, some perch I had not found before. But then I woke up and... I thought part of freeing him was what had happened...that I... He choked me and I lay dead to him for five minutes he said until I finally heard his Voice and command to Live."

"He was terribly upset for what had happened, Belesama. In what I tell you, please do not be cross with him. He did not mean for it to happen. I asked what had happened and he said that he did not understand. He felt something struggle within him. That his oath was neither gone nor binding.... but still he moved to do me harm." She closes her eyes and rubs her hand against her leg. "He thought that his king wanted him back, that Cian feared the darkness and wanted him back." Then she's rubbing her eyes against tears. "I would see a woman knowing this if she were to lay with any of the Word."

"I think I understand," I say sadly. What hell is this? I need someone wise and safe and I don't know who here is the right person. Certainly not me, or this girl.

"I might risk my life for love too, if I found it, Blythe."

"I do not think he will take my life. But I would not make him anxious and give him more to worry over." She sighs, "I know not what is happening, why it happens or what I should do, Belesama. I want the refuge of the Wilde but I will not run and hide."

"I would be sad if you did, but I would be sad if you died, too. It is easy for my to say I'd risk my life for love, Blythe. I've already risked my life for less, and will do so again in two days," I smile, and lean in to pull her close. "I believe there are answers to all these things, but we must be wary the solutions are not worse," I whisper. I pull back as I realize we look like we're having a little lover's chat, but then grin wickedly as it makes a cover for these darker discussions. I check to see who might be watching us, half hoping they'll mistake the situation.

"I have no want to die and will fight against it. I will share him with Death but I will not share my life with her." I lean my head against hers and know again I have picked a great friend, "I understand the sense of that, Belesama. You are right." She kisses my cheek. I smile.

"It looks as if the Smith and her the new Knight have arrived," I tell Blythe, and motion with my head.

"Ah, he did win, didn't he?" Blythe recalls and smiles for them.