Kept Hodierna locked in flower-strewn bower

Wound up in twisting,
and twisting

Kertigen stalked the halls of his home

Empty of laughter, lightless and alone

Besieging the tower,

the tower,

For two years they'd fought on trampled ground

For two years Meraud had beaten them down

With only Kertigen's words

his word

And rapidly the war was closing too tight

And Kertigen it seemed must lose the fight

The Lord of Smiths called

he called

Nightclad he enters, and draws very near

Softly he speaks, saying, 'You called me here.

'Yet you are in right,

'Our brother is not.

Kertigen glowers, but agrees for his woes

But the price he requires, Damaris does not disclose

And turning he ventures

He ventures

Through Kertigen's men he passes like a breeze

And approaches the tower with a swift, silent ease

And drops sands of sleep

of dreams

Now the tower is silent, for the golems have stopped

The warfield is empty, for his elementals have dropped

And now Damaris slips

he slips

Meraud frowns in anger when he sees his brother's form

His rage gathers round him like a winter's chill storm

Only to find
To scream at!

Damaris crept to the bower whilst his brother fought a shadow

And released Hodierna from her chains amidst the storm's glow

Changing
and Changing

And back with her husband who drew her in his arms

And promised her no more would she come to harm

Of the bargain

that freed

Damaris smiled as Kertigen clenched his fists

As the dark-eyed god took Hodierna by the wrist

But Damaris just laughed
And laughed

'This I must tell you.' (Damaris closer draws.)

'Your war I thought useless till your lady I saw.'

And smiling he took her

by the wrist...

And merely kissed


the back of her hand.

Then like shadows he vanished, with a laugh and a smile

Leaving Kertigen and Hodierna bemused for a while

Hodierna lifts her hand
gazing on it
and smiles....

As if it were kissed.