(Untitled)

[theonionknight]

Davos had been on the island nearly two weeks and so had begun to settle into a routine. He had moved into an abandoned hut just south of the docks and twice a day he headed back to the Compound to eat. He still found it strange that he was given food and lodging without having to swear fealty to anyone but he wasn’t going to refuse unsolicited

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[weemanmurray]

Ian liked the sea. It reminded him of Isolde, in a way, and of his mother. Maybe it reminded him of every woman he'd ever known. Isolde would have approved of that, he reckoned. When he saw the familiar figure, he raised a hand, as Rollo went tearing off down the sand, after one of the numerous white birds.

"Davos..."

[theonionknight]

Davos turned at the voice with a smile.

"Good day, Ian. Young Jamie is well I trust?"

[weemanmurray]

Ian's only smile turned wry.

"Full of temper today, man. Though, if'n I'm honest with ye, so's his mam, so together's th' best place for them."

[theonionknight]

"Best thing to do is leave them to it, I've often found. Mothers have a special touch with their babies." In truth, with Davos so often at sea, Marya had raised most of their children nigh single-handedly.

[weemanmurray]

"Aye, well. Mayhap they understand each other and it's best for me t'never wonder?"

He grinned.

"T'isn't for fathers t'know, friend."

[theonionknight]

"That's true enough, alright. Is he your first child then?"

[weemanmurray]

A shadow flickered across Ian's face, gone as quickly as it arrived if you weren't looking for it, but, after a moment's hesitation, he nodded.

"Aye."

[theonionknight]

Davos noticed it but kept his peace. If the other man wanted to confide in him he would.

He nodded at the other man's words. There were worse places to raise a child than here he thought, there was no war or danger and here a low born child could probably play with the sons of kings and be treat as an equal. On the other hand, there was no permanence either and no real society as he understood it. There was no chance of raising a knight or lord here, no chance at all that your child would become more successful than his father. It would be somewhat of a mixed blessing, all told.

"May the mother keep him safe."

[weemanmurray]

Ian was quiet, for a moment, before glancing up, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Your Mother is different from mine, is she not?"

Ian reckoned that almost every mother was different from Jenny Murray, but, then again, that wasn't exactly what he meant.

[theonionknight]

Davos was slightly uncomfortable talking about religion these days so at first he didn't answer just turned away to watch Rollo chasing birds in the distance instead. But Ian had played him fair when he first arrived on the island and he figured he owed him the same honesty in return.

"Back home, we don't just follow the Father like you do. He judges over us, right enough, but it's the other aspects you make offerings to in day to day life. There's the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, the Warrior, the Smith and the Stranger, who takes us all in the end. Young men pray to the Warrior to sharpen their swords and the Smith to give them strength but when you get older it's the Mother you turn to, to keep your family safe." Davos smiled wryly at that before his expression turned more serious. "It was her who saved me at the Blackwater, when I was ready to die, so I could see my sons again and it's her mercy I pray to now."

[weemanmurray]

It made sense, when Ian thought about it. He nodded his head slowly, glancing up at Davos, with nothing but respect for beliefs different from his in hazel eyes.

"Our Mother is the Mother of Heaven...The Virgin Mother of the son of God," he said. "She...intercedes."

His thumb brushed against the raised tattoos on his cheekbone.

"Though not fer sinners like me, I expect."

[theonionknight]

Davos nodded in return, he hadn't the best history with other religions but Ian wasn't burning people alive so Davos had no problem with the other man following his own gods. He didn't understand all of what Ian said but that was the way with gods, he thought, men really knew much about them.

The mention of the tatoos did startle him though. Davos had taken them for a cultural marking and paid them no heed. "They branded you, then?" he asked and his maimed left hand twitched instictively under it's glove "I was lucky in that, my face was left intact." Another thing he owed Stannis for.

[weemanmurray]

"No' branded," said Ian. "Ink. Under the skin. A...ritual. To take me away from th' people that bore me an' adopt me t'others, ye ken? A...I was born in a place called Scotland. An' I became Kanienkehaka. Mohawk."

[theonionknight]

He nodded at that because the idea was something he understood. The bearded priests of Narvos were said to brand their chests when they entered the service; this was something more extreme but among the same lines. Still, he felt a stab of pity towards Ian as he stumbled through his explanation. When Davos stopped being a criminal and became the King's man instead all he had lost were four finger bones, Ian had been willing to give up a lot more. How much worse it must have been to lose what he had gained by being brought here.

"I can see the advantage, I guess. You won't ever be able to forget what you are." He smiled hesitantly "You can't lose your own face."

[weemanmurray]

"True, man. True." Ian's smile was good natured, crinkling the skin at the corners of his eyes. "It wasna as easy as all that, ye know? Sometimes, I wonder if the Lady of Heaven's forgotten me altogether, no' a Catholic, no' a man of the Kanienkehaka. Neither one nor the other."

And never whole.

[theonionknight]

"The gods never forget you, I've found. I turned my back on them once but they never forget me." I let them burn "The King took a new god and I was fool enough to accept it. I loved him more than I loved them and I paid bitterly for it." Davos shook his head as he spoke. "He allied himself with the lord of fire and fire consumes friend and foe alike. I lost my ship and my luck and my sons to that fire. And after-wards when I was stranded, fever ridden on a bare spire and I wanted to die, the gods spoke to me and spared me and brought me a ship."

He reached forward to clasp his good hand to Ian's shoulder.

"The Mother is merciful, Ian, more merciful than we deserve. Your gods won't forget your family anymore than my gods forgot mine."