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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 10:44:13 GMT -5
More bitter, sarcastic, harsh remarks bubbled up in my brain, but I fought them down and went with the more subtle metal voice that said to be a little evasive. After all, she didn't want to know very much.
Steeling myself mentally and emotionally- who knew how she's respond- I looked up, some hint of defiance in my eyes. "An adept. And a promise that was made to me."
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 12:43:15 GMT -5
I closed my eyes again and leaned back against the dry fountain. I could use this in so many ways against him. The possibilities were endless.
"This moment should taste sweeter, but I find myself not enjoying it. Why is that I wonder?" My eyes opened and bored into him. What would I see if I could look inside him? And conversely, what would he see in me?
"How much?"
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 12:48:55 GMT -5
Still somewhat suprised I named off a sum, a little higher than my own virgin-price I'd negotiated so long ago. Nervous and patient, eyes down, I waited for her response.
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 12:53:56 GMT -5
He wanted a lot of money. For an adept. The irony was not lost on me and I smiled. He couldn't see of course, he sat there expecting to be struck and I couldn't blame him. My unpredictability of the past weeks unnerved me, not just him and my household.
"Fine. Let's talk repayment. As you work for me, I could just withhold wages until said sum was paid off, but we'd both be dead of old age. You have nothing to barter except your body. And both of us know how well that worked out. So how would you accomplish that task?" I knew exactly how I wanted him to repay me. The money meant nothing, I was curious as to how he thought to finance this venture.
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 13:01:49 GMT -5
"Well, what I'm allowed to do to make money is up to you, but I only have one skill, one field I've been trained in," I said, gritting my teeth at the idea. "So I guess if I have your permission I'll be taking assignations again."
I hated assignations; they'd been a duty to me, nothing more. Now, after the past few nights- last night especially- they seemed wrong, like I was being hit with the guilt I should have felt when I entered Namaah's service for the wrong reasons those years ago. In one of my rare moments of prayer I thought, please, if I can have Riva it will be worth it.
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 15:51:46 GMT -5
The boy wanted this very badly. "As you will, we negotiated in our contract that you could take patrons as you would as long as your loyalty remained with me. I still stand by that." I watched him squirming with distaste at the thought of taking assignations. But he was still so cool and distanced, as if the revulsion he felt was minor.
"Or, you repay a third of the cost and negotiate a contract for me. Should be easy enough to make this business arrangement with your Bryony training." I sounded emotinoless as I laid the bait.
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 15:55:25 GMT -5
I thought hard. Assignations were rough, but not as much so as what she could be asking me to do, all unknowing. "What contract? What negotiations?" I asked cautiously. "This is either the devil I know behind one curtain or a pig in a poke behind the other."
This was all getting very high-stakes; before, it would have exhilarated, even excited, me- now, I had a purpose, a driving goal, and the money was means to an end. I paid very close attention.
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 21:09:12 GMT -5
I hadn't slept much yesterday after Elton stripped me and laid me in bed. I'd tried for hours to sleep, to feel nothing and to just forget the events of the past few days.
Instead I had risen from my bed and sat on the window seat, staring out over the neglected gardens and thinking. I had thought on much.
"I need an heir. A legal heir. I am not young anymore and time is limited. I want you to negotiate a marriage contract, for me." There, the words were out of my mouth and said. I'd thought on it a lot during the night. I owed it to my father.
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 21:17:36 GMT -5
This was what I was worried about? I was a little ashamed of myself for thinking she had anything truly hideous planned. "Done, easy enough. I need to know what you want written and where you want to start looking."
Part of me thought this was wrong, but I was only looking; she still had the final decision, and Elton would hear of this anyway. Let him dissuade her if he wanted. And I was going to get Riva...
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 21:34:20 GMT -5
I closed my eyes and gave him the requirements I had agonized over in the darkness.
"I need a man of good breeding and intelligence. Not too young or old, and I don't care about money. No fortune hunters. He is to receive a settlement and will have no control over the Duchy or my lands and monies. The marriage will last until a healthy child is produced and survives to its third year. After that he is free to go and the marriage will be in name only. He will have no legal claim to the child. I'm sure I'll think of a few other stipulations but those are the main ones." It was necessary, and by my choice. I was still in control of this.
"You have until Longest Night."
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 21:38:49 GMT -5
I listened to the woman and tried to keep a pitying look at her glaring blindness from my eyes- she wanted Elton but not Elton, and the heart-voice knew it surely. Still, I had my orders. Let her make her own mistakes, she was old enough to figure it out.
Cold-eyed I took mental note of her requirements, then winced slightly at the length of time. I could do it; it'd been a long time since I'd had a challenge. "My 'good breeding' I'm assuming you mean a member of the peerage," I said crisply, knowing she wasn't the type to think much of the Night Court's own bloodlines.
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 21:58:15 GMT -5
"I don't really care if they are noble born or common. So long as there is no question of his parentage. One bastard for a parent is enough for my heir." He should have married my mother, had said as much to me many times, but never to her.
My past had never been this close to me, hadn't touched me for a long time. Why now? An ache tightened my chest.
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 22:04:26 GMT -5
This would make the work easier; I knew this was a recent plan and she was still uncomfortable with it, but she had made her decision. Nodding, I locked all of this information in my head. "Is there anything else I should know about this matter? Anyone who shouldn't know of it?"
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 22:13:41 GMT -5
"No, I want this matter discreetly taken care of. Go. Please tell anyone who asks I'm in the City on business." My hands caressed the leather binding of the book. It felt solid and real underneath my fingers, reassuring somehow. Aleron stood up to leave.
"One last thing. Tell Elton." tiny sparks of light played behind my closed eye lids and it was only my imagination seeing Aleron give me a pitying, resentful look.
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Post by Aleron Carle(Retired) on Mar 30, 2006 22:17:06 GMT -5
My eyes stayed cold and impassive, but inside I was seething. Tell Elton; fine. It would kill him. "I'll need that money in ten days at the latest," I answered coolly.
Finally, I turned on my heel and made my way to the salle and Elton's quarters. Maybe in there Elton wouldn't rip my head off my shoulders.
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Post by Jaiden Liatris-Durante (D) on Mar 30, 2006 22:32:43 GMT -5
He was gone. I stood and paced around the small fountain. It was the right choice, and he was leaving me anyway.
A single drop of water glittered in the dry dust of the fountain.
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