Chronicles of an Elven Bed-Warmer
Chapter the Second.
Getting to Know You
Later that day Aeden was going over some accounts in the library when Elle told him he had a visitor.
"It's Kallian's father." she said with a hint of warning in her voice.
The out of character inflection caused him to raise his head and look at her questioningly "And he wants to see me?"
"Well you did save her life," she paused, giving him a 'like duh' look that was more like her, before adding. "And she's asleep."
"Ah, well, let's go." Understanding, he got up and followed the maid back to foyer where the guest was waiting.
Entering the room, he extended a hand in greeting toward the male elf he saw there. "Hello, you must be Mr. Tabris."
After a moment of surprise he took the offered hand and shook it gingerly. "I am he, m'lord Cousland" Aeden gestured to a couple of nearby chairs, they sat down.
Aeden frowned in thought now that he had heard Kallian's surname in connection to a male it sounded familiar. "You're not Cyrion Tabris are you?"
"Yes, that is my name." The elf answered warily
"Cyrion Tabris the craftsman?" Aeden pressed on not noticing his guest's growing unease.
"Er, yes?"
Mystery solved, Aeden relaxed and thankfully, explained. "Ah, I thought that name sounded familiar, my mother loves your work; we have several pieces. They're very good."
"I'm flattered, m'lord." Cyrion paused and pensively looked to the side, wondering how to phrase this . "As grateful as I am that my daughter is still alive, m'lord, forgive me, but I can't help but suspect your motives."
Aeden's face grew serious. Now that small talk was obviously over "That's...understandable, given your recent problems."
The older male looked relieved. "Then you understand that I must ask what your intentions are towards Kallian."
He was to be disappointed unfortunately the young Cousland was a bit euphemism impaired "Um, not sure I follow."
Cyrion gave him what was best described as an old fashioned look.
"What?" Aeden began feeling irrationally guilty.
The elf looked discomfited. It was difficult to say this point-blank to a noble, he tried again to convey his meaning without being too overt. "You have saved a life, that life now belongs to you."
Unfortunately Aeden still didn't get it. "Excuse me?"
Frustrated, Cyrion couldn't hold his sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. "Kallian will no doubt feel very obligated towards you and she is a very attractive young woman, many would be tempted to...take advantage."
Slowly understanding dawned. "What do you me-...OH! NO! I would never..." Why did everyone he met lately assume he was some kind of sex fiend? Aeden wondered.
Judging from the look on his face, Kallian's father was skeptical of his… motives, still. "With all due respect, m'lord, that remains to be seen. I should like to see my daughter..?"
"Oh yes, of course, right this way." Aeden shook himself from his thoughts and gestured for the older male to follow him.
0-0
"Kallian, wake up." In her semi-conscious state, Kallian felt someone nudging her shoulder.
"Nungh, go 'way." She swatted blearily in the vague direction of the offending appendage before pulling the blanket up over her head, burrowing back into the bed, warmth and blessed sleep.
Cyrion sighed. His daughter had always been so difficult to wake up that he had developed a particular tone of voice that forced her to. "Da'len."
The sleepy elf poked her head out from under the covers. "Daddy?"
From where he was standing just inside the doorway, Aeden couldn't help but realize how cute she looked with her hair all messed up from sleep. Then he realized what he was thinking. And had to forcibly make himself stop.
In the meanwhile… "I am here, Kallian." Cyrion confirmed.
She blinked herself into full consciousness, confused that her father was actually here. In the Teyrn's estate no less. "Father, how –"
"Lord Cousland sent a message, Kallian." Cyrion divined her question, gesturing towards the noble at the doorway.
Put into the spotlight, Aeden felt like an intruder. "I'll just leave you two alone." Aeden said as he turned to leave.
"Wait." called Kallian. She was touched by the gesture; it was more than she had come to expect from any human, even one as seemingly benign as Aeden. She fiddled with the bedclothes. "Thank you, m'lord."
Equally uncomfortable, it seemed, Aeden nodded and rapidly left the room. Once the Teyrn was out of sight, Kallian then turned to her father and immediately asked: "How is Shianni?"
"A little better every day." he replied somberly, thinking of the old saying 'out of sight, out of mind' at Kallian's actions and wished it were so for Shianni as well. "She wanted to come but..."
Kallian nodded in understanding of what Cyrion left unsaid: it wasn't a good idea.. She missed Shianni though.
Hoping to give his daughter some comfort, he offered. "Soris and... his intended are with her."
It worked, though not in the way Cyrion had intended. Kallian snorted and grinned at his statement. "You can't remember her name either, huh?"
Caught, Cyrion cleared his throat and tried to change the subject away from the painful past. "Any plans for the future?"
She bit her lip apprehensively. "Well, I guess I can't stay in Denerim..."
"Yes," her father replied, sardonically "That certainly would be unwise."
Kallian smirked at her father's understatement before her uncertain future bought back her anxieties. "I guess it depends on Aeden." She answered her father's question, feeling the need to explain. "I feel like I should, I don't know, follow him around and do stuff for him?"
"Stuff?" He knew his daughter well, Cyrion admitted inwardly as he raised an eyebrow in question, wanting to know just what exactly did she mean.
"Y'know, cleaning, cooking, fighting, things that I'm good at." The younger elf paused in thought for a second. "Well, maybe not cooking..."
He couldn't help but chuckle at that. His daughter had never been good at cooking. "Good call. I do not wish to see you accused of poisoning the Teyrn. "
Kallian buried her head back into the bedclothes at that. "Shut up, daddy. Really!"
0-0
Aeden had gone back to the library after leaving the father and daughter to speak in privacy. After an hour or two, Kallian limped into the room.
"Oh, excuse me, m'lord." She uttered, wondering if she should have presumed she could borrow something to read.
Aeden was startled: he hadn't heard her come in. Rogue. He thought, and made a note to confirm his suspicions later on. "Aeden," he corrected, absentmindedly. "Call me Aeden."
She quirked her lip. That was odd for nobility. "Only if you call me Kallian, none of that 'Miss Tabris' stuff."
"As you wish m'lady." Aeden made a mock bow from his seat, eliciting a snort from Kallian. He eyed her uneven stance. "Should you be out of bed?"
"Probably not, I still ache pretty badly. It's just so BORING! So I thought I would find something to read." She regarded him briefly before rolling her eyes at the skepticism she saw there. "Yes, I can read."
"I didn't say a word." He replied innocently. "Help yourself."
"Humph." she grunted, not falling for that, and went to look through the shelves.
He watched her out of the corner of his eye, his mind no longer on the paperwork on his desk. The neck of the oversized nightdress had slipped down to a side, exposing her bare shoulder fetchingly. He told himself to stop looking, to stop thinking about it, that there were dozens of reasons not to go there. Perhaps if he sat here long enough he might remember what they were.
Kallian, unaware of the young lord's attention, perused the contents of the library. She muttered to herself while she looked. "Boring, boring, read it, crap, oh! That'll do." She snagged a copy of 'Spicy Elf Tales: collection 16' and tucked it under her arm. Mollified for the present, she turned and limped back to her room, waving a quick farewell to the distracted Aeden as she departed.
0-0
Kallian sat transfixed by the text of her smutty book, so much so that she didn't notice Aeden walk up behind her and start reading over her shoulder.
"I don't think that's anatomically possible." he announced, causing her to jump in surprise.
"AAAH!" She turned to look at him, flustered. "Don't DO that!"
She was met by his grin, which earned him a glare in return. "What do you want?" Abruptly, she remembered her station, and tacked on a feeble "m'lord.'
He chuckled to himself, finding amusement in her behavior. "I brought you something to eat." He nodded to the tray he was carrying.
"Oh... Shouldn't a servant do that?" Kallian asked, apprehensively.
Aeden shrugged. "Probably, but I've never been one for convention and besides, I wanted to talk to you."
Instantly, she felt her apprehension increase tenfold. "What about, m'lord?"
"None of that 'm'lord' nonsense. Didn't I tell you to call me Aeden?" He scolded, satisfied when she nodded in acquiesce hesitantly. "Well I just wanted to get to know you better."
"Oh..." Kallian replied nervously.
He set down the tray he was carrying and she eyed it dubiously. "What's all this?" She gestured to the selection of meats and cheeses before her, uncertain how exactly he expected her to eat it.
"It's the latest thing." He replied enthusiastically. "You take a slice of bread, put some meat and cheese on it and then put another slice of bread on top." He demonstrated. "It's called a sand-witch."
"That's an odd name." Kallian gave her meal a dubious look. It didn't seem to contain any sand, and did not appear in any way magical.
Aeden shrugged and made another one for himself, before pouring them both some wine. "So what did you do, you know, before all this happened?" He asked as he brought the cup to his lips, balancing his bread with the other hand.
"I worked at the Pearl." She replied, matter-of-factly.
Her answer caused him to spray wine all over himself as he goggled at her. Kallian couldn't help but giggle. "As a maid, m'lo-Aeden. You didn't think that prostitutes cleaned their own rooms, did you?"
"I can't say I've ever thought about it." He replied, blushing. Images of the Pearl and Kallian now dancing around like rabid bunnies in his mind. Very inappropriate images, at that.
They chatted for a while about various far more neutral things, to his relief. She told him about life in the alienage and he in turn told her about growing up in Highever with Fergus and Elissa. Kallian found herself rather liking the young lord. He was well, nice. It was quite the change from the derisive scorn or benign condescension she got from most humans. Aeden found he quite liked talking to her as well. She was upbeat and optimistic despite what had happened to her. He felt a sort of instant connection that sometimes happens between complete strangers.
"Have you given any thought to what you want to do?" He brought back the conversation to serious topics.
The elf lowered her eyes. "Well, I thought I would like to... Stay with you? I mean I kind of owe you, right? If that's all right, I mean?"
"Yes, that's fine. I'm sure I can find you a position on my staff." He wondered why that sentence that had sounded fine in his head had suddenly sounded suggestive.
"What sort of position?" A hopeful, curious Kallian inquired, with an innocent look on her face.
Completely unbidden the word "horizontal" suddenly appeared in his mind, as he cut his eyes towards the novel she had discarded in favor of the food, thinking of his previous comment on positions. Thankfully, he managed to avoid saying it out loud. "Err... I don't know. What can you do?"
"I'm good at cleaning..."
"And you can read and write?" Somehow, the image of a studious Kallian and a maid just didn't… work. Literacy generally meant no need to do manual labor after all.
"My father taught me." she answered proudly.
"Anything else?"
Her eyes lit up."I'm a good fighter."
He was reminded that this rather small girl had successfully fought her way though the Arl's guards. "Hmm, how about you show me when you're feeling better?"
"Sure!" She took a tentative bite of her sand-witch. She 'mm-ed' in surprise.
"Good, isn't it?"He asked rhetorically, just a mite bit smug at being right.
She swallowed and took another, much bigger, bite. "Mmf."
Aeden chuckled, amused by her enthusiasm.
0-0
The next few days passed quickly. Aeden would have his meals with her and they would chat about various things. After about four days she felt well enough to explore the estate. She was in a room overlooking the courtyard when she spotted something interesting: it was Aden, practicing with his guards, shirtless. He was quite a bit more muscular than she had expected, probably came from wielding that giant hammer. A small part of her mind noted that he was rather good with it, but most of her was watching the way his muscles flexed when he moved. It was almost hypnotic.
"See something you like?" inquired a wry voice. Kallian turned to regard Elle, who was smirking at her.
"No! I was j-just, uh, admiring his technique." she replied unconvincingly.
"Is that what they're calling it now?" Elle's smirk only got wider, in Kallian's opinion.
Kallian remained silent while the tips of her ears turned pink.
Elle decided to spare the girl more embarrassment – for now. "Well whatever it was you're going to get a closer view."
A puzzled expression crossed the young elf's face. "Huh?"
"His lordship has requested that you join him, if you feel up to it, of course."
She looked down at her nightdress. "Um..."
Elle chuckled, understanding. "Come on, we'll find you some armor."
0-0
Aeden was taking a break when Kallian came into the courtyard. He was pleased to see that Elle had managed to find the Dalish armor he had asked her to get. It made the young rouge look exotic and dangerous. Also it helped distract from how nervous she looked, most likely due to the presence of all the unknown heavily armed humans.
"You wanted to see me m'lord?" she asked in uncharacteristically deferential tone.
"Yes, come with me, I'll introduce you." She nodded and fell into step two paces behind as he went over to the guards. "Gentlemen, if I could have your attention?" They stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "I just wanted to introduce you to er..." He suddenly realized that it might not be the best idea to use Kallian's real name.
"Inri." Supplied the elf smoothly. "Kallian Inri"
"Er, yes." He shot her a questioning look, she shook her head, to indicate that she would tell him later. "She's going to be my new bodyguard."
Hello, fairly quick update, don't get used to that, it took me about a month to find a beta for ch1, so I worked on this in the meantime, hence the quick posting.
also, speaking of beta I'd like to thank for her work on the story.