the sight of the sea mother was unmistakeable. nor did she miss how she was still greeted with friendliness despite coming up empty.
erzulie,
soft spoken with a lowering of her head. i didn’t find her in the taiga but ah —
how wrong it suddenly felt to be empty handed yet come to the door and ask for shelter, ask for a home.
i do not want to be out there anymore. bitter men pepper the lands.
her features might have crinkled into what could be considered amusement. if you have room or want for me…
jorunn could almost feel it.
as if the words erzulie spoke extended beyond just voice. how her heart swelled to be welcomed so wholly by the woman despite how jorunn felt as if she had failed. but such thoughts were whisked aside as she stepped into sapphique, one with it now.
i will continue,
she assured in soft spoken tones despite the roughness of her accent.
it was just…i thought i had wanted to see more and go far, but sapphique called me back when i found myself worn.
she felt as if she had started to ramble and so she sheepishly allowed her eyes to wander. taking in what distance had kept hidden from her.
a place of woman.
there was, perhaps, some visible lifting of the spirits. intrigued and hungry to hear more of sapphique's land of women. only to be blessed with the knowledge that erzulie and her wife had reared fourteen children. but — ah, not all of their own body.
mmm, not of...yours?
confused, but still curious with no judgement in tone.
a meadow, the sea.
jorunn felt relief that she had slipped into sapphique, that she had left behind the harsh taiga, even if it might have reminded her of home.
two mothers, raised as one set of children between the wives. men from inside the pack used as...well, used she assumed. there was no mention of husbands.
oh but —
rosalyn?
jorunn asked softly, a moment of pause for a response before she carried on. i have met her, she offered me sapphique too, but my heart was not ready back then.
are...wives common here? women taking women?
intrigued more than she might have cared to admit.
her heart thrummed in a way no man had ever made it. not to say she didn't enjoy the men as well, asmodeus had certainly proven she did enough to return time and time but...this was different. discussions of wives and husbands. she had been told of marriage at home in the summit, but she had never been told all the ways one could marry.
yes,
almost breathless and woozy with the thoughts that swirled in her mind and heart.
she might have stumbled onto more words and explanations but instead she remained sheepish but alight with feverish delight. how unbecoming.
her heart thumped wildly against her breast, as much of a wild woman as she was. it all made sense when laid out like this. some part of her felt so foolish to have not considered that there were...options. that when she looked upon a woman with loving eyes, she could make her a wife as well. not just husbands for grouping purposes.
she laughed warmly along with erzulie.
she thought of asmodeus.
will he do so again for you this year?
perhaps inconsiderate to ask given all the circumstances, but they had landed on said topic.
the world around them opened wide like jorunn's heart.
if she could have blushed, she might have.
no, no.
she sought to hush any ideas that she already had a wild running woman somewhere out in the wilds. i just...not taught of wives of wives. and i wonder who i missed, all the pretty faces i have seen who sung to my heart and—.
she laughed, shy and almost youthful once more.
fade and have another? <3
erzulie gazed at jorunn a long moment, allowing her a small space of time to simply view the granite as one woman might look at another. "i do not t'ink dat you will be havin' trouble on dat front."
delivered with a chuckle, a raise of her brow.
the obsidian looked toward the sea. "will you swim wid me, jorunn?"