20- Calvin Calls It

                                        

                                              
Calvin heard the laughter echoing up the hallway late at night and following it to find Alaric and Derbie discussing with which of their mother's rings Derbie should use to propose to Lady Ban Ruma. If only he could tell them what he knew, that in truth it was a proposal to Princess Ban Taro, younger sister to Queen Akiyama and currently her Heir. It was a royal secret that only a few knew the true details of, the Hatsune's adoption of Lady Banika heling deflect suspicion. It was a complicated web of birthright and bloodline, but Calvin couldn't warn either his older or younger brothers about it. 
Derbie would make a good Prince Consort, the Kingdom had certainly had worse rulers in its hi온라인카지노게임. 
"I take it you're planning to make Lady Ban our sister-in-law?" he teased Derbie, looking at the jewellery spread out.
Mothers rings. A wide variety of bands, materials, styles, and decorations, no two the same but all of them flawlessly lovely. Given that mother had been a Fidalgo, there were plenty of suevite with the dusty brown tones the Fidalgo brown was known for, but also one right with a polished ironwood band instead of metal. He also spotted many rubies amongst the gold, silver and other metals; the closest gem to Briggs scarlet, but there were still plenty of other stones to pick from. Delicate amethyst, deep emerald, iridescent opal, even less expensive but more interesting specimen such as jade, tourmaline, and quartz. Most of the styles were Taroton, but he saw styles from Cador, Tashatia, and even the Southern continent. The Republic of Yang preferred ceremonial tattoos over jewellery, so Calvin wasn't surprised to see no rings in that style. 
"Yes, did you want to read my proposal?" Derbie offered, holding up what looked like a perfectly written letter. It must be a second or third copy. 
Calvin grabbed it carefully, reading it and getting a sense of Derbie's steady love for Lady Ban. He knew even her true identity wouldn't stop his brother from loving her wholly. Calvin wouldn't be able to stand it if the person he loved had lied to him deliberately for the entire length of their Courtship; an ironic reality for a man who worked as a spy and lied to everyone daily. 
"This is good," Calvin complimented, handing Derbie his letter back.
"That's what I said," Alaric laughed, with the rings they had also started on a bottle of wine, so Calvin grabbed a glass and helped himself. 
"So, I have the letter figured out," Derbie accepted their compliments, "but what ring do I pick?"
If Calvin ever had to propose, he'd probably buy a new ring in the person's style. Mother's rings were all beautifully feminine and dainty, and somehow Calvin just couldn't imagine picking one to propose with. Not that he had anyone to propose TO. Since Derbie was proposing to Ban, Calvin was tempted to suggest one of the amethyst rings; though nothing matched either Ruma indigo or Taro purple. 
"You know Lady Ban best, which ring do you think she'd like?" he offered instead of his opinion.
"She loves antiques, pieces of our Kingdom's hi온라인카지노게임, and has an artists appreciation for fine details," Derbie immediately proved how right Calvin had been. He was sorting through mother's rings, narrowing the choice down. "She likes stones that aren't cumbersome, or too sharp," several more were disqualified.
But that still left almost ten rings to pick from, their mother had a lot of jewellery. And poor Derbie looked agonized at having to narrow it down further. 
"How do you know you love Lady Ban?" Calvin asked, garnering almost identical looks of surprise from both brothers. 
"I can't think of any one thing that properly contains all of it," Derbie seemed to be struggling to explain. "I saw her smile on our Debut night, and in that moment, I wanted to earn her smile again. And as we wrote each other, I couldn't wait to receive her letter as if it were a gift instead of pen and paper." Derbie looked at Alaric, as if for support but frowned; Alaric was clearly attracted to Aayina Ram but hadn't done anything about it yet, Derbie would find no support there. "Every time I'd go out, I'd hope to run into her, and when I saw her everything else around me faded away. And when I didn't see her, I'd miss her. I'd see things and want to show her, I'd read a book and know I had to share it with her because it made me think of her."