I can remember when first I saw him - my beloved knight in tarnished armor. I was quite young then, but I can remember it as if it were yesterday. Mother and Father understood (Mother, perhaps, more so than Father, since she was the last one to choose a knight), but the advisors were reluctant to trust my word, the word of a mere child. Da'en, especially, advised against allowing me to choose a knight, but I insisted that it was time, and my parents trusted me (much to Da'en's frustration). However, even they were uncertain when I made my choice.

I had led them to Malliev. Father had wanted to call all together all the elves of the city, but I insisted that my knight would not come to such a gathering - he would never have considered himself a candidate.

And then, I saw him. He was simply walking along, dressed in perhaps the most ragged clothing I had seen in Malliev, but I knew it was him. I knew it the moment he smiled at me. He had such a warm smile, with such gentle eyes. I walked up to him and asked, "Would you be my knight, even if by doing so, you would guarantee yourself an early death?"

He crouched down before me, that smile still on his face, and replied, "Little Lady, why would you want me for your knight? There are far more noble men in Malliev than I, and far more deserving, as well."

There was a sort of sadness when he spoke, that it made me want to cry. And so, I said to him, "Sir, they may be more noble by birth, but your heart is more noble by far. I say again, if you will be my knight, you shall not live long. Refuse me if you wish, but remember this: you are the only one I would trust with my life, and you are the only one I want. What say you, sir? Will you be my knight?"

For a moment, the longest of moments, he didn't say anything. And then, he closed his eyes, took my hand, and kissed it gently. "Then I shall serve thee, Little Lady, if you will have me."

And that is how my beloved knight, my only knight, came to serve me.

Lady Honnya Silvestry