Spirits of the Earth

@nephero

She was going to kill Ori.

Once the world stopped spinning.

Mali. Who the hell was Mali?

Ah, right. Her husband.

With a groan, Risa sank down into a crouch, putting her head in her hands and moaning quietly. Ori sort of danced around her, apparently only just now realizing that his little joke had real consequences.

"Ris? Risa? Oh, no. Please don't faint, sis. Um, hello? Anyone have some water?" He looked around at the crowd while Risa just focused on breathing. "Risa? Risa, snap out of it!"

"Shut. Up." The world refused to stop spinning, and her brother's voice sounded abnormally loud to her. Just breathe. Breathe, Risa, breathe.

"...I think we have to find your husband."

With a shriek Risa flew to her feet and grabbed Ori's shoulders, shaking him. "Gods all damnit, I am actually going to kill you!"

But she wasn't. The world stopped spinning only to tilt sideways and she felt herself slide with it, distantly heard her brother's cry of "Risa!" As he just barely managed to catch her as she swooned.

Swooned. Actually swooned. Didn't that only happen to heroines in cheesy romance novels? Which was certainly not her life. She blinked fuzzily and mumbled, "M'fine," trying to get her feet back under her as she slowly started to realized they were causing a scene.

Well this was just perfect.

What was he going to do. What was he going to do? He couldn't back out of this, not now, not after having spent so much time cultivating a proper working relationship with the Thanati. To run off now would mean leaving several months worth of research in its infancy, not to mention openly insulting what appeared to be one of their closest (albeit a bit modernized) traditions.

Every which way, Mali was screwed.

He was never drinking again, there were simply no two ways about it.

A shriek from a few feet away broke him out of his thoughts, however, and he looked over just in time to see some poor young woman collapse. There was a younger boy near her, and initially Mali was perfectly content to just let him handle whatever was going on over there, except the kid had just yelled out what he could only assume was the woman's name.

Risa.

Otherwise known as the new Mrs. Grin.

Right.

It was with some measure of uncertainty, then, that Mali moved through the crowd, shooing onlookers back to better grant the young woman--Risa-- some air. He knelt beside her on the ground, gently moving her ankles to better elevate her legs and thusly get a little more crucial blood flow back to her head. He unclipped his satchel and used that as a sort of rudimentary pillow beneath her feet, his brows knit in concern that was not entirely reserved for the girl on the ground.

Fanning her with his research journal, he looked over at the kid, and cocked one dark eyebrow at him.

"This happen often?"

Ori's eyes were wide as a stranger- a foreign stranger- was suddenly there helping with his nearly unconscious sister. "Ah- no." He seemed rather panicked. "Never, actually. She just- she heard her name and she sort of-" He waved a hand to indicate her current state.

Risa groaned and swiped her hand at him in an attempt to strike his shoulder, but there was no power behind it and her arm went wide. "This is your fault," she whimpered.

This was humiliating. Her face was caught between a blanch and a flush and she struggled to sit up- too quickly apparently, as she sagged back against Ori's shoulder with another groan.

"Ah- thank you, sir," she murmured, speaking in her heavily accented Common when it registered that the man was not a native Thanati. "Please forgive me, I- I think I had a bit of a shock."

She managed to sit up her second try, clutching at her head. Ori looked from her to the stranger, a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"Thank you for the help. May I ask your name?"

Mali's eyes narrowed-- or rather his functioning one did, and his brows knit a little further. It wasn't that warm, certainly not enough to cause a sudden spell for someone who was used to the tropical climate. Maybe she had been imbibing past her limit as well. But her speech wasn't that slurred, just the distant sort of vein of someone who had very recently had a falling-out with consciousness.

"Ah, ah," he said, switching to his own accented Thanati, because honestly not having to navigate foreign language would probably do her some good right then, "you shouldn't sit up just yet. Give yourself another ten or so minutes, take it slow."

He snorted a bit at her explanation for the spell, however, and gave a knowing sort of nod. Even in his own rapidly waning non-sobriety, he knew this whole thing had been a bit of an unplanned event. But that was the luck of the draw, he supposed, which was kind of the whole point if you really looked at it. Sideways. While squinting.

"Yes, I think 'shock' is something that's been going around. Very sudden illness, that." Mali seemed to notice that the kid was staring at him, and he did his best to clear his throat and put on his polite face.

"My name's Mali... and I think I might be your husband now."

Oh.

Oh gods.

Oh no.

He was a man. Well- of course he was, but... She wasn't even nineteen yet! And this Mali was...clearly a much more mature individual than her, she supposed was the polite way of putting it.

Eyes wide and more than a little scared, Risa flinched back from him slightly into her brother. Ori just blinked.

"Oh. Um...well then." He hesitated, then extended his hand in the traditional mainland greeting. Traders by profession, most everyone in Risa's family knew at least a little of foreign customs. "My name is Ori. Elder brother." The honorific was a little stilted, and Risa had to swallow another whimper.

"H-hello, sir." She repeated her greeting in Thanati, with a heavy emphasis on the servility she was trying to express. Best to start off on his good side. "I'm sorry I didn't- I mean that I- that is... I wasn't planning on entering my name. I was...very surprised."

She looked down, color draining as she smoothed her hands over the festival kimono her mother had helped her make. Pale lavender, with gold, silver, and blue embroidery, it made her suddenly paler skin stand out starkly. She reached up to smooth her hair behind her ear before she remembered it had been swept up into a knot and fastened at the nape of her neck.

Much more mature was a very polite way of putting "surprise! He's twice your age." So polite that Mali himself would have laughed out loud at the sheer absurdity of it all.

He still felt like laughing, but presently it felt more like out of gallows humor than anything else.

As the girl, and now that he had a good look at her it was horrifyingly apparent that she was barely of an age, flinched back, Mali took this as his cue to give her some space, and sat back in his booted ankles to let her recover as she would.

That was none of his business after all. Or was it? He felt the beginnings of a headache coming on, which was another surprise. Since when did he still get stress headaches?

The kid seemed to be trying to make up for the sudden awkwardness, and it was with that in mind that Mali reached out and shook Ori' s hand in mind. At being called sir, however, Mali couldn't help a desperate sort of chuckle.

"Please, it's just Mali. And I... wholeheartedly sympathize, this was not exactly what I had envisioned for my evening--" Oh, shit, that might have been rude, and it was with no small measure of horror that he felt himself backpedaling in almost perfect mimicry of another Thanati he had met some time ago, "Not! That the surprise is entirely unpleasant, I just... seem to have forgotten my notes on what this festival entails."

He watched Risa fidget, and couldn't help the compulsion of his own, pulling at the long chain around his neck and trying to figure out where to go from here without abjectly stating that he had zero intention of this union lasting longer than it had to.

"There's a bench over there. Let's get you out of the crowd, at least." He stated by way of changing the subject, holding out one hand to assist Ori in getting Risa to her feet.

Risa tried for a smile and allowed her brother and...husband to pull her to her feet.

Dear gods, her father was going to kill her. And Ori. And then maybe her again, just to be thorough.

"Yes, um...thank you." They made their way over to the bench and she nearly collapsed onto it, watching the crowd swirl passed them. She looked between the two men. Well, man and boy. "Father is going to be just livid," she murmured.

Ori winced. "Um, yeah. He probably is." He rubbed at the back of his neck.

She scowled. "This is your fault, don't give me that look." Her eyes flicked to Mali, lingered for a moment on his scarred eye, then tried to focus on his good one. "My brother seems to think I need to get out of the house, because he is the one who entered my name," she explained.

At the explanation of the events that had transpired to place them in holy matrimony, Mali turned his eye onto Ori, raising a dark eyebrow in bemusement. At the very least, Mali had only himself to blame for his predicament; it was a far different thing to have this whole debacle thrust upon you against your will.

"Pretty funny prank there, Little Brother." he said, his tone dry enough to where it was difficult to tell if he genuinely thought it was funny or he was chiding. Mali sat back on the bench with a sigh of his own, rubbing at his chin as he considered the whole matter.

With a clearer understanding, and a much clearer head, it was far easier to think all of this mess through. It wasn't as if he could just walk away right here and now, not without putting his studies in danger. But, and here was the crucial bit: he was a foreigner, and not exactly the marriage material that this poor girl might have hoped for even if this had been her choice. Or her family might have hoped for, for that matter.

Which might make this whole thing easier. Clearly, no parties present would want this union to continue after the alloted time period. All he had to do was sit tight and play nice for a year, which, if he was honest, he had been intending on doing anyway, only his prior plans had been sans wife. After that, he would disappear into the wind, Risa could go about her life, and neither of them would have to speak of this to anyone ever again.

Like, ever, ever again.

Mali cleared his throat, then, and seemed to choose his words carefully.

"I am... admittedly, none too clear on the details of this particular custom, but I think it is entirely safe to assume that we've gotten a bit of a bad lot this round. I do, however, have extensive studies to complete. So here's my proposal: you two help me understand what I need to complete my research, and I will do my damnedest not to leave so much as a footprint on my way out."

He looked over at Risa, then, who looked so terribly shaken that if Mali had been a better person he might have felt sorry for her.

"Deal?" He held out his hand to her then, in the custom of such things.

Ori winced a bit and rubbed the back of his neck again, glancing between his sister and Mali. "Well, ah..." He trailed off, apparently unable to come up with anything to say, other than a mumbled, "Our parents had been talking about Risa getting married..."

Risa glowered at him, but didn't argue the point. That had been a recent discussion, but she highly doubted her parents would be at all pleased with this outcome.

Her head snapped around when Mali spoke again and she listened with rather wide eyes. Well...at least he seemed to view this with as much enthusiasm as she did.

...Should she be offended by that?

Slowly, she nodded, eyeing his hand. "Yes. Deal." She slid her hand into his, noting absently how much smaller it was. She'd never thought of herself as particularly small before, but comparatively...well.

Alright, so the gods were supposed to have chosen this, they were supposed to fall in love. But gods could make mistakes, right? That, or they had a much dryer sense of humor than she would have expected.

"See, sis, studies. Research!" Ori seemed to force a smile and stroked a stray lock of hair off her face. "I'm sure you two will get along fine."

Risa smacked his hand away and hesitantly stood from the bench. "We, um...we have to tell Mother and Father," she murmured. She glanced back at Mali. "If- if you'll follow me, then?"

Mali pressed his mouth into a thin, quick sort of smile, if only to maintain that he was trying to keep them both on relatively friendly terms. For a married pair. Who had never met before that day. And his wife was infinitely younger than him.

Yes, about as friendly as he could possibly hope to be, all things considered. And they hadn't even broken the news to her parents, yet. He could only imagine how well that was going to go. With how both siblings were looking uncomfortable with the thought, Mali guessed "not well" was probably the answer.

Still, his train of thought vis-a-vis 'how NOT to get stabbed by an angry father' derailed at the mention of research and studies, and looked rather curiously between Ori and Risa even as they rose to leave.

"Lead the way. You... have studies of your own? What's the word in Thanati, their scholars?" That would explain the softness of her hands; free of callouses typical of hard labor or weapons handling. He had pegged her simply as a city girl, but a scholar would make even more sense.

And maybe this wouldn't be nearly as bad as he had previously thought.

"Oh, well..." Risa flushed and ducked her head as Ori started off and she followed a few steps behind. He seemed to be giving them a bit of space, but kept glancing back worriedly. "Not- not really," she murmured. "I'd...like to be. I enjoy books, but I'm no...scholar." She used his word, slipping Common into her speech as she couldn't think of a proper translation for what she'd wanted to be.

She shook her head. "I work in the shop, with Father. My family are jewelers," she explained quietly.

Their shop really wasn't far from where the bulk of the festival activities had taken place, but the streets were much clearer today than normal- of course, everyone was at the celebration. Ori stopped in front of the little shop her family lived above, a collection of stones from the mundane to the precious to the magical displayed in the window, along with an assortment of jewelry they could be set it.

Risa swallowed nervously and the blood drained from her face. She and Ori made eye contact and her brother shrugged. Any animosity she'd held toward him dissolved; his joke had been poorly thought out, but they'd lived their lives as a united force to withstand their parents, and even in this situation she knew he only meant to be on her side.

A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. She took a breath. "H-here we are..."

Ah, so a would-be scholar. Still, that was intriguing; the curious minds were always the best to pick, and Mali had never been one to shy away from imparting knowledge. Not that that always worked out in the end, but it was... important.

"Ah, well. We all start learning somewhere." He said, trying to impart some level of kindness in the sentiment. Because it was true. He tried to remember what he had been like at that age, and had to snort. Nothing like now, that was the exact answer. Life led to many places, he supposed. "Most of us never stop."

His eyes flicked over the stones on display, stopping and staring at the more magically-imbued ones, feeling the subtle ebb and flow of the arcane but not quite able to read the purpose to the ripple. Not that he had much time to investigate, because suddenly the air between the two siblings had changed drastically.

Mali was not what he would describe as a "people person". Which kind of was a mark for how easily he noted the change in demeanour between Ori and Risa, and so it was with polite curiousity that he turned away from the stones to better regard this latest human drama.

Risa, in particular, was looking even paler than she had when she had fainted. Mali took this as a sign of things to come, and, taking the omen for what it was, drew in a deep breath to brace himself for what was going to be an inevitable shitstorm.

Father had seen them.

"Fuck me," Risa whispered under her breath, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth and shot a glance at her...husband. Ori looked equal parts delighted and horrified, and honestly she was a little surprised at herself.

She was just having a hard day.

Kenta Serrin appeared in the doorway to his ship, looking between his children and the man they'd brought with them with no small amount of suspicion. "Good day." He bowed politely to Mali, but his eyes were hard. "You are...coming inside with the children?" His Common was even more heavily accented than his daughter's, but passable.

Risa swallowed and took a small step forward. "Ah, yes, Father. We... I think we need to...talk. Is Mother upstairs?"

Since she'd spoken in Thanati, he responded in kind. "She is. Ori, fetch her." The boy nodded and quickly darted around to the side door that lead directly to their home above the shop.

Kenta stood to the side. Ever a businessman, his manner was just polite enough, but still distinctly untrusting. "Please come in."

Mali's eyebrow shot upwards at the whispered obscenity, and he had to fight back another amused snort. Instead, he leaned down ever so slightly, and whispered back:

"Absolutely not."

Still, it would seem this delicate little fainting goat, with all her politeness and stammering, had a bit of a bite to her. Life was just full of little surprises today.

He didn't press the matter further, however, and straightened up just as who he could only assume was Risa's father appeared. He could almost feel the waves of mistrust pouring off of the other man, and honestly? Mali didn't blame him one single bit.

He shifted as Risa's father bowed, and returned it in kind, dipping just a little lower than the first had been. It just seemed appropriate, a little extra deference, considering the circumstances.

Two seconds in and Mali wasn't facing down pitchforks. So far, so good.

...Were there pitchforks in Thanatos?

Now that was a question.

He stepped past his... newfound father in law, and through the door with a short expression of thanks, and... immediately felt at a loss for how to continue. He glanced to the side at Risa as if that would somehow help him, before finally biting the bullet and attempting the age old tactic of small talk.

"Your shop is lovely. The... magicked stones," he said, slowly, finding the vocabulary bit by bit, "do you imbue them yourself?"

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Risa actually squeaked, her face going scarlet at Mali's words. The color didn't fade as her father appeared and ushered them into the shop, and she had to pray no one would question it.

Thankfully Kenta didn't seem to notice- that, or it wasn't his first concern about the situation, which she couldn't blame him for. She kept sneaking glances at Mali, a large part of her wishing he hadn't heard her. What must he think about her?

A smaller part... Well, even if he'd said it in jest, if he didn't hold interest in her like that. A tiny spark of relief flickered in her chest, but she tried to tamp it down. She shouldn't jump to conclusion, she had to be prepared to accept...whatever happened.

She tuned back into the conversation in time to hear her father answer Mali's question. "Not most of them, no. We trade for them, or Risa uses her skills to find which stones would best serve a mage."

Her blush darkened a bit and she ducked her eyes. No one had ever taught her to properly control her magic, so sensing the inherent magic in stones, which would respond best to enchantment or work as part of spellcraft and ritual, was about the extent of her powers. She wished she could do more.

Not for the first time, Mali's eyebrows curved upwards in pleasant surprise. So this little fainting goat was an elementalist? That was rare for this corner of the world, he hadn't expected to find someone who would "dare" work against the natural order, even if that meant something as simple as finding stones that would resonate with arcane stylings.

Honestly speaking, his first impressions of his... wife hadn't been the best. Between the fainting, the demureness, the stammering; it had all left him with a very sincere level of dread for the year to come. He hadn't been sure just how much of that quiet, inoffensive politeness he would have been able to deal with. Even if he had been actively looking to get married, that would not have been his first choice in traits.

But a budding mage who was apparently not nearly as prim as he had first suspected? That might be interesting, from a purely academic standpoint.

"That's quite the talent you have," he said, finally, aiming the comment at Risa herself. And for the most part that was true; Risa had talent, but that could be refined, pushed, driven further, given the right direction--

Which was getting a bit ahead of himself, he realized, considering Kenta as of yet had no idea why exactly they were here. He supposed, while they waited for Ori to return with Risa's mother, that he could at least introduce himself a bit more properly.

"Ah, I'm Mali, Mali Roue Grin. 'Wandering scholar and mage', as it were."

Risa glanced up at Mali, surprised that he'd called it a "talent". Sure, Kunata was a bit more progressive when it came to elemental magic, but even so she was under no illusions about how most people reacted to the knowledge of her power. It was the main reason she was largely untrained.

Perhaps spending time with this foreigner could be...interesting.

As the thought crossed her mind she blushed and dropped her eyes again.

"Kenta Serrin," her father introduced himself with a polite nod. "A scholar, you say?" He glanced to Risa and she winced. "Did my daughter attempt to bring you to meet me under some guise of apprenticeship? I appreciate the interest, but-"

"Kenta?" Yui and Ori appeared in the doorway that led into the back room of the shop, which normally served as Risa's workroom and led up to their home. "Oh. Hello." The small woman bowed to Mali. "Ori said we had a guest, something about needing to talk...?" She looked between the three of them.

Well. May as well get it over with then.

"Mali's my husband."

Her family's eyes snapped to her and Risa shrank back. "I- I entered the matchmaking," she lied quietly.

Yui's eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth, and Kenta's face turned stony. "I...see." He turned his eyes back to Mali, hands clenched at his side.

Mali almost laughed as Kenta immediately assumed he had been here for academic reasons. Well, that was what Mali was hoping to turn this situation into, but it was certainly not the impetus for their meeting. The utter irony of it all. Though, considering Kenta's reaction to even something akin to apprenticeship, Mali wasn't so sure if that was going to be nearly as feasible as he had previously considered.

It was at that moment that Ori returned with another woman, who Mali could only assume was their mother. He barely had time to get out a reciprocal bow of his own before Risa got right to the heart of the matter.

He was a little taken aback at how Risa assumed all of the blame for this series of events, though. That... was another little surprise. He had been expecting a round of shifting blame, the typical fare of siblings in trouble, but here Risa was taking the whole of the responsibility when there was absolutely zero reason to do so. Wouldn't the truth might be a little more... easily handled? But then again, these weren't his own parents, and he couldn't hope to really know what made them tick.

Though Mali was rapidly learning they were not taking the news of their daughter's surprise wedding well.

Not well at all, for how Risa was shrinking away from her parent's gazes.

It was probably time to intercede here, just a bit.

"It's been... a bit of a shock for everyone today. I had participated without fully understanding the ramifications, and I'm afraid your daughter, ah, Risa, was saddled with me as a result. I'm truly sorry for the trouble."

Saddled with a foreign vagrant mage twice her age. And that wasn't even nearly the half of it. Why on this green earth had he stuck his name in that jar? He could have been just as content watching the goings on-- sure, full immersion into a culture was the best way to learn, but now here he was, bowing again to better display how apologetic he was for his past drunken stupid-ass self.

He was sincerely never going to touch a drop of the stuff again in his entire life, this or the next.

Ori's eyes were wide as Risa shouldered the blame for the incident, but he didn't seem to have the courage to speak up, fading back against the wall instead as Kenta and Yui looked between his sister and Mali.

Risa was exerting a great effort not to tremble like a leaf in a gale under their combined gaze. "I- I just- I wanted to- Y-you've been saying you wanted to take me to a proper matchmaker, I thought..." She tried desperately to come up with some excuse that might lessen their ire and failed, floundering.

Kenta's eyes snapped back to Mali but his words were obviously for Risa as he growled, "Foolish girl. I should have sold you to the mainland as a child."

Risa winced and bit her lip, eyes on her feet. Her mother touched Kenta's arm and murmured something quietly and he took a sharp breath, but didn't say anything else.

"Master Mali," Yui said slowly. "Will you care for our daughter?" Her eyes were just as hard as her husband's, but her voice was softer.

Risa supposed she had their pride to thank for the fact that they weren't shouting and throwing things. They wouldn't want to behave in such an uncivilized manner in front of a stranger, a foreigner at that.

Something twisted, hard, in Mali's chest as Kenta spoke.

I should have sold you to the mainland, he had said. To his own daughter. Over what had been essentially a poorly chosen prank by her younger brother. Over something that was, as Mali and Risa had previously agreed, entirely temporary. To his own daughter.

He admitted ignorance to a lot of things. He never stopped learning. So he couldn't possibly hope to fully understand the context of what this marriage might do to their family pride, or personal pride, or social standing or whatever it was.

At that present moment, and probably for the first time in any point in his life, he didn't care to know.

To his own daughter. He tried to imagine what that was even like, what that even took, what it would feel like to look down in his own flesh and blood's face and openly regret keeping them. The thought was so entirely unpleasant that he had to retreat back into the present before he did something entirely drastic.

Mali looked at Yui, then, with his one good eye, and it took every ounce of willpower he had in him at that exact moment not to spit out a venomous 'more than either of you' in response. The twisting thing in his chest was boiling over, he could feel himself getting hotter, and it was with a very sincere level of exertion that he finally calmed down enough to nod.

"Of course," he said, simply. He didn't trust himself to say much more than that. He forced his hands open from where they had clenched into fists, and felt the subtle sting of crescent shaped wounds in his palms.

He constructed a swift, stony smile, one that did not reach his eyes even in the slightest, and inclined himself in another, tinier bow.

Risa could practically feel the tension in the air, though to her surprise a good deal of it came from the man beside her, not her parents. She glanced up at him, then away again quickly. If she looked at him too much, her parents might think she was happy about this.

"Ori, take your sister and go help her pack her things," Yui said quietly. Ori nodded quickly and moved forward to take Risa's arm. His eyes flickered over her face, mouth drawn in a tight line. Sorry for being stupid.

The young mage sighed quietly and let her hand brush against her brother's arm in silent communication. It's okay, I forgive you. And honestly she did. When she thought about it, she realized what her brother had thought of as a well-meaning prank was really just that- they'd both overheard their parents talk about the ever encroaching possibility of marrying her off, he'd probably just wanted her to have a little fun with the process.

It wasn't his fault, really.

She glanced back over her shoulder as she heard her mother say stiffly, "Kenta, perhaps you should show him a place to sit? I'll bring some tea." She bustled away, brushing past her children, and her husband let out a long breath through his nose.

"It is more comfortable upstairs, but I'm afraid I must stay with the shop," he muttered, disappearing into the workroom for a moment and reappearing with a chair that he set down and gestured to vaguely. "I don't expect many customers on festival days, but there is always a possibility. Please, sit."

"Of course," Mali said, his tone dropping in temperature the longer he had to speak, "please, don't allow me to take up too much of your time."

He only barely chanced a glance at the siblings as they retreated out of the shop, before leveling his gaze right back onto Kenta himself. Mali moved over to the chair and sat down in it with an easy sort of grace, as if liquid hate weren't marching through his veins at that very moment. He didn't bother removing his satchel at all, simply adjusting it to be out of the way as he sat. After all, he didn't plan on staying long-- now even less so.

He hadn't wanted to remain attached to this family beyond a year. Right this very moment, he didn't want to be attached to them beyond another minute. Or rather, he corrected his thoughts, recategorizing them into a far truer statement: he didn't want to have to look at Kenta ever again.

He took a deep breath of his own, let his gaze move to where the rest of the little family had disappeared to, before snapping back to Kenta when it seemed the two men were truly alone. It was then that his smile took on an entirely different edge, harsh and angular and not friendly in the slightest.

"Out of curiousity, and please forgive me for the personal question, but is that how you treat all of your children or is Risa just special?"

Kenta seemed to sense the shift in attitude and glanced almost warily at the other man. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, sir," he said, coolly polite, emotionless. "I have only two children, and I treat Risa as any eldest daughter is treated."

Above their heads, Ori was helping Risa pack up her room. It was strangely, and perhaps a little sadly, not that difficult of a task. The only things that she really wanted to keep with her were the few books she owned, as well as the first few pieces of jewelry she'd crafted and a handful of flawed stones that had been deemed unacceptable for the shop, but she still found pretty.

Aside from that was her garden, but she couldn't exactly pack that up and take it with her.

She wouldn't miss things. She'd miss her family. Granted, right now it was hard to remember why she'd miss her father, but she'd miss Ori, and her mother. Mostly Ori.

"You sure this is enough?" Her brother was holding two small bags and she clutched a larger one, a satchel slung over her shoulder. She nodded and tried for a smile.

"I'm sure. It's...probably not that far, right? I'm sure I'll be able to visit..." She bit her lip, then took a breath and shook her head. "Right. Let's head back downstairs, shall we?"

They were a few moments behind her mother, who seemed to have arrived quickly enough with a tray bearing a pot of tea and several cups. "Here." She moved forward and offered Mali a cup as Risa and Ori crept quietly into the room behind her.

Oh, that was entirely the wrong answer. Mali's eyes narrowed a bit, his blood spiking as that twisting thing came back with a vengeance. Whatever venom had been lingering on his tongue, however, he never quite got the chance to say, as Yui had returned at that precise (and well timed) moment bearing a tray of tea.

He allowed his gaze to soften a bit, as it had been the woman to intercede first on behalf of Risa. It wasn't exactly her fault that her husband was, and Mali was quoting someone long dead here, 'a pile of maggot-infested feculence given human form and the unfortunate ability to speak'.

Oh, Irdel. The memory alone was enough to pull a genuine smile to his lips, though the moment rapidly passed as he turned his attention back to the husband and wife before him.

"Thank you," Mali said, quietly, accepting the cup of tea and holding it in the palm of one beringed hand, feeling the heat seep out through the pottery and into his skin. It felt divine; he always had terrible circulation, and even in the heat of absolute rage he knew his touch was rather cold.

It was helpful in these more tropical climes, though, if he were being perfectly honest.

A careful blow across the fluid, and Mali took a slow sip of the tea, not really that terribly thirsty but also not willing to spit in his in-laws' faces. Not yet, at any rate. He had an entire year and half-a-day, after all.

"I am currently the guest of Xinyi, the matchmaker around these parts, but all things considered I'll be looking into a more permanent residence in the city." He said, after a moment, figuring the sooner he told them where they were going the sooner he could actually, well, leave. "It'll be far more feasible for two persons, in that regard. Unless you have any objections to this, of course."

Risa and Ori exchanged a sharp glance. Xinyi's guest? Would she be staying...?

"I see." Kenta nodded, taking the cup of tea his wife offered with a small nod and a slight softening of his expression for her. His eyes flicked to his children and Risa quickly ducked her head, but when he beckoned her forward with a sharp gesture of his hand she shuffled closer.

Yui's eyes flickered over her face, then dropped quickly. She seemed worried. Risa could hardly blame her. Hardly raising her head, the older woman said quietly, "Risa's a good girl, sir. Despite...all this. I'm sure you'll be pleased with her."

The implication that he'd better be was clearly there, at least to Risa, who nodded subtly at her mother, biting her lip.

"It seems Inima works in...strange ways," Kenta murmured, eyes flicking from his daughter to her new husband. "But it is not our place to question them." He nodded again. "I would hope you choose to stay in contact in this time, but of course it is your choice. Risa, go to your husband."

Eyes downcast, she moved forward, quickly taking the bags from Ori and meeting his eyes breifly before she settled awkwardly into place beside Mali. "We, um...We can leave, if you like," she murmured quietly.

Mali watched the exchange between parents and children with rapidly accruing distaste. It was like watching someone sell a horse, or some other beast of burden. Again, he had to consider what it took to behave in this manner about your eldest daughter, and again he had to shake the thought out of his head before he completely lost it.

The second Risa commented that they could leave, Mali all but shot out of his chair. He set his cup onto the tea tray, only half drunk, and gave one final bow to Risa's parents, and then a slightly deeper one to Ori.

"We'll be in touch," Mali said, smiling at the younger brother before leveling a cold stare at Kenta himself.

Taking the larger and heavier of Risa's bags, Mali crossed the room in long-legged strides, and only breathed easy again once they were in the open air. At first he didn't know what to say. At first, he wasn't even sure it was physically possible for him to speak at all. All he could see was a tunnel of red, and it was only through deep, steady breathing that his vision cleared and he was able to regard the young woman trying to match his furious pace.

Better slow his roll there, just a bit. Sighing, he lessened his pace to a more manageable one, and looked down at Risa, who... honestly was putting on possibly the bravest face known to man right that moment. He knew, of course, that honor and politeness were second to none in Thanati culture, but not looking completely miserable about being married to a man--a stranger-- twice your age? That was just a goddamn feat.

It certainly said something about Thanati girls, as if Mali needed any more proof of how resilient they were.

"How, uh," he began, after a moment, trying to find what exactly were the words one used in this particular situation, "how are you... holding... up?"

Risa hurried after him as best she could, casting one last glance over her shoulder at the shop before she ducked her head and just...kept walking.

She huffed a small breath of relief when he slowed down a bit. Why was he in such a hurry? There was definitely a sense of tension she got from him, but she couldn't quite place its origin.

Her eyes snapped up to him when he asked how she was holding up, surprised. What should she say? What could she say? "I'm...fine." She cleared her throat and dropped her eyes again. "Um...is there-? ...What about you?" she murmured after a few moments, chancing a glance up at him again.

Risa's response had been understandably stilted.

And honestly, Mali should have known that's exactly what the answer would be. Marriage or no, husband or no, he was still the stranger here, and giving anything other than the quiet affirmation of her well-being might have been...

Well.

A bit out of line, he supposed. Overstepping, at the very least, and while Mali's blood boiled at the thought of the man, Kenta was still Risa's father. Which leant to all manner of... decidedly complicated social rules. Stupid, stupid, useless social rules. But rules nonetheless.

He had no sooner taken a deep breath in order to settle himself down that the young woman then turned the question unto himself. For a moment, Mali was confused-- why on this entire earth would she need to ask how he was holding up? And then, just as quickly, he realized he'd been acting nothing short of a madman since they had left the shop. Right.

"I'm... very much unused to certain... cultural differences--" he began, carefully picking his words and feeling his pulse speed up; 'cultural differences' like threatening to sell off your only daughter-- no, now was not the time to revisit that, "--and admit several are... shocking, to say the least. I apologize, I must have been making it seem worse than it is."

He cleared his throat a bit, and did his best to give the younger woman a reassuring sort of smile.

"Ah, 'home', as it were, isn't much further," he gestured down the road, a little further along the main where other shops lay, "just behind the matchmaker's... it's... small, I'm afraid, but I'm sure a little maneuvering will help."

As if on cue, they turned down what seemed to be a minor "alley" between two raised stilted buildings, and stepped onto a small dock that led to a much smaller building settled on stilts just above the water. The dock wrapped around it, though there wasn't too much walking room, what with nearly every bit of available space on all three sides being taken up by barrels and pots of plants set on top of them. More pots hung from the roof's overhang, each one brimming with herbs in no apparent discernible order.

"Let me... get the door." Mali said, rushing ahead to unlock the storage shed's only door, stepping over more overgrown pots as he did so.

A shed.

A shed?

Risa paused, eyes widened slightly as she looked from Mali to the door and back several times.

"You're...staying...here?"

It suddenly dawned on her how that must sound and she blanched, eyes going even wider. "I-I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean to- I wasn't trying- I didn't-" She swallowed thickly and snapped her mouth shut, not sure quite what she expected, but fairly sure it wouldn't be good.

He'd spoken of cultural differences; despite the fact that her family dealt with mainlanders more often than most, she didn't really know all that much about people not of Thanatos, what was appropriate for them.

Striking a mouthy wife? Entirely possible.

Halfway through Risa's stumbling attempts to apologize, Mali was laughing. He turned to regard her from where he had managed to reach the front door, and was in the process of trying to clear a better path for her when she had dropped that rather incredulous question.

"I know, it's... very... very cozy," he said, giving her a meaningful sort of look like he knew cozy was being exceptionally generous, "and it keeps out the rain, which... when I thought I would only be here a few months, seemed to be adequate."

He pulled out a thick key, and pressed that into the padlock that kept the door shut and potentially prying hands out of what might have once been stored there. Presently it was only Mali's belongings, but he had certainly liked the idea of added security and privacy. The last thing he needed was for some errant thief to make off with his books thinking they might be worth something. Which, to the right buyer, they absolutely were.

Also irreplaceable, which made the padlock all the more appealing.

"I have some netting, I can rig up something so you can have a space for your belongings, at least until I can negotiate a larger--" Mali stopped mid-sentence, his jaw going slack as he looked inside the shed.

Here was yet another discovery-- Mali had been unaware that he was capable of blushing as hard as he did right then, his coloring not sparing him in the slightest as every last inch of his face turned a deeper, redder shade.

And all because somehow, at some magical point, someone (his hostess) had managed to break into the shed. They (his hostess, that tiny little grandmother) had also managed to drag in several new layers of bedding, all a bright crimson red, and they (Xinyi the matchmaker may all the hellspawn of the outer realms come and steal her left damned shoe for this) had even taken the time to drape sheer cloth from the cieling to hang over the bed like a curtain.

Small buckets of water stood at the foot of the bed, which Mali had not remembered being that big and floating on the surface of the water were more vibrant red flowers, and Lord help him there were candles floating there too. Lit candles. Lit, lightly perfumed candles.

This was it. This was just it. This was how one, Mali Roue Grin, the great Shea Ru, absolutely died. Especially when he chose that moment to remember that he still had Risa behind him, and no explanation in the world would help him here.

Didn't mean he couldn't try to save some dignity, though.

"I-- I believe, that is-- it seems that I-- we-- I mean, my hostess has-- has been here. And um. With gifts?-- some... somehow. N-not that-- oh, hell."

Oh yes, perfect. Dignity utterly saved. Mali rested one hand over his face, silently willing the heat of his blush to simply melt his head off, right then and there.

Netting? Well, it wasn't as though she really expected him to go to any real lengths for his unwanted house guest, so that seemed generous enough, especially for the small space that seemed to be provided.

She had to bite back a smile. Something about it was...strangely fitting.

The smile died quickly though when he opened the door and she peeked inside. Any color she might have regained immediately drained from her face.

Right. His hostess was Xinyi. And the matchmaker knew about these things. Which meant...she knew what was- well, expected.

Risa swallowed thickly and had to bite back a small whimper, glancing up at Mali. Did he-? Was he-? Dear gods. "I-I-" She swallowed thickly. "Do you want- should I-?" She cleared her throat, clutching her bags to her chest as her eyes flicked to the ground.

What the hell was she supposed to do?

As if this day couldn't possibly get any worse, what little rapport they might have begun to build was shattered. Now Risa was looking at him as if he wanted-- as if he might have planned-- like he was going to--

No.

No.

"No," he stated, quietly at first, and then firmly so.

"No," he repeated, in every single language he had ever known, which was a rather impressive catalogue all things considered. He wasn't even thinking anymore, all he knew was that everything needed to stop happening right that very minute before he lost the entirety of his mind.

Politeness be damned, appearances be damned, he was absolutely one hundred percent not going to even remotely humor this for one second longer. A quick, swiping gesture, and the candles that had been left out were summarily snuffed, leaving only the faintest wisps of smoke behind.

He continued muttering, in a low, gutteral sort of language, even as he lifted the buckets of petals and water and began fishing the plant matter out, stacking the soggy petals onto an improvised sort of work desk next to various jars and mortars and pestles. It was only when he turned back, bucket of water still in hand, that he remembered Risa was still standing there, looking understandably shaken.

So very, very understandably.

"Listen," Mali said, trying to keep his voice steady as he regarded the young woman, though it was clearly taking a very real amount of effort, "I... understand this is a very important festival. Certain things are... expected. It's supposed to be fate, Inima's grand plan, all that, I get it, I do. But that is not what I'm expecting of you."

He rubbed at the back of his neck, then, feeling remarkably worn out all of a sudden. It wasn't as if Risa wasn't pretty, that certainly wasn't the case, but she was so young and meek and HE was--

He took another breath, let it out as slowly as he dared.

"Let's just... consider this an... impromptu apprenticeship. Yes? We can... work on your stonecraft, some other studies and... go from there."

Risa nearly collapsed as relief swamped through her, making her sway and clutch at the door frame for support. She watched rather distantly as Mali cleaned the flowers and candles- that was some of the most nonchalant magic she'd ever seen, and a small part of her was vaguely both fascinated and envious. If her own power weren't so closely tied to her element...

An apprenticeship?

She shook herself internally and looked up at his face, then away again quickly. "That...that seems fine, sir," she murmured.

Would she really love this man after a year? Granted, she was grateful he didn't seem to be...interested, but wasn't he supposed to be? For that matter, wasn't she?

Inima had a rather wicked sense of humor.

With a small breath, she straightened herself up and almost crept a little further into the shed. "If you...show me where to leave my things, I can- I can help tidy up a bit?" That was something a wife did. "And... I'm sorry, I'm not very good at this sort of thing, but I can cook a little, or..."

She cast about for something else she could do to earn her place here, if she was to be his apprentice more than his wife. Finally, she settled on, "I'll make some tea or...something," and glanced up at him again.

"Would- would that be alright? For...a first lesson?"

If Mali had been really paying attention to Risa rather than fervently destroying everything that spoke of amorous intent, he might have been just a little insulted at the sheer level of relief that had followed the announcement he had no interest in taking her to the marriage bed.

That being said, he himself was too ardently relieved that this was, apparently, not a grave insult to her honor and she herself would not be insisting on the matter either. That was not something he was sure he'd have been able to handle with any sort of grace, and it was too good a bit of luck to investigate much further.

At least Risa was sufficiently taken with the idea of learning. That was a good turn, and Mali hummed a bit in thought as she brought up the question of her luggage. Right, he had... considered something before the whole Bed Incident, what had that...

Right, right. He snapped his fingers, and abandoned the water buckets in favor of scrounging up what appeared to be a carefully coiled length of netting, thick and sturdy. Mali looked up at the rafters, already nearly full to the brim with impromptu shelving and stacked pots and plants. Still, he seemed to find a decent area, ironically over the headboard of the bed, and carefully strung up the netting to create a kind of hammock just low enough from the ceiling for easy reach.

"There, that should hold most of your things. There's a shelf just there, too, that you can use." Mali pointed, admittedly a little distractedly.

As for a first lesson, Mali had perked up considerably upon hearing the word "cook". He glanced around the shed, a mishmash of workshop and living space, and seemed a bit hesitant to put forth his next question.

It was with some measure of mild embarrassment, then, that he looked back over to Risa, tugging at his necklace as he asked:

"Do... you know how to make coconut soup?"

Risa watched him with carefully controlled suspicion as he puttered about, eyes widening slightly when he used magic so casually but otherwise not reacting.

She nodded and smiled at his question, her first real smile since this whole thing stated. It made her look softer, and perhaps a little younger than she really was, dark eyes warming as they met his for a moment before flickering away.  "Yes, I do. I can make other Thanati dishes too, if you like, or I could try to learn some from the mainland."

She crept a little cautiously further into the shed and hefted her bags up onto the netting. She figured she could properly unpack later. "Is there, um..." She looked around and bit her lip absently. "Would you prefer I...cook outside?"

It really didn't seem like there was simply any space for a cooking fire in the little shed.

Then again, she didn't want to assume.

At Risa's nod, Mali's mouth quirked into a smile of his own. Feeling rather excited and also rather embarrassed at how excited he was getting over soup of all things, he rubbed his hands together and looked around at the cramped space.

Hm. Yes, she did have a point there. Even controlled as it would be, a fire in such limited quarters would be... very ill-advised. Very ill-advised indeed, considering it was his present goal to have at least ONE home not go up in flames. That and not being run out of a town with pitchforks, but that was kind of lumped in with the first goal. They tended to go hand in hand, after all.

"Hah, mainland dishes might rely more heavily on meat, which is... unfortunately a far more difficult thing to come by around these parts. But I'm a huge fan of local cuisine, as it were, so I'm sure whatever you know will be sufficient. As for the actual cooking though..."

He hummed a bit in thought, before, gesturing towards the one and only door. "Let's see if we can't make something happen for that. A... first lesson, I suppose."

He winked, which was a bit of a mixed effect all things considered, and pulled a pot down from somewhere in the mishmash of storage he had going on the ceiling.

He stepped back outside of the shed, then, with a little gesture for Risa to follow. He led her around the dock to the back portion of the shed, well out of sight of the main street or any passersby. The reason for this was soon apparent, as Mali set the pot down and turned to face Risa, his hands rubbing together faster before pulling apart, a small flame held in suspension between his palms.

He gave her another grin before just as quickly snuffing the flame, and gestured down at the dock at his feet.

"First lesson being: know thy elements. You work mostly with stones and earth, yes? We're going to start by making a fire pit out of this wood."

Risa padded quietly after him, arms wrapped loosely around her body, hands clasping her elbows gently, and rocked up onto her toes just a bit in an effort to get a better look at what he was doing with his hands.

The spark of flame made her gasp and she jumped back a bit, eyes wide. "Th-that- you..." She blinked at him, then looked at her own hands.

"You want me to...make fire?" She shook her head quickly as she took a step back. "I- I can't. I can't do that..." Her bottom lip was clasped between her teeth, eyes blow wide open and pupils dilated.