Snippet #1871014

Relos Zaiphar

”I had judged you off of the emperor's daughters and that was wrong of me, seeing as you're not from here. So…I apologize for that; and I apologize that Shigan is not what it should be. I promise you, there are good people around here...”

Lilla’s apology caused Relos to cock his head in question, still smiling in good humor. It seems that by offering her a compliment, her response was to apologise to him…an odd response, to be sure. And upon thinking about he, he decided that he would rather just be complimented in return. He said as much to her, after she had finished, and went on to say, “…and there’s no reason to apologise to me, anyway, Lilla. Apologies are only for those who have done something wrong; although I do feel like basing your mental image of me off of a lady is borderline evil…I’m the manliest man in all of Zaiphar, or Shigan (for that matter), after all.”

"Well, Relos... If that were ever to be, I'd love to go, but as it is, I'm not even certain how I would get so far from home or if I'd find it in me to leave and come back. I've lived in Shigan all my life... I haven't even been out of Bell's Wish more than once, and even then I was a little girl."

Relos tsked, mock frowning and shaking his head at Lilla. “Well, that’s all the more reason to go. A person can’t like their whole lives in once place; traveling isn’t just about seeing different places, it’s about spreading your horizons, seeing more of what’s out there…” Here he paused, placing a fist under his chin as he started to think.

“I mean, just look at me; I’ve visited most of the countries that are easily accessible at least once. There are still many places I haven’t been, but the places I have been have still added to my view on things. It’s one thing to know about the land you live in, but another to have travelled it.”

“And besides, traveling’s fun,” he ended with a laugh.

"Bell's Wish... I'm certain you haven't met all of the emperor's daughters. His eldest daughter is a few years my senior, I believe, and as the story goes, when Shigan was founded, the first emperor had a baby girl shortly after he conquered this place. He named it after her, and it seems it's been a trend for the kings succeeding him to name their first daughter 'Bell.'"

Relos listened to Lilla’s story quietly, genuinely interested in learning something else about the strange place that he was currently in, and the information about the princess was intriguing as well. Come to think of it, Relos didn’t know much at all about the Emperor’s daughters. He didn’t know their individual characteristics at all, not having been schooled on them beforehand like he probably should have been. An oversight, on his part.

So, one of them was Bell, and she was a few years older than Lilla. Relos was only a little older than Lilla himself, so if she was more than a few years older than her, that meant that she was probably older than him, too.

And how does she act? How do any of them act? Were they all the spoiled princesses that he envisioned, and that Lilla hinted, they would be? He dearly hoped not; he’d come to Shigan with low expectations to be pleasantly surprised by Lilla, and it would be quite a shame to then have the girls that he would likely be marrying be horrible.

Well, he wouldn’t have to wait for long. The emperor would probably not waste the opportunity to introduce his daughters to Relos, so there was a good chance that he would meet most, if not all, of them at the lunch meeting later that day. With that realization, the upcoming event began to loom heavier and heavier in Relos’ mind. Such an important event so early in the route…

The idea behind the town, however, made Relos smile. Shigan and Zaiphar weren’t totally different after all: naming a town after a family member is something that had been done in Zaiphar as well. When Port Cirshë was damaged in a storm and repaired, it was renamed Port Mylene, after Seles’s mother. Relos could distinctly remember what a special place that harbor town became for him, and he had to wonder if this town of Bell’s Wish still held a place in the emperor’s, or his daughter’s, heart. Somehow he doubted it, but still; it was nice to imagine that it did.

As Lilla finished talking, the wind picked up a bit, causing both of them to grasp at things to keep them from blowing away. For Lilla, it was her dress; For Relos, it was his hair, which caught the wind in such a perfect manner as to fly all around his face and loosed the headband that he’d tied around his head. After the wind died down, he brushed the hair out of his face and tied the headband back into place, clucking his tongue at the wind as if the forces of nature truly cared about any annoyance he had.

"If you don't mind... I'd like to go back inside. I've still got some more things to unpack. I'd hate to waste such a beautiful day on such tasks, but I know if I don't do it promptly it won't get done...”

Relos stood as well, brushing his pants off to rid it of any grass that was clinging to it, and nodded. He could understand that, and if the castle servants had not already unpacked the majority of his belongings and distributed them about the room, unpacking was most likely what he would be doing now as well. (Although, he would still probably take some time to reorganize his things in his own way, when he got the time).

He offered to help her with her unpacking, or at the very least walk with her back to their room, “if you’d rather me not touch any of your things, for fear I would contaminate them.” They started to walk back to palace. As they did, Lilla brought up another seemingly random topic.

”Have you ever seen snow, Relos?”

“Snow?” he asked, his mind instantly recalling the scant encounters he’d had with the material. “Well, there certainly isn’t any snow in Zaiphar, even during the winter. However, I’ve had the luck of traveling to where there is some, so I’ve seen it a few times.”

Relos stopped walking for a moment then, tapping his chin as he thought of something. Apparently deciding upon it, he told Lilla to wait there and then ran off towards the maid who had taken their dishes away. When he caught up with her, he took the cup that he had drunken from, and then walked over to the small river that wound through a part of the garden and filled the empty cup up with water. He then returned to Lilla, and held the cup out for her to see.

“Water, turn’dst / seven sigh of cloud and wish of mortal change you / from liquid blood of earth / to mettle of icest temp’est”

Upon completion of the spell, the silvery light of Relos’ magic flared around the hand that was grasping the cup, and seeped into the liquid inside. As the water changed, it expanded, overflowing the cup just slightly when it finished. Relos then reached out and took Lilla’s hand by the wrist, and turned it so that her palm was facing upwards. He dumped half of the cup’s contents out onto her hand, filling her palm with white powdery snow.

It was unlike normal snow, which could be thick and icy. It was more like the imaginary snow that people think of when they try to picture snow in their minds if they haven’t seen the real kind enough. It was lighter than even the lightest natural snow, so fine that it sat like a feather in her hand. Each of the glittery, individual crystals was a clear-white, not dirtied from anything as it was made of pure water.

Relos grinned and stepped back, letting her hand go and allowing her to inspect the snow herself. As he waited for her reaction, he raised the cup and poured some of the snow into his mouth, where it melted into icy water.