[FIC] a secret and a scarf
Summary: The winter festival has arrived, and Dirsteh has big plans with Claude and Silas both.
Word Count: 2,432
(this is my piece for @summonersecretsanta for @lesterderosso! i combined several of your prompts so that summoner!dirsteh gets the complete experience B) i hope you enjoy, and happy holidays!)
Like any other mission, setting up for the winter festival in Askr is an efficient operation. Everyone has their roles -- and Dirsteh works perhaps the hardest of anyone. At the moment, she sits at her desk, which is covered with paper scraps of various shapes and paper snowflakes. How is it that there are so many Heroes in Askr and yet the holiday decorations are sorely lacking? There’s always the option of buying fancy ones with leftover Order of Heroes funds, but Dirsteh wants there to be a personal touch. Hence her crafts.
She folds a clean sheet of paper into fourths, then lifts the scissors. Cutting out shapes without much thought, she wonders what else she can do. There are already many Heroes on baking duty, and she’s seen others working with trees. When she’s made enough snowflakes, maybe she can go downstairs and see if anyone needs help as she hangs the decorations up.
The snow continues to fall outside Dirsteh’s window, as it has for most of the day. Her Summoner outfit is insulated, but when there are so many activities to do inside the warm castle, there’s no real reason to deal with the outside elements. At least, not yet.
There’s still one very important job that she’s aware of. Everyone knows the story of the winter festival envoy, and for those who haven’t, Sharena is very quick to educate them. Due to the secrecy of it all, Dirsteh isn’t sure if anyone has picked up the job. Surely someone has. But on the other hand, it’s not as if there can only be one. As she unfolds the paper to see how the snowflake turns out, she wonders who the most likely envoy is.
Wait.
She can be a winter festival envoy. It’ll be a fun challenge, finding gifts for everyone and delivering them in secret. She’ll need help, but there’s no shortage of people around. Surely some are available and willing. Before she checks with the general population of Heroes, though, she has the perfect first option in mind. Winter festival envoys need to be clever in picking gifts and delivering them. Who better to team up with than Claude? Hopefully he doesn’t already have plans.
Dirsteh stands and hurries past her desk so quickly that a breeze knocks some of the papers to the floor. She’ll pick them up later. Pulling on her coat, she rushes to her door and grips the knob. Where will be the best place to find her partner in crime? Perhaps she can start at the wyvern stables, and --
“In a rush?”
Or she can find him right at her door once she opens it.
“Claude!” she greets. “Perfect. I was just coming to look for you.”
“That works out well, because I came to talk to you.”
She gestures at the nameplate on her door with a teasing smile. “Gee, I never would have guessed that you were looking for me, with you showing up at my door and all.”
“I don’t know how I keep up with you,” Claude sighs, amusement plain in his tone. “You’re too smart for me.”
Affectionately, she shoves him. Now that he’s here, they have easy access to a private place to discuss her plan. She steps aside to let him in her room before closing the door behind him. It’s then she notices the mess she’s made on the floor. Snowflakes in various stages of completion litter the wood along with scraps. She can almost feel the judgment of her succulents from their shelves.
Claude bends down and begins returning the paper to her desk. “You might want to tell someone that your ceiling is leaking snow.”
“If it happens again, I will,” Dirsteh says, playing along as she picks up the rest. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about the winter festival envoy and --”
“You thought we should do it?”
“If you had the same idea, then it has to be a good one.”
Clapping her hands together, she grins. “It’s perfect. Between the two of us, we’ll be able to find the right gifts for everyone, and going on your wyvern to deliver them will keep us hidden.”
“That’s what I was thinking. We make a good team, Dirsteh.”
“That we do. Now come on, Mr. Master Tactician.” She grabs his arm and pulls him to the door. “We have gifts to figure out and buy.”
---
The sheer amount of offerings in the market makes gift-buying difficult. Dirsteh and Claude come up with multiple ideas for everyone from Heroes to strangers in the villages. It’s tempting to simply buy everything. But the winter festival envoy is famous for knowing just what to give, so the two are determined to put thought into every purchase.
To avoid carrying a suspicious load of gifts in broad daylight, they make multiple trips. Claude’s wyvern makes dropping the presents off in Dirsteh’s room and returning to the market easy. It’s a good test run for later that night.
“Is that everything?” she asks as the wyvern carries her, Claude, and a potentially final bag of gifts back to the castle.
“If it’s not, the merchants are in trouble of selling out of their stock,” Claude says. “We’ll find out as soon as we sort everything.”
Dirsteh hums in agreement, a sound that would’ve been lost in the skies if not for her sitting so close to him. Apart from the height, riding a wyvern is much like a horse. She keeps her hands on Claude’s waist for balance. Whenever the wyvern takes off or begins a descent, she hugs him tightly. Falling off a wyvern is not on her holiday wishlist -- or any wishlist, for that matter.
Once they reach the castle, the wyvern hovers outside her window. As before, Claude pulls it open and sets the bag of gifts inside. Without fear, he climbs into the room. Dirsteh waits until he reaches out for her before she scoots to the edge of the wyvern. It flies off to the stables once she’s safely inside.
“We should pull aside all the Heroes’ gifts first,” she suggests, shutting the window. “We know all of them, so it’ll be easier.”
He nods. “That way we won’t accidentally give a villager something for a Hero.”
“Imagine if we gave a child villager that hunting knife.”
“Then I guess we’d have ourselves a new Hero.”
As the two begin sorting through the presents, they spot more opportunities for jokes. What if they give an experienced and hardened Hero a rubber duck? Or a shiny new shield to a farmer? Dirsteh gains a new respect for the envoys of the past. It’s not an easy job, but picturing the joy on the faces of all the recipients brings a smile to her face -- even when the sorting and wrapping takes them right to sunset.
“It’s a good thing that it looks like we have all we need,” she says. “I don’t know if we’d have time to go out and buy more.”
“The merchants have likely closed up early anyways to be with their families,” Claude adds.
“And we should be getting to the feast before anyone misses us. We can’t lose the element of surprise now.”
“We’ll be the best-kept winter festival secret in Askr’s history.”
Making sure to put the gifts out of view of the window, the two step out of Dirsteh’s room. She double-checks that the door is locked. Everything is going perfectly so far, and she doesn’t want so much as a single Hero to guess who’s responsible for the gift they’ll be waking up to on the morning of the winter festival.
It’ll be a late night, but she doesn’t mind. She’ll be doing something enjoyable with one of her favorite people in the realm. What else can she ask for?
---
The next morning, now that her duties as an envoy are over, Dirsteh is ready to just be Dirsteh. There are still some things around the castle that need to be done, she’s sure, but it’s the winter festival and she hasn’t been able to spend any time with Silas yet. Giving the children of the villages something to smile about is good. Being in the presence of her partner will be great.
It will be convenient if she finds him in the same way she had Claude. Her luck probably won’t be that good twice. He’s most likely to be somewhere in the castle -- that or out on a patrol, in which case she won’t be able to find him until he’s back -- so she walks through the halls. She asks each Hero she passes if they’ve seen him. Most don’t have an answer other than I’m not sure, sorry.
But eventually, Dirsteh hears that Silas is indeed out on patrol. He’d left some time ago, though, so he’s expected to return soon. Maybe by the time she makes it to the stables he’ll have arrived. Thanking the Hero for their help, she returns outside. The snow is still falling, making her wonder if someone from Nifl has done something to ensure the winter festival is a snow-filled one.
That or some winter festival magic, the same that is surely responsible for her so easily locating Claude earlier, and now reaching the stables right as Silas rides up on his horse.
“Good timing,” Dirsteh greets. “How was the patrol?”
“Quiet, thankfully.” He steps down and leads his horse into the building. “Perhaps even our enemies have a winter festival to keep them busy today.”
She follows after him. The stable’s warmth is even more apparent on a cold day. After he runs his hand down the horse’s neck, he passes the lead to Lilith, who’s happy to have another animal to look after. Dirsteh is sure the horses and wyverns and pegasi will be just as spoiled on this winter festival as their people.
Side by side, she and Silas walk back outside. With his patrol over and her Summoning duties temporarily aside, they have as much time together as they’d like to take. And she suspects she’s not the only one who wants to take every minute they can. Instead of returning to the castle, they silently agree to take a stroll around the grounds. It’s more private, and there’s something romantic about an outdoor walk.
The snow crunches under their boots. It’s the only sound they hear once they move further from the stables and into more open land. Askr is beautiful in all seasons, but there’s a different kind of beauty in the quiet of winter.
“Dirsteh, aren’t you cold?” Silas asks, stopping suddenly.
She breaks from her thoughts. In her rush to meet him, she’d neglected to put on any layers over her robe. That same excitement had kept her warm. But now, just standing with Silas out in the snow, the chill begins to sneak under her clothes. Before she can answer, he steps closer. He shifts his scarf so there’s a long free section. Dirsteh’s cheeks pinken -- and not from the cold -- when he carefully wraps the extra bit of scarf around her neck.
“Thank you,” she says.
“You’re welcome.” He presses a kiss to her forehead. “I don’t want you freezing into a popsicle.”
“That would be inconvenient.”
They settle into a comfortable silence, the snow floating peacefully around them. She’s not sure who initiates it, but their hands link together. Another point of warmth. Beyond the physical contact and clothes, simply being with Silas warms her spirit more than anything.
“Would you still love me if I was a popsicle?” she teases.
The absurdity of the question forces a laugh out of Silas. “Of course I would. But please, don’t take that as an invitation to become one.”
“I won’t. Being a popsicle sounds boring, especially when there’s so much to do here.”
“We’d all be lost without you.” Silas pauses. “Me in particular.”
Dirsteh looks up at him. His face is pink now, almost as if she’d passed her blush onto him. Sometimes she forgets how much they love each other. It’s a strange thing to think, but little moments like these remind her of how much they’ve gone through together. Between finding their place in Askr and facing down enemies, they’ve formed bonds that only continue to tighten. Here she is, trying to joke about becoming a popsicle, and Silas gazes at her like she’s the greatest gift he can ever imagine.
“Well,” she says, getting up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek, “no one needs to worry, and definitely not you. The only popsicles here will be the ones we have in the summer.”
“I’m relieved to hear it, though it’s hard to think about summer with all of this snow.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
Over the last minutes, the snowfall’s pace has increased. More flakes nestle into their hair, standing out against Dirsteh’s and nearly blending in with Silas’. She can’t help but run her fingers through his hair to shift some of the snow off. Ordinarily she isn’t so affectionate with him out in the open, but between the snow screen and all of the other holiday festivities, she doubts anyone is around to see them.
“I’m glad we’re spending another holiday together, Dirsteh,” Silas says. “Everything is better when I’m with you.”
She smiles. “I’m glad too. It’s easier to leave some work aside when I know it’s for spending time with you.”
“Still overworking yourself during the holidays?”
“Maybe a little...but you know me. And some of that was to give gifts to the children in the villages! You can’t tell me you want to steal gifts from the children, Silas.”
“No, I suppose not.” Silas cups her cheek with a gloved hand. “And you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t aid people whenever you had the chance.”
She’s always appreciated how he walks the line between allowing her to help others in need and ensuring that she doesn’t forget to care for herself too. But now, of course, it’s just her and her knight, and she doesn’t intend to waste any of their private time.
“Happy winter festival, Silas,” she says, squeezing his hand that’s still holding hers.
He kisses her softly. “Happy winter festival, Dirsteh.”
And once she rests her hands on his chest and they lean into each other for a longer kiss, they make it a happy winter festival indeed, bound together by a scarf -- and so much more.
