#silesseti

A traveling wedding boutique has arrived in town! They offer customized wedding dress and suit fittings. Find that perfect dress and get it tailor made to fit your body… and maybe bring a loved one with you while you’re at it! [Grants Faith +1]

Pegasus hooves fall in a steady four-four, clicking softly against the street. It’s a relaxing sound, paired with the spring’s gentle breeze and the quiet hum of people as they go about their day to day.

Erinys smooths a hand down her mount’s neck, settling back in her saddle with a content sigh. It’s a habit of hers now; taking to Fodlan’s skies with Feathers and spending her spare time wandering new towns. 

And today she and her usual partner have a third.

Her posture relaxes, the warmth at her back a nice reminder of that fact. It has been more time than she cares to put a number to since last the two of them were allowed a moment like this -- an opportunity just to do something trivial together -- and it makes Erinys’ little smile feel impossible to wipe away.

It does seem to have the opposite effect on her mare, however, who flicks her tail or snorts her annoyance any time Lewyn shifts his weight. Feathers always has held a bit of a grudge against Silesse’s prince, and Erinys would dare to call it a relief to see that some things truly never do change.

“I think she’s handling this well,” knight hums, guiding the leather of her reins to the left. They are doing nothing more than wandering, directionless as Feathers carries them though street after street. 

The path chosen leads them into what Erinys would assume to be the town’s market. It’s busier here than it had been before, children laughing as they play and vendors waving signs with produce prices scribbled on their fronts. Feathers moves slower now, picking carefully through the crowd and allowing her riders a better chance to survey their surroundings.

It’s then that she sees it. Looking entirely out of place between old brick and cobble storefronts is a much newer structure. Curiosity gets the better of her, and Erinys encourages her pegasus forward to investigate.

“This is...” eyes narrow as they approach, squinting to make out the letters on the sign from a distance. “A... ‘wedding boutique?’”

Not that it takes a genius to discern what that means between the name and the clearly displayed clothing within. Nor would it take a genius to recognize the way that Feathers slows the closer they get, or that innocent look of interest in Erinys’ eyes.

Lewyn knows she's a busy woman, and he's a busy man, but today--on her birthday--stopping her in the middle of the street is simply a must. If he doesn't speak with her now, he may well miss his chance, what with the two living very different lives in Fodlan. "Remembered it's your birthday today, surprisingly enough... So here. You ain't gotta say it for me to know who you really want to be spending it with. Maybe this'll keep you company till he gets here."

And then he reveals it, from hands tucked close to his back: her present. This year it's a white horse plush--similar in appearance to the one Quan used to ride. Lewyn saw it at a festival the other day, and couldn't help but think of her when he did. It was decided then and there that it would be a must-buy--a comfort gift to help her adjust to a life lived truly on her own. Not that she's displayed any trouble with that, strong-willed as she is, but Lewyn is no stranger to bottling things up.

"Keep holdin' onto your faith, Eth. It'll come in handy some day."

"For you, I have several," Ethlyn teases the bard with a grin. Lewyn has always been a welcome presence in her life since the moment he and Silvia joined up with Sigurd's forces. She isn't surprised he's gone out of his way to wish her a happy birthday. He's always been kind and considerate like that.

She's ready to give him a smile and thank him for the well wishes when he brings up Quan. She's starting to lose track of just how long it's been since she lost him but the ache and longing in her heart still hasn't dulled even a little bit. She still catches herself staying on the left side of the bed each night. Some mornings she'll even roll over and smile, ready to greet a husband who won't ever be there to smile back at her.

She's tried so hard to keep things together. To be grateful for what she does have rather than long for what she doesn't. Leif, Altena, her friends that joined her in death. That she is able to see any of them should be impossible and it's a miracle that she truly is grateful for. But without Quan, without her soulmate, she can't even fully enjoy the time she has with their children.

Tears prickle at the corner of her eyes and she blinks in an attempt to keep them from falling but Lewyn hands over the stuffed horse and she finally lets herself cry. "Oh Lewyn, it's just not fair! He should be here! Leif and Altena deserve to meet him and he deserves to know how they're accomplishing his dreams. It was my fault that he died, Lewyn. Everything that happened in Aed was because of me. Why am I here now and not him?"

"Look, don't shoot the messenger, but that girl over there told me to give this to you. 'Said she wants you to drink it as fast as you can so you drop dead...

Er, what did you say to her, exactly? This is a whole bottle."

Luke wasn't sure if being gifted a free bottle of... something... was good or bad. By what this guy was saying, Luke was thinking bad. He glanced between the girl at the counter, glaring at him, and Lewyn.

"See? I told you, it's just a few cheap party tricks. 'Only thing unsettling about that was the way they made us split up and sit in separate rooms for half an hour. Even then, it was more boring that scary, right?"

midsommar 2022 prompts part 2

Unlike Lewyn, Miranda comes out on the other side looking worse for wear. If sitting in an empty room by herself for half an hour, accompanied only by the horrified screams of people going through the corridors, wasn't bad enough, when it finally was time for them to enter, all sorts of ghostly apparitions jumped out at her.

Her throat had become hoarse from screaming, but she still tries to clear her throat. "Ahem! O-obviously, no one would actually be scared of such paltry attempts at trickery! If they really wanted to scare us, they would do well to do more than just jump out at us and make loud noises. Really, one could hardly call it a 'haunted corridor' at all!"