My Strength and My Weakness || Luna & Rye
Weeks in Wisteria and Rye was only just now making time to see the only family he had there. It was strange to think that soon his cousin would be living there, among the Seelies, married to her knight, a young lord of the Seelie Court. It hadn’t been difficult to find Owl’s Perch; a simple inquiry made of the innkeeper gave him detailed directions. No, it had been more difficult to find excuses Robin would believe for leaving for the day, without the blond fae knowing that Rye was going to visit Luna. Not that he thought Robin would try and stop him, but given their history, Rye thought it best to keep the information to himself.
Rye kept his glamour in place until he was away from the largest crowds of the city, dropping it only when no one was around, and he thought it unlikely that he would run into anyone else between there and Owl’s Perch. The guards on either side of the gate both watched him as he approached on horseback, and he stopped Nissa several yards from them.
“Greetings, my good men. I’m here to inquire if the future lady of the house is present.” Rye said, dismounting from Nissa’s back and giving a short bow.
“And what is your business with Lady Crow?” One of the guards asked.
Rye smiled. “I am her cousin, good sir,” he said simply. “I only come to wish her well before the wedding.”
The guards opened the gate and the one that had spoken escorted him inside, the other calling over a stableboy to tend to Nissa. Rye reluctantly handed over her reins, running a comforting hand down her neck before turning to follow the guard inside. He was reminded of Thayne’s status in the Court, not that he’d forgotten, as he stepped through the gate and followed the guard down the path towards a long bridge that led to an elegant and elaborate manor. He knew of Thayne’s reputation, and of his noble status, though it was still strange to put a manor of this status to a man that had stood patiently in line waiting for horse feed, instead of sending a servant to do it for him.
“Is Lord Silverbone here?” Rye asked innocently. He watched as the guard knocked twice, and the doors opened from the inside, two more guards just inside the doors turning their eyes to Rye.
“He is out on business for the day,” the guard answered, and Rye breathed a little easier. It wasn’t that he had any issue with the young lord, but he was still uncertain about him. His mind was still trying to make the conflicting pieces that he knew of the knight fit into some logical pattern, and he was more content to not run into Thayne again until he’d made some kind of sense of him. “You can wait here. I’ll announce your presence to Lady Crow,” the guard said, leaving Rye in the entryway and disappearing down one of the long hallways.
There were a couple of other guards about, so he wasn’t entirely alone, but they seemed more than happy to ignore his presence until they were required to do otherwise. Rye straightened his jacket, wondering if Luna would find his adherence to the more colorful dress in Wisteria to be rude or a disgusting show of attempting to fit in. It wasn’t even nearly as bright as the clothing others wore there. A white shirt, brown pants and an emerald green jacket, that was perhaps too bright to be worn in Belladonna, but still far to dull for the norm of the Seelie Court. He had forgone the sapphire pin he’d used to pin the owl’s feather to his jacket days before, not wanting anyone of the house to recognize it, even if Thayne wasn’t around.
Rye wandered about the entryway, drawing the gaze of a couple of the guards as he walked, eyes shifting from one sculpture to another, to a painting and then the high ceilings, before he stopped to more closely inspect a painting of an owl on the wall on the far end of the entryway from the hallway the guard had disappeared down.
@luna-crow
