"Alright, I found a lance." Cholst walked in twirling a practice lance behind him. It wasn't in particularly good shape, practice equipment supplied by the Sanctum rarely was owing to neglect, but it would work in a pinch. "Are we going to fight or what?"
"Lord Strauss, if you would please guide us to the courtyard so that we may air out our grievances." Trebar stood up from the table himself, accepting a sword from Nemo as he passed her. It wasn't his sword, anybody who had ever seen him fight in a tournament would remember the scarlet crossguard and strikingly polished blade, details which only went to show how impromptu this whole ordeal was.
"Let's just do it here!" Cholst tapped the bottom of the spear on the floor a few times, trying to get used to the subpar weapon. "It's only gonna take us two or three seconds, right?"
"Two or three seconds in which someone could get hurt. We will take this to the field, where we can establish a comfortable perimeter." Trebar didn't feel the need to familiarize himself with his weapons. Unlike Cholst, who had to pilfer a lance from storage somewhere, Nemo took meticulous care of her weapons. Sometimes he felt it was overkill, but she probably did it to stave off boredom. There wasn't much she was allowed to do, even less given her recent actions. "Prince Merndil, will you be the officiator of this duel?"
"Of course. Do you have any particular rule or custom associated with the position?"
"No. Acting as would in your homeland will suffice, the core purpose remains the same."
"I see. Then you may consider it my honor to act as the official overseer of this duel."
- - - - -
Len was thiiiiis close to frothing at the mouth, and he didn't think he was to blame.
He had been sitting at the table with future leaders of not one, but two great powers. That was two more than most people got to meet in their life, and they had been playing games. Somehow, somewhere along the line, Len had been promoted directly from 'dregs of the nobility' to 'shared a meal with the future emperor'.
He wasn't sure if he liked it. No, he definitely didn't like it. He wasn't sure if he wanted it, which was a development.
Previously, he definitely would have tried to run away, he absolutely didn't want anything to do with the powers that be, which made him very confused as to why part of him wanted a relationship with anybody at that table. Donovan and Diana aside, each and every one of the people at the table were either capable of killing him effortlessly or making his life more of a hell than it already was. All it would take was one wrong move, one wrong word, or resisting in the wrong way, something as minor as a sigh or shady look could land him in trouble, and he still felt like he was on thin ice.
"So that's the Prince of Spears . . . he doesn't seem as animated as the rumors say." Rashtvice hadn't followed them out, or rather he hadn't followed them out yet. His recent encounter with Titanyana had left him feeling a little drowsy. "Have you met him before Len?"
"Y-yeah. He's come here with Lord Trebar before."
"Does he come here often?"
"He trains with us sometimes. . ." Len wondered if he would be reprimanded for revealing that information, and was considering the prospects of telling Rashtvice more.
"Will he, uh, will he be here tomorrow?"
"M-maybe?"
"Yes!" He pumped a fist and grinned as if he had just won some magnificent victory. "Do you think he would agree to a spar?"
"Um. I don't see why not?"
"Perfect! Alright Len, let's go watch this duel." Len, lost in general at this point, was yanked to his feet. Or at least he was supposed to be. He was small, and he had neither the weight nor the presence of mind to resist the sudden force as he came tumbling out of his chair. He didn't quite make it to the floor as Rashtvice was holding his arm, but one of his knees was sliding on the floor. "You good?"
"I, I'm okay."
"Then get up already. We're gonna miss it!"
Len wondered where his lovely days of mild exercise and limited social interaction had gone. He was not the type to appreciate 'events'.
- - - - -
"Have you two, uh, have you two done it yet?"
Diana and Zhoie had elected to sit off to the side instead while a crowd gathered. Diana did not really wish to watch the duel, Zhoie was still feeling guilty she was the catalyst. They were just two women who wanted nothing to do with the commotion at hand, awkwardly waiting for everything to go back to normal. Zhoie, believing their silence to be uncomfortable, said the first thing that came to mind.
"Done what?" Diana knew what she meant. She just wanted to feign ignorance in order to keep her façade of purity and composure.
"Um . . . never mind. It was nothing."
"No, now I'm curious. Tell me, what did you want to know?"
"It really isn't something we should talk about here. . ."
"They aren't paying attention. If you keep it quiet they won't hear." Diana shifted her seat a little closer to Zhoie, leaning over to give her a sense of security. "Come on, tell me."
Zhoie's cheeks flushed red as her eyes darted around. The crowd was getting bigger, but it wasn't yet so large it would drown her out if she whispered.
"Have you and Donovan, um, had sex?"
After she asked the question, Diana slowly moved back to a normal seating position. She was letting the tension and embarrassment Zhoie felt fester and grow, a small punishment for the trouble she had caused. She even provoked it a bit, looking at her suspiciously.
"Why do you ask?"
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything. . ."
"No it's fine, I just thought it was a little odd you would ask now of all times. Is something wrong?" Diana was mostly just keeping up the act, but she was a little concerned. If Zhoie, one of her few female acquaintances, was having some problems Diana felt obligated to help.
"No! I, um, I just don't know what I should do to, to uh, to make sure I'm ready?"
Diana brought the tips of her fingers to her lips, contemplating. It was good to know that there wasn't anything wrong, at least if Zhoie was to be believed, but this presented a very different problem. Diana did not consider herself to be well-versed in the way of love, nobody could deny that the relationship she had with Donovan was both special and different, and she was certainly not what one might call a seductress, but here Zhoie was to ask her for advice. Diana assumed that Zhoie probably had the exact same issue she had, a stunning lack of mature women with which she could talk with.
Diana did not mean that as a mark against Titanyana, she had suffered a lot and was clearly still in the process of maturing emotionally, but she was no good to talk about the stereotypical 'girl stuff' with. Their conversation in the bathroom was proof enough of that. Diana could easily see Zhoie's female companions being poor outlets for these frustration, Stokkie being incredibly uptight and Nemo being, well, Nemo was Nemo, she didn't talk much.
Diana didn't know if Zhoie had anybody besides those in her squad to talk to, but she gathered that females were hard to come by in the military academy. Hell, women were a rarity in the university too! She guessed that maybe only three percent of those in her classes were also women, which made her feel that much more fortunate that she had Cherry, Gretts, and Manama. They weren't peers of status, they would never be able to completely understand her plight, but they were sources of information and conduits for comfortable conversation.
"I wouldn't know what to tell you . . . what is your relationship?"
"Our relationship?"
"Yes. How did you meet, how did you come to be engaged, how do you spend your time together, that sort of thing."
"O-oh. Well, we were engaged before we even met. It was . . . thirteen years ago now? When I was ten? My mother received a missive from the government that my affinity for split was exceptional amongst the youngest generation, perhaps even the best, and that I was therefore to be raised by the Church on Holifania. I was excited back then, happy even, that I would be given the opportunity to reach salvation. I might have been a little bit perturbed by the fact my spouse would be chosen for me, but I felt that the Bishops would have my best interests in mind."
"Did you not have a say in the matter?" Diana had come to understand that most marriages were arranged rather than born of love, something she had issues with but could very much understand.
"We don't get to decide. They do try to make us happy when they pair us, but it is our duty to have children with high affinities for split. It's a matter of national security."
"Do you resent that?"
"No." Zhoie sighed. "Well, maybe a little bit, but not because I don't want to marry Trebar. I just wish I had the opportunity to court him the normal way, not that I think I could have managed that." She was frowning, clearly not confident in how Trebar viewed her.
"Do you think that he wouldn't choose you if you had the chance?"
"Would you?"
Diana bit her lip. If she was a guy, she probably wouldn't want Zhoie as a wife. She was uncontrollable, frequently having outbursts and fighting whenever she got the chance - probably not the best attributes in a mother. Diana didn't want to sound conceited, but she would much rather have someone like herself, someone more reserved, confident and stubborn but not confrontational.
Zhoie sighed. "I don't want to be tied down, I like the freedom I have, but I know that I'm going to have to give it up once I graduate."
"You mean with kids? You can do fun stuff with them you know. Sure they might add responsibilities, but I've only heard good things from mothers."
"Maybe." Zhoie didn't seem particularly convinced.
"A conversation for a different time then. Why don't you continue where you left off. You were saying how the Bishops arranged Trebar to be your husband?"
"Yeah. I wasn't officially engaged to Trebar until the year before we came to the Sanctum, he was only a candidate, but I was pretty sure he was going to be the one from the beginning."
"A candidate?"
"Yeah. There were three others, and Gawan was one of them. You would be surprised at how good he is with a pistol."
"Woah, sorry, what was that?" Diana was blindsided by that little tidbit. She knew that the Theocracy had firearms, the fact that they actually used them still hadn't registered with her.
"He is a good shot with a handgun. It's part of the reason he was chosen to succeed the position of Montaug, and why he was the first to be removed from the running. The Montaug must remain celibate their entire life."
"So does he have the pistol on him now?" Diana had gathered that celibacy part from Montaug, both the person who currently held the title and the recording of the man himself. Dying a virgin martyr seemed like something that would carry into the position.
"I don't think so. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, but I doubt he would bring it to a party."
Diana sighed in relief. If Donovan heard about this she would have a serious problem on her hands. It had been a long time since last he used a firearm, and there was a good chance he would ask to use it. He had already done so with the Montaug.
"Anyways, the years went on and the Bishops removed candidates, it became increasingly clear that he was going to be the one. He was just so much better than everyone else. Soon enough it was decided he would be the one to assume the positions of Grand Marshall and Champion of the Faith." She seemed sad now. "I just can't keep up."
"You want to stand as his equal?" Diana was starting to piece together why Zhoie acted the way she did.
Zhoie silently nodded, confirming Diana's suspicions.
Zhoie was incredibly insecure. In her eyes, she was chosen to be Trebar's wife by the state based solely on her ability to manipulate split. This was done so that their children would be as strong as or stronger than them, increasing or at least maintaining the Holifanian Theocracy's overall power. Zhoie understood that the affinity of a child at birth could be roughly approximated as the average of the parents' affinity. Considering how far behind Trebar she was in that regard, there was a good chance she was feeling like a hindrance to him, like she was failing the one job she had been entrusted with since a young age. Much the same as Diana, Zhoie was destined to be a mother, a fate she knew she had no escape from, but she was afraid that after falling so far behind Trebar she would instead be matched with somebody else, someone she didn't love or admire as much.
Zhoie hadn't said that much, but Diana was not a fool. She could draw a conclusion about the matchmaking process without being told the details. Just as Zhoie had candidates assigned to her, she was also a candidate for Trebar. That's all she was, just a candidate. She might be the best candidate, but that was only a tentative. Should another somehow rise above her she would be replaced, and that prospect frightened her. This fear was probably the source of her confrontational attitude, she was desperate to prove her worth.
In a way, she reminded Diana of herself. Once upon a time not too long ago, Diana was also just a candidate, not for marriage (though that was a part) but for survival. Diana also pushed herself incredibly hard to be chosen by a selection committee. Diana also wondered if she was worthy of her spouse. The only real difference between the two of them was that for Diana, the decision was already made. The council had been disbanded, on an atomic level if Arc was to be believed. Diana might be the most qualified to give her advice in this situation.
cakeonfrosting I like heavy chapters!!! I like starting with jokes and humor and then turning it into a therapy session!!! I like doing the opposite as well!!!
That aside, expect a Diana-Zhoie chapter next. I won't say they become best friends, but they will certainly form something of a sisterly bond. They are roughly the same age after all, and both of them have issues. Some of those issues are stupid. Everybody has some of those, some of us have more stupid issue than others, some of us have stupider issues than the rest.
Anyways, have you guys been keeping track of the checklist? There isn't much that hasn't happened yet, but I wonder if you've started to piece together what's going to happen to Len. He may seem inconspicuous and innocuous now, but he's going to be a central part of the story down the line. The only question is why. . .
"Alright, I found a lance." Cholst walked in twirling a practice lance behind him. It wasn't in particularly good shape, practice equipment supplied by the Sanctum rarely was owing to neglect, but it would work in a pinch. "Are we going to fight or what?"
"Lord Strauss, if you would please guide us to the courtyard so that we may air out our grievances." Trebar stood up from the table himself, accepting a sword from Nemo as he passed her. It wasn't his sword, anybody who had ever seen him fight in a tournament would remember the scarlet crossguard and strikingly polished blade, details which only went to show how impromptu this whole ordeal was.
"Let's just do it here!" Cholst tapped the bottom of the spear on the floor a few times, trying to get used to the subpar weapon. "It's only gonna take us two or three seconds, right?"
"Two or three seconds in which someone could get hurt. We will take this to the field, where we can establish a comfortable perimeter." Trebar didn't feel the need to familiarize himself with his weapons. Unlike Cholst, who had to pilfer a lance from storage somewhere, Nemo took meticulous care of her weapons. Sometimes he felt it was overkill, but she probably did it to stave off boredom. There wasn't much she was allowed to do, even less given her recent actions. "Prince Merndil, will you be the officiator of this duel?"
"Of course. Do you have any particular rule or custom associated with the position?"
"No. Acting as would in your homeland will suffice, the core purpose remains the same."
"I see. Then you may consider it my honor to act as the official overseer of this duel."
- - - - -
Len was thiiiiis close to frothing at the mouth, and he didn't think he was to blame.
He had been sitting at the table with future leaders of not one, but two great powers. That was two more than most people got to meet in their life, and they had been playing games. Somehow, somewhere along the line, Len had been promoted directly from 'dregs of the nobility' to 'shared a meal with the future emperor'.
He wasn't sure if he liked it. No, he definitely didn't like it. He wasn't sure if he wanted it, which was a development.
Previously, he definitely would have tried to run away, he absolutely didn't want anything to do with the powers that be, which made him very confused as to why part of him wanted a relationship with anybody at that table. Donovan and Diana aside, each and every one of the people at the table were either capable of killing him effortlessly or making his life more of a hell than it already was. All it would take was one wrong move, one wrong word, or resisting in the wrong way, something as minor as a sigh or shady look could land him in trouble, and he still felt like he was on thin ice.
"So that's the Prince of Spears . . . he doesn't seem as animated as the rumors say." Rashtvice hadn't followed them out, or rather he hadn't followed them out yet. His recent encounter with Titanyana had left him feeling a little drowsy. "Have you met him before Len?"
"Y-yeah. He's come here with Lord Trebar before."
"Does he come here often?"
"He trains with us sometimes. . ." Len wondered if he would be reprimanded for revealing that information, and was considering the prospects of telling Rashtvice more.
"Will he, uh, will he be here tomorrow?"
"M-maybe?"
"Yes!" He pumped a fist and grinned as if he had just won some magnificent victory. "Do you think he would agree to a spar?"
"Um. I don't see why not?"
"Perfect! Alright Len, let's go watch this duel." Len, lost in general at this point, was yanked to his feet. Or at least he was supposed to be. He was small, and he had neither the weight nor the presence of mind to resist the sudden force as he came tumbling out of his chair. He didn't quite make it to the floor as Rashtvice was holding his arm, but one of his knees was sliding on the floor. "You good?"
"I, I'm okay."
"Then get up already. We're gonna miss it!"
Len wondered where his lovely days of mild exercise and limited social interaction had gone. He was not the type to appreciate 'events'.
- - - - -
"Have you two, uh, have you two done it yet?"
Diana and Zhoie had elected to sit off to the side instead while a crowd gathered. Diana did not really wish to watch the duel, Zhoie was still feeling guilty she was the catalyst. They were just two women who wanted nothing to do with the commotion at hand, awkwardly waiting for everything to go back to normal. Zhoie, believing their silence to be uncomfortable, said the first thing that came to mind.
"Done what?" Diana knew what she meant. She just wanted to feign ignorance in order to keep her façade of purity and composure.
"Um . . . never mind. It was nothing."
"No, now I'm curious. Tell me, what did you want to know?"
"It really isn't something we should talk about here. . ."
"They aren't paying attention. If you keep it quiet they won't hear." Diana shifted her seat a little closer to Zhoie, leaning over to give her a sense of security. "Come on, tell me."
Zhoie's cheeks flushed red as her eyes darted around. The crowd was getting bigger, but it wasn't yet so large it would drown her out if she whispered.
"Have you and Donovan, um, had sex?"
After she asked the question, Diana slowly moved back to a normal seating position. She was letting the tension and embarrassment Zhoie felt fester and grow, a small punishment for the trouble she had caused. She even provoked it a bit, looking at her suspiciously.
"Why do you ask?"
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything. . ."
"No it's fine, I just thought it was a little odd you would ask now of all times. Is something wrong?" Diana was mostly just keeping up the act, but she was a little concerned. If Zhoie, one of her few female acquaintances, was having some problems Diana felt obligated to help.
"No! I, um, I just don't know what I should do to, to uh, to make sure I'm ready?"
Diana brought the tips of her fingers to her lips, contemplating. It was good to know that there wasn't anything wrong, at least if Zhoie was to be believed, but this presented a very different problem. Diana did not consider herself to be well-versed in the way of love, nobody could deny that the relationship she had with Donovan was both special and different, and she was certainly not what one might call a seductress, but here Zhoie was to ask her for advice. Diana assumed that Zhoie probably had the exact same issue she had, a stunning lack of mature women with which she could talk with.
Diana did not mean that as a mark against Titanyana, she had suffered a lot and was clearly still in the process of maturing emotionally, but she was no good to talk about the stereotypical 'girl stuff' with. Their conversation in the bathroom was proof enough of that. Diana could easily see Zhoie's female companions being poor outlets for these frustration, Stokkie being incredibly uptight and Nemo being, well, Nemo was Nemo, she didn't talk much.
Diana didn't know if Zhoie had anybody besides those in her squad to talk to, but she gathered that females were hard to come by in the military academy. Hell, women were a rarity in the university too! She guessed that maybe only three percent of those in her classes were also women, which made her feel that much more fortunate that she had Cherry, Gretts, and Manama. They weren't peers of status, they would never be able to completely understand her plight, but they were sources of information and conduits for comfortable conversation.
"I wouldn't know what to tell you . . . what is your relationship?"
"Our relationship?"
"Yes. How did you meet, how did you come to be engaged, how do you spend your time together, that sort of thing."
"O-oh. Well, we were engaged before we even met. It was . . . thirteen years ago now? When I was ten? My mother received a missive from the government that my affinity for split was exceptional amongst the youngest generation, perhaps even the best, and that I was therefore to be raised by the Church on Holifania. I was excited back then, happy even, that I would be given the opportunity to reach salvation. I might have been a little bit perturbed by the fact my spouse would be chosen for me, but I felt that the Bishops would have my best interests in mind."
"Did you not have a say in the matter?" Diana had come to understand that most marriages were arranged rather than born of love, something she had issues with but could very much understand.
"We don't get to decide. They do try to make us happy when they pair us, but it is our duty to have children with high affinities for split. It's a matter of national security."
"Do you resent that?"
"No." Zhoie sighed. "Well, maybe a little bit, but not because I don't want to marry Trebar. I just wish I had the opportunity to court him the normal way, not that I think I could have managed that." She was frowning, clearly not confident in how Trebar viewed her.
"Do you think that he wouldn't choose you if you had the chance?"
"Would you?"
Diana bit her lip. If she was a guy, she probably wouldn't want Zhoie as a wife. She was uncontrollable, frequently having outbursts and fighting whenever she got the chance - probably not the best attributes in a mother. Diana didn't want to sound conceited, but she would much rather have someone like herself, someone more reserved, confident and stubborn but not confrontational.
Zhoie sighed. "I don't want to be tied down, I like the freedom I have, but I know that I'm going to have to give it up once I graduate."
"You mean with kids? You can do fun stuff with them you know. Sure they might add responsibilities, but I've only heard good things from mothers."
"Maybe." Zhoie didn't seem particularly convinced.
"A conversation for a different time then. Why don't you continue where you left off. You were saying how the Bishops arranged Trebar to be your husband?"
"Yeah. I wasn't officially engaged to Trebar until the year before we came to the Sanctum, he was only a candidate, but I was pretty sure he was going to be the one from the beginning."
"A candidate?"
"Yeah. There were three others, and Gawan was one of them. You would be surprised at how good he is with a pistol."
"Woah, sorry, what was that?" Diana was blindsided by that little tidbit. She knew that the Theocracy had firearms, the fact that they actually used them still hadn't registered with her.
"He is a good shot with a handgun. It's part of the reason he was chosen to succeed the position of Montaug, and why he was the first to be removed from the running. The Montaug must remain celibate their entire life."
"So does he have the pistol on him now?" Diana had gathered that celibacy part from Montaug, both the person who currently held the title and the recording of the man himself. Dying a virgin martyr seemed like something that would carry into the position.
"I don't think so. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, but I doubt he would bring it to a party."
Diana sighed in relief. If Donovan heard about this she would have a serious problem on her hands. It had been a long time since last he used a firearm, and there was a good chance he would ask to use it. He had already done so with the Montaug.
"Anyways, the years went on and the Bishops removed candidates, it became increasingly clear that he was going to be the one. He was just so much better than everyone else. Soon enough it was decided he would be the one to assume the positions of Grand Marshall and Champion of the Faith." She seemed sad now. "I just can't keep up."
"You want to stand as his equal?" Diana was starting to piece together why Zhoie acted the way she did.
Zhoie silently nodded, confirming Diana's suspicions.
Zhoie was incredibly insecure. In her eyes, she was chosen to be Trebar's wife by the state based solely on her ability to manipulate split. This was done so that their children would be as strong as or stronger than them, increasing or at least maintaining the Holifanian Theocracy's overall power. Zhoie understood that the affinity of a child at birth could be roughly approximated as the average of the parents' affinity. Considering how far behind Trebar she was in that regard, there was a good chance she was feeling like a hindrance to him, like she was failing the one job she had been entrusted with since a young age. Much the same as Diana, Zhoie was destined to be a mother, a fate she knew she had no escape from, but she was afraid that after falling so far behind Trebar she would instead be matched with somebody else, someone she didn't love or admire as much.
Zhoie hadn't said that much, but Diana was not a fool. She could draw a conclusion about the matchmaking process without being told the details. Just as Zhoie had candidates assigned to her, she was also a candidate for Trebar. That's all she was, just a candidate. She might be the best candidate, but that was only a tentative. Should another somehow rise above her she would be replaced, and that prospect frightened her. This fear was probably the source of her confrontational attitude, she was desperate to prove her worth.
In a way, she reminded Diana of herself. Once upon a time not too long ago, Diana was also just a candidate, not for marriage (though that was a part) but for survival. Diana also pushed herself incredibly hard to be chosen by a selection committee. Diana also wondered if she was worthy of her spouse. The only real difference between the two of them was that for Diana, the decision was already made. The council had been disbanded, on an atomic level if Arc was to be believed. Diana might be the most qualified to give her advice in this situation.
cakeonfrosting I like heavy chapters!!! I like starting with jokes and humor and then turning it into a therapy session!!! I like doing the opposite as well!!!
That aside, expect a Diana-Zhoie chapter next. I won't say they become best friends, but they will certainly form something of a sisterly bond. They are roughly the same age after all, and both of them have issues. Some of those issues are stupid. Everybody has some of those, some of us have more stupid issue than others, some of us have stupider issues than the rest.
Anyways, have you guys been keeping track of the checklist? There isn't much that hasn't happened yet, but I wonder if you've started to piece together what's going to happen to Len. He may seem inconspicuous and innocuous now, but he's going to be a central part of the story down the line. The only question is why. . .
