The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

Quote from: tmcd on Today at 12:22:31 AMCamber did not invent the dryer spell, as it's called, because it's useful in the field when you don't have comforts of a manor house to stay in.  Some like the standard Whirlpool spell, but others prefer the formulation of Lord Maytag ...

Some also prefer a spell that spins the laundry around a vertical axis, while others prefer to watch it spin around a horizontal axis. Either spell preference seems to be equally effective.

Quote

Quote from: Evie on March 11, 2026, 09:49:29 PM"Jarvis ain't had no accident,"

I have this niggling thought about some hard-boiled (detective?) story, where the main character reflects on someone dying in a car wreck or something, that it was a wreck but there wasn't anything accidental about it.

In our English, -lin, or originally -el -in, is a diminutive suffix from French.

Yup, and that's why Emma chose to secretly name her son "Camlin" in honor of his actual father. Given Gwynedd's history, maybe the -lin or -elin diminutive form came into Gwynedd via the original Festillic Conquest rather than a Norman one.

Camber did not invent the dryer spell, as it's called, because it's useful in the field when you don't have comforts of a manor house to stay in.  Some like the standard Whirlpool spell, but others prefer the formulation of Lord Maytag ...

Quote from: Evie on March 11, 2026, 09:49:29 PM"Jarvis ain't had no accident,"

I have this niggling thought about some hard-boiled (detective?) story, where the main character reflects on someone dying in a car wreck or something, that it was a wreck but there wasn't anything accidental about it.

In our English, -lin, or originally -el -in, is a diminutive suffix from French.

Previous chapter: https://rhemuthcastle.com/index.php/topic,3541.0.html


Chapter Seven

January 12, 1465
The outskirts of Bourton atte Molling
Jarvis Pratt's homestead
Early afternoon

Emma had struggled with the decision to leave, because even though the homestead she had raised her young family on did not belong to them, their rent being paid annually to Lord Bourton, it was still the only home she'd known for most of the ten years of her marriage. There had been a few other villages earlier on where Jarvis had managed to find work after being turned out of Rhemuth Castle, but he hadn't been able to hang on to those earlier jobs for long. Still, once they had managed to scrimp and save enough to buy the two horses that would allow Jarvis a chance to be masterless, they'd managed to settle in well enough in the village of Bourton, and it was the first place where Jarvis had seemed to be reasonably satisfied and less inclined to seek solace at the bottom of a tankard for the blows he felt that life had dealt him, at least until his realization that his eldest son was not his own began to eat at him and stirred up his perpetual discontent once again.

Camber had kept at her, though, reasoning and cajoling until she'd finally realized that there was no future for her and her children here, struggling to make an honest living for them in the sole inn of a tiny village on a route that wasn't all that well traveled. Of course without Jarvis around anymore to drink away all her attempts to save up her earnings, she felt she could still earn enough to keep her children in food and the occasional change of clothing as they grew. But Camber was right. Even if she could keep all she earned, it was a hard life, and she'd need to spend some of her hard-gotten coin to hire some help to watch the babbies while she worked, for while Toby did his best to help her out, it was a bit much to ask for him to mind a four year old and an infant all day long by himself. He would eventually need to learn some sort of trade before long, and she couldn't very well save up for apprenticeship fees and hired help on what little she made at the inn while trying to keep them all decently clothed and fed.

"Ye're certain they have room for us at th' convent?" she asked Camber anxiously. "Even th' boys?"

"They do," he assured her. "I checked with the Abbess last night. She said she would prepare a room or two for your arrival, and that you might bring any belongings with you that you wish to keep. They will provide your children with a basic education, even Daisy once she is old enough, if you are all still living there by that time. And they will also help you learn skills that will allow you to make a better living for your family more easily if you should choose to leave the convent later. The boys are only allowed to live there until the age of twelve, but that should give them enough time to learn their letters and numbers and other skills that will help them become well placed in an apprenticeship, and if they live close enough by, they'll be allowed regular visits with their mum and sister." Camber gave her a reassuring smile. "If you and Toby haven't sorted out what he wants to do when he grows up by the time he turns twelve, rest assured I'll find some sort of good placement for him. I'm not going to let my son end up as a homeless vagabond."

"Toby knows a little reading, but not much," Emma confided. "I only had two small prayer books to begin with, an' Jarvis sold them. But he can sign his own name, at least, and work out th' easy words if he has a minute t' think and sound them out in his mind."

"That's a good start. It sounds like you did the best that you could with what you had to work with," Camber replied with a reassuring smile.

Emma blinked away the tears that sprang up unbidden at the unexpected praise. "He's a bright lad, is Toby, quick t' learn. He just needs a patient hand sometimes. Jarvis weren't good at patience."

"How long do you think it will take you to get your belongings together?" Camber asked. "Aoife and I can help. And if anything is too large to fit into our saddlebags, we can return for the rest later."

Emma laughed, waving an arm airily at their surroundings. "We ain't got a lot, Your Highness! Not unless ye were thinkin' t' take th' whole house apart plank by plank an' bring it wi' us."

Camber smiled. That sounded more like the Emma that he remembered from his youth, easily finding the funny side of things.

The laughter faded into a groan. "Oh no! I forgot th' breechclouts! They'll take forever t' dry."

He grinned. "Oh, that won't be any problem at all. Remember those Deryni tricks you used to enjoy seeing me do?"

"You mean th' glowy hands and such?"

A brief memory surfaced of a much younger Emma lying curled up naked with him beneath the bedsheets, utterly enraptured and giggling with delight as he'd sent orbs of crimson handfire floating into the darkness between coverlet and canopy late one night when they both ought to have been fast asleep in their respective rooms rather than engaging in youthful mischief in his bedchamber. He'd shushed her with a kiss, not wanting Cinhil to overhear since they still shared an apartment at the time, although Colin had already all but vacated their boyhood chambers to spend his nights in the City with Mellie. He swiftly banished the memory, feeling vaguely disloyal to Alixa even though he hadn't even met her yet at the time, and wouldn't for another two years, after she was already married to his brother. How convoluted his life had become!

"Something like that," he said, wrenching his thoughts back to the present, "only much more practical."

He stood, bringing the basket of wrung-out cloths to the table and spreading them out into neat rows until they covered the entire surface. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a small handful of dice-sized cubes, four black and four white.

"Now watch this," he said with a slight grin. Setting the Wards Major, he added a second spell that set the air within the shining bubble of energy awhirl, whipping the breechclouts around the enclosed space as if they had been caught up in a small whirlwind. Behind him, from the corner where Aoife sat with Silas and Daisy in her lap, quietly telling them stories, she looked up with a laugh.

"That's one way to dry them quickly in wintertime," she observed as Emma's younger son leaped up to gape at his sister's flying nappies.


Toby and the two knights returned from sorting out the horses to discover Daisy's nappies flying over the tabletop as Emma was rapidly folding their spare clothes and the blankets off their beds with the assistance of the very pretty lady and the dark-haired lord in the brown leathers. He joined Silas in standing next to the table, staring at the glowing bubble around it before reaching a fingertip towards it. The dark-haired man turned to watch as his fingertip made contact with the glowing sphere. It tingled. While it didn't hurt, it was a little unpleasant, not to mention startling, so Toby quickly jerked his hand away.

"Wha' th' blazes is this?!" he asked, looking around at the visitors.

Camber crossed the room to join him. "It's called a Wards Major, and I wouldn't normally advise touching one. Sometimes they are set to harm or even kill anyone who tries, because they're normally used for keeping someone else out or in. But I knew you boys would be curious about it, so I made mine as harmless as I could. Still, I imagine it doesn't feel all that great to touch."

"Wha's it for, though?"

"In this case, your mother needed to dry Daisy's nappies quickly, more quickly than can be managed by just hanging them over the fireplace. So I thought this might help." He reached through the dome of energy, which was attuned to his touch, and snatched one of the pieces of thick fabric out of the air to test how dry it was. "Still needs a few more minutes, I think." Looking at Toby, he asked, "Did Sir Sebastian or Sir William happen to tell you why we came here today?"

Toby thought back. They had mostly talked about the horses. Well, those and the Jouvians. And Jarvis. No, come to think, he had meant to ask them about that, but had never got around to it, and they'd never said. He shook his head.

Camber looked at Emma. "Do you want to tell them, or shall I?" he asked quietly.

Emma stepped forward, crouching down to take them both in her arms. "Your Pa, he...he had an accident in Rhemuth. He ain't comin' back." She glanced hesitantly at Camber. "Prince Camber here, he recognized yer Pa from a long time back when Pa used t' work at th' Castle. He come t' let us know wha' happened an' t' help us out. We ain't stayin' here in Bourton no more; Prince Camber says there's a place near Desse tha' takes in such as us an' helps t' teach folks skills an' schoolin'. So tha's where they'll be takin' us."

Toby listened to his mother with a puzzled frown. Something wasn't adding up. Most of what she had just told him and Silas was true, he could sense that, but not all of it. "Jarvis ain't had no accident," he said. "Wha' really happened?"

Camber glanced at Toby, realizing that his son was likely Deryni. If he could Truth-Read, that meant his gifts were beginning to manifest. He would need training controls set for his own and others' safety.

But first, he would need the truth, or at least what truth was safe to give him, otherwise Camber suspected Toby wasn't going to be satisfied with the answer he'd been given. Carefully phrasing his answer, he said "Something very unfortunate did happen to Jarvis in Rhemuth, and while he was still alive when I left the city, he's not likely to live more than a day or two at most."

Silas was too young to fully understand what was happening, but he understood it had to do with his Pa, and that Pa wasn't coming back. He started to cry, though whether his were tears of sorrow or relief, or possibly both, none could say and he was too young to express.

"It's all right, Si," said Toby, pulling his brother into a comforting embrace as Emma tightened her arms around them both. "At least Jarvis won't yell or beat us no more." A happy thought occurred to him, making him grin. "An' if these folk be takin' us t' Desse, ye'll get t' ride on a fancy horse!"


January 12, 1465
Jarvis Pratt's cottage
Late afternoon

It hadn't taken them long to pack the few necessities that Emma and the children owned. Most of the furnishings belonged to the house, so Emma simply added the freshly dried breechclouts in with the children's spare change of clothes and her own. Toby and Silas were already wearing their shoes, and Daisy had none. To these personal items, Emma added a small coffer containing her comb and the coins she had saved up in the broken pot. The pot, she felt no need to bring with her; it would only serve as an unpleasant reminder of Jarvis.

That left Jarvis's locked chest, which Emma fretted over whether to take or leave, since she didn't have the key to it. Jarvis had likely had it with him when he'd been arrested.

"I can at least unlock it for you, so you can see if there is anything you want to keep in there," Camber told her. "If you decide you want to keep the chest, we can come back for it, and if the key isn't with Jarvis's personal effects, one of the locksmiths in Rhemuth might be able to fashion another one for you." He held his hand over the lock plate, sensing the tumblers within with his inner senses, using his mind to turn them into the proper position one by one until the latch clicked open.

"If that Prince of Gwynedd thing isn't working out for you," Aoife joked, "you can always try your hand at a life of crime."

Emma giggled as she pushed open the lid of the chest. As she had guessed, there was very little within, but she pulled out two pewter tankards that had some decent value, as well as a nice shirt Jarvis had worn on special occasions when he had cared more about his appearance, and the dress tunic he had saved for making a good impression when trying to find a job. Those, too, might still have some value on the secondhand market, or maybe she could make them over for Toby or Silas. A pouch contained a few coins, likely whatever had been left over from his recent mysterious trip to Rhemuth. There was a belt that was still in decent condition, which bore a scabbard and a dagger she thought might have once belonged to Jarvis's father.

She pulled out what appeared to be some folded crimson fabric at the bottom of the trunk. Shaking it out, she realized it was his old Haldane livery. It should have been returned when he'd been sacked, but evidently he'd held onto it for some reason.

Something small fell onto the floor, and Emma bent to pick it up. It was a ring of braided blonde hair. She recognized it instantly. She had made it for him shortly after they were married, when she had still believed that he loved her. She had assumed he had long since lost it or thrown it away, but he had kept it here all these years among his most treasured possessions.

Emma broke down into loud sobs.


January 12, 1465
East of St. Rita's Convent
Two hours before sunset

They eventually got everything packed into the saddlebags and left the homestead for the last time, taking a brief detour into the village so that Emma could stop by the inn to let the innkeeper know that she had received word of Jarvis's death and would be leaving the village with her family. Camber had also paid one of the village lads to convey a message to Lord Bourton to let him know the homestead was vacant and available to rent out to someone else. Appended to the message was the assurance that if anything was still owed on the property, Camber would cover it.

Those few small bits of business settled, they set forth from the village, Emma riding with Lady Aoife, wearing Daisy in a sling across her chest, while Silas sat perched in front of Sir William and Sir Sebastian rode slightly ahead of the party to ensure the road was safe of any hazards. Prince Camber, with Toby seated in front of him, brought up the rear, equally attuned to any danger that might come up from behind, although with the sun still reasonably high in the sky and the full expectation of reaching their destination before sunset, he was not all that worried about encountering outlaws along the way. He and Emma had decided beforehand that having Toby ride with him would serve the dual purpose of allowing him an opportunity to get to know his son better, and also allowing him to answer any more awkward questions Toby might have about Jarvis's sudden disappearance. The close contact between Camber and his son also allowed him the opportunity to check for shields which, as he'd already expected, were present if still not very well formed. He took a moment to establish the necessary controls while Toby was still distracted by the excitement of being atop the late King Uthyr's horse.

"Wha's it like, Desse?" Toby asked him once they were on their way.

Camber thought about the town, both as it normally was and what it was like now since the recent war. "It's a bustling river port town, normally, long and narrow along the Eirian, and the great sailing ships that come up from the Southern Sea put in there to offload their cargoes so the river barges can carry goods and passengers upriver to Rhemuth or farther up the Eirian or the Molling. The big ships can't make it further upriver than Desse, you see, because the water north of there is too shallow. Right now, ever since the war, it's not thriving quite as much as it once was, because some parts of the town were torched and are in need of rebuilding, but it looked like the Dessans were making fast work of the repairs when we rode through there yesterday. Hopefully it will be closer to how it once was by the time you have a chance to see it, but our trip today won't go quite that far. St. Rita's Convent is a couple of miles this side of Desse."

Toby was a little disappointed to hear that, because he'd like to have seen a ship, but the mention of St. Rita's brought back the memory of his mother's words to them about the opportunities they would have there. "Do they have books?"

"Yes, they have a fair few books. And the nuns will teach you and Silas how to read them, and Daisy too once she's old enough. Silas might still be a little too young to learn how to read, but he can learn the alphabet at least. I'm told you know how to read a little and how to sign your name?"

Toby shrugged. "I c'n read a bit, aye. I c'n sign 'Toby,' but that ain't me real name, an' I dinna like 'Pratt.' Jarvis ain't me Pa, an' he ain't around t' make me act like he is anymore."

Camber wondered what Emma had told her firstborn son about his parentage. "If Jarvis isn't your father, do you know who is?" he asked.

Toby shook his head. "I dunno, but 'e can't be worse than Jarvis!"

Camber fervently hoped not! "And why do you say 'Toby' isn't your real name?" He was fairly certain that was the only name for the boy that had been found in Jarvis's mind, and also the only name Emma had called him back at the homestead.

"I were baptized 'Camlin,' but Ma said she tol' Pa she'd named me 'Toby.' 'E weren't home at th' time. Out gettin' drunk, I s'pose."

They rode along in silence for a few moments while Camber absorbed this information. Maybe Emma would like a fresh start also. He'd need to check with her to see if she'd prefer to be introduced to the Abbess as Emma Pratt or Emma Yonge, now that she no longer had a husband with whom she needed to share the legal tie of his surname.

"Your Ma's name used to be Emma Yonge, back when she worked up at the Castle."

"Ma worked at the Castle?!"

"You didn't know that?" Camber didn't know how much of her earlier life Emma had shared with her children, so maybe it would be best for him to tread lightly and not share too much information, yet it was surprising to him that Toby had seemed aware that Jarvis had once worked at the Castle but didn't know his mother had also worked there.

"An' you knew her there?" Toby asked.

In more ways than one, but that was definitely not a topic Camber wanted their son thinking too closely upon! "Yes, I saw her fairly frequently." That seemed safe enough. "She was a chambermaid in the Queen's Tower."

"She worked for the Queen?!"

"Not the current Queen, but yes. My mother was Queen of Gwynedd at the time."

"Mebbe she could work there again, d'ye think?" Toby's eyes looked hopeful. Camber suppressed a wince, taking a few moments to think of the best way to let the boy down gently.

"I don't think that's very likely. Jarvis was released from service on very bad terms, having been responsible for the death of one of the late King's horses. And Emma is married to Jarvis. So...." While Camber knew deep down that Jarvis's carelessness would not be held against his wife, especially since Emma had not been his wife yet at the time, he didn't imagine Soraya would be all that keen on rehiring any chambermaid who had offered additional intimate services to one of her sons or any of the other Castle residents. If that had been an option, he felt sure his mother would have offered that solution when he'd informed her of his son's existence and his mission to bring Emma and her family to St. Rita's.  But hopefully the boy would simply connect the dots and come up with the understandable but incorrect inference that Emma would not be welcomed back to her old job because of her association with Jarvis.

"Bloody Jarvis!" Toby muttered. "He ruins everything!"


January 12, 1465
St Rita's Convent
Two miles east of Desse
Evening

The trip back to St. Rita's had been uneventful, the small party of travelers arriving at the convent shortly before sunset. The Abbess had welcomed them with a warm meal, then escorted Emma and her children to their new chambers, two small adjoining rooms that were meant to serve as living and sleeping space, but while their new lodgings might be even smaller than the hovel they had just left, they were in much better repair, snug and dry, with a well maintained roof that kept out the rain and damp. Emma was thrilled to see she even had a proper bed, and even though it was small, it was strung tightly so the thin mattress upon it didn't sag in the middle. As for the children, they had a large pallet to share, but it was well enough stuffed that no cold leached through it from the floor beneath. It was more luxury than Emma had experienced since leaving Rhemuth and a better home than any of her children could remember having.

Once they had settled in with their meager goods, the Abbess showing Emma an empty chest where she could store the family's clothing and other belongings, they were taken on a brief tour to show them where they might find the refectory, infirmary, the schoolroom, the library (off limits to the younger children because of the great value of the manuscripts, but Toby would be permitted to read them under close adult supervision), and finally the warming room with its great fireplace where they could gather on colder days and where they would be permitted to receive guests once a week if they should choose to.

Prince Camber took careful note of the permitted days and times for such visits, since it was his intent to return as soon as might be managed to see how well Emma's family was settling in and to speak with the tutor to find out how much remediation Toby's education might need in order to give him the educational foundation he would require to become established in whatever good trade he might show some aptitude for. Had Toby been a younger child such as Silas, Camber would be less concerned, but a boy of nine years, even of common birth, ought to be further along in his ability to read, write, and manage simple sums than his son appeared to be. Either Bourton atte Molling had lacked a dame school or a village priest with the time or inclination to provide such learning experiences for the village children, or Jarvis had not permitted Toby to attend such lessons. On closer consideration of the matter, he thought the latter might have been the problem. Camber couldn't recall if Jarvis was literate or not, but if not, he might not have felt it needful for the children in his care to learn such things, or else maybe he felt threatened by the thought they might become more educated than he was. Perhaps when Lord Riordan made another one of his monthly visits to check on Princess Cécile's studies, Camber could ask him what texts he recommended for helping Toby catch up to where he ought to be.

After the tour, Camber took a few moments to privately bid Emma goodbye for the time being, or at least in such privacy as might be afforded by speaking quietly together in a cloister garden with two nuns watching diligently from the cloister walk. He informed her of the conversation he and Toby had shared during the ride to St. Rita's, and suggested she should give some thought to which surname she would prefer to use in future as well as whether to allow Toby his preference to be known as Camlin from henceforth, now that Jarvis was no longer around to object, or if the sudden name change might be too confusing to Silas. On the other hand, Camber thought it might be easier for a four year old to adjust to a sudden change than an older child more set in his ways. His few hours in the proximity of young children were sufficient to convince Camber that he definitely had a lot to learn about parenthood that he had quite taken for granted before. Maybe he should take closer note of how his brother managed his parental duties before starting a family of his own.

That thought had brought his musings back to Alixa, and how she had been faring in his absence from Court, which gave Camber more to ponder as he returned to his guesthouse bed for the night. He normally tried to stop in for a visit with Alixa at least once a day, not just to discuss their future plans but also because often her spirits needed lifting. This soon after Cinhil's death, she still had many rough days mixed in with her good ones (as did he at times, though he suspected the grief of a widow might hit differently than the grief of a sibling), and the recent holy days had been very difficult for her, being her first Christmas and Twelfth Night celebrations without Cinhil at her side. Also, while Cynewyn provided a great deal of consolation for her, like many other infants of her tender age she still required a fair bit of care late at night, and Alixa preferred not to send her back to the nursery in the late hours unless it was absolutely necessary, knowing the nursemaids all needed their sleep or some personal time too. So she and her sister sometimes took turns tending to their daughters in the late night hours, each mother taking turns so the other could get more rest, but neither young mother managing to get quite as well rested as either would prefer. Unfortunately that was not a situation that Camber could assist them with. He was hardly equipped to feed an infant, and he could just imagine the salacious Castle gossip if he made a habit of turning up at Alixa and Cécile's shared apartment in the late night hours, especially after Alixa's ladies had returned to their own quarters for the night!

And then there was little Marthe, their youngest sister. Marthe was an enigma everyone was still attempting to figure out, poor little damaged soul. Healer James and Healer Saoirse had done their best to try to Heal her damaged psyche and were still working with her regularly, yet although the girl was thriving well enough now physically, her Deryni powers were still under tighter than normal training controls, because the girl's conscience seemed to be almost completely unformed. It was difficult to tell if she could not distinguish right from wrong, or if she could make the distinction but simply did not choose to. She appeared to act more from instinct than reason and had an emotional range that seemed more inclined to anger, hostility, or fear than towards happiness, affection, or empathy. In the past month, she had been taught enough social skills to be allowed to play with the other children in the nursery for limited periods of time and under very careful supervision, the hope being that such contact with playmates nearer her age might serve to teach her what normal childhood behavior ought to look like, so she could learn to model her own from it, but thus far the experiment had shown only limited success.

As Camber lay in the unfamiliar guesthouse bed, contemplating how life had suddenly and unexpectedly catapulted him from a more or less carefree bachelor state to the responsibilities of becoming more or less a paterfamilias to two separate and very different households, his weariness caught up with him and he fell into a dreamless sleep.


January 13, 1465
The Royal Chapel
Rhemuth Castle
Evening

The sight of Jarvis's corpse swinging from the gallows on Executioner's Hill as Camber and his entourage made their final approach towards Rhemuth did little to enhance Camber's somber mood the following day, though at least there was the comfort of knowing that the man would no longer be around to make Emma's or her children's lives a living hell. Aoife took her leave of them at Millsgate, for she planned on stopping by to visit her sister Saoirse before continuing on her way to wherever she was going next. Camber and the two Gwyneddan knights continued up to the Castle, where Camber thanked them for their time and told them they were free to go about their business.

Sir William did not hesitate to find somewhere else to be, for there was a young lady he had recently become acquainted with whom he hoped might be readily found and available to share a bench with at the evening meal later, if some other competitor for the lady's time and attention had not yet managed to get to her first. Sir Sebastian, on the other hand, lingered until Sir William was out of sight before asking if he might have a private word with the Prince.

"I know you are planning on leaving for the Jouvian Court sometime in the next year," Sebastian said quietly once he felt sure no one else was within earshot. "Have you already determined your full complement of retainers you intend to bring with you? If not, I would very much like to enter your service. You will have need of knights you know to be loyal to you and to Joux's future Queen, and since my sister will be entering Queen Alixa's service, it might put our mother's mind more at ease to have me close by to watch out for her wellbeing."

Camber suppressed a sigh. He'd had a feeling this question would come up sooner or later, and as yet he was undecided how he felt about it, or more importantly, how Alixa and her sister might feel about Sebastian joining their household.

"To watch out for Abigail's wellbeing, or for Princess Cécile's?" asked Camber with a knowing look at the younger knight.

"Both," Sebastian admitted. He gave Camber a look of chagrin. "Is it that obvious?"

"Very."  Camber pondered the offer for a long moment. "I can't give you an answer yet," he finally replied. "I'm sure Alixa will want to weigh in on the decision as well. If she says no, rest assured it won't be due to any reservations about your character or your suitability to the task. Cécile is in a much healthier place emotionally than she was in when she first arrived in Rhemuth, but she still needs a lot more time and space to heal. My concern is that it might be harder for her to find that space if she is torn between trying to please a would-be suitor, or at least to spare his feelings, and needing to get a clearer sense of what she wants for her future and who she wishes to become apart from Renier's daughter or a pawn in a cardounet match between kingdoms. If you care about her, give her that space to heal."

Sebastian bowed in acknowledgement and took his leave, clearly not happy with the decision but doing his best to accept it with equanimity.

Camber continued towards the King's Study to report to Colin on what had transpired in the two days of his absence. Finally free to do as he wished in the absence of other company after that was done, he made his way to the Royal Chapel, needing a bit of solitude and a few quiet moments of contemplation and prayer.

His spirit felt a little more at peace half an hour later when he sensed Alixa's presence. He finished praying, genuflecting as he rose from the prie-dieu and walking towards her.

"I thought I might find you here, mon vieux," Alixa said, taking his hands in hers. "How was your journey? Did you find the little lad and his family?"

"Emotionally harrowing," he said, taking a deep breath and blowing it out in a loud huff. "And yes, they've been moved to a better living situation. From what Geoffrey and Joss told me, I was expecting their circumstances to be rough, but seeing them for myself...." He shook his head, his eyes growing damp. "I can't help but wonder how much my careless actions are directly to blame for what they've suffered all these years."

"Shh, none of that!" Alixa released his hands, wrapping her arms around his waist in a comforting hug. "You made some choices at the time that were not the best. But the boy's mother and the man she married, they both made choices as well, and you weren't responsible for those. Like the kind and responsible man you are now, you are doing your best to make amends for your part in things. Don't blame yourself for those matters that were outside of your ability to foresee or control."

"You're right. It's just hard, knowing I had any part in how things turned out for them." Camber held her close, savoring the feel of her in his arms, his cheek resting on her hair. After a few moments, a sudden thought occurred to him and he straightened, drawing back slightly. "Where are your ladies?"

"Off doing other things. But no worries, mon ami, I'm fairly sure I can refrain from using my wicked womanly wiles on you in the nave of a chapel," Alixa joked, waving a hand towards the Presence Lamp in an airy gesture. "Besides, we have a chaperone."

He laughed. "So we have."

Quote from: Jerusha on March 09, 2026, 03:54:54 PM"It's hard to imagine even him being quite that stupid, but I suppose he's had the better part of a decade to further refine his capacity for idiocy."  Well said!

Aoife/Aidan would have been Uthyr's squire during the time when Jarvis killed the King's horse due to his carelessness. I'm sure she'd remember him very well and not consider him at all improved over the years.

QuoteYou managed to describe the horrors of war from the perspective of the people who have no defense against it very well.  And yet they still managed to go on.  Not that they had any other choice.

Wars would have been much harder for the common folk, without sturdy fortifications to retreat behind (unless they had the good fortune to live next to a castle) and with having their livestock and food crops pillaged and their fields burned or, worse, sometimes salted, leading to the danger of famine even if they happened to survive the war itself.

But yes, despite their greater privations, life went on for the survivors.

QuoteDo you think we could hang Pratt twice?

Please don't tempt Camber to consider necromancy! He's working on unlearning bad habits, not cultivating new ones!

 "It's hard to imagine even him being quite that stupid, but I suppose he's had the better part of a decade to further refine his capacity for idiocy."  Well said!

You managed to describe the horrors of war from the perspective of the people who have no defense against it very well.  And yet they still managed to go on.  Not that they had any other choice.

Do you think we could hang Pratt twice?

Quote from: tmcd on March 09, 2026, 03:34:00 PM

Quote from: Evie on March 09, 2026, 08:45:03 AMETA: Alixa says "Wait...'Can't trust anyone connected to that land'...tmcd doesn't trust me?!"

Yeah.  And her fiancé will be even worse.  You don't want to know what he did with a chambermaid.

LOL! At least it was fully consensual! 

Quote from: Evie on March 09, 2026, 08:45:03 AMETA: Alixa says "Wait...'Can't trust anyone connected to that land'...tmcd doesn't trust me?!"

Yeah.  And her fiancé will be even worse.  You don't want to know what he did with a chambermaid.

Quote from: DerynifanK on March 09, 2026, 09:46:23 AMJoux does seem to be a constant source of trouble. Not sure why anyone would want it. Wonder what Alixa will eventually do to alter it.

Hopefully quite a bit!

Keep in mind that Joux is largely the way it is now because of the leadership they have had in the past century, but particularly in the past few decades of Renier's reign. You will find out more about Joux and Vézaire throughout this story, but it has a turbulent history, from the original breakaway of the Grand Duchy of Vézaire from what used to be the Duchy of Joux, to Joux's conquest and reabsorption of Vézaire about a century prior to this story, and all the tensions between the two cultures that go back centuries and endure into the present day. But much of the current tension is very much Renier and Rémy's doing, since rather than trying to forge any sort of unity or healing (which Rémy in particular would have been well placed to do, being half Jouvian and half Vézairi), they chose to be selfish, power-hungry gits who cared more about their own pleasures than their people, and who filled their court with other men just like them.

But that doesn't mean that every person in Joux is like Renier and Rémy. There are many who will welcome a change in the current status quo. Though of course there are also many who would oppose such change, because of the power and privilege they would lose. And there are some who might oppose it just because at least Renier is the evil that they know and have learned how to cope with, while Alixa is a complete unknown, and they don't know what to expect from her.

Having spent a little time getting to know Alixa, I'm sure you don't think she's going to just take the Jouvian throne and continue doing the same-old-same-old that her father and brother used to do!

Quote from: DerynifanK on March 09, 2026, 09:47:55 AMI like Toby and hope his future will be brighter.

I very much doubt Camber is going to turn into a monster overnight and make matters worse than poor Toby has had to cope with already! 

I like Toby and hope his future will be brighter.

Joux does seem to be a constant source of trouble. Not sure why anyone would want it. Wonder what Alixa will eventually do to alter it.