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| Details |
| Author: | Athena |
| Summary: | After a day of work in the Golden Vale, Melancholy catches Lena to talk about a Personal Matter regarding her relationship with Bryn Baird, and the course of Fate. Lena reveals her own journey with a Fleet Lieutenant. 2850~ words. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
As they part with Baird at the Golden Lantern, Melancholy steps to Lena's side with a plum lipped smile. "Lena? Could I speak to you about a personal matter?"
"Oh? Certainly," Lena looks around at the inn common area and back to Melancholy. "Would you like to come up to my room to speak? Or somewhere around here?" How personal? asks her expression.
"Oh, if you don't mind sharing your room for the purpose, that would be pleasant. Then I can sprawl out a little," Melancholy says lightly, as she brushes a hand along her skirt. "I am making progress in keeping up, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't mind throwing myself down to languish on a couch right about now."
"Let's head that way, then," Lena says with a smile, turning and tilting her head for Melancholy to follow.
Lena leads her apprentice along the usual path to the same room for two, still not downgraded to one in the anticipation of a return of Shine. As the door to the room opens, a chubby tanuki snorts and wakes in his nest of a bed, looking over in hope and then curling up again for more napping. Lena gestures to the seats, over by the desk area, and seats herself.
She looks over to Melancholy with concerned interest, and says, "I hope you're well? And all's well with the rate you've been learning?"
Melancholy, as prophesied in the ancient texts of three minutes ago, takes a seat with a lazy sprawl, stretching out her long legs for a moment, and then curling up into the seating, draping herself over it, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the tanuki in the room. Mostly because she brings her own snacks with her. She opens up a pocket on the enchanted robe, and fishes around for a bag of chips, which she withdraws and immediately removes several. (For herself. Sorry, Bun.)
"Oh, oh yes. I am still fully satisfied with my apprenticeship, and I am sure as I have been of the decision, and grateful for your continued instruction. I would, perhaps, wish I could learn faster, but that's a personal defect, not something that can be affected by anyone else," she says blithely. "No, what I wanted to speak to you about is more personal, and is about how well I am, actually. Which is very well."
And her cheeks turn pink, as she looks down at her chips with a shy tinged smile.
"I felt it important that you hear it directly. Bryn has asked for permission to court me. And I have said yes."
"Oh," Lena says, and despite the rise of her brows and the slight widening of her eyes, she doesn't seem altogether surprised. "I see congratulations are in order. You two do seem to fit together exceptionally well, as far as I've seen."
She eats one of her chips and goes pinker, but she smiles. "Do you think so? I'm glad to hear it. I was telling Bryn I had hoped you might approve, seeing as I seem to have taken your example to heart — a Fleet Leftenant," she says.
Lena laughs lightly, smiling back, and says, "You know, I didn't think of it that way, but you're right. We might be starting a new sort of tradition, of fleet warlocks marrying officers or former officers. It would be overstepping as a teacher for me to have any opinion on your personal life, one way or another. But as a friend — as a friend to both of you, I hope — I wish you happiness." Then she pauses and seems to consider something. "Have you and Baird talked at all, about what to do when we return to the ship? Or go to the ship, I suppose, as you've not yet served there."
Melancholy touches her fingertips together, and nods. "Yes. Bryn explained the concern — that he is an officer, and that we couldn't serve together — and he spoke to Admiral Fallon about what would be best for his career. Bryn intends to use the time that I will be aboard to attend the Admiralty School in Stormwind, while I finish out my apprenticeship on the Lady Blanche. That is also partly — well. The issue of an officer and a warlock specialist being involved together in service doesn't apply if they're married."
She holds up a black lace hand as if to forestall an anticipated protest. "That is why courting though, and not engaged, yet. He doesn't want to rush the decision, and I think that's for the best, too. I know what I feel, but I also know it's a choice that will alter his future forever. It's not one that should be made lightly or without due consideration. I'm more than capable of waiting, and as Mr. Carlay put it with becoming a warlock — and I still can't manage his accent, so imagine it properly — it's time for 'thinking things through, not digging in heels to prove you can.'"
"That's wise," Lena says, with a slight nod. "How you start things matters. Even though you're obviously very fond of one another, if you were to marry to suit today's circumstances — your apprenticeship is temporary, of course, and marriage is for life. It will alter both of your lives forever. There's no reason to rush, and plenty of reason to take your time. Then you can always look back and see a decision made freely."
"Well, my apprenticeship is one thing — my ship-ship is another," Melancholy says, plucking out another chip. "If I decide to stay with the Fleet, through any possibility, the problem of him being an officer would present itself again of where I would and would not be able to serve, and if I would be allowed to be with him, physically, aboard a ship, and not consigned only to meeting on the shore. I don't think it needs to be said that if we did marry, that I couldn't ask for a clearer sign that my Fate lies with the Fleet." It's basically as good as going to the fortune teller, just with more wedding bells.
"That'd be a different sort of life," Lena says, crossing her hands in thought. "If the two of you end up serving together. I'm not sure I know folk who've done that. My husband left the fleet before I joined, and Lady Fallon's ashore. But well, I'm sure the fleet will be lucky to have you. We've not so many warlocks, yet."
"I imagine there will be some similarity in how we are here, working together, like today," Melancholy says. "And you work with your husband in the field as well. The differences, I would expect, would be in the experience of the smallness of the ship. A different world. But, I think that spending time together is part of seeing how we fit in that sort of way, if we work well in close company. I wouldn't be the first Grimlocke that Bryn's served with, either."
"No, indeed," Lena says with a slight smile. "Well, it sounds like you've got everything sorted. Is there a particular date Baird's meant to start at school? Or just whenever the mogu threat concludes and we head to the ship?"
"The latter is the intent. So, we have some time yet," Melancholy says, lightly picking at the back of her glove. "And I should be clear, I think, that I wasn't looking to find — marriage. The opposite, in truth. One of the reasons I had my parents remove me from the line of the House was that I expected to never marry. But." She smiles shyly. "There's a reason I consult fortune tellers. Clearly, I can't see the future."
"These things happen when you least expect," Lena says, her smile warming even as her gaze goes a little distant — thinking of someone who's not here. "In my case, I was looking for marriage, going out to meet folk with the intent to gauge if we'd mesh. I'd only been recently convinced it was a possibility for me at all. Still, somehow, Shine was unexpected. He was the one I talked things over with, there at Fallon House — I was living there at the time, which might be a long story on its own."
Melancholy eats a chip with all the attitude of someone eating popcorn in front of a play. "Oh, well, I never mind a long story, if you're willing to tell it," she says. "I don't like to pry, but it doesn't mean I don't have a curiosity about it. I only wish to respect that some things may be personal. It sounds like an intriguing romantic story." Cronch cronch.
"I suppose my moving into Fallon House isn't that long of a story," Lena says, sitting back. "It was after Northrend. I'd contracted with the fleet there, then worked with Cobalt against the Lich King, and then joined the fleet full-time. I don't know if you recall the period just after the war, but loads of soldiers, civilians and so on came back down south, and living accommodations were scarce. I'd no place of my own, because the campaign in Northrend was a long one, and it seemed frivolous to pay rent on a place I'd not live in."
"So anyway, I was looking for a place to stay, and…" Lena pauses, with a faint smile. "The Fallons look after their own, I suppose. And once I was there, I admit I didn't find much motivation to keep looking for a room in Old Town. I did, eventually, after a close friend pointed out it looked as though I was being kept — I was not, as it happens, no shade to those as are. But by then, I was well and settled and I admit I still spent most of my time out at Fallon House. And then the Lady of the house spoke with me about my marriage prospects, and planned to see if we could find a suitable partner."
Cronch, cronch. Melancholy continues going through her snacks at a tanuki rate, her eyes light with fascination. "Oh, what a treat that must have been! Fallon House is gorgeous," she says. "And to work towards marriage with a duchess! What was it like? Did she pluck them up and set them in a line like a moving wardrobe?" Melancholy sets two fingers pointed down in the air, and hops her hand along in illustration of a long line of potential suitors.
Lena laughs, clasping her hands together. "Not exactly. I don't know if the fellows would have been game for that. Mostly, she made sure I got invitations to social events, where 'fleet warlock' might not have opened the doors. I met a number of noblemen — well, and noblewomen — and then we would discuss if there were any sparks or whatnot. As it happens, the first big event, the person I spoke with afterward, at the shoreline, was Shine. I think maybe the duchess had him figured as a possibility, though I didn't realize it yet."
"You met each other walking on the shoreline on the day you were meant to meet your Fated partner?" Melancholy asks. That's like, golden fairy tale content right there.
"Oh, well, met as in we ran into one another," Lena says, blushing faintly. "We did know one another already. He'd been the butler for the Fallons for some time, and I expect our paths passed near one another even before, when he was in the fleet at — well, back when he was in the fleet and I wasn't yet a warlock."
Melancholy eats another chip and contemplates that. "So, you didn't instantly know it was him who you were meant for? When did you realize?"
"I'm not sure I'd say there was a single moment," Lena says, tilting her head back in thought. "It was more of a slowly growing thing. Each conversation, each meeting. I figured out he was interested, and that I was interested, and then from there it was a matter of determining interested in what exactly." Lena looks down at her hands for a moment, and adds, "I suppose I knew for sure it was real when he told me he meant to court me."
Melancholy pops a smile at her, running a finger along the inside of her right hand fingers. "Was it a long courtship?"
"Oh, not terribly. Half a year, maybe?" Lena smiles. "We were married just this last August, the day before I set sail for Pandaria."
Melancholy puts a hand up by her mouth in visible surprise. "Oh! I hadn't realized. What an unusual honeymoon that must have been," she says. "I'm sorry if I'm about to be rude, but was it terribly difficult to manage one, a proper honeymoon?"
"We'd settled for just not having one," Lena says, with a slight shrug. "Since we were parted by orders immediately. I was adamant that no war or nothing else was allowed to stop us getting married. That was the important thing — we've the rest of our lives to honeymoon. But as it happens, he airshipped over ahead of me, met me on the beach when we arrived. It was a bit of a working honeymoon, but maybe that worked for us, too." Lena smiles that dreamy smile again.
"Oh, that sounds more like an intervention from Fate," Melancholy says superstitiously. "A sign that you had followed Fate's Design, and it wouldn't be thwarted, by distance or war. 'I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, / For lo! my own shall come to me.'"
"Fate or chance," Lena says, as if she's agreeing. "Whyever it happened, it was really such a lovely place to honeymoon. Might be for you, too, by the time you get to that stage. If we settle all the conflicts here by then."
Melancholy smiles, but she picks at the back of her glove. "Oh, I can't think of it in terms like that, or it's too easy to consider it as good as a done deal. It's not that I'm not hoping — it would be disingenuous of me to pretend otherwise. But, I can only consider the courtship, not a marriage, in a thought like that. Imagining it with such concrete detail seems like it will tempt Fate, and I don't know that I have it entirely on my side just yet, much as I do wish it would be."
"Does fate punish you for making plans?" Lena asks, genuinely curious. "I mean, if you think you're going in the direction fate's got planned for you, why would it matter if you look forward to the future or not?"
Melancholy seems genuinely nervous at the question, her gaze leaping around the room like maybe Fate is hiding somewhere and about to jump scare her like Shine unstealthing.
"That… is sort of the problem. I don't know that I am going in the direction of Fate, yet. I want it to be, but that doesn't mean that it is. Or, more to the point, I don't know that it's Bryn's Fate. And I do worry that if Fate were to lash out, it would be on him, not me, but I would still have played a role in that terrible consequence." She goes a shade paler, but pulls up a plum lipped smile, and strives for a light tone as she claps her hands together. "So, I will just take it one day at a time, and pay attention."
Lena nods, and from the serious look on her face, she seems to take Melancholy's concerns as valid ones. "One day at a time is best, I agree, in all situations. In the good times, it helps you focus on the joy. And in the bad, you don't look too far ahead, just endure each thing as it passes. I'm not meaning to tempt fate one way or another, for you and Baird."
Melancholy brushes at her gloves. "I appreciate that. And, to speak of the day, I should go and let Theris know about the mogu taking up a presence close to Mistfall," she says as she rises, and runs a self-conscious hand over her bold (and heavily enchanted) outfit. "I suppose they're more likely to appreciate his efforts there if they consider it a similar sort of population control with the wolves, and it is, in fairness, a very similar situation, but one he must address day by day."
She gives Lena a smile. "Thank you for your support, Lena. It does matter to me, what you think."
Lena rises as well, and pauses briefly, a little uncertain. She offers Melancholy a hand to shake. "Then I'll always tell you, if you ask. Your thoughts matter to me as well."
Melancholy takes her hand, in a delicate, ladylike clasp with little pressure. "Well, then, I'll be sure to ask and say accordingly." She wiggles her fingers. "I'll see you for lessons this week. Ta-ta."
"Ta-ta," Lena echoes with a smile. "Give Baird and Theris my regards."
"Give Shine mine," Melancholy says, and she glances one more time around the room. Just… in case of invisible Shines.