Chapel Orahamm

Over the course of the ten minutes it took to clear his lungs of the liquid and his skin to come back to a normal temperature, Fane had time to sort through the memories he now could flip through easily.  It was all at the edge of his fingertips. Nothing hid from him behind walls and dark corners. He was not sure he wanted to remember everything now that he knew what it encompassed. The rest of the group helped clean out the pod and set the warehouse back in order during Fane’s inversion.

When he slid off the rack and reached for his bathrobe, a hand stopped him.  “Fane.” Ishan was staring at his back in worry.

“What?” he asked, trying to look over his shoulder.  

“You’ve got tattoos.  Sort of. I mean, they look more like really deep red scars without the skin damage aspect.”  Ishan traced the dragon face labyrinth on his back. Fane tried to see what he could of himself.  Shallow red lines well under his scars skimmed the edges of his shoulders. He twisted to look at his sides where more lines were sunk under his skin.  Then he noticed the thick lines on his biceps. He rubbed at them, only forcing the lines to show up brighter under his fingerprints before they returned to their sallow red.  

He looked up at Ishan and then to Bern.  Bern wiped at Fane’s back in curiosity and rubbed at his arm to see the lines darken and lighten under the pressure.  He spun on Ishan and plucked at his shirt sleeve. “Do you have them too?” he asked.

Ishan pulled the collar of his kurta over.  Bern peeked down the back of his shirt and then pulled it to the side of his shoulder to expose his upper bicep.  No lines were on his back, but matching bands to Bern and Fane circled his arms too. “What is this Bern? You didn’t tattoo me,” he stated.

“No.  I didn’t.” Bern poked at the band on Ishan’s arm in confusion.  “They’re wedding bands.”

“Wedding-” Fane started.

“-bands?” Ishan asked.

“You two got married in the void and didn’t invite everyone else?” Sophia pushed in on the conversation.

“I don’t remember the ‘I dos’, and I’m pretty sure I’d be squealing for joy if I did.  Do you?” Ishan asked Fane.

“I remember us discussing marriage back when I wailed on Heinrich earlier, but there was no priest to officiate,” Fane offered.

“You’re Catholic?” Ishan asked in confusion.

“Atheist. Mum was Catholic,” Fane shrugged.

“I’m a priest,” Bern offered in the midst of the interchange.

“Bern’s a priest,” Dietrick said at the same moment

“Oh, okay, same.  I was gonna say…  Wait. What?” Ishan turned from Fane to Bern.

“You promised each other marriage and then Fane opened up his soul to you in the most intimate way possible and you accepted him for all of it.  I was proceeding over his coming-of-age ceremony. The Fyskar I grew up with paint these symbols on your back during wedding ceremonies rather than during coming-of-age,” Bern offered.

“You’re a priest?” Fane demanded.  “I thought you were a Healer and I was a Shaman.”

“I deal with the soul of the Fyskar, so, in a way, I am a priest,” Bern admitted.

“You married us?” Fane and Ishan asked at the same time.

Bern and Dietrik exchanged a questioning glance.  Bern shrugged. “Congratulations?” he offered.

“Well, that was a short engagement,” Ishan muttered.

“I was sort of looking forward to the whole down the aisle bit,” Fane murmured.  Ishan turned to look at Fane with a raised eyebrow. “What? Having you witness my whole life wasn’t my idea of watching you walk down the aisle,” Fane admitted. 

Ishan had a difficult time not smiling at that admission. “I’m the one walking down the aisle?”

“Have you seen you in white?” Fane reminisced to his first encounter with the prince.

“I think I’m starting to a catch a theme about how your brain works.”

“And I personally think I look better in black.” Fane’s smile was more fangy than necessary.

“There is a beach you showed me,” Ishan offered.

“Sunset or dawn?” Fane bounced up on the balls of his feet excitedly.

“This seems rather fast,” Sophia offered.

“Apparently we’re already married, so let me have my wedding,” Fane grouched at her.

“Why did I not picture you of all men wanting a wedding?” Sophia asked as they walked out of the warehouse.

“What? The scarred, short, ill-bred, foul-mouthed, military redhead can’t want to watch his partner dazzle with a fantastic backdrop and maybe some flowers?” Fane pulled Ishan in to walk side by side with him.

“Dazzle?” Ishan snorted.

“Yeah? You dazzle,” Fane pointed out.

“Why is Ishan dazzling?” Yeller asked at the door to the main compound.

“Get this, they got married,” Deck let his friend in on it.

“Looks more like he got baptized,” Yeller nodded at Fane’s still damp hair.

“And somewhere during that time, Bern presided over us getting married.” Fane held the door open for the rest of the group to walk into the building.

“You didn’t invite the rest of us?” Yeller quipped.

“Didn’t know we got married till we came back out,” Ishan added to the confusion.

“How did you get married and not know that you got married?” Yeller asked.

“The fainne posaidh dearg,” Bern tapped his arm where his red bands lay.

“Fainne bainise dearg?” Yeller checked his understanding.

“The crveni vjencani prsten showed up, Cashia,” Dietrik added.

“Seriously?  I thought you guys were doing stuff in the void, not actually branding.” Cashia closed the door behind them and followed Fane as he led the way to the medical ward side of the building.  “I’m amazed he’s up after that,” he muttered to Ishan as Fane opened the door to Nat’s room.

“We didn’t brand him,” Ishan explained.  Fane grabbed Cashia and led the way over to the hospital bed. “Why are we in here?” Ishan asked when everyone had crowded into the room.  Sven perked up to the greeting of all the men and looked up to Fane’s approach. Fane rested his hand on the wolf’s head and launched all of them into the void.

---

“What are we doing in here, Shaman?” Cashia asked, suddenly nervous.  Tereza emerged to wrap her arm around her husband’s waist.

“I won’t question time to see my boyfriend.” Yeller smiled as he hugged Nat behind Fane.  Sven shrugged and settled into a seat.

“I needed to talk to you and Tereza, and didn’t want to put you on the spot with everyone else.” Fane rubbed at the back of his head.  His heart was beating out of his chest.

“What’s with the lines?” Nat asked.

“Well, Dietrik was right.  You do have the red wedding bands.  Congratulations are in order, Shaman.” Cashia reached over to shake Fane’s hand.  Fane shook it bashfully before clearing his throat.

“Not those lines, the ones on his back.” Nat pointed.

“Cashia,” Sven cautioned, noting the marks Nat was interested in.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Fane nodded.

“Well, let’s see ‘em.” Cashia spun Fane around.  

Tereza’s gasp had his heart breaking.  “Jian,” she whimpered.

“What’s the meaning of this, Shaman?” Cashia asked in a harsh whisper.

“Had Bern and Dietrik tattoo my soul for the coming-of-age ceremony.  It’s visible out in the real world too. He gave me a lot of people to look through for a pattern.  Found this one and resonated with his brand. Said he was a prior master. I can keep a shirt on out there when I’m around you, and in here too, if it bothers you, but I didn’t want to hide what I did from you,” Fane explained while Tereza traced a line across his back.

“You don’t need to do that, Shaman.  I am not so weak willed to ask you to.” Cashia allowed Fane to turn back around.  “You two would have gotten along.” The robust blacksmith smiled down at Fane sympathetically.

“Dietrik said the same.  I just…I didn’t know what type of relationship you had between you and this guy. Fire and ice, he called one of the components to the pattern.  I didn’t want to bring up painful memories carelessly,” he said.

“Thank you for your consideration, Fane.” Tereza’s gentle smile calmed his nerves.  “He was a good man. I worked for Liling, his wife, as a hand maid. She was always considerate of me and intervened when other men tried to harass me.  Cashia learned his blacksmithing from Jian.”

“I had a subtle impression, maybe it was just me jumping to conclusions, that he didn’t just teach him blacksmithing.  I have a bit of a past, and tend to assume the worst of things,” Fane tried to hedge.

“We enjoyed each other’s company.  Social circumstances left us at arms length in public.” Cashia took up his wife’s hand.  Fane leaned against the back of the chair behind him.

“He didn’t…” Fane trailed off, allowing his question to hang.

“Jian and Liling always let us say no if we didn’t want to do something.  They were good partners and good employers. I call them employers. They paid me for my blacksmithing services and Tereza for being a maid.  By the documents they provided us with, we were freemen. We stayed with them because they offered us protection from others who would have enslaved us readily, even with our documents.  Paper can be destroyed easily enough. Come, congratulations are in order for you and your husband,” Cashia motioned to Fane.

“You sure?” Fane asked once more.

“Perfectly, Fane. Thank you.” Cashia patted him on the back.

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