Authors - Ch 1 Rings
#202 of Prequel
Start of a 13-chapter illustrated story detailing events that happened directly after the Prequel minigame Saturalia Nightmare and directly prior to the events of Quill-Weave: Take Control of the Situation. KuroNeko was nice enough to draw all the illustrations for me. I just colored them (and in at least two cases kinda upped the lewdness factor a bit - with his okay!)
As a quick preface - after Vaermina, the Daedric Prince of Nightmares finished visiting Quill-Weave in her dreams, she was emboldened to take charge of her life, be bold and take more risks. So she's off to make an honest woman of her lover in Chorrol, Casta Scribonia - a fellow author. However, Casta has a surprise of her own.
"It's high-time anyway," Quill thought as she stood outside the jewelry store in Anvil. "Five years we've been in this... thing we have going on. It's time to take it to the next level. And it's not like anything needs to change, or even become public knowledge. Just a private little ceremony to make it official should be fine. No need to change anything really. It's just... an acknowledgement of our affection and commitment, that's all."
And yet, if all that were so, why was she so nervous?
"Fuck it," she decided finally. "The dream was right. I'm not getting any younger.. Neither is she for that matter, and Argonians live longer than humans too. I know that was grey I saw in her hair last time, even if she denies it. But she's so damned energetic. She almost matches me and she hasn't even got a tail! Pretty good for a middle aged human."
Also, the timing was perfect. Quill had sent a reply back to the cryptic invitation she'd gotten from Casta just a few days ago. Of course she would be there. But now she was going to have quite a surprise of her own!
She looked around to make sure that no one she knew was around, and stepped inside.
Over an hour later, she stepped back outside. She'd put the damn things in her pocket, but all the way home she couldn't help herself from involuntarily touching the boxes. It was all she could do to keep from running. One of her gaming friends hailed her from down the street as she neared her house, but there was no way she could fritter away time with those in her pocket, so she ignored him as if she hadn't heard.
Fortunately he didn't call again and she slipped inside and locked the door behind her.
She closed the blinds - a sure sign she was writing and didn't want to be disturbed that was well known to all of her friends.
Then she went up to her room, took out the boxes, and opened them slowly. Any other Argonian would have recognized the expression that came over her face as she gazed upon the small precious rings that glimmered like golden stars in her eyes. It would not have been called a grin by humans because she didn't bare her teeth - but in her way she was smiling ear-to-ear.
She drew the larger one out of its box and slipped it onto her finger. She sincerely hoped the other would fit Casta. She had only a rough estimate of Casta's ring finger size of course, though the jeweler assured her that any competent jeweler could resize it if needed. But her own - it was cast using her own finger for a gauge so it fit perfectly.
She twisted it around, so that the jewel faced her palm. She would probably wear it backwards most often - she did not like to attract attention or any display of ostentatiousness - but even as a simple band of gold, it made her happy. She wore no jewelry, and certainly not those gaudy fin-rings her cousin wore - the tramp.
Suddenly she couldn't wait for tomorrow to come so she could begin the long, but familiar, trip to Chorrol. She thought for a second about the money she had spent on the rings. A ludicrous amount, but she led a very non-extravagant lifestyle, so when she did splurge, she splurged hard .
She put the ring back and admired the two side-by-side. Sort of like those peaceful moments when she lay beside Casta. Those were the best.
Then she closed the cases and blew out the candle.