a long rest

"So, Mihriel," Yesenya rested an arm around the wood elf's shoulder. "Are you going to tell us about your boy toy that caused your equally beautiful and stupid children?"

"He was not a boy toy, thank you very much." Mihriel scowled but there was no heat behind her words. She looked up at her companions, Yesenya and Deldin sat on either side of her, Finn across the firepit with Xan cleaning his blade. Thankfully, her daughter was more interested in searching the area than sitting with them as they waited for the food to cook. 

Thalma and Illysrin both had heard enough stories that Mihriel thought they had grown tired of them. "If you _really_ wish to know, I suppose I can tell you about him..."

Finn offered up a small smile as he took a drink from his water skin. "Look, if you're not comfortable, Mihriel, you don't have to tell us. You've said so much about him but so little at the same time, I'm curious myself."

Mihriel opened her mouth, closed it, and her jaw clenched as she weighed her options. "I apologize if it ever gets annoying, me talking about an old flame as I do. I am still... 'hung up' on him."

The flames licked up the sides of the iron pot they sat around and Mihriel watched them closely, not wanting to meet anyone's eyes. "We met when I was only 100 or so," Yesenya craned forward, her mouth curled in an excited grin, "I was washing clothes at the river and he had snuck his way out of one of those high class parties. You know the ones. Where the rich shake hands and make deals all the while plotting ways to stab each other behind the back."

"Thee, uh, town I lived in, the high elves lived on this hill, and everyone else lived around it. Basically forests to one side, farms to another... Anyways, he was trudging down this hill, ranting to himself, and as he made it to the river, I realized he didn't see me or my friend, Alma. We sat there and kept cleaning, trying to ignore this boy who was red in the face with frustration."

Mihriel smiled as she thought back to the day she had met him. "We were doing well for five or so minute before he decided to start kicking stones. I don't think he realized how slippery river rocks got when wet. He fell on his ass on the second kick." She tried to hold in her laughter, but it came out like a peal of bells. 

"Alma and I started giggling and he saw us. We froze but after a moment he started laughing too and got up to introduced himself." The wood elf rolled her eyes and put on a voice as she spoke. "'Lord Sehwyn Tahlreth of House Akeneahymn, esteemed first son of Keremar Tahlreth of House Akeneahymn. I told him his name was quite the mouthful, and he told us to call him Sehwyn. 'Say when?' I asked him. 'Sehwyn,' he told me."

Mihriel might have melted, if she were made of butter. "He had these gorgeous sunny copper eyes, hair as dark and inky as a night with no stars. And his smile." She rubbed her jaw tenderly, thinking back to Sehwyn’s smile, "his smile always made my heart race, even from the beginning."

"So... it was, ah, what do you call it here? Love at first sight, yes?" Yesenya asked curiously.

"I don't know if it was love at first sight, but I knew that we'd change each other." Mihriel chuckled. 

"Change each other?" Deldin, previously quiet, looked up at the cleric.

Mihriel stood, the joints in her knees cracking as she began stirring the stew. There was a slight smile on her face as she tried to explain what she meant. "Yes... It is a wood elf saying, as far as I know. Or perhaps it was just a saying in my community. It vaguely translates to... 'To know someone is to change.' And if you especially care for someone, 'to change is to be loved.'"  

"And just from that interaction, you knew you were going ‘to change?’ That sounds absolutely ridiculous. You surfacers have such odd customs and sayings.” The drow blew air from her mouth and her bangs ruffled from the effect.

“Sometimes, you just know. Other times it sneaks up on you, and you don’t realize how much you care for something until it’s gone.” The cleric smiled sadly, sitting back on the log. “After sixty years of knowing each other, suddenly _not_ knowing or having someone is… very difficult.”

“That and him being my first love is probably why I’m still so…” She sighed again, pressing the meat of her hands against her eyelids. “I used to be better at keeping my mouth shut about him. I’d hardly say a word unless the children were curious. Sometimes I’d go years without uttering his name, but now that I'm adventuring, it feels like all of the things I never said keep tumbling out. I wonder if he’s adventuring too, if he broke free of his father’s grasps, if he followed his dreams…” 

She swallowed thickly and her voice warbled as she spoke. “I wonder if he misses me as much as I miss him, I wonder if he’s looking for me or if he’s moved on, gotten married, had more children.” There was something so sad, the way Mihriel laughed. “He always said that when we married, he’d take my last name, since he was tired of being a Tahlreth.” 

Mihriel scowled as tears brimmed in her eyes. “We were so close to gathering enough coin to leave that wretched place, but we got sloppy. He had gotten me a job in his house so I could earn more money and another one of the maids caught us. Told his father. There was pandemonium in the villa, and we had to run. Sehwyn gave me his coin pouch just as his father grabbed him and I weaseled my way to a stagecoach. That was the last time I ever set foot in that town. I found out I was pregnant after getting to Beregost. What a horrible, _wonderful_ thing that was.”

”Fuck,” Finn jumped at the sound of Mihriel cursing. “I’m sorry,” she said weakly. “I’m so sorry about unloading this on you all. I know you asked about him, but I,-” Mihriel cut herself off, biting her tongue again. “I apologize for getting so emotional.”

“Well, if he did die that day, at least he died knowing that you got away safely,” Xan piped up, not looking away from the shiny edge of his blade.

For once, Mihriel laughed at the high elf’s somber words. “I suppose you are right, though I hate to think of that.”