Luanna hesitated. “I’m not good at this, you’re the first person I’ve ever been in
love with.” She took a moment, and Luna gladly let her, knowing her lover had more to
say.
“Ashrine-te is a form of endearment, it’s not used between friends or even just
causal lovers, some scholars choose to translate it as soul mate, but that’s a
simplification.”
“Beautiful.” Luna said sincerely. “Continue.”
Instead Luanna asked a question. “Do you really love me?”
“Always and forever, I’ll never forget you if I live a millennium.” Luna answered
instantly and with deep feeling.
“Do you trust me?”
Luna looked at her steadily for a moment. “Yes, but,” She began.
“No,” Luanna interrupted. “Do you trust me?”
“Implicitly.”
“Then drink.”
Luna only waited a moment, then she tilted her head back and drained the wine.
Luanna slid forward and took the empty cup; she swept a hand out to indicate the bed.
“Please sit darling.” She asked.
Luna sat. She reached out and fondled one of the neatly wrapped packages; let her
hand skim over the pile of towels, Luanna watched her without saying anything as she
untied the package, she didn’t open it.
“Are these gifts?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Luanna replied evasively. “They are tools I need to give
you a gift.”
“Can I open it?” Luna asked quietly.
Luanna nodded, looking pensive. The package, one of two opened to reveal several
items rolled securely into a leather strip with rawhide thongs attached to make it an
Amazon style carrying hide.
The items glinted in the soft lamp-light: the most innocuous a small wash-leather
bag capable of holding anything drawstrings threaded through the rawhide strap, a pair of
long thin and deathly sharp knives with straight blades, each sharp only on one side; most
puzzling, a piece of pig iron, nothing more than a foot long piece of metal with a blunt
head and thick rawhide wrapped around and tied in place to make a handle.
Luanna let her examine the objects silently for a moment, then she reached down and
as her lover watched, picked up the last puzzling object and nestled its metal end deeply
in the ember filled brazier; leaving the insulating leather handle jutting out over the
brazier’s rim.
Luna sucked in a sharp breath; glance going from the now heating metal to her
lover’s anxious face. “You Amazons do so love ritual pain, don’t you?”
“How do you know it’s meant for you?” Luanna asked.
“Because you’re getting me drunk to dull the pain; so I won’t feel it as acutely.”
“Even drunk you’re quick Ashrine-te.” Luanna admitted apprehensively, and
appreciatively.
“I’m not drunk darling, just a little tipsy, I only had one glass of wine with
dinner.” The elf spoke softly. “Now tell me, Ashrine-te is the entire point to see how
much pain I’ll endure to prove my love for you? Because if it is I’ll take as much as you
want to give me.”
“No, no.” Luanna protested, sitting beside the elf, shifting the hilt of her saber
out of her ribs with an absent practiced shove. “The pain is only incidental my love, if I
could do it painlessly I would.”
“Do what? and don’t evade.”
“Ashrine is a thing rarely encountered, most go their whole lives without meeting
theirs; a ritual mark is often made to show the world Ashrine-che’s love for Ashrine-te.”
“A brand.” Luna stated.
“Yes a brand, a mark to identify our love for each other; it is an ancient and
honored ritual.” She hesitated, then continued. “It is not actually required, but you are
an outsider, and I am the daughter of a tribal chieftain, the mark would make it more
acceptable, or else someone might take offense and challenge me to a dual over our love.”
“Where?”
She understood implicitly, “on the inner thigh.” Luanna answered softly, stroking
the appropriate place.
“And I do this to you as well?”
“You are so very bright my love, one of the many thing’s I love about you; but yes,
it’s one of the reasons I can’t get you roaringly drunk.”
“I only have one more question beloved, and then you can tell me how to proceed.”
Luanna smiled radiantly. “Ask anything.”
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