Aerin and Broddun by Himring

Part I: Chapter 2: Turning and Turning Outward

Turning and Turning Outward

Prompt: Body Language

Morwen

It is some time before Aerin can slip away to see Morwen. Hastening through the dark, she fails to frame words in her mind but there is no need to speak: she opens the door, Morwen looks up from where she broods by the dying fire, Aerin throws herself on her knees and hides her face in Morwen’s lap. Morwen’s long, strong fingers clasp her shoulder.
‘Brodda calls you wife’, Morwen says. ‘We have neither shield nor spear to defend our people. Use it as you can! Make the name serve you.’
‘I lack courage,’ Aerin mumbles.
‘You do not.’

Broddun

Unnoticed herself, she saw Aerin slip out of the house after midnight. Almost, Broddun opened her mouth to cry out and stop her. She did not.
But in the early morning Aerin returned, as quietly as she left. Today, she has changed. Always Aerin of the House of Hador moved with a dignity Broddun admired, even in fear and pain. Now, though, there is an air of new purpose. Before this, Aerin was turned inside, enduring. Now she lifts her chin and unobtrusively studies the faces of women and men.
Aerin has plans. Unlike Brodda, Broddun, his sister, sees it.