![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2026-05-21-the-lady-and-the-tiger/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | inkie |
| Summary: | Baird stops by to congratulate his friend Sil on his engagement. To congratulate him on finding out he's engaged, technically. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
It is early evening, just before the dinner hour at the Golden Lantern, and the inn is stirring to life with travelers congregating in the common areas or returning from the day's expeditions. The hubbub of voices is rising like a slow tide in the background while the rich smells of cooking food begin to warm the air.
There is a knock at Sil Silentstep's inn room door.
"Yeah?" comes the voice from inside, and then footsteps as Sil crosses over the small room to crack open the door.
Waiting in the corridor outside is Bryn Baird. He's been leaning casually against the wall by Sil's door but straightens as the door opens a crack, and flashes a grin. "Hey. You busy?" He shows Sil the bottle of liquor he's carrying. His hair is damp and he has a freshly-scrubbed, soap-scented air about him; he's dressed neatly in his canvas work trousers and lace-up boots, a white shirt and his blue uniform jacket.
"Not to a friend bearing gifts," Sil says with a grin, opening the door wider. "Come on in."
Inside, Sil has done not all that much in the way of personalizing his single inn room. He's living out of a suitcase, armor is stacked on the little shelf along a wall, and the bed is clumsily made. There is, however, the standard table and two chairs. He quickly moves the case of throwing knives that was cluttering up the table and gestures for Baird to come in and make himself at home.
Baird does not seem to find living out of one's suitcase peculiar. He does side-eye the untidy bed, though. That's not military regulation, pal.
He sets the bottle down on the table. "It's aged sake. Aszera introduced me to it. Thought it would be good for a celebration." He flashes another quicksilver smile. "I didn't bring glasses, though, so unless you've got some, might not be a classy celebration."
"Aze knows her drink for sure, though she's in a lot better place with it now," Sil chuckles, and rummages in his suitcase. He comes up with a pair of metal cups. "I don't keep much around, but I've got camping supplies. This'll work for it, yeah?"
"You know I'm not fussy," Baird says. "You've known Aszera a while?"
"Yeah, a few years now," Sil says, settling in at the table and setting out the metal cups. "Met her back in Shattrath, when she was healing up still, I guess. Didn't know the whole of it for a while, just thought she was injured. That is, she was injured, but I guess I didn't know the reasons."
"Oh, yeah. With the demon." Baird's tone suggests this is a very normal affliction; he says it the same way he might say, Oh, yeah, with the flu.
He opens the bottle and pours a measure of the fragrant amber liquor into each of the metal cups, then takes a seat himself and picks up one of the cups. "So," he says, and raises the cup in salute to Sil. "To your engagement."
"To my engagement," Sil says with a crooked grin, holding up the glass and then tossing back the sake. He takes a moment to savor it, and maybe recover. He's more a beer and wine guy. Then he looks back to Baird and adds, "And may we be celebrating yours one day soon."
"Shit," says Baird, and laughs, settling back in his chair. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know about soon." He drinks. "You didn't tell me the other night you were going to propose to her."
"I… uh… I'm not sure I did, in so many words?" Sil says, twisting the cup in his fingers. "I mean, I meant to marry her, I told you as much. But I feel like we just sort of… passed some threshold along the way? Maybe when I agreed to take her name. Or when we set the date… I really need to get her a ring."
"You agreed to take… wait, you didn't get her a… hold up. Did you or did you not propose? You aren't sure?" Baird stares.
"Not, like, in so many words," Sil says. "I asked if she'd consider me as a suitor, a romantic partner. And she agreed. And then… everything else sort of followed? I'm not really sure when we started being engaged. I'm happy about it, though, and I guess that takes a load off of worrying about the moment."
Baird's focus alters slightly and he gazes through Sil as he takes another sip of his drink. "When you say 'everything else sort of followed….' I mean, after I talked to you about courting, I asked Melancholy. To court her. With intent, I said, because that's what you said, but — am I engaged? Am I just going to… be engaged, at some point? Not that — I mean, hell, not that I'm not happy for you. Because you're happy, and Lady Cressidha seems…." Baird considers his language judiciously. "She seems like quite a lady."
"She is," Sil says earnestly, and reaches for the aged sake. "I'm not…. sure how it'd work for Melancholy. So like, back when I was a Sullivan, it wouldn't have been a proposal at all. There'd have been meetups for us to get to know one another, but the marriage would've been more like… a business deal, maybe? Between her parents and mine. But now I've got no parents, so I wonder if William and Clara like, did up the contract after we met? But then, surely they'd have told me, yeah?"
Baird sips his drink thoughtfully. "I am pretty sure you can't be party to a contract you didn't sign yourself. You don't remember signing a contract?"
"No, I never signed anything," Sil pours himself a little bit more, for sipping. "I'll sort it out though. Once Colson's back from the mantid situation, I'll ask him about a ring. Maybe an arrangement like a snowflake, to go with her necklace? And then we can talk to her parents about the wedding planning."
"You're supposed to ask her brother about a ring?" This is becoming more and more puzzling, says Baird's tone.
"Oh, not because…" Sil laughs, and takes a sip of the sake. "Not a custom or anything. Just he's a jeweler, and her twin brother. I think it's nice when it's made by someone who loves you — and I can't make a ring."
"Right, okay." Baird laughs too. "That makes more sense. That's nice. You set a date, you said?"
"Yeah," Sil says, and his smile brightens. "Sometime in the autumn. So not a date exactly. But a season. This coming autumn." He sips again, and then says, "I think you could probably ask Melancholy about how she'd like to be proposed to, or what she thinks a proposal is."
"You don't think it's… pretty early to talk about proposing?" Baird asks. "It seems like the kind of thing I can't just really say, 'Hey, what kind of proposal do you want?' and then just back-pocket that information for another year or two."
"You could raise it as a hypothetical?" Sil suggests. "Like, have you ever thought of what you dreamed your engagement would be like? Your wedding? I think some girls like to talk about stuff like that. And if she doesn't, well, good to know that too."
"Some girls do talk about stuff like that, I think," Baird agrees. "Usually they only talk about it with the guy they're dating in pretty specific contexts, though. I don't think there's a casual way to bring up dream weddings with your girlfriend." Baird considers. "Is there?"
"What would be easiest is if there was another wedding or engagement or something, which would make it natural to bring up the subject," Sil says, taking a sip of his sake. He blinks. "Uh, you know, like mine and Sidha's."
Baird laughs and lifts his glass in another small salute before drinking again. "That's really considerate of you, Sil, getting married to help me out like that."
"What can I say?" Sil says with a chuckle. "I try to help out my friends. But I don't think she'll be caught too off guard, with that, and with you two discussing the whole courting thing recent, too."
"Yeah," says Baird, and reaches for the bottle to pour himself some more. "So. What did you think of Melancholy?"
"She's… well, she seems like a hell of a lady. Sort that can get on with folk like Lena and Aszera and Lady Alaisa's brother. She also almost seems… like an actress?" Sil sounds uncertain. "All the purple and the warlocking and the poetry, like it's carefully practiced. But then, I guess everyone decides what act to put on for other people."
Baird has a drink and nods. "It's not an act," he says. "It's… her 'book cover,' is how she puts it. She wants all of that — the black and the poetry and so on — up front so people know whether she's their kind of thing. Doesn't want to waste time on people who'd find out all of it and judge her or brush her off. So she presents herself a particular, purposeful way, to weed out people who're put off by that kind of thing."
He drinks again and then says thoughtfully to his glass, "She is the most Herself person I've met, in a lot of ways. But yeah." He shrugs affably. "Seems a little eccentric when you meet all that at first. And nobody's got to like her. Including you. That's the point of the book cover."
"I mean, I like most people," Sil says, taking another sip. "Everybody's got their own little quirks and things, things that make them interesting. In that way, it's neat to see somebody who wears everything on the surface like that, take it or leave it. Maybe that's what I was getting at, I couldn't tell if it was a book cover or a different sort of cover. Though from what you say, I guess it's just that she's like one of those book covers with like the big gothic text and the lady fighting a tiger on it, instead of one with no pictures and plain font, hiding what it's about inside."
Baird sits back in his chair and laughs. "'Big gothic text and the lady fighting a tiger,' yeah, that's right. Probably not everyone's thing. So people who aren't into that kind of book can go find a different one. I'm interested as hell in a gothic printface tiger-fighting lady." He grins at Sil.
Sil grins back. "Then I'm looking forward to seeing what all's in the book. In, you know, a friend of her boyfriend kind of way. Maybe the four of us could hang out sometime? You and Melancholy and me and Sidha. No idea where we'll all scatter once we save the Vale — which is for sure gonna happen now we're all on it — but we'll always have Stormwind as a meeting point, if nothing else."
"I'd like that a lot," Baird says. "Haven't hung out with you since Northrend, and Northrend was… not a lot of 'hanging out.' And I'd like to get to know your girl better. She seems smart as hell."
"Yeah, Northrend didn't leave us so much time just for fun things," Sil says with a slight smile. "Maybe we can plan something like — well, I don't know if Melancholy would be up for that, and I guess it's still to be seen if Sidha enjoys it, too. Maybe we could go for a swimming trip? The water here is pretty clear and amazing. Or a picnic."
Baird does not answer immediately, and gazes into his glass for a moment. He nods and looks up. "Yeah, either of those. Or both. Sounds good. Melancholy is just… she's learning to swim. That swimsuit I mentioned, that Cressidha made for her."
"Oh, yeah?" Sil says, and then considers. "Cressidha probably knows how to swim. She's definitely done it with Cobalt. I don't know if it's a thing she'd do for fun, but I could ask. Picnic's probably a pretty solid idea."
Baird nods and tips back his drink. "Let's make it happen, then. Find out if Cressidha swims and we can make it a lakeshore picnic. If not or she doesn't want to, there's plenty of good picnic scenery around."
"Sure, that sounds like a good time," Sil says with a smile. "So Melancholy's interested in swimming? I guess that makes sense, apprenticed to Lena. But for fun, or just for like… ship safety?"
"She decided to learn for ship safety, yeah. You know Captain Fallon likes all his people to be swimmers. But I think she's enjoying it, too," says Baird. "And it's been a good time, teaching her."
"Yeah? Nice swimsuits?" Sil says with a good-natured grin. "Here's a good place to practice, anyway, with the water as calm as it is. Bit different with waves and wind and salt."
"Yeah, we haven't advanced that far yet. Just down at the little pond right outside to the south there, or up at the lake above Mistfall Village. She's coming along pretty well. Confident, at least." In other words, she still swims kind of like a distressed otter fighting off saurok, but she's pretty sure she'll get those saurok.
"Yeah? That's a pretty place," Sil considers. "I might suggest it as a camping spot, if we wouldn't be in your way. And confident's half the battle in learning anything, being willing to go all in and find out what mistakes you can make."
Baird nods agreement. "And yeah, it'd be a nice place for camping." He pauses, watching Sil steadily. "'We?' You going camping with…?"
"With Sidha, yeah," Sil nods. "Not like going out to live in the wilderness. I figured just a one night trip to start with, see if she enjoys it. She suggested, actually, because I used to live out in my tent sometimes, in Outland and in Northrend. I always found it really peaceful."
"Is that okay? For her to go out overnight alone with you?" Baird asks. It is the curiosity tone: Hey Siri…?
"I… think so?" Sil sounds uncertain. "She did suggest. I don't know, things have seemed a little less strict since that day we went out, when I found out I was engaged." He smiles, a dreamy look, and adds, "We kissed."
"Yeah," says Baird. "Well, that's — wait." He stares at Sil, an intent, silent scrutiny. After a slightly overlong pause, he says cautiously, "Like — but not for the first time, though."
"I shouldn't have — I don't want to say anything to harm Cressidha's reputation. It won't go any farther than us, yeah?" Sil looks a little concerned, but probably not about the same thing as Baird. "But yeah, I'd understood all that would be after marriage. I'd kissed her hand before, obviously."
Baird sits up in his chair and sets his glass down, still staring at Sil. "You've been planning to marry her but you hadn't… kissed her. Until yesterday. And it might… hurt her reputation. If people found out you kissed her." Each is delivered as a statement but it's clear from the pauses and Baird's expression that they are in fact a series of questions because he isn't sure he's grasped the facts.
"Yeah, yeah… and uh, yeah to all those," Sil says, looking at Baird in confusion. "It's noble stuff. They run things different than we might, but Cressidha and I loosen things where we need. Like, we've not had a chaperone when we've spent time together, not since at first."
Baird is silent for a while, staring impassively through Sil. "I didn't realize," he says at last, "that you couldn't even… you didn't even kiss her? Feel like I should not have talked to you about Melancholy, then, if it's that bad for a lady's reputation."
"I would not gossip about a lady," Sil says, resting his hand over his heart. "You don't got to worry about that. Nobody'll hear anything about her from me." He reconsiders. "I mean, nothing that would harm her reputation. I'm not like, going to pretend I've not met her. People will hear non-private stuff from me."
"Yeah, but I hope I didn't give you the wrong idea about her either. Melancholy's a lady. She's a good girl. If she did stuff she shouldn't've, that's on me." Baird studies Sil. "I am not trying to sound like an asshole — you know I'm not an asshole, I hope? — but it's weird as hell to me that you would agree to marry a girl you never even kissed. What if you married her and then it… wasn't great? Or it turns out she doesn't like it, doesn't want anything to do with it? Would you step out on her?" Baird looks doubtful. "I wouldn't like to, but I know some noblemen do it and people just act like they don't notice."
"I would never," Sil says earnestly. "You know me, right? I'm not that kind of asshole either. I'd say…" he pauses, considering his words carefully. "I don't have to kiss a girl to know that I want to. And if we got married and kissed and it… wasn't great, we'd figure it out, right? Because by then we'd know each other, we'd be able to talk about how to make it better for each other. Or if she just decided she wasn't into all of it, or not into me…" Sil's gaze goes a little hundred-yard stare. "I guess I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed everything would work out?"
"Damn," says Baird. "I mean… damn, Sil." This is why you should confer with your bros, Sil. "I guess lucky for you it's — " He pauses. There was that dreamy look, but…. "It is lucky for you, yeah? Seems okay?"
"Yeah, for sure," Sil says immediately. "She's wonderful, in all ways. I don't have to worry about it, yeah? Because we do work together like that."
"Okay." Baird relaxes, settles back, pours himself another drink. "Very lucky you, then," he says, and raises his glass again to Sil. That was a close call, buddy.
"Yeah, lucky me," Sil says with a smile, and raises his glass to clink with Baird's. "Or really, considering Melancholy, lucky both of us."
"Very lucky us," Baird agrees, and clinks his glass.