Guarded Love (COMPLETED)

Are You Two...?

Reiss tried to not stare at the woman that'd been by the King's side for nearly a week, the woman that appeared as if by a gift of the Maker to save him and save her in the process. The woman that she knew was dead.

Alistair was quick to rebound once the mysterious mage healed and tended to him. Some of it was magic, but the way they interacted Reiss sensed that her mere presence was affecting him perhaps better than any salve could. She rarely left his side, Reiss often waking to find her already up and trying to quietly shuffle around the room without waking the snoring disaster still in bed.

For the moment, the King was all but hogtied to his throne and forced to give court. He began with a terrible flow of mucus gushing out of his nose, which the woman said could be stopped up for a few hours with a potion but he waved it away. If he was going to have to sit in front of people and listen to their complaints for hours on end, they'd have to suffer his ooey gooey body. At first Reiss stood at the back of the room, doing her best to not fall asleep. They seemed to have saved the dullest of issues for the King's first day back. When two people were arguing over which was owed back taxes for a cart sold at a slightly higher mark up than what it should have been due to the current legal standing of things her eyelids drew ever lower. Afraid that she'd pass out on her feet and smash chin first to the stone floor, Reiss wandered out the door and spotted the mage sitting quietly at a clerk's desk.

No one else was around, most wandering eyes skipping past her as if she was part of the furniture, but Reiss felt her mouth dry every time she spotted the woman. They couldn't have less in common if they actively tried. With dark spirals and an even more beautiful shade of rich brown skin, the mage was the elegant shadow to Reiss' lanky candlestick. She was shockingly short too, barely skirting above the King's chest with the ample kind of curves that would have had Lunet saying something smart in seconds. Perhaps most debilitating of all was her mind. She was always reading, the books stacked high with titles Reiss couldn't make heads nor tails of. If she tried to read one, it'd probably shriek at her non-understanding and slap shut, or burn her to ash, or something.

She was everything Reiss wasn't and while that jabbed a thorn into her ego knowing who she was and what she truly meant to the King, it wasn't what drew her tongue to a standstill every time. The jealousy was dead as dust in favor of a far stronger emotion.

The mage stopped whatever she was writing and glanced up, a smile on her face as she stared through the distance -- no doubt searching for the right words to concoct some magical potion that would save an entire village. Reiss shifted on her feet and the woman's wholesome eyes fell right to her. Oh Maker! She tried to slide back, aware of the blush rising, when a gloved hand gently beckoned her over.

"Um, uh," she wished she had a sword or halberd to absently work her fingers over while trying to not stare down at the seated woman, "was there something you required?"

"We've seen each other often, but haven't officially met. I'm Lana," she extended her hand and the memory snapped back into Reiss' mind. Instead of sitting, the mage stood above the cowering elf, the girl reeking of burnt flesh and blood as darkspawn screamed their last breath around them. There wasn't time for names then, no one barely looked over at her, but the hand was offered the same.

"I," she grabbed onto Lana's fingers and shook them limply, "I, of course, my Lady," Reiss stumbled out.

"You're Reiss, I hope."

"Yes, Ma'am, that's me. I'm...you hope?" she shook her head, trying to not blush herself to death.

"It's a long story," Lana smiled before glancing back to the chambers where the King worked, "and one he damn well better listen to me about. Ali...the King told me a bit about you."