[Airerûthiel]

Although Neisa had never been one to make conversation with others that was not completely necessary, she nonetheless could not help feeling a brief pang of jealousy as she watched the group in the corner toasting one another's health. It was at times like these that she missed her brother, although it was partially his fault that she had ended up like this. Why couldn't he have been a little more ambitious? The adventures and quests they could have undertake together as twins played in her head every night when she went to sleep, cascading through her mind in torturous dreams.

She supposed she should be grateful to him - after all, if it wasn't for him, she would not possess half of her skills. But he aspired to so little in life! All he wanted was to marry a peasant girl and settle down to a farmer's life. She sniffed a little. Whoever heard of a rich farmer?! He would get all their father's money when the old cavalryman died, but it would do nought but sit in his house and gather dust for years.

Her father...she remembered the kindly old gentleman's face as it drifted before her eyes. He loved his family more than life itself, and her mother's sudden death had almost killed him instantly. Sometimes Neisa almost wished it had; anything was better than coming home and watching him slowly waste away to nothing. It broke her heart to see his condition deteriorate so rapidly. She would give anything for him to go back to the way he used to be before her mother died.

And here she was, moping about her life, drinking ale, trying to find a way out of the drudgery of her existence. She sighed heavily, stood up and walked over to the table where the merry-makers were sat. A smile was fixed onto her face, and she was determined to make everything in her world at least seem all right, even though in her heart she knew she could not change it.