Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

All morning long, Her Lady Aphmau of the village town Phoenix Drop had been yanked around by several lovely ladies who were tasked on wrangling her into some fancy outfit, in some fancy hairstyle, all to meet some fancy people.

Zane's parents. More importantly, Garroth's parents. Garroth had given her a good understanding of his Father, none of which was very pleasant.

She mumbled to herself quietly, muttering her stream of consciousness thoughts while someone yanked her corset just a stitch too tight for comfort. Weren't these things supposed to be supportive? Her ribs were aching a little.

Aphmau gnawed on her lip, thinking. Gears were grinding in her mind about how to get out of here safely, without causing anyone else to get thrown in line of fire. Knowing Zane, he absolutely delighted in the fact that she was gone and had taken the opportunity to send his people towards Phoenix Drop to "stand in" till she returned from her "political business". No Lord in the village leaves a vacancy that Garroth would have to take up in the meantime. Then Garroth would almost certainly be summoned, and then what? Laurence would have to deal with those guards. Laurence couldn't do that, he's had such a temper since-

"Ow-!" Aphmau yelped as one of the older ladies swatted at her face.

"Don't make yourself bleed, you'll bruise. The Lord and Lady wont like a bruise on such a face." she fussed, making Aphmau pout defiantly. She would make a point to bruise herself now as visibly as possible, simply because of that comment.

Aphmau huffed, and forced herself to focus on the several women all fussing over her.

One of them had her foot on the small of Aphmau's back, the laces of her corset wrapped around her calloused knuckles. Aphmau let out a soft, annoyed wheeze as she yanked once more. The young lady next to her was giving her words of encouragement, "You have to really put your back into it!"

"It would be a lot easier to put my back into it if I wasn't worried about yanking Her Lady's hair." the girl grumbled, earning a glare from the youngest of the group.

A young woman fussed over Aphmau's hair, putting it up into an intricate style - braided around the crown of her head, pulled up into a top-heavy ponytail and leaving the bottom half free. "Come off it, Lovet." the young lady hissed, "This is more important than you altering Her Lady's figure."

Aphmau let out a heavy breath as her tight bindings were released, and finally tied into a bow at the apex of her waist. "Don't have such a sore attitude! Just because you wanted to be in charge of-"

Their bickering was cut short by the older woman, "Both of you shut your traps. You're embarrassing yourselves."

They fell into a tense quiet, and the older woman blotted the pad of her thumb once more over Aphmau's bottom lip with a dark, almost wine colored rouge. Lady Aphmau was sure if she could see those young womens' faces, they'd be beet red right about now.

The door to the dressing room opened, and the High Priest of Her Lady's home O'khasis, Zane Ro'meave, entered.

"Do you enter all your lady's dressing rooms without knocking?" Aphmau greeted him flatly, only earning an amused chuckle.

"No, no, of course. My deepest apologies, my love." he cooed. As he approached, the ladies scattered back and allowed them their privacy; or as much that a room this small would allow. "I was just so desperate to see you, of course. I was hoping to see how our company was treating you."

He reached up, wrapping a stray curl around his pointer finger before she swatted his hand away like she had ever time he tried to touch her. "I see they're treating you well. You look…. lovely." He praised, but only was met with unamusement.

"I am accepting assistance in looking presentable for Garroth's parents, the Lord and Lady of a very respectable village. My good looks have nothing to do with you." she spat back dismissively, turning to the mirror to fuss with the stray curl, pulling a couple more sprigs free. The wildflowers that seemed to dot her hair had withdrawn into buds and leaves and pollen, she couldn't blame them. If Aphmau could withdraw into a safe shell, till sunshine came to make her bloom, she surely would.

Zane stepped beside her in the mirror. Now in better view, she noted he was wearing some rather formal robes. A hood was pulled up over his head, his normal mask had been traded in for something with gold threads, alongside a matching stole draped over his shoulders.

He did look nice, it was such a pity.

"Hm." He hummed, reaching an ungloved hand to hold her cheek. "You could use some more blush, but we simply don't have time."

She watched his hand fall, and briefly she considered snarking off about what in Irene's name He would know about good makeup, but he was talking again right after that. "Mother and Father are expecting us right this moment, they've just returned from a rather important meeting with the Lord of Scaleswind and are interested in some light company." He informed her, slipping his glove back on to open the door for her out of the room.

"Would- would you like us to call a guard, High Priest?" one of the ladies fussed from her spot in the room.

Zane shook his head, "No, I think I know the way around my own living quarters." he dismissed her politely, "But thank you ever so much for your concern, my dear."

It was almost pitiful how fast people fell for the act, Aphmau thought. How someone so horrible could have a silver tongue, and not even that good of one.

He took Aphmau's arm in his, and they started walking down the vast, cavernous hallways.

The inner roofs of the hallways sloped upwards to a point, their undersides were painted beautifully. These hallways were older than Zane himself. Even older than Zane's father, his father's father, even older. The pillars were framed with heavy cotton drapery, several edges on every wall were gilded, guards lined the corners and parted when they heard Zane's heeled boots walking down the carpeted hardwood floors.

And yet, despite all its vastness, Aphmau couldn't recall seeing a spec of dust, or a piece of litter anywhere. Not even smoke stained the higher walls from the candles. She couldn't imagine the labor that went into not only building, but maintaining such a place.

"I have very high standards for you Lady Aphmau." Zane informed her, drawing her attention from the intricate details on every wall. "You will act accordingly in front of my Father and Mother, I'm sure I don't need to reiterate why exactly you'll be behaving so well."

Aphmau hated how smug he looked. "I'm good. I'm sure I'll be getting details on that later." she grumbled out.

Not seeming to catch her attitude, or most likely ignoring it, he nodded cheerfully. "Why yes. We will be having a long discussion later about all of my affairs, actually. I have many things we will be attending to as a unit, although first and foremost after meeting my beloved parents will be our union."

She tuned him out.

He continued to talk to himself the whole trip up to the large doors containing Lord and Lady Ro'meave. Only as the guards were opening the doors for them did he quiet, and only briefly enough for his announcement to be heard.

Lady Aphmau thought all this was a little much. She'd never make Levin do all of this ceremony just to see her. Still, she remained quiet while he babbled on and on, introducing her.

"Good afternoon Father, Mother." Zane slipped his arm from Aphmau's to wrap it around her waist, "This pearl is my dear Lady Aphmau I've told you ever so much about. The wonderful lady to return our Garroth to us." he introduced, almost seeming to nudge her forward a little with his touch.

Aphmau just smiled at them politely, "It's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you from so many people." She grit her teeth as she hissed her words through them.

Garte, as she assumed, looked a lot like Garroth. Except Garte had a beard, and all these wrinkles in his face that spoke of many years of frowning and scornful looks on others.

Zianna… Aphmau thought she looked a lot like Zane, although Garroth had her eyes. Zane had her eyes as well, she recalled as her gaze flicked over to him. The blue eyed woman, taller than any woman she'd ever seen aside from her love Zoey, immediately burst into tears at the mention.

"Oh, thank you Lady Aphmau!" She cried, rising from her seat. Despite Garte reaching for her, she slipped past his grip to wrap her arms around Aphmau.

Aphmau noticed she was cold. Even though her thick clothes, she felt cold when Aphmau's careful hands came to wrap around her waist and back. "My Lady Aphmau, thank you!" She sobbed again, surely staining this nice dress with her makeup.

"Oh, it's… I'm.." Aphmau murmured, her hands finding their way into Zianna's hair. Her eyes met Zane's, and he raised his eyebrows at her encouragingly. She hesitated before sucking in a shaky breath, "I care a lot about Garroth." she settled on, "I only want what's best for him." 'And what's best for him,' she thought, 'Is to stay in Phoenix Drop.'

Garte cleared his throat and Zianna sniffled before releasing Aphmau. She kept a hand on her shoulder, using the other one to clumsily blot at her face, "Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry Lady Aphmau, your dress.."

"You can just call me Aphmau, it's alright." she reassured her, finally meeting her eye.

"Aphmau." Zianna parroted, "You're so sweet, thank you so much again. Zane tells me you're a mother, you must understand how sorrowful my heart has been since losing my son. It means the world to me to have another piece of my heart returned to me."

Her Lady Aphmau nodded sympathetically, "I-"

"Enough," Garte's voice cut through the chatter, "With the theatrics, Zianna. I believe there's a meal being prepared for us, it's not polite to have such conversation over food."

At the mention of food, Lady Zianna perked up, "Oh! Yes, yes of course." she sniffled once more and wiped at her lower eyelid. "Please, you must join us for dinner. I'm ever so grateful to you, Lady Aphmau, I insist." she tucked a strand of hair behind Aphmau's ear, her hand still on her shoulder.

"Of course, I'd love to." Aphmau agreed.

It wasn't like she had anything better to do. It was either this, or sit in her prepared room and listen to Zane drone on about some threat or other. She'd traveled the entirety of yesterday, and only had a few hours rest. Some dinner sounded great right now.