Selenn
There are some paths in the Plum Blossom Retreat that are not often followed. The manse has extensive grounds, and the highest of its terraces, where the Great Hall sits between two massive oak trees, is one of the least frequented by the many residents of the retreat. There the most secluded of gardens are tucked in the eaves of the mountain. There is a waterfall there, where a curtain of water falls from a stream five hundred feat above, and that waterfall is called Fading Memory. Behind that waterfall is a pool and a grotto, and it is there that a few members of the family of Rivers Between Us go to remember.
Marta has little to remember, but she goes anyway with her older brother, Salvar. There is a pool behind the waterfall, and path around the pool. In the back of the small cave is a niche with a sword stand. There is room for two swords, but only one is present. It is badly corroded, and the tip has been broken off, but it was once a cavalry saber with a mother of pearl inlayed hilt. This was the sword that Selenn wielded by her husband, Red Flanks, when his last charge was broken by sorcery he could not match with courage alone. This is the only relic left from her mother, recovered by Five Days Darkness along with her father's sword. It has been reforged. Her mother's will not be.
Together Marta and Salvar come to the grotto, or sometimes alone, and pray that her spirit pass on peacefully and be rejoined with her husband again. She was three when they left, and all that she barely remembers is long brown hair and the large table that she kept in their home for the many guests of her husband. It is this example of hospitality that she sets before herself when she sets the table in the Great Hall.
