[Freebuild] Reunion at Everwater [Everwater Story Index 02]

[SimWies]

The Stories of Everwater and Sam Weatherstone - Story Index 02

To see previous stories and an overview of Everwater, please see Everwater [Avalonia].

Reunion at Everwater

After a long and strenuous journey back to Everwater, travelling as fast as they could, Alric Ellerion and Sam Weatherstone have finally returned to Everwater. After the arrival of Anna's letter, Alric’s sister had asked for their return after the apparent murder of their father and the thereafter ensuing skirmishes, Alric and Sam had left Petraea immediately. The travelling bards had already told of their crossing of the border of the county of Everwater and we now meet them back home, amongst their closest friends.

Spoiler

'To your father’ proclaimed Alera, lifting her cup towards Alric and Anna across the large table. ‘I am glad you are back’. 

She was no woman of many words, but that was by far enough. Everybody present was aware of what had happened. The mysterious death of Lord Ellerion and his right hand Master Grenich, the grab for power by force of his brother Ureth and the ensuing skirmishes, that had led to further deaths.

Her brother Mal by her side, nodded, quiet as always, and took a sip of his cup. He had personally tended to many of the wounded and his mind was with the soldiers, who were still fighting for their lives. ‘I am…’ Eric took a large bite of the piece of meat in his hand ‘...also glad you are back’ He smiled his neverfading smile below his red-orange hair, which today was skewed a bit by a large cut on his left cheek which he got fighting against the supporters of Ureth. ‘Aleric, do you know what we are going to do now?’

Alric looked tired but determined. ‘Friends, I am really glad to be back and that all of you are well. Without you, we would have lost Everwater and the chance to bring justice to those that have done this’ His look got even sterner. ‘I do not want revenge, that is not the way our father has taught us’ he looked at Anna and she nodded, ‘but I want justice and our uncle has obviously betrayed our house, our troops and this county.’ 

Alric turned to Eric ‘you will for the time being continue to lead the troops of Everwater’ Eric looked confused, his gaze wandered to Sam on the other side of the table. Alric, noticing the look, grinned and added ‘Sam will have another task for now, we have heard that the Queen has summoned the Lords and Ladies, Knights and Bards to Albion. I cannot leave Everwater right now, Sam will in my place follow the Queen’s call and will afterwards return to Everwater as fast as possible and take the place as my right hand and commander of the troops.’ Sam and Alric looked at each other and with a slight nod of head agreed.

Alera spoke up ‘I will take two of my best rangers and go scouting in the woods, maybe we can gather information on where Ureth has gathered his troops. I think Mel will stay with the wounded.’ Mel gave a short ‘yeah thats right’. Alric agreed with this plan and with that, they had discussed everything pressing and they finally had time to catch up as friends, tell stories and for once not think about what lies ahead of them.

The night grew long and only Sam and Alric remained. When they got up, a bit wobbly from the ale and wine, Alric took Sam’s arm. ‘Sam, please return to me and Everwater as fast as you can, the troops and I need you back here. You will have to leave tomorrow already, to make it in time to Albion.’ Sam replied ‘of course Alric, I will come back as soon as possible. We will make this right.’ ‘Thank you Sam’, Alric answered and added ‘you are my representative in Albion, you will speak in my word and do the right thing for Everwater and Avalonia.’ He smiled, hugged Sam and wandered off, in a not so straight line, towards his chambers.

Just as Sam was also about to also head towards his room, Anna appeared around the corner, opposite the direction Alric had just wandered off. She must have waited. ‘Sam, do you have a moment for me?’ She came closer. 'For you always Anna’ Sam replied. She made him more nervous than he liked to admit and his ears already started to feel warm. The two of them were really close and Sam was, to put it simply, in love with her and if he had read the signs right, she also felt something for him.

She stopped at arms length. ‘I have missed you Sam and I am glad you are back in Everwater, together with my brother. Everwater needs you both and…’ she let the end of the sentence fade. ‘And?’ Sam asked. Anna looked him in the eyes ‘and I have missed you.’ She smiled at him ‘please be back soon from Albion.’ Sam felt as if he could fly ‘I have missed you too Anna, more than you can imagine and I am glad you are safe … although I know you could easily beat some of these guys.’ He winked at her and her smile grew even bigger. She playfully took a swing at him and took advantage of his small evasive movement and closed the gap to him. She gave Sam a small kiss on the cheek and whispered ‘something to think about on the road to Albion’, turned around and vanished back into the dark corridor, leaving a confused but happy Sam behind.

The next day Sam left the castle of Everwater in the early hours of the day long before anyone else was up and after a short visit to his parents and siblings he got on his way to Albion.

- - - - - 

Something small to tie my Everwater story into the preludes of Book IV with the call to Albion and show how Sam and Alric reunite with their friends in Everwater. The build in itself is nothing big, however I wanted to test my window-building-skilles ... they can be improved... but I am happy with the result. The story was my main goal for this entry  which was really fun to write.

Edited March 25 by SimWies

[Seagull King of Vaughan]

This is an excellent build! I’m in love with the table legs myself, and the little barrel of swords (always good to have some handy…). I think the windows are great. They look just fine to me and are very in keeping with the style.

I remembered the previous build and am happy to see more of this story! I do think a link to that build here (or to the main Everwater topic) would be helpful. But that’s not strictly necessary. This story stands on its own just fine.

[SimWies]

2 hours ago, Seagull King of Vaughan said:

This is an excellent build! I’m in love with the table legs myself, and the little barrel of swords (always good to have some handy…). I think the windows are great. They look just fine to me and are very in keeping with the style.

I remembered the previous build and am happy to see more of this story! I do think a link to that build here (or to the main Everwater topic) would be helpful. But that’s not strictly necessary. This story stands on its own just fine.

Thank you @Seagull King of Vaughan for your feedback and kind words! Glad you like my little build and the story of Everwater.

I added a link to the main Everwater-thread, where I collect all stories and additional things about Everwater. Thanks for the hint.

[The Stad]

A very clean build here with just the right amount of details. It’s a great backdrop for all the story.

[Grover]

This is a great little build! Sometimes these small builds are the best when trying to convey a story.  I love that you have a nice border around it to imply a larger floor around, and the window frame inside is nice. I love how the seats are randomly arranged as if people got up and left once only 2 figs are left in the frame.  The exterior is great, and I love the extra definition from the ingot SNOT pieces. You did a nice job tying the SNOT work in the the studs on top, and the exterior window frame is very nice.

One tip, if you want to do a small build for a story: if you get at minifig eye level and take the picture, you can crop to only Lego showing, and it tends to draw the viewer in.  The real trick to this is that you can then incorporate an odd colored brick or tile and not have it appear out of place. If you show the entire build, the eye tends to look for uniformity and picks out the two dark bley pieces as unusual, but if you are cropped to only bricks, the mind tends to fill in what it can't see and extends the 'odd' color pattern into empty space and it doesn't look as out of place.  These kinds of builds are best done on a diagonal or with a trapezoidal shape to maximize the space for figures and items.

Let's take a minute to talk about the star of the show, though: those windows.  Excellent work with the mosaic cheese slopes, and kudos to getting them flush in such a small area!  I love seeing the mosaic trans cheese slope windows, and they're great here.  Hope to see more in the future! Keep up the great work!

[SimWies]

On 4/2/2026 at 4:11 AM, Grover said:

This is a great little build! Sometimes these small builds are the best when trying to convey a story.  I love that you have a nice border around it to imply a larger floor around, and the window frame inside is nice. I love how the seats are randomly arranged as if people got up and left once only 2 figs are left in the frame.  The exterior is great, and I love the extra definition from the ingot SNOT pieces. You did a nice job tying the SNOT work in the the studs on top, and the exterior window frame is very nice.

One tip, if you want to do a small build for a story: if you get at minifig eye level and take the picture, you can crop to only Lego showing, and it tends to draw the viewer in.  The real trick to this is that you can then incorporate an odd colored brick or tile and not have it appear out of place. If you show the entire build, the eye tends to look for uniformity and picks out the two dark bley pieces as unusual, but if you are cropped to only bricks, the mind tends to fill in what it can't see and extends the 'odd' color pattern into empty space and it doesn't look as out of place.  These kinds of builds are best done on a diagonal or with a trapezoidal shape to maximize the space for figures and items.

Let's take a minute to talk about the star of the show, though: those windows.  Excellent work with the mosaic cheese slopes, and kudos to getting them flush in such a small area!  I love seeing the mosaic trans cheese slope windows, and they're great here.  Hope to see more in the future! Keep up the great work!

Thank you @Grover for the kind feedback and the tip about framing such a build and taking photos on minifig eye-level. I will definitly try this out for the next "story-centered" build. I am really happy that you like the window ... I hope to also incorporate it into the current Book IV challenge.