LION'S KIN

"Lord Seliph, I’ll be going to Agustria, too. My brother and I want to rebuild our motherland together, so I’m going to give it everything I’ve got." closed nanna rp blog affiliated with ferp

[damekingmaker-archive]

// alright! my new bio + rules page is here ! 

this is also gonna double as a starter call! leave a like if you want a thread with nanna, i’ll be capping at 4!

[damekingmaker-archive]

the northern raiders || open

Within the past decade the pirates at Orgahill have regrouped under the Empire's nose, patrolling their territory in the Madino Strait unchallenged and thriving in the chaos. Now that the civil war has died down and King Ares is firmly on the throne, their next obstacle is to soundly defeat the pirates and reopen the sea route to Silesse. Nanna jumped at the opportunity: growing up at the complete opposite side of the continent, most of what she knows of Agustria is through stories and pictures. And to see Orgahill, and the Tower of Bragi! She imagined a lush island, pristine forest that slowly gave way to a tall, pristine tower.

 When the captain said that it would be impossible to see the Tower of Bragi on this trip Nanna had thought it a curse, an ill omen for things to come, but once she sees Orgahill herself she thinks the opposite is true. The island itself falls depressingly short of her expectations, and how terrible would it have been for her first glimpse of the Tower to be amongst this sea of sand and rock and a few scraggly trees?

The village, the only one on the island, reminds Nanna faintly of Fiana back in Thracia, and she quickly allows fond memories to take the place of her misgivings. With her Earth Sword at her hip, Nanna gives the villagers a practiced speech: introducing herself as Princess Nanna of House Nordion, cousin to the new King Ares I of Agustria, and that she with the new Cross Knights intend to eradicate the pirates as Orgahill within the next week. A bold claim, but their knights are organized and well-equipped. General Balian, their commander, places so much confidence in them that Nanna can't help but believe in them too. The speech goes well (at least Nanna thinks it does), and people begin to approach her curiously, asking her all sorts of questions about her origins. One person in particular stands out. Nanna knows a fighter when she sees one, and when they ask to join the knights to retrieve something stolen from them, her suspicions are confirmed.

"You wish to join us?" General Balian hasn't told her about something like this. Before, in both Liberation Armies, any capable fighter would be welcome to join the cause, no matter how mysterious their origins. But now, surely things must be different enough that they can't simply enlist a stranger into their army. Right? Probably. 

"We appreciate your offer, but as we want to minimize civilian casualties while we eliminate the pirates, you should stay in your home in the meantime," Nanna says, pulling from the rehearsed speech she gave an hour earlier. If it was cleared by General Balian and the rest of Ares' advisors, then it can't be the wrong answer. "I understand you lost something important, but I-we don't want you to get hurt." Now a little curious, Nanna asks further, "What did you lose exactly?"

[damekingmaker-archive]

// ooc

hey! it’s me, bren/silasmun, here with a second muse! Nanna was a muse I had in my first run of ferp, and I’m really excited to be picking up back up! Since my first run I’ve reread both fe4 and fe5 and slimmed down my backstory for her by like a lot lmao. I know that not everyone is super knowledgeable on Jugdral and the events and characters of its two games, but I hope this doesn’t deter you from threading with Nanna! She’s a good girl and she deserves the world.

as mentioned in my hiatus post, Nanna will likely only be here for a short time until fe16 comes and i pick up an fe16 muse (three muses on top of junior year in college is Not something i’m gonna try). I will do my best to keep up my threads with her so that I don’t drop her with any loose ends again. 

with regards to threads, my open starter and a starter call should come either tonight or tomorrow, so please bear with me as I get that done. I also need to change nanna’s about and rule pages to newer versions, in the meantime the old one will stay (there are no drastic changes, so don’t worry about that if you do decide to read it).

uhhh think that’s all i have to say! hope you guys like nanna!

[damekingmaker-archive]

Flock Together || Clair and Nanna

[damekingmaker-archive]

sublimitatis: 

“Truly? That is a shame–it would surely bring out the colour of his eyes.” Clair couldn’t help but frown just a little. Ares seemed imposing enough, sure, and his blade gave a formidable first impression, but somehow, between the man’s impeccable hair and unabashedly high boots–Clair wished she might be able to pull that off, but the last pegasus rider who achieved such a thing had flown back across the sea–she thought that perhaps he might be more open… 

(But what did she know of ‘a man’s taste’ in Jugdral? Perhaps it was the norm there… Something about that sparked a touch of envy–did all the men walk around like that? By the Goddess… But then she thought of Fernand, and that was the end of that train of thought.)

“Gold? My Lady has a discerning eye.”

Clair turned to the sound of heels against the polished floor of the boutique, greeted by a woman dressed immaculately in a dress of rich green. Her tools of trade stuck out from pockets designed to be hidden away in the folds of fabric, making it seem as if she tucked a pair of half gloves into the infinite expanse of her skirts. Clair reached out, fingers brushing along her shoulder as she moved by, and the seamstress did the same.

“Now,” she continued, taking the bundles of cloth from Nanna and setting them aside. “What were we saying about a man?”

And so it was how the conversation went: ‘He has so slender a waist–’ ‘It can be worn with a waistcoat or a sash–NOT both, never both–’ ‘Fashion would have the back cut out, yes?’ ‘NO capes–’ ‘Fine, he may have one black garment, but JUST one!’ ‘Are you quite certain you wouldn’t want something made instead?’

Which was how, by the time the afternoon sun was high in the sky, Clair had been dutifully pinning a sleeve to Nanna’s outstretched arm while the seamstress fitted panels to the back of a skirt in progress behind her.

Nanna presses her lips tightly together, holding back yet another yawn. The only indicator of how much time has passed is the sunlight passing through the window and onto her hand, much brighter than it was the first time she noticed it. She desperately wants to move it, at least to wipe the tears from her eyes from yawning, but the seamstress reprimanded her before for trying to move it while she was working on the sleeve.

‘Be patient’. ‘Patience is a virtue’. Nanna resists the urge to sigh. Not now, when the seamstress is working hard to make this dress. Not now, when Clair is taking time out of her day to help her. Instead of the flower-and-dragon-print couch, she twists her head to look at the mirrors on the side, admiring the way the gold in the dress fabric catches the light. Good that she kept it for herself, then, even if it was for a selfish reason. Ares can’t miss what he never had.

What Nanna misses is some conversation, which is lacking now that both women are focused on constructing the dresses. She turns her head over to Clair, trying to catch her eyes. “Lady Clair? I was wondering something… I don’t have much planned for the rest of today, not until Ares and I have dinner. I’d like to explore the city a little more, but I’m not sure where to start.” An idea pops up in Nanna’s head, and too quickly she goes ahead and asks: “Would you like to come with me? If you’re not busy, of course.”

[nordionknight-deactivated202110]

Old-Fashioned Therapy || Nanna & Ares

[damekingmaker-archive]

nordionknight:

“No!” 

Ares sits up so fast it hurts, the word bursting out of his mouth. He swallows and amends, 

“I mean…yes. Yeah. I can…if you…” 

She’d pulled her hand away so he curls his into a fist against the ground. What had he done wrong?

“Look. You’re a huge help here. Diarmuid has real family, now…I bet he thought he’d never get to have that.” Ares’s own name is conveniently omitted from that sentimentality. “But I know how important Leif is to you, and I know you grew up in Thracia. If you miss him too much, if you want to go back…nobody’s going to hold it against you if you change your mind about Augustria. Who cares what your mother wanted, anyway? You’re your own person.” 

Maybe he’s a fine one to talk. He looks away while Nanna wipes her face, both to spare her pride and because he doesn’t know how he’ll take it if she cries. It’s a little easier to get to the truth without the eye contact, feeling the dirt between his fingers, wetting his lips: 

“I had…all these dreams of going home, you know. Everything would be perfect. You and Diarmuid would want for nothing. But I idolized this land too much, I suppose.” He hadn’t been able to imagine that their old lives and troubles would follow them across the border instead of disappearing. 

“I want you to be happy. More than anything, I wanted you to be happy with me and Diarmuid. But I understand that you’ve had an entire life outside of us. It would be enough if you could be happy somewhere else. If you were only here out of obligation…I couldn’t accept that.”  

‘Yes.’ Time stands still for Nanna, numb to all except for her quickening breath and wet eyes. Ares can’t mean that, can he? He really wouldn’t mind her gone? But he said no first, and Nanna clings uneasily to that answer as she listens to Ares trying to explain himself.

“This- this isn’t an obligation to me, Ares,” Nanna says, searching for the right words to say. Obligation is the word you throw around for something you must do against your will. For the good and all. Something you don’t want to do, right? Anger starts to set in, anger and frustration, all held down because the last thing she wants is a contest on who can shout the loudest and hurt the other the most. “Don’t bring my mother into this. This was something I decided for myself.

“I know I’m my own person. That’s why I’m here. Because I decided to move on to Agustria instead of staying in Leonster. Because I decided that I wanted to be with Diarmuid and you, and to help you. These are my decisions.” And how dare you imply that I was wrong to make them, Nanna wants to add, but she keeps her mouth shut. She gives up on holding back the angry tears.

“Don’t say that I’m just here out of obligation, Ares. It’s insulting to me, because that would invalidate my entire reason for being here: which is, in fact, not because I have a knife to my throat, but because I want to support you and rebuild Agustria.” Nanna lets those words linger in the air and gives Ares her best glare. “And you know what? It’s insulting to you too. Do you think Diarmuid is here out of obligation too? Huh? That you forced us to be here? Maybe we’re here because we love you! Did that ever cross your mind?”

[ostianshadow]

mystère || matthew & nanna

[ @damekingmaker ]

It wasn’t every day foreign nobility visited. And, most certainly, it wasn’t every day said aforementioned visitor had something stolen right from under everyone’s noses while in the care of Ostia’s (usually) capable staff.

Matthew had barely set foot within the city’s walls, freshly back from business abroad, before he was set upon by one of the men under his wing and promptly filled in. It was a fresh incident and the castle - or those few who were currently in the know - seemed rather up in arms about it. But gossip had a habit of spreading fast and regardless, it did not reflect well upon his employer. Matthew was made to understand he needed to do his utmost to ’just fix it, for Elimine’s sake! Fix it!’

Well. He was going to damn well try. With recent political stirrings, the last thing Ostia - and by some extension Lycia - needed was to piss off some other country, even if they lay all the way beyond the Gates.

By the time he’d been briefed, his silent footsteps padded across familiar castle corridors. Standing alone before the door, he took a deep breath - inhaled, exhaled - and knocked.

“I’m here about the sword,” he called. “Permission to enter?”

[damekingmaker-archive]

The Earth Sword. A treasure of Nordion, not to the extent of Mystletainn but to Nanna it might as well be. Even the most basic runeswords are costly enough to make someone faint at the price. One that was passed from Eldigan to Lachesis, and then from mother to daughter as a memento to remember her by? Priceless. Gone. And it’s all Nanna’s fault.

Nanna stops her pacing, clenching her first around the letter-opener in her hand (a futile replacement for a real sword). When confronted, Lord Hector promised to look into it himself, but neither left that conversation happy. She said she wouldn’t leave until the Earth Sword is in her hands again, and she intends to keep her word.

The knock on the door startles Nanna. The unfamiliar voice of a man sends her heart deeper into a frenzy. “I’ll let you in myself!” With the letter-opener at the ready, she slowly pulls the door open for the stranger. Hector did say that he would put his best man on the job-- was this the one?

Nanna can’t let her guard down just yet, but she lowers the letter-opener at least. “You’re Matthew, right? Lord Hector’s man?”

[damekingmaker-archive]

Caramelldansen || Nanna and Seliph

[damekingmaker-archive]

lightinheritor:

“Okay, good,” Seliph sighed in relief but still couldn’t break the small scowl on his face. This was something Nanna had to put up with regularly? He always knew in the back of his mind that some of the countries’ nobles had questionable behaviors, but to learn just how persistent they can be-

Seliph forced the tension from his shoulders and let out another sigh. “I’m sorry this has been happening to you,” he said, just loud enough for Nanna to hear. “I can stick with you tonight if you’d like, or at least long enough to find Diarmuid or Ares.”

He hummed in agreement as he gently twirled Nanna. “I know what you mean, though. Mingling with so many people I’m not familiar with gets to be very exhausting after a while. I wish it was just all of us from the Liberation Army eating and drinking together in the mess hall again. Arthur would never hassle me about import deals or selling territories.” At his next thought, Seliph couldn’t help letting out a snicker. “The worst are the noblemen who constantly schmooze me to try and get me to marry their daughters. That’s just awkward.”

Seliph rolled his eyes. “They don’t care that you don’t have a say in those matters. They just see you in some position of power and think you can wave your staff and fix all of their problems for them.” He smirked. “So next time someone tries harassing you about that stuff, send the one with the holy sword and the black cloak to talk to them and see how much they want to bother you after that interaction.”

“...I’d like that, King Seliph.” To be honest with herself, the ball is more draining than Nanna would like to admit to Seliph. But even though she is mainly here for duty, there’s no reason why couldn’t have a little fun as well, idiots be damned. “Though… I don’t want to cling to Ares like I used to cling to Leif. Let him have one less thing to worry about…

“But let’s talk about something else.” At this point the dance calls for another twirl, which Nanna eagerly carries out. Maybe she could stand to improve upon her dancing skills, but spinning always brought her back to a happier place, where she danced with Leif in an imaginary ballroom much grander than this one. “It’s funny that you should bring Ares up, actually. He’s been moody again. You know how he is when it comes to things that bother him.” Nanna gives Seliph a pointed look. “Ares being Ares won’t tell me. Do you know anything?”

[damekingmaker-archive]

@waywardthief @rigelsprince @sublimitatis

// thank you guys again!

fe8 is so wild but a lot of fun.... i might replay that last chapter we did bc i lost both villages and amelia ran into franz’s lance but im a lazy butt....

💣thanks man.... both of them are fun to play in their own ways and im glad you guys enjoy them so much! meta was also an unexpectedly fun part of rping and i love writing it.... not to be thirsty for meta questions but my askboxes are there and Ready @ you guys reading this

🗣YEAH i like talking to people im just notoriously terrible at starting conversations.... a lot of ferp knows my discord through ferpchat but it’s bren#8872 if you want to talk about something! 

💔lately i have been considering bi nanna so.... hi clair. wink wonk. 

let lukas kick alessio’s ass and he’ll be more amenable to forgiving gerik... and also amenable to letting gerik slide with aiding alessio for a hot second. that’s important too

[damekingmaker-archive]

@aimless--archer @chevalier-dargent @lightinheritor

(this might be an easier way to answer these actually) thank you all so much!

[damekingmaker-archive]

☺

// COUSINS.... im still plagued by bad luck in heroes so i don’t have either nanna or ares but let it be known that as soon as i have them both im sticking them on a team together so that they can kick ass... nordion emblem

[rpmemediary]

Munday Interactions

🎊 I’m happy to have met you.

😣 I’m a little nervous to interact with you.

💌 I don’t RP, but I follow you because of your interesting threads.

👭 Can we roleplay together?

👍 You’re doing great! Keep it up!

👌 Your character portrayal is amazing.

🙅 I think your portrayal could be worked on a little more.

💞 Do our muses have the potential to become romantic interests?

💭 Your thoughts on our threads?

💧 I don’t know what our muses can do in a thread together. Ideas?

💔 I would like to improve our muses’ relationship.

🗣 Care to talk outside of our threads? (discord/skype/twitter/etc)

✍ Could we have more threads?

☺ I love our muses’ relationship!

❣ Can our muses become better friends/lovers/rivals/enemies? 

[dreamyarcher]

No Boys Allowed: Fuck off Ares

[damekingmaker-archive]

dreamyarcher:

Setsuna hummed, tilting her head as she silently listened to Nanna’s rambles. She sounded as hard as Setsuna was to follow for a second there, but she made sense in the end. Setsuna laughed. “He’d probably be harder to convince if you’re standing there with a camera pointed at him…you’d probably have to hide. We’d have to plan that all out, and you hiding too.” And getting Ares to talk to Setsuna in the first place when he clearly didn’t like her at all.

The sudden suggestion grabbed Setsuna’s attention again. Curiously, she leaned into Nanna to peer into the box as well. She certainly was prepared for all of this, way more than Setsuna ever would’ve been. But sure enough some frogs are pulled out and Setsuna smiled. “Oh, there’s so cute!” And she certainly liked the idea. Frogs on her nails would be so cute…Setsuna scanned the colours in the box before reaching over and pulling out a light blue bottle. Blue worked right? Frogs lived in water and water was…sometimes blue. “I like this colour.”

“Oooh…” Nanna plucks the nail polish bottle out of Setsuna’s hand, eyeing the label. “‘To Infinity and Blue-Yond’,” she reads, lowering her voice in a weak Buzz Lightyear impression. “Good choice! I’ll get it on in a sec…” She rolls the bottle between her hands, trying to shake it up before she goes on with applying it. “I wish I was better at drawing-- maybe I could have painted a cute little lilypad for the frogs to go on…”

With the movie going on in the background and her belly filled with junk food and Dr. Pepper, Nanna couldn’t be more content. But there is one essential sleepover topic that has gone untouched until now, something that Nanna could never help but ask other people about. “Hey, Setsuna… are you seeing anyone? Eh?” Mareeta never liked being asked this, but at least Setsuna is much more patient than her. Nanna leans forward in interest, wiggling her eyebrows. “Come on, you have to be.”

[damekingmaker-archive]

Band-Aid || Nanna and Diarmuid

[damekingmaker-archive]

freeknxght:

“Nanna” Diarmuid laid his arms across her back in a hug. His gently taps his hand on her shoulder. “Precisely, what matters most is that we are reunited.”  His mind shot with rumbles of fear and distraught. “I did not think that Mother would leave in such a manner…I’m so sorry Nanna.”  “I cant begin to imagine the hardships you withstood. I am fortunate however that…..my sister carries a tenacity to move forward. I’d think whenever she is.” Diarmuid held to Nanna, small drops escaped his ducts. “Allow me if you will Nanna, to our sorrow together.”

The hand on her shoulder turns into a loose hug, something that Nanna returns faster than she expected. It’s… nice. Leif never asked for hugs; Nanna would always approach him first and give him what she knew he wanted but would never ask for. Diarmuid is different then. Softer, but more honest with his emotions.

“Our sorrow?” Nanna has no idea what to make of it until she feels something wet on the side of her neck. She shivers--what is that? Pulling back, she tilts her head to get a better look at Diarmuid’s face. Are those… tears? Is he crying? “Diarmuid… really, everything is fine now.” God, she wants to cry too, but right now she needs to be the strong one. Nanna pulls Diarmuid into a second hug, tighter than the first, rubbing his back like she would with Leif. “Please, before I start crying too…”

[nordionknight-deactivated202110]

Old-Fashioned Therapy || Nanna & Ares

[damekingmaker-archive]

nordionknight:

Ares’s eyes fly open when Nanna fixes his hair. She’s always so nice to him. It’s still sinking in that he actually lost – for now she’s trying not to smile, and he flat-out grins in return. That had been his one and only mission for the day. 

But concern clouds her expression, and at the same time he remembers his own concerns from earlier. He catches her wrist so she won’t get up and start hunting for a staff. 

“Leave it,” he says. “It’s just bruising.” 

(And he’s actually a little eager to see how colourful it gets. Oh, this? Prim Lady Nanna just SLAUGHTERED the Black Knight by turning his own lessons against him, it was fantastic and he’s proud of her, nothing of import.)

“Nanna.” He pushes himself up on an elbow so he can meet her eyes better. “I know you don’t want me to bring it up, but…this is the happiest I’ve seen you in two months. Are you sure you want to be here?”

“Are… are you serious?”

Nanna’s joy hardens into a cold stone stuck in her throat, and the smile she was trying to hide finally disappears. This morning’s tears dried on her cheeks as she briefly forgot her sorrows. This spar was exactly what Nanna needed. Ares’ question isn’t.

“I’m here because I want to be here.” She pulls her hand back to her side, clenching into a fist in anger before she forces it open again. “I know I’ve been… really sad since I got here, but please understand. Leif… he was always in my life, and now he’s the king of a country on the other side of Jugdral. I knew it was going to be hard… but I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

Nanna sniffs, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, but refuses to cry. Not again, and not in front of Ares.

“Is that what you want?” Nanna asks. “For me to leave? And g-go back to Leonster?”

[astral-heir-blog]

Tattered Fabric | Larcei and Nanna

[damekingmaker-archive]

astral-heir:

Larcei had to admit, she wasn’t expecting a retort. Though she knew and grew up with Diarmuid, she’d hardly ever seen the guy get angry. Nanna, his sister, his own flesh and blood, had quickly demonstrated a completely different story. Then again, she also should have been expecting something like that; She and Ulster were a similar case, almost eerily so.

“Okay, okay, calm down, I was just teasing.” She gave a reassuring smile. “I’ll always help out family.”

Letting that comment sink into Nanna’s mind, Larcei squat down and rubbed some of the fabric between her fingers. Expensive, but not fragile, fortunately. It also wasn’t transparent, so the repair wouldn’t be as noticeable.

“Mm…” she mumbled in response. “Yeah, shouldn’t be too bad of a fix…”

She heard Nanna mention her room, a suggestion to which she agreed. She assumed that was where they could find the material as well and it’d be over as soon as it happened.

… Didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little bit of fun while they were at it.

Larcei winked at Nanna. “Want me t’ carry you? Wouldn’t do if someone saw your legs, as much as I know you want some of them to.”

Nanna sucks in a breath at the remark, and it takes all of her willpower to not scream out Larcei’s name or tear that girl’s hair off until she leaves this terrible conversation bald as an egg. Her cheeks end up puffing out, face blushing furiously in equal parts anger and embarrassment. Yep, this was definitely a mistake. “You don’t need to carry me,” Nanna says, voice low and words clipped. “But if you don’t stop I’ll carry you to the nearest window and throw you out, Diarmuid be damned.”

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Nanna looks back at the ballroom. Noblewomen all about, because of course they are. “No one should be in the halls,” she says, “so if I make it there I should be fine… I’ll be fine…” She takes a deep breath, placing a hand over her heart. “Any ideas, Larcei? I was thinking of you walking close to me, so that your legs make the rip hard to see. And like that we make a break for the door.”

[damekingmaker-archive]

The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants || Nanna and Altena

[dracolancem-blog]

The room is uncomfortable to be in, if Nanna is honest with herself. The stone walls surrounding them are too familiar to be comfortable. Altena is almost worst than them, almost, and it’s her that Nanna has to look at–direct eye contact, because averting your eyes is not quite nice when you’re talking to someone.

Altena manages a smile through the tension of it all.

“I’m settling in fine, thank you for asking. Leonster is… a tad different than what I am used to back in Thracia, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Thank you, though.”

Altena meets Nanna’s gaze as she thanks the girl, but the way her eyes flit with something other than hospitality is telling. Perhaps it’s time to come clean and clear up the misunderstandings between them.

Taking in a breath, she forces herself to calm down before directing her words to Nanna.

“Nanna. I have to ask you something a little… personal.”

[damekingmaker-archive]

“Good to hear.” Not that Nanna expected anything less from Leif’s sister. “When you joined, Leif used to never shut up about you. He was really excited for you to be with him again.” She pushes her hair back behind her ears nonchalantly. “So I’m glad that you seem to feel the same way.”

Nanna finally lets the smile fall. The question doesn’t come out of nowhere, but Nanna isn’t sure what Altena wants from her. Personal? Is she finally realizing that Nanna doesn’t know what to make of her? “Well, sure, I guess. What is it?” Spit it out already.

[damekingmaker-archive]

Side of the Road || Open

[damekingmaker-archive]

aimless--archer:

…Alright, maybe she doesn’t think he’s so nuts after all. He raises an eyebrow. “Guess the evil dragon gods are all the rage these days, huh?”

There’s a flash of uncertainty across her face too genuine to just be surprise at being asked about herself, and Python’s lips press tighter, almost imperceptively.  He doesn’t believe her.  It’s difficult to say which part he thinks is untrue, but despite his outward nonchalance, he’s shrewd and cynical even at the best of times- which this certainly isn’t, in such an unfamiliar place. The way that she quickly changes the subject back to him only cements his suspicion, and he tries to keep it from showing in his expression.

However, given that he’s not bleeding out in a filthy alley anymore thanks to her, he supposes he should give her the benefit of the doubt.  After all- whether she’s who she says she is or not, if she had wished him harm, all she would have had to do was leave him to die. If she has some big secret she wants to keep quiet, he owes her at least that much.

At her question, he grimaces- can he walk? Experimentally, he tries to stand, and ends up leaning heavily on the wall to support his wobbling legs. The lightheadedness isn’t exactly a surprise- he’s still not entirely sober, and though she’s closed his wound expertly, she can’t put the considerable amount of blood stained down the front of his tunic back into him. Laughing weakly, he turns to her and admits, “Might need a little help with that.”

Python doesn’t say anything. Nanna presses her lips together, fingers nervously curling into her skirt. Does he know she’s lying? Maybe that doesn’t matter so much as what his reaction would be, what questions he would ask himself next. Like why would she lie?

Nanna pushes herself up to her knees, watching Python carefully as he struggles to stand. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so pushy to have him get up, but what other choice did she have? Certainly not just leaving him in the street for that person to come up and stab him again. She passed an inn on the way here, didn’t she? This would just be a matter of retracing her steps.

“Hold on--I’ll help you.” Nanna slings Python’s arm over her shoulders, slowly pulling him away from the wall and standing upright. Ideally she’d be a little taller, so that he doesn’t have to hunch over like an old man with his cane, but it isn’t like either of them have much of a choice.

“The inn should not be too far. Maybe a few minutes walk.” Nanna hooks her fingers around the handle of her basket, the bandages that should have been simple to get. She holds it out to Python. “Carry this for me, won’t you? You have a free arm.”