Heirot

"Daddy!" Tenara called after him, laughing at her father down below them.

Tenele smiled while she stood next to Tenara. "That's not nice- Tenara no!!" Tenele swooped her arms out, but missed her child entirely. "Vlad!!" The little girl giggled as she fell towards her father.

Vlad reached up and caught his daughter in a soft landing, swinging her around in a ring before setting her down. "Coming, my lady?" he asked his wife casually. "There's something soft over there, if you're nervous." He gestured toward a cart full of grain to the right of the building.

"Its fun mommy!" Tenara called up to her mother, hugging her father's leg while the people around them stopped their shopping to watch.

Tenele stepped up to the edge. Heights didn't bother her. Falling, crashing, breaking something bothered her. She teetered on the edge for a moment and then fell forward off the large Hajaran cathedral.

Vlad winked at his daughter and reached up to catch his wife. He broke her fall with some extra magic and brought her gently to her feet. "Shall we explore?" He invited them, while the folks nearby began to gossip and point.

"Yes!" Tenara replied, reaching up for her father's hand and clutching two of his fingers in her tiny grip. Tenara was fascinated by all the people around her. They seemed so tall. She greeted all that she passed and waved when they waved.

"She isn't afraid of strangers," Tenele sighed to her husband, holding his other hand. Tenele didn't focus on the creeping worry in the back of her mind about the people mixed in the hundreds of people on the streets that might want to harm them or the king in some way. She knew she couldn't let herself be weighed down by that, so she pushed it to the back of her mind and enjoyed the time with her family.

Tenele's hand tightened around his fingers. "How did it go with Sinead?" She lifted his hand to her lips.

Vlad nodded, his expression not sharing very muich. "We got a lot done. She was able to provide some perspective." His eyes settled on her while his other senses remained stretched out, ever monitoring the crowd. "I'd like you two to come on an errand with me."

Tenele smiled and Tenara hopped up and down. "Okay," the child answered well before Tenele could get it out. Tenara was very excited to be out with her parents after they had been gone for so long. She'd missed them, and was up for anything they wanted to do.

"What's the errand?" Tenele asked him curling her arm tighter around his.

Vlad's mouth twitched up at the corners and he gestured sideways, walking them both into a tent on the opposite side of the street. It was a jeweler's tent. An open ceiling let the light in and cast sparkles on the thousand shiny objects inside. Vlad ignored the displays and walked to the corner, where a man was hunched over a desk working with a tiny set o pliers. He glanced up at Vlad with his jeweler's lens still covering his left eye. "You're back, eh?"

Vlad peered over the desk to survey what the man was working on. "Do you have it?"

"Of course," the man said, bending sideways to go through a chest of tiny drawers next to him. "This, yes? I cleaned it up for you and tightened the fittings. Have you decided what you want to do with it?" He set a square box in front of Vlad. The vampire raised the wood lid to show Tenele and Tenara the ring he'd bought, back in Ighten, for their royal lover.

"I thought I would bring some creative assistants in to decide," he mused.

"Brainstorm away," the jeweler said, setting out a box full of tiny jewels.

"Its beautiful," Tenele whispered, lifting Tenara up and balancing the child on her hip so she could see better. Tenele reached out and touched the box, turning it so that the light changed on the ring. "To what may we offer our opinion on?" she asked him. "Its a lovely ring."

Vlad lifted it out of the box and turned it over in the light. "It is for Atul. I had purchased it in Ighten, for my own folly. I thought of proposing a commitment, however secret. Now it is different. He means to be ours. I don't need a ring for a lover. I need it to be a ring for a husband, and a king. Not just from me, but from all of us." He showed them the dark, smooth metal that glinted in the sun. The design of the band was one of an ornate braid...three bound together. He'd chosen it for that subtle message, but it was a ring anyone could wear, that would not draw suspicion from his court or even his wife if he had one. Now, he wanted to make it a proper ornament for a king. "I'd like your advice to embellish it."

Tenele's smile brightened and she leaned over all the beautiful stones. "Embellish it..." It took Tenele several minutes of looking at the stones before she finally narrowed her choices down to five stones, emerald, sapphire, ruby, black diamonds, and a broadflash opal. "One of these?"


BroadFlash Opal: http://blackopaldirect.com/wp-content/u ... h-opal.jpg

Vlad touched the stones thoughtfully with his fingertips. His pointer gravitated toward the emerald like a magnet. It matched the one his wife wore around her finger. "Tenele," he said softly, as if naming the stone. He drifted next to the sapphire, happiness floating into his expression. "Tenara." He looked to his daughter curiously, and showed her the other stones. He was curious how she would associate him.

Tenara's brow scrunched with an adorable thoughtful look as she appraised the stones. She glanced to her father, and then back down. "Daddy," she announced, pointing to the opal.

Tenele smiled. "That one reminds me of daddy, too."

"Which one is papa?" Tenara asked, tapping her chin with her tiny finger.

Vlad touched the black diamond affectionately. "This?" he mused, showing it to his daughter.

"Hmmm," Tenara sighed while she thought it over. Her smile brightened and she nodded enthusiastic. "Yah!"

Tenele hugged her daughter tight. "He's going to love it, Vlad."