Summoned (D3 ME)

[Davelyn Sand]

Davelyn enters the Dornishman and looks around. He'd been notified that he was expected here and he was certainly glad for that notification. He scans the room amidst the drinkers and revelers, looking for his conversation partner. So many things were running through his head at this point. He didn't know how this would go but he knew what he wanted to say to her.

[Kaliya Redding]

The tavern, as one might expect on such a cold evening, is crowded, but Kaliya had secured a table near the fireplace and was quietly sipping a cup of wine. She wasn't paying particular attention to her surroundings, tapping the nails of one hand on the wooden table top.

[Davelyn Sand]

Approaching and stopping an appropriate distance away, he bowed to the Dornishwoman in greeting. "Lady Kaliya. I was glad to get your summons." His eyes searched for hers. He did not have his usual bright smile with her, but instead a reserved one and a look of relief in his eyes.

[Kaliya Redding]

Kaliya smiled. It was not the sly, cunning smile she wore when she teased and incited, but she had lost some of her wariness, it seemed. "Serr Davelyn, please, will you sit?" With the crowding, most people would find it difficult to flag down the attention of the barkeep, but most people weren't an attractive noblewoman of high breeding. She indicated for another cup of wine to be brought for Davelyn.

[Davelyn Sand]

"Of course milady. I'm very pleased to see you," he says joining her. When he got his cup, he took a sip. He waited for her to say something. He wanted to speak and it showed, but she had summoned him and thus she likely had something to say first.

[Kaliya Redding]

The first technique the diplomat, the schemer, the negotiator must learn is silence, and Kaliya allowed this one to draw out, finishing her wine and signalling for another, observing the knight.

[Davelyn Sand]

A lesson he had not learned because he was none of those things. And the silence made him feel a bit uncomfortable. And so he spoke.

"Kaliya, after our conversation yesterday, my mind has been racing with thoughts of you. I hope truly that it did not cause you too much distress, but I know that I did not make it easy. And somehow I don't expect this conversation to be easy either. But I feel that I must share my thoughts with you. I hope that you've called me here to do the same, or at least to hear what I have to say after yesterday."

[Kaliya Redding]

He is infatuated, she thought as she listened to him speak, and she felt oddly... flattered. Kaliya smiled gently, "I called for you, Davelyn, that you might know I hold no ill feelings towarrds you orr the things that you said."

"You know that passions can wax and wane, and you of all people should know that even as we allow passion to rrule ourr bodies, it must not rule ourr heads. Hearrts do not come into it."

[Davelyn Sand]

He looks at her with gentle eyes. "Hearts do come into it Kaliya. And not always for the better. And sometimes when a heart is hurt and scarred it gets hidden away, chained up. But how does it help to weigh down the heart with chains? Why should scars dictate the direction of their life?"

He reaches out to take her hand. Not a passionate or heated movement meant to draw her to him. A caring touch that held it warmly.

"Such scars, they are ugly and hard things. But they create a beauty most people don't care to look for. Those that carry scars are survivors. They have a strength born from pain and experience. Their souls are made more beautiful by the fact that they decided not to give up. Moving forward is a choice to be made. A choice made by such lovely, strong and independent hearts."

A slight pause, followed by a finally shared smile.

"I want to see your hidden heart. I want to see your true beauty that I know is there. Your real strength, that has allowed you to choose to survive in a world that chose to make you suffer."

[Kaliya Redding]

I am terribly sorry it fell to me to do this, she thought, but it is betterr he learrn it now.

Kaliya sighed softly. "You arre a wonderrfully sweet man, Davelyn. I almost wish I werre a fourrteen yearr old girrl again and still naive enough to believe such things. But a hearrt is just a lie we arre told forr comforrt on the morrning of ourr wedding, lest we baulk like an unbrroken foal at the taste of the bit. If we arre lucky, we find ourrselves married to someone who inspirres ourr passion, and if not..." she shrugs slightly.

"It is a pleasant lie, but a lie nonetheless."

[Davelyn Sand]

"You asked me to come somewhere public, where passion won't take us. You aren't thinking of me in that manner right now. Instead you are trying your best to protect me from pain in the way you understand. That is your kindness and generosity, bringing me here to teach me, which I thank you for. But passion does not drive you to care in this moment. It is not the body that is driving you. The mind doesn't give you a reason to care. But the heart does. Buried deep as it is, hidden from those that might hurt it."

His eyes remain on hers the entire time, his face calm.

[Kaliya Redding]

"I seek not to prrotect you, but to prrotect myself. The Lorrd Heirr rrequirres that I marry again, a matterr that will cerrtainly be complicated should anyone find themselves enamourred of me." While her words were true enough, it did not begin to explain why she had not simply told him as such yesterday when they last spoke.

[Davelyn Sand]

"That did not stop you from coming to the woods with me. From smiling as I kissed you there between Qitam and Perlera. It was my words that touched something in you. Something you have been trying to hide from yourself. And despite your caution you called me here this evening because you wanted it to be touched again. That heart that you say is a lie. You have simply been hiding it away in the darkness. You don't know for certain if you want to let it into the light of day. I do not know what happened that made it so, but I want to see it. I want to know and understand the depths of who you are. Simply because you are more than just a beautiful woman. You are beautiful, strong, intelligent and suffering Kaliya. You are undoubtedly even more and I am interested. Please let me in so that I can understand you and share more than just passion." His words carried a certain passion to them now. Almost like the thought of learning more of her is exciting to him but he is being teased.

[Kaliya Redding]

Something of what he said resonated. She had called for him. She hadn't called him to her pavilion, knowing that such a call to service would put an end to... an end to what? exactly?

"You wish to see inside? And what if you find out that, afterr all you say, therre rreally is nothing therre? Perrhaps therre is a way to let you in, but you will not find what you seek."

[Davelyn Sand]

"Kaliya, I have no expectations about what I will find." His eyes remain fixed on hers as he speaks softly to her. "The only thing I seek is you. That is enough for me, to have the chance to truly know you."

[Kaliya Redding]

Kaliya makes an almost disappointed sound. Breaking eye contact, she turns to look into the fire. She thinks for a time before speaking, softly, "what happens now?"

[Davelyn Sand]

"Now we talk," he says to her. "And we listen. And we spend time together, sometimes letting passion grip us, other times just relaxing, and when we need or want support we are there to help. This is obviously an unpleasant issue for you, but it's important for me to hear it to support you as a friend. I would understand if you still aren't quite ready, but I do want to know all of your story."

[Kaliya Redding]

She sighed gently and returned her gaze to him. "All of it? Perrhaps we can begin with the obvious, and see wherre we go frrom therre." It wasn't a question, but a weary sort of statement, as if the thought of telling the story made her feel rather tired.

[Davelyn Sand]

"Please," he says to her, giving her his undivided attention. He puts his hand across the table, hoping she'll take it.

[Kaliya Redding]

Feeling it would be weakness, she ignores his hand, wetting her throat with wine before beginning. "I had just turrned fourrteen, and my cousin was to be married to a Marrcherr. I was so very excited when I was chosen to be one of herr ladies in waiting, that I would be trravelling norrth and I would get to see a Rreach wedding. It all seemed so wonderfully rromantic at the time."

"Herr husband was a peevish man, who disliked Dorrne, and everrything about it. The Lorrd Commanderr might think of Dorrne so unfavourrably, but he has nothing on the man my cousin married. He could not stand the thought of his wife whisperring, conspirring, with herr Dorrnish kin, so he made plans to send us all away."

She sighed, pausing to drink once more.

[Davelyn Sand]

He seems to be listening intently, not wanting to interrupt her. His soft features were upon her, gazing at her eyes. It was clear that he was talking it in from the small expressions and body language. With her pause to drink he drank as well, but just a sip. His hand returning to that offered position when his cup was placed back on the table. His expression seemed to say Please continue.

[Kaliya Redding]

"The rrest is simple," she continued. "Lorrd Rredding had been rrecently injurred, his serrvice as a Dunn guarrdsmen ended. He was a widowerr and perrhaps they thought the trransition would be easierr with a wife to keep him company, orr perrhaps he was simply convenient. We werre wed a shorrt time laterr."

"Overr the next two yearrs, I played the dutiful housewife. I hosted his guests, of which therre werre many," Kaliya grimaced at some unspoken thought, "he continued serrving Lorrd Dunn, managing the finances forr the Rredding vineyarrd. Lorrd Rreddling was the youngerr brrotherr, his olderr sibling handled the House and the vineyarrd itself."

[Davelyn Sand]

Something about her grimace said a great deal about what she was saying in that moment. And she could tell it registered with Davelyn. This was different from the flirtations. He seemed to be able to read between lines at least a little better when he was focused.

"Kaliya, that should not have happened to you. I can't truly imagine what that was like. There is nothing I can do about what happened to you in your youth. What was done was terrible and no girl deserves that. You did not deserve that, and you do deserve better." As he talked she could see conflicting emotions flash over his face, concern becoming sadness, becoming anger, coming back around to concern for her. He felt his heart race with anger at the actions of those men. "Those that did that to you... they are disgusting. They are not men, but beasts."

And then his features soften once more. "I want you to have pleasant memories too. A week at a tourney is not enough to do so but I certainly would like you to give me the chance to share as many positive memories with you as we might create together. In the future I want you to be able to look at your past and see that here in Ashford you found someone that wanted your happiness above all else."

[Kaliya Redding]

"Beasts? is that how you see yourrself? No, Davelyn, they werre not beasts, just men," she suspects that whatever he's imagining is actually far worse than anything that happened to her. "I am not devoid of happy memorries, I just see no use in them. Should I pine forr the Dorrshman I was betrrothed to? He married my half sisterr. They arre happy togetherr, therre is no sense in clinging to who he was, who I was, beforre."

[Davelyn Sand]

"Such inexcusable treatment of a young girl," he shakes his head. "If I were to ever act in that manner I would hope someone would put me down like a beast."

"You see no use in the happy memories because you've convinced yourself that you are stuck in a world that will not allow you happiness. But do you not see? You are not clinging to who you were before you were wronged. You're clinging to what they did to you instead. And neither is good for you. Be the fiercely independent woman you want to be, but don't let your past steal future happiness. I want you to have that future happiness. To look back and count yourself lucky that you decided to take a chance on trusting your heart again."

Still his hand was there on the table, unmoving from it's offered position.