#rikvi

@tviburar ‘s Avvar Ocs, Vald and Rikvi as commissioned by @valorcorrupt.

Rikvi was often inattentive of her surroundings, but today feathers brushed the edge of her vision and she looked up at the sound of familiar footsteps.

"Cousin Tove."

The ranger blinked in surprise. She'd barely reached the doorway of the study. "Rikvi. Could I borrow you for a time?"

"Your pack has need of a Raven shaman." Rikvi carefully blotted the notes she'd been transcribing and stood. She towered over Tove's lithe form--her father had often lamented that she didn't favor Bear. "I have met some of your pack. I will come, and not only to see why there is a sudden taste of ash in my mouth."

As Rikvi followed Tove out of the Priory, she asked suddenly, "Why do you fear me?"

It took Tove a moment to answer. "I do not fear you, cousin. I do, sometimes, fear what you see."

Rikvi the Shaman, Rikvi the Farseer, Rikvi the Harbinger of Death, smiled faintly. "You, afraid of death? I cannot imagine that, cousin."

"Not of death, no," Tove said slowly. "But for all that, I am not ready to embrace it just yet. There are ties I'd be loathe to lose."

"Your mate," Rikvi said with a slight nod. "Your brother. Your pack. You have tangled yourself up most thoroughly, as most Wolves do."

Tove took a deep breath of the crisp air outside before striding onward. Randulfr trotted at her heels. "And you have not?"

"No," Rikvi said simply. "Too many ties interfere with my work, mostly. Oh, I will help you, cousin. It is not as if I disdain the bonds of family and friendship. I just have...other, more pressing concerns much of the time."

"What of Drake?"

Rikvi again wore a fleeting smile. "He is a man I live with, whose company I mostly enjoy. Sometimes he interrupts my study for sexual congress. I find it a tolerable arrangement. If I spend too much time too close to my work, I can lose focus. Being coaxed away is helpful in the long run, even if I do not always appreciate the interruption at the time." She laughed at Tove's baffled expression. It was not because the ranger then tripped over a rock, not at all.

"Sometimes, Rik, I think I understand you. And then you turn around and totally confuse me."

"All part of a Raven's work, I think."

Tove snorted.

"Regardless. Can you tell me anything of what I am walking into?"

Tove though about it, then shrugged. "Little, except that it involves someone's arms who are on fire."

"Did they not...put the fire out?"

"It doesn't work that way, apparently."  Tove did sketch out what she'd overheard from the other skaald, hoping the tales would trigger some useful memory.