"Jessa? Are you ready?" Dhiren says after knocking at the door.

"Come in, Dhiren, I could use a bit of help if you would." Jessa isn't used to the human style dresses and they are more complicated than the elven style which are easy to put on and take off with out assistance. 

Dhiren comes in and his breath is taken away as he sees Jessa in the dress he bought her earlier. "You look stunning, Jessa." Dhiren smiles at her as he looks at her face in the mirror. He goes to her and does up the back for her. He can't help running his fingers along her back as he does and is pleased by her shivers. 

He never takes his eyes from her and so he knows that the shivers aren't of disgust.

Once the dress is done up he takes a step back in order to calm himself down. Being alone in a bedroom with her isn't the best idea, he realizes.

"I have another gift, I hope you will accept it." Dhiren says and hands her the package with the moonstone head piece.

Jessa looks at it and then back to him. "It's lovely, but I don't recognize the jewel."

Dhiren smiles, "Lady Zira blesses these particular stones whenever they are able to receive her light." Dhiren motions to the window and has her set the piece into the moon light.

Jessa gasps softly as the stones begin to glow and give off a soft light. "Please let me place the piece on your head." Dhiren requests and Jessa merely nods and hands him the piece, not entirely sure how it is supposed to be placed.

Jessa had left her hair to fall in it's natural waves down her back so when Dhiren places the silver and moonstone piece it looked like it was raining moon beans along her ebony hair.

"Take a look, my lady," Dhiren says and guides Jessa back to the mirror.

Jessa holds her hand up to her mouth in shock. "I have never seen a more beautiful woman in my life, Jessa. Do you accept my gift?"

Jessa turns to him with tears in her eyes. She throws her arms around him and hugs him. "Of course I do, Dhiren. Thank you."

"Hey, don't cry. We should go now, if you are ready? It wouldn't do to be late and embarrass your grandfather."

"You're right. Alaric detests it when people are late." Jessa says and heads towards the door once she makes sure that she won't be showing any tears.

"Dhiren, I don't have another gift for you," Jessa says as they leave the room. Her words are soft and embarrassed.

"Fuck, Jessa, I didn't give you gifts to make it so that you give me one. The courting gifts are meant to be given only when you feel that you should. I don't want you to feel obligated to get me anything. I saw the dress and you liked it and I wanted to get you something that you would like but would be more feminine than your normal wear. I have nothing against your normal clothes, I rather like seeing you in them, actually, but sometimes a female needs something more, like tonight.

"As for the jewels, well, you deserve so much more. You are a jewel and even though many of my people might not realize it, I do. As do my parents. It is only right that you have jewels of your own to wear."

"They are lovely, Dhiren, truly, but I have no place to keep them. I can't bring them with me when I have a guarding job."

"I'm sure that Alaric will permit you to leave them here. He might even have a place to hold them for you. If not, then we can have them deposited with Frosnak. She has vaults for the money and she rents some of them out to private citizens when there is a need."

"Okay, I didn't know that. Thank you for letting me know."

"I'm sure that Frosnak would tell you about it herself when she gets to that part of your education." Dhiren reassures her as he escorts her down the stairs where his guards await them.

They return to the sitting room and find Alaric there with Frosnak already sitting and chatting.

"I do apologize if we are late. I had a gift for Jessa and she needed time to get accustomed to just how beautiful she looks." Dhiren says and the two break off their conversation and turn to the elves and Jessa.

"Jessa, love, you look stunning. What is the gift the prince gave you?" Alaric asks confused. The jewels have a vague elven look to them but not. The dress is most definitely of human origin.

"The dress and the jewels. Aren't they gorgeous?"

Frosnak looks over the gifts with a knowing eye. "Very nice, prince. It must have been costly."

Dhiren gives Frosnak a dirty look. "Is cost important when giving a gift, Frosnak? Jessa gave me a gift earlier and it wasn't expensive, but it was divine. Should that make her gift better or worse?"

Frosnak looks taken aback at the Prince's words. "Forgive me, Prince. I meant no disrespect to either of you. It's just that moonstones of that quality are rare and expensive. The dress is lovely and of good make and good material."

Dhiren is hardly mollified but accepts her apology. Jessa though, is still looking down in shame. She hadn't found anything for Dhiren for a decent gift. She thinks that she'll need to dip into her savings to be able to get anything worthy of him.

"Jessa, I spoke out of turn. I shouldn't have said anything about the costliness of the gifts. You will not be able to compete with the value of the gifts, he has a much vaster reserve than you do. The best thing you can do is find something that will mean a great deal to him, but not be expensive."

Jessa nods but finds it hard to look up still.

"Jessa, never feel less than you are. You know what you are, never look down because of what some one else says. You are my grand daughter, you have no reason to look down to any one, ever. Lift your head up high. You will know what to get your prince when the time comes. When you find it, whether it be high priced or low, it won't matter. If you have need of more funds to get it, you have but to ask. Frosnak has already been informed that she is to release whatever funds you might need from my account to yours."

"Thank you grandfather," Jessa says and finally lifts her head up.

She sees the compassion in the eyes of Sorsha and Kelton and she manages to smile.

During dinner plans are made to have lessons and meetings.

No one was pleased to hear that Jessa will be going out in the morning before her lessons with Frosnak to the hiring grounds. "I have need of work. I doubt I'll be hired immediately and so I need to make myself seen so that they will know that I am available. I will be at Frosnak's after breakfast, which I'll eat at the bazaar. Then I'll come home for the midday meal before going to lessons with Alaric."

"Then I likely won't get a chance to see you tomorrow. After you finish I'll be needing to meet with Frosnak before returning to Silva."

"Oh, you're returning to Silva tomorrow then?" Jessa says despondently.

"Forgive me, Prince, but did not General Kallen say that he will be here to escort you home?" Kelton says in the silence following her words.

"Yes, but there is no need to make him take the trip from Silva to here."

"Yes, there is, Dhiren. That assassination attempt is very good reason for you to wait for my father. I'm sorry, but I just don't trust your guards to be good enough. Those assassins were almost too good for me."

Dhiren snorts, "You were sporting a broken arm and an arrow wound at the time."

"Prince, Lady Jessa is right. It would be better to wait for general Kallen to come and escort you home. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell the king that we failed to protect you sufficiently." Sorsha says softly. She doesn't understand what is going on.

"Or is it because you wish to leave me?" Jessa whispers just loud enough for Dhiren to hear.

"NO!" Dhiren takes a breath and exhales loudly. "I just don't like being away from Silva for long periods of time. I have duties there and others have to deal with them if I don't. Kallen has duties that others will have to do if I am selfish enough to make him come here."

"I would like to see my granddaughters foster father again. Stay as my guest Prince, and be at peace. Stay for a week. I will send my friend with a message to your father."

"Your friend?" Dhiren says in confusion.

Alaric claps his hands. "He likes to think of himself as my familiar, but he's not. He has chosen to stay with me for protection, but isn't bound to me in any way."

Shortly a small dragon appears and the elves and Jessa exhale loudly.

"A prismatic dragon," Sorsha is the first one to say anything. She says it with such reverence that she has all their eyes on her. 

Sorsha colors brightly as she realizes that she has pulled everyone's attention to her.

"Sorsha, how did you know what he is?" Dhiren asks her gently.

Sorsha smiles dreamily. "When I was tutored, I was fascinated with the history of the dragons. I would pour over the different scrolls and books that had illustrations of the different dragons. It is believed that the prismatic dragons went extinct once the metallic dragons died after the war."

Alaric snorts, "The metallic dragons aren't extinct, they've just gone into hiding. They have no desire to be killed by their enemies." He gestures to the small flying dragon, "I won't let him speak without being spoken to first unless it is very important. He makes a useful messenger when he remembers his job." That last bit was said with a glare.

"Introduce yourself," Alaric tells the small dragon.

"Hello, my name is Mel." The dragon says very rapidly then abruptly shuts his mouth.

"Hello, Mel, my name is Dhiren, I am the prince of the moon elves in Silva. Would you be willing to take a message to my father?" Dhiren asks the fascinating dragon in front of him.

"Of course Prince Dhiren, I would love to." Mel speaks so fast that Dhiren has to think over what was said before he understood the words.

"Thank you, Mel. Would you tell my father, King Ureuk, that I will be staying here in Castlerock for a week? That is unless he has need of me sooner?" Dhiren questions Mel.

"Not a problem Prince. I'll go right away." And before their very eyes and before they could understand what he said he was gone.

"He won't have any trouble getting into Silva will he?" Dhiren worries.

Alaric just waves away the concern as if it is nothing. "They won't even see him until he finds the king and is able to tell him the message. How long it will take the king to understand the message, that I don't know."

After that the dinner more or less finished and they just chatted until it was time for Frosnak to go.

Dhiren escorts Jessa to her room, "Truly, Jessa, I wasn't going to leave because I don't want to be with you. It's just I have duties to fulfill."

"You think that will change any with the message?"

"No, but my father will understand. I had informed them that I was asking you to allow me to court you."

"I still can't believe that they don't have a problem with that."

"Why would they?" Dhiren asks in confusion.

"Oh, I don't know, perhaps because I'm not elven. Or, maybe because you evicted me from living in Silva."

"Jessa, that will only be until I can get the people behind my choice. I think it won't be as hard as you think it will be."

"Perhaps not with the people, but the leaders..." Jessa trails off her voice full of bitterness.

"Do you wish for me to stop courting you, Jessa?" Dhiren asks in pain as he caresses her cheek as they stand in front of her room door.

Jessa shakes her head, "No. I find that I enjoy being with you Dhiren. I am enjoying getting to know you."

Dhiren snorts, "You like kicking my ass in sparring, too."

"Well, of course, that is a perk of having you to spar against. It's as good as going against Kallen. I don't have to hide my abilities and can go full out. Well mostly full out." Jessa smirks at him before she opens her door. Before she can escape inside Dhiren leans down and kisses her.

"Minx, do you need help with your dress?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess I do." Jessa says then sees Sorsha hiding and wishing that she was any where else but there.

"Sorsha, could you help me with this complicated thing?" Jessa says with a smirk and a sideways look at Dhiren.

Sorsha looks apprehensively at her prince, when he nods she eagerly replies, "I would love to help you, Jessa."

"Good night, Jessa. I hope you have pleasant dreams." Dhiren tells her before making his way to his own room.