Adventures of Jessa

22

Alaric comes from the back room when he hears his shop door open. "Jessa! You're back already. How was the trip? Not to many bandits were there?" Alaric asks even as he moves forward to hug his granddaughter.

"It was alright until we got to Silva. Some assassins dressed as bandits managed to kill two of the guards to Silva and damn near killed Prince Dhiren here."

"Jessa saved my life that day, sir. You have an incredible granddaughter." Dhiren says respectfully. He does feel an aura of power coming from the older man before him, but if he didn't know why he never would have guessed it.

Alaric raises his eyebrow, "Prince Dhiren? The same prince that exiled my Jessa from Silva?"

Dhiren stiffens up at the words and only relaxes as Jessa hits Alaric in the stomach. "You know as well as I do that he really didn't have a choice, Alaric. Dhiren and his parents did me a favor by sending me out and not sending me empty handed. Most other people would have and you know it."

Alaric gives her a sheepish smile and nods to Dhiren. "She is, of course, correct. It was time for her to stretch her wings and learn to fly. Please come in, will you be staying long in Castlerock, Prince Dhiren?" Alaric motions for Dhiren and his granddaughter to go on back.

"Go back to the inn. I'm sure that Jessa will be adequate protection for me until I return."

"You are staying? Well then you'll stay here. Go back to the inn and bring the Prince's things back here. I have room for two of your guards that can stay as well, Prince." Alaric says thoughtfully.

The guards look to Dhiren to see if they should do as the old man tells them to. Dhiren nods. "Bring Sorsha's things and Kelton, you bring your things back as well." Kelton nods and the group heads out.

"You are having Sorsha stay here?" Jessa says in surprise.

"Yes, she is in favor of us courting and she likes you. I'm giving her a chance to redeem herself from the bullying she did to you as you grew up."

Jessa smirks at this but doesn't say anything to the prince.

Alaric listens to the things being said but holds his tongue until he is able to show the prince to his room and the room where his guards will be staying.

Then he takes them back to the sitting room and has them get comfortable as he brings out some wine and cheese. "We'll have a decent meal in a couple of hours, but for now I hope this will be satisfactory?"

Alaric hands the wine and when Dhiren tastes it he is shocked. "This is a very rare vintage indeed, Alaric. You are honoring me a great deal by sharing this with me."

"Well now, it isn't every day that the prince of the moon elves comes visiting and he being my granddaughter's boyfriend."

Dhiren actually finds himself blushing and looking down. "Yeah, Jessa just gave her consent at the last celebration. It was the day after the celebration that she took down the assassins and saved my life."

Alaric then has the two tell him about the assassination attempt and what Jessa did. He looks over Jessa's arm to make sure that the healing is correct and complete. He nods to himself as he looks it over.

"The group that tried to enter Silva was likely dragon kin of some kind. It bothers me greatly that there are so many of them."

"It bothers me that they are so daring as to try to infiltrate Silva." Jessa mutters but the other two heard her clearly.

Dhiren gives her a small smile. He knows it hurt her that she wasn't able to save the two guards.

"It bothers me that they knew that I was outside of the forest. They were some distance away, they shouldn't have been able to see me and very few knew that I would be there. Those that did were and are trusted leaders.

"It doesn't make sense that they would betray our own people. That they would be willing to betray Silva."

Alaric looks at the two that are seated next to each other thoughtfully. "I don't think that they knew you were there Prince, I think that it was far more likely an attack of opportunity and not necessarily against you. I think that their target might have actually been Jessa here and they just ended up targeting you instead.

"You were sparring correct?"

Dhiren and Jessa both nod, looking thoughtful themselves. "There was a great deal of movement between you two?"

"Of course, there always is when sparring." Jessa says a bit impatiently. She had never considered the idea that she might have been the intended target. She doesn't understand why she would be...

"They found out that I'm dragon kin, that I'm half dragon." Jessa says softly, almost ill at the thought.

"Perhaps. It's more likely that they heard rumors of a human child having been taken in and raised by the elves after the attack against the human village."

"That still doesn't explain the reason behind them targeting her. They couldn't have known that she was the child that was raised by elves." Dhiren protests to Alaric and Jessa.

Alaric snorts, "There are many people in Silva that hate humans, Prince, it wouldn't be hard to find one of them that would be willing to give her up. Nor would it be hard to find someone among the caravaners and guards that would mention that there is a female guard that has a writ of passage through Silva. They might not be terribly bright, but they will eventually put things together."

"That is, if they are looking for a human that was raised by elves," Dhiren argues back. "Why would they care anyway? Most humans sneer as much at elves as elves sneer at humans."

"Hmm, that is true, you elves have made it so that the humans think you are all a bunch of arrogant asses." Alaric muses out loud and doesn't care if he offends the prince or not.

Dhiren bites his tongue. Alaric might be a bit tactless with the wording but the sentiment is true. It is something the elves have fostered for some time. The sun elves or so called high elves are even worse. They even look down on the moon elves.

Just thinking about his cousins makes Dhiren sneer in disdain.

"Why would they care if a human is raised by elves, grandfather?"

"What? Oh, I'm not sure. At least not fully sure. Have you elves gleaned any further information about the attack that killed my daughter-in-law?"

Dhiren frowns and his lips thin out in anger, "Yeah, and none of it is good. The ones that attacked were likely blue dragon kin. No way to know for sure now since they are long dead, but we believe that it was the blue dragon deity that made it so they could attack without us noticing and stopping the attack. We believe that it was likely Jethro that removed the magical help and allowed us to see the end of the attack, but he didn't do so in time for us to save any other than Jessa."

Jessa stares at the prince in shock. She hadn't known any of this. Well not about the dragon kin being the ones to attack her mother's village. And most definitely not the interference of the two deities.

"But why? If he was willing to intercede, why didn't he do it in time to save my mother?"

Dhiren can only shake his head, but he sees something in Alaric's  eyes that makes him think that Alaric knows more than he's letting on.

"Possibly just because you are half dragon, Jessa.

"Now, dinner is in an hour and you two will likely want to bathe first. Jessa show our guest to the bathing chambers. You'll need to dress up tonight, we'll be having company, more than your boyfriend and his guards." Alaric tells them and shoos them out of the room as he leaves to check out the new lead.

Jessa looks at Alaric in confusion before shaking herself out of her stupor and motions for Dhiren to move forward.