Lucy placed an elegant small chest in front of the startled Lea, the princess feline features make her look as if a predator was staring at its prey. Lea hesitated for a moment, and then she opened the small chest.
The chest had several items neatly arranged “These two are high quality potions” two delicate looking vials had a vivid red liquid inside “This, you should probably not mention you have it, it is a regeneration potion” the last vial held a dark purple liquid, it was made with a sturdier glass, Lea turned to the princess with confusion on her face.
“It it’s an extremely rare potion, it could regrow a lost limb or organ if it’s applied quickly” the lady recoiled from the potion “I heard it is extremely painful though” everyone around the room looked at the purple potion with interest, but the princess carried on with her explanation.
“These are message scrolls, I’ll explain to you later how to use them, but they will work for long distances, though you may need an extra source of mana for it. There’s also a heat rune rock, a mana stone and a truth stone” the princess pointed a the three uninteresting rocks on the chest “Lastly, but more importantly, the key” the princess placed a weird key on the lady’s hand “The chest and key will only ever open for you, I’ll show you how you will attune with it, without so many prying eyes” the princess had a mischievous grin, as she turned and saw that everyone was looking at them, Lea nodded slowly “A gift for my friend’s friend, whom I hope, will also be my friend”
“There was no need for this, to be friends” Lea said as she closed the chest and took Lucy’s hand to her surprise “Thank you princess Lucylle, may I call you Lucy?” the feline smile of the princess was her response.
Frey looked around at the very personal gifts, the princesses had taken their time to pick them, she turned and saw Aedrik was also surprised by them, how was he so different, when they had gone to the market, he had a very vague idea of what to give them, for all he cared about his sisters, he was, not so thorough… she was hesitant of the princesses response once he gave them what he had bought at the market, and he would say with his enchanting smile, that she had helped in picking them, her nervousness had returned.
“Wait, we are still not finished” Lucy took Frey from her thoughts “Though Sir Remy and Lois are not here, we hoped you could take the gifts in their place” Lucy turned to see Lean and Anne, princess Vania had already taken two more boxes from the bag of holding.
“These gifts were sent by father” princess Luna explained, and she went to open the boxes so everyone could see what was inside.
“For Sir Lois, a shield forged with ashen steel of the Empire” Vania took a round shield, it had no graving or any kind, a simple shield, but ashen steel was famous for how light and sturdy it was.
“Thank you, princesses” Anne replied immediately “Please extend my gratitude to your father as well”
“For Sir Remy, a sword of truth” it was a short sword, a plain design, the famous swords of the Cretan truth guards “the center of the blade will go darker if someone is lying”
“Thank you, princesses, my dad will treasure it” The still startled Lea gave the princesses a deep bow.
“Though we have not yet the pleasure of meeting with your mothers, we brought a gift for them” princess Lucy had two small silk bags and gave one to Lea and to Anne “These is a seed of a gloom orchard, the fruit is incredibly sweet, our mother loved them, we hope your mothers would take them” Frey saw her two friends at a loss for words.
“Thank you, princesses, but this is wrong, Frey is right, Aedrik should have said something” Lea turned part embarrassed part flustered at Aedrik.
“No, no, no backsies now” Lucy leaned in over Lea, who just nodded.
“And last, to you, master librarian Emeryn” princess Vania took a crystal box and gave it to her younger sister. Luna gave the box to Mrs. Emeryn who looked delighted at it.
“On behalf of our family, we thank you, master librarian Emeryn. You extended a hand to our family” Luna opened the crystal box, inside was an exquisite quill, the feather was deep dark blue in color, the base was covered with some ivory material, and it was engraved by countless magical runes, Frey saw Mrs. Emeryn eying at the quill with longing.
“A self-writing quill of Elevandria?” Frey felt a rush of envy.
“Aedrik said you would recognize it, it is master librarian Emeryn, the best enchanters in the empire worked to reinforce the original enchantment” the princess explained.
“I cannot accept this gift, this, is a heirloom, a relic of the high elven kingdom”
“That is true, but it was made to be used, master librarian, it was our aunt who secured it, and our father who ordered for it to be on proper conditions” Vania added, Frey saw the look of dismay in the older lady.
“Please, accept it, master librarian” Lucy bowed, and her sisters did the same, Frey saw Aedrik smiling.
“Thank you, this gift, I took on Aedrik’s request because I liked him, and I care for Frey” Mrs. Emery was flustered, Frey had rarely seen the composed librarian this way.
“It is just a quill, Mrs. Emeryn, we felt there was no one else who would truly appreciate it for what it does” Aedrik added, and Frey saw the librarian slowly accepting the gift.
“I will need to ask for a magical reinforcement of the library, just because of this…” Frey had read about self-writing quills, they were very rare, Elevandria had been the greatest elven kingdom in the continent, broken by dragon fire, the quill was valuable as a relic, but to reinforce the library enchantments? It was one of the safest places on the capital already.
“If we can provide any assistance, please let us know” Vania added, and the librarian nodded.
“Well, with that we finished the first part of our greeting” princess Lucy was radiant, and she turned to look at Frey with her fangs on top of her smile “and now, it is your turn Frey”
Frey felt like running, but Aedrik held her smiling, enchanted. Vania took the bag of holding from the chair, and her sister placed another one.
“There was a lengthy discussion on the order of the gifts for you Frey, in the end we settled down by age” Lucy explained, her sisters had taken several things from the bag of holding, nine beautifully decorated wooden boxes were laid in front of her.
“Finally, my turn” Pan took the first box and brought it to her “This one is from my mother, cousin” Aedrik moved to leave her space. Frey took the box with both hands, inside was a golden twig.
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“That is a dormant infant treant. It is and offspring off Eliran, the summer guardian and my mother’s treant. My mother hoped you would plant it wherever you will call your home, so that it will accompany you and keep it safe. It will take some time to grow, you should plant it where he can lay his main roots, don’t worry you don’t need to water it or anything, until you decide where to plant it” Pan stopped for a moment “I recommend you invite my mother when you decide to do it” Frey knew Pan’s mother was a mighty druid.
“Thank you Pan, please tell your mother I will take care of it properly, and I hope I can thank her personally soon”
“She is dying to know you Frey. I would not always recommend it, but I honestly, think this time you should” Pan said smiling, and Frey, closed carefully the box containing a sleeping treant.
“This one is from father” Luna brought another small box to Frey. Frey opened and found a pendant inside, a Crescent Moon, and a star “For the moon who captured our star” Luna explained. The moon was made in a material she did not know, but it was deep blue, the star on the other hand was black “They were made from a piece of a fallen star that fell in Danan some time ago” Frey took the pendant, gave it to Luna, and move her hair so the princess could place the pedant on her.
“Thank you, princess Luna, is really beautiful” Frey remarked and saw how Luna blushed as they were very close to each other.
“You can call me Luna, if you like”
“Only if you do the same” the princess nodded, and Frey smiled.
“It’s your turn now old man” Lucy said as she took an empty chair, Pan responded with an exaggerated smile.
“Now this is MY present for you, cousin” Pan said as he picked the biggest box among the presents. He places it on the floor in front of Frey “I heard from Aedrik you played what you call a vielle a roue, as it turned out we know it as hurdy-gurdy as it is called in Danan. I know it is not the most appealing of names, but I quite like the music it makes, and so I manage to find not a hurdy gurdy, but a vielle a roue from Loire” as he finished explaining, he opened the box, with a delicate instrument inside it. Frey was surprised by Pan’s gesture he must have had someone looking for the vielle a roue.
She took the vielle a roue from the case, it was very well made. She used to play with one that she had found inside Château Lunebleau, it was an old instrument, but she liked it and she enjoyed playing from time to time.
Frey inspected the vielle a roue and noticed it was probably a bit older than the one she had, but it was kept in an excellent condition, it had been made with some dark rose wood with the decals painted in black, giving it a very eye-catching look.
“Give it a try Frey” Frey was interrupted by Noelle as she was inspecting the instrument. She blushed a bit as she noticed everyone was eying her with curiosity, specially Aedrik.
“Just a piece” Frey placed the vielle a roue properly on her legs, she gave a few turns to the crank and tested the keys, she tuned the instrument just a tad. She played when she felt like, and Noelle, Lea and Anne would sometimes ask her too, even René and her father, but she never had this many people watching, she could not help but blush. She turned and saw Aedrik was still smiling as a little kid at her, and she could not help it.
She started slowly, and began playing a simple Loire lullaby, it was very common and almost everyone knew it. The three princesses had her eyes on her as well. Princess Luna was fascinated by the song, and she noticed so was Ide and Cecile, they had seldom seen her play.
The song did not last long, it was a simple and melodic tune, that let the vielle a roue display its range of tone, and constant flow of sound what a lullaby was meant to do, embrace, and accompany you. Frey was surprised at the clear and booming sound of the instrument, after just a few minutes she stopped, and to her surprised everyone applauded.
“That’s an incredible lovely song, Frey, and you played it so well, how is it call?” Luna asked looking impressed at Frey.
“It’s a Loirian lullaby”
“It is very different than Danan songs, they are more rhythmic than melodic, I liked it very much” Luna was marveled at Frey.
“The song was marvelous” Aedrik said to Frey’s ear, and he hugged her from behind, making her blush even more as everyone was still looking at her.
“Stop it Aedrik, you are embarrassing her” Lucy called on her brother, but Frey saw, Lucy looked at them fondly “We still have a few gifts left, and then we can keep bothering Frey to play some more, won’t you Frey?” Lucy mischievous smile appeared on her face.
“I will, but only if you sing with Aedrik” Frey already knew how to answer, and she saw Lucy hesitate for a moment, but the princess quickly turned to look at Pan.
“Fine” Lucy accepted “We should not have let Pan alone with you, Aedrik is too lenient with him” the young princess said as she sighed loudly.
“The next gift is from Levi” Luna grabbed a small box “He said it was from him and Astra” Aedrik, took the first gift from her, so she could receive Levi’s, she opened and much to her pleasure, a brown leather cover with inscribed runes on it was waiting inside the box “They said this were tales of the zelian knights who rode with the first dragon king of Zel” Frey saw Mrs. Emeryn standing up to have a look at the book she held, the leather was probably made from drakes.
“That’s so unfair, Levi knew he was going to the one of the first, he gets to give a book” Lucy said next to her.
“I don’t mind more books” Frey saw Lucy, looking at her dumbstruck.
“I guess Inkar was right… I am sorry, this one is from Nika and Inkar” Lucy placed slender wooden case “My brother is boring, but his wife is so fierce, she wanted to give you a book since you like to read so much, but we insisted we should give you different things, so, she went with the most traditional Ashran wedding gift”
Frey opened the case, there was a curved medium size dagger, the design was beautiful, and she was certain it was made with ashen steel.
“The dagger marks the making of your home, Inkar says she will explain it to you, when you meet her” Lucy said happily.
“This in from me, lady Frey” the eldest princess had the smallest box of all, she opened to reveal a silver ring inside “This is a umbral ring, I’ll teach you how it is used” Vania closed the box, and give it to her, she had never heard about an umbral ring, but she saw Aedrik looking at his sister more serious, he noticed her and nodded.
“Thank you” the ring was magical that was sure, but even though this was her family, Vania would tell her about what it did later, it showed just how she took things.
“Now, it is time for mine” Frey saw Lucy grinning as she placed her on a chair next to Frey. She opened and inside was a collection of different colored inks, and beautifully parchments of different materials “You love to read Frey, but perhaps, you would care to write, if you ever consider it, you will need nothing else, and you could borrow master librarian quill from time to time” Frey saw the curious eyes of Aedrik’s closest sister, she went hugged her.
“Thank you, Lucy, I will consider it” the princess, returned her embrace.
“If you ever need anything let me know” Lucy spoke on her ear, to low for anyone to hear it, she parted from her still grinning.
“This one is from Ilya” Vania gave her another small box.
“Please excuse my brother, he does not seem to understand that a gift has to be personal, has to matter, he took to much of Ran Ur on himself as he grew up” Lucy said as Frey opened the box to reveal am exquisite necklace made of bluish pearls, they were decorated with silver.
“That’s not true, he spent the entire month deciding on what to give to Frey” Luna admonished her older sister.
“It is extraordinary, thank you, I was hoping he would come to the wedding”
“He might still be able to arrive on time” Vania intervened.
“Let’s hope he does not, he has been insufferable lately” Frey was surprised Lucy was so vocal about her twin brother, Aedrik said he often clashed with Ilya, and she noticed neither of the other sisters refuted Lucy’s comment.
“Last one is mine” Luna took the last box and gave it to Frey; she noticed the princess was more nervous than when she gave the gifts of her family. She opened the last box, inside was a cape, it was made of cotton, it had the same kind of embroidery Aedrik’s clothes had, it was made in the blue color of her house, she took it from the box and saw that it was soft and warm, and it was a cloak more than a cape, she covered herself with it and saw, Aedrik looking at her, with his eyes swollen.
“In the north, the mothers gift a cloak to their son’s wife when they marry, to keep them warm and safe. My mother started the cloak when she heard about it, but she could not finish it, I hope you don’t mind I finished for you” Frey stopped and turned to look at the youngest princess, she was looking straight at her.
“Thank you, Luna. I will treasure it, I…” she went and hugged her sister-in-law, she was almost the same height as her, she felt her embracing her “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart” They stood there for a moment, as they parted, she saw the princess eyes were swollen as well.
“This is all great and what not, but I have not forgotten you, said you were going to play some more of that vielle a rue for us, cousin” Pan said to ease the tension on the air, Frey saw the three princesses, they were going to become her sisters, she was looking forward to it.
“Fair enough” she answered smiling.