"How'd you decide, to marry him -"

"We had a family meeting about how to get through the winter and we came up with suggesting to him that he take one of me or my sisters, and he talked to us. He wanted someone who'd make his laundry business more efficient and he didn't want more children immediately and he wanted us to learn magic too. I remember thinking I liked him very much and had better temper my expectations by assuming he was a mean drunk or something. - he isn't."

"I figured."

"He needs the normal things a man needs from a wife and children but not in a way that'll cause him to go and get them. We'll have a lovely evening and he'll never try to do anything like it ever again and I'll say 'oh, did you not like it', and he just - forgot that that was a good enough reason to do things. Or has put enough priorities on his plate that it isn't. It bothered me, a lot, until I learned who he was, and then -" She smiles fondly at him. 

She wants to ask 'did he ever actually want you, in a human way', but there's no polite way to ask that at all. She asks about what Absalom was like a hundred years ago, instead, and what the study of magic was like, and glances at Leareth occasionally.

Leareth is also glancing at her every so often, and thinking that she's just as clever as he had guessed, and unsurprisingly interesting to talk to, and - she looks quite pretty in that dress, huh, he doesn't normally notice things like that but he's doing some amount of deliberately leaning into it right now.

It's helpful that he's already been dating Khemet and so he knows what it's like to want someone. And - he doesn't, with her, not yet, even if he appreciates looking at her and listening to her more than he usually does with a randomly chosen person. It feels like the seed of it might be there, and he doesn't know if it needs more time or more trust or something else entirely. 

And eventually she says apologetically that she had better go set up her new apartment, and is grateful for the invitation and once she can afford some ink will definitely take Aroden up on copying some spells from him.

Leareth asks if she would mind letting him know her address, so he can drop by or send a letter when he's planned a date to take her on. If she does mind, she could maybe visit the palace again in a few days. 

He can have her address. It's Guerreco's building on East Row and Thirtieth and her place is on the third floor and he probably would want to send a letter, as he'd stand out, but he's of course welcome if he'd like to visit.

He'll send a letter, then. 

Leareth bids her goodnight, warmly. Hug? 

Hug. "Good night." 

And she heads out.

Leareth turns back to everyone else in the suite. "Do - you think that went well?" His own read is that she was mostly having a good time although she occasionally seemed slightly disappointed about something and he had no idea what. He doesn't especially trust his own read on this, though. 

"I like her. She was so delighted about the offer of spells, it was charming." 

"She's a sweet girl! And I think she'll do a good job."

"I am quite certain of that. I am still trying to figure out if she likes the prospect, and - what she needs to be happy doing it." He makes a face. "It feels important to be - good to her, and I feel very much at a loss for how to do that. I dislike being unskilled at things." 

Amused glance at Parmida. 

"I am very confident you'll figure it out eventually. It - helped us, a bit, that I was delighted for Aroden to be slow about things, and I don't think she's that, but - you'll get there."

"I hope so." Probably she's right. Leareth thinks he's pretty good at learning his way around new domains, so probably he can do this one too, and - she's not Khemet's level of unusually delightful, at least not yet, but she's clever and she thinks like him, in some ways, and they'll work together closely and...he's sure that sooner or later he'll be able to feel trust and intimacy with her in the same way.

And he wants that. He's just - not sure how to skip ahead from here to there, or if it's even possible for him to do that. 

The next day he asks Parmida if she knows of any good jewellery shops in the city. 

She can recommend him some!

He takes the afternoon off other work, scopes out both and then heads to the one he's less excited about first, so he can ask the proprietor how much one would usually spend on a wedding ring when he asks to see the selection of them, and it'll be less of a loss if the man is set on overcharging him as a result. He still has very little context on what the haggling norms are like here. 

They're at first perfectly polite and want to know what price range he's looking in and then someone recognizes him at which point they're quite off-balance, and a bit scared. They can show him their existing selection but also lots of higher-end buyers want a custom piece made, you can look through a book of designs and figure out which you like best, and they can arrange to have it both made and enchanted here if he wants magic. 

The options for magic rings go to some things that are probably out of even his price range, such as a Ring of Three Wishes.

They seem, going off reading their minds, to be more interested in upselling him than overcharging him. Surely he wants to ensure his beloved's safety with a Ring of Friend Shield, which lets you shield the other person through the ring? Or a Ring of Delayed Doom, which lets you carry on for a minute before a spell's effects hit, more than enough time to respond and get to safety?

Both of those sound very tempting, honestly, especially the Friend Shield, and Leareth doesn't think he minds being upsold. He asks to look through the book of designs, vaguely wishing he knew Carissa better so he could more exactly predict what she would like; she has a cactus familiar but he's not sure if this is at all indicative that she likes plants, versus it was just practical. He notes down the plant-related designs though, and then tells them that he would like to consider it and he'll come back. He is, throughout, polite and tries very hard not to be scary. 

He heads to look at the other jewellery store as well. This entire process is kind of exhausting but it seems worth doing right. 

The other store can also get him a custom piece with whatever enchantments he can pay for, and has their own book of designs that he can look through, and all kinds of advice about what's currently in style.

Leareth thanks them for the advice and makes more notes and then returns to the palace, kind of overwhelmed, and seeks out Parmida.

"I am looking at rings and there are too many decisions involved. Help?" 

"Oh, you're going to hate planning a wedding. I guess you can get her to do it. How much are you willing to spend?"