9:25 Dragon, Summer

Samantha, Samantha, fairest of the fair,

The stories always describe Nevarra as beautiful and lavish, like Starkhaven's slightly less wealthy cousin. Don't believe them, Sammie! It's a brutal place. There are wild men here wandering the streets, barely clothed, dragging women behind them by their hair. It's all I can do to avoid their spears and decipher their grunts, and only because I have been trained by the masters at court. I'm always being stopped on the street and asked, "And where are you headed on this fine day?" as if one never travels about town for the enjoyment of it – truly, these Nevarrans are a savage people! So don't worry, all right? You aren't missing anything.

My mother keeps saying how fine the weather has been, my father keeps giving me stern looks, and Goran disappears better than an Antivan Crow. Basically, it's a bore without you here. I was ready to return to Starkhaven the moment we arrived, but I will endure the trials of this place if only to build some character and know suffering. Sometimes, often when intoxicated, I even miss the talks with your father. Opining on the dangers of mages and the tensions between Orlais and Ferelden never sounds appealing until you're faced with yet another party, endless in its predictability, what with the same string of giggling girls and stupid boys who can't grasp the idea of sarcasm much less form coherent sentences. When I suggested that the Pentaghasts should tear down their palace and just build an elaborate tent, since they never seem to be at home and are always out in the wilderness anyway, they looked at me like I was serious and wanted to argue how impractical that was.

Perhaps it's best your father didn't allow you to come; I fear these people would have sucked the life from your bones as they attempt with mine. I guess seeing my family is nice and everything and my aunt loves you already, as I have described you down to the last detail. She is looking forward to meeting you, as I believe she plans to stay with us in Starkhaven for a short time as we travel back from the much-anticipated royal wedding in Ferelden.

Write to me, Sammie. I miss you.

Your Royal Scoundrel, Corbinian

So he missed her... The Marquess of Starkhaven, inheritor of the all the land north of the Northern Gate to Starkhaven and just south of the marsh, future Captain of Starkhaven's Royal Militia, and heir to the Golden Torch of Corin… and he missed Samantha. A nobleman's daughter of no great importance, stature, descendent, or wealth.

"What are you grinning about?" Benjamin Garrity asked her, smiling from ear to ear.

They were all seated in the gardens, Benjamin sitting next to Arianna Marziano, Helena Luxley, and Vincent Tyler, the latter two clasping hands like they would both die if they ever let go. Standing a little ways away near the gates was Helena's chaperone, one the Luxley's more humorless guards.

During the summer months when their friends were vacationing in exotic places, those who were left – and always Samantha was left in Starkhaven – gathered together and read the letters they received from their absent friends. Samantha could have brought that letter with her, but she had left it at home as she'd read it so many times the edges of the parchment were turning soft. She had received another letter from Corbinian the day previously, and was intending to read the newest one instead, but his words still popped into her thoughts every now and then, most notably when she was near the royal palace, as she was today.

Just before the royal family left Starkhaven to start their summer tour of Thedas, the prince had held an elaborate ceremony to open the royal gardens to the public – something no prince before had ever done. The nobles groused that commoners and the impoverished would likely destroy the neighborhood, but those complaints had not yet found solid grounding. A few commoner children ran around attempting to catch butterflies, but that was about as close to roughhousing as anyone got. It also helped that guards were posted strategically around the gardens during visiting hours to discourage troublemakers.

The five friends had taken the opportunity to enjoy each other's company in the summertime gardens, which were alive with color and fragrance. While reading their letters aloud, every once in a while, a breeze swept through and ruffled the ribbons of Arianna's dress, of which there were many. Helena was sitting under a parasol, and Samantha, like Arianna, was wearing a wide-brimmed hat styled with a long lace ribbon. Benjamin and Vincent sat exposed to the sun, but neither seemed to mind it. An insect buzzed nearby but no one looked away from Samantha.

Arianna pressed her further, her tongue danced over the words in her thick Antivan accent. "A love letter, yes? From Beenie?"

Samantha lifted up the newest letter, still folded in her hand. "This is not a love letter, and if it were, I wouldn't read it to any of you."

As if choreographed, the four of them groaned, rolling their heads around on their shoulders and Samantha laughed at their disappointment. The five of them were seated on soft blankets, accompanied by a small picnic basket that held a bottle of wine – which was nearly empty. They had consumed the mangos that Arianna brought, the sweetmeats that Benjamin provided, the finger sandwiches that Helena Luxley contributed, and the shortcake that Samantha offered – all made by their respective house chefs – and were now working their way through Starkhaven's famous Tyler Estates Wine. Vincent's family owned several vineyards just outside the city's southern gates.

It had been a boring spring, and the early summer proved even less fun; it seemed like half of Starkhaven had decided to leave town. The entire royal family had traveled to Nevarra City, just as they had planned, and they were going to swing back south and head through Kirkwall on their way to Ferelden to attend the wedding of the newly crowned King Cailan Theirin and Anora Mac Tir. An arranged marriage – those Fereldens were strange. No one in Starkhaven had been arranged to be married in over two hundred years, and that last time had been a farmer wedding his daughter to a butcher's son.

That was not to say that families didn't encourage matches – in fact, Helena and Vincent were the result of such encouragement, as Lady Luxley had been quick to transfer her daughter's affection from Innley to Vincent, perhaps as a measure of protection for their family. To be associated with magic was a black mark on any family's name.

"Who's first?" Samantha asked the group.

"Me!" Arianna beamed. "I have a letter from Flora, but it's a month old."

Flora's family spent part of every spring and summer at their estate in Kirkwall, and most assumed it was because of Lord Harimann's holdings, of which several were in their sister city to the south. Samantha had received a letter from her friend as well, and assumed that both letters said the same thing, but Arianna's wasn't as personal as hers, and Samantha wondered if she had finally cracked Flora's thick wall of secrets.

Arianna began.

"Dear Arianna." Her accent rolled the r's wildly. "Ruxton and I have been in Kirkwall for two months and I have to say that my memories of this city seem false. Our estate here is so small sometimes I can't breathe. My room barely has enough space to fit all my furniture. The noblemen and women dress like peasants in dull fabrics without patterns or hats!"

Helena laughed out loud. "No hats? Andraste's mercy… how can anyone stand to live in Kirkwall?"

Samantha giggled. "Maybe they all have a lot of hair?"

"I hear the Viscount is bald," Vincent chimed in. "His head is as smooth and shiny as an apple."

"And just as dense!" Benjamin had the final say and everyone laughed at his joke.

Arianna continued. "Maybe I was too young to notice or perhaps Starkhaven has grown more luxurious over the years, but I feel like a tourist in this city that has historically always felt like a second home. Truly, it breaks my heart. Next week we set sail for Ferelden. I suppose I can't expect a great step up in decorum."

"That's for sure," Benjamin interrupted; he was never one to withhold his thoughts.

Arianna ignored him. "I saw Sebastian Vael the other day during service, and he seemed quite different in appearance, but still his usual self in temperament – he sends his warm regards."

Samantha bit her tongue, because Flora had written something entirely different in her letter. She had waxed poetic on how beautiful he was – it had been two years since anyone had seen Sebastian and she claimed he had become one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen, and even the chanters in the Chantry, most of whom were women, were taken with him. But he hadn't spoken to Flora much at all. In fact, she had conveyed extreme disappointment in how distant he'd seemed. She had invited him for tea, for walks, tried to make him laugh with jokes and stories about Starkhaven, but nothing seemed to get through. I can't make him see me, she had written in obvious frustration. Flora's mother, Lady Johane, had encouraged her daughter to keep after him – marriage to a royal was probably Lady Johane's dream for her daughter, but Flora wanted to be loved. In her letter to Samantha, she had lamented her mother's cold and loveless marriage, stating that she would never settle for what her mother had – no matter the gain in title and stature the match might bestow upon her.

Flora's mother was not of noble birth and not from Starkhaven. She had been born in a small village just outside of Tantervale, Starkhaven's sister city to the west. A beauty in her youth, Lady Johane had caught the eye of a young Lord Harimann at just sixteen, and smartly wed herself into noble status. The pair had produced two children in four years, but it seemed to everyone in Starkhaven that their coupling was out of obligation. Lady Johane was a cold woman; she didn't even seem to like holding her husband's arm during walks after service.

Arianna got Samantha's attention when she read: "Beenie arrived yesterday, and I never thought a Vael's skin could turn more brown. The Nevarran sunshine sure did him some favors. Unfortunately, his brother also arrived with him, and the more he stares at me, the more I want to retch. Fortunately, Beenie has been most kind in keeping me apprised of Goran's plans so that I may avoid him."

"Ha!" Vincent laughed, shaking his head. "If she knew him, she wouldn't think that about him."

Arianna set down the letter. "Oh? You know Goran Vael so well, do you?"

Helena turned a clever eye to Arianna. "Let's just say that he's not as weak as everyone thinks."

"Oh, ho!" Arianna bounced on her blanket. "Secrets! You must tell!"

"Wait a minute…" Benjamin held out his hands; his wine glass was empty. "Is this going to ruin my impression of Goran? 'Cause if so, I don't want to hear it."

Arianna shushed him, and he laughed in response.

Vincent smiled. "He's actually a thoughtful guy if you ever talk to him. I mean, if you can get him to talk to you. I just don't think he pays much attention to people. Makes him seem, I don't know… dim."

Samantha listened to the exchange with some interest, recalling her own painful conversation with Goran over eggs at brunch the previous autumn. Had he really just been distracted? Maybe he knew where Seheron was after all.

"Interestink." Arianna didn't talk like everyone else. "I will have to speak with him when he returns. Maybe he is more like—" She lowered her voice suggestively. "—the strong, silent type."

Helena rolled her eyes, but Samantha laughed.

"Please continue." Vincent waved his free hand at Arianna and she gave him a nod of deference.

"I wish both Samantha and you could have come along, but her parents are more strict than everyone else's, and your father whisks you away to exotic places – more exciting than Kirkwall and Ferelden, I imagine."

"Why didn't your parents let you go?" Helena asked Samantha. Everyone had known about the Vael family's invitation to her.

"My father despises the very idea of setting a single foot anywhere near Ferelden. Calls it dirty," Samantha explained. "It's just as well because my mother claims an allergy to mabari, which is odd considering that she's never even seen one."

"They are gross," Arianna confirmed; she had traveled all over Thedas with her father – Flora was right about that. "Slobbery and itchy. And so stinky. Honestly."

Benjamin groaned again. "Great. So Flora will return with fleas as souvenirs!"

Arianna muttered something about how that statement was true before she continued with Flora's letter. "Sometimes, I wish my parents were too, but their attention is always elsewhere. Even now they are overly preoccupied with expanding this house as they have hired a mason and a carpenter and are looking into tunneling under the basement to create another floor. Indeed, they probably feel—"

Arianna paused, staring at the page, finally showing it to Samantha who laughed and said: "Claustrophobic."

"Claus—what?" She didn't know the word.

"It means…" Benjamin's eyes rolled around in his head as he tried to figure out a way to describe it. "It means…"

Helena took over. "It's like when you are feeling crowded."

"Che cosa?" Arianna didn't get it, this time in Antivan.

"Like being in an enclosed space," Vincent offered.

Samantha finished for him. "And feeling like you're going to suffocate."

"Oh!" Arianna beamed; she was an amiable girl. She returned to the letter and read, "Indeed, they probably feel claus-ter-pho-bic at its efficiency as well. I suppose I should keep my eyes open next week for some teyrn's son… maybe I can have a wild fling in Ferelden and come back besotted. Wouldn't that be somesink? Hope you are well, Flora."

Benjamin leaned back on his elbows. "That would be something."

"She will never settle down," Arianna lamented with an airy voice, ignoring Benjamin's mockery. "Flora is too stubborn for a match, I sink."

"If she knows what she wants, she should go after it," Helena announced, and everyone turned their heads. "There's no need for any of us to settle for a loveless match."

Samantha had never seen her display such conviction, and she briefly wondered what kind of match Helena and Innley would have made. Samantha sat up straight. "I agree. Flora is set to inherit a vast estate – she doesn't need to marry for money like her mother did. She should wait for—"

"For what? Love?" Benjamin smirked.

"Yes," Samantha declared with loftiness. "For love."

Arianna raised her glass into the air, though it was empty. "Per amore!"

Helena lifted her empty glass as well and Samantha joined them while both boys rolled their eyes.

"Love," Benjamin huffed. "You girls are all such suckers. Love is a myth, a delusion – my father says so. He says he's seen both men and women do absolutely insane things and claim it was for love. And you know, people claim love all the time – most likely it's just the wine talking." And then he lifted his glass, too.

Benjamin's father, Lord Garrity, the title bestowed on his family two centuries ago by the prince of Starkhaven for loyal service at Court, had written volumes on the law of the Free Marches, and occasionally advised members of the Starkhaven Council on legal matters. Having studied the law in four different cities, he was well versed. His opinions on matters of romance were likely formed because he had personally seen to several divorces. Such dissolutions were scandalous in Starkhaven, but elsewhere, like the Anderfels and Rivain, marriages came and went with the tide.

"You are such a cynical, Benji," Arianna declared, and no one pointed out her mispronunciation of the word. "Love is grand! Everyone should fall in love. At least a dozen times!"

Benjamin shook his head reprovingly. "You are so Antivan. Name me one married couple in love."

The Antivan girl smiled wide, brushing her long blonde hair over her shoulder in triumph as she stated: "Our future prince of Starkhaven."

"HA!" Benjamin startled her with his guffaw. "He only cares about his heir!"

"Bugie!" She accused him of lying. "He returned just last week – he cut their trip short because he cared about his wife's health! Not just the baby, scemo." Scemo was her favorite nickname for Benjamin, and as best Samantha could tell, it was another word for stupid.

"Not a chance." Benjamin was smiling so widely at having riled Arianna up, that Samantha thought they were going to start kissing madly at any second. It wouldn't be the first time.

"I heard that they made it as far as Orlais before they discovered her condition," Samantha announced, trying to put out the foreplay fires. "And he didn't want to set one foot into Orzammar because our future leader believes the dwarves provide better medicine to nugs than humans. I, for one, am quite disappointed because I am certain that the dwarves could have taught her some nursery rhymes that could double as drinking games."

Helena giggled. "I bet everything in Orzammar could double as drinking games. Even their drinking games."

Vincent chuckled at his girl, never letting go of her hand.

"Love is a drinking game, too." Benjamin lifted the bottle of wine from the picnic basket, disappointed to find it empty. "Because inevitably, you wake up one day and realize you're out of booze and married to a person who is absolutely intolerable without alcohol."

"Not everyone's marriage is like your parents'!" Arianna teased.

Benjamin turned a playful glance her way. "I think you'd be surprised, Ari. Men and women aren't made to be monogamous. Love is just society's way of tricking us into it."

"Ugh," Helena stuck out her tongue. "Sammie, please save us and read Beenie's letter now."

Arianna clapped her hands. "Yes! I bet there's a love letter in there somewhere!"

Samantha laughed, and obligingly unfolded the parchment in the shade of her wide-brimmed hat. "I received this only yesterday… To my Samantha—" Arianna giggled and Benjamin groaned, but Samantha steeled her resolve and continued: "You missed one hell of a wedding. Cailan and Anora were wed in a traditional ceremony, but when Ruxton, brandishing a sword and wearing only a cape, swung from the chandelier professing his love for the bride, that's when things started to get out of hand."

Helena gasped, but Vincent only laughed. "It's clearly in jest!"

Samantha gave him a mischievous grin and continued: "Of course, Cailan wouldn't stand for such an insult and challenged Ruxton to a duel. The duo met on top of the city's jail – an odd meeting place, but the people of Ferelden are an odd lot – and dueled to the death."

"Oh no!" Arianna brought her gloved hands to her mouth. "No one should make light of duels! I've watched men and women get cut down for much less! It is not so pretty a sight."

"What?" Benjamin didn't believe a word of it. "Where have you seen street duels?"

Arianna shuddered at the memory. "My father took me home on my last name day, scemo. When we got off the boat, there were two men arguing over the price of fish. They decided to butcher each other instead."

"Eww," Samantha breathed.

Helena made sour face. "Don't tell stories like that!"

"Yeah, really. We just ate." Vincent agreed.

"He asked!" Arianna turned on them all, and in response they leveled their blame on Benjamin, who just laughed.

"Go ahead." Benjamin waved his hand. "How does it end? Does Ruxton die?"

Samantha lifted the letter up, giving Benjamin her best warning glare before she continued. "I'm sorry to report that Ruxton won't be returning because he's now the new King of Ferelden."

Arianna and Benjamin burst out laughing, but Helena looked confused as Vincent patted her hand gently.

"It's probably a joke," her assured her. "Keep going, Sammie."

"Goran missed the entire show, and indeed I rarely saw him because he had discovered a place called The Pearl, which up until three days before we left, everyone thought was an art gallery but turned out to be a brothel."

More laughter ensued but Helena was aghast, and she turned her head away from them all.

Samantha thought it best to keep going. "My aunt is dying to meet you and has requested to dine with your family when we return before she travels on back to Nevarra. Truly, I think she loves me more because of you and I might have even said a few things in my drunken idiocy that made her weep. Of course now she thinks I possess a talent at wordplay and actually requested bits of poetry! Poetry! From me! But I'll be home in less than a month – in time for your name day celebration! Your Paragon, Beenie."

Arianna clapped her hands. "The love letter bits!"

"His aunt wants to meet you?" Helena's eyes widened in awe, and she added knowingly, "You know what that means, Sammie-"

"Wait a minute!" Benjamin interjected. "What about Ruxty?"

"His Highness?" Samantha asked innocently.

Benjamin exchanged a glance with Vincent. "Come on!"

Silence.

Arianna studied Samantha carefully. "No… he's joking!"

Samantha couldn't hold it back any longer and pointed her finger at Benjamin. "I had you! I totally had you."

"Damn you, Sammie!" He thumped over the picnic basket and snatched the letter from her fingers, finishing the last bit. "P.S. Everything about King Ruxton was a lie. Cailan and Anora got married. The end. P.P.S. By the way, I miss the—"

Samantha hopped up and yanked the letter back before he could finish the sentence and Benjamin's mouth opened wide in revelation.

"Shut up!" she warned him before he even spoke.

Arianna bounced up and down again. "More love letter bits!"

Samantha pointed a finger at him. "Not a word."

He offered an amused bow, as insolent as it was exaggerated, and she knew that Arianna would have the last sentence out of him before the end of the day. Stupid Benjamin Garrity… though she couldn't blame him; she would have done the same to him.

Helena's chaperone appeared behind her. "It's getting late."

"I'll walk you home." Vincent was quick to offer.

Helena glanced between the guard and Vincent. "Oh, yes, of course."

Samantha inwardly sighed; from the way Helena looked at Vincent, she doubted that this was a union of love.

Benjamin and Arianna continued to bicker, and Samantha quietly snuck out of the garden with her shoes in her hand. She loved the feel of the granite path on her bare feet. So smooth and cool. As she walked home, she read his letter again, feeling certain that Benjamin was wrong about the idea of love.

When she arrived home, there was an unopened letter waiting for her in the hands of her favorite servant – her favorite, because she accepted bribes to keep letters secret so Samantha's parents wouldn't read them – and it had the grand seal of the Chantry of Kirkwall upon it. Curious. Sebastian had written her a letter? Once behind the closed door of her room, she set down at her writing desk and cracked the seal.

Samantha,

Please forgive the long delay of this response.

I have wanted to write to you for some time now, but sometimes, quite often when I think of you, the weight of regret takes the words from me and locks them into my heart. I have been deep in meditation here at the Chantry in Kirkwall, praying to Andraste and I didn't feel I could write to you until I had some kind of answer to the purpose of my life.

About three months ago, I was sneaking out of the Chantry to a late-night rendezvous… which turned out to be with the Grand Cleric, Elthina. I was caught and I knew it, but she set a heavy bag of coin in my hands, and it was enough to run away to any land and make a new life, free from my parents and titles and the Chantry and everyone, but when I thought about where I should go and what I should do, all I could think was that I would be found drunken on the floor of some tavern somewhere, scraped up and thrown out with the rest of the waste. It was then that I thought of your letter.

You claim I am a gentleman and a good person, but I am not and I was not. I think about how I was in Starkhaven… useless, aimless, selfish.

It was your words in your letter that shamed me more than you could ever know, and before I knew what I was doing, I was back inside the Chantry, and I gave the bag of coin back to Elthina and went back to my room. I think Andraste led me here, to Kirkwall, to Elthina, who has been more of a mother to me than my very own. She is compassionate and wise and everything a Grand Cleric should be.

I feel so small in the world now. I never fully understood that we are only here because of Andraste's sacrifice and it fills me with a shame greater than I can bear that I treated my life so worthlessly when it should have been treasured, every moment of every day, and every person I ever knew should have been treated with kindness and love and respect.

I am not writing to shame you, or to talk you into changing your life. I think I made that mistake when Corbinian came to visit me recently, because he left quite angry. Elthina says to change another's heart, one has to lead by example, which is what I am going to try to do. I am sure you will hear all of this, but I wanted you to know what's in my heart, Sammie. You more than anyone.

I have changed. I think I am going to stay here. I think maybe the Chantry is where I belong. I will write to you when I can, and I hope you continue to write to me.

May the Maker watch over you,

Sebastian

Just his name. No longer a Vael. No longer a prince. A new city with a new family, but Samantha wondered about this new purpose: was it is something he felt strongly about, or was it strongly felt about by those around him?