Fell Oxenfrey: Killer, Iconoclast, Son-in-Law

[Mimi Pidders]

Fell was doing his best to stomach being insulted by the Archon, but taking such things in stride was not something he was practiced at. He was a nobleman, then a mage. Being insulted by a shit-slinging shepherd with lice in his beard was insolence and nothing more. The charges mattered not a whit. The fact of the matter was Andros should be so lucky as to marry in to the Oxenfrey line.

Dorothea's hand in his restrained him from saying any of this, but as they followed Andros back to the squalid family compound, Fell stood up taller and taller, his sandaled feet making angry thumps on the packed earth of the road with each step.

It was his first time inside. More than anything, his overall impression was one of busyness. Even though it was relatively quiet and tidy, there was a feeling that the walls strained to contain all the people held within. Fell knew from both island gossip and Dorothea herself that the house contained Andros, his six daughters, one son-in-law, and a grandchild. Despite this, it was scarcely three times the size of his own shack. He hoped there were outbuildings where people could go for privacy and quiet contemplation. The thought of everyone crammed into this tiny house made him feel claustrophobic. Certainly, he had no intention of ever staying a single night in this hovel with a Father-in-Law who both loathed him and thought himself superior in any way.

They were seated at the table and one of Dorothea's sisters fetched them wine, bread, and cheese. Fell nodded brusquely at the hospitality. Andros was being rude, so he had no intention of putting on a smile. The fact that he and Dorothea had to marry was a bit archaic, but he didn't mind. She was the most captivating woman he'd ever met, and he would put up with her family and this backwards little island for her sake.

"Right, then," Fell said after having eaten the requisite amount of the hospitably provided meal and provided the requisite compliment to the host on its quality. "As I understand this was not planned by your hand and presents an inconvenience to you, here is my proposal: I shall forego the dowry for Miss Dorothea Chrysostephanou, both out of deference to the position I have placed you in and because I have no need of it. You have already been so kind as to provide me with accommodation and sufficient equipment to practice my occupation. If I am granted the ability to keep those, I can continue to earn wages and do not need to be set up as a younger man would. Even if you wish to take these away, this is fine with me. I will construct my own house, in that case. It will take time, but I can do it." He did not mention that he would do so with magic. Let the Archon wonder how he intended to do that.

"As for your inducement to the magistrate to forget about this regrettable case of mistaken identity, please spare your livestock. I have a cache of money set aside on the island. Tell me how much you require, Archon, and I will provide it for you. In point of fact, you can take it all. It's just money, and I am gaining something far more valuable from this marriage." For the first time since this conversation started, Fell smiled.

Thinking about Dorothea had this effect on him, even when the noble blood coursing in his veins was screaming at him to put this peasant in his rightful place beneath his boot. Or sandal, as was the case here.

[Andros]

Was Fell Andros’ least favorite person? At the moment it wasn't much of a contest. Andros sat at his table and seethed into his cup of wine. Fell had always been polite, deferential, perhaps a little nervous around Andros. Now that he had what he wanted, he was suddenly arrogant. No ‘thank you’ to his host, no apologies for the situation he’s put Andros in, no allowing the more senior man to make the first offer. The man had no manners, no common decency. Whatever they taught noble children in Radenor was not serving him well in this place.

As they walked into the compound - the largest in the village - Fell looked around with a sneer. He quickly knocked it off his face but Andros caught it and so did Dorothea. They made eye contact, but she broke it off. Clearly she was embarrassed. But was she embarrassed that her man was such a boor, or that she lived in such a home?

Andros found nothing shameful about it. He had a perfectly comfortable two story home for himself and his children. Dining room downstairs, two bedrooms upstairs, and most living done in the shady courtyard. Anthea and her family were in another building off the courtyard, and there were others - now used for storage - where other daughters could move when they married. It was tidy and well-kept and cool in the summers. Elena had loved this home, and the thought that it wasn’t good enough for some puffed up mainland boy was infuriating.

Everything was infuriating about Fell. His ugly blond hair, his angular face, the way he didn’t fit into any of his clothing and looked uncomfortable in sandals. And most of all, that Andros had been fond of him until all of this. He’d gone to bat for the man. He’d already saved his life. Andros could have simply answered honestly down at the docks and Fell would be in chains. Fell’s ingratitude was intolerable. Acting as if this was a minor inconvenience and not an assault on his family.

Andros almost lost his temper again. Can you break the same nose twice in ten minutes? The urge to find out was overwhelming. But the anger wasn’t serving him. The next few moments were absolutely essential to securing his family’s future and they required more of him. He drank a deep sip of his wine and tried to think clearly.

So Fell had money? That made this easier. And he didn’t want to live in the compound? That made things less easy. Having men move into their father-in-law’s homes was not only customary but served as a useful check on the power of husbands. And in Dorothea’s case, it was especially needed. He would have liked to keep an eye on her.

On the other hand, the thought of seeing Fell in his courtyard and at his table on a daily basis was grotesque. He wouldn’t do it. So Fell could win that fight. He would not win others.

Andros dismissed the money with a wave of his hand.

“I’ll take what I have to pay off the state agent. He’s an honest man with bribes, those Orange Police will never know you’re here. For the rest, keep it. Use it to give Doro a good life. That’s the point of a dowry anyway.” Then he added, angrily. “She’s not for sale, nor would I have you as a customer in any case.”

Andros started to feel resigned to his situation as he thought about arrangements and details. It seemed more real. The anger was going and sadness at what had happened to Dorothea was taking it’s place. She had no idea what she was getting into.

“You’ll need to buy two lambs for a wedding feast, of course. I’ll announce the engagement at the Men’s House tomorrow after the ship is gone. Then we’ll do the rituals the day after. As for a house…”

He got quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he felt ready to respond.

“The shed isn’t mine to give. You will build her a proper home and you may rent or buy the shed from the village until then. Dorothea will stay here until it’s built. You may not see her again until the wedding obliviously. After that you may be together but she will live here and you in the shed until there is a decent home.”

There were a few more conditions he would insist on. He tried to do so in an authoritative tone.

“Dorothea will continue to dine with her sisters even after your house is complete. She shouldn’t be alone while you’re with the men. Oh, and your child will be Ajax if it’s a boy, after my father, or Elena if it’s a girl.”

He sighed. There was more to discuss, surely, but Andros just wanted this to be over. He felt drained and sad.

“You love her, Fell? Truly you do?”

He reached across the table and took Doro’s hand.

“And you, this is really what you want, my baby? You love him? He doesn’t know anything about how we live. He doesn’t respect our ways. I’m afraid he won’t be a good match for you.”

[Mimi Pidders]

That Andros thought to assault him and then act as though it was Fell who owed him an apology, Fell could overlook. That Andros had actually considered Dorothea's counter offer where both of them died just to make the man's life a bit easier, Fell chose to ignore. He had thought better of Andros up until now, but up until now, things had been easy. Andros had gotten to play the part of the kind, hospitable alderman to a lost traveler. It was only during a crisis that someone's true character had emerged.

What Fell had learned did not impress him. Andros was craven, selfish, and greedy. The fact that he backed off from taking "the full amount" when Fell offered it told him everything he needed to know: the bribe wasn't for the magistrate, it was for his future father-in-law. He had harmed Andros' property by lying with Dorothea, and so to assuage himself, he was dipping a hand in to Fell's coffers. He thought only of himself and his family, small-minded in the way most peasants were. Fell had thought better of him. The man had raised a worthy daughter in Dorothea and kept a good orderly hold on the village. That counted for something, or he'd thought that it had.

Perhaps Dorothea's virtue came from her mother, Fell thought as he listened to more and more caveats stream from Andros' mouth, his displeasure evident about what was objectively the best marriage offer any of his children would ever get.

"I'll happily rent the shed, then, until I have a dwelling that satisfies your preconditions for a married couple, Archon," Fell replied. "Please let me know if I owe retroactive back rent, the amount owed per season, the first payment date, and to whom payment is tendered. Dorothea may dine wherever she wishes once she and I are wed. She is her own person, and I will not dictate where she eats as though she's a lower animal. I accept your naming of our first born. All remaining names will be decided by me if we are born sons and by Dorothea if we are born daughters."

"I do love her, Sir, more than I can express." Talking about his feelings for Dorothea softened the harsh consonants of his accent, and made the angular contours of his face look more like a beneficent statue than a spoiled nobleman. "Had I no love for her, I would quit this island. It would not be difficult for me to do. But I could never do that to someone who I care for this much."

"This, therefore, is my only other request: I would like Dorothea to be wed properly as befits her status here, as she will be the most prosperous woman on the island. She is my queen, and she deserves a celebration that people will talk about for years to come. I do not know your customs, so I cannot say what would be best for such a thing, but I trust that you also wish this to be celebrated as the joyous occasion it is. Take whatever is normally necessary, and double it. I will not in good conscience deny the good people of Micronisi any comfort or happiness at our nuptial celebration. My only other request is a moment alone with her on the doorstep to say goodbye before our period of enforced separation leading up to our marriage. If you wish to witness it to ensure there is no pillaging going on, so be it."

Fell waited for Andros to grant him leave, then got up and walked back to the entryway, his big hand enclosing Dorothea's dainty one. He held it up to his lips and kissed it.

"You are, without a doubt, the best thing that will ever happen to me, Doro," he inclined his head and grinned, clearly besotted.

"Good evening, Archon." He nodded coolly at Andros, then shut the door behind him.

[Mimi Pidders]

When the door shut behind Fell, Dorothea wasn't sure how to feel. On the one hand, watching her father and her betrothed fight had been by turns comedic, exhausting, and infuriating. Both of them trying to outdo the other, both of them talking past the other. Her baba being upset that a man who'd grown up in a castle thought her family home a bit humble, and her fiance acting like being rightfully accused of murder was akin to accidentally stealing a carved wooden soup spoon from a neighbor's house. She often wished that she had the ability to make the men in her life stop and think instead of charging impetuously ahead. The two men she had the most luck with in her entire life had been in the same room together, but somehow she was powerless to stop what she could tell would be a simmering grudge, possibly for years to come.

Fell did not know what an insult it was that he had not been invited to live in the compound. There were specific outbuildings for this purpose, where the new family would have their privacy but could still bond with the rest of the family. They had two such buildings that could be cleared out in a matter of days. That her father had accepted her husband-to-be's proposal of living separately showed his deep displeasure at this match. For his part, Fell's ignorance of their customs had been on full display during the negotiations. He had treated it like he was negotiating for a gyro on market day, all business and no reassurances that he was interested not just in her, but in being part of her family. Or worse, maybe he did know that, but had not made such reassurances simply because he did not have such an interest. She was not sure which it was, but in either case it was disquieting.

So she poured Andros some more wine and then remained standing behind him and to one side until she was invited to sit.

"I'm sorry, Baba," she said, because she was.

She hadn't wanted either of them to find out like this. A keen tracker of the calendar because anything that involved numbers was a distraction from her endless chores, Dorothea knew her cycle, and even accounting for its occasional irregularities, she had learned of her news approximately two weeks prior to the Magistrate arriving on the island. She knew from having a few careful talks with the older women in the village that sometimes a late cycle would result in a heavy flow and then things restarting as normal, so she'd thought it would be best to wait another four to six weeks before doing or saying anything. This revelation had forced her hand and had made what should have been a joyous if somewhat embarrassing and shameful occasion into something acrimonious and ugly. She just hoped that when she welcomed Ajax or Elena to the world that this evening would not hang over her child's head for the rest of its days on Micronisi.

"I love him, though. He's different when it's just us two. He listens to me. He likes that I'm smart, he says so. He tells me about life in Northradica, and reads me books about life in other parts of the world, too." She thought it best not to mention that they'd been meeting for hours almost every afternoon so that she could learn to read and write. It was better to let her father think there had been a single afternoon's indiscretion than months of Fell flouting the laws of hospitality.

"In the time I've known him, I feel like the whole world has opened up to me. This will be good, for me and for him. I promise."

[Andros]

"A free woman," Andros scoffed quietly when Fell left the room. "You’re pregnant, helpless, and forced into a marriage you are completely unprepared for, and he thinks he’s made you free.” The fine words Dorothea gave him about her man weren’t penetrating past his bitterness.

“And the man boasts about his gracious decision not to abandon his unborn child. What a gentleman. Noblemen are scum, Doro, in Teos and apparently everywhere. Be glad this is the only one you’ve ever met."

Quietly ranting wasn't doing him any good, nor was it wise for Andros to continue insulting his future son-in-law, but anger kept welling up in him. Anger and fear and sorrow. At least Doro had the decency to apologize and treat him with the respect he deserved. That lifted his spirits slightly.

“I’m sorry too, my baby,” he admitted, showing the sadness and rather than the anger. “I share some blame here. I should have insisted you marry years ago. I think that Pallas boy would have made you happy. He’s sweet and handsome - gentle as a sheep and about as smart. He’d have doted on you and you’d have dominated him. You’d have stayed here with your sisters and had a good life.”

He sighed. It was no use now. Pallas had made another match when Dorothea rejected him. And now she had a match of her own, for good or for ill.

“The truth is I was considering Fell for you. It seemed like a decent fit, him being so worldly and you so curious. If he'd have promised not to take you away from here in my lifetime, I might have allowed it. But now, leaving aside the scandal, you and I know what we know. He’s killed a woman in cold blood. We’ve seen his true colors. I’m afraid for you but I can’t allow him to live in this house with your sisters. I don’t trust him.”

He felt defeated, though returning to the memory of Fell clutching his broken nose in shock was a small consolation.

“What’s done is done. I'll give you a big celebration if that's what you want. How far along are you? A party needs time to prepare - what, two, three weeks? - and we can't have you showing when you're wed."

He put his hands on the table, face up in a gesture of resignation.

"I can't be happy for you like a father should when his daughter makes a match. But I will rejoice with you when that baby is born, that's a promise. And if that man ever lays a hand on you, his magic won't save him from me. I will continue to protect as long as I’m breathing. That's a promise too."

Andros gave his most troublesome child's hand a squeeze, then looked over at the pantry door.


"Irene, it's rude to eavesdrop. Please come out."

The pantry door opened slowly and ten year old Irene's face became visible in the dim light. She looked rather frightened, either at being caught or at what she’d heart. She quickly darted past her older sister and jumped into her father’s lap. Small for her age, she still fit comfortably. Andros wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head.

"You must never speak about what you heard here to another soul. If you do, the family will be dishonored. Can I trust you, my princess?"
She shoved her face into her father's chest, clearly upset, and he rubbed her back.

“Yes Baba. Is Doro ok?”

Andros looked at Dorothea pointedly. “I don’t know. Is she?”

[Mimi Pidders]

That someone would eavesdrop on this conversation was a given. Dorothea had told Fell all about how there were no real secrets between anyone living in the Crystephanou family compound. The walls were thin and they spent all day around each other. They had little to do but talk, and gossip tended to get around. So she'd figured someone would overhear something. She suppressed a sigh at it being Irene.

Of course it would be the golden girl who her baba loved more than any three of his other girls put together. Dorothea understood why he liked Irene; as the smartest of his children her insights were not limited to mathematics and hydraulics. Irene was sweet, obedient, pretty, and compliant. She seemed to enjoy her life as an illiterate shepherdess. The spinning Dorothea so despised brought forth an uncomplicated joy in her sister that Doro envied, but Irene was happy to do just about anything: tend to babies, make soup, or help Anthea on market days. She had a sunny disposition that Dorothea did not remember having even when she had been Irene's age.

She had tried to be polite but enough was enough.

"She will be fine, Baba. Stop scaring Irene. The fact is, Fell has not been on the island long, and none of us know him that well. Now we know more about him. When Constantine discovered that Vassilis was stepping out with his wife and clubbed him on the head, did you declare Constantine an irredeemably violent man? Of course not. He had never done anything like that before. You'd known him since he was a boy, and you knew that the extreme anger had clouded his judgment. To hear my fiance tell it, it was a similar situation: he was scared for his life and he made a mistake. Whether you choose to believe him, Baba, is up to you. I believe him."

"And I will not be showing if the wedding is soon, so I don't think tongues will wag on that account. We can give our thanks when I have the babe a bit early but still, if I'm blessed, in good health. I'm between eight and eleven weeks overdue for a cycle, so I should have a few months before anything becomes obvious. I have been keeping close track because this is important to me for similar reasons that it is important to you."

She didn't bother responding to the barb about Pallas. He was even-tempered, she'd give her father that, but he had never had a single interesting thing to say. She'd asked him what he thought of the sky once, and after three minutes of slow contemplation, he'd managed that he enjoyed its blue color on fair days. It's possible that was the most eloquent thing he'd ever said. None of the boys on the island could hold a candle to how Fell made her feel. She asked him a question and he'd casually quote a theorist and then tell her about it, or tell her of the great cities of the Four Kingdoms, or have conversations with her about mathematics and art that made her heart sing.

To say nothing of how Fell made her feel. On that front, she was less educated, but she hadn't known that sex or any other amorous activities were supposed to be enjoyable for women. She'd thought it was something to be endured. Instead, she found herself asking after it more often than not, to which he'd gracefully acquiesce much of time.

With the confidence of a young woman in love, Dorothea tried to show her father her own confidence in this match, and to toe the line between respecting him and respecting her husband-to-be.

[Andros]

It took finishing his cup of wine and taking some deep breaths, but Andros was able to calm himself down. Holding Irene tight on his lap helped, too. He wasn’t exactly clear-headed, that would take a good long while, but he was able to detach slightly from the situation.

Dorothea had gotten herself pregnant out of wedlock to a man he didn’t trust. That was bad, very bad. On the other hand, she was in love and he would soon have another grandchild, a boy if the beautiful Nereides of the shallow water and the sons of Okeanos in the deep had any regard for him. That was good. As hurt and angry as he was, he could see how happy this made his daughter. And that did matter to Andros, quite a bit, even if Dorothea didn’t believe it.


Andros had let his emotions control him too much this far. It was time to put himself aside and move on.

“Go get ready for bed, darling,” he instructed Irene, helping her off his lap. When she scampered off, he stood and stretched. Then held out a hand and helped Dorothea up so they were face to face. This wasn’t goodbye, exactly, but it was time to bid farewell to Dorothea the girl and accept Dorothea the woman.

Andros reached up and brushed the hair out of his daughter’s face, then took her hand.

“You win, Doro. I should have known you would. You’re smart and you’re independent. Maybe you can get your way with Fell too.”

He brushed a tear out of the corner of his eye.

“I wish your mother was here. She’d be able to give you better counsel. You were her favorite, you know. She still thought I should have been harder on you and she was probably right. But you are who you are. I hope you and Fell will know the same joy your mother and I shared.”

Andros didn’t think they would, but he would be happy to be proven wrong. He stepped back and sighed.

“Go say goodbye to your man. Then come with me to the shore to make an offering for your good health, and your baby’s.”

[Mimi Pidders]

Dorothea bade Fell goodnight and was cheered to see that the time he'd spent on the doorstep seemed to have calmed him. They'd carefully kissed goodnight and she'd given him a handkerchief and a poultice for his nose. He'd thanked her for it, the regard and affection in his odd blue eyes shining at her like sunlight sparkling on the shallows. He'd also handed her a simple note with a simple instruction: If you need me, send a signal, and I will come. Given his magical abilities, the meaning was clear. He was staying on the island for her sake, and was ready to leave if she changed her mind.

As she stood on the doorstep, it was tempting. But then she went inside and shut the door and saw her childhood home and her father, and she thought of her family. She couldn't bear to break their hearts in this way. To say nothing of the danger traveling Teos with a wanted criminal could bring. Dorothea knew herself to be smart, but she knew nothing of life off of the island, and certainly hadn't the foggiest idea how to navigate what a life like that would look like. No, this was the smarter path.

So she slipped the note into an inner pocket of her dress and rejoined her father.

"I'd be very happy to pay the shore a visit with you, Baba," she said.

She'd mentioned the rituals she'd grown up with to Fell, but he found them odd. She quickly gathered that many of the things she'd grown up thinking were normal were in fact idiosyncratic and localized to Teos, or maybe even just to Micronisi. He hadn't outright refused to do them with her and he hadn't been disrespectful, just confused. Still, it hadn't felt quite right to ask a man who apparently didn't understand the significance or importance of the rites intended to obtain a healthy child to accompany her, especially since it was rather clear that when he'd acquiesced he'd been humoring her.

Despite the circumstances that led to her wedding, she was hopeful. She and Fell would marry, she'd give birth to Elena or to Ajax, and then to more children, they'd raise them in a modern, prosperous household, and they'd make sure their children were educated in a way that she had never had the chance to get. Meanwhile, she'd learn all she could and would assist Fell with his "craftsmanship" in whatever way she could. The future was far from certain, but it looked bright.