It made perfect sense to Darin. The killing of innocents needed to stop so Ridahne stopped it by killing those responsible. Darin could see the logic behind that, and though it may have made her naïve she agreed with it. She could even be fair to those who had sentence Ridahne to death. Laws had been broken. Oaths had been betrayed. What was the point of a law if there was no punishment for breaking it? Darin might not have agreed the law was right in this case, but for all she knew the people who had sentenced Ridahne to death didn’t have the full story. Darin could understand that. It all made sense.

Until it didn’t. Darin wasn’t sure she had the full story. She wasn’t exactly sure who Ajoran was, but he was supposed to marry Ridahne. The Elf had said that flat out. It also sounded like he loved her. Not only did he love her, but he loved her enough to wait as long as it took for Ridahne to come home. What little Darin had of the story that made sense. What Darin couldn’t comprehend was that Ridahne had said. It almost sounded like she had left him with no hope that she would be returning to him. If the Elf wasn’t going home to the one person that loved her more than anything, the man it sounded like she loved, did she love him after all? To the young human it almost sounded like the warrior had left her lover the same way Martin had left Talia. That was the part that Darin could not comprehend. She was starting to think she would never get it. She hadn’t gotten it when her father left her mother after all and she didn’t get it now.

However, Darin did not mention that. Instead she let her voice grow cold, “Oath-Breaker. You call yourself Oath-Breaker. Go home and that’s exactly what you’ll be.”

Yeah; Ridahne’s dismissal of her lover confused her, but her desire to go home after being so heartbroken over breaking an oath that seemed stupid to Darin made Darin angry. Did the oaths or promises that the Elf had made to her mean nothing? It probably wasn’t as fancy as the Azurei oaths, but in Darin’s mind they had made promises to each other in Greyrock. The village didn’t have any fancy ceremonies for such promises, but they carried a weight heavier than all the earth. 

Darin was surprised at how angry she was, “Go home now, go home when you find me a so call better guardian, and may The Tree take you for evil!”

Heavy words; heavy words that everyone in Astra knew. They were not words taken lightly. They were not words spoken in jest. Even children knew not to say them without extremely good cause. To have The Tree take someone for evil was worse than wishing them dead. It was to have all of Astra turn against you. It was to have your name blotted out of soul and mind. It was to be exiled in a place you could never leave. It was the highest insult and the greatest dishonor. For the Seed-Bearer to say it meant the words may actually be literal instead of figurative the way the they were when most people spoke them. If Ridahne truly chose to break the promises she had given to Darin the moment the Elf figured out who she was the Azurei wouldn’t have time to kill her. The very stone, sky, and sea would take Ridahne Torzinei first.

Darin continued, “You named me Ri'atal--the Hope of Many. You offered me your life and blade. You volunteered to protect and guide me.” She was standing and just about screaming at the still sitting Elf, “Even before you knew me as the Seed-Bearer you offered to teach the misplaced farmgirl how to use her knife. Those are serious promises. I would not break them if I were you!” She forced her voice to be calmer, “You killed to make things right. How many more did you kill to do what was wrong? Can you ever truly make that up by killing alone? Will you really be an oath breaker again?” She practically hissed the next bit, “You ran from your guilt by breaking your promises. You ran from your broken promises by running to death. You ran from death by taking this task. You ran from the man that would stand by you despite anything by leaving him heartbroken. You have run from consequences over and over and over again. You do not get to run this time. You will walk with me Ridahne Torzinei Seed-Chained. You walk with me, Darin Seed-Bearer, until The Seed is planted or until I breath no more and my body lies underground to help grow that which we eat. If you chose not to do so, for any reason besides me releasing you, you will die in the most dishonorable way possible. It will not be a death you choose.”

Darin wasn’t sure where those words had come from except for the fact that every single one of them was true. She had started sitting, but at some point, discovered she was standing to yell at the creature more than five times her age. How did the warrior no so little about life? Consequences could not be avoided. Promises, even rash ones, needed to be kept. Darin’s entire attention was on the Elf she was beyond mad at. She could vaguely feel The Seed burn against her thigh is agreement and support of her words. The human was not aware of the unnatural silence that had fallen over the forest. Every creature that ran was gathered at the base of the trees in a circle around the small campsite. Every creature that flew was perched in the trees above them. Even in the nearby stream every creature that swam was as close to the campsite as possible. Every animal (Expect perhaps Ridhane’s two companions) was staring at the Elf. They knew what Darin was. The stone, the sky, and the sea of Astra knew what she was. The Seed-Bearer was speaking, and Astra was listening.