Now That We're Home

Two- Unloading

Mialee breathed a sigh of relief once they were alone again. "That went better than I thought."

"I thought so as well," Mara agreed, taking Mialee's arm in hers once more. "Shall we go upstairs? You look as though you could use a rest."

She nodded, and followed Mara as they went up the stairs Ilidra and Ievos had just ascended, going up to the third floor of the west side of the castle.

"Right in here," Mara said, pushing open a door that lead to a large bedroom. The room had been kept up, looking as though Mara could have left it just this morning. Both set their bags onto the bed. Crossing over to a chest against one of the walls, Mara pulled off her white gauntlet, the symbol of her god, Torm. "Make yourself at home. I will ask one of the servants to bring up another wardrobe for you in a bit." She opened the chest and carefully placed the gauntlet inside before beginning to remove the rest of her armor.

Mialee looked around in fascination as Hal came out again to explore his new surroundings. The bedroom was full of dark stained wood furniture, and textiles of dark blue and gold, from the floor length curtains that covered tall windows to the bedding. Beautiful blue velvet wall hangings were embroidered in gold stars and constellations. A few she recognized as Mara's favorites, as she pointed them out in the night sky frequently. She wandered over to a large, richly inlaid dressing table where beautiful boxes rested. Opening several found countless beautiful necklaces, pendants, and hairpieces of all shapes and colors decorated with precious stones. Hal ran down her arm to sniff at the box. Mialee gasped quietly at the riches.

A gentle hand came to rest on her shoulder. Looking into the large mirror she saw Mara behind her. Without her armor, she had on a plain white linen shirt with long billowing sleeves gathered tightly at the cuffs, and dark blue pants tucked into her knee high dark leather boots. Leaning back to rest her head on Mara's shoulder Mialee said, "You've told me before that your father was well off. But goodness, I had no idea."

Mara squeezed her shoulders and pressed a gentle kiss on her cheek. "You have seen king's treasuries, ancient temples, and monster's hoards, but my boxes of baubles amaze you?" She laughed softly. "Need I remind you how much gold sits in our packs right now?"

"Well, yes, but that's different. Those are kings and gods and monsters. And I worked hard for the gold in our packs!"

"And my father has worked hard to earn his wealth, as his mother before him, and her father before her, and his father before him. We Stormbloods do not take our wealth lightly, I promise."

There were a few moments of silence.

"Why're there urchins then, if you all have so much?"

Mara sighed. The question was asked quietly, with no accusation, only sadness. "I do not know. Father does his best to keep things fair, but he cannot control everything. All the gold in the world cannot solve vices or bad decisions. People can get paid fairly, not be heavily taxed, and still make poor choices that land them in dire straits. We are only people, and we can only solve what has been brought to our attention. Even at that, we cannot fix everything."

Mialee remembered the conditions of some of the other countries they had been to and the stories she heard at ports. She knew Mara was right, even if she did not like it. "It's just so different. Being on the road was different, but still similar. This is... wildly different."

Squeezing Mialee's shoulders in comfort, Mara said, "You will get used to it, I am sure. It will take some time for me as well. I have gotten used to our simple life of adventure, it will be odd to return to this."

Mialee looked pointedly at the longsword at Mara's hip in the mirror. "Star, I'm pretty sure that a holy sword that smites evil on touch and mithril armor hardly count as simple."