Letter to dad 1 pt 1

Hi father,
 
Hope things are well in Hillfield. Mom was being a bit vague about what is going on but she said you were too busy to join. Hope it's nothing bad and we can visit soon, as you might know Edward Colline (Jr.) was also in Keralon to represent Tarn at the feast and he invited us to come visit so we'll definitely pass through Hillfield at that time.
 
But maybe it's best to go back a bit, the day before the feast we were investigating a bard called Robert Talespinner, we suspected he was connected to this cult that's been attacking the ambassadors of the draconic kingdom of Velora Morenthene. This cult is actually the reason our group of friends were invited to the feast as we saved the ambassador and his son from this cult a few times and played emissary for them when they first showed up. Anyhow, in this bard's room we found a sending stone and a bunch of keys, all identical. Having, at the time, no clue where the keys would fit on and not desiring to use the sending stone we just picked those up and went about the rest of our day. We had a small meeting with the Briar ring to handle a dangerous dragon construct wreckage (long story) before Liliana mentioned she needs fashion advice for the feast and was thinking of asking Elsa Colline for some help. Here we learned that E.J. (Edward Jr.) was back in town for the feast and had just arrived, his horse was panting in the stable, but that Elsa was too busy, apparently she is a main force in organizing the feast and setting up the embassy itself, quite some important work. Though Elsa did swing by as her brother was getting ready to head out with us, to say hello to her brother and once she saw we were there gave Lil and Hayley access to her wardrobe and arranging Luke for being her escort for the evening, and then she already had to get back to work. The rest of the day was spent getting us some fancy clothes, finally getting a chance to get some clothes made with my personal coat of arms, one of the privileges of knighthood. I've included the design in this letter so let me know what you think! And after having a good meal with E.J., sharing some stories of our travels, we went to sleep.
 
The next day of course, mom arrived in her cart, flashing her invitation to the feast. Bringing with her quite some scrutiny and petty judgement. I'll be honest, I got quite angry, watching her disapprove of the house we made our home in and our perceived lack in status, specifically me being a Hedge Knight. If I were in a calmer mood I could mention that my talents are ill-suited for dealing with Fey, which is the strength of the Rose Garden, nor do I possess any talents for magic, which is the territory of the Briar Ring, that I were to use whatever talents I have to rise to the Octagon I should use them where I'm strongest: helping the common folk, and that we've made quite a difference already. At least she seemed impressed Liliana and I got our own invitation.
 
Now her next layer of torment was demanding we had escorts/partners for the feast and she said she would find people for us if we did not have anyone ourselves. To avoid having some poor noble girl's family force her to go with me on my mom's account I decided to dig into my acquaintences, a priestess of Irminsul, Galiene who I worked with a lot in the past few years. She helped me save a woman kidnapped by a cult not dissimilar to the ones at large in Keralon now (possibly even the same), Petra, who is now one of the few servants in our employ. And also she has patched me up more times than I can count. Liliana, on the other hand, seemed a lot more receptive to our mother's grievances and agreed that mom find her a partner for the feast. So after mom headed out I asked her to go tell the rest of our group about our change of plans while I went to ask Galiene, so they can brace themselves for the disapproval of our mom.
 
It annoyed me how much Liliana played along with our mother's ways, but maybe she saw something I at the time did not have the patience to: a mother who lost her eldest son and now looks to us as the future of the family. I just hope that she can see through her ideas of how our family should be and what nobility should be like to accept how we are going to approach it. That in her disapproval of our 'lowborn' friends she misses how it is their help that even got us to Keralon, and their help that made me a knight, and their help that got us personal invitations to the feast at the embassy. Hell, I'm certain Luke and Gael will join the high city circles soon and Liliana has her pick of any of them if she puts her heart to it.
 
Anyhow, the rest of the day until the feast was convincing Galiene to join us and going on a last minute shopping spree with her. Thank Irminsul that E.J. showed us some stores the day before and that they work so fast, even though my wallet is a bit lighter for it (though that's on me for asking someone the day of the feast). So when we arrived at the Colline's estate, they had arranged a carriage, she was dressed in a beautiful green dress and a golden holy symbol she borrowed from the temple. It almost makes mom's disapproval and sister's questioning worth it, almost.
 
The others were gathered in their finest clothing, though Hayley had chosen to wear her typical black with a broche, making her stand out to her partner for the evening, Dann, who I imagine was going to lobby for aid to Ravensfield. Luke was fiddling with some flowers he got for Elsa and Gael was not bringing anyone, prefering to, in his own words, to "go stag". Some inappropriate jokes about Gael's history with stags aside, I did feel a bit bad for him. Over the years I've known him I don't think I've seen him relax. Luke mentioned to us that in their week of "relaxing", it ended up being more of a networking event with merchants.
 
Though maybe I'm not one to talk, I've not been particularly relaxed in the last few days, and especially not sitting in a carriage with my sister bombing poor Galiene with question after question after question and mom (who was the partner of E.J. for the evening) barely concealing her disapproval. But when we arrived at the embassy, a nice plot of land next to the Lorerun river, I thought that maybe tonight might be a good one for relaxation.
 
But that hope was quite quickly smashed by reality as mom introduced Liliana's partner for the evening, some boy named Samuel Valeborn, a mage from a noble family by the look of him, and it became clear that he and Luke shared some history as they shared a cold look and Samuel made some offhand remarks at Luke's expense. Luke did mention he was involved with nobles when he was attending the academy a few years back and it seems one of the grievances he picked up then was with this Samuel? Sadly Liliana would be stuck with this man at her arm for the evening. I thanked the World Tree for dodging whatever ghost of our group's past mom would have brought for me.
 
The feast inside was a bit of a mixed bag, we found Robert Talespinner telling stories in a corner, but we couldn't really make a scene so we went to Rachnar and Norgar to say hello. When Rachnar saw us he immediately called for everyone to quiet down and introduced us as his guests of honor, for being the reason this embassy existed in the first place. Most of the audience there gave us a polite applause and then went back to their own business but Rachnar and Norgar were really happy to see us. While catching up, we mentioned to them how Robert Talespinner might be involved with the cult and just in case, that they should have some guards keep an eye on him. Around that time we noticed some snow falling from the ceiling and the guest's glasses of wine freezing as Vivienne made her way into the room. Apparently High King Ulther was invited but could not make it, so Vivienne was his proxy for the night. After talking to Ragnar she turned to our group and mostly spoke with Liliana. It was good to see they were at least friendly, though her "looking forward to the next one" did send a chill down my spine.
 
At that time we all split up a bit, I was first planning on dancing some of my annoyance away but was immediately distracted by seeing knights of the Octagon sitting at a table. So while Gael went to speak to the heralds and heads of several circles, Hayley took Dann to speak to some nobles and the others took to the dance floor, I pulled Galiene over to the Octagon. Any thoughts of being a bad partner for the evening to Galiene evaporated when Donovan beckoned us over and asked about our adventures. Dad, it's hard to understate this, besides the King they were all there: Lady Gwennith Elkrider, Lady Catriss Dendaughter, Ser Harald Banner, Ser Tyron of the Veil, Ser Roy Shard, Lady Arwen Veld and of course Ser Donovan, I grew up on you, mom and Gideon telling stories of their great deeds. And they were all for some reason listening to our story of Ravensfield, attacking the cult's stronghold, learning about Talespinner's involvement, holding off the army and the dragon construct we took down. I can't help but think that despite it being one of the hardest fights in my life, all of this must seem like a calm Sowday to them. Ser Donovan's gaze did become more serious during my story and, after asking for some advice, went to send a message to the palace, thinking the King's safety might be in danger here. The rest of the Octagon was happy to keep me at their table in the meantime, and I really wanted to ask them about their deeds, if the legends were all true, but they seemed more interested in me for some reason. They asked me about home, family, why I became a knight, what I've done, would I do things differently,... It honestly felt like, back in Hillfield, when you asked me to sit in on an interview with someone you wished to hire in our houshold. It did feel like I was being sized up by them, though I doubt I'm a serious contender for a vacancy at the moment. It might've been the one time I wished I could read minds like Hayley.
 
At this time I saw Samuel Valeborn storm by, leaving Liliana on the dancefloor. I'd later learn Samuel tried to outdance Luke and Elsa but came short. Guess mom couldn't find someone more mature... or at least with better moves on the dancefloor. But we were all immediately distracted by the arrival of Queen Adelaide, escorted by Ser Donovan. Gliding through the feast, apologizing for her husband's absence before coming to us. Ser Donovan introduced us and she thanked us for the warning for the King's safety. She asked us about knighthood and was happy to hear Gael and Luke wanted to join the High city circles, and even Liliana seemed to entertain the idea now. Though maybe she was just humoring the Queen.
 
So in a short evening, we were hailed as guests of honor by the ambassador of the draconic nation, honored by the Queen and I even got the chance to talk to the knights of the Octagon. It was hard not to be at least a bit proud of our accomplishments.
 
But it all took a sharp turn from there, as Rachnar asked for a small audience in private. He told us his son Norgar had vanished and no one can find them. And asked us to find him, and to do it discreetly. He handed us a key to move about the premises and, of course, the key perfectly matched those we found in Robert Talespinner's backpack the day before. We also thought back to the day the Norgar entered the city and the cult tried to steal a gemstone from him and how we could use that stone to track him using magic. That and talking to Robert Talespinner topped our list of next moves as we moved back down into the party, that while looking the same as we went back up had changed
 
TO BE CONTINUED