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xantchaslegacy · 6 years ago

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MTG Month of the Ship Day 7 - Embrace

(I’m dipping into the pre-canon novels for day 7 (Shattered Chains, specifically). I loved the Whispering Woods trilogy, but they killed off one of their best characters…

…or so they would have us believe ;). Sorry if this one takes a little while to get to the embrace itself. Also, if anyone knows the actual names of Ordando’s wives, feel free to call me out. I don’t remember the novel actually naming them~)

Ordando thought she had died in that alleyway.

How could it have happened any other way? Every blasted knight in Benalia had been there, trying to stop their escape. She’d broken about half of their faces, and taken almost as many cuts and stabs in the process. In the end she’d been buried under the weight of them, and passed out from the sheer number of her wounds.

That had been the fun part.

The year of imprisonment that followed? Less so. The Benalish pigs had at least had the decency to put their best healers toward patching her up, if only to put her through all nine spheres of torment afterwards. That ugly son of a slug with the broken nose had even come around once, spitting furious. Ordando didn’t mind any of that. Their anger was proof that her sacrifice had meant something. That Gull and Lily had managed to escape with Commander Rakel.

The threats and the blows she could weather. What truly pained her was the sitting. The waiting. The thinking that had come with it. It had seemed obvious and easy to throw herself at a small army to protect her commander, and she would have done it again in a heartbeat, but to know that Raine and Tyria would think her dead…

“Prisoner 456!”

Ordando’s head snapped up. She didn’t recognize the knight standing outside the cell.

“Where’s the warden?”

“You’re looking at him.” The knight’s gaze swept the inside of the cell, full of disgust. “New year, new caste. Get up.” He turned to one of the guards Get her in irons. We’re taking her up.”

Up. That meant execution. Ordando stood immediately, and the knight backed up a step. From Ordando’s spot on the floor, he clearly hadn’t realized she had almost two heads in height on him.

She reached up around her neck and grasped the only thing they had left her with – a thin strap of leather stung through two small brass rings. She ripped the strap off and clenched the rings in her fist. One ring from Tyria, another from Raine. She wondered if her wives still had hers. She hoped they were happy. That Gull and Greensleeves had kept them safe.

“Well? Let’s go then.” She glared down at the knight. She would go, but they would not see her cower or beg.

***

“Prisoner 456, name not given…charged with assault of over four dozen knights of Benalia, and at least seven additional deaths.” The woman in white robes pursed her lips. “Very embarrassing for the ruling caste at the time…almost as embarrassing as Sabriam’s face.” There was barely-suppressed laughter from the knights along the walls of the council chamber; a room Ordando had never thought she’d see again, and not one she particularly cared to visit a second time.

“In any case,” the woman continued, “You are now pardoned and given full release.”

Ordando cocked her head. “What?”

“You are released, with our full apologies. I think it’s clear to everyone present-” and here the woman raised an eyebrow at all the other councilmembers, “-that the buffoonery of past ruling castes can hardly be a proper reason for enforcing a life sentence.You will be transferred to the college of Lat-Nam by a delegation of knights representing Benalish interests, and there be released.”

“Lat-Nam? The magic academy from fairy tales?”

The benalish behind the bench exchanged looks. One of them leaned in toward the woman in white and muttered something.

“Hm, of course, you wouldn’t know.” The woman folded her hands on top of the paper-strewn desk. “The wizard Greensleeves has established a new community of magic-practitioners on the recently, ah…uncovered ruins of Lat-Nam. You will accompany them as part of our goodwill outreach. We hope you will be able to speak highly to the care you received during your stay, given the violent nature of your…”

She kept prattling on, but Ordando wasn’t listening. She looked down and uncurled her hand, where the rings had pressed two distinct circles of red into her palm.

***

Lat-Nam certainly looked like something out of a fairy-tale…beaches of obsidian sand glittered before deep forests of palm trees. A makeshift harbor was set atop it, with boardwalks leading further inland, and ships of all sorts at dock. A massive ogre and a man with a flaming eagle swooping about his head were directing boats and cargo.

Ordando gripped the ship’s railing tight, trying to settle her nerves.

The knights had kept her belowdeck for most of the voyage, not that Ordando much minded. She had spent the days trying to calm her stomach, a task complicated by her suddenly much more generous diet, the unfamiliar toss of the waves after over a year of pitch-black stillness, and the renewed fear for the well-being of her wives.

It had meant the world to her to know that, no matter what dangers her mercenary work had exposed her to, Raine and Tyria had each other to rely on if she couldn’t return. But the stories the benalish had been telling all voyage…armies of wizards descending on Gull’s army with lightning and swamp-monsters and all manner of nightmares…dragon machines bursting from the ground and setting fire to the camps…

“You better have kept them safe, Gull…” Ordando growled.

As the ship docked, Ordando felt her stomach drop further and further. She didn’t recognize anyone here. They’d said that thousands had flocked to join Greensleeves, but she hadn’t considered having to pick through so many strangers just to find someone who could tell her if her wives were even-

“ ‘Dando!”

Her heart leapt. The cry had come from the other side of the deck, and she sprang across the ship, bowling aside every knight to slow to move out of the way.

Tyria. Raine. Her wonderful, clever, beautiful wives. They’d avoided the crowded docks altogether and found a small rowing-boat to take out from the beach. Raine caught sight of her first, and looked well like she might have fainted there and then. Tyria gave a loud holler, and nearly leapt up out of the boat.

“Ho! Move away there!” One of the benalish hefted a crossbow and reached for a bolt. “Keep your distance or-”

Ordando took the crossbow and smashed it against the railing. Then, not waiting for the knights to respond, she vaulted over the side of the ship and into the water.

The boat was even smaller than she’d realized, and she nearly flipped it over into the water as she seized the edge to pull herself up. Raine and Tyria each took one of her hands, and Ordando flopped gracelessly into their arms, rocking the boat roughly from side to side.

She didn’t care. Two sets of arms engulfed her, wrapping around her waist and neck. Raine was sobbing, tears mingling with the saltwater, her long hair plastered against Ordando’s neck. Tyria was shouting her name, over and over again. Ordando wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them close to her chest.

“They said you were dead…” Raine choked the words out, her face buried in Ordando’s shoulder. “I thought…we never thought…”

“Shhh…” Ordando lifted Raine’s face to her own and planted a kiss on her cheek. She did the same for Tyria, running a hand through her dark curls. “It’s fine. I’m back, and I’m never leaving you two ever-”

The ship turned on a wave and deposited all three of them into the water. Ordando lost them both briefly in the surf, but they’d washed up in the shallows, and she breached easily. Tyria came up next to her, cursing and spitting water, while Raine struggled with her now-waterlogged dress. Laughing, Ordando scooped them up in each arm and carried them up onto the black sands. Her legs, still weak from malnourishment, gave out a few steps in and they collapsed in a head together.

“My poor, brave, Ordando,” Raine sniffed, cupping her face. “They must have starved you.” Her brow suddenly furrowed, and she stared daggers up at the benalish ship. “I’ve half a mind to-”

Tyria and Ordando both pulled her back down onto the sands, and she fell with an angry pout into Ordando’s arms. Ordando planted small kisses into her wife’s brine-soaked hair while Tyria draped herself over Ordando’s shoulders.

“Never mind that, my loves.” Ordando sighed; wet, covered in sand, but content for the first time in years. “I’ll be eating my fill soon enough, as a returning hero deserves.” She took Tyria’s hand and swung her into her lap as well, where she could hug them both at once. “Gull owes me a feast after all this, I figure.”

The above is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

#mtgship #mtg #MTG Flash Fan Fic #Ordando #Shattered chains #mtg precanon #whispering woods #gull #greensleaves

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