Chapter 473: 473. Everyone Having Their Moments While I Watched. And She Still Has That Eyes!

Lily looked at her for a moment, then looked at the ring again, and whatever argument she had been assembling was set aside in favor of the reality of the ring, which was clearly winning. It sparkled in the light, catching her breath as she imagined the promise it held. With a soft sigh, she realized that some decisions were perhaps meant to be embraced rather than scrutinized.

"My goodness~! It’s beautiful~!" she said. "This is—when is the ceremony?!"

"Have you talked about a ceremony?!"

"You need to have a ceremony! I want to be involved!"

"Calm down, Lily," Evelyn said. "We got engaged three days ago."

"So there’s time to plan," Lily said. "That’s even better."

"Give them a week before you start assigning yourself roles," Diana said.

"I’m not assigning myself roles," Lily said. "I’m expressing availability."

"Those are the same thing when you do it," Diana said.

Lily looked at Diana with the expression of someone who has been correctly identified but is not going to say so.

Elizabeth, for her part, had taken Evelyn’s hand gently when the moment allowed and looked at the ring with the attention of someone examining craftsmanship.

"Oh wow~! This is lovely..." she said, and meant it. "He has good taste."

She looked at her nephew with the quiet pride of an aunt who knows not to overstate her feelings but is genuinely pleased. "You have good taste."

"Thank you," Elliot said and meant that too.

"Did you have it made by a blacksmith, or did you find it at the jewelry store?" Elizabeth asked.

"Both, but the most important thing is that I found it," Elliot said. "There’s a craftsman in the Valdric Sovereignty, the third market ring in Halveth."

"He had three pieces in the window, and this was the one."

"You went to Halveth?" Elizabeth said.

"We passed through Halveth on the fourth day. I had about forty minutes." He shrugged. "I know what she likes."

"Apparently you do," Elizabeth said, which came with something soft underneath it, the particular quality she had when Elliot surprised her in ways she was glad to be surprised by.

Evelyn glanced at Elizabeth across the group, and a silent understanding passed between them, more profound than the surrounding celebration. It was the kind of look shared by two people who have known each other long enough to communicate without words.

Elizabeth squeezed Evelyn’s hand once, then released it, providing just what the moment required.

Diana had crossed to Elliot, and the way they greeted each other was quieter than the general celebration, a brief arm around his shoulders and something said close enough that Rex couldn’t hear it, which Elliot received with a smile that was more genuine than his usual broadcast cheerfulness.

"I’m glad you’re back just to tell us that you’re finally engaged like Elizabeth," Diana said, when they had a small space from the main noise. "How lucky you are, Elliot~!"

"Glad to be back," Elliot said. "But... I noticed that you seem different."

"Hm? Good different or bad different?"

Elliot looked at her with the same honest attention he typically used when interacting with his sisters. "Hmmmmm..."

"More like settled," he said. "Lily has it too."

"Both of you." He watched her face. "Something happened while I was gone."

"Several things happened," Diana said. "We had the canyon expedition, Rex returned, and Evelyn sent a letter about the engagement before you got here, allowing us a few hours to process it."

"Evelyn sent a letter...?"

"Yeah, same as Mother yesterday evening."

"She told me she was going to tell everyone in person," Elliot said, with the mild surprise of a man whose fiancée had done something he was not expecting and finding it completely consistent with her.

"She told us in the letter so we would have time to prepare an appropriate response," Diana said. "Which is also very consistent with her."

Elliot laughed, a genuine one. "Oh! Hahaha~!"

"Yeah," he said. "That’s her, alright."

He turned to Diana and asked, "So, about the settlement. Is that related to the expedition?"

"Partly," Diana said.

He watched her for another moment, and then he nodded, the way someone nods when they have decided they have enough information to form a position and are committing to it. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"I’m glad," he said. "Whatever it is."

Diana looked at him. "You’re not going to ask."

"Do you want me to ask?"

"No," Diana said.

"Then I’m not going to ask," Elliot said simply.

Diana was quiet for a moment.

Then she said, "You’re better at this than you used to be."

"At what?"

"Knowing when not to push."

Elliot considered this.

"Evelyn," he said, which was the complete explanation, and Diana accepted it as such.

Elizabeth was speaking to Evelyn with a warmth that she reserved specifically for her, a difference that Rex had observed compared to her interactions with most other people. Evelyn occupied some category in Elizabeth’s internal architecture that was distinct from both family and colleagues.

"How was the Valdric route?" Elizabeth asked. "We came through the northern pass last season, and it was miserable after the first week."

"For me, at least it was manageable," Evelyn said. "Even though it was cold at night."

"The road through the Halveth Basin was better than expected." She paused. "Elliot got into two arguments with roadside vendors and won both of them, which he considers a personal record."

"He considers that a performance indicator?"

"He considers everything a performance indicator," Evelyn said, with the fond exasperation of someone who had accepted this as a feature.

Elizabeth smiled.

"That’s been true since he was twelve," she said. "He timed himself during training exercises and then argued with Father about the timing’s methodology."

"What happened?"

"Father started timing him properly so the arguments would stop," Elizabeth said. "Which they did."

"And Elliot started breaking the times."

"Of course he did," Evelyn said.

"Of course he did," Elizabeth agreed.

She looked at Evelyn with something more careful underneath the lightness. "Are you happy?" she asked, which was a direct question in a way that Elizabeth did not often ask.

Evelyn looked at her for a moment.

"Yes," she said. "I am."

"Good," Elizabeth said. She spoke with the confidence of someone who needed to hear that answer, received it, and found it to be enough.

Elliot looked at Rex during a pause in the general celebration, wearing the expression of someone who has gathered available information and is formulating a conclusion.

"You’re spending time with both of them," Elliot said, his tone neutral and observational, lacking any hint of accusation or judgment. His words conveyed a straightforward matter-of-factness.

"In the general sense," Rex said, which was not technically inaccurate.

"Diana’s been considerably less unhappy since the expedition was announced," Elliot said.

"And Lily has been—" he considered the word carefully, "—settled."

"In a way she hadn’t been before." He looked at Rex with the direct focus of someone who has chosen to express their thoughts openly. "I don’t know what that means exactly, but I’m not going to pretend I haven’t noticed."

"What does noticing produce for you?" Rex said.

Elliot thought about this. "Well..."

"If you’re the reason she’s settled," he said, "and the reason Diana is less unhappy, then I’m in favor of it."

He paused. "I know that’s not a complicated position, and I don’t care."

He looked at Rex in the way he looked at people he was measuring, not hostile and not particularly warm, just honest. "You probably still remember about back then, right?"

"Back when you saved my life," he said. "In the Goblin King fight."

"You took that axe hit that was going to go through my back," he said it without drama, just the factual acknowledgment of a person who tracks what is owed and does not forget. "And from what Diana said in her letters, you kept the canyon expedition from going a lot worse than it could have."

"The team kept the expedition from going worse," Rex said.

"Diana doesn’t write about teams the way she wrote about that one," Elliot said. "Diana writes about what actually happened."

"She’s been doing it since she was seven." He looked at Rex plainly. "She wrote about you specifically."

Rex said nothing.

"Diana and Lily both deserve to be happy," Elliot said, "and if you’re part of that, then the Starlight family is grateful for your existence."

He extended his hand. "That’s where I land."

Rex looked at him for a moment. Then he shook hands with him.

Elliot’s handshake was precisely what Rex had anticipated: firm, direct, and genuinely sincere. It was the handshake of someone who employed the same approach consistently, as sincerity was not something he adjusted based on his audience.

"I’m going to hold you to that," Rex said, which was not a threat, just an observation that landed somewhere between one and the other.

"I’d expect nothing less," Elliot said and meant it and released his hand.

From somewhere in the group, Evelyn was watching this exchange.

Rex noticed because Evelyn’s attention had a particular quality that was different from observation, something in it that was active rather than passive, the specific attention of someone who was not just watching but filing.

Evelyn realized that Rex was aware of her gaze, and she maintained her focus on him.

’That look... it’s familiar from the beginning I’ve met her...’ Rex thought. ’Ah fuck... what is it now with this stupid fucking bitch?’