2.
The bells at the high tower of the city's magistrate rang. It was five o'clock, two hours later than Vesper's classes usually lasted. The girl sprang off her chair, looking at the governor from under her bangs. He had already given her an extra hour of elven translation and an extra dictation for her jumpiness and inattentiveness. Mr. Delonier sighed. Rewarding this willful look was wrong; punishing the girl even further was worst however. 'You may go,' he said finally, collecting the papers off her desk. Curly Elven and pointy Common scripts intermingling on the paper looked like flower borders between the castle walls with crenellations. 'We should discuss the poor quality of your translation tomorrow,' he added coldly, glancing down and immediately seeing that his pupil choose to use 'big' where he'd preferred her to go for 'unwieldy'; Elven was a tongue of minute differences. If the governor's implied scolding upset Vesper, she did not show it. In fact her face shone as if he had praised her. No, it shone as if it did not matter if he had praised or berated her. Mr. Delonier pursed his thin lips, listening to the drumming of Vesper's heals on the hardwood floors. So it was Vesper's turn to stop regarding how good she did during their lessons as the most important measure of success or failure in her life. Every one of his pupils did that, and every time it came as a painful surprise to him. But he was getting old; too old and too experienced to go and complain to Vesper's parents, as he would have done in the times when he was tutoring Sir Keldorn Firecam himself.
No matter how much in a hurry she was, Vesper meddled by the doors, putting on her gray cloak. Should she wear her garnet collar outside? Would it attract a thief's attention? Would she look ridiculous in her neat but simple dress and a gold-and-gem necklace? Finally she decided to keep the collar on, since the purpose of the expedition was to find a matching pair of earrings. But she pinned her cloak tight under her neck with a sensible silver brooch, hiding her treasure from greedy eyes. All these preparations and deliberations took time, and when she did not make it to the Promenade till the sixth hour after noon. The days were nigh halved by the approaching winter already, and dusk descended on the wide square, where it was not chased away by the lights of the torches and lamps.
Vesper breathed in and walked into a jewelry shop by the Mithriest Inn. Her mother mentioned buying a trinket or two there, which, in Vesper's experience, meant that Lady Maria has been a regular customer. The chiming of a hidden bell announced her presence, and she was treated to a show of lights gradually increasing in brightness, and many new ones turning up suddenly.
It was a beautiful place. The magical glow intensified around the stands topped with black velvet cushions making a myriad of gems to sparkle even brighter; the rest of the showroom was artfully submerged in near darkness. The air of luxury felt almost prohibiting to Vesper, but her curiosity and knowledge that she have had enough to spend empowered her. One did not come here to look for lynx eye gems and anadars so loved by barmaids and their sailors. But she did not come in search of a lynx eye. The owner of the joint, Mistress Ruby Berk, navigated her way towards Vesper. She was just as exotic as the purple pearls that Vesper was trying not to stare at - a plump, smiley gnome, dressed in silken robes and pointy-tipped slippers. The testimony to Ruby's success and an advertisement to her wares – the golden chains, pins, and rings - decorated her from her wide nostrils to, no doubt, her toes. Vesper counted at least three chains sliding out of her pockets, bulging with sizable watches hidden within. In all this finery Ruby still managed to look businesslike, with her neatly trimmed goatee, thinning hair half-hidden under a small beret, and a lens with a silk cord resting on her abundant belly.
'How mawy I help yew, yewoung lady?' Ruby drawled. Vesper got an impression that almost any word would sound like 'jewel' in this artisan's mouth.
'Garnets,' she replied and blushed. 'Garnet earrings to be precise. To match this...' and she hurriedly opened her cloak.
The bell rang again announcing another customer. Vesper's first desire was to leave, but she remembered that she was Lady Maria's daughter and she could hardly imagine her mother shying away from anything.
'One momewnt, Mr. Jistew, ' Ruby said to someone behind Vesper's back. 'Please feewl free to look about while I hewlp this yewoung lady here... Youw bracelet is ready.'
A pleasant male voice replied: 'There is no need to rush the young lady for mine sake.'
Vesper suddenly knew the speaker. It was Gayan Jistev, Lord Gayan Jistev to be exact, a Waterdevian, and a far-removed relative of Jistevs of Amn. He was rumored as the most extravagant young man and the most eligible bachelor in town ever since he came for a visit. His father died recently, leaving him heir to a title and a fortune to make Dukes of Baldur's Gate envious.
The gnomish merchant acknowledged the young man's words with deepest courtesy she could manage, confirming Vesper's guess. Then her attention returned to Vesper.
'I rewcognize the collar. Yewuo would bew Lady Firecam's dauwghter then?'
Vesper nodded happily, but then corrected herself: 'My Lady mother made me a gift of it this morning and I wish to acquire earrings to have a full set for my debut...' The debut was not entirely an invention, rather a sudden and poignant desire. She would be sixteen in a month after all, and nowadays, many maidens where presented to the society at this age.
'Lawdy Maria has a fine ewye for jeeewlery. Thewy are gems wrought by mowther Earth to make youw prewtty,' Ruby conceded, 'Garnets are a brave choice for a debuewtante, but one doews tire of peawrls and peawrls and peawrls... '
'If you excuse me listening to your conversation, I think I have discovered just what the lady needs,' Lord Jistev suddenly called from the corner of the shop.
'I... I will take a look,' Vesper said nearly sweating with excitement and nervousness.
'A, Lord Jistew knows garnets... He has... shall I say pawssion?' Ruby smiled innocently and added after a pause: 'For red jewels...'and led Vesper to the corner.
They laid in the middle, two large, tear-shaped jewels, caught in golden nets. Elven marksmanship was evident at every intricate nod of the wire, each shaped like a flower and set with a tiny garnet in the middle of it. Vesper did not know much of jewelry, but that looked a treasure even to her naïve eye. And she fell in love with it instantly. 'How... how much could it cost?' she wondered, afraid to ask the price.
'If you have to ask,' her mother used to say, 'then you cannot afford it.'
Her head became lighter as if she was hungry, and Vesper turned her eyes away from the earrings. Looking at Lord Jistev did not calm her. If anything it made her even dizzier. He was a slender man, with a touch of elvish blood evident in his features. Elegance that some say is distilled in descendants of many generations of aristocrats permeated his whole being. It even suited him to go about hooded, Vesper decided. His eyes shone almost feverishly in the dark hollows left by the shadow of the cowl above his pale cheeks, making him seem ever more mysterious. She could now believe the whispers that he came to Amn because a lover he had rejected drowned herself causing a major scandal in Waterdeep.
This handsome man now smiled at her plucking the earrings from their velvet nest.
'If you doubt my lady, let us put them on. I am dyeing to see if I guessed right.'
Vesper forgot to breathe as the long fingers took out small pearl studs out of her ears and put in the garnets. They were much heavier by comparison, but so warm that Lord Jistev's hands felt icy-cold in comparison. Mistress Ruby would not have her customers to suffer the smallest discomfort, Vesper thought. Magical lights must have helped with keeping jewelry pleasant to wear as well as pleasant to look upon.
'Stunning!' Lord Jistev exclaimed. Together with Ruby, he whisked Vesper to the mirror. 'You have a rare sort of beauty, Lady Vesper. Not the common, blonde, blue-eyed sort so readily available nowadays. The enigmatic sort.'
Vesper very much doubted that she represented any sort of enigma at that moment. In fact she was fearful that her desire to have these earrings, her doubts about their cost and her liking for Lord Jistev were all plainly written on her narrow face. She carefully looked into the mirror and saw nothing of the kind. Maybe because her emotions were all mixed up, or because Lord Jistev have had said so, she indeed looked almost as mysterious as the man himself. The jewelry made her plain white and black dress seem to be made plain on purpose. And by her side stood a man she suddenly wanted to be her husband. It was a scary thought. And a very adult thought.
'I will take the earrings,' she said with a newly found assuredness, praying that she have had enough money to offer as a deposit. It can be arranged later to return them, she thought. Or maybe her mother would love them so much that...
Lor Jistev smiled at Mistress Ruby. 'I knew I have chosen well,' he said softly. And then with a kind smile asked if Vesper would leave a dance for him at her debut so he could brag to everyone that he had discovered the most beautiful gem in Athkatla.
Mistress Ruby smiled at him, as if he had extended the invitation to her, not Vesper.
'Youw are such a gallant man, Lord Jistew.' The gnome looked back at Vesper and her eyes stopped at the girl's purse. 'Two hundrewed gold would be my price for the pair...'
Vesper started and praised her good fortune. That was exactly how much she has had on her. There was little to do, but to pay and leave the shop. With the last look at Lord Jistev now talking with Ruby over the counter in hush voices, Vesper left the jeweler's. In exasperation, she leaned against the wall of the shop to catch her breath.
'Vesper!' her mother's voice sounded puzzled, 'what are you doing here?'
Vesper opened her eyes and saw Lady Maria accompanied by Sir Rayan and a half-dozen of his men.
'I bought the earrings, Madam,' Vesper answered when she found her tongue, and remembering her manners just in time, 'and was returning home.'
Lady Maria smiled benevolently and graciously lifted one of the earrings. Her eyes opened wide. 'It's a beauty. I trust you have asked Mistress Ruby to expect the rest of the payment shortly?'
Vesper smiled proudly. 'No, Madam. Mistress Ruby's price was two hundred gold. I had paid in full.'
'There must be a mistake,' Lady Maria mused, 'but...' she looked over her shoulder at Sir Ryan, 'but we have no time to discuss it now. We will sort it out tomorrow.'
Accompanied by Sir Ryan the ladies arrived to their estate in the Government district without any unpleasant encounters with thugs or thieves. There, Vesper related the full story to Lady Maria, making no secret of her great admiration for Lord Jistev. In fact she felt ready to tell the whole world about it.
The noblewoman gasped when Vesper finished: 'You have Tymora's own luck, dear Vesper! Lord Jistev had made you a present, silly girl. Now we just have to make sure that his intentions would end up in an honorable way, no matter if they were rooted in mischief.' Her face softened when she mussed up Vesper's hair. 'You have grown up so fast, my dear young Vesper. But I was younger than you are now when I was betrothed to wed Sir Keldorn... Leave it to me, dear.'