Knights of the Platinum Dragon: A D&D Story

Chapter 22: Lost Love

Arabella's words made Logan freeze, all the more when he saw the look in her eyes. To his surprise, for the first time, since he'd met her, he saw a deep, mournful sorrow darkened her regal and courteous exterior.

She wasn't hiding it from him, though – it was there for him to see. And when he saw it, he decided to lower the barrier between himself and elven cleric.

"I wanted to say this before, Princess..." he said, stammering slightly with nerves. "But you're... a long way from home. Tell me – how exactly does a princess from far across the sea end up here in Faerun?"

Logan knew of Evermeet, the land Arabella said she had come from, and knew it was a long way from the mainlands of the Realms. It lay far west of the Sword Coast, beyond even the Moonshae Isles, in the midst of the Trackless Sea, across which the legendary explorer Balduran, of Baldur's Gate fame, was said to have disappeared on his second voyage.

That was an incredible distance for anyone to travel, let alone a member of the royal family. Why had she come this far?

Arabella managed a slight smile and nodded. "I'll tell you, if you like," she said softly, straightening herself up slightly, though just enough for him to notice. "Pardon me for answering a question with a question, but yesterday you said that you're your father's eldest child?" she asked, clearly just for the sake of clarification.

Logan nodded in response, and Arabella went on to say "Well, I'm the opposite of you in that respect – I'm the youngest of my family's fourteen children. The children of Queen Amlaruil Moonflower of Evermeet and her King Consort, Zaor Moonflower."

Logan was aghast when he heard this. "Fourteen children?!" he exclaimed, unable to contain his astonishment. He suddenly feared his blurting might upset Arabella, but his surprise instead made the princess suddenly brighten up, and a slight giggle escaped her lips.

"Indeed," she said. But as she went on, any happiness expression faded away. "But that was the first of the family I lost," she told him. "Father... he passed away when I was very young – only ten years old. At the hands of an assassin."

In that moment, the two of them seemed to feel the same pain in absolute tandem; it was like Logan could see Arabella's heart sink inside her chest just from the way her head tilted down, her face pallid and her eyes dark with grief. And his heart was doing much the same, falling like a lead weight until it landed hard atop his stomach.

"I'm sorry, Arabella," he told her, wholehearted in his sincerity. The pain he knew she was feeling was one he'd known himself...

Arabella looked to him when he said that. "Thank you. But it was what followed that was far worse," she then went on to explain. "You see, when Father died, all Mother's joy seemed to die with him. Ever since then, she's been a husk of her former self. Before he died, she was loving, doting, and lively... but now..."

A small, shaky breath escaped her lips – that was all the indication Logan needed. He could see right before his eyes the pain that Arabella was in, and in that moment his instincts took over.

Lifting his right hand, he placed it on Arabella's slender shoulder and said "Arabella... I..."

His brain struggled and strained fiercely for something to say other than 'I'm sorry' again, but it didn't feel right to repeat himself. Nor did saying 'My condolences', which was the only synonym he could think of.

However, his searching for words ceased when he felt something moved to grace his skin – something warm as sunshine and smooth as velvet. His gaze refocusing as his mind turned from his own thoughts to the real world, he saw Arabella rest her cheek against the hand he had placed on her shoulder, waves of gentle warmth radiated from her body into his and passing up his arm and through his body to his heart. The scent of her perfume also seemed to float towards him, surrounding him in a gentle, flowery embrace that filled the air about his person.