Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Fandom: Uprooted

Relationship: Agnieszka/Kasia

Summary: Kasia has come home.

Notes: Written for Rare Pair Fest 2015 for Merit.

Kasia watched Agnieszka vanish easily between the trees—part of an ordinary wood, now, no longer the malevolent Wood—and wondered if that grace always been in her.

It must have been, for the Dragon to have chosen her as his student.

Sarkan, she must remember. They'd been through enough for Kasia to feel—not comfortable with him, exactly, but that she'd earned the privilege of calling the wizard by his name. The fact that he barely deigned to look at her was mitigated by the reality that he barely deigned to look at anyone...except Agnieszka.

Kasia still couldn't make sense of his expressions when he looked at her friend. Most of the time Sarkan seemed merely to tolerate her presence. Certainly there was nothing like fondness, never mind love. But Agnieszka swore that his heart was true, if veiled to ordinary sight.

Who could fathom the way of wizards? None but a witch, it seemed.

Kasia had witnessed—and been saved by—the strength of Agnieszka's magic. Nieszka protested with all due humility, but her feats rivaled those of the renowned Jaga. If not surpassed them. Agnieszka was already a legend in the villages that bordered the former Wood, and tales of her feats had begun to spread into the kingdoms beyond.

Kasia had something to do with spreading those tales. She was the living proof of Agnieszka's power, after all.

Living, but changed. She'd spent a season watching over young King Stashek and his sister Marisha in Gidna but tired, finally, of the stares and the whispers. She looked like a woodcarver's poppet, not a living woman. And while being named Captain of the Guard had been both exciting and challenging, that was yet another thing that set her apart, the only female soldier among all the men.

She would return, given her oaths to Stashek and to Polnya. Kasia understood well enough the responsibilities of her new strength. She'd once dreamed of being extraordinary, and now she had to live under that weight. She would learn to bear it at least half as gracefully as Agnieszka stood the obligations of her power. But first she needed to relearn herself.

So she'd come home to the valley. Home to the paths and trees and river she knew. Home to Agnieszka.

That was the heart of it. After having the power of truth poured through her by the Summoning, Kasia had no tolerance for lies. From anyone, least of all herself.

She'd come home to Agnieszka.

Nieszka had been delighted for her return, of course. Her little cottage had room for two, especially since Agnieszka spent most of her time in the forest, cleansing the land one heart-tree at a time. There was nothing Kasia could do to help her there.

Agnieszka hadn't asked her any questions, perhaps sensing Kasia's need for reflection. That was different from their old dynamic, when they'd chattered endlessly about everything and nothing at all. When they'd been girls together growing up shadowed by Kasia's assumed destiny and the evil of the Wood, yet allowing neither to dampen their spirits or their friendship.

The comfortable silence was broken only when Nieszka said, mildly, "Your mother would like to see you"...but it was a reminder, not an imperative. Dvernik was no longer her home, any more than it was Nieszka's, or the girls who had gone to the Dragon before her.

Agnieszka would patiently braid and rebraid her hair, the strands more like long shavings of wood now. Kasia would prepare whatever Nieszka brought home, and in the evenings they might sing the songs of their childhood while listening to the murmur of the Spindle as it cascaded by.

It was a pause, Kasia knew, between stages of her life. Neither of them seemed in any rush to hurry the next step along.

But of course Nieszka must know why she'd returned. Or the underlying truth, thanks again to the Summoning. Growing up, Kasia never showed an ounce of interest in the village boys. It was because of the Dragon, the neighbors whispered; because she was destined for the Dragon, Kasia held herself apart to keep any of them from growing overly fond of her.

The truth ran in the opposite direction, like a stream flowing uphill. Kasia had used the Dragon's inevitability as an excuse to avoid considering the boys in any way. To avoid thinking about why she wanted nothing to do with any of them.

She'd been willing to go with the Dragon to escape what would have otherwise been her fate: a marriage to one or another of the interchangeable boys, eking out a meager living on the edge of the Wood, a shrieking brood of children, and the slow death of her spirit.

For all the unknowns about the Dragon, they all knew for a fact that the girls who went to the Tower did return. Changed, but whole. And if the Dragon demanded the use of Kasia's body for those years, well, would he be any worse than the rough groping hands of a village boy? If that part of her fate was inevitable then at least, Kasia reasoned, she would endure it in a more interesting place.

There had never been reason to believe in other options, before the Dragon chose Agnieszka.

After the choosing, Kasia had been granted time to "recover" from the shock of not being taken. More likely, the villagers thought Sarkan would realize his mistake and come back for her.

The Wood came for her instead.

In the time since, in her transformed body, Kasia had come to terms with those unrealized truths. She hadn't spent her life before the Wood longing after Agnieszka or any of the other girls. She wouldn't have comprehended the notion. But now that she'd been to the cities, now that she'd seen the ways of people beyond the small villages, she knew other paths were possible.

Agnieszka believed her brave. Now Kasia had to prove it, and find the courage to speak her heart.

Agnieszka returned from her wandering, her basket newly laden with the bounty only she was sure enough to gather. The villagers still mistrusted the safety of the wood's offerings.

"I found mushrooms," Nieszka called. "And acorns, and berries."

"A true feast," Kasia said, and it was; she had missed this, simple fare gathered by caring hands.

She watched Agnieszka lay out her plunder on the blanket Kasia had brought out of the cottage to lay on the grass. Nieszka chattered happily about the regrowth of the wood, and the animals that were thriving there now.

Kasia could let the matter lie. Nieszka was pledged to Sarkan, however unconventional their bond. Kasia knew how much Agnieszka had risked for her, but she'd done no less for Jerzy and the queen. They had been friends since childhood, yes, but all their kisses had been innocent.

Still. Kasia had felt the strength of Agnieszka's friendship, of her love, through the spell. They'd seen the worst of each other, but the best as well. Perhaps the magic didn't distinguish between the love of friends and a more intimate emotion. Perhaps Kasia wasn't imagining that Nieszka cared for her more than others.

And more selfishly: Who else could love her, transformed as she was?

Agnieszka had been watching her, a thoughtful expression on her face as she nibbled on an acorn. "Kasia...are you happy?"

Jolted out of her thoughts, Kasia reached for the first acceptable response. "It's good to be home."

Nieszka frowned slightly. "Of course. But I'd hoped..."

Kasia held her tongue and after a moment Agnieszka flailed her hand and said, "The valley isn't enough for you anymore. For either of us. No one would blame you if you went back to the city, or— what?"

Kasia had started to laugh. That, or cry. "I'm a...curiosity everywhere but here, with you."

Nieszka hummed a little. She was always singing, now, or absent-mindedly humming under her breath. "We could make a home in the tower."

"And what would I do there?" Kasia said, very low.

"Whatever you decide. There are books, Kasia, so many things to learn! And you wouldn't have to cook or clean, there are spells for that, and Sarkan is always either in Kralia or at his studies so you'd barely see him—"

"And abandon my oaths to Stashek?" Kasia interrupted. Why was she arguing against her own interest? "He depends on me. Marisha, too."

Agnieszka nodded slowly. "Of course you have your duties. But do they make you happy?"

"No." Kasia looked down and spied a stray thread on the blanket. She began pulling at it. "I don't...I don't know what I should be."

Once, Agnieszka might have protested that Kasia could be anything she wanted. She knew better now. After a long moment she said, "You can stay with me and find out."

This was her moment. But Kasia found herself saying, "I wouldn't want to get between you and the Dragon."

Agnieszka leaned over her basket, her tone very serious. "I learned to love Sarkan. But I loved you first."

Perhaps the magic of the Summoning still lingered, because there was no question of her meaning. "Nieszka," Kasia breathed, heart pounding in her throat. "Tell me you love me."

Her friend held out her hand. Kasia took it and was surprised to find herself being pulled to her feet—with her assent, of course, lest Agnieszka wrench her arm with the effort.

"Of course I love you," Nieszka was saying, as if it was the most obvious and natural thing in the world. "You don't doubt me?"

"No," Kasia said, faintly. "But what about the wizard?"

Agnieszka grinned, a confidence on her face Kasia never imagined. "Sarkan knows very well that he doesn't own me."

"But what if..." Kasia found herself hunting for words and then blurted out, "I don't want to share you."

Nieszka was silent for a moment and that too was different; a contemplativeness, a stillness, she'd found in herself. "After all we've been through, I think we three can make our own rules. I would choose to love you both. Can you find it in your heart...?"

Kasia could, and did, and she kissed her friend over and over again, careful of her strength. Her heart was sure. Everything else would follow in time.