[center][color=33d6c2][h3][i]Saisri “Sisi” Tyalanthe[/i][/h3]
[sub]Bride of Exon Xe’Jah [@Ellion], sister-bride to Nadia Parnel [@Vesuvius00][/sub][/color][/center]
Saisri gasped in sympathy as she saw Nadia’s bruised wrist. The poor girl…

What happened next took a moment to get through her sleep-addled brain. Exon had… flung her off the bed, indicating that she was to sleep on the couch and remain silent until instructed otherwise.

She supposed she should be grateful that it wasn’t a physical punishment… She doubted Nadia would be able to handle such a thing. But still, it was rather unnecessarily cruel, to keep the girl isolated, unable to speak for herself.

When Exon tucked himself back into bed, Saisri did not snuggle to his side as he intended. Sure, she let him pull her close, but held still—not forming to the shape of his body as he seemed to want. In that momentary altercation with Nadia she’d seen how ruthless Exon really was and now she felt as though she couldn’t trust him.

Lack of trust or not, sleep still called to her. In moments she was breathing deeply, already lost in dreamland. 

[hr]
[center][color=a2d39c][h3][i]Sorici Amberra[/i][/h3]
[sub]Bride of Cuwarr Naxremis [@Cubix], sister-bride to Kalani Solle [@karamonnom][/sub][/color][/center]

As ever, Sorici listened without saying much – or anything, in this case. She felt a bit of a rush of pity-respect-sorrow for Cuwarr, but did not express it, and did not even look at him.

When he looked at her painting she kept her eyes downcast, not speaking even as he addressed her directly. Her heart gave a little flutter, however – she tried to ignore it but his words kept fluttering around her head. “change her hatred towards him.”

She hated the Drakken people, that much was clear… They’d killed her family, her best friends who weren’t “pretty enough” to be brought here, all the little children. Every single person. She hated them.

But… Did she hate this Drakken who spoke of moonlight and purpose and art?
 
The Drakken beckoned her to the bed; she waited for Kalani to choose which side she was to sleep on. She was glad that Kalani took the left; she took her place on the right. A warrior always stood to the right of their lord—

The rebels were dead, but… maybe fighting for her new husband’s honor was a suitable cause.
[hr]
[center][color=f0a446][h3][b]Siadamkiru “Sia” Beneni[/b][/h3]
[sub]Wife of Sorrin Lucielle [@WeepingLiberty] and Onyx Briyll [@Vesuvius00][/sub][/color][/center]

Sia smiled a razor’s smile as the small lord agreed to accompany her. She was glad to have Zakroti’s help, though she was still rather wary of the lord—there was no doubt that he was full of tricks and would stab her in the back without a second thought.

[color=f0a446]“Three miles north of the divide in the Great Road. If you would like, your household can ride with mine in the morning—we will leave at dawn.”[/color] The woman hesitated for a moment, not sure of any other details to impart. As she hesitated she listened to Sorrin and the other bride talking, laughing about the lizard who was apparently named Leo.

The watchmen’s bell began ringing, twelve times. It was the sign of midnight, of course. Sia hesitated for only a moment more. Finally she curtsied slightly to the shorter lord, and turned to leave. [color=f0a446]“If you will excuse me, my lord; I am going to escort my bride back to my chambers. While I am accustomed to riding on no sleep, I doubt that my lady Sorrin is, and I would rather not make this transition any more stressful for her.”[/color]

She couldn’t resist a faint chuckle as she took in the sight of Sorrin and Kasari playing with Leo the Lizard. [color=f0a446]“Sorrin, come along. You’ll have time to talk with Kasari tomorrow, but we’ll have an early morning.”[/color]

The woman took Sorrin by the arm, Sorrin’s right and her left. Her right hand remained on her sword hilt – after all, drunken Drakken didn’t always have a good sense of personal boundaries.

As they passed the great hall, all but deserted, Sia heard a desperate cry for help. She whirled, hand clenching around the hilt of her sword, and peered around the half-closed door, using one hand on the collar of Sorrin’s dress to keep her close. It seemed as though some drakken lord was throwing his bride around – Sia knew she shouldn’t get involved.

Buut…. That desperate cry for help. The spikes where it seemed the very floor had grown up against the Drakken.

Sia hesitated for only a second longer, just long enough to pull Sorrin close and whisper, [color=f0a446]“When we go into that room, you hide under the first table we pass. Cover your ears and shut your eyes and don’t come out until I come for you.”[/color]

With that, she pushed the doors open with a bang. The lord turned to face her, the purple-faced Gem still clutched in his hand. Sia recognized him immediately, and rage caused her eyes to burn gold and flames to dance across her skin. The drakken who’d snapped the girl’s neck because she’d clapped. And she recognized him too—enough to put a face to a name at least. Vilyn Hilevus. Oh, this man was a brute. He’d had a Drakken wife once, and seemingly been too rough with her, killed her on choosing night.

[color=f0a446]“Lord Hilevus, whatever are you doing to that poor gemminite? Put her down, you’re going to hurt her.”[/color]

“Why would I do that?”

Sia was coming close to him, long strides eating up the ground. She stopped a mere few inches away from him, close enough to see the Gem girl’s feeble struggling. That poor thing.

[color=f0a446]“Because I’d imagine there are more worthy playthings around here.”[/color] She thinly smiled up at the brute. As she held his gaze her hand flicked out and slammed into the underside of his elbow. Causing his hand to relax and his entire arm to go numb—also causing him to drop the Gemminite girl, who collapsed in a heap on the floor and sucked in a deep breath, coughing weakly. She’d be alright.

Sia curled herself into the Drakken lord’s arm, eyes half-lidded and smoldering. [color=f0a446]“Playthings such as me, milord.”[/color]

The lord growled with desire as he began clawing at her dress, fumbling with the laces. Sia pulled him close, hand gripping the loose collar of his tunic. She smiled up at him even as she pulled him down, even as the heel of her other hand slammed up into his jaw. The lord’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell, thumping hard to the floor where he lay motionless. Stunned, if not unconscious. 

An indignant shout came from the doorway, and she turned to see four angry berserkers wearing the Hilevus colors charging at her, swords at the ready. She drew her own blade and stepped onto the dais, intent on using whatever extra height advantage she could get – and luring the combatants away from Sorrin’s hiding place and the fallen Drakken and Gem. These guards really were idiots, though she was slightly worried about the fact that there were four of them. Then they were on her, and she quit thinking about anything other than the fight for a moment. One of them, probably still a youth judging by his lack of horns, went down in seconds, having forgotten to block her very first strike. She wrenched her sword out of the body in barely enough time to block an overhand blow that could have split her in two, and then hissed in pain as another combatant’s blade whisked down her back.

She thought she’d be a goner for sure, because they’d closed around her, but then there was a whistling sound and a juicy impact, and a shriek of pain abruptly cut off. She seized the moment of distraction to whip her sword around, driving it through one guard’s heart, then whirled in time to see a glaive take the one remaining guardsman’s head.

[color=3895db]“You’re getting sloppy, milady. You’da been a goner, had we not been walking by.”[/color] That wry voice came from the pretty, blue-eyed Aldar Drais, one of Sia’s many guardswomen and protégées. She was leaning on her glaive, panting slightly.
[color=539a00]“Aye she would’ve. Sure a good thing we were here.”[/color] The girl’s younger sister, Acadea, said, also leaning on her glaive, absently digging the point of it into the floor.

Sia rolled her eyes. She loved the twins to bits but they were so annoying sometimes. [color=f0a446]“And dare I ask where you lovely ladies have been all night?”[/color]

Aldar shrugged. [color=3895db]“Fucking men, drinking ale, collecting secrets, gossiping with the underlings. The usual.”[/color]
Acadea giggled. [color=539a00]“More of the first two than the last two. Well, except for Meiya. Rizan put her in time-out, said that she was too young to be doing such things. Rizan tried to say the same to me but I played deaf.”[/color]

Sia snorted, but quickly was serious again. [color=f0a446]“I know I gave you the night off but since you’re here you might as well help me clean this mess up. Aldar. That lump over there”[/color] she jerked her thumb at the collapsed drakken lord. [color=f0a446]“is my prisoner; take him to camp and chain him somewhere where he won’t cause a ruckus. Gag him and blindfold him, too. When you come back, you lot come up to the room—remember we have an early start tomorrow.”[/color]

Aldar hesitated. [color=3895db]“Milady… are you sure that’s wise? Taking him prisoner, that is. People won’t be happy that you broke the truce of the night…”[/color]

Sia glared at the girl and she fell silent, with only an “of course, milady”, and shuffled off, all but dragging the massive lump of Drakken.

The woman sighed heavily as she looked at the carnage that had become this side of the room. She dimly recognized another fallen Drakken as lord Kaivor Igvrius, then did a bit of a double take. So it hadn’t been a drakken and his bride. It had been a drakken who’d murdered another, more honorable drakken, and stolen his bride. After having killed his own bride. Or at least, that was the impression she got.

[color=f0a446]“Acadea, have the servants collect Lord Igvrius’s remains and deliver them back to his family—they need to know what happened here.”[/color]

Acadea saluted and trotted off, to the kitchens, probably, to find someone to help her.

Sia looked down at the Gem girl she’d just rescued. The girl was still gasping for air and probably too weak to talk, much less walk. So she, with a mumbled apology, scooped the girl up, wrapping one arm around the girl’s back and the other under her knees (and draping her so her arm was around Sia’s neck), and proceeded to walk towards the door on legs that were (quite embarrassingly) shaking. She spoke quietly to the girl in her arms, not sure if she’d be able to hear and process or not.

[color=f0a446]“My name is Siadamkiru Beneni. I don’t mean to hurt you, child, so stay calm and breathe and gather your strength. That would have killed almost any other Gemminite. Kaivor Igvrius will be laid to rest by his family, and Vilyn Hilevus will be dealt justice – do not worry about them.[/color]

She paused by the table beside the door and knocked on the surface, carefully balancing the gem girl to avoid dropping her. [color=f0a446]“Sorrin, you can come out now, but look right at me, child. Just look at me.”[/color] She realized too late that her dress was torn and bloodied. She also realized that the gouge in her back hurt fiercely.

Oh well, nothing to be done about it now, except get up to the rooms and away from all this bloodshed. Sia took Sorrin by the hand and led the girl upstairs, still awkwardly cradling the other Gemminite girl.

 [hr]
[center][color=fda5e7][h3][i]Aerienna “Aery” Cassiel[/i][/h3]
[sub]Bride of Lugft Huron [@agentmanatee], sister-bride to Atallia Faeron [@NarcissisticPotato][/sub][/color][/center]

[color=fda5e7][i]Oh, good job, Aery.[/i][/color] the girl thought to herself. The Drakken had yanked Talli out of the kiss (Aery forced herself to pretend that she wasn’t at all disappointed by the sudden separation) and then done something to her, before flinging her limp body up to the head of the bed.

When the Drakken reached for her, his massive hands nearly wrapping around the small girl’s body entirely, she went completely limp, mind going blank and eyes going wide. As the Drakken kissed her she weakly pushed at him in a futile effort to make him stop—of course that wouldn’t happen.

The lord gave her a vicious grin as he ripped her dress off, casting it to the floor. The girl whimpered faintly in fear, internally begging her gods to have mercy and let her pass out before things got too painful.
[hr]
[center][color=c2a5fd][h3][i]Aymiria “Miry” Cassiel[/i][/h3]
[sub]Bride of Zakroti Unalim [@darkwolf687], sister-bride to Kasari Liesma [@WeepingLiberty][/sub][/color][/center]

Miry choked, jumping to her feet indignantly as Vain tore the paper in two. She tried to talk back to him but it only resulted in an indignant squeaking. In anger the girl went limp and nearly cried again, but forced herself to stifle it. [i][color=c2a5fd]He’s right, I am acting like a child. But… wait, he says I can actually do something about it… I have that right? No one at court ever said anything about gemminite brides having [b]rights[/b]…[/color][/i]

The pint-sized girl took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, reaching for another piece of paper and the pen. She began writing again, though was careful to hold the pen tightly to not let her hands tremble all over the page like they wanted to.

[color=c2a5fd]You say that I have power to command people? That I have power to change things? You must forgive me, this is a strange notion. They say that girls aren’t supposed to take an interest in politics, and as a commoner I have almost no exposure to it anyway, so I’m unfortunately not experienced at all with this. So forgive me if I overstep my authority.

Send one guardsman to collect Astrae’s remains and take her to be laid to rest in the gardens. I will bury her myself if need be, unless there’s a Gemminite priest who can be here before morning to do the rites. I will write to my elder brother – he managed the family’s finances – and ask him to use mine and my sister’s savings to provide schooling, food, and a home for Astrae’s family – and bring them under the royal house’s protection if possible.

Send however many you think is necessary to detain the lord who killed her. I want him brought before the justice of, if not the courts, at least someone who’s powerful enough to judge whether to sentence him to death or to lock him away forever.[/color]

She read over her words again, then placed the quill back in in the inkwell and handed the paper to Vain. She wiped at her eyes again, and was shocked to realize they were dry—having a purpose was a rather empowering thing, she supposed.
[hr]
[hider=summary]
[color=33d6c2][b]Saisri:[/b] sleepyish introspection.[/color]
[color=a2d39c][b]Sorici:[/b] Also introspection.[/color]
[color=f0a446][b]Siadamkiru:[/b] Makes a deal with Zak. Rescues Onyx. Is injured. Introducing some of her guards. Takes both girls up to her rooms to get away from bloodshed.[/color]
[color=fda5e7][b]Aerienna:[/b] Poor, poor Aery…[/color]
[color=c2a5fd][b]Aymiria:[/b] Miry has a Plan! ™[/color]
[/hider]