Finn, Knight of Leonster

Even after everything that happened, the intense sadness she feels missing Quan, the mistakes she made with Raven, a smile still finds its way across her face when she sees Finn. She spots him by the wishing well and comes up beside him, linking her arm through his. She's calmed down a bit and sobered up considerably, thankfully. She'd had for him to have seen her as upset as she had been earlier.

"Hey." Ethlyn produces two Fódlan gold coins and hands one to the knight. "Maybe if we wish together, he'll find us again."

Finn gave the smallest of smiles when Ethlyn’s arm wrapped around his. His neutral expression came back when she mentioned his liege though. 

“Truthfully, he has been on my mind tonight as well.” He takes a coin gratefully, shifting it in his hand to feel the weight. “No matter how festive the events…” he trailed off, unable to find the proper words to express what he felt. He doubted Ethlyn needed his explanation to understand though.

Little (or rather big now, he supposes, compared to all of them?) rats go to and fro, platters of fine delicacies and even finer drinks offered to the various partygoers.

“ Finn, you should have some. I've tried it already, so it's fine. ” Not poisoned at least, anyway. “ I've always wanted you to eat more ever since I found out you gave up your meals for me. ”

It wouldn't be able to make up for those times he starved, as it could never undo the past, but…

“ So you will, won't you? ”

"Lord Leif, you needn't go through such troubles for me." Finn gave a wary look towards the rodents. He had been avoiding them for most of the night, though why he wasn't sure himself. Habit, perhaps, to avoid anything to do with capture. "To be so reckless in trying their food, I-"

Then his stomach growled. Perhaps not for the first time that night, but Finn rarely noticed when it happened. Leif's request brought attention to it, however, and it certainly caught the attention of a passing server, who offered a platter full of pastries to the pair. 

Finn looked between Leif and the rat, before graciously accepting the proffered food. As the server scurried away, Finn tried his best not to sigh. When he met the prince's warm eyes though, his stoic demeanor softened.

The music from the cricket band reaches Altena's ears and she is filled with the warmth of nostalgia. It isn't a full memory but the bits and pieces she can recall bring a smile to her face.

Where, normally, she might have avoided Finn and the strong link he represents toward her biological family, something about the evening emboldens her and she finds herself approaching him.

"I remember this song. My mother humming it. I stood on your toes." She hums thoughtfully before giving a sheepish smile. "I'm afraid I never learned the steps for real."

((saw you were bolded now and had to throw some feelings at you))

Finn is pulled from a trance as Altena approaches him. The tune hadn't escaped his ears either, but his nostalgia was tinged with the sorrow of lives long lost. 

"You did, but the only thing wounded was your pride." Finn smiles as warmly as he can. "Your mother brought this song with her to Leonster… you insisted I be your partner to learn it, though I had hardly heard it myself before."

Finn stared past Altena towards the pairs moving across the dance floor, his own feet tracing steps he had not taken in ages. Seeing a gap in the crowd, he offers his hand towards the young woman.

It was by a miracle that she should find herself anew in Fodlan's sands, far from native Jugdral but, nevertheless, blessed with breath when dunes should have drowned her with granulated quartz and a myriad of blessed minerals ~~~~ desert torrents.

It was by, perhaps, the benevolence of some higher creature ~~~~ Naga, perished Crusaders, she knew not ~~~~ that she should have no obligation to sand or its poetic symbols: quartz, heat, cracked terrain; such no longer plagued a wounded heart. That, instead, she is deemed like water ~~~~ mischievous and merry-seeking, invigorating, a far cry from the parchedness of sand.

It was, then, perhaps the mischief of Lady-Elemental Water that she is plucked and then placed elsewhere ( or, she believes herself placed elsewhere by higher hands ), and that she should collide with another soul ( of her same element, no less ) and witness the flourish of mists and creek-like mystical essence swirl around the vine at her nape is but a testament to the existence of fate.

" Oh, why how dare- ! " She swirls atop tapered heel, words aflame, ( despite her element ) nocked and ready to be loosed by her tongue. Only, she draws back no metaphorical bowstring; instead, the string is snapped and severed altogether by bewilderment's blade.

" Finn ?! "

( 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 ! )

Lost in the majesty of the ballroom he had been sent to, Finn wandered around the premises in a dance of his own. He looked at all the faces, many still unfamiliar to him, saw many who were having fun (and some who were not), but all here the same as him.

All with these strange marks.

He had been told his meant water, but what that meant for him he hardly understood. A patron of pranks, but caring nonetheless. He had met a few like that in his time but they always chafed against his stricter attitude.

It was this attitude that had him evading a group of rodents intent on dragging him to a boutique - full of sparrows no less - and distracted him enough to bump into someone.

Immediately he recognized her, even before she turned around. In fact, her back was the image seared into his mind for years, watching her leave to find her child, leaving him to care for her other.

"Lachesis?"

Finn had been simply watching the other guests when a quiet voice got his attention. Gazing down at the untouched beverage in his hand, he responded. "No, never. I assumed we had been given boiling water as a joke, but it's cool to the touch."

He sighed, motioning with his glass to the kitchen. "I asked for normal water, but they insisted I have something 'more fun. Water's treat.' They added some odd syrup too."

Her feelings swirl into complicated patterns whenever she finds herself near him. She knows how strong his loyalty runs toward her parents and her brother. It had been his recognition that brought her to learn where she came from and who brought her into this world.

And each time she sees him, fuzzy memories prick at the corners of her brain. Tugging on the hem of a blue woolen coat, a large hand wrapped around hers, laughter and warmth. It isn't much but she remembers him.

But her heart is as torn as her beloved Thracia. Two halves she doesn't know exactly how to fit together yet. Two families with nothing in common exact her.

And so she is awkward around him. She was awkward during the war, avoiding him when she could. And she is awkward now. A hand runs through her hair and she avoids contact with his eyes. "Finn. It's been awhile."

"It certainly has, my lady." Finn quickly turned all of his attention from the class supplies, ignoring her awkwardness. "When I saw your name upon the house roster I hardly dared believe it!"

Though unerring, and contrasted by his ever stiff posture, Finn's gaze was soft as he remembered a time where he searched a room in Leonster castle for a much younger Altena, pretending not to hear her stifled giggles behind a chair. 

"I'm glad to find you here, even if once again by accident. I hope not to lose sight of you again."

"Finn!" She laughs and tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "It's really you! I knew you'd find your way here eventually! Leif's told me everything. Everything you've helped him with, everything you've done."

There's so much to say. Too much to say. She doesn't even know where to start or what to feel. Maybe it doesn't matter. She hugs him tighter before looking up at him and reaches up toward his face.

"Thank you. For everything. I owe you so much."

As the young woman ambushed him, Finn could find nothing to say. No response to her tears of joy could express the mixture of confusion, guilt and joy that this moment brought him. Memories of his training rushed to meet him as quickly as he was pulled into a hug, of happier times than he had known for what felt like forever.

True, he had planned on what to say when next they met, after he set off for the desert. But those words were for a sandy corpse, and the Ethlyn in front of him was alive, and as lively as the day he last saw her.