As always, huge thanks to Todger65 for helping edit!
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Krouth had whisked her, unseen, back to her room to change, while Draeseth had sent for the people required to witness the Arrangement contract being signed. Isonei could tell the slim servant was not pleased with this turn of events but he remained silent, and she was having too many doubts to discuss the matter.
Nor had Brother Odgar been pleased that the Torgan Prince was entering into an Aran Arrangement but Draeseth cut him off with what sounded like a brief scolding in Torgan. Lislora was subdued when she spoke with Draeseth and also earned a chiding after which she gave a low curtsy and retreated to the other side of the room.
The Arrangement was written in the traditional formal Aran and after she and Draeseth had both signed, the gathered witnesses did the same. It was done twice so that one copy could be sent to King Orgath; Isonei assumed that copy would also be sent to King Tamnaeuth once the Torgan King had viewed it. The other copy Draeseth locked away.
Afterward she was escorted back to her rooms by Krouth once more. This time the man spoke icily once they had entered and the door was closed behind them. "You are more devious than I gave you credit for, your Grace. I thought you had intended to allow his Highness a wife better suited to his needs."
"That was my intention." On seeing his gelid, disbelieving look she inclined her head, "Ask Xago of Mun why I gave my consent."
The slim Torgan's dubiousness didn't fade. "Does your Grace require anything else?"
"No." Isonei retreated to the window looking out but not truly seeing anything in the gathering gloom. "Maeralya, mother of all, I beg you..." The words caught in her throat and she pressed her face into the cold glass. She had no right to beg for things to be rectified when she kept making a mess of them.
She took a breath. Arans do not bargain in bad faith, her father had taught her that. He and the elder Daga would both be proud that she had intervened for Xago but... it left her in Torga with a man who was not behaving the way she had believed he would.
It wasn't surprising or upsetting to her that he'd come to see the value in taking another lover, Lislora had been pushed at him at a time when his needs were not being met. But she had seen a much better man when she'd looked at him in Ara, a man she missed. Isonei kept her eyes closed. The heavy feeling of helplessness knotted her stomach.
There was only one thing she could think of to do, press down the misery and try to find some joy. Perhaps Draeseth was right; perhaps if she embraced this life here in Torga things wouldn't be so bad. With the Arrangement in place she could hope his jealousy would ease. If she rewarded him each time he showed her that man, perhaps he would return to the surface. And perhaps-
The nervous sound of a throat clearing startled her. "Forgive me, Lady Isonei. Krouth allowed me in as he was leaving." Brother Odgar looked perplexed. "I had expected you to be more pleased this evening."
"I didn't want to stay. But I do care for Draeseth and he is insistent that he will make me happy here." She gave him a thin smile. "Is there something you require?"
He blinked. "I thought perhaps you would like to offer thanks at the sacellum."
"For the cloak." Isonei nodded, taking a deep breath as she remembered she had agreed to. "If you take me there I will. I don't know what or where that is."
"I will show you, your Grace. It was expected that you would have already been reclaimed when you... What do you intend to teach your children?" The priest looked dejected as if he'd failed in a task.
"Children belong to their father's House. They would be raised in his religion, but I intend to teach them to be respectful of the religions of others." She gave him a small smile as he relaxed, leading her through the house toward where the cloaks were kept.
"That is a very reasonable attitude, your Grace." He frowned when he realized her cloak was not where it belonged. Leaving her for a moment her found someone to ask and sent them scurrying with a few stern words. "Your cloak is being kept under a more watchful eye."
"Draeseth's?" Her lips twisted as he inclined his head.
They waited for a moment and as the thought occurred to her to take his cloak, the Torgan Prince joined them looking amused.
"Your gift of the cloak was appreciated; it is not being taken from her. I simply wish to know when my wife leaves the house. She is too impulsive to be allowed to wander." Draeseth put the cloak over her shoulders. "It would please me to join you for prayers. If Brother Odgar has been taking you to the sacellum, I am pained to have missed it."
"This is her first visit." Odgar pulled on his own cloak.
The Torgan Prince made a pleased sound in his throat. "The first time you go to offer thanks is the day you have Arranged yourself to me." He adjusted his own cloak and bent to kiss the top of her head. "I wish to offer mine as well. Ganas has given me all I have asked for."
"It still seems strange to me that you would ask your God for something so specific."
"Your Grace?" Odgar looked at her oddly.
"The Gods choose how to answer, if you ask something, as I asked for comfort, you do not tell them how. They know what the best way would be."
The priest smiled brightly, "You have faith. When you learn to put that faith in Ganas instead of your false Gods you will find yourself better served, your Grace."
"Her Grace." Draeseth opened the door, ignoring the incredulous look she gave the priest. "The sound pleases me. Come, my Duchess, I have a great deal of thanks to offer."
The sacellum was a small domed building with high round windows and an arched door on the other side of the house from the winter garden. Inside, it seemed every inch was painted with pictures of Torgans battling hideous creatures or surrounded by light and kneeling. There was so much happening on the walls it was almost disorienting as she tried to take it all in.
Above the altar was a large piece made of colored glass, a proud looking Torgan man with his hands raised, behind him the sea and great cliffs rising from it.
"Saint Mallach. Ganas told him he would raise Torga to give his chosen people protection and time to grow strong. They should not fear his works. I always favored the tale." Draeseth gave her a pleased smile as she took her eyes from it. "My grandfather had an image carved in wood hung there when I was a child."
"This is a temple?" Isonei looked back and forth between the two amused looking Torgans.
"This is a sacellum." Odgar gestured around him, "A small place devoted to Ganas where the family and its servants may come to pray or worship. It is only for his Highness and those of his household. A temple is much larger and open to all."
She looked at the nearly bare altar with a frown. "But there's an altar, you're clearly meant to leave gifts as in a temple."
The priest looked as though he were trying not to laugh. "No, your Grace. The altar is not to leave gifts on, it is to lay things upon that you wish to have blessed."
Draeseth directed her to kneel next to him and bow her head listening to the Torgan prayers being intoned. Silently she offered an apology for coming like a rude guest without a gift and then thanking Ganas for the kindness of his priests, choosing to include those whom she had met in the Torga Dalcur.
The prayers being spoken seemed to continue on interminably, well after she had finished her silent ones. After a time she began to fidget and Draeseth stilled her with a hand on her back, not raising his head. It reminded her strongly of the first time she had gone with her father to visit Daga Liadith. They had spoken Lerian, which she did not understand well, and she had tried to sit still and be patient. The first time she fidgeted her father had stilled her with his hand, he second time he had given her a frown that the Daga noticed. She'd been sent to play with Onsh-Liadith. Smiling at the memory, she waited as patiently as she could for the priest to finish.
The moment the prayers had ended and Draeseth lifted his head she practically sprang from her kneeling position with relief. Isonei was given permission to walk back to the house on her own as the Prince and the priest wished to have a moment's discussion. The freedom of being allowed to walk by herself was almost exhilarating.
That feeling was short lived, however, as she entered the house and hung her cloak. Making her way back toward her rooms she glimpsed Krouth and Lislora standing together in comfortable conversation.
"Of course you should stay, Lady Lislora. She is utterly unable to perform the duties expected of the Duchess of Kroscur and as eager as he is for their first child I doubt she will be with us for long. Her mother died in childbirth bearing an Aran babe, I would not expect her to survive the birth of a Torgan child."
"He is much larger than she is." Lislora sounded speculative. "But will he return to his better self once her influence has been removed? She has him spending money wastefully and he is seeking trouble outside of Torga and being disrespectful toward priests like one of his brothers."
"I believe he will, my Lady. Especially if he has your wholesome influence to counteract the ill she has brought with her from Ara."
She slipped away wordlessly. It was a conversation she was meant to overhear, or it would have been held in Torgan. That she didn't feel she could argue any particular point made it more bitter. The feeling that everything that had gone wrong was her fault sat like stones on her chest.
°°°°°°°°°°
Dinner was quiet. Isonei picked at the chicken she'd been served, it had been cooked in a wine and caper sauce. It was clear to her, if not to Draeseth, that the meal was more of a punishment than something she was intended to eat. He did however notice her lack of appetite and subdued manner.
"You are not as joyful as I had hoped, my sweet wife." Once they stepped into his chambers, he kissed her with more tenderness than she expected from him. "Show me a way to offer you my love with my gentleness. I want you to spend tonight savoring your flower wine and not the Beast of Kroscur."
It was her turn to kiss him urgently, desperately. Tenderness and gentleness were what she needed. "Yes, please I-" a juddering breath escaped her and he murmured softly in Torgan lifting her and carrying her to the bed.
"You have needed my embrace and my tenderness since you arrived and I have denied it to you." He lay down with her held tightly, pressing his face to hers.
