Under the Purple Sky

Chapter Three: Jordis the Sword-Maiden

I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill,
And o'er the moorland sedgy
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill,
Since parting with my Betsey
I seek for one as fair and gay,
But find none to remind me
How sweet the hours I passed away,
With the girl I left behind me.....

Jordis paused as she set the table to listen to Sabrina practice, her heart warming as her songbird's voice filled the house and then falling slightly as she reflected on how this was to be her first performance since her parents were killed.

She finished laying out the dishes and silverware and listened some more, pondering the bittersweet tune that was beloved by Queen Elisif. There was a new restraint in her voice, borne of her need to infuse her song with the ache she still felt, but not so much that her audience felt pity.

Jordis smiled. Her betrothed was truly an artist and she was so proud. She finished laying out freshly baked bread and honey butter and served up the main course, salmon steaks and roasted tomatoes. Sabrina arrived just as she was pouring the wine.

"Oh, this looks lovely," she said, clasping her hands to her chest. "Thank you!"

"So, are you very nervous?" Jordis asked as they took their seats.

"A little, yes," Sabrina replied. "I mean, I cannot perform as though nothing has happened, I must be honest. But..." she paused for a moment as she took a sip of wine. "I don't want to be bombarded with more condolences. I've had my fill of their sentiments, however sincere they may be."

"I understand," she replied. "At least it's just an intimate gathering." She took a bite of her fish and chewed slowly, wondering if that was really comforting. No doubt, someone there would ask about Sabrina's sister, which might make things a little awkward. Indeed, she was meaning to ask herself, if there had been any word from Valdimir, the Cantor's housecarl. But on the topic of her sister, Sabrina had always been aloof and that had not changed with her mysterious disappearance.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That must be the silk scarves, I ordered from Taarie!"

Jordis delighted at the way Sabrina's face lit up and she stood quickly. "I'll get it," she said. "You keep eating." Though they had long ago dispensed with the formalities of the thane-housecarl relationship, Jordis enjoyed doting on Sabrina too much to give up on these rituals entirely.

All her life Jordis the Sword-Maiden had heard romance stories about Thanes falling in love with their housecarls, an effect of the unbroken intimacy that occurs when traveling Skyrim's harsh climate together. Indeed, the dichotomy of comfort and cold that characterized these adventures sounded like something straight out of Mara's wedding vows. It was not something that Jordis ever expected for herself, in part because by the time she had been given the rank housecarl, the romantic idealism of youth had given way to cynicism, more generally, but also because the reality of these stories was that those cold nights led not so much to enduring love but of the mundane reality of pregnancy.

So when Elisif assigned her to Sabrina Dae Cantor, the popular and beloved bard, she expected a life of warm hearth fires, fancy butter pastries, and good cheese, rather than bitterly cold adventure—and she was not wrong. But what she did not expect was to meet a woman fiercely passionate in her art, struggling to find herself in a world in which she had wanted for nothing, but still desired a life made on the strength of her own talents and ambition. And while Sabrina was indeed the type of woman that Jordis had pined for her whole life, she did not expect to be pursued so persistently, yet tenderly, by a woman who otherwise felt so far beyond her grasp.