A fish bone is connected to your neck bone

[Arette]

The crowd at the dinner table was much lessened from yesterday since Con had spent the day searching for a house for the men. He had been successful so he must have paid a nice sum of money for it and/or promised favours. There were no empty houses in Perfumed Quarters and every available inch already held a building full of people. Aside from occasional string of conversation everyone focused on emptying their plates to get energy after day of work. Arette passed Con a bowl of vegetables as he had already made through the first portion and their hands touched and held for a moment. They stared each others smiling and Arette was more than relieved that they could interact that naturally despite Calvin's vicious revelation. Rae broke the enchantment by commenting wryly that the two of them should get married quickly or their moony eyes would give everyone an overdose of honey. Arette blushed and drew her hands away and pretended to throw him with her mug. She did grin and shake her though since Rae had become one of her favourites among Con's relatives. Con himself just chuckled and quipped that Rae was jealous and should get a woman of his own before he was old and tottering. Ilia joined the game and Arette listened their exchange as she continued to help Rana to eat.

 

She couldn't remember when she had last time felt this content. She finally had the big loving family she had always lacked and secretly yearned for. One member was missing, but Calvin had caused his banishment by his own behaviour. He had insulted Con's family and he had never even tried to adjust here. Arette could feel him eating his dinner lonely and bitter. But she wouldn't waste an ounce of pity on him, not after yesterday when she had deliberately revealed secrets to break her and Con apart. Only the bond told that everything wasn't right with him. Her hands rose unbidden to her own throat and she coughed in reflection of the constriction at Calvin's throat. He tried to clear his throat violently, but the blockage it didn't go away and she could feel his eyes bulging as he tried to draw breath. Light, he was choking and her own breath came ragged too.

 

Shoving startled Rana to Leonidas who sat on her left side, she rose abruptly enough to topple her chair. Everyone were exclaiming and calling what was wrong and if she was alright. She wasn't alright, her Warder was slowly suffocating and she couldn't tell them since she didn't have any air left in her lungs either. She had to get to him and to Heal him. Why wasn't anyone helping him? Was that fool of a man dining in his own room? She managed to stagger to the door and open it with her chest and wind pipe burning and blood roaring in her ears. She choked and coughed and people patted her back roughly but it didn't help. It was Calvin who was in trouble, not her. Her own eyes popped out and her lips turned blue and she drummed the floor with her heels deaf to the clamor in the room. Then it was over and excruciating pain exploded in her head as the presence that had been Calvin's ceased to be.

 

She drew a rasping breath and air filling her felt sweeter than anything she had ever tasted. Sorrow drowned her like a crashing wave and she screamed and then wailed before bursting into wrecking tears. "He's dead, he's dead", she managed to gasp between sobs and she repeated it like a mantra. If only she had been closer, if only she hadn't kicked him out, if only he hadn't changed and forced her to do so. Memories of Calvin in good times flooded her. Him bowing at her respectfully and then grinning. Him kneeling before her as she laid the Bonding weave on him. Them dancing at their Bonding party. Calvin reading a book and his concentration when he performed calculations for her. Him training and saluting her all sweaty. Him holding Rana and Cina with a look of love and awe. How could it all end like this? They had barely even spoken to each others before he had angered Con and gotten exiled from their lives. She had been a bad Bondholder for letting things to get this far. And now he was dead.

[Arette]

One moment calm and peace, next moment Arette was staggering about as if she were choking on something yet she didn’t have anything in her mouth. Making it to the door as she did, he managed to catch her before she fell and lowered her to the ground while trying to figure out what was wrong. Forcing her jaw open, he couldn’t see anything yet slapping her on the back didn’t dislodge anything or help in anyway. Panic was overwhelming as he tried to figure out what was wrong.

 

Then it was over in a flash as she started breathing again, and what Arette said was enough to make him go cold all over. Calvin. Looking up to Brandeis, who had been visiting, he told him to go back to where he was staying, grab a few of the men and find out what had happened. Light, if Calvin was dead, had he been found? Had he been choked? Was he poisoned?

 

Scooping Arette into his arms, he was thankful that the others had followed him out. It had created a screen of people which made it impossible for anyone else who was passing by to see what was going on and those who had come close had, and still were being rebuffed. Light, but he knew what was going to happen even as he carried her back towards the threshold, the same thing that happened to all Aes Sedai that lost a Warder, pure misery.

 

The screaming of the children was what assaulted him as he stepped inside, the children sensed their mother was upset and they wailed in turn out of confusion. His mother was already attending to them though even if she didn’t understand what was going on. Rae would undoubtedly realise, he had been to the yards and trained for a time. Taking her into the room she shared with Ilia and Rae amongst others, Con sat her down on the bed even as she threw her arms around him and wept.

 

Encircling his own arms about her in turn even as she spoke of Calvin, Con was as solid as he could be even as he wondered what had occurred. Depending on the news, it could be very bad and would mean danger for everyone. But for now, Arette needed him and he was there. Light help them.

 

Con Stavros

Former Commander of the Tower Guard

Former Child of a Light

[Arette]

The funeral had been arranged to take place a few miles outside Ilian in a hill with some trees in it. Arette had asked Calvin to be buried into a forest but pretty much all the trees around the city of Illian had been hacked to ground to make space for fields so this was the best they could get. It had been only two days since he had died but even though her Keeping weave could hold the body intact for longer, there wasn't simply space and no one wanted to be in the same house with the dead. Maybe the ceremony would ease some of her pain too. The girls and Con had been a great help. She couldn't just curl into herself and mourn since the girls needed their mother - and Electra still required her to do some chores. She didn't mind since they were another vent for grief and a good distraction. They also kept the crying bouts at bay. She couldn't control them and she hated that feeling and the raw emotions. But they would abide with time. Still Con holding her and listening her speak about Calvin had been the best medicine. She hadn't even realized how much bottled emotions she had had and Calvin hadn't exactly been making life easy for her lately. Not since the girls had been born and Calvin had realized that Con would come back one day and had decided to never let it happen. He and not Telcia had been the real third wheel in their relationship and maybe even in the Tower. She was ashamed that she was having such bad thoughts of a deceased person but she had to get it out so she would have only the good memories left.

 

The girls were still asking after Calvin but they were so small that they would forget soon. Now they stood in their simple white dresses in front of Con and Arette who held their both hands to support their wobbly knees. It was only a small group of people in attendance today, them four, Brandeis and Rae and Leonidas. The burial ceremonies were thankfully simple, there would be only few speeches - one or maybe two if Con felt like it in this case - and then the men would lower the body to the grave. Arette lifted Cina to her arms and handed her to Con before moving to stand beside the body covered by a rough brown fabric. She could make the form of his axe and crossed hands under the cloth when she released the Keeping weave so that he would melt into Mother's last embrace. She would have to write his mother.

 

"May the Light illumine your soul, Calvin Coshere and may you shelter in the Creator's hand until your rebirth", she said quietly and felt an accursed crying bout about to break loose. "You were a loyal Warder and companion to me for over ten years and despite it all, I don't regret anything. I am thankful for the years we had together and of your decision to follow me even to exile when I offered you release." Her voice was getting quite muffed from the controlled emotions and tears flowed down her face. "You loved Rana and Cina more than anything and it was that love that spurred all your actions." It had been even behind the misjudged actions and she was the last person to cast the first stone since she had hurt her beloveds so many times. "May we meet in the next life."

 

Wiping her silent teardrops to her handkerchief, she nodded to Con and took the girls. If he desired to say something, now was the time. She had to focus on calming herself so that she wouldn't make the girls any more anxious. They were already looking around beseechingly for Calvin after hearing his name. Con in turn nodded to the rest of the men and they grabbed the ropes tied to the stretcher under Calvin and began lowering him to the ground. Maybe it had been best that Con hadn't said anything at all, he might not have been able to keep it entirely positive when even she had failed at it. The offense and hurt were still too fresh but luckily time would gild their memories. She wept quietly as the body was covered by soil and in her mind she could hear an old mournful dirge being sung. Four men with shovels filled the grave thankfully quickly and they could begin their slow way back home.