BioWare owns all but what I made up. : )
I wanted to have Bryce and Eleanor's together.
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And shout outs to my friends and betas. Night Hunter MGS, content and ass kicking, he ain't called Chainsaw for nothing folks! To Ladyamesindy, who bless her helped me with my phrasing. And to her and Violet Theirin both for helping me get this chapter ready. So bless you both!
And my humble love and appreciation to the lurkers, and especially to my reviewers. I hope you never get tired of hearing it, because I never get tired of saying how much you all rock my world. Really guys, I am floored when you all find this worth reading. : )
Blessings!
"Oh look Bryce!" Eleanor Cousland held up a slightly stained, faded, and well worn baby's blanket. The color is a moss green and it is worn through in some places. "Remember how Nan searched amongst the market stalls for the 'perfect yarn', as she called it?" Eleanor looked at her husband as he sat beside her on the bed and reached out to finger the soft weave of thread.
Bryce Cousland remembered it well. But what he remembered even more was his beloved daughter using the blanket to dress up Argus, or to swing from her bedpost; or using it as a tent with twigs for the poles, when she had snuck out one night (and probably many more times they didn't know about) to watch fireflies in the garden.
He watched as Eleanor pulled out a pair of small little does skin leather slippers, made in Orlais. They were a gift from Oriana's father, he had acquired them on one of his travels for spirits to bring back for the royal court.
Eleanor held them up, fingering the little bow, and the beads and the little charms of puppies that were attached. Bryce found them garish and horrid, but he would never tell his Elle that, "Oh Bryce remember when her feet were this small. She was two, remember how she toddled along in them. And here is the little dress that went with it!" He watched as his wife delved once more into the chest of keepsakes coming back up and holding out a little monstrosity that was an exact miniature of the fancy dresses worn at court by Orlesian noblewomen at the time. It was all bows, and layers of lace and toile and velvet.
Bryce remembered well, how Kai had been dressed up in those awful shoes and that awful dress and how she had screamed when they had done so. He also remembered how they had shown her off at some salon with all the nobles there and how not five minutes after they had put her down they began to hear gasps run throughout the crowd, as they all turned to look at something. That 'something' had turned out to be his fierce girl, sitting on the buffet table, naked but for swaddling clothes. Cake and icing were liberally smeared all over her face, her hair, and her front and up her nose; as she had helped herself to a big handful (from the back of the cake, she said). The dress and the shoes had been thrown into the punch bowl, "Pity she won't wear things like this now." Bryce found he had to stifle a laugh.
Eleanor must have taken his smile for agreement as she reached into the chest's interior once again. She came up with two daggers and a small leather collar. The one dagger was full sized and had gems in it, and was fit for a king, and had belonged to one, King Maric. The other dagger was a well made and finely crafted dagger out of wood, made to fit his daughter's four year old hand. The collar had been Argus's, her mabari's, as a puppy.
"Bryce remember when we held that tourney here for Maric to celebrate his birthday? To try and cheer him up after Rowan's death? Remember how much he fell in love with Kaidana?" Bryce nodded, though he was thinking how the king had come to love his daughter. The man almost had no choice when his bold little princess had jumped up in the king's lap and demanded stories. He remembered how she had told Maric, in that little girl lisp, that he was handsome. How she had played with the king's long blond hair or the buttons on his surcoat, until she had seen the dagger at his hip.
Bryce remembered how she had demanded the king show the blade to her, and how Maric had smiled (thank the Maker) and not been insulted in the least by her brazen demand. He had not only let her hold it but the king had taken her to the weapons smith of Highever town and had the man make her a wooden practice dagger out of oak to fit her little hand. And Maric had taken her to the practice yard every morning before the rest of the castle had woken and taught her how to use it. And when the king left, the fancy dagger had been left behind with a note explaining that it was for his little friend, Kaidana.
The puppy collar was of course from the mabari that was supposed to imprint on Fergus. But the pup had gone for Kai instead. Bryce never knew what happened with that incident. His son had stormed out, always a little jealous of his sister, the usurper for his parent's full attention, and Bryce had been sure that this would make the rift wider. But it had only cemented the relationship between his son and daughter after that. They had been as thick as thieves ever since (and sometimes real thieves of apples, and strawberries he knew).
Eleanor set the daggers and collar in Bryce's lap before reaching into the treasury of memories at her feet. "Oh Bryce look at this, her first portrait! She was six, you hired that painter, Elric, wasn't it?" She held up the portrait with outstretched arms giving it a critical eye. Even from his position Bryce could see it was a little blurry as if the painter had painted, then re-painted many times, never quite fixing the subject where he wanted it.
"I must say, he was supposed to be the best, but he really didn't seem to capture her very well." And again Bryce had to stifle a laugh as Eleanor handed him the painting so she could rummage once more. He remembered how the poor artist had come to his study in a state. The hapless man had been beside himself. He had been running his hands through his hair so hard Bryce had been sure he was going to pull it all out. The painter apologized, but informed the Teyrn that he could no longer continue to paint his daughter. She simply would not sit still! And it wasn't just that! She kept making faces. The man explained that to paint his daughter would require that she be tied and gagged, or asleep, which would hardly do for any portrait to hang on the castle wall. Elric handed Bryce the portrait and grabbed his bags which had been packed, the man was ready to leave right then, without payment. Bryce allowed himself a smile, He paid the man more than his original commission, and told him to consider it 'battle pay.'
This time Bryce watched his wife put a black braid of hair, tied at each end with ribbon, too her nose, "Oh it still had that little girl smell, like sunshine and grassy meadows!' She handed it to him as well as the sheaf of two papers she held in her hand, "And her first essay complete with illustration for Aldous." Eleanor laughed and bent to her task again.
Bryce snuck a sniff of the thick braid, and it did indeed still smell of grass and sunshine. Probably because Kai had snuck off from lessons with Aldous to the orchard to steal apples, and she had used the dagger Maric had given her to hack off the very braid he held in his hands. The hair had caused Eleanor no amount of distress as they were to go to Denerim for a Landsmeet in a few days time, and Kai's hair had just grown out from the the paste she had gotten all stuck in it, only to have it all cut off short as her brother's, a few months before.
The essay had been done that night in her room as penance for skipping lessons and cutting her hair. It was supposed to be an essay about proper rules of behavior. And since no one had told his fierce girl which rules for which type of behavior; she had taken it upon herself to write on the proper rules and behaviors for a knight in honorable combat. Bryce flipped the first page of the parchment filled with the childish scrawl of the essay itself (complete with Aldous's notes), and looked at the illustration. It had a series of two pictures side by side showing the right and wrong way for a knight to do battle against a foe; replete with blood, dismembered limbs, severed heads, and even on fellow with an eyeball dangling at an unfortunate angle.
Bryce looked up from the pictures (which were really quite good for a six year old) when he heard a rattling noise and he turned to find his wife holding a ceramic bottle with a cork stopper, "Her baby teeth!" Eleanor clasped them to her chest and then handed the bottle to him. He opened it up see a thin leather cord looped near the top. He pulled it and the necklace with one small little slightly yellowed tooth attached to it. He had to grin. Kai had lost her first baby tooth in her first (of many) fights with one of other nobles' children. The incisor had a hole drilled through it (Bryce suspected Fergus of aiding Kai in this) and it had been strung on leather and Kai had worn it around her neck as a badge of honor. At least she had worn it when her mother couldn't see it.
Bryce carefully stuffed the tooth and the leather cord back into the bottle, putting the cork stopper back in it and setting it beside him on the bed. He looked to see Eleanor holding a yellowed, malformed lump of something, "I remember her and Nan creating this soap together. The day she brought her first cake of it, after it was done aging, as a present for me. I hadn't the heart to use this her first. It was also the first night I didn't have to struggle to get her to take a bath." Eleanor grinned and sniffed the soap before handing it over.
Bryce remembered how she had crawled into his lap in his study, covered in soap making ingredients. She had told him how she wanted to make a soap that smelled like Argus, and when Nan had put the kibosh on that, how she wanted to smell like an apple pie. She had told him how she and Nan had compromised, how proud she was that she had, and that she couldn't wait to take Mamae the first cake of it. He remembered she fell asleep in his lap while he worked on paperwork.
He barely had time to set it down before Eleanor was opening a wooden box in which rested two small and exquisitely made daggers. Bryce watched Eleanor run her fingers over their well worn handles, "Remember that Landsmeet when she was ten? Maric presented these to her in private. He had 'missed his little friend', he said."
Bryce remembered how Maric, like at Highever, had taken Kai and Fergus to the practice yard every morning. He also remembered her fight with one of the Banns's daughters and how he had been grateful that Maric had not given her the set until the next day. He also remembered leaving strict instructions with Nan not to let her carry them out of the room save with Maric the whole time they were there. He was glad he did. He had no idea what would have happened at that fight with Ballgaire, Lun, Tremaine, and Gwitart if she had worn those daggers that day.
Eleanor started to close the lid on the box but stopped and reached inside to find something tucked away amongst the daggers. She pulled it out to find a medallion on a black silk ribbon. She held it up for Bryce to see. The medallion bore the face of King Maric, and they had been given to the noble's families at the ceremonial funeral for King Maric. Since the man had been lost at sea, they had had no body to commit to the flames. The funeral had coincided with a Landsmeet where they had tried to make Bryce take the throne. He had refused of course. Cailan was the rightful heir, and while young and inexperienced, Bryce felt it his duty to support the man.
Bryce reached out a finger to touch the medallion, "I remember she clutched this to her while wearing the only dress I never heard her complain about wearing. That was such a hard year for her. First Maric, then Dairren went to Antiva to study."
Eleanor turned to her husband, "I remember how she held Dairren's hand, and how he stayed by her side and never left it." Bryce noticed her smug look, "I remember how heart broken both were when his ship sailed." She smiled like a cat that at the cream in the larder, "I remember how Kai moped around for months, almost a full year after he left."
Bryce felt warning bells going off. He knew Eleanor wanted Kai to be happy, but he knew his wife was despairing that Kai would ever find a noble she would like, much less love. And one grandchild had only fueled his Elle's desire for more to fill the castle with, "Elle, are you trying to play matchmaker again?" Bryce waved a hand over all the items of Kai's childhood strewn across the bed, "Is this why you are taking a trip down memory lane? Elle, remember your other attempts? Remember what disasters they have been? I don't thin-"
Bryce found Eleanor's fingers on his lips before she kissed him, "You didn't see how she looked at Dairren when she came around the corner from the kitchen today." Bryce found himself being kissed again, "And you didn't see, my beloved, how he looked at her." Her lips stayed on his longer this time, and his own heart beat faster. Eleanor, even after all their years together, still aroused his passions and his love.
"Do you know what I saw when they looked at each other, my love?" Bryce found his voice would not work, when she kissed him like that, so he just shook his head, "I see the same look you still give me after all these years, and after all the grey hair and wrinkles. I do not have to play matchmaker, dearest love, because she and Dairren have been in love since they met." She stroked his cheek sending pleasant shivers down his spine as her touch always did, she smiled a knowing smile with a girlish laugh, "Shall we go see Fergus off?"
They gathered each momento and placed them back into the chest. Eleanor closed it and put it back under the bed next to the one for Fergus, and Oren. Bryce smiled to himself. He was a lucky, lucky man. He grabbed Eleanor and planted a lingering kiss on her, enough to leave her breathless and such that it had her exclaiming, "Bryce!" He only grinned more, kissed her hand, and with her fingers entwined in his own they walked down the hall to Fergus's room.