She wore finely tooled leather armor, midnight blue; the light leather skirt failed to conceal similar colored stockings on her legs. The boots and gloves were a matching set as well. But it was the face... and that hair...
I was twelve when my Father let me accompany him to the walls of Palanthas, to see the dragonarmies before us. The Dragonlords would fly their mounts as close to the city as possible without colliding with the walls and the ground -- they knew they could level this place at any time, and they wanted us to know it as well. But one dragon, a large blue, kept distance, and her rider kept a rapt eye on the city, and my young eyes saw short dark hair and a crooked smile...
After chatting with Fayne at breakfast, I made my way through the town, looking for alternate temples or places of worship. Sadly, I came up dreadfully short. I could count the number of actual open shrines and places of worship on one hand -- and none of which came anything close to Grandmother's faith. If there were anyone who might be amenable to either the Scions or just with a bend towards the old ways, they were not showing their faces. My understanding of the surrounding area was that they probably were not out in the open, either in the Mire, or in some other worlds close to here.
After the circling I'd done all day, I took a small luxury in taking my boots off, propping up on my bed and writing in my journal. I've been trying to keep track of the great volume of information that I've found here, as well as try to make sense of the world and people around me. In the middle of writing about the church, there was a knock. It was Mythos. Curious, I sat upward and asked what brought her by, and this is where things began getting strange.
She left mere moments later, and I sat on my bed stupified. She ordered that I be ready for dinner that evening. I couldn't do anything other than to agree to the request.
*****
We sat at the restaurant talking about or backgrounds and lives, and all I could think about was the dress she was wearing -- cherry read, leaving little to the imagination. Perhaps this was the fashion in the Shadow-land she was from. Her behavior seemed a bit odd, as well -- she kept giving me strange looks, making comments that seemed to have dual meanings, and she would wet her lips often. She seemed most interested in learning about my clerical investment, and to what restrictions I had placed on me. She seemed pleased to hear that I was the equivalent of a "chaplain" in her world.
I asked a detour after the meal to stop at the Church, where I wanted to monitor the goings-on there. Mythos flipped through a prayer book; when she was finished, I took it along with us, fully intending on returning it at another time. I had research to do. The mass ended, we slipped out and returned to the castle.
*****
"That's my favorite," she said, handing me the book. I finished looking around her room, and read over the poem. I didn't have enough time to really go over it, and so I gave a general remark. I sipped at my drink, and we stood there, I uncomfortable and she looking it...
Five minutes later I sat again on my bed, wondering what in the hell I'd done. Something had happened -- or was it that something did not happen? I just don't know, and I wouldn't know for far into that night. Just what did "three days" mean...?
The next morning I ran into Fayne at breakfast. Mythos showed up but for a moment, and then left, not looking at me. What had I done? Fayne wondered what was going on, and I admitted that I thought that I might have done something wrong. She believed it may have been a misunderstanding, and offered to help, but I asked a few days to figure it all out on my own. If I could, of course. I could only see in my head that day we first met, and the great insult I had made upon her.
Evening fell and I had just finished dancing with some noble's daughter who could not stop giggling as we danced. The crowd seemed more shocked than anything, and when I turned, I saw that it was Fayne he prompted that -- and that's when my eye was caught...
*****
I finally caught up with her in a corner, near a window.
"A simple knight," I said with a smile.
She asked me about the girl that I was dancing with. I told her that she had asked me for that. "Oh," she remarked.
I looked at her again, slowly, and I could feel the pieces of what was puzzling me start sliding into place. "Would you dance?" I asked, holding out my arm.
She'd agreed, but we never made it to the dance floor.
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