First Dates and Futures

Writers: Aaron, Heather
Date Posted: 4th September 2021

Characters: Suynie, Wirnan
Description: Wirnan finally overcomes his worry and tells Suynie how he feels.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 9, day 20 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Bryvin, Yriadha

Suynie

Wirnan

Sunstone was safe. As safe as any place could be. No one was going to come after him now. So waiting any longer was not going to do anyone any good.

Wirnan had spent an inordinate amount of his free time trying to draft the perfect letter to leave for Suynie, but eventually he decided that simple was best. Flowery language could come later. Maybe.

The letter read as such:

Suynie,

Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner tonight or at your earliest convenience?

Wirnan

Suynie flushed with pleasure when she received the letter from Sunstone's Steward. Vtols fluttered in the pit of her stomach and she made herself exhale slowly as she looked up into the small mirror on her dresser. In the two Turns since her husband had gone missing at sea, she had not dated or even entertained the thought of another man. Her sole focus had been on obtaining work to support herself and her only son. Being hired as the Foster Mother of Lord Bryvin's children had been a great boon for her as it had allowed her to escape the penury of scrubbing floors in the Hold's kitchen to earn her keep.

So far she had found Steward Wirnan to be a kind and respectful man and he didn't have that air of intimidation about him that she found when she was around Lord Bryvin.

"I would be delighted." She wrote back, sending the letter with the firelizard that waited. Turning, she excitedly began rifling through her clothes for one of her better dresses.

Wirnan was prepared and dressed the best he could without looking like he was attending a wedding when Suynie arrived. He had candles lit and a fancy dinner prepared, waiting beneath metal covers to keep it warm.

"Thank you for coming," he said as he showed her inside. "Welcome." He smiled to see her. "You look absolutely lovely this evening."

"Thank you," she murmured, eyelashes fluttering downward as she looked at the intimate setup. "This is beautiful."

"Thank you," Wirnan answered. Stars above, but she was the beautiful one. He grinned and said, "The kitchens were very kind to help me with the food. Come. Won't you sit with me, please." He gestured to the table and pulled Suynie's chair out for her.

Suynie brushed her seagreen skirt out of the way as she took the offered seat. "Have you had a busy day?" she asked, running her fingers along the fine tablecloth.

"No busier than usual," Wirnan answered as he poured wine for the two of them. This was so much easier, felt so much more natural, than when he had the silly idea to try to court Yriadha for... what, political reasons? Embarrassing. He would leave remembering that to another time. For the time being, he was going to enjoy his time with Suynie.

"And you?" he asked. "How was your day?" He would much rather listen to Suynie speak than talk about his own work.

"Full," she admitted with a lift of her eyebrows and a little smirk. "The Lord's children are growing more rambunctious. Eager to explore, to learn, to be entertained." That was all natural, of course, but it was also exhausting.

"That's good news," said Wirnan. "Tiring as it must certainly be." Happy, healthy children were an important part of any well-run hold. "Lucyien is doing well, too, I hope?"

"Yes, he just began formal harper lessons. He's loving them. I worried about if he would be behind the other children socially, since we changed locations after his father disappeared, but the harper teacher assures me that he's fitting in just fine." Lucyien was the most important thing in Suynie's life and the dearest gift she'd been given by her late husband.

"You must be so proud of him," said Wirnan with a warm smile. "I'm happy to hear he's doing well. If there's ever anything I can do for... Well. I know Lord Bryvin would never let you lack for anything." He blushed and took a drink of his wine.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Famished." Suynei said with a smile. "I would never ask Lord Bryvin for anything," she said, commenting on his earlier remark. "I find him much too intimidating."

"I can understand that," Wirnan conceded. Bryvin could be... intense. But he was a good man. Wirnan uncovered the food and set the covers aside.

"In that case, I hope you will feel safe to ask me if there is anything you need. How does the food look?" It certainly smelled amazing.

Suynie studied the kind lines of Wirnan's face and decided that she _could_ ask him for things without fear of reprisal... or an expectation of something in return. "It looks and smells amazing. The cooks do a fantastic job here, don't they?"

"Absolutely brilliant," Wirnan agreed, and it was not at all an overstatement. He had never lived anywhere with a kitchen staff quite like Sunstone. Wirnan believed they truly were something special.

"By all means, dig in!" he laughed. "Don't let me keep you waiting." He drank more of the wine and then began cutting into his meat.

"So tell me about yourself, Wirnan," Suynie said after taking her first bite of the succulently prepared fish on her plate. "Where did you grow up? Were you married before? Do you have children?"

"Oh, ah. Right, yes," said Wirnan as he wiped his mouth with his cloth napkin. "No children," he said. "Lord Bryvin is my cousin, you see. I grew up at Amethyst Cliff. With my grandparents."

"They encouraged me to take up the steward's profession. I moved around quite a bit after they– after they passed. Served as a steward at a backwoods place. And then at Amber Hills."

"What happened after that was a bit of a complex affair. A woman strongarmed me into a marriage, claiming that we had... Well. Been intimate. When we had not. But I had no way to refute her claim, and we were married."

"We eventually came to an understanding, and I tried by very best to make it work. But she was never committed to the relationship, either – someone else had forced _her_ into it. Though about that, I didn't find out until after I found she had been with another man and left."

"For some time after that, I went into hiding to evade the, ah. The conspirator who set all that into motion. Lord Bryvin's sanctuary here finally saw me safe from it. And will see you safe to hear of it, though I must ask you to keep this between us."

"I hope that's not... Not too much to bear. But I want you to know the truth. I don't want to ever lie to you." Of course, there were truths he would not be able to tell, but that was part of a Steward's work.

Suynie's eyes had grown larger during the story. She had expected some run of the mill upbringing, but his story was quite the opposite of ordinary. "My goodness," she said as she digested all of the information. "I hate that you had so many Turns taken from you when you could have been finding a woman you loved and settling down but... I'm not sorry that it brought you here to Sunstone." She blushed a little.

"I'm very glad that I am here right now," Wirnan answered with a soft smile. "I don't think there's anyplace out there quite like here. Nor anyone else out there quite like you."

The foster mother good-naturedly rolled her eyes and waved her napkin at him. "Off with you, I know tall tales when I hear them." She giggled a little, the wine making her head feel pleasantly soft and fluffy.

Wirnan chuckled in return and then sat back and smiled. She was adorable.

"That was the hard to believe bit, was it?" he asked, still grinning. "Well, it's true. If it hadn't been for that long road of mine, well. Even if I had found you." She would have been happily married.

"But here in this place and now at this time... I only wish I'd realized what these feelings were a bit sooner."

"You've been busy. Sunstone is a busy place." Suynie said in his defense. "It's nice to look forward to the possibility of something new though, isn't it?"

"I appreciate the grace," said Wirnan, smiling still but blushing as well. "Then... it is a possibility?" he asked.

"Absolutely, my lord steward," she said, raising her glass to him with a wink.

Wirnan breathed a happy sigh of relief followed by a chuckle. He lifted his glass in return.

"Oh, just plain old Wirnan is fine," he said. "Unless I get to call you my Lady Suynie."

The lady in question lifted her eyebrows. "Oh, I quite like the sound of that."

Last updated on the October 1st 2021

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