[Scalvoris Town] The One on the Right - Part II

[Padraig]

Saun 1st, 717

Once he'd decided that he would commemorate each he could of all the birth-trials Faith had missed since the one she'd been born, Padraig had been resolved to do it, and do it well. He hadn't anticipated however the extent of the logistical puzzle that task would require. It had taken any number of maneuvers pulled off on the sly in order to prevent her catching on, and a great deal of help through the process. Both in action and spirit, since there were things, many things, he just didn't know when it came to women and more specifically, young girls coming up. Katie had been a great deal of help in that regard, as had a number of staff over at the university, the restaurant and the Order.

He'd passed over her fifth birth-trial along the way, explaining that for reasons he wasn't prepared to share just yet, it would come later. She'd understand in time. So after she'd opened the gift-wrapped boxes containing her sixth and seventh trial boxes, he suggested that they might take some time to get better acquainted with Snowball. There was method to the madness, after all. After an arc then, when Padraig urged her back indoors, she'd find the place had changed just a little. Firstly, the table had been cleared, there was a meal laid out for them, and Cyrus and Katie were there. They hadn't cooked, and neither had Padraig, but the foods on the table were many of Faith's favorite ones. It was there that staff at Cally's had been a great deal of help.

"Happy Birth-Trial Faith," Cyrus said, speaking in his typical dry, baritone voice, but he was wearing a rare and genuine smile. Also next to the table was a collection of three gifts stacked one on top of the other, from largest to smallest, all wrapped in silver paper with blue velvet bows. "Katie tells me that once a girl turns eight, nine, ten, she starts thinking about what she might like to do when she grows up, and she begins wanting to learn all sorts of new things. Eight, nine and ten," he said with a smile, and gestured towards the boxes as he pulled out a chair for her. If she started with the smallest, she'd find a pretty, hand carved wooden flute inside. Three sections that fit snugly together with any number of keys."[/i][/b] For the aspiring musician, he told her with a smile.

The medium sized box contained a pair of silken slippers in a color sure to please her. "For the dancer," he said, though the shoes weren't exactly the sort a dancer might wear, since they lacked the hard toes necessary for that sort of thing. And lastly? "For the aspiring scientist." A chemist's set, and that one too, he explained, would make much more sense later on.

[Faith Augustin]

He had told her to have the evening for them to celebrate her birth trial and Faith had done what she would always do. She had read a book to try and learn about what might happen,what would be expected of her. Generally, and more specifically to Scalvoris she had read up on the traditions and she had prepared appropriately, she thought. Yet, nothing could have prepared her for what he actually did. Faith was completely overwhelmed, albeit in a very good way. So, a break getting to know Snowball, to sit on the grass with Padraig and just be together was very well received. She didn't really speak, just sat with him and rested her head on his shoulder. Three times, she turned to him and said, "I..." then shook her head and lapsed back into silence. Eventually, having got up to fuss Snowball, whilst scratching the pony behind the ear, Faith spoke to him. "I feel like I don't have the words, you know that. I think maybe there just aren't any. Not for how I feel." Placing her hand in his, she looked up at him.

"Do you remember, I told you about the conversation I had with Lady Elyna? In the camp, where she talked to me about taking Moseke's Mist to prevent pregnancy?" If it seemed strange as a conversation topic, it made sense to her. "We were talking about you, I told her how you made me feel and she looked so sad, Padraig." Faith's hand found his and she turned her gaze and attention fully to him. Elyna had told her, Faith explained, that she shouldn't let the past ruin the future. When she had, Faith had questioned if her friend was alright. "She told me that it was the little things. She said that she loves Lord Krome and that he'd do anything for her, or Elsie, but that she didn't make him happy."

Bowing her head, Faith looked at their hands entwined together and she sighed before lifting her gaze back to him. "You make me happy, every trill and trial and we both know how great a gift that is." She stepped into his arms, holding on to him and she smiled up at him as he said that they should get back inside. It was time, she knew, for something ~ just she didn't know what.

When they got back inside, though, there was a meal on the table and there were Cyrus and Katie. Faith's face showed her delight and she hugged them both, thanking them with her usual earnest seriousness. "I don't know how you all managed this. It's all far too much, you know."

Katie, of course, wrapped the young woman in a hug. "Little doll, it's an opportunity for Padraig to show you, for us all to show you. That's all. Now, come on. You have gifts."

Faith looked up at Padraig as he pulled the chair out for her. "Where's Luna? Is she alright?" Faith wouldn't sit and eat without all of the family being around the table. However, while she was opening gifts, she listened to what Padraig said. And a flute? Faith looked up at him in amazement. "How did you know? It's like you're inside my head. I'd love... I've been thinking I'd like to learn an instrument. Oh, this is.. thank you." The red silk slippers, with ribbons which tied them brought tears to her eyes and she shook her head as Katie took hold of her hand. "I'm not sad. I'm the opposite of sad, I promise you. They're beautiful. Just beautiful."

As she opened the last gift, though, the chemist set, it needed no explanation after as far as she was concerned. Her delight was evident on her face. "Oh! Look, there's a centrifuge, litmus paper. Padraig this is... oh, I don't know what to say. Thank you. The ten arc old me would have been so pleased with this, but nowhere near as much as the nineteen arc old is. It's ... all of it." Faith was usually much more concerned with not embarrassing Padraig in front of his grandfather, but she kissed him without concern for once. "Thank you, love," she whispered and then smiled to Cyrus and Katie. "All of you. You are my greatest gifts."

Simply put, in her eyes, it was true. They were family and that was something which she had never thought she might have. Her hand in Padraig's wasn't letting go any time soon, although she wanted to make sure that Luna was alright. This might be overwhelming for her and Faith would not do that for anything, not if she could help it. Luna had come on in leaps and bounds, but whilst progress was steady, it was also slow.

[Padraig]

He wasn't sure that Faith had ever mentioned the conversation between her and Elyna before. But if she had, then the same as now, Padraig would find it unfortunate, but not necessarily surprising. "I wasn't around either of them much," he admitted. "And don't know them nearly as well as you did. But there was also a sense that something between them wasn't quite..." Quite what? He couldn't put it into words exactly. But their relationship had at the least seemed to be a complicated one, even though he'd only seen them actually together once or twice maybe. "I guess that maybe there's a limited amount of good fortune in the world, when it comes to his sort of thing. Maybe we've gotten more than our fair share." If they had, he wasn't complaining.

Back inside, Cyrus and certainly Katie were undoubtedly pleased to be involved, and that they'd managed to get things set up on the sly while the couple was outdoors. It had been tricky, since Cosmo and Quattro both were curious and underfoot through the process. "It's not nearly enough," Cyrus said when Faith protested that it was all too much. "I owe you my gratitude, for making my grandson happy." High praise, coming from a man who'd long ago mastered the art of gruff disapproval with just the lifting of one silver brow. And a gesture as fleeting and rare as a glimpse of a dragon. Just as surprising too since in all likelihood, no one alive had ever seen one before. "Luna's coming. She wanted to do something special and will be here shortly."

Nothing could have pleased Padraig more than to see her pleasure when she opened the gifts. He'd hoped the choices would be good ones. "Not surprisingly, the more a girl grows, the more help I needed understanding them," he told her with a crooked grin. Nonetheless there were three boxes, and he handed her the first, which was for her eleventh birth-trial. When she opened the box, it was fairly apparent that he'd received a woman's input on this one. For the girl who was becoming more aware of her feminine side, he supposed. It was a brush, comb and mirror set, for her vanity. Nice ones, as much decoration as practical. Next came aged twelve, and inside a slightly larger box was...not a handbag like some young girls might carry, but a leather bag that could double as a carrier and storage for her papers and books, or on the other hand, for a collection of medical supplies on the go.

The next one? The next was thirteen. An ornate crystal perfume bottle with an atomizer, containing her favorite scent. And lastly, when it seemed Padraig might say more, a grating sound came from the outdoors, across the porch between the two houses. It was Cyrus who leaped into action and headed out quickly, only to reappear alongside Luna. The two of them were dragging a large wrapped box behind them. Number fourteen. Padraig grinned as they pulled the thing closer to Faith. "This one was Luna's idea," he said, and the girl smiled shyly. "I wanted a chest like I saw once in the home of my master. His daughter was my age, and she called it a hope chest." That's what it was, in fact. A large and artfully crafted one. And inside under the lid, were drawers, boxes that pulled up and out accordion style, and shelves. For her medical supplies, or if she preferred, sentimental things, or things she'd want to set aside for their children one trial.

[Faith Augustin]

A limited amount of good fortune in the wold when it came to love? Faith shook her head, quite sure of her response. "I've thought about it, now and then over the last arc." She'd come, she said, to a very simple and straightforward conclusion. "Lady Elyna said that she needs him like she needs air and sunlight and warmth. I understand that." There was a definite agreement there, Faith told him. She felt quite the same way about him, but what Lady Elyna said and how Faith herself felt changed drastically from that point on. "Then she said that she didn't make him happy. If you weren't happy, Padraig, I'd do everything I could to make sure you were. Everything. If I ever came to the conclusion that I couldn't make you happy, then I'd leave. It would break me," she wasn't being dramatic, just saying what she believed completely. "I know that it would. But your happiness is more important than my need. And the same is true for you, I know." He'd shown her that time and again and never more so than when she first had run to him in high heels and newly free. "Real love isn't selfish, Vri knows." Leaning forward, she kissed him. "It's when your happiness and welfare is inextricably tied up with mine, and vice versa, Professor. You taught me that." She smiled at him as she rested her forehead against his. "It's what going forward means. Remember?"

Back to the indoors though and at first Katie's and then Cyrus' words, Faith felt tears again threaten. She looked up at Cyrus when he spoke and she shook her head. "You raised him," she said with a serious gaze. Gratitude was certainly reciprocal, from her to him. Katie looked at the two of them and she glanced at Padraig and smiled, pleased to see what they both were seeing. When Cyrus said that Luna was on her way, though, Faith raised an eyebrow, but had at least learned not to bother asking. No one, after all, was going to tell her.

The gifts, though, brought more delight again. The brush and mirror and comb, so pretty and functional at once. Then the bag, which was stylish and useful and the crystal atomizer with a light scent which she was particularly fond of. It was wonderful, all of it, and she told the three of them so. Katie smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "It's what you should have had, Faith. We'd put it all right if we could, change it all." Faith smiled in gratitude at the woman's kindness and she knew that Padraig felt the same way, but she didn't.

"It brought me here and made me who I am. I'd do it again to be so loved and so happy." Faith was most genuine when she said that and Katie was just about to answer when there was a strange dragging noise. After Cyrus had jumped into action, he and Luna brought in a chest between them. Padraig told her that it was Luna's idea and Faith turned to listen. The delight on her face was unashamed and complete when she realised that Luna had just done something which she hadn't done before. "I wanted" the former slave said and Faith beamed in delight. She nodded and listened and then she took hold of Luna's hand and gave a gentle squeeze. "Thank you so much, Luna. It's beautiful. A hope chest, I've never heard of it, but it's wonderful. Thank you." She'd said her thanks after every gift. The three before she'd thanked all three of them each time, but as she spoke her thanks this time, her voice trembled again. The simple word "I" from Luna's lips was a gift in and of itself.

Kneeling in front of the chest, Faith raised her head and looked at the four of them. Her family. Immortals, but she was on the verge of crying again. "I love this. Each gift and each of you. Thank you." Her hand found Padraig's and she looked at him with a trembling smile. "I'm going to store things which are our family in here. I.. I don't have the words, you know that. I never dreamed of family, I never dared to. Thank you."

[Padraig]

In that sense Faith was right. Real love wasn't selfish or self-serving, no matter how difficult that very fact might cause it to be. It was difficulty that was worth it though and all the more genuine, Padraig told her. Maybe that had been Malcolm and the lady Elyna's problem, he thought. Then again, he hardly knew them as well as she did.

In spite of all the hardships that had brought her to the point of being here, with him and family, and to celebrating all of nineteen birth-trials at once, Padraig found it hard to express how much pleasure it gave him, seeing her face light up with each gift she opened. If she'd been turning thirty instead, then there'd have been thirty gifts and he wouldn't have thought twice. But it came as much of a surprise to him, as to Faith, to hear Luna refer to herself as I, and not she, her, or this slave.

Clearly she'd been coming along faster than he'd thought she might. It wasn't him. But Faith, Cyrus, even Katie. Truth was, she spent as much time across the porch with grandfather, as here with him and Faith. It appeared to be doing her a world of good. The girl smiled when Faith thanked her, and peered into the box beside her. "You might not have dreamed of it," Padraig said and took her hand. "But you've got more family than most. You're welcome. But we're not done."

Of course there was the meal to enjoy, but afterwards, Padraig and Cyrus slipped out onto the porch to collect more boxes. Once they'd brought three of them in, he explained. "Fifteen, sixteen and seventeen. The time when a girl, or anyone, becomes more sure what they'd like to do with their lives." With that, he gestured towards the three packages. Inside were things that clearly had been subject to input from Faith's professors, and a couple of the engineers at the university as well.

In the first one? A skeletal model. A male human, it appeared, true to scale that could be snapped together and suspended from a tall narrow stand. The next one, a large framed lithograph of the vascular system, inked red and blue where it mattered. In the last box, a model of the brain on a wooden base. The brain was carved from wood itself, and could be pulled apart into several sections to reveal the details inside.

[Faith Augustin]

Luna's reference to herself in the first person was something which absolutely delighted Faith; more than almost anything else could have. She understood, more than most people ever could, just what it meant for the young woman to say that. It wasn't the saying that was important, though, Faith knew; it was the believing. She had called herself "I" for an arc, when Jamal had been her owner and yet, she hadn't thought of herself in terms of self, of wanting or deserving or of being more than an item until Vhalar last arc. That, of course, had coincided with meeting this man who was currently showering her with gifts.

She had more family than most? Faith nodded and smiled. "Parents," her gaze to Cyrus and Katie was genuine, but also a little shy. "A sister and a husband all in one place? More than I dreamed of, yes. Much more. Really? Padraig, I don't know how you... no, shush Faith." With a glance at Cyrus, she couldn't help but ask. "Was he always this determined and focused on detail?" His focus now, of course, was on her and Faith's hand in his squeezed tight as she asked the question. Vri, as the Immortal of love, had smiled on her the trial that Padraig was born, Faith was sure. As illogical as it was, as little sense as it made, she and he were made for each other she knew.

They sat together and ate. Faith's appetite, as ever, was tiny but that too was changing, just very slowly. Since the first time they'd sat and eaten a meal together, that first night of freedom, Faith's appetite had grown. Not a lot and she would very probably never be a big eater, but her appetite was much more healthy than it had been.

The meal was a chance to sit, to chat and together. Faith was usually quiet and totrial was no difference. Katie was a chatterbox, of course, but Faith's delight was evident in every bit of her and it was never for long that her hand was out of Padraig's. After they'd eaten there were another three boxes, which Faith looked at and shook her head. "I don't know how you even thought of this." When she opened them, though, her face lit in amazement and she let out a squeal of pure delight. "These are amazing! How did you... this is a skeleton! And this is a brain.. oh, Padraig, this will be so useful for my teaching and.. oh you are.." It was hard to tell what he actually was because she flung herself into his arms. Evidently, what ever he was, it was a very positive thing.

"What astonishes me," she said, with an earnest expression, "is that not one of these things would I have bought for myself. Yet I love them each one and I will get inordinate pleasure and use from each. How did you do that? You know what I wanted better than I did." It was a very clever thing to do, she said and kissed him. "Very clever indeed. You must be a very clever man." Her eyes twinkled mischief as she said that, but her overwhelming joy was evident above everything.

[Padraig]

The shared meal was an opportunity to sit down with family, something Padraig knew that Faith valued above all. Even Cyrus was more talkative than usual, though his dry, baritone delivery remained mostly unchanged. But yes, his grandson had always been just who he was, the older man confirmed. Even when he'd been a babe and a neighbor woman had hung a spinning, dangling curiosity over his crib, he seemed to study it breaks on end, attempting to make sense of its movements, always trying to predict the next combination.

The gifts however? How could he not know, Padraig told her. If there was anyone who ought to aspire to know her best, he'd hope it was him. But though he didn't say it, he hoped she'd find the things all the more useful, once his gift giving was done. And it seemed that soon enough, Katie, Cyrus and even Luna would excuse themselves, leaving the two of them alone. There were two, rather three birth-trials to celebrate, and preferable that the audience filtered out. "Eighteen," he said with a smile and pulled a small velvet box from his pocket. "I'm told, that eighteen is the most usual time when a young woman finds a fellow she'd like to marry. I'm a little late," he added with a grin. "But I've also never done this properly."

So saying, he got out of his chair and dropped to one knee in front of her and opened the box for Faith to see. "Will you marry me?" he asked. Inside the box was, not one ring, but a pair of them that fit together perfectly. A unique design, as unique as her which he must have had some input in designing. One of them, a thin, rose gold band that wasn't straight or even singular, but instead was crafted in a filigreed wave pattern, or rather a vine like fashion where two vines crossed and merged again around the finger. At the center was a round, startling red rhododite garnet, a full carat and a half in size. On each side of the stone, mounted where two vines crossed and crossed again, were four brilliant green tashmarinediopside stones, cut like small leaves.

The second narrow band was also created in a wave or vine like pattern that when worn, would fit nicely up against the first ring. It too had four leaf-like brilliant green stones scattered along its rises and falls. "This one now," he said, taking the first ring out of the box. "The second, the trial that we marry." Assuming that she answered his question the way that she imagined she might, Padraig placed the rin on her finger.

And then? Well, there was still her nineteenth trial to celebrate. And as it happened, her fifth one. After he'd stood and taken her hand, he smiled. "So when a girl turns nineteen she might be thinking of a place of her own, that it just hers, just the way she likes it. And when a girl is five, oft times she might ask for a playhouse where she can go on her own. In that case, her father might build her one." Either way, he led her into the backyard again, but this time pulled aside the blanket that had been draped across half of it. And there, constructed by a sizable crew just that trial while she was out, was a freestanding workshop with a series of stepping stones that led up to the back porch between houses.

It was a stone structure with a large window, a sturdy door and inside she'd find polished wooden floors. And it was all hers. "I know that there's a lab in the house, a place where I can work, you can work or we can together. But this? It's all yours," he told her and kissed her cheek before urging her to explore it. They'd spoken about traditions in Scalvoris. About views on women working while they were pregnant. But it didn't suit her, he knew, and it didn't suit him because of it. But here? When the time came that working anywhere else might raise a few eyebrows, here in her own space she could dabble to her heart's content.

Off Topic

Total purchases ( accounting for 10% discount ) = 1161 gn

[Faith Augustin]

There was no doubt that the emotion of the situation was close to overwhelming for the young woman. Padraig, however, knew her well and so he'd built in breaks and gaps, time for her to calm back down. One of those was the meal the five of them shared. Faith was entranced at Cyrus' telling of Padraig as a child, staring at the toy hanging above his crib; she hung on every word and her smile told of her delight at the image his words gave her. The man who sat with her, who loved her so very well, he had not had an easy childhood but it had been one with a determined and loving grandfather; this was made more and more evident every time Cyrus talked about Padraig. The pride the elder Augustin had for his grandson shone out of him and frankly, Cyrus was not a man for whom emotion shone often. Yet always, when he spoke of his grandson. Or, of course, there was the dry and deadpan sarcasm which the pair shared.

However, with a kiss on the cheek from Katie, one for them both, the others left. "Are they making themselves scarce for a reason?" Faith asked, once they'd gone. There was no doubting it, she had agreed, he knew her better than anyone did; she'd been a little surprised that this seemed to include herself. Erroneously, it appeared, she'd always considered that she knew herself pretty well. Yet here, Padraig had managed to purchase multitudinous gifts which she had no idea she wanted and yet, she adored. It made no sense to her at all and yet she was not even a little surprised that he could do so. They were, had always been, contrary in their nature and against all odds. Both separately and, especially together.

It turned out that yes, the others had made themselves scarce for a reason and as Padraig's face turned more serious, as he told her that at eighteen young women found someone they wanted to marry and he said he was late, Faith realised, or started to realise, what he was doing. As she did, she felt her heart leap into her throat and simultaneously start to beat so hard that it might burst out of her, so loud that she could hear it like a drum beat. He got down on to one knee and it was too much, just all too much.

Tears fell unchecked down her pale cheeks as he asked her if she would marry him and Faith moved, falling to her knees on the floor next to him. "Of course I will. I need to. I need you." The ring he had bought, he must have had it made especially and Faith looked at it and sobbed. "Oh, it's.. it's us. Two things, the same things but separate and then one. Oh, I..I" Whatever it was she was trying so poorly to say, she could not as she laughed and cried at the same time when he put the ring on her finger. She tried to speak, to explain somehow, but she couldn't and instead she wrapped her arms around him and hugged herself against him, burying her head in his shoulder as they knelt on the floor together.

It took her a few moments to lift her head and look at him, composed enough now that she could at least speak. Her hands in his were tight, though and she wasn't letting go any time soon. "I love you, Padraig. Those words are not enough, not for you. Not for us." Tears sparkled in her eyes, still. All discipline and self control was gone around him as was inevitably the case, "I think I was born loving you. I know I was born to love you. And I know that I am already your wife, as you are my husband. I'm yours, you're mine." With a chuckle, she looked at him and asked, very genuinely. "Immortals, Padraig, how am I ever going to manage our wedding? I'm just going to sob." It was a real possibility, she considered, especially as she understood that women got more emotional as pregnancies progressed.

Immortals help them all.

Still, there was one more birthtrial, or two he told her since he'd held the fifth over. Faith listened to him and she took his hands. At least, she considered, the big one was over. The big, emotional upheaval and completely over the top gesture which was guaranteed to make her sob was done. He was talking about playhouses and she held on to his hand with a quizzical look and then he pulled aside the coverings which had hidden half the garden from her.

"Oh," Faith said, her voice almost deadpan as she saw what he had done. How? How had he done this? "That... that wasn't there yestertrial? Padraig... how..." She sounded almost emotionless, but she was shaking from head to foot. One look at her would show, also, that emotionless was the last thing she was. "I can... mine? I mean, I don't. That is, what about...? And... oh my." Turning to look at him, realisation after realisation hit her. "I can work here. When I'm not supposed to work, I can work here. I.. oh, how did you do this?" He kissed her cheek and urged her forward, suggesting that she explore. She did, squeals of delight escaping her as she first explored every square inch and then flung herself into his arms. "Oh, Padraig, thank you. I can't. I just can't. How? I mean... this wasn't here yestertrial. I'd have noticed. How?" There was no doubting it to her mind; he was a worker of miracles and this? This was just another one in an already long list.

[Pash Raj'oriq]

Thread Rewards

Oh, you two! I have read both of these threads and they are adorable and touching, a mix of lovely devotion to each other and yet also dealing with serious things through a lens of togetherness. D’awwww.

Faith

Points

XP:
15 | These points annot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

Loot: +1 flute, +1 pair of shoes, +1 chemistry set, +1 brush, comb, mirror, +1 leather handbag, +1 chest, +1 skeleton model, +1 brain model, +1 lithograph of circulatory system, +1 engagement ring, +1 workshop in the garden!

Knowledge

N/A

Padraig

Points

XP:
15 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
Give a gift: flute (+2), (+2) pair of shoes, (+2) chemistry set, (+2) brush, (+2) comb, (+2) mirror, (+2) leather handbag, (+2) chest, (+2) skeleton model, (+2) brain model, (+2) lithograph of circulatory system, (+2) engagement ring, (+2) workshop in the garden! = +26

Loot

Thanks for keeping an accurate ledger!

Knowledge

N/A

Now that your review is complete,
don’t forget go back to your review post here and drop this image in!

Code: Select all

[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=10124[/img][/center]