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She stood by the window of their shared room, watching the rain fall upon the city they called home. It had been raining for a week now, dreary and gray, which had been alright with her as it suited her mood.
Winter was beginning to descend onto the sword coast, and this would be the first year that she would get to experience snow. She had been excited at the prospect of spending her first mid-winter with her friends and lover in their chosen home, but all it did was remind her that it’d been half a year since she last saw her family. The letters that she had been sending home had grown so infrequent that she was starting to think herself a bad daughter. In their last reply, her parents had said that she should just live her life and write when she could, not to beat herself up about too busy to write. This was difficult for her to hear, not because she thought that her parents were angry-no..because it meant that they knew she was moving on. Something that she didn’t ever think she would do.
But she was, wasn’t she?
Since coming to Baulder’s Gate, so much in her life had changed. Much had stayed the same-she was still a paladin of the ancients, still dedicated to her goddess, but everything else. She had her new family, friends she couldn’t imagine living without, her lover-a man who complimented her so completely, they were like the missing pieces of each other puzzle but was also so totally different from her. Her home, a place she would never have guessed she would ever live, in a city that was as different from her home as night and day.
In this house, in the strange city that had come to be her new home, she stood leaning against the window sill, watching the rain collect in puddles on the courtyard below. The staff had been given the night off. A house as large as she had required that she keep as small staff, plus they were part of the household when she was given the home by the Dukes. She couldn’t very well have let them go. They had come with the house, it was just as much their home as it was hers now. So she paid them well, gave them free rein while she was gone-which was quite a bit-and allowed them to fuss over her when she was home.
Not tonight. Tonight, she had a task that she had been needing to do for some time. She had been putting it off for a while now, at least two months. She would say that it was because she had been so busy, that so much was happening and she just didn’t have the time to do it, but the truth was she was scared. Putting it down on paper somehow made it more real. Talking about it with her lover, with her friends, that didn’t make it as real as if she wrote it down and sent it off in a letter to her parents. She was going to write the letter to her father, telling him, telling her mother, that she had chosen a suitor, that she had fallen in love and been an adult about it and decided to get married.
Putting it in writing would make it real. Would make it something that she couldn’t go back on if she got scared, or if she changed her mind, or she just couldn’t do it.
Was that something she wanted? Did she wish to spend the rest of her decidedly long life with him? She had spent a great deal of time in the last several weeks thinking about it. So much so that he had noticed her melancholy and mentioned it. It was unlike her to spend so much time inside her head, this was true, and he knew it. He could read her like a book he had read a million times and he knew that something was going on in her mind, but all she could do was smile at him and say that everything was alright. Because it was…right?
She takes a breath and pushes the window open, cold air rushing into the room, sending the fireplace and the candles into a flickering frenzy. The weather had always fascinated her, simply because they didn’t have it back home. With the backdrop of the rain pattering against the window sill and the courtyard, Selise sits down at her desk and begins to pen her letter.
Dearest mamae and Papae,
I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. Things have been busy, as I am sure you have heard. I hope that this letter finds you both in good health and spirits.
So, there is a purpose to me writing this letter beyond just wanted to say hello and inform you as my well being. But, I will start there, as is polite.
I am in good health, Drake is taking good care of me, as are Charity and Bhogg, Amarillan and Reglidon. Though, they are involved in some sort of plot that I am not, as I’ve returned to Baulder’s Gate to start the winter. Charity and Bhogg are engaged to be married, which is quite a joyous occasion. We are not certain when that will be, but we hope soon. Perhaps the spring, as that seems the time of year that Charity would wish to get married. Amarillan and Reglidon were transported to another plane and spend, what was a tenday for us, but it was twenty-five years, on this other plane. They are married now, even though to us it seems as though they have only been together for a short time. For them, it’s been years.
This brings me to the reason I write this letter to you. Drake has asked for my hand. I love him and wish to say yes, well I’ve already said yes, accept that I also told him that I needed him to gain your permission to wed, as was proper to a person of our station in Alaghon. So, I am hoping that we can come there to visit, or, you could come here so that we can visit and he could properly gain your permission.
Know that, no matter what you say, I plan on marrying him. I am not saying that to be defiant or to usurp your right as my father, it is simply a fact.
So please, write soon and let us know what arrangements need to be made so that we may visit. Know also that I love you and I can’t wait to see you.
With all my Love
Your Daughter
Selise
Selise places the quill down in the quill rest on the desk and stares down at the parchment, the ink drying slowly in the cool damp air. She glances over the paper, quickly reading over what she wrote, holding her breath. Once she gets to the bottom of the page, she sits back in her chair and closes her eyes, blowing the breath out.
“Is it that difficult, my love” His voice behind her shakes her out of her thought. She sits up and turns her head to look at Drake as he leans against the open window sill with his arms across his chest. He is studying her face as she looks out the open window. He can see that she is troubled but is hesitant to ask.
“No..it’s not. I just…have that old fear creeping in.” She finally says after several minutes of silence that stretches out between them. She hasn’t put her eyes on him yet, continuing to stare out the window. Drake stands up from his lean against the window sill and closes the distance between them, reaching out to take her chin gently in his large hand.
“You have nothing to be worried about. I’m sure they will be glad to hear from you and will agree to see and to speak to me. Once they get here, or we get there, I will do the rest.” Drake says, holding her chin so that she is looking directly into his eyes. Selise takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly before bringing her hands up to takes his from her chin and bring it to her lips. She kisses each of his fingers before dropping her hands into her lip and looking down.
“I know. I’m certain everything will be fine…I just..can't help but worry. I’m happy and I am worried that our happiness will be…I don’t know, interrupted..destroyed..because we have to rely on someone else for the next step.”
He smiles softly at her before reaching down and scooping her up into his arms. He always did this sort of thing with he knew she was beginning to withdraw into her mind. He had been doing It a lot the last few weeks and she knew that he was starting to worry.
“Relax. You know that I contingency in case your father says no, so you have nothing to worry about. One way or another, you will be my wife.” He smirks at her as he begins to walk towards their bathing chamber. She lays her head against his chest, looking more like a small child in his arms, illustrating just how much smaller than him she truly was. His large arms cradle her as he moves with ease through the door, closing it behind him with a swift kick of his foot.