Title: Badge of Honour
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 1,600 words
Content notes: Medieval terminology possibly slightly mangled because it's the middle of the night and I haven't checked myself...
Author notes: Clef/Umi, medieval!au, one the subject of retinues... I'll gloss the terminology soon if I remember, or ask me if nothing makes sense. (Clef's retinue slightly based on John of Gaunt's. But a fraction smaller. And highly HIGHLY simplified...) (Retinue, honour and affinity being used to cover pretty much the same thing in this, though at least honour is not really the same, save in context sort of it is here, er.) Livery badges were issued to members of a retinue, and various other people who you thought might do you a favour, or wear it to indicate that at the very least they weren't working AGAINST you - one of the best examples is the Dunstable Swan Jewel, google has plenty of pictures~ Also all the angels are wearing Richard II's badge in the Wilton Diptych, as are the saints and (I think) Mary and Jesus, because SUBTLE was not a thing he ever went in for? ^^ There was a load of kerfuffle over badges and who got to use them in England in the reign of Richard II in particular. And Some People *stares at John of Gaunt* had a badge which was a collar, to be confusing. XD
Summary: “I am not issuing new badges to the whole of my retinue just because you think a dragon looks more impressive than my crest!"

oOo

“No.” Clef said, not even pretending to look up.

“But-!”

Umi flung her hands wide, exasperated, and he looked up from his letter to glare at her. “I am not issuing new badges to the whole of my retinue just because you think a dragon looks more impressive than my crest! Do you know how much that would cost? The King may be settling a goodly part of the coast on you as our wedding present, but your income would not be up to matching the sum, I assure you.”

“It’s a flying fish.” She complained, again.

Her new-made husband turned back to his letter, unimpressed with her pouting. “Yes, and I happen to be rather fond of it. Nor have you complained about wearing it before this. Or are you choosing to forget borrowing my arms to fight in the tourney-“

“It may be rather nice to look at, but it’s just – it isn’t very intimidating.”

“And who are you planning to intimidate?” Clef looked up, and finally set his letter aside. “Umi… aside from not particularly wanting to begin a new war with anyone, and certainly not with any of the other magnates, there is a stronger reason to not claim the dragon as your own even if you only gift badges and livery to your own affinity, and let mine be. It is the symbol of Selece’s following; you may be his High Priestess, but do you want your people to be taken for priests?”

“…I suppose that would be unfortunate.” She sighed, and took the hand he offered, letting him pull her down to the bench beside him.

It was almost a month after their slightly accidental and very unplanned marriage, and late autumn sunlight was pouring thickly through the windows of Eleru’s tower, filling the little library-room with a deceptive warmth. Outside the walls, the day was crisp; inside, sheltered from the winds which blew in across the cliffs and the ocean beyond, it was several degrees more comfortable. Umi loved the view of the sea from this room, though it would likely always make part of her long for the land she had grown up in, unobtainably far across it. But there were reasons to be fond of this land, too.

Clef pressed his lips to her cheek, apologetically soft. “Here, the letter is from Ferio, you should read it. Fuu sends you her regards.”

“She could give them in person, if we had not been shooed away.”

“They were slightly nervous we were about to offend half the court, love. You by starting more fights over my honour, and me by failing to pay attention to any of my duties…”

Umi grinned, sharply, at the reminder. “It was only a little fight.”

“You challenged a Prince to duel.”

“And you married me so I could do so.”

Umi turned, and cupped Clef’s face in her hand, watching him try not to smile as he replied. “I married you so you would not start a war with your challenge. Your actually duelling him was not a part of that plan.”

“What was your plan, precisely, in marrying me?”

“Oh, being allowed to do this may have been some part of it…” He murmured, inclining closer with each word until their lips pressed together.

There was silence in the room, at least for a few minutes. Though she would never admit so aloud, Umi was not unhappy with these quiet weeks together. Just that it had not been their idea. This – sitting wrapped together, slowly learning how to make each other catch their breath and shudder – this was not something she had planned for. Neither was being blown across the ocean to Cephiro in the first place, but this was almost more frightening, if she let herself stop to consider it.

But right now she was determined to settle this question of badges. After all, she had gained enough in rank by marrying Clef – Earl of Eleru as he was – that she had finally let Ferio settle a title and lands to support it on herself, independent of Clef. And that meant that she had a handful of knights already holding lands in fee from her, who she would need to meet soon enough. If they were to perform homage to her, she needed livery and badges to hand out in return, and all this was quite beside the duties owed to the members of the household she would now have to put together, the administration to run her small county. She could borrow of Clef’s officers for a time, but they had enough to do – and as she held her lands in her own right, she felt they should be kept at least nominally separated. On top of household officers and those holding from her, she had already had several young knights approaching her, looking for an offer of indenture – an annuity granted from her lands in return for their service in war and in peace.

She could adopt the crest and badge which identified those showing their allegiance to her husband, but it did not feel right. Something that represented both of them had been her first idea, but he was strongly suggesting she should have her own.

Pulling back from the kiss, she curled against his side on the bench to read the letter he had handed across as he tackled the rest of his correspondence. It took her far longer to read; these were nothing like the characters she had learned as a child… and she was not paying great amounts of attention to the words before her. “Clef…”

He hummed absently, the arm which was still about her waist tightening a little.

“Clef, how large is your affinity, if it would cost so much to have new badges for them?”

Clef blinked. The badge he wore was a slightly more ornate version of the one he gave out; a silver fish, curled almost into a circle, with wing-like fins and tail enamelled with pale blue. An amethyst was set into it for the fish’s eye. Umi supposed it would cost a fair amount, to have such things made, but she had seen the accounts for the last few years – he had insisted on showing her them, when they first arrived home and he could spare the attention to find them. ‘So you know what you have to call on, besides your own resources.’

The lands in this part of Cephiro might be less prosperous than those about the capital, but he held most of them, and it added up.

“I don’t know, to be honest. I usually review the numbers in the winter, when there is little else to do; I lost some good people in the wars last year, and have not bothered to rebuild to the same level now we have a peace with a chance to last. But I think… there are roughly fifteen knights holding from me, and another thirty or so esquires, all of whom bring their own people with them – normally two or three, but a couple bring fifty warriors-at-arms. Then I have three bannerets indentured, another… fifty knights, give or take, and twice that for esquires. Other arrangements cover various household officers and priests, numbering another hundred or so souls… Then I can call the levy for the lands I hold if the need is great enough, in Cephiro’s name. That can add six hundred archers and sundry other fighters…”

“…Oh.” That was… a good number of people. If they were bringing their own fighters with them – and a banneret would bring knights of his own to an army, let alone esquires and foot-soldiers, and…

She thought back to the battles she had seen, and the number of people who had rallied behind Hikaru and Fuu and herself when Clef’s right-hand woman recognised them. At the time, she thought other knights must have come to join them, swept up in the momentum of their charge.

But if Clef could field a force that must be close to fifteen hundred fighters strong…

“Oh.” She said, again, very quietly. His insistence that their badges remain the same made more sense, seen on that scale. That was a fifth of the entire army of Cephiro.

Clef paused, at her reaction, and set his letter aside for the second time. “If you are contemplating the tourneys you could organise with such a force…” He teased, softly, and she started to giggle, pressing her hands to her face.

He held her close again, resting his head against hers. “It is not nearly so bad as it sounds. Barely a third of them hold me as liege – the others serve more than one Lord or Lady. I have no doubt you’ll have far more people offering to serve the Knight of Selece first and always. And you will need a badge for them. One which is yours alone. My people shall always be yours to call on, I promise you that, but…”

“…Not a dragon?” Her voice was very soft, muffled against her hands.

She felt it, when he tapped the dragon badge at her shoulder – one which showed her status as Selece’s priestess instead of any earthly allegiance. “Not this dragon.”

“…Maybe… one from home, then.”

A new symbol started to resolve in her thoughts, as Clef’s hand stroked over her back. Not his. Not Selece’s. Hers.

Ferio’s letter asked them to return for the council he was calling in three weeks. There should be time before then to work it out… even with the distractions of a new relationship.

oOo