Fomalhaut48

Jyissi and Rustyn walked side by side, silently. They seemed to have reached an understanding, as Kelly and Arlian noticed with pleasure. “Have you ever wondered about what you’ll do when all this is over?” Kelly asked, almost casually, as the United Faiths were making their way back to Crossroad Keep. “All this what?” asked Rustyn “this merchant business will never end... unless we make it fail...” “I suppose you will go back to your temple, right?” Arlian looked at lovely Kelly with a sad smile. “And you? Will you return to your farm, to be with your father again? Perhaps marry a

And thus Celhir's days passed slowly, in endless sorrow. Nobody had ever seen him smile again, until almost exactly a decade after his daughter had disappeared. For on that day a few fishermen found an unconscious young girl lying on the beach in a torn dress, seaweed tangled in her black hair and salt on her skin. She appeared to be a survivor of some disaster… "Oh, that she was" Rustyn looked up from the book "Umberlee herself summoned her servants to take her there. When she was floating after the ship sunk, clinging desperately to a piece of driftwood, she saw the shark fin approaching, and believed that it was all over for her. Esp

Sand searched frantically through his drawers, pulling them out and spilling their contents on the floor, not caring about the unenchanted wands or various trinkets scattering throughout the room and rolling under the furniture. He was looking for gems – he generally kept them among other crafting material, except for the most valuable ones, which were in a small silk bag in his bedside table's drawer, over the secret compartment where Rustyn's Mystra symbol used to be. He would hate to spend those ones now, however – he hoped some other ones would make it. Grabbing a handful of assorted jewels, like amethysts, greenstones, and obs

A ship. Rustyn turned her head to look at the vessel slowly sailing along the horizon. "Grant them a safe journey…" she whispered. She felt a little strange saying it, as she had never pronounced that wish before without asking for something in return. Otherwise, she would just simply sink ships for pleasure whenever she felt like it – the dead were fed to the mighty Umberlee, and the books carried aboard always ended up in her hands, as she still wanted to know. Precious metals, artifacts and other materials were used to build and enrich the shrine she had built to her Goddess, her ivory statue standing in the middle of the only

Sand spent the night standing at his window, his sharp elven eyes clearly seeing the Merchant Quarters, to be sure this beautiful dream was not going to disappear in the morning. As dawn painted the sky light red, the building was still there, and nobody had exited. "Oh, sheesh!" Rustyn, lying in her bed, looked sadly as the tiny bubble floated for a mere second before popping. Falma awoke, and hopped to her. "I still can't do it properly…" she sighed, running her fingers along the golden letters, the name of the author, on the cover of a thick, dark red book. Walking to the adjacent bathroom, and dipping a finger in the basin of fr

"Rustyn…!" Sand repeated. He knew his tears would spill in a few seconds, and that everybody would see them, but he couldn't care less. Khelgar looked at him dumbfounded. Sand's features seemed to change in front of his eyes. His narrow eyes, with that constant shifty look, widened and in them he could see nothing but honest joy; the only smile that until then could be seen on his lips was a sarcastic, wry one. But now it was a shy, but happy one, he didn't seem to be ready to give out all his emotions at once. And were those really tears that glittered in his eyes? Words from long ago echoed faintly in Rustyn's mind. You truly are

It took Sand an hour to calm down – he still wouldn't go back to the hall and look at the guestbook again, for he knew what he saw, and was afraid his tears would spill again, something he would never allow anyone to see. On the long nights after Rustyn's death, he would cry and howl at the sea, cursing Umberlee for taking away the one that meant the world to him, but no one, except for Jaral, who followed him undeterred, would see his tears. In the end, he took the cat in. It was more than a hundred years that Jaral had been his familiar; the memory of Rustyn cuddling him when he was a kitten still fresh in his mind. But more important

A few weeks passed, and Sand's attempts to scry on the Knight Captain kept on failing. He had almost finished transferring almost everything from his Docks shop to his new quarters at Crossroad Keep. He insisted on going alone, even though Khelgar assured him a few workers or Greycloaks could help him carry all his books and trinkets. Every night he would throw the white flowers into the sea, trying his best to accept that Rustyn was gone forever, and that she most likely was in a better place – with the Gods. Mystra must have welcomed her… "Goodbye" he let a last white blossom fall into the sea "I might not be able to do this ever

Torio Claven sat in her room at Crossroad Keep, staring at the darkness. A short while before, she awoke to a nearby door slamming; peeking outside, she saw Khelgar and Neeshka walking down the corridor, the dwarf obviously a little drunk. And thinking that he was appointed leader of the fortress… But Khelgar was the last of her worries; she looked out the window and noticed Sand leading a horse out of the stables and riding off. The bouquet of white flowers tucked under his arm caught her attention as well, and she immediately realized his secret was still beyond anybody's reach. Anyway, Torio was glad she didn't doze off again: she

"Falmarin, no!" Rustyn had been trying to discipline her bunny all afternoon "when I say come here, I don't mean jump on master's bed!" Sand sat at his desk, not really paying attention; he was too occupied looking for clues about what Rustyn could have done in all the tomes he could think of. "Um, master?" she walked up to him after a while "I'm really sorry…" "Rustyn" he sighed "was it really you?" "I have no idea! I'm pretty sure it was that idiot of Xavier! It just sorta… happened…" "Did you cast any spells?" "I didn't, I was trying to brew a potion while he burst some of his stupid bubbles with missile spells, then b