"Oh Mahal... too many patients today!” Master Healer Broinur thought.
As he neared the boy, Thrandili gave Kandrin a final kick in the ribs and collapsed into a heap sobbing distraughtly. "HE's Dead... MY LOVE IS DEAD"
The healer comforted her gently... "Nay lass, he is sleeping in his own room at the Brokenspear residence... Go to him and see for yourself"
"BYLI!" She jumped up and started running for Byli's house. Then she suddenly remembered the powder and ran back to Healer Broinur "Master Skegrym said he has sent you a pound weight just in case." She quickly handed him the box and ran off towards Byli's house. "Wooo hoooo" she screamed. "Wooo Hoooo" "BYLI!!!!"
Arriving at Byli's front door, she saw it was open and ran straight in, slap bang into lord Byl! "Whoa little sister, wait he is sleeping."
"I must see him... Is he injured? Will he live? Why did the healer give him a sleeping potion? Where is he? OOOOOOOO!" She stamped her foot and ran into the main room. Only three doors came off from it and by chance, she chose right the first time. "BYLI!!! Oh Mahal I thought I had lost you." she threw herself on the bed and held Byli's battered face tenderly in her hands. Byli slept on. Thrandili tenderly kissed his broken nose and battered eye. "I'm not leaving you again!!! You are mine! I claim you! By Mahal I claim you!"
Byl peered around the door frame aghast... No one had used that old lore for securing a Dwarven husband for 200 years "Little sister... What are you doing??? Are you mad?"
"BY MAHAL I CLAIM YOU, BY MAHAL I CLAIM YOU! There, three times, just as it says in the lore book... He is mine now you can't take him away and nor can my Adad!"
Byl sat down shocked to his core... How did she even know of this old lore?
This was a saying from the old goblin wars when women folk lost husbands left and right...
A method for a bereaved woman to take an un-attached Dwarf to her family and make him her own. Providing a father for her children and a means of support for her in her distress.
The male Dwarf had the right to say no but few ever did.
"Nay little sister Don't go down this route... Kandral and I are negotiating... you will have him regardless... Don't do this I beg you!!!"
"SAY THE WORDS, IZBAD... SAY THE WORDS!"
Was it even legal anymore? Goodness knows but Byl knew his duty.
Byl stood to attention and repeated the phrases he had learnt as a youth... "Mahal taklitizi nana’, Mahal tanradizi nana’, Mahal biratatahi aya ‘ala bass. Sagnigiya ni akhal ya khuzdzi."
(Mahal hears you sister, Mahal cares for you sister, Mahal smiles on this bond. Go in peace with your Dwarf.)
Thrandili was shocked to her core... Oh Mahal this really worked... The old Dwarf responded just as it said in the lore book.
Byli was hers now, just as she wanted... She squealed in delight BYLI I HAVE MY BYLI!
===================
Rogvier smiled. “It is good to see you, Adad. I have done well and made a name as a sell-sword in the lands of men. And now I have come back to build a life, take a stable job and hopefully a wife. And in time, carry on our family line with a couple beardlings of my own.”
=====================
Byl scowled at the judge questioning his parentage "Does this old fuddy duddy even know what we are talking about?
He stood next to Thorlaen... With the Uzbad incapacitated these two were the defacto rulers around here
Byl spoke... "I need a ruling, master judge... Is this still legal or does the Uzbad's wish hold sway?"
Byl felt responsible for the predicament he had created but he knew that his response was correct... Thrandili had spoken the words and he had responded just as he remembered from all those years ago.
"Well, master Judge... Is it legal or not! You are the judge - you should know?!!!"
The judge prevaricated... “Um I need to take council with my fellow judges... A tricky question! We must not be too hasty here. There are precedents in law that precede this... Dwarrow girls in times past have used this to secure a boy not of her fathers wanting...
In fact it was at one time a girl’s way of securing her love... That Thrandili has used it to secure her love is just why the rule was enshrined in Dwarrow lore as the maiden’s choice... Mahal states that Dwarrow lassies can secure the boy of their choice by using this formula.”
The judge nodded. “It stands in Dwarrow lore. I rule that Mistress Thrandili's claim stands... Byli is hers if of course, he wants her.”
=================
Meanwhile at the other end of Ulfhirth, at the Hammerfist's hall...
Augir plunged through the outer door and in a cloud of rock dust he ran into the kitchen ”Hanfrere! Have you heard!? The Uzbad is gravely ill! He could be dying!!”
Hanfrere looked up from a big pot of stew ”Oh Abanith, I am so worried for him. And Buhni...poor Buhni.”
Augir shook his head ”Sad sad news..But we must pray for Mahal to grant him a speedy recovery”
”At the market the rumours said his daughter went behind Kandral's back with a young lad. Boli..something. They said Uzbad threw a fit and nearly died upon hearing about it.”
Hanfrere started to cry as she thought of such terrible things happening to their children’s name-guardians.
”Byli is his name. Thrandili has been singing about him at band practice. Clearly not to the Uzbad's liking.” Augir rubbed his beard and more rock dust fell on the floor where he stood. ”I thought it to be a jest though."
Hanfrere wiped the tears off on her apron. ”But...the lass must be in love!”
”That is clearly the case. But shaming her father into a seizure is hardly appropriate. I think…”
”Oh hush!” Giving Augir a stern look, she continued "You of all dwarves should know how strongly a maiden feels for her loved one. We were hardly the model couple during our betrothal. If Hani only knew half of it, he'd surely be with Mahal by now."
Augir smiled at the memories and Hanfrere giggled. She stirred the pot and after a quick taste decided the stew was as ready. ”I was thinking of taking this pot of cave-claw stew over to Buhni.”
Augir gave Hanfrere a dusty hug. ”I will take a quick bath and join you. There might be something I could do to help.”
After a quick stroll through the neighbourhood they arrived at the Strongbeard Hall. Augir knocked but no one answered. They could hear voices though and decided to wait for a little while.
Buhni opened the door, her eyes were red; she had been crying. Without a word spoken she opened the door for Augir and Hanfrere, nodding ever so gently. "He is in the back bed-room", she spoke in a broken voice, her eyes to the floor.
The couple entered, wiping their feet on the welcome mat. Hanfrere put her stew down on the floor and hugged Buhni, "it will be alright", she comforted, at which Buhni's tears welled up again. "Come, let us head in the kitchen and put this cave-claw stew on the fire. I'm sure all can use a meal", Hanfrere spoke as she guided the distraught Buhni to the kitchen.
Augir stepped through the central chamber of the Hall, he remembered it not like this. Where were the usual fragrant candles? Where was the light? It looked dim; it looked heavy and sad. He heard a voice he recognized. It was Broinur the healer. Slowly he stepped toward the back bedchamber.
"It is in your hands now, Mahal", he heard Broinur say, as if he was finishing a healing spell.
"Is he awake?", spoke Augir softly as he stepped through the door frame, in the direction of the bed-end. Broinur shook his head then looked down, as if he was not sure... not sure how this would go on. Augir took a step closer and looked at the dwarf in the bed. Never would he have recognized him. The Uzbad looked old, older than he had ever looked and his beard looked whiter than usual. This was not the dwarf he recognized; worry struck him.
Broinur knew the healing spell would not be enough, something much stronger was needed here. He called for Buhni.
=================
Thrandili sat on the bed, Byli's head in her lap. She'd claimed him for her own, and his own father had said the words to seal her choice. That old book in Kandral's library had been right! How ironic that it was HIS book that had given them this chance. Emotions surged in her - love, passion, fear, guilt, regret. She had her Byli, yet her father lay gravely ill.
Gently, she stroked Byli's battered face, smoothed back his hair, let her hands linger where they would. No one could keep them apart any more. Joy struggled with anguish and she cried, not wildly like before, but softly, gently, and her tears dropped on Byli. She was a blazing fire inside, yet she was the softest snowflake falling on his skin.
"Amrâlimê, Byli," she whispered.
==================
Broinur spoke softly to Buhni. "This medicine is very powerful and it has the chance of sending Kandral to meet Mahal himself but with careful administration, it will dissolve the clot in his heart and return him to full vigor.
I need your permission to use such a potion... One that does offer a full cure but with life threatening side effects if used inappropriately."
Buhni sniffed and wiped her eyes "He has been my rock in life. I have clung to him during storms and fair weather. He is what I live for... Healer... If there is any chance to return him to full vigour we MUST take it!"
Broinur nodded. "Very well sister. I have made up the potion, Mālum leaves to give him a tonic and some Heartsbane to restore the proper rhythm to his ticker and finally Dammatharg the clot buster.
The proportions of the three are the source of some discussions in our profession but my concoction is tried and trusted."
"How do you give it to him?" Buhni trembled.
"I mix it with his own blood and then inject it directly into his heart using this needle."
Buhni fainted dead away.
"Womenfolk!" The healer muttered then calmly prepared his apparatus for the operation.
