|| Mentions / Involvement: @damoclesffxiv , @enambris , @lilyverlial||

The late night colors of silver and glimmering violets blanketed the royal streets of the desert jewel, Ul’dah. Gentle sways of warm summer night air brushed along brazen and dusty tanned skin. Gentle simpers and light chuckles filled the air around the city balcony, the beats of the city’s nightlife music came in waves through the evening air. 

A hand brushes along a sandy stone railing followed by a sister’s chuckle. Blonde hair and burning crimson eyes gaze about the vast open expanse of Thanalan from one of the high balcony ways in the mid-section of the city. The pureblood shifts a bit, their other hand passing through a wavy length of her hair.

“Are you sure about this?” Her voice was reasonable, a curious tone taking through as her eyes turn to her now elezen of a sister. 

Bella blinked a bit, resting her back to the railing, shifting along it slightly as if she were like a bear, taking care of an itch. Her spines were antsy underneath her shirt, unable to stretch and breathe properly. A moment passes as she takes a deep breath, exhaling it sharply between pursed lips.

The thousand upon thousand different possibilities of her answer bounced around her mind, sparking like wildfire before shattering into embers of the million, billion stars above in the night sky. Bittersweet thoughts drifted to and fro as she dwelled on her words as carefully as she could. Her heart beat weakly, pumping and beating in her chest as much as it could in its condition. 

Slowly now, so slowly. Bella gave herself a solemn nod, the graces of a smile slipping onto the distant yet so welcoming corners of her lips. Her teeth chattered gently behind a partially open lip before parting fully as she spoke.

“… To be honest, Sis…” The elezen slowly brings her scarred gaze over to meet the pureblood with a gentle smile. “I… I’ve been thinking about it… a lot. Whether or not I am to go this way… Ever since and before Our chat… But… I do know that… She makes me happy. The happiest I could ever be, in a long… long time.”

There was a slight and albeit nervous chuckle as Bella brought a hand to rub at her neck, pausing her words only briefly. “She’s had my heart in knots, ever since she walked into Headquarters that one day. Like… something straight out of a storybook, Dawn. Ever since she first asked to join us, to be an engineer, and then to be My apprentice… and… then My partner.” Her voice lowers somewhat, a tinge of red could be seen brushing along her cheeks briefly before turning up to her pointed ears.

With that, she cracked a toothy smile, shaking her head. “I know I’ve said some of that before… but… I mean it. There’s… A certain part of me that longs to be at her side, to see her safe, to support her beyond anything and through everything like… I’m just… drawn to her. It’s Inescapable and undeniable. D-… Does that make sense?”

Dawn did all but try to hide that smirk she wore, resting on an elbow atop the railing, there was a nod. “I’d think so.” The woman’s other hand moved to find a place along Bella’s shoulder, giving a firm and reassuring squeeze to calm her sister down. "Just do what you feel is right, go with your heart, and not your mind.“

"Some words of guidance. The Creator said that to us one time, remember?”

The elezen bit back a small grin, nodding at that. “Aye, I do… Somehow, anyways.” Blinking a moment, she looks around again. A passing glance through the night sky to the nightlife’s filled streets and then to the inner city behind them, beyond the balcony. Her lips pursed just slightly as she watched the people pass by with mild interest. Slowly she moved to cross her arms, folding them beneath her chest, resting her back against the railing again.

“What’d you think of that one jeweler’s shop?  You know the one on the second floor, with all the steel?” Dawn’s voice came, her head tilting as she crossed her arms to do the same, index and thumb stretching to cup her own chin.

“That one? I… don’t think those were rings, Sis.” Bell smirked, looking over a bit, elbowing the woman with a small laugh. “There were bracelets maybe. Bangles and I’m pretty sure that was a weapon and sex-shop.”

A snort came from the pureblood, shaking her head. “Guess that explained why we had to take a side-alley to get there.” 

“Oh shut-up.” Belladonna sneered, her elbow jabbed at Dawn’s side once more, a light laugh following after.

“Hey, you know where it is now though. If it was that, I mean. They really didn’t give us a sign or shop name; just we saw they sold… That stuff. I know that I’m keeping it noted for later.”

“Eugh, Really?”

“What? Bell, we’re like thirty-six year old, sort-of adopted sisters. Talk like this is going to happen… probably. It’s better than having this chat with our brothers’ right?”

The elezen deadpanned just a moment, fighting back a smirk.

“Well we are. I’m in my late thirties and then you’re fifty who’s sort of in their late thirties too because ‘things happened’.” The pureblood brought up her hands to air quote all the while sneering from ear to ear. A moment passed before she let out a light ‘pop’ from her lips with a chuckle, her hand moved to sweep up a small twine bound booklet, passing it over after flipping it open. 

Sliding over, she bumped into Bella, thumping her head against the taller elezen’s shoulder. “Here, let’s take a look at a few of these from that shop on the fourth floor. Evidently this catalogue applies to all shops on the norther section of the city. Handy.”

“So we just find one here that I think would be nice and we just… what, ask?”
Dawn’s expression flipped in an instant from curiosity killing the cat to utter perplexity as she shrugged her shoulders heavily. “That’s what they said, I guess.”

With a tilt of her own head, the elezen brought her thumb to her lips, giving it a single stick of her tongue to flip through the worn pages of the booklet. Each page was some variation of tattered or stained, filled from header to footer with actual pictures, scrawls and scribbles of specifically just rings.

The nearly hundreds upon hundreds of designed all varied from the most simplest of etchings with flowers buried beneath golden linings to the most complex designs of dragons and monsters carrying the jewels their homes were burdened with carrying. The sheer amount of it all made Bella’s head spin just enough to make her cast her gaze elsewhere for a time. 

“Gods… Just one ring, that’s all I need! Something that will look good on her, that’s it.” She grit her teeth tightly, grinding them in some tinge of frustration while her other hand moved to wipe her forehead clean of the midnight dust from the passing stray winds along the city balcony. 

“Easy, sis, easy… There’s bound to be at least one you’ll find here. And honestly, I don’t think we’re gonna go anywhere else tonight, which I’m perfectly fine with, by the way. We’re in the mid-city, just low enough to still catch business from the lower streets and just high enough to see the more… rich people get it on.”

“Still gotta see if Nam likes any of these too, y’know.”

With a snort, Dawn moved to sit down on the corner of the bench beside them, pulling the binder onto her lap, flipping through the pages one by one. “There’s a few here already I think you’d like. But… If you’re really serious about this, Bella, then we’ve got about say… four hundred or so more pages in this old book.”
The moonlight cast its silver graces over the gentle and still warm dunes and mesas that surrounded the Desert Jewel. A warm breeze danced through the night, flowing through the hallowed halls of the sunstone city as it brushed past the Slater Sisters. 

“Guess that means it’s going to be a long night, huh?”

The minutes turned long and the hours seemed forever, but even so, the laughter of both women could be heard as they pored over the aged pages of jewels and gold, knowing full well by the end of the night they’d have one.
“Yeah, but we’ve got drinks.”

“… Oh yeah we do.”

… Eventually.