Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 8)

"That sounds about right. If a message arrives saying things have been taken care of, though, we could make an attempt to get you home." He wasn't particularly optimistic about that. It was too dangerous and too cold in the dark. Ky would do better to wait, if she was able.

Ky nodded. No, they wouldn’t. He’d just said no one went out during the winter. They weren’t going to force her to stay here away from the assassins for five months, then risk her getting eaten by a troll on the way home. Perhaps it’d be different since she could have Rönn to accompany her. But even then, it wouldn’t be fair to have a guard risk their lives to take her there then take an even bigger risk on their way back, once Rönn was hanging around Caracal instead of here. No. This was false hope. The ‘maybe’ parents loved giving their kids to make them shut up, even though they knew all along that the answer was no. “Guess we’ll see how it works out.”

Two could play that game.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up," he warned her. "Like I said before, it's dangerous in the North even when it isn't dark. Messages may travel, but people are a different story."

“I’m not.” Was that too harsh? Too pessimistic? Perhaps she should have softened it. And yet she couldn’t think of anything to add to do just that.

Gaius nodded. "It's best that way, I think."

“Yeah.” Was it, though? The fact that she had no hope of anything whatsoever? No hope of seeing Zander again. No hopes of surviving winter without self-destructing entirely. No hope of seeing her family again, since she wouldn’t survive the winter. “It’s good to be realistic.”

"Indeed." It was a very Northern way of thinking, really. Northerners were pragmatists at heart.

(*side eyes Tomhas*)

Ky nodded. They were swiftly making their way towards her getting pissy again. What were other safe topics? She was trying to think of something other than dying during winter — and yet that took up the entirety of her focus. But then she remembered what someone had said. How some Lords open their Keep to their subjects during winter. “Do any other people come for the dark?”

(With one notable exception)

"How do you mean? Family?"

“Whoever.” Ky shrugged. “Someone said some Nobles open their Keeps to peasants to weather out the winter… I’m guessing that doesn’t happen here. But… does anyone come?”

"The counts do it for the most part," Gaius replied. "The Lords very rarely open their own Keeps--that would be poor security. I'm sure you know by now that I take that very seriously. Sometimes extended family members do come, though. Sara's siblings have spent a few winters with us. And my cousins have been known to do so as well."

“You have cousins?” Somehow that thought had never crossed her mind before. That he and Tomhas didn’t exist as islands, apart from Cecily. Did he have aunts? Uncles? Were they on his father’s or mother’s side?

(Haha did I ever tell you how many people are on his family tree so far)

Gaius's brow furrowed. "Of course. I've got a whole graveyard full of family, not to mention Ashes scattered as far as Austraka and Rim. We're all over the place, albeit distantly related. Some don't even have the name anymore. But I have many cousins that live in the Northern Realm who I'm close to. A third and fourth cousin in Fledgeholm, for example."

(If you did, I have entirely forgotten haha I remember Isya/Arthur and that’s like it haha)

“Oh.” What a foreign thought. Mama was an only child and Papa was estranged from all his brothers except Zander. If the other Ruiarcs had any children, she didn’t care to know them. The Ruiarc family name was only honorable in Juudri. The others didn’t deserve it at all. So cousins and siblings and aunts and uncles, aside from Zander, were all brand new to her.

(790 people
Some with backstory, some without)

"Surprised?" Why should she be? "Roots as old as mine have many, many branches, Ky."