November 8, 2011

In Which Lonriad Doesn't Quite Deserve It

January 5, 1177

Lonriad had figured it would be quite some time before Lorn was willing to speak to him again--still sore about the whole Rona ordeal, no doubt--but a few years prior, the duke had started a tradition of taking all the fathers-to-be in his social sphere on a hunt, and apparently he cared more about that than his personal grudges. Not that he should have been surprised; in spite of his most recent experiences with the man, Lorn wasn't the type to drag out such ugliness forever.

In any case--whether Lorn hated him or not--he supposed he had to be here. Not only did Lorn outrank him substantially, but his acceptance of the invitation was for all intents and purposes the official announcement. Asalaye was only three months along and so far they'd only told their families. Lonriad wasn't even sure how Lorn had found out; Raia had told him, most likely, but it could have been Xeta, or perhaps Riona via Rona. For everyone's sake, he hoped it hadn't been that last possibility.

"Lonriad."

The voice belonged to Lorn's brother Abrich, a flash of red cloth and brown leather approaching from the stables. There was a grin on his face and Lonriad had to return it. It was nice to see that one of Rona's brothers, at least, still liked him. Then again, Abrich was too wishy-washy to hate anyone. "Hello, Abrich. Doing some sparring?"

"Yes, but we were just about to wrap up." 'We' must have been him and Lorn. That made sense; obviously Lorn couldn't keep sparring if he was about to leave for a hunt. "Congratulations, by the way."

Lonriad grimaced. At least he could blame the redness of his face on the cold. "Thank you. And what about yourself--any New Years' greetings from your betrothed in Dovia?"

"No, but it's not like I expect to hear from her much at this point. It'll be a while before we're married." He gave a shy little smile, as if he wanted to be polite but didn't really want to press on with the subject. Lonriad couldn't blame him; he probably wouldn't have been all that talkative either if his older brother had betrothed him to a twelve-year-old. "Anyway, uh... I don't mean to rush you, but you might want to wait outside the gates for another ten or fifteen minutes."

That was an odd request. "Umm... why?"

"Ah, well... my sparring partner doesn't really like you."

...Oh. "So then I should probably keep my guard up when he takes me hunting."

"What?" Abrich's eyes narrowed for a second, then bulged, his mouth following suit. "Oh, no! I'm not sparring with Lorn, I'm sparring with--"

"Abrich? What's going on out--oh."

Lonriad's ear twitched. He knew that voice, and it definitely wasn't Lorn's. "You spar with Aspen?"

Abrich sighed. "Only when there's no one else around. She always kicks my ass."

Lonriad shot a wary glance toward the figure emerging from the stables. She was a scrawny little dab of a thing and the oversized boys' clothes made her even moreso. At the same time, he didn't find Abrich's claim all that unbelievable. "That... really is your color."

"Oh, sod off." What? He had to gape at her. Aspen had always been icy to him, but he knew her as a quiet, awkward sort of girl who only spoke when spoken to and even then seemed to find it a struggle--certainly not the sort who told a knight to 'sod off'. She must have felt like a big man with that sword on her belt.

Abrich groaned. "Aspen..."

Aspen ignored him, her green glare never leaving Lonriad. "Brave of you to show your face here after what you did to Rona."

Lonriad raised an eyebrow. Obviously he couldn't blame Rona if she hadn't forgiven him, and it hadn't seemed irrational to worry about Lorn... but Aspen? That had been half a year ago now! If Rona's friends and most of her family had forgiven him, then why couldn't her maid? "Uh... well, Lorn kind of invited me..."

"Yes, well--Lorn isn't exactly doing much for her either, is he?" Abrich clapped his hand to face. Maybe Aspen had only ever been polite with him for Rona's sake? Either that or she'd been taking out her anger on Abrich and still had quite a bit left to unleash. "Did you know he's shopping around for bachelors in Dovia behind her back? All she ever wanted was to stay here and you were her only reasonable shot at that!"

"Look, I never meant for her to get hurt, all right?" If anything, her scowl deepened. A shiver crawled up his back and he doubted it was the weather. "Who knows? Maybe Lorn will bring someone in for her, not send her out." At least, we can hope that... right?

Aspen bit her lip. "You can't exactly promise that, can you?"

No--but just then, it would have been nice if he could. "I'm going hunting with Lorn soon. I could talk to him if you'd like."

"And why should he listen to you?"

Lonriad glanced to Abrich for help, but the boy seemed to have decided he was better off watching the snowflakes than he was getting involved. It must have been great to have that option. "Uh... well..."

"Uh, well indeed!" She worked up a bit of saliva and spat, the wad landing squarely on the toe of his boot.

Abrich cringed. Lonriad pawed at the snow like it made any difference and stared. "I'm... not quite sure I deserved that."

"No, Sir." He nearly jumped back in shock as he caught sight of the stable master over Aspen's shoulder. He'd been so focused on the girl that everything happening behind her had been oblivion. "No... I don't think you quite did."

NEXT CHAPTER:

11 comments:

Van said...

...I'm really sick of all this rain :(

Penelope said...

HEH! hee! Oh! (These were exact thoughts upon completing this chapter.) Is there a reason that we did not see the stable master or the encounter that followed? Have we met this stable master? Did he then proceed to kick Lonriad's ass?

But seriously, would Aspen have liked him much better if he HAD married Rona? Goodness... I really like Aspen. I think she might become one of my favorites.

Van said...

Heheh XD

The stable master was just an invention for the sake of this post. I needed someone other than Abrich to witness the later part of the exchange. We'll see why soon.

I think Aspen's adopted sort of an "I want my beloved to be happy" approach by this point. She disliked Lonriad because of Rona's interest in him, but I guess she figured the odds of her and Rona happening were pretty much non-existent anyway. Now she hates him because he rejected Rona in favor of Asalaye. All in all, she's quite conflicted about the whole thing.

She's certainly complex. She's growing on me too.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Aspen. Poor kid. Fighting tooth and nail for Rona because no one else will. :(

Lonriad should talk to Lorn -- or get somebody who Lorn will listen to (Raia, Had, Xeta) to talk to him about keeping Rona in the country. (Celina!!) She's not asking for a whole hell of a lot here. Surely Naroni needs more knights, and Lorn could entice a nice one to move out to Naroni. Couldn't be that hard, could it?

Or else, to borrow a trope from Lothere, there's always the option of a cave, 2.5 kids and a dog ...

But something tells me that Aspen is in a hell of a lot of trouble here. Eep! Poor kid!

Van said...

She's certainly not going down without a fight.

Now that you mention it, I wonder what Celina thinks of all this. I doubt she wants to see her daughter shipped off somewhere, but at the same time I don't think she'd want to jeopardize some political plan of Lorn's. Aspen's not the only one conflicted here. But yeah, Rona's not being very demanding.

Funny you mention knights, though ;)

And it would have to be one hell of a nice cave XD

But yeah... I don't think a servant can get out of spitting on a nobleman all that easily. Stay tuned :S

(Although actually... in my original imagining of the post, she was supposed to punch him, but the height difference made posing difficult. So I guess she was saved a little bit of grief by the in-game mechanics?)

Verity said...

Aspen is so cool. But it looks like she's going to get into trouble now :(

Also, I love Lonriad. Love him! But not as much as Florian. When are we going to see good old Flo again?

Van said...

Yeah, I can't imagine she'd get out of this with just a light scolding :(

Florian does have an appearance/POV coming up soon, but he's not exactly the focus of the post. Still, it'll be nice to see him again (even if it is a sad post).

Also, what I'm planning for the December Challenge at SimHaven would work very well with Florian... ;)

Penelope said...

Now I'm worried. As kind as Lorn is, I don't know what he thinks is appropriate in punishing his staff.

I think the spitting actually works a lot better as a gesture than punching in this scene. Punching him would have communicated a sort of aggressive immediacy as opposed to the months long seething that Aspen had been doing. It wasn't reactionary, it was the result of a standing hostility.

Van said...

Yeah, I think Lorn is traditional enough that spitting on a nobleman merits more than a slap on the wrist :S

Now that I've written the scene, I have to agree with you there. It makes more of a statement, or at least more the kind of statement that was needed here.

S.B. said...

If I could live somewhere it rained all the time, I'd be there.

I read a couple of things about following historical stories and making comments when you don't know the history, and I guess I'm in that category. I'm sorry.

That said and one with, I don't think Aspen is looking for someone with integrity. I adore her.

Van said...

Heh. I'm genetically engineered to endure any weather but rain :P

Don't feel bad for not knowing the history. I definitely don't know the history, and I'm the one writing this thing :P

Aspen... well, she knows what she wants and she knows she probably can't get it. So, she's trying to find some middle ground that sort of satisfies everyone, even though it might not satisfy anyone. That probably made no sense :S