In Which Raia Hears the All-Surrounding Sound

July 20, 1170

Orrick and Senwick both reached for the green-clad doll, then looked at each other for a minute before Orrick picked up the red-shirted figure instead. A grin on her face, Raia watched as the two of them began to play. "They're so cooperative."

"They play more nicely together than any of the others ever did, that's for sure," Falidor agreed, sending a fond glance the boys' way before looking up at her from the bench. "Just between you and me, I think it would break their little hearts to learn... well, you know."

She did know. Poor Falidor. It was obvious that he loved Ailede's kids--all of them--as his own, but he still had to live with the knowledge that most of them were other men's. That must have stung, even if any fondness he'd ever had for his wife had long since disappeared; still, it was probably not something he cared to dwell on, so she figured she had to say something. "I wonder what it would be like to have a twin."

Falidor shrugged. "Probably rather like having any other similarly-aged sibling."

"Killjoy," she teased, somewhat unimpressed by his dull answer. "I suppose I wouldn't have gotten much more out of a twin than I did out of Jadin, though--unless we were identical, of course. Wouldn't that be something? Can you imagine all the tricks you could play?"

Smirking, the steward leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Do you think the world could handle two Raias?"

"Not at all." She twirled a lock of hair around her finger and beamed at him. "It could use a couple more of you, though."

Laughing, he opened his mouth to say something in response, but was cut off by an angry shriek from downstairs. "FALIDOR!"

Raia bit her lip as a disheartened Falidor pulled himself to his feet, sighing. "And so the witch returns to her keep."

"Falidor! Where the hell is my sister?"

A walking cloud of bitter contempt, Ailede stormed through the door, glaring around the room in search of her husband; when her eyes found Raia, she scowled. "What is she doing here?"

"Raia came over with Nora earlier," Falidor answered in the same resigned tone he always used around his wife. "Nora left a while ago, but the boys wanted Raia to stay a little longer, so she agreed to do so."

Ailede snorted in disbelief, but didn't press the matter further; she had other things on her mind. "Where's Neleine?"

Falidor's too-large wedding ring fell to his mid-digit; he pushed it back to his knuckle with an absent mind, apparently too used to this to think much of it. "The abbey."

"The abbey," Ailede repeated, each syllable dripping with enough venom to kill a cat or a small dog. "Why is she at the abbey?"

Falidor crossed his arms and stared at her; Raia had heard this story mere hours earlier, and had she been in his place, she would have been surprised and annoyed too. "You said you wanted her out of the house, remember? You told her that when she told you she was pregnant again."

"Yes, but my slut sister wouldn't take the veil out of her own free will! You sent her there, didn't you?"

Falidor sighed again. "I didn't have much of a choice, you know. You told me to either get Neleine out of the house or you'd trick Riala into marrying some boy; obviously, I would have rather seen your sister go than my daughter."

Ailede's face, already scrunched into a tense ball of fury, folded into even further malice; Raia was reminded of one of the mutts her father let sleep in the stables, a cranky old sack of bones with more wrinkly, sagging skin than his body knew what to do with. "Shutting her in a nunnery, though? How could you do that to your own family? You should have just found her husband!"

"You think I didn't try?" Falidor's mouth sunk into a hopeless frown as the lights in his eyes flickered out. "I must have asked every bachelor for miles around, and they all laughed in my face! Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, and all that--"

Whatever 'all that' was, Ailede didn't care to hear it. Her hand flew across Falidor's face with such force that Raia felt herself swaying backward as if propelled by the shockwaves. Her mouth pulled itself into a scowl. Where did this woman get off? "Don't talk about my sister that way, you pathetic excuse for a slab of meat!"

"Why shouldn't he?" barked Raia, unable to contain herself any longer. "In case you've forgotten, you already did so yourself!"

Falidor froze in an awkward sort of horror; meanwhile, Ailede turned around and poised her glower like a knight might draw his sword. "What did you say to me?"

Frustrated, Raia ground her teeth; dear Lord, had a more irrational person ever walked the earth? "You were railing at him for implying that your sister is a slut--and you called her a slut yourself just a minute ago, you stupid cow!"

Ailede's jaw dropped, her piggy little eyes as wide as they could ever hope to be. The effect was not so menacing as it was pathetic. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard the first time! Why should I repeat myself? The only thing wrong with your ears is the lack of anything between them!"

By the wall, Falidor shook his head in a vain attempt to dissuade her, but Raia did not think she could afford to take her eyes off of her opponent. Ailede bit her lip so hard that a brief wash of blood could be seen across her teeth. "You dare insult me in my own home, little girl?"

Her home? "It's Falidor's home!" Raia snapped, not sure how much more of this stubborn egocentricity she could take. "It's Falidor's house! Nora asked for this house for Falidor! My parents gave this house to Falidor! The only reason you're here is that he's the only one of your millions of men who was kind enough to take you in, you ungrateful whore!"

Ailede shrieked, plunging her foot to the hardwood so firmly that it was a small miracle--or misfortune--that she didn't plummet right through to the room below. "You horrible little bitch!"

"Oh, I'm the bitch? At least I'm not milking some poor man for all he's worth while fucking the rest of the shire without even bothering to cover my tracks!"

"That is it!"

She pulled back her arm and hurled it forward. Raia cringed, bracing herself for the same stinging pain that Falidor must have felt only moments before--but it never came.

She opened her eyes and gaped. Ailede was standing several feet further back than she had been, struggling to free herself from her husband's grasp. She squirmed and kicked and bit, but to no avail; he was too strong for her. "Let me go!"

"NO!" The word ricocheted off the walls and rang, long and loud and definite--all-surrounding, all-encompassing. Falidor was a sight to behold. Never before had Raia seen him so angry, and she doubted it was a different case for Ailede; where the woman had been livid before, she appeared now both startled and frightened. His hand crushing her arm in its iron hold, he pushed her away. If she wanted to do something more than just stand there, she didn't--she couldn't.

"Get out of here, Ailede." Ailede didn't move. "Did you not hear what I said? Get the hell out!"

The vitriol in his voice was enough to push any fear past the crippling effects of shock. She shot one last glare back at Raia, then hurried to the landing, slamming the door behind her.

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