'Well, the meeting could have gone better...' Fizzle thought to himself.
He had arrived just in time at the merchant's temporary residence. Calia's parents stood waiting near a small building serving as their home and center of business, Calia was nowhere to be seen. They exchanged pleasantries and walked inside where the merchant and his wife presented Fizzle with a gift, a volume of the histories of shipping in the greenbelt. More of a pamphlet than anything substantial, the elf graciously accepted the gift and reached into his pocket to withdrawal 2 vials he happened to have on him.
"Thank you both, here are two... Um..."
please don't let it be alchemist's fire, please don't let it be alchemist's fire"
He looked briefly at the two potions, he forgot he even HAD these potions on him, would have come in handy last week...
"Um, two potions designed to allow the imbiber to swim safely to land. Though I pray you never have need of them, these are dangerous waters and your safety is my first concern."
"How thoughtful," replied the merchant accepting the "gifts"
The merchant had presented his wife, Diedre, but Fizzle realized he had absolutely no idea what the man's name was. Instead, he addressed him as "Sir" for the next four ungodly hours. All the while hoping that "sir" would respond please, call me Hank, or Jim, or any other name that was easy to remember. He never did, and so Fizzle called him sir and her ma'am and they seemed content with that.
The talk ran on into the night as they were treated to a supper fit for a king. Fizzle remarked at the size of the feast and how it was of the highest quality, and they returned the compliment saying it was but a humble meal and not fit for such a lord of his station, especially an Elf lord. He did not correct them, but let them have their fantasies. His usual fare as a "lord" of this land consisted of dried meat and stale bread except for the occasional feasts which some of the other lords were inclined to have for themselves and their guests.
The merchants asked the Elf (because that is what he was to them, an elf who offered to wed their daughter so their pockets might be lined) to tell them of his life and family back in Kyonin, what was it like to be an Elf, what of the feasts of the Elven kingdom and had he ever met the king of the elves?
"Actually, we have a queen. And I have met her on one occasion when I was very young." he raised his hand to about 3 feet from the ground.
"How remarkable!" Diedre, suddenly taking an interest "Please, tell us what she was like."
"Well, as I said I was very young and remember little of it at the time. She is exceptionally beautiful, as I am sure you could have guessed. But I do remember this..."
he leaned foreword across the table and spoke very quietly, as if to prevent anyone from listening in on this revelation.
"In the corner was a hawk, not caged but sitting on a stand, watching the entire proceeding. When it was finished, of which the details I do not remember I'm sorry to say. When it was finished the entire court bowed low and I was led away by my father. I managed to look back and try to catch a small glimpse of her beauty but she was gone. And on the pedestal next to the hawk sat another hawk, the most beautiful creature I have ever seen." He pressed a finger to his lips as if to reiterate this information was of the utmost secrecy.
The merchants exchanged uncertain glances and asked no more questions of the elves.
The rest of the evening was spent planning the festival and the waterfront. Diedre came alive with decoration ideas and proceedings including famous bards from across Golarion. Clearly she had been planning this event long before moving to these lands, the proposed budget was prodigious. A budget meeting after all. But he was pleased to hear the merchant's (dammit someone slip and say his name!) ideas for the waterfront were equally ambitious. Raam and the other would be well pleased. This man had a knack for foresight and planning well past his five or six decades of experience, and it was evident to see this would be a culmination of a great deal of vision, his opus.
When it was mercilessly over, he walked with them to the door and they said their goodbyes. He said how much he had enjoyed their home and next time they would have to come to the keep for a modest dinner. No date was set but they most graciously accepted and then said goodbye and closed the door. No sooner had the door shut than he could hear Diedre remark:
"Not even a saddle on his horse! What were you thinking? Did you know he was an Elf?"
"No dear, I missed that..."
"Well, what will their children be like?"
"They will all probably have excellent hearing for one thing..." the merchant sighed.
"Indeed." Fizzle answered from the bottom step.
Silence from inside. Fizzle walked to the end of the house before Diedre's last words came:
"I'll wager our first shipment he didn't even know your name."
Very smooth, Fizzle, very smooth.
He reached the end of the house where she had been hiding since he arrived, peering occasionally into the window when she thought no one was looking. He could smell her sweat and perfume even on this cold night.
"You should come out from behind there, if one of the yellow ribbons mistakes you for a thief and you'll lose one of those pretty hands."
There was a thump as she fell from her hiding spot above the window.
'Very clever of her, I did not look up. If she had been an assassin the kingdom might be sans Elf.'
"I ain't no thief." she spat hurriedly, checking her elbow from where she had landed. Fizzle took a step and offered her a hand, which she took reluctantly and thanked him for. Her hands were not as soft as he had expected, but still well cared for. She was a short woman, perhaps 5'4" and it was hard to measure her body since it was covered in a thick cloak but her face showed strength and courage, with those little lines that betray a perpetual smile despite her scowl. She brushed the snow from her coats and looked up at him with a frown of disapproval.
"You're paler than I remember you being, and more gaunt."
"Where did that accent come from? It is very different than your parents, more of a finishing school common."
"Well, you've solved the mystery, my parents like to spend money." she remarked sarcastically. "Do you have any other grand insights Lord of Stagfell?"
Fizzle chuckled to himself, he liked this one. She was very young by his standards but he knew by the customs of the humans she was on the verge of being an old maid though she had barely reached her second decade (if that). There was a great deal of strength behind those fiery blue eyes, he would have to tread lightly.
"I have a great many insights, but concerning you I am unarmed." he tried to seem witty, she huffed and rolled her eyes.
"You need not attempt to woo me, it would seem I'm already bought and paid for. The price of a dock and a shack on a pond in the middle of a frozen tundra."
"You do not approve?"
"It doesn't matter whether I approve or not, I am yours by right. Your own little baby factory to provide you with an heir and my parents with status."
Fizzle stopped smiling and walked towards the base of the stairs.
"Where are you going?"
"I'll not be involved in marrying someone who does not wish to be married, the lords of stagfell will have to build their own dock and shack." he reached the stairs and put a foot on the first one.
"Wait." she said. He stopped and turned to her, a serious look on his face.
"They'll disown me if I let another suitor pass by. Sell me to a merchant or that brothel or something."
He retrieved his foot from the stair, she walked slowly towards him, eyes to the ground.
"I'll marry you, for their sake and my own. And for the good of the kingdom."
He smiled, shocked by her sudden subservience. "What kingdom? This is a ramshackle of buildings on a frozen plain. Kingdoms take people, well more than we have here now. Kingdoms take vision, ambition, and most of all time. We have ambition and a keep, as well as a shrine and a brothel, but we do not have a kingdom"
She looked up, meeting his eyes with that cold fire. "Not yet. But everyday people come to this land, full of hope for themselves and their families. What you and your friends have done has inspired them. Already the farmers are free to grow their crops and raise their animals. I have heard that a great drive will be underway from the north this spring, bringing herds of cattle, sheep, and pigs to feast on the lands that have been made safe once again. Restov and the northern kingdoms are losing people everyday to the tales of five adventurers blazing a path across the lawless lands in the south. There are even rumors of a mass exodus of 100,000 settlers coming from the desert kingdoms to settle these lands. They say heroes have returned to the wild lands, and law and justice follow them like a wake behind a vessel. You have ambition and a whorehouse, yes, but you have the abilities to forge a kingdom out of a wasteland and people will follow that, a kingdom will follow that."
Fizzle was silent a moment, lost in her words and those impossibly blue eyes. " There will be many hard times ahead, our success thus far will inspire all varieties of foul creatures to attack us. It would take but a stiff wind to blow these shacks to the ground, And then the people would experience suffering on a scale..."
He let the words fall in the frozen air. Then smiled.
"But that is yet to come, if at all. Tonight let's walk, spring is coming and the air will soon be warm. Let's enjoy the last of the frozen air and when we are done, you can decide if you will be my wife and I your husband. If you do not wish it, I think I can arrange another marriage for you to satisfy your parents and yourself."
"Another marriage?" she asked "To whom, the valiant knight has rejected me. If you also reject me who is left?"
"Well, the captain of the Yellow Suns is unmarried, and human to boot. A fine specimen for your 'baby factory' to play host to."
Calia wrinkled her nose "Lord Zuhair? But I thought-"
"Nonsense. He is a fine man and I'm sure very capable, despite what you might have heard. If not him, then the baron is still unmarried." Fizzle offered her his arm, and they began walking into the night.
She wrinkled her nose again, "I've heard different stories of him. Besides, I like taller men"
They walked the entire night, tracing the pathways of the sleeping little town and telling stories. Fizzle related the adventures of himself and his companions. She laughed at the story of the bear by the cave, and the voices of the kobolds as he impersonated their grunting and mannerisms. She gasped when he told her of his recent meeting with the lizard people and how they had garnered their trust, if only for a brief time. She was awed by the stories of Zuhair's courage, Balian's mastery of tactics, and Raam's fierce and fiery sorcery. But she was especially interested in the tales of the valiant devil, an unlikely companion driven by the love for his daughter who had delivered the critical strikes at the critical moments and saved the party from ruin countless times.
"Why has he not been given a title? I have only heard morbid stories before of a devil ranger who haunts these lands. From your stories it seems he would do well to be a ruler."
"Oh, Chase goes his own way." is all he would say, but she suspected there was more to it.
When her turn came she told him of her life in Restov, and at the finishing school she had attended for a few years before becoming her father's apprentice.
'And your father's name would be...' He thought but did not ask
She had spent a great deal of time growing up performing for her father's guests and entertaining clients, drumming up business. But all the while she had wanted to travel, to see the world and go on adventures. She could never bring herself to leave her family, though. She had had five suitors and been betrothed five times by her parents. Some had been proven to be charlatans, others had left her when she did not submit to their whims.
The sun was a sliver on the horizon when they returned to her parents house, both exhausted from the recounting of their memories. They stopped to feel the warmth from the early morning sun wash over them. When it was fully up, Fizzle got down on one knee and proposed.
"I'll think about it." she said with a wry smile on her face. She leaned foreword and kissed his cheek, then snuck around the house to climb in the back window.
'Well, maybe that went better than I expected...'
"Now, I just have to return this stolen horse." he chuckled as he mounted the beast and headed out of town again.
