Soul Bound

To those who have commented on it: these are not the Gaelic/Irish/Scottish or what have you Sidhe. Their name in the world is pronounced “see-day” by most of the people of the world and “sih-eh” by those that we’ll meet later. This is due to the fact that Sidhe means “people” in their language but there weren’t harsh syllables in the language when people and Sidhe met. Thus when the Sidhe introduced themselves “sih-eh” the people took the two syllables and added a ‘d’ in there to make it somewhat easily said and understood.



Since writing stories about them, I’ve grown more and more aware of the Gaelic Sidhe. I’d make no claim on how to pronounce that name as Gaelic is outside of my skill range. Thus, thanks for the heads up but the odd pronunciations of the word Sidhe is actually on purpose, amazingly (you’d be surprised how many times I’ve made actual mistakes though!).



Turns out the assignment isn't due until Thursday...



So, here is them in the village and all, and awkward. Obviously Mel isn't "just" a Death and... Lou is obviously quite intent on listening to the conversation. Must of picked something up in that market.

EDITED: because html apparently no longer works between a firefox update and AFF's updated little thing here.

Read, Review and Enjoy.

 





They arrived on the tame ground of the village a little earlier than they expected. Mainly because the three people had decided that none of them could sleep in the wilds, not after seeing the spiders. The Sidhe was fine to go on, though as they walked into the village, it seemed worn out, more than anything.



The entire village came out to greet them. Jarg and Tanis handed over their packs immediately to their women. Mel shrugged out of his and simply stood, holding it as Jarg and Tanis were welcomed back to the village. The two were greeted and they exchanged a bit of news with various people. Then the crowd dispersed, leaving the healer, Whisper, several other Deaths and them.



Mel stood patiently through it all. Whisper finally turned to him, “Mel, welcome back.”



“Thank you, Whisper,” Whisper also happened to be his father. Mel was a bastard, his mother dead and her mate had pushed Mel out of the house at the earliest possible time. The Deaths had had no choice but to take Mel on. The only person who could adopt a child was Whisper but because Mel was Whisper’s bastard, it was a conflict of interest.



Or something.



Whisper’s mate, Mel suspected, was the actual problem. The woman hated Mel, she refused to greet him and the other villagers took their cue from her. She came up to Whisper, belly rounded from her current pregnancy. She looked past Mel and to the Sidhe.



“Did. You two buy a slave?” she spat out.



“Sidhe!” the creature squeaked out, hiding behind Mel as if Mel could somehow protect the Sidhe any better than it could protect itself.



“A Sidhe,” the woman’s face fell.



Whisper smiled just barely before he wiped it away, “A Sidhe. And which of you found the creature?” he held out his hand and Tanis handed over the spare coins from the trip, “these are not the coins I gave you.”



“Mel,” Jarg said, directing everyone attention to the young man, “found the Sidhe, we purchased him with village coins-” the woman tried to protest and Jarg raised his voice over hers, “which was replaced within minutes. The Sidhe pulled one of his teeth out and Tanis managed to sell it for six gold.”



“There’s only an extra gold here, how much did you spend on him?” she snapped out.



“It was Mel’s discovery, I gave him two gold, which he then spent most of on items for the Sidhe. Being very responsible.” Jarg’s voice edged with the tone that meant he was about to lose his patience, “Whisper, reign that woman in now.”



“Excuse me-”



“You are not a Death!” Jarg snapped out at her, jabbing a finger and leaning in. Tanis and Mel stepped back immediately, “you are not a Whisper and you are not part of the council. Nor will you ever be! We make the decisions in this village not our women.”



“Women have rights too,” she snapped back, stomping her foot.



“First mates have rights,” Jarg growled, “not second mates who may or may not have poisoned first mates to gain themselves a powerful man. You take that belly of yours and get back in that house before I dig up her body and check for the after effects of poisoning you wretched child.”



“I am not a child.”



“Then stop acting like one!”



Whisper had the exasperated look of someone who had heard the conversation one too many times in the past. He waved his mate off and looked at Jarg, who growled and then looked away.



“If you did not take the bait, she could not upset you so, Jarg,” Whisper commented quietly, “so we have a Sidhe. Why did you bring it with you?”



“Mel tried to scare it off, it refused to leave. The trader bound them together with some kind of spell. The ink won’t come off Mel’s hand,” Jarg paused, “we think the fool used an actual spell and just wasn’t aware of it. The Sidhe has no name and has already saved our lives once. Some sort of invisible spider web.”



“Ah.”



“He picked up one of those bear creatures and killed the spiders with the creature.”



“… the short ugly things that look like stone? Don’t they weigh as much as stone?”



“Yes,” Jarg said.



Whisper considered, “well then,” the man chewed his bottom lip, “what do we do about this? Law says nothing but morals state that we should seek to free the creature. I will communicate with a few other Whispers and see what they know. Until then, I think it best if he stay at the Death Hall.”



“The Sidhe?” Jarg asked, sounding confused.



“Mel. Lynet has started talking about how he’s not shown any interest in women. Word got out that he never even tried to peep a look at the transferred female. The other young ones can’t stop talking about her, legs up to here and a chest that she didn’t like binding for spars.”



Jarg swore, he glared at Mel who could only lower his eyes and look away. The woman had been well shaped, he understood that. But so what, if a female didn’t urge him to attention? Homosexuality wasn’t a sin or even against the law, it just so happened that in his generation there were too many women and not enough men. Hence why the laws had been altered. In times such as those a man could take on two wives. Whisper had done so, taking on a much younger woman to care for his ill mate, and then the mate had suddenly died. Foul play could not be proven, but it couldn’t be disproved either. Homosexuals were suddenly bad, unless of course they happened to be two women willing to take on a male to be a … donor.



Bad time and place to be born, he got it. He even planned to mate a woman, a friend of his from childhood who understood what he was going through and wasn’t going to expect anything from him that he would be uncomfortable with. He was going to do his duty to the village and that was all that should have mattered.



“This, uhm, Sidhe, what is his preference exactly?” Whisper growled out, “are we going to have to protect our young girls from a curious creature?”



“He’s a Sidhe, I highly doubt that he’s interested in out women. His women look like his men, if you recall, it’s hard to tell their gender unless you strip them down to nothing,” Jarg said quickly, “besides which, he’s bound to Mel, which means he’ll go where Mel is. If Mel has to stay at the Death Hall, so will the Sidhe. By the way, would you mind naming him?”



“His name?” Whisper grimaced, “I know it but the pronunciation is… questionable. Louha.”



“Lou,” the Sidhe said, sounding as if he said l-owe.



“There, he has a name,” Tanis said quickly, “why don’t you, Whisper, go to your home and see if you can’t get in contact with someone else before the villagers decided to riot about the resident homosexual.”



“Just because I find it demeaning to stare at women …” Mel went quiet as the other three turned to stare at him, “does not mean that I am a homosexual. It simply means that I find it demeaning to stare at a woman as if she were a piece of meat. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t realise my duty to the village, or that I can’t complete the duty.”



“We understand that, we do,” Whisper said quietly, “but the common villagers obviously do not. Thus, it would be best for everyone if you stayed at the Death Hall. You’ll have the run of the place to yourself, it’ll be fun.”



“Fun,” Mel grumbled, “fun. Fun is not sitting about, twiddling my thumbs or reading books about the end of the world. Fun is spending some time building my house, putting my claim on daily life in the village. I’ve been in the Death Hall since I was twelve, I think I deserve a little freedom.”



“Mel,” Jarg said quietly, “we aren’t giving you a choice in the matter.”



“I realise that and it’s probably what’s upsetting me the most. How can I do my duties and protect the village if I’m five miles away?” Mel protested.



“We will find another way for you to complete your duties. Besides, at least you won’t be alone, you’ll have the Sidhe,” Jarg said.



“And possibly me,” Tanis said, “I’ll talk to my woman, I know it’s not conventional, but maybe her and I should move out there for a while. Mel’s right, it’s not fair to him and maybe if she comes back with tales of how harmless Mel is, the other women will accept him back.”



“So you definitely won’t be alone, Mel. You like Tanis’ woman.”



“That’s because his woman is my half-sister,” Mel growled out, “and one of four women who know about my preference. Mainly because she tried to get her friend to seduce me.”



“She thought your problem was that you were a virgin,” Tanis said, shrugging innocently.



“You went along with it!” Mel snapped at Tanis.



“I… may have suggested what type of woman would work best, but I certainly didn’t help them get you drunk or anything like that.”



“No, you just traded time off with me so that they could do their little plan.”



“I…” Tanis went quiet for a moment, “well, I’ll make it up to you. Somehow. Once we get you set up at the Death Hall.”



“I hate you all,” Mel growled.



The Sidhe jabbered something and leaned over Mel’s shoulder. It sounded like a question and Mel batted it away, annoyed. He didn’t need yet another male sticking their noses into his business. He had enough people ‘helping’ him as it was.





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