#rivervale_lodge

After some banter over pizza, Dagmar finds herself in the Lodge kitchen, quietly cleaning up.

The sound of Kerri's motorcycle finally approaches as she returns from dropping Sylvi off at Goldfinch.

Soon, she's entering the kitchen through the back door. A grin as she sees Dagmar. "How are you feeling?"

"Hey Kerri. Good?"

"Good. You should rest soon, though. Busy night."

"Yeah. Kinda crazy week."

"Hm." She nods agreement. "Just so you know, Sylvi's thrilled."

She opens a cupboard, and starts placing mugs in it. "...She is? She's a good friend. I owe her a lot."

Kerri takes care of putting the plates away in another cupboard. "I think you'd do the same for her if you saw a need."

She hesitates a moment before adding, "Do you want to tell the Chieftain about it now or in the morning?"

"I hope I would. Dunno. She's... perceptive, y'know? You'd be proud of her. Made me face stuff instead of lying to myself."

Kerri gets a proud expression at that description of her daughter.

A soft huff. "I need to tell her. I mean, oaths and everything. She had said it would be okay, a while ago."

"Well...I do want you to bed down by the balefire soon. But I did see the Chieftain coming back from a patrol as I came in just now. She was stopping by the stable. You might be able to catch her there." The voices of Vali and Olgar and Gerd can still be heard in the common room; Kerri's unspoken suggestion seems to be for the sake of a private conversation.

She considers for a moment, then nods.

"Thanks." Then, brief and abrupt. "I'm gonna miss her."

An empathetic look. "Me, too. But we'll be okay, and we'll see her again. She'll visit, and you can visit there, I'm sure."

A micro-smile at the reassurance, and she ducks out.

Kerri watches her go, and then she finishes up the kitchen tidying and goes to set up the cot by the balefire.

As Dagmar approaches the stable, Brekke is just stepping out from checking on the sleeping horses, about to head up to the Lodge. She's surprised to see the younger troll. "Dame Dagmar," she says quietly. "Is something wrong?"

"Chief. No, nothing wrong. But I did want to talk." The little bird perched on one of her horns flutters and tucks its head under a tattered wing.

A blink at the bird, and a look of concern. "What is...?" she says, gesturing carefully towards it.

"It's Symon's. Ours. I'm not entirely sure how it works?"

She's silent, puzzled.

A gentle hand under the keel, and it sleepily steps onto her finger. "It's... we oathed."

"Not.. not Truehearts. Not Clasped Hands."

"Then...what?" Her eyes don't leave the bird.

She holds out her hand so Brekke can clearly see the chimera. "Our own, I guess. Something between."

She briefly glances above her own head, though nothing seems to be there. "But...I can see it," she indicates Dagmar's bird with a head tilt.

She seems to be looking very intently at Dagmar, as if assessing or reading something.

"He appeared before we oathed. It was.. a whole thing. Breaking the treasure turned out more pear-shaped than I first thought. It... it got to Symon pretty bad, put him kind of out of his head. We got Cairrean to try and spool back all the extra glamour from it, and the cantrip, but... yeah."

"The bird appeared first," she repeats to confirm.

She nods.

"Well, a big monster appeared first, which we fought, and then after THAT was down, this little guy appeared in the ashes."

Her brow is furrowed. "Dagmar, Frank and I have a trueheart bird, but if you were able to see it...you understand what that would mean, yes?"

"Yeah... that the Oath is broken."

"I'm not an Oathbreaker."

"No, you are not. Yet the bird is there. And the bird appeared before the oath." A pause. "I am not Mountain to be able to look into such things."

She almost literally steps back from her own puzzlement and takes a deep breath. "But you are Oathed," she says with a different, pleased tone.

"I think it'd be here whether or not we Oathed. It... what I did, breaking that Treasure? That damaged Symon badly." She frowns.

"It's better. We managed to keep anyone from being hurt too badly, and Symon's himself again. But..."

A brow. "But...?"

"But it doesn't change the fact that he was hurt, and it easily could have been worse. Gonna have to live with that one."

"And... taking the Oath, when he suggested doing it, it felt right, especially after how hard the past year has been without him."

"Hm." She considers quietly. "Is he angered with you, about the hurt?"

Snort. "Of course he isn't."

A hint of a grin about the oath. "An oath that feels right, is right."

"It feels good, yeah. Like it fits. We're not... y'know, lovers..." a blush. "But we love each other."

Then a nod. "There are things that are hard to live with. You will learn from them."

Brekke clears her throat awkwardly, then nods. "That you two love each other has been clear for some time. The clurichaun's presence was difficult to understand."