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“Yarrow! Did you get the spices from the market yesterday? I think we might need them!” Vetch called out to his sister as he laboured at his potatoes over a frying pan.
“Yes, brother!” Yarrow cried out as she sat in the kitchen working on her loom, “I got them a few days ago and they are free for you to use, brother!”.
“O thank Segoy!” Vetch thought and said to himself as he flicked the frying pan up and down and up and down and just continued to leade the food that he was cooking up and down upon the frying pan. IT was almost dance-like, as a matter of fact, the way that the food leapt up into the air like a dolphin from the sea and then returned downwards to its original homeland like Vetch or his husband had somehow called upon its true name. Vetch hummed and laughed to himself as he cooked the potatoes, for he felt so much happiness at the thought of what was to come.
Some months ago, never mind how long precisely, his husband the great Sparrowhawk of Ten Alders on the Isle of Gont had set off from their home on Roke to seek the Amulet of Erreth-Akbe on the terrifying other land of Atuan in the dreaded and dreadful Empire of the Sky. It was a terrifying prospect upon which to dwell, for no one who had ever set out for those terrible desert Tombs had ever returned before. And although Vetch knew for a fact that his husband was, in fact, no ordinary Wizard of Earthsea, it was still a terrifying prospect to think of his beloved one being devoured by the terrible Nameless Ones who dwelt beneath the Earth and consumed all who came before them. Sparrowhawk might have faced down a Creature of the Darkness before (with Vetch and Yarrow not that far behind, as a matter of fact), but that was a minor Shadow Being who had become partially bonded to him via a soul link of some kind or another to the point wherein they had even come to share the same True Name through some Segoy-damn manner or another. That was a very different experience from having to face down the entirety of the Old Powers of the Earth just to achieve peace and contentment for the whole entirety of the Hardic Lands of the Great Archipelago. And it had terrified Vetch to his very core when he had learned what Sparrowhawk was planning to do just because he had stumbled upon one half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe on his travels to fight, conquer, and defeat the Shadow.
And yet somehow and in some way, the wonderful Sparrowhawk had succeeded magnificently, and the news was already spreading rapidly throughout the whole entirety of the Archipelago. Already, there was news of how the Tombs of Atuan had collapsed back into the sand from whence they came and how all the Priestesses of the Nameless Ones and the Twin Gods Wuluah and Atwah and the God-King Himself had all slaughtered each other in a frenzy of possession and of madness as well and the Ring of Erreth-Akbe was released from the Tombs and would soon be returned to Earthsea and her peoples. And now the fat old God-King, that pompous and pretentious little fat man who styled himself the All-Emperor of the whole entirety of the universe from Astowell to Selidor and beyond that to the Dry Land, was throwing a colossal tantrum about the whole entire thing. Already Awabath had sent angry messengers with words of war and rage and fire unto the Court of the Regency Council in Havnor Great-Port, demanding that the Ring be returned instantaneously lest the Kargad Fleets burn every island of the HArdic Lands unto the ground. Needless to say, the Mages who ran Earthsea in the absence of the Kings born from the Line of Morred and Elfarran were so unimpressed with the God-King’s vainglorious boasts that the Archmage Gensher had simply written “Make us!” in a letter written between Roke and Awabath. And even the God-King of the Kargs did not dare to challenge the might and majesty of the Archmage of Roke. And so it was that peace was now restored between the Hardics and the Kargs.
With his potatoes being left to simmer upon the frying pan, VVetch found himself dancing around the room and humming to himself some more as he waited for his potatoes to finish cooking and for his husband to return as well. Outside the small and tightly-packed walls of their household, the rain raged a furious and mighty song all across the island of Iffish. Vetch was tempted to use his power to make this all vanish for the sake of his husband’s safe return, but he knew that every teacher he knew back o Roke would have admonished him intensely for doing so and disrupting the Balance like that, and so he ceased to think such things and resisted the temptation to use his Magic for such purposes. Besides, there was just something oh so sweet and pleasant about being all safe and secure indoors while the storm raged around you and swaddled the world in a watery blanket that also gave life and nourishment and sustenance to all the lands around you.
(‘That being said’ Vetch thought to himself as he considered all of these things, ‘I do wish Sparrowhawk has access to a good Windkey on his journey home to Havnor Great-Port. I would hate to see him succeed in reuniting the two halves of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe only to drown at sea with both himself and the Ring lost beneath the sea forever and peace never restored to our precious and beloved Archipelago’).
As he danced around the room in joy and also in anticipation, Vetch made sure not to disrupt his sister’s loom, and she nodded to him in turn and thus indicated her approval of his dancing antics. And the two siblings smiled at each other and nodded together in a secret language that only they and no one else understood. Vetch felt happy for his sister as he gazed upon her working away at her loom. For not so long ago, about a week or so after Sparrowhawk’s departure for Atuan, as a matter of fact, Yarrow had met a beautiful girl named Teleost who worked as a house-carpenter despite being the daughter of a fisherman and a fish seller woman. And it was not long at all before Yarrow and Teleost were so deeply in love with each other that they would dpssapear for long hours to sit together beneath an old rowan tree and now they were married. And so it was that Yarrow had set out to weave together her wife’s bridal cloak in preparation for their union together at the end of the month. It was all she could talk about for a good long while, and Vetch was overjoyed to think of how happy these two women would be together for the rest of their lives upon the Earthsea.
And so it was that all of these thoughts continued jostling for space inside Vetch’s head for a good long while, until at last his thoughts and his dances were interrupted by the soft and subtle ringing of a bell at his door. Vetch rushed over as quickly as he could and opened the door and gasped with delight to see Sparrowhawk standing outside in the rain waiting for himself to be let into the house.
Vetch and Sparrowhawk hugged each other as tightly as they could and wept softly into each other’s chest and shoulder respectively. And then Vetch gasped even further when he saw that Sparrowhawk had brought a guest with him, a pale and dark-haired young girl with a smile of sadness emblazed upon her face like a melancholy scar.
“Who is this, Sparrow?” Vetch asked in a way that attempted to be sensitive and thoughtful to a young woman who was clearly going through some tough things in her life at this moment.
“I will explain later” Sparrowhawk said back to his husband as the three of them prepared to sit down together to eat their dinner.
And so it was that Vetch and Sparrowhawk and the mysterious girl sat down to dinner together and Sparrowhawk began to discuss all about the adventure that he had just undergone in the Tombs of Atuan. And it was here that Vetch learned all about Tenar and her history and the heritage into which she had been forced by circumstance and cult shenaniganery.
Vetch shuddered to himself as he learned all about what Tenar had undergone throughout her childhood. Like most folk of the HArdic Archipelago and its constituent islands, Vetch had heard some absolute horror stories and atrocious tales about what was done by the Arha Cult in the Tombs of Atuan, and he was relieved to discover that at least some of them were not true.
“Thank Segoy there is no impregnation of the child involved in their rituals!” Vetch thought aloud to himself under his breath so that Sparrowhawk would not hear him.
“I mean, they are mostly eunuchs!” Sparrowhawk chuckled to himself as he somehow overheard his husband Vetch’s words, “And yes, I am glad noen of the ritual go that far! It is still horrible and vile and despicable what is done to those children, but at least they don’t have their bodily autonomy violated to that extent”.
It was at this moment that the two Wizards of Earthsea could see how disturbed and troubled their young charge was by these discussions of her life’s past events, and so they decided to quiet themselves down just a little for the sake of their young guest’s emotional health and mental stability. And all the while they did so, Tenar pawed at her food just a little before diving into her soup like a dog drinking up as much water as they could before falling asleep for the evening. And so it was that Vetch and Sparrowhawk both smiled as they watched Tenar eat her meal and especially they took delight in how quickly she devoured the steak and potatoes that Vetch had cooked for her. He could tell that she had not gotten much to eat when she was High Priestess of the Nameless Ones at the Tombs of Atuan and certainly not much of things this good. And so it made him happy and delighted in the extreme to see her so delighted in the food that was now laid out before her and had been prepared for her.
And when that was all done and finished, the three of them went outside and Sparrowhawk began to tell Tenar stories of the stars. She learned delightedly about the Fisherman’s Net and the red star known as Tehanu and the Dragon and the Scorpion and the Eel and all the other constellations over which the Celestial Swordsman and the Wizard both ruled. And all around them, the sea breezes of Iffish howled their sweet and supple song as if they themselves were dragons calling out for their mates in the darkness. And all the while, Tenar listened with the wide-eyed wonder of a child learning their letters for the first time in their infancy, while Vetch and Sparrowhawk snuggled closely to each other in the darkness of the nighttime.
“Sparrow my love” Vetch whispered softly so as not to hurt Tenar’s feelings, “Do you think she resents us in any way for our love, my dear?”
“Why would you say that?” Sparrowhawk asked his husband through the whispers of the night.
“Well I think she looked at us a little oddly during our dinner together, or rather tried hard not to look” Vetch responded to his husband’s querying and questioning, “And I am fairly sure of the fact and truth that the Kargads are not exactly known for their tolerance of love like ours”.
“I do not think she is that judgmental, my love” Sparrowhawk responded to his husband’s words, “Yes, the Kargads are not known for their tolerance of other ways of existence, but I doubt that Tenar is the kind of person to internalise those prejudices mindlessly just because of the culture in which she was raised. I do believe, in fact, that since she grew up in large part around eunuchs and women of strange persuasions as part of her childhood in those Temple Tombs”.
Vetch laughed to himself at Sparrowhawk’s words and nodded along as he acknowledged that his husband actually had a very good point and that he should take that point to heart.
And as they thought about all of these things both in their hearts and in their minds as well, of course, the night began to grow colder and darker and more quiet, and so it was that Sparrowhawk stretched himself like a cat who has just caught and eaten a mouse and told everyone that it was time for them to go to bed, for the voyage was tomorrow.
And so it was that Vetch and Tenar nodded along with Sparrowhawk’s words and proceeded to go back to their household, where Tenar was given the guest bedroom that had once been that of Yarrow and almost immediately fell asleep there all curled up like an otak pup sleeping next to their mother in the den.
And when the former High Priestess Arha had fallen safely asleep in her new bedroom, Vetch and Sparrowhawk went off to the main bedroom of the household and stripped all of their clothes until they were clad, at last, in nothing but the robes of skin and hair that had served them since their birthing. And then they felt their bodies rub together with the kind of softness and intimacy reserved for husbands and wives all across the Archipelago. Sometimes Estarriol was on the top and Ged was on the bottom, and then they would switch positions so that Ged was on top and Estarriol was on the bottom. And sometimes one man’s penis was in the other one’s loins (they alternated that as well, of course), and other times they were just falling asleep beside each other with Estarriol’s mighty great arms wrapped around his beloved one as if they were a sea wall protecting an island against the ravges of the tide. A lot of times throughout his life, Estarriol had been rather conscious and awkward and anxious about his own body, feeling uncertain about the massive size of his chest and stomach and how much he loved to eat and cook despite what the other boys back at Roke so often thought about that. Right now, however, he felt proud of himself for being so big and having such great arms so as to enwrap his husband the Great Wizard of Ten Alders on Gont like this.
“I love you so much, my Sparrowhawk” Estarriol whispered to his beloved husband as the two of them slept onwards and onwards into the depths of the nighttime, “Never forget that for as long as you shall live and I shall live and we both shall live”.
“And I love you so much as well, Estarriol my beloved one” Ged mumbled in his sleep as the two of them drifted off into the darkness of dreams and the stars still danced above them like patterns upon an enchanted conjurer’s quilt or a magical tapestry.
And when morning came back unto the Archipelago at last with the crowing of a cockerel on some distant shore of the island of Iffish, Vetch and Sparrowhawk redonned all their clothes and Sparrowhawk went to check up on and awaken Tenar from her slumber so that she could travel with Sparrowhawk across the sea to Gont Port and from there onto Ten Alders for the sake of hding her in peace and in safety. Vetch, for his part, went to cook breakfast for his husband and their guest just as he had cooked dinner the night before. This time, the three people present were not as voracious in their appetites as they had been the night before, but they were still quick to eat their food in order to gain strength for the morning’s voyage.
And when all of that was said and done, Vetch led Sparrowhawk and Tenar the Former Arha all the way to the closest thing that Iffish had for a substantial port town and harbour. And fortunately, it just so happened that there was a silk ship transporting her goods from Lorbanery to the Andrades that was also making a stop in Gont Port to visit relatives and relations, and it was onto this ship that Sparrowhawk and Tenar climbed in order to make their way to Gont Port and on from there to Ten Alders.
Vetch kissed his husband goodbye upon both of Sparrowhawk’s cheeks, and Sparrowhawk was quick to do the same to both of Vetch’s cheeks before Vetch gave Tenar a kiss upon the top of her own black-clad head while she closed her eyes and smiled as a way of showing him her permission for his affection. And so it was that this all was done and Sparrowhawk and Tenar waved goodbye to Vetch as they boarded the boat that would take them over to Sparrowhawk’s hometown.
And as the ship vanished into the sea mists that defined so much of Earthsea, Vetch watched and smiled softly and wept softly to himself as he thought of Tenar and Sparrowhawk as two ships passing in the kinship of the darkness, one going towards great power and the other desperately escaping from said great power. In the darkness of the night, though, all boats were very, very much the same, regardless of their colour or whatever island to which they owed their allegiance. And it made him smile to think of such universal experiences for every soul between Astowell and Selidor, and he wished for his husband and his husband’s beautiful young charge to find their way to peace and safety in some wondrous other land or even just here in the Archipelago of Earthsea.
And so it was that Vetch of Iffish turned himself back towards his household and homestead and sighed softly to himself as he looked back to see the boat depart into the distance. It made him sad to see his husband’s ship depart so far off into the distance, but he knew that Sparrowhawk would come flying back into his life some day, and that thought made him smile as he closed the door behind him and sat down at his table to hope for the best.
“Best of luck, my good friend” Vetch thought to himself as he remembered the Lookfar disappearing off into the mist and the distance, “Best of luck”.
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blindly
Because she knows that she can trust you
Because you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.
-Leonard Cohen