6,500 words, Enver Gortash/Wisteria Jannath, pre-canon. May-December relationship, cw references to sexual violence. M.
When she was young she would have been the centre of a room like this. She was known for the tasteful settings of her balls, the fabulous centrepieces that celebrated the different craftsmen of Baldur’s Gate, the foods imported from far-off shores and, of course, dresses that were made from the finest of fabrics. She would buy out the entire stock so that none would be able to wear the same as her, and hoarded the second-best fabrics too, just in case. The stores at the estate were overflowing with moth-ridden velvets and heavy brocade, decades wearing them into thin thread.
When she was young she was the most celebrated debut of her season. Her first night in society she had offers from Lord Jannath and Lord Whitburn, though she did not give her answers so soon. No, much more fun to let the season run and see if their intentions were serious. She had further offers from Rillyn for either of his nephews after her turn in the emerald green velvet that made her red hair shine like sunlight, and she was lucky to maintain his good favour personally after she pointed out that the best bet was, after all, to become a Jannath. After all, if there was anything Machil knew, it was the importance of good investments.
When she was young the whole world seemed so full of promise. She looks around at the debuts this season. The young Rillyn heiress Yvandre, fair of face and hard as iron, Merrigold Hlath, who unfortunately takes after her father rather than her lovely mother, and that awful Provoss girl Penelope, the second-youngest with a face like a piglet and an ill-advised laugh. None of the girls these days knew what it was to be the head of a house. To be sure, Yvandre and Merrigold were smart women, women she saw great potential in. But it was one thing to be shrewd at business, good fighters, strong investors. A good Patriar should be all of those things, but there is something more, something that should be beyond the teaching of sums and swordplay, and unfortunately she saw little of that in their generation at all.
Read it on Ao3.
