It's the inquisitive 'peep?' of a firelizard that first hails the prescence of a shipboard Ranger. Robin's footsteps are unheard as she carefully places her feet on the unfamiliar planking. Behind her, Victor seems a bit bemused by his companion's cautious tread.
"I'd still feel better if we'd been introduced to the boat first, Vic. And he didn't have to snicker at me that way." Robin's voice is more mystified than petulant as she opens the door to the humble Captain's cabin of the Vale of Garnath.
Peeking into the dim room and ducking slightly due to the low ceiling, Robin smiles as she spies Jerod within. Then frowns. Then settles for matter of fact as as she enters.
"All secure," Robin reports. "No trouble." she finishes with a dissappointed pout.
Jerod nods once, having noted their arrival as he adjusts his clothing, settling a cloak on his shoulders and letting the feel sink in. He notes the fire-lizard with a critical eye of a falconer, wonders for a moment at the aerodynamic principles for its body design but lets the moment pass, intent on dealing with the current situation. His father's sword is close at hand and the spear he has been carrying of late as well.
Victor seems to be studying the spear, although not over-intently.
"Good." he says. "Scarlett is remaining to protect the shop. I've left my colours in case they may be of use. We'll wait for Raven and then decide the approach for Heap and company."
Raven arrives shortly thereafter, moving into the room with the ease of someone very familiar with it. Not that the captain goes far - she picks a spot near the door to lean against and regards her relatives, Royal and surprise. And the tiny dragon. "Stone's getting him settled in with the men below," she states. "Don't figure they know any curses he ain't heard yet, and there'll be at least one or two folks about at all hours in there."
Victor nods. "Won't hurt 'em any. He may want a turn or two at sea when he's older, to unlearn some of what he picked up living with nothing but women all these years. " Victor shakes his head. "Made a man out of my nephew, anyways." He abruptly changes the subject. "So, Heap may not be all that eager to be found."
"That would be expected. If Scarlett didn't roll over and she actually called on royal help, Heap has nowhere to turn legally." Jerod says. "The question becomes where are his haunts, where would he go if he felt the need for security, and who would know the answers to these questions so we can...inquire?"
Robin's face squinches in thought. "Ash?" she ventures, "It was his investigation that me and Silhouette crashed. But is he too close to Random to ask?" She's definitely unsure about the city/political thing.
"So, I missed something kind of important, then," Raven says. "'Cause I thought we was worried about a Red Mill girl."
Victor chuckles. "Well, I can tell you what your mother told me. Red Mill girls, as I understand it, tend to have Palace boys. Girls with the ears and other parts of Palace boys find it easy to make friends and have those friends do them favors. You follow?"
He turns to Jerod. "I'd think he'd be more likely to turn to whatever criminals are here. Probably in all the newcomers who've shown up by the Royal magics of late."
"Ash." Jerod says simply, nodding to Robin briefly. "Ossian did a little work for the King. I try to keep an eye on anything he puts his mind to...make sure he doesn't blow us all somewhere unpleasant in a fit of artistic pique. That's how some from Amber's people are getting through. Ash would be handling security, but the numbers would make it impossible to keep out the riff-raff entirely. Which means some of Heap's associates...or just people he can use...might have come through."
Robin raises an eyebrow at Jerod's description of Ossian. Her lips press together momentarily in ironic humor, but she manages to keep her thoughts in line.
"The local constabulary reports to Ash. Might be they'd have an idea where the local bad-boys hang around."
She shrugs, "I don't know if Ossian's thing notes or remembers anything about what it transports. I can ask him." She finishes with a fond smile. Time spent in Ossian's company is never ill-spent.
"Don't suppose you know," Raven asks, directing the question at Victor, "if that lot she had guarding her door first time I showed up are part of this mess? The big one, the dumb one, and the one what did all the talking. And the other one that didn't take part in the fight." She frowns and then snorts in amusement. "Kitten for the dumb one. And the one she was making nice with, that I figured was in charge, want to say she called him Flannel."
Victor nods. "Yeah, Scarlett was talking about 'em after you took off. Kitten and Grimey is brothers. Flannel is the smiler. Apparently after your mother eased them out, they went to Heap."
Raven nods. "Ain't going to be easy to hide those two," she points out. "Not something that big and ugly and spoiling for a fight. Might be able to go up the food chain from them, too."
"Then Ash should have no difficulty in polling his men for a starting point for these individuals." Jerod says. He looks over at Robin. "Ossian is not currently available...last I heard he was Paris-way but that was a little while ago. He's not back yet. And I doubt his...construct...has any intelligence attached to it. I doubt his Majesty would have permitted it."
Robin allows that point with a nod.
"Before we head out...this little endeavour you broke up...tell me about it. What happened?" [Jerod] asks, looking to collect a drink from the captain's cabin stock while waiting for Robin's reply.
Victor also looks to Robin, waiting for the story.
"Weeeellll," Robin scratches the back of her head as she gathers her thoughts.
"Me and Silhouette were cruising the docks looking for trouble, when I heard a cockatrice call. So we went looking. Came up on the alley-side of what is now Scarlett's. Silhouette pried a few fence boards loose. I snuck in to the courtyard. Found the cockatrice right away, despite all its company." Robin wrinkles her nose emphatically.
"Creature was caged, manacled and blinded. Silhouette joined me, backfilling our entrance. We got the 'trice out, but it was struggling mightily. The back door opened and two rough-types hit the courtyard. Silhouette dibbed me 'trice-handler and told me to git. So I did. Backfill..." Robin sighs.
"When I kicked out the boards," she mimes her arms full of squirming badness, "the rough-types twigged. I heard one tell the other to 'get Grimey.' I get out. And run into the law." She shrugs, ain't that just the way it is.
"While I'm deciding to be a peaceable citizen, Silhouette doesn't join me and the sounds from the courtyard get ugly. So I hand the law the 'trice and dive back in.
"Silhouette's in the center of a fight circle trading punches with... 8 feet tall of humanoid. At the time, I was thinking maybe half- or quarter-giant. Now I'm wondering -troll?
"Anyway, fight's waaayyy too even for my taste. So I sneak-rush in there. Put a knife in Grimey's kidney. Slice open his side. And yep, both of those were fatal, Jerod. Standard weapons, though. So if it's the same Grimey -- and the descriptions match -- we've got some decent regen going on.
"After that, the rough crowd left, Silhouette passsed out and I spent the rest of the night being a good citizen." Robin doesn't quite stick her tongue out but it's close.
"But if it's okay with the rest of the crew, I would loooovvve a rematch." There's lots of teeth in Robin's anticipatory grin.
"What was the reaction of the law? How far did it go up the ladder?" Jerod asks simply, having made note of general tone of the encounter but apparently not interested in commenting upon it.
"Law was polite but exasperated. And all the way." Robin traces a quick circle around the top of her head, reminiscent of a crown. Her expression is wry and rueful. Sometimes she can't help but wonder if she is Random's payback for his own antics under Oberon's reign.
Raven snorts. "I ain't in a hurry to be in front of that again. All yours if we find him."
Robin nods a thanks to her nautical cousin: to each their own. Open water -- bleah.
"Troll, maybe, but they're usually not so smart. Never met a half that was like this one. Maybe part demon?" Victor rattles off the names of half a dozen shadow-demons who might be related to Grimey. "Best to know, going in. Success at demon hunting requires being prepared. He might even be a werewolf. We may need something special to stab 'im dead."
"If he's Weyr, then I may be able to handle that without having to fight." Jerod says. "As for demon ancestry it's possible but this close to home he will be limited in his power usage so its his strength and fighting skill that would be the major problems. What would be indicators that Grimey is something special...particular foods or behaviours? Things that would tell us how to neutralize him quickly."
"He's not Weyr." The Ranger is sure on that point. "And he didn't smell like werewolf... Let me ponder on it a bit more. Vic and I can put our heads together on best bets for monster profiling and extermination." She grins toothily again.
Jerod begins picking up what little he has brought with him, apparently in preparation to depart.
Robin raises an eyebrow. "Meet back at Scarlett's?"
"Don't know as how I'd suggest that," Raven answers. "I mean, unless we was planning on looking like we're up to something. She's doing all right for herself, I guess," and there's an implied 'for now', "but she ain't doing so well yet that a pack of Royals hanging about ain't going to attract attention. Besides, I ain't made a habit of visiting that woman more than I got to, and twice in one day - that ain't going to count as anything but odd."
Robin allows Raven's point with a shrug. She's feeling antsy and doesn't like leaving an ally in the fire-path. But Raven is a better judge of the threat-level and capability of Scarlett than she is.
Victor looks at Raven. He seems perplexed by something, but doesn't raise the issue. "Do we have time to ask the Lord Mayor about the part-demon? If they had 'em for a while, they may know more than we do."
"Ash is next on the list." Jerod says as he finishes strapping on his sword belt, replying to both Victor and Robin, having noted Raven's response. "We'll need to know who has been getting through before we decide what kind of profiling is to be done. Otherwise we're just guessing. And guessing is for those who like having things blow up in their face."
That does get an eyeroll from Robin. The girl said she could fight without fighting, so she keeps her peace. But she is counting.
With a fluff, she settles her feathers. "Fine. But I'd like to pick up a present for Ash on the way. Won't take long. I give that man enough trouble, I'd like to accompany it with something else this time."
"You lot," Raven says with a certain amount of exasperation in her voice, "are worse than that lot out there was the first time we hit a port that had whores. Is there actually a plan here beyond the next step, and I missed that part too? Are we all going? Are we splitting up? Or is there some sort of standard Royal 'get together, point at the enemy, run in different directions, and it'll all turn out all right in the end' plan that I ain't been let in on yet?"
Victor shrugs. "i don't know of a better way to find out where Heap and Silken are. It's a better plan than going door to door asking for 'em."
Jerod agrees with Victor's assessment.
"I would agree." Jerod says. "We have a few names and a first point for obtaining more information, which is the basis of all plans.
"Unless, of course, you have a better plan, Raven. In which case I would hope you'd be so good as to enlighten us before we go tromping off."
Robin looks over at Raven, totally willing to listen to a better idea.
"'A better plan'?" Raven snorts. "Where I come from, it ain't a plan until everybody knows what it is they're meant to do, or at least how forces is being split. I ain't seeing that right now. What I'm seeing is that you," she points at Jerod, "you got a plan in mind, but since you seem to like to be an arse, you ain't minded to share any more than you got to. You," she points at Victor, "you're just going along with whatever. Lady Robin, you had a plan, and then you switched to whatever plan he," and again she points at Jerod, "might or might not have, but we got to go shopping first. So sorry for being stubborn," and the captain is very clearly not sorry at all, "but I'd just like to be clear what the damn plan actually is."
Victor looks exasperated. "Robin, my bird, remind me that I wanted to discuss this in terms of your lessons, later."
Robin nods, making a careful mental note.
He turns to Raven. "The plan is we're going to make your brother safe. Talking to Lord Mayor gives us both the information we need to find the people we need to hit to do that and also gives him warning. We don't have to -- Prince Jerod and Lady Robin and you all have the authority of being Princes to do whatever the hell you want, but it helps to keep the locals aware. It's like when I was a demon hunter. If the King hired me to get a demon out of a haunted house in his city, I always talked to the watch first.
"Frankly, I think that Prince Jerod is bringing you along to teach you that you are a Prince of the City and basically can decide if someone needs taking care of and do it. Any one of you could take out Heap and Silken, any two could take the troll, and all three of you and me should constitute overwhelming force. Overwhelming force doesn't have to plan as much as Underwhelming Force."
He smiles, grimly. "In other words, don't overthink this."
Jerod is silent while Victor is speaking, watching Raven carefully. While most would not see it, even Robin, as limited as her contact with Jerod has been, would realize his behaviour to date has been...patient. He seems to be waiting to see if Raven says or does something...watching to see if a line is stepped across. Whether it has, is not immediately noticeable from his expression, though he does nod once or twice as Victor is speaking, and then once more as Jerod looks over at Robin.
"You have good taste in ex-boyfriends. I like this one." he says, with what Victor would recognize as an orca smile.
Robin returns a wolf smile all her own. Of course, she does!
"Come on. We've got a job to do." and with that, Jerod will depart to find the Lord Mayor.
Raven scowls, but at least has the good sense to shut up. She gestures for the other two to follow Jerod, and, assuming they do, she trails after.
Robin winks to Raven as if to say 'Yep, it is like that. Still, could be worse.' Then she bounces after Jerod, eager to be out of the close (and frankly smelly) cabin. Peep chirps an inquiry to Victor over Robin's shoulder on the way out.
Victor follows and, if Peep is amenable, will put the little fellow on his own shoulder.
The Lord Mayor is at home and someone who looks rather more like a guard than a butler opens the door. The Lord Mayor, they are told, will see them.
Random looks down from the parapets over the city. "Xanadu, a work in progress. Down there we have thousands and thousands of people from Amber, with more coming. Up there are a mix of people Paige took on as Rangers, because they wouldn't do well in the City. Vere's sister is there, as are some of Daeon's... relatives. People just walk in. From Texorami, from Lauderville, from Abford. Boats drift here, off-course. Weirdest thing about your Cousin Raven is that he drifted to Amber, not here." Random pauses. "Second weirdest thing. Anyway, you get the picture. It's laid out before you."
Random waves his arm, taking it all in. It's almost enough to make him seem serious. The graffiti on the inside of the parapets which proclaims "The King is a Fink!" and in his own handwriting, undercuts that.
"So, what happens to all those people? In a generation, they're assimilated."
Hannah looks up and down and all around and then back at the King with a wince. "I hate that word so much," she says with deep feeling.
But she shrugs. "It's only a word though, and it never means what people think it will. I don't even think that's what you want. I think Xanadu will be assimilated to all these people, and if you didn't want it to become that they wouldn't feel welcome here. All the Mahkahtons I just brought in here will give Xanadu drum circles and dances and try to seduce women with flute music." She just grins. "And they won't forget Xanadu welcomed them when there was no going home again. Not in one generation or seven."
Random shrugs, as if he feels he's said his piece.
She finds a ledge and leans on it. She tucks her hair behind her ears when the wind takes advantage. "Different subject, and I am sorry to bring this up right now, but I have to convince my father not to seek the Pattern. I've never known him not to reach for power if he thought he might get it. It's going to take more than my just telling him it will kill him. Can you tell me why he can't do it?"
Random pulls a cigarette from behind his ear and takes a long puff. Hannah isn't sure how he got it lit. "Nope. I can tell you if someone can or not, seeing them, here. I can't say why. My own sister died on it, you know. And the rumors that went around that my mother must have been unfaithful to Dad were enough to cause her to kill herself. My brother tried to kill my son to erase a pattern. I'd hate 'em if I could afford the luxury. They've spent a long time making me unhappy."
"I hadn't heard about your sister and mother. My sympathies, Random." She puts some other thought away, then sighs. "What do you think will happen to you if someone dies on your Pattern?"
Random flicks the cigarette butt off the parapet and it quickly disappears in the sunlight. "Centuries ago, so I'd like to think I'm over it. Patterns don't have intention, or volition, or anything, except in that they're manifestations of the intersection of something real and the squishy brains of the King or Queen who wrote them. As far as I can tell, the rules of the universe were written to cause the patterns to work certain ways and lots of the small details, like castles and cities and a nearby forest are sorta accidental consequences of that. Or I'm totally wrong and it's all about putting them near forests and the rest is the accident.
"I expect it to be jarring if someone walks my pattern and doesn't make it. I don't expect it to screw with my mind. The pattern reinforces the me-ness of me and I reinforce the patternness of the pattern. Closed loop." He doesn't seem to have more to add to that.
"Whose me-ness is reinforcing the patterns in Rebma and Tir then? Or do you honestly believe they're just shadows of... yours and Corwin's patterns now?"
Random laughs, a single quick barking laugh. "Shadows? If they were, they wouldn't work. Can you imagine a shadow anything that could challenge any of us like the Pattern does? I mean, I think I know why Dad let us think that, but in hindsight, we were clearly idiots." He pauses. "Except Fiona. I think she had a clue. As to who, I have a theory. It's them. Moins and The Queen of Air and Darkness. I think the patterns resonate through time and those patterns are still them, but not now, if you see what I mean." He grins. "Sounds crazy, I know."
His grin brings out her grin. "Not at all. My people leave out food for the dead so they won't suffer in the next world. You are energy, it is energy. It doesn't have to be about consciousness. Have you talked to Dworkin about this?" Her grin fades out.
Random shakes his head. "I don't think I'm his favorite person these days. We're still early days here, and he only visited the once, and what he did that time was run off with Folly. Not that I can blame him, but it's sorta embarrassing when your grandfather runs off with your son's girlfriend. That kind of thing leads to novelty songs."
Hannah looks generally unhappy at this reaction.
He shudders at the thought. "Anyway, they're here, what happens will happen. What's next for Hannah? This semester's senior project was 'problems in Xanadhavian Studies', and you got a pass to go deal with your people, but that seems to have resolved itself." He lets the that dangle.
She breaks into laughter. "Oh, they're here now, and I'm their holy man - it has just started! But there is so much, Random. I need time with Gerard, I have to deal with my father, I have to deal with myself at some point. I wonder some days how all the time in the world seems like not enough. And there is so much to learn. But I hope to start with Gerard and move on to my father and find some time to stick my nose back into city planning."
She shrugs and doesn't lose her smile. "Is there something I can help you with?"
Random laughs. It's clearly a spontaneous act. "How ever did you guess? Was it all the hinting I did? Anyway, I was going to ask you about your father, but since that's already on your plate, more power to you. Let's go with your plan."
"I was hoping you'd say that," she grins. "Now tell me what you've had Gerard doing while I was gone."
Random shrugs. "Oh, not too much. I keep trying to get him to do what the Marquis Maritime did in Amber, but I don't think he wants that job. Some people it's harder to tell to do things than others."
Something about that makes her smile wider. "Do you want me to ask him about it? Or do you desire not to arrive at an outright 'no'? I just think he needs to be working."
The King looks pleased with her response. "In a perfect world, which this may yet turn out to be, I would have Gerard force his way into my presence and demand that I put him to work and refuse to take no for an answer." He pauses. "See how close you can get to that."
"I'd love that too. We'll see," she moderates. "How's Vialle doing?"
Random seems surprised by Hannah's question. "Ahh, well, I suppose. She certainly hasn't told me of anything wrong." He smiles. "She's fine."
"Good, I'm glad," Hannah smiles back, and pushes herself away from the wall. "I'll try to make sure I get a visit to her in on my list now that I've been to Rebma. But first off to Gerard."
Random stretches and opens a small door. "Great, let me know if you need anything Kinged on that front."
Even though she'd declared it 'next on the list', it takes Folly another day or so before she finally tracks down her mother. Even then, it's practically an accident: she's crossing the terrace outside the castle after getting some last-minute sketches when she catches sight of Brij, possibly on her way to or coming from a trip down into town, stopping to take in the view of the waterfall.
Folly takes a couple of deep breaths and then moves to join her.
"Hullo, mum," she says when she's close enough to accost her without shouting. "Settling in all right?"
Brij laughs. "It's not an old-folks home, you know. There's a lot to take in, what with everything I ever thought about the world being basically wrong." She looks at Folly. "When you were that size, you used to stand on my bladder, usually at the worst possible moment."
Folly snorts in amusement. "Yes, that does sound exactly like me. This one's just taken to kicking me in the ribs. Usually at the most ironic possible moment."
She pauses, a bit awkwardly, and lays a protective hand on her belly. "I... just... wanted to check in, to see if there's anything you need, because it looks like I may be out of town for a little while."
"This close to term? It better be a vacation spot with good hospitals, baby."
Brij leans back into a railing. "I'll tell you, I might already be gone if it weren't for you. I think we both get that this isn't going to be like a normal mother/grandmother thing for us. I'm not the babysitting type and you're really the fairy princess you always told me you were. " Brij takes a deep breath, and it's clear that she still has an athlete's physique. She continues on, her own agenda to the fore.
"I'm not running, but I'm not planning on staying here and being important because of who I'm sleeping with." She smiles. "Even when I was your age, I was famous for that, but important for my own self. At least I wanted to be.
"So, here's the question: How do we work things out so that I can be part of you and your daughter's life without us killing each other?"
"Well, I like to think it will be easier now that you know I really am a fairy princess," Folly replies with a wry smile. "And that there is an infinitude of universes we can put between us if we ever think we're on the verge of killing each other.
"But a lot of it depends on what you want your life to be," she continues in a more sober tone. "I mean, this---" she gestures to the mountain, and the castle, and the growing town below, "---all this is my life now. This city is my baby almost as much as my daughter is. How much do you want to be a part of the day-to-day of that? Or would you rather follow your bliss, here or elsewhere, and be the groovy gram we visit every now and then for the holidays?"
"The King says that if I try to learn how to do that thing you do, I'll die. Whatever makes you special, I don't have it." She bites her lip. "I have no idea what to do. I could stay here in this amazing place and never be more than an outsider, or I could go somewhere else and not be here for any of it." She stops there, and looks as unhappy as Folly has ever seen her.
Folly's first instinct is to hug her mother -- but that is such an uncharacteristic act for Brij that Folly is unsure whether she would be grateful or offended. Instead, she lays what she hopes is a comforting hand on her mother's shoulder. "Just because you can't do the one or two things some of the rest of us do, doesn't make you automatically an outsider. I mean, do you think Soren is an outsider here?" she asks gently. "For that matter, there's no guarantee my own daughter will be able to master the family powers -- but that wouldn't make her any less worthy of a place in this family, or in Xanadu. You know?"
Brij's eyebrow goes up, like it did when Folly was young and said something youthfully implausible. "How many are there, do you know, who haven't? Here or in Amber? The list Random gave me was all dead people. Khela just now, someone named Pinabello, who it killed twice, somehow. I can imagine it being very difficult for you and your daughter if she can't. Easier to be somewhere else. Or dead."
Folly shrugs. "Coming up with a definitive list isn't so easy. The late king, Oberon, played things very close to the vest, and until recently so have many of his children, so it's hard to say how many hidden or unacknowledged family members might be out there -- Lucas's widow, Solace, is rumored to be the late Prince Eric's, for example. I think historically, the inability to master the family gifts has been taken as a sign that the person trying must've been the result of an affair and not a legitimate part of the family -- although Khela's death gives lie to that, obviously. And I know some of my cousins are supposed to have descended from Oberon on both sides, but generally I think the more distantly-related parent can't do what some of the rest of us can do. At least, not that I know of. But most of them are off being godly and important, or whatever, in their own realms, rather than here or in Amber. Although Solace is in Paris." She manages to stop herself, for her mother's sake, before she gets to the "...being smothered by her mother and mother-in-law" part.
[Brij] shakes her head. "I don't know. I get myself half-convinced that I can't be happy here since I can't make my mark on this world like I did at home. I don't have the right genes and I'm not going to sleep my way to the top, and I can't stand the queen and all the good posts are taken, so I'll leave. Then I think I'll never be happy being the biggest fish in a smaller pond.
"I'm not interested in seeing if he's wrong about me. Syd is very convincing, by the way. I can see why you always kept him from meeting me. I think I need to talk to him again."
Folly finds herself bristling reflexively out of instinctive protectiveness toward Syd. She tries to cover it with a dark chuckle as she comments, "Well, I'd been considering suggesting you talk to Vialle, who has plenty of practice getting by as an outsider here, but it sounds as though your reaction to her is not so different from mine."
Brij laughs. "I don't understand how everybody else is missing it. They're not going to last a year unless he gets her pregnant, and I don't think that's in the cards."
Folly shakes her head. "Any union that could only be saved by a pregnancy isn't worth saving. And given family history, I'm not convinced Vialle could survive it. But otherwise my forecast isn't quite so cynical as yours, if only because on the one hand, Vialle is nothing if not loyal, and on the other, I can't see Syd dumping her outright, not without a damn good reason -- I reckon he'd rather not turn into his father quite that quickly."
Brij chuckles. "You haven't been around lately. Sadly, there's no job for Royal I-Told-You-So-Lady, so we'll see."
Folly hesitates, and adds in a tone that makes it almost sound like an extension of the previous topic, "I suppose you've heard they're trying to get Uwe to give himself up?"
"He almost had me eaten by a dragon, so it's better than he deserves. After the last time I saw him, I had Bleysey give me a quick refresher on swordplay. It's rather like gymnastics, really." She smiles at the thought. "No one expects a decorative little chica like myself to stab them in the spleen."
Folly laughs outright at that. "Well, I'm glad you're finding ways to put your talents to good use. Unfortunately, just at the moment I think there's a moratorium on stabbing Huon in the spleen. Do you think you could resist, if he were to show up here?" Her tone is light, but she's only half-joking.
"He doesn't need both his spleens," replies Brij. "But if he doesn't start anything, I won't fatally stab him. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm first in line."
"Yeah, I can name at least a couple of my cousins who wouldn't mind a crack at him," Folly replies, "although rumor has it his real quarrel is with Bleys. Has Bleys said much about it? Is there more to it than just that he was the one tasked with trying to lock Huon away all those years ago?"
Brij smiles, slightly maliciously. "You know what's funny? When you tell men that they remind you of people they don't like." She shakes her head. "He does, but it would only matter to Huon. Bleys thinks the whole thing is somewhat beneath him, and that Huon is sort of a comedy movie villain. I think he's rethought that one recently, but it's still basically 'Huon needs to stop annoying the grownups.'
Folly nods, particularly at the part about Huon not being a comedy villain. Because threatening to wipe out a whole civilization? Not funny.
"Anyway, Bleys and I aren't so much of a thing anymore. Don't let him tell you I broke his heart, though. He doesn't really have one." Brij doesn't seem particularly upset about it.
"Perhaps it's genetic; it's not entirely clear either of his parents did, either," Folly says.
"She married her own great-grandfather, so perhaps she inherited it from him. They make your family tree look boring."
Folly snorts with amusement, and then returns to the question of what her mother should do next. "You know, a number of our cousins are gearing up for errands and side-projects that will take them out of Xanadu for a little while. If you think it would be too boring and/or depressing to wait around here while I'm off elsewhere, you might want to join one of them. I'm sure at least some of them could find good use for a decorative little chica with a sword." Her eyes twinkle as she imagines her mum off on an adventure with, say, Jerod. That seems the kind of funny best observed from a safe distance.
Brij nods. "That might be a good idea. I have to admit, I got a thrill out of chasing down Uwe." She grins.
Folly smiles. "Well, I've got at least a vague idea what a couple of them are up to, or are likely to get up to, but it might be easiest to start with this: Of the ones you've met so far, who seems like they'd be the most fun or interesting to team up with?"
Brij thinks about this for a moment. "I'm not sure. I think I'll make it known that I'm around and interested and see if anyone wants backup. Bleys found me a deck of Trumps and taught me to use them, so I can't get too lost." She pauses. "Who are you thinking might want my help?"
"Well," Folly replies slowly as she thinks back over the plans that were discussed at the last big family meeting, "I think there's meant to be a fact-finding mission to Gateway in the not-too-distant future. I don't know exactly who will be involved, but I got the impression our more... ah... diplomatically-minded cousins were engaged elsewhere, so they could probably use someone with a talent for reading motivations and social situations." And then reporting on them bluntly, she doesn't add, although she's thinking it pretty loudly. "And as I understand it, part of the point of the mission is to figure out which of Uwe's co-conspirators will need their asses handed to them, as well as possibly digging up information that will help us hand him his own ass. So, you know, payback."
Not that Folly is so thrilled with all this eye-for-an-eye business, but it will at least keep her mother out of other kinds of trouble.
"But yeah, ask around," she adds.
Brij nods. "I'll do that. You're not going off to do something dangerous you haven't been telling me about, right?"
"You mean besides have a baby?" Folly asks with a smirk. "Well, and possibly try to talk to an uncle who might not want to be talked to. I'm not sure which is more dangerous. But no, I don't plan to be off buckling swashes or anything like that, if that's what you mean."
Folly prudently decides not to mention that in any plan involving her husband, "anything like that" could in fact break out at any time. But as it's not actually part of the plan, she decides to leave it at that.
Brij laughs. "You were an easy birth and didn't really stop me from doing things until the last 3 weeks. Your Gran used to say that it was because we came from sturdy peasant stock, but I think she may've had it backwards."
Brij stops laughing. "Anyway, stop making this harder and go. We both know it would be a bad idea for me to go with you, for all sorts of reasons, including you, me, and your husband. I know you can take care of yourself, but it's hard not to want to offer to help. I'm definitely getting out of town, because I can't stand sitting around waiting. Have a good trip, and don't have any adventures this time."
"You'll just have to have enough adventures for both of us, and tell me all about them when we get back," Folly agrees with a wry smile. She doesn't bother to comment on the rest; they both know it's true, and the both know that they both know.
She reaches out and touches Brij's shoulder lightly. "Take care, Mum. I'll see you in a couple months, okay?" Then she turns and heads back into the castle, leaving her mother to contemplate the waterfall.
Last modified: 28 January 2012