Bonded

Canwr spread his arms wide. "Even as we pledge this night, before our ancestors to strengthen the bonds that unite the folk of the hills, we witness the pledge of two who would form the strongest of bonds." He gestured the pair of them to come to his side. Canwr withdrew an iron ring, ancient and pitted. "Place your hands..." He spoke slowly. On here, one upon each side, meeting in the middle of the ring."

Muirne followed Khyus out into the grove, then up the short slope to where they joined the seer on his high flat rock. She stood across from the stag prince, but she didn’t look at him. This was not a moment of intimacy, of romance. This was a contract, and a pledge. Her expression was serious, cold as river stones as she placed her painted hand on the sacred iron.

Khyus reached a gloved hand to grasp the ring firmly in his hand. Giving a firm nod to Canwr, he fixed his gaze on the woman across from him.

Canwr looked between the pair as he kept a good grip of the iron ring. "Today you will pledge yourselves to one another for a year, a promise to share all, a pledge to unite you as the horizon unites the earth and sky..." He was solemn, force in his words as the distand wind howled abong the bluffs. "Mortal eyes see you, motal ears hear you, but the pledge is witnessed by the ancestors on this day." He glanced left and right. "Do you understand this?"

Muirne |”I do,” she said in a strong voice. It did not echo, but was absorbed into the darkness.

Khyus nodded once more to Canwr and dropped his gaze toward where their hands all joined around the cold metal. "Aye," he replied clearly.

Canwr slowly took his hand from theirs, withdrawing a rope, spun with a curious mixture of help, bark, fine hair and richly dyed ribbon. "Then I bind you, both of you..."