#sheizara

August 15 - Day 5 Mistake / Wild

Fiorenze landed hard enough on her back that it knocked the wind out of her and popped a couple vertebrae. She heard the rush of magic from Yserina’s shifting more than she saw it with her own eyes — it was easier to stare at the spiraling branches of Amirdrassil above and let the world stop spinning a bit first.

“Your form is off today. What could you have done better there?” The kaldorei’s tone was a little harsh, and in an instant the much taller woman was looming over her, blotting out the moonlight. 

Fiorenze wheezed out a pained, “Bear.”   

A clawed finger crooked slowly upwards, growing roots and leaves rapidly enough to push the sin’dorei trainee back to her feet before they wilted away and turned to mulch equally as fast. As effective as it was, it always made Fiorenze’s skin crawl a little to feel the plants grow and creak beneath her. Yserina’s ancient features gleamed in the White Lady’s light as she gave a short, affirming chuckle, “Yes, you could have become a bear. Or summoned a typhoon to knock me back. Called down a sunbeam, even, to sear me out of my casting—” 

“Yes, I know, I need to think faster on my feet,” it was hard not to be sharp with how her head throbbed, causing her long ears to slant back. 

Her teacher hummed a slightly displeased note, “No need to be short with me, girl. That’s enough for today. Come, make me some tea, we’ll talk.” 

There was an undeniable comfort in the hollowed out tree that Yserina had made her home. A small fire bloomed in the hearth, heating up the well worn teapot that had become a fast friend. Yserina had pulled out an ornate, slender pipe with some immediacy and packed a mix of peacebloom and dreamfoil down into the bowl, “Have you made progress on your staff, yet?” 

Fiorenze slumped down into a chair that had become overgrown with moss since the last time she’d visited, “Yes, some. There’s a tree I grew up with that I think will grant me permission, it’s on the edge of the necrotic scar that cuts through Quel’thalas. Some of it has corrupted, but the heartwood still seems hale.” 

“A guardian tree!” Yserina’s eyes lit up with approval as she waved a hand over her pipe to help the embers inside catch a little faster, “Wonderful choice. You will be stronger for it. That’s not enough to distract you so terribly, though, hm?” 

She dropped her head to rest against the top of the chair’s back, staring up to count the rings that wound from the center of the ceiling out toward the tree’s outer walls, “No, it’s not.” Fiorenze laced her fingers together to prevent herself from fidgeting too much; Yserina wasn’t one who liked to guess and it was best to simply be out with it. She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before finishing her thought, “My late husband’s sister, the one who requested the estate back from me and the titles that went with it — Lady Tel’vaiel, now. My old name — wants me to run it for her so she can … effectively be Lady in name only. It’s too much, apparently. The tenants miss my governance and the Town Council is wildly in favor. She’s too flighty to work with, apparently. None of the other nobles really want to deal with her because acknowledging her right means they’d have to acknowledge their own bastards…” 

“Ah, she looked the gift nightsaber in the mouth, did she?” Yserina’s quiet, amused laugh rumbled like slow thunder, “How tempting to be offered something you’ve excelled at your entire life. Born and raised for.” 

“I don’t want it,” her own voice carried a vehemence that surprised her, “that’s what’s bothering me. I should, shouldn’t I? It was my home for nearly 70 years. This last year without it has been so… free. The time has been mine, and mine alone. Giving that up is impossible.”

Yserina clucked her tongue, “You tasted what it’s like outside of captivity. No more gilded cages for you, my dear. What will you do about it, then?” 

The answer had always been there, the same one she had been taught to direct toward the service of her long family line. Now it was hers to do with as she saw fit.  “Take what I want.”

February 22 - Day 4 Influence/Distant

Going with this storyline: Prologue -> Here Fio Day 1 -> Here Xylaes Day 1 -> Here Pyraelia Day 2 -> Here Taric Day 3 -> Here Lynesse Day 3 -> Here

Vyarha had written her a letter and sent a small box of pomegranate meringues all the way from Quel’thalas — same as she’d done almost every week since they had reconnected in the summer. 

They’d been her favorite sweet as a child, and something that was easy enough for the kitchen staff to make way too many of. Being remembered in that way had been really touching and made her feel a little less alone in the wake of learning what had happened with the Estate. 

This week’s letter had her stuck in a loop. 

“Something has happened to the Lady. Miss Zerine has kept a tight lid on it all but one of the cleaning staff has seen Lady Sunmote, the Estate doctor, and the Lady’s gentleman caller around, but no one has been allowed into her rooms to tidy. 

What will you do if she is no longer here?” 

It felt like a trap, in a way. Was it still treason to speak about the death of a noble? Surely not after the siege. Would Vyarha hand her letter over to the Lady if everything wound up fine and she said anything too hopeful about the alternative? Surely not if she’d been sending her sweets for months. 

She ate another meringue and chewed it over. 

What would she do? 

It wasn’t like she could rock back up and claim it as her own; sure she was Iliphar Tel’vaiel’s daughter, technically the true heir to the actual Estate after the death of her half-brother. But she wasn’t noble herself, and she was a Quel’dorei to boot. If she died, it would probably be possible to sue for some of the Estate’s treasures that would be rightfully hers as Iliphar’s last blood relative. 

But that was going to be complicated, and if there was one thing Shei hated it was complicated things. 

Her nose wrinkled and she smooshed one of the light pink puffs into a gooey smear between her fingers. She certainly didn’t want to be Lady herself. Should anyone be? Would Vyarha be mad if she got rid of the thing that paid her bills? 

She huffed and set the letter down before licking the sticky, candy fluff off her skin. She wasn’t someone who should ever have that kind of influence. 

It wasn’t a good time to reply, especially not to that question. Instead she picked up her comm and scrolled through to shoot an offer off to someone easier to have on the mind. 

“I’m avoiding something and need to have some fun, you down?”

“Ma’am. Ms. Silverbell is here to see you.”  

Ah. 

Fiorenze frowned and ran a hand through her bi-colored hair, “Did she say why?” 

Keranna tossed her a prim smirk from the doorway, “Not particularly, though one can guess.” 

Ah. 

“Would it be prudent to send her away? I can’t say I’m keen on receiving guests, Ker.” That was certainly the truth. 

“Ma’am, if I may be frank,” her head of House didn’t wait for her permission to be so and continued on, “If you were looking for an opportunity to gain control of your personal direction, this is it.” 

Fiorenze screwed her eyes shut in a tight grimace before nodding. This was a way out of waiting for the other shoe to drop, and could force some hands along the way. “Stall her for a moment or two while I dress, will you? I’ll receive her in Mother’s study shortly.” 

‘A moment or two’ certainly became a drawn out ‘bit too long’. Choosing the right chemise, robe and elegant over-robe was important, and the cream, sunrise orange and daffodil yellow ensemble settled more in the Sunmote range of colors than they did the Tel’vaiel. Keranna had taught her how to roll her hair into a soft chignon, pierced through and held fast with an orchid hair pin carved from bone and sharp enough to do some real damage in skilled hands. 

The last bit was her illusion; a delicate magical facade that covered over her pallor and slightly hollow cheeks in favor of the bright, warm her from months ago. That was the right person to have this meeting, not the declining failure. 

Sheizara stood up immediately when the current Lady Tel’vaiel finally entered the room, but didn’t bow, and had a seat again once the Lady had sat herself. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, my friend Garren has been encouraging me to talk to you and I was in the neighborhood…” 

Fiorenze managed to maintain a neutral expression through that bit of new information, “Of course. Talk to me about what?” 

The other woman looked back at her a little wide-eyed, clearly terrified to a small degree, “...Ah. I’d um. Well. I— and I mean no disrespect to you or your marriage to my late half-brother, but —I believe that I have a claim to the Tel’vaiel estate and its wealth and I would like that. Not the titles, so much, but—” 

It really had only been a matter of time. Fiorenze felt her blood pounding in her ears as her stomach dropped, “I see.” 

This was it, wasn’t it? A moment to take some control and be decisive. 

“I believe you are correct, Miss Silverbell. My, that is to say, the Estate lawyers will be made available to you. This could potentially be a fairly long, drawn out process but my head of House has already spent some time cataloging what on the Estate came from the Sunmotes’ ledgers and what originally belonged to your family. I do hope that, and my cooperation to formally withdraw from those titles in your favor as a direct blood relation to the former Lord, will speed things along.” 

Sheizara stared for a moment, gobsmacked, mouth opening and closing a bit like a struggling fish before she nodded awkwardly, “I’ll admit I didn’t— I mean— Thank you? That’s very—” 

“Generous, yes,” Fiorenze cut her sister-in-law off before she could stumble her way through her statement further, “but from here on you’ll need to work through the lawyers and not me, especially with your status as a Quel’dorei national of Stormwind City.” 

“Oh. That makes sense, I guess. Do you wanna like… get dinner or drinks or something sometime? As, I dunno, weird family?” Shei’s earnestness in the offer was palpable. 

Fiorenze’s eyebrows shot up a bit before she smiled placidly, “Mm, I’ll have to think on it. But I do have other appointments today, so I hope you’ll forgive me for ducking out. Keranna will put you in touch with your legal team and answer any other questions you may have.”

November 25 - Day 6 Home / Unnatural

Her half-brother hadn’t been a kind man. Not to her, at least. She’d been the potential heir for that family before he was born, and she knew it irked him how their father had doted on her up until he died and passed his titles on to his trueborn son — bastard daughter or not.

Their estate was large and beautiful, sprawling in the Eversong river valley. Halandir, she knew, felt the pressure of being the “last of his line”. Technically not, though, because Shei had always been right there, too. Working in the halls rather than living in them. His home, not hers. To him, she and her parents had just been the Silverbells — there to serve, but for little else.

Moving to Stormwind, she thought, would be a fine escape. After they had been kicked off the estate lands and, presumably, erased from record of ever having lived there so that Hal could look as pristine as possible for his new, well bred wife, her parents had joined the Farstriders. They were still young enough and could make a living defending the kingdom up until it killed them, too, many decades later. Quel’thalas had nothing left for her, and high elves were welcome enough in some of the other kingdoms.

It had been an age. She had watched this human city grow and be destroyed and rebuild and become more cosmopolitan as it became a kind of capital for the various Alliance races. And still, seeing the elegantly printed ‘Lady Tel’vaiel’s Birthday Masquerade’ invitations tacked to the billet boards soured her whole day.

Some darkly curious part of her wanted to attend, finally maybe meet the woman that had been the cause of a serious amount of general unpleasantness in her life. Had Hal ever told her? Had he been cruel to her too? Did they have children? Who was left there that she’d worked with, especially after the siege? She missed Johar and Vyarha, who would let her sneak sweets from the kitchen, and Olanne, Dania and Somna who were most often on cleaning duties with her.

That first year she chickened out. The dress and mask stayed boxed under her bed in her small human style apartment. It was too much to think about and every time she thought about it the bitterness threatened to overwhelm her.

The second year she went and stuck to the fringes. Well, she’d tried. There had been so much free alcohol and so many people hidden behind masks to dance with and talk to that she’d been swept up in all the lavish splendor. This had all been denied to her. Nobody had anything unkind to say about the hostess herself. Her half-sister-in-law, for all she could tell, was charming and winsome.

Lady Fiorenze Tel’vaiel had spent all this money to throw a grand party that anyone could attend two years in a row now, all the conversations she listened in on or questions she asked about the woman to dance partners glowed with praise. Someone told her that the Lady was a childless widow, and she puked in a bin out in a back alley shortly after.

It could’ve all been hers if she’d stayed in Quel’thalas. The Tel’vaiel titles were hers by birthright — but everything was so different now. The king and the prince were dead. Long live the Regent-Lord and whatever the fuck system they were following out there to keep the nobles happy. There wasn’t a chance in hell any claim she made would ever be honored — and after more thought seemed like it would just be putting herself back into a cage for no good reason.

That third year the affair was hosted, she’d managed a dance with her half-sister-in-law. She was charming and winsome as she had seemed from afar, almost unnaturally so. It was hard not to like her, weird as the whole situation was. Shei managed to successfully and secretly slip a letter into one of her pockets; nothing complicated, just a request for an audience here in Dalaran sometime. Tea, or whatever. Curiosity ate at her and she wanted to know so many things. Sure, the party was fun or whatever, but it was hard to think about anything else… well, until the wine tables refreshed.

The summons came shortly before Winter’s Veil, with a notice that if she couldn’t bring a lawyer one would be provided for her. That was certainly extremely ominous, but she knew a really great divorce lawyer she’d worked with a few times now and convinced him to come along with her for however many billable hours were needed.

They didn’t really have a long conversation when it came down to it. The lawyers were for a reason; Lord Iliphar Tel’vaiel, her father, had left her provisions in his will that Halandir never fulfilled, and some of the others at the estate had vouched for the accuracy of her existence.

Johar and Vyarha still worked in the kitchens. Somna and Olanne didn’t work in the main house anymore but had homes of their own on the estate lands. Dania had joined the Magistry at some point and had left the estate all together.

With the flick of a pen the Lady promised her that her inheritance would be paid, and that was more than enough for Shei.

August 22 - Day 2 Forever/Displaced

Shei’s chest ached.

Was it homesickness or a hunger pang? As the days droned on it was getting harder and harder to separate the two. Being parted from the golden wood of Eversong had always been an unfathomable thing. Those great whitewood trees had wound their curling roots into her soul. Who among them hadn’t run through the soft, sweet grass and found joy in the glades and glens?

Probably, she thought, the Prince. He wouldn’t have given up on the place if he’d truly known it.

It was hard to find the same solace in Elwynn. Sure, this forest had a pulse of its own, but it wasn’t the same. She hated the way the humans looked at her when she passed through Stormwind’s great gates to walk through the wood — would she ever be anything to them other than an outsider, a threat, or the city’s next great calamity? As if her parents hadn’t died fighting in their wars.

It was an unfounded fear, anyways. There weren’t enough of them left to be any of that — let alone enough of them here in this terrible “new” city that was too proud to even pay its brick makers.

But, there had been enough of them left here to warn her. Enough of them to offer advice on how best to deal with the wanting, of both mana and home. Enough to build a small community, even if they lacked everything that had made them Quel’dorei here, so far from their land.

Eventually the Prince, or the Regent Lord, would have to come to their senses and reverse the standing decree of exile. That terrible fel magic had robbed them of decorum and reason.

The cathedral bells rang out to mark the afternoon, echoing all the way over to the more ramshackle apartments in the old part of town. Surely she would see the Elrendar again and hear the arcane chimes of the shops along the Royal Exchange.

Surely she wouldn’t be stuck here forever.

Storyline Progression:

Fiorenze | September 22, 2021: Accomblish/Macabre Fiorenze | October 3, 2021: Memory/Chase Fiorenze | October 13, 2021: Immortal Fiorenze | Welcome, Theirastra Fiorenze | November 20, 2022: Neglect Fiorenze | November 23, 2022: Forest/Mortality Fiorenze | February DWC Prologue Fiorenze | February 19, 2023: Love is in the Air/Weakness Xylaes | February 19, 2023: Love is in the Air/Weakness Pyraelia | February 20, 2023: Opportunity/Eternity Taric | February 21, 2023: Consequence Lynesse | February 21, 2023: Velvet/Consequence  Sheizara | February 22, 2023: Influence/Distant Red | February 23, 2023: Ambition Fiorenze | February 23, 2023: Ambition/Relentless Xylaes | February 24, 2023: Devoted/Trauma Fiorenze | February 24, 2023: Devoted/Trauma