The Unknown was not likely to wear the jewelry I sent. I knew that. Yet it gave me pleasure to plan the design and select just the right gem.
It was a ring I wanted, a fitting return for my own ring, which I wore frequently. Around it Azmus etched laurel leaves in an abstract, pleasing pattern. Leaves, spring, circles--all symbols that complemented the friendship. The gemstone was the best ekirth that Azmus could find, carefully faceted so it glittered like a night-star, so deep a blue as to seem black, except when the light hit it just so and it would send out brilliant shards of color: gold, blue, crimson, emerald.
Ekirthi traditionally symbolized mystery, but I didn't think an old meaning so bad a thing. I sent it the night following Azmus's second visit. After wasting much paper and time in fruitless endeavor to write a graceful note to accompany it, I decided to simply send it in a tiny cedar box that my mother had apparently brought from Erev-li-Erval and that I'd had all my life.
There was no response the next morning, when I rose early, which disappointed me just a little, but I shrugged off the reaction and dressed swiftly. For I'd found out that Trishe was having a riding party before breakfast, and I intended to encounter it by accident.
Encountering a party by accident is a chancy business. You can't just appear at the party's destination and affect surprise to find everyone gathered there, not unless you want to seriously discommode either the host or yourself. Probably Savona or Tamara--or Flauvic--were expert at managing such a thing gracefully, but I knew I wasn't.
So what I had to do was take a ride on my own, find their path, and see to it that we fell in together. That was the easy part. The hard part was reacting with delight and no hint of embarrassment when I did find them, for of course most of them exclaimed in various kinds of surprise when they saw me, especially Nee and Bran. A quick glance showed me that Shevraeth was indeed with them, riding next to a young lady I had never seen before.
It was a ring I wanted, a fitting return for my own ring, which I wore frequently. Around it Azmus etched laurel leaves in an abstract, pleasing pattern. Leaves, spring, circles--all symbols that complemented the friendship. The gemstone was the best ekirth that Azmus could find, carefully faceted so it glittered like a night-star, so deep a blue as to seem black, except when the light hit it just so and it would send out brilliant shards of color: gold, blue, crimson, emerald.
Ekirthi traditionally symbolized mystery, but I didn't think an old meaning so bad a thing. I sent it the night following Azmus's second visit. After wasting much paper and time in fruitless endeavor to write a graceful note to accompany it, I decided to simply send it in a tiny cedar box that my mother had apparently brought from Erev-li-Erval and that I'd had all my life.
There was no response the next morning, when I rose early, which disappointed me just a little, but I shrugged off the reaction and dressed swiftly. For I'd found out that Trishe was having a riding party before breakfast, and I intended to encounter it by accident.
Encountering a party by accident is a chancy business. You can't just appear at the party's destination and affect surprise to find everyone gathered there, not unless you want to seriously discommode either the host or yourself. Probably Savona or Tamara--or Flauvic--were expert at managing such a thing gracefully, but I knew I wasn't.
So what I had to do was take a ride on my own, find their path, and see to it that we fell in together. That was the easy part. The hard part was reacting with delight and no hint of embarrassment when I did find them, for of course most of them exclaimed in various kinds of surprise when they saw me, especially Nee and Bran. A quick glance showed me that Shevraeth was indeed with them, riding next to a young lady I had never seen before.
( Sherwood Smith )
[ Court Duel ]
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