*A convenient proposal*
It was a dirty day, the sky ash grey, full of moisture but not rain. A dense fog rolled around the hills, languid and stagnant as the caravan turned into the valley which lead as a natural path towards the capital city, which towered even above the fog like fierce knives stabbing the sky.
Hera rode with Sharmara at the head of his personal trailer. He had been silent, brooding, deep in thought since an in depth conversation with Fendor earlier that morning. The two men had engaged in several serious councils frequently and Hera just knew that this was relating to the mysterious stone and the broken Prince.
“What if I said I could heal The Prince before we arrive to see his father?” Hera spoke softly.
“Are you really that good?” The Priest had a stammer in his voice, the issue was clearly perplexing .
“I have faith in my abilities.”
Sharmara scoffed “I expect your demands will be high?” The conversation developed into negotiations, with the city in sight the situation with His Royal Highness was becoming impossible to ignore and even more impossible to conclude to a reasonable solution.
“Well? Name your price?”
Hera pondered over the question carefully, knowing that this could signify her freedom, but what would freedom actually mean if her kind were still persecuted…
“I want to be your wife.”
Sharmara near fell from his perch upon the van. “Wife?”
“You are a Kannrok Priest are you not? The Kannrok order has no demands of celibacy, their Priests may marry, some even have multiple wives.”
“Would you not prefer your freedom, money, property?”
“What good are these if I can still be hunted? I could be arrested, my assets seized and myself put to death. Your offer is generous, but I would be safer in the city as your wife.You need not expose my true nature, I can even change my outward appearance to relieve you of my hideous visage. You know my powers and I know you can hide me within plain sight.”
“… And you can fully heal The Prince?”
Hera nodded “I can even manifest a replica stone for the young Prince to present to his Father. I know yourself and Fendor are musing over the nature of the crystal and I understand neither of you feel this is safe in the hands of the immature Prince.”
“How do you know that?” Sharmara frowned…
“I really am that good.” She smiled, her appearance shifted as she changed expression, exposing a hidden beauty under the grime.
Sharmara blinked but the illusion was gone, a subtle promise of the beauty his wife could behold by his side.
“If you really are that good, if you can heal The prince, if you can fool the King. Then I shall make you my Bride Hera.” He replied with sincere honestly.
Anne Harrison 13.12.16
Tatterhood 