Chapter Text
“What do you mean, you don’t plan to use it?” Esh-erdi demanded. “You’ve been working on it for so long!”
Lind-otta looked up from where she was working on her latest enchanting project. The floating platform was almost ready to be enchanted with steering functionality. She had begun the work in part to clear her mind as Esh-erdi’s bindings had begun to come faster and faster.
“I just wanted to make it,” she said. “And then perhaps I will give it away. There’s plenty of joy to be found in creation for its own sake.”
“It’s like your son at this point! Giving him away would be an act of cruelty! Wouldn’t it?” He patted the platform consolingly and began to talk to it as if to an upset child. “Don’t worry, Lind loves you very much. I am sure she had grand plans for you. She is just undergoing some temporary confusion.” He crouched down to its level. “I will ensure she doesn’t speak to you any more until she comes to her senses.”
Lind-otta opened her mouth to comment on the ridiculousness, but whatever she was planning to say fled both minds as she saw the back of Esh-erdi’s head. His braided ponytail had gained a new addition since she had braided it that morning.
“Is that your auriad?” Lind-otta asked.
“Do you think I’ve stolen someone else’s auriad and put it in my hair?” Esh-erdi’s face was the picture of innocence. “If I had managed to deal such a vicious blow to one of my enemies, of course I would tell you about it the moment you next gave me the privilege of your ears.”
Lind-otta’s eyes narrowed. This was a person who looked a little too innocent to not be messing with her.
“I think I haven’t seen your auriad in several of the Mother’s years. I thought you’d severed it.”
Esh-erdi pulled it free of his hair and gripped it protectively at the idea. Definitely his.
“I also think it was a different colour when I last saw it,” Lind-otta added, mildly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Lind,” Esh-erdi said with glee. “Perhaps you should see a mind healer? It’s always been this colour.”
“How interesting, then, that it’s the colour of my uniform.”
“Perhaps you took inspiration from me? I can be very inspirational.”
Esh-erdi, apparently giving up on consoling Lind-otta’s poor, forsaken son, came to sit next to Lind-otta and rest his head on her shoulder. He passed her his auriad. She cradled it gently. It was exactly the same colour as her coat.
A warm feeling was blooming in her chest.
“How long has it been this colour?” she asked.
“Since the failed mission with the ewtwee.”
“That long?!”
“Of course. I reflected that day on the nature of your great power and decided to cultivate a masterful plan to entrap you in a binding like this one to use you to make myself more powerful. It was very advanced. Sorry that you had to find out this way. I decided to change the colour of my auriad to further entice you, but it ended up being unnecessary.”
Lind-otta snorted and tried to hand Esh-erdi’s auriad back to him. Instead of taking it, he turned so that his hair was in easy reach of her hands. She obligingly began to unravel his braids. As she did, the warm feeling was gradually turning into something slightly more troubled.
I am glad this will at least make him more powerful, Lind-otta thought, beginning a new braid with the light, bluish green auriad threaded between the strands. Maybe that power will let him be himself more, too, without other people’s opinions involved. Perhaps it may keep him a little bit safer. Even when you discount the frequent bindings, and they should not be discounted, there are downsides to this for him.
The bright colour of the auriad was striking against Esh-erdi’s purple-black hair.
“You’ve miscalculated one thing in your grand plan for trapping the old and powerful,” she told him mock-sternly. “The old may grow too old to heal again. What will you do if a rejuvenation fails on this old woman?”
She must not have kept her voice light enough, or maybe Esh-erdi had heard something in her words anyway, because he turned around immediately to look at her.
“I don’t care, Lind,” he said seriously. “It would be worth it. Besides,” he smiled and turned back around, “It is good of you to remind me. I shall just have to keep you so happy and free from grief that a healing never reverts. A noble goal.”
Very soon, seeing Esh-erdi walking around with Lind-otta’s coat colour in his hair, on his wrist or around his collar became a common sight in the rapports. It didn’t feel like a strange thing to see, at all.