February 5, 1179
Zareth lived a dull enough existence. Captain of the Guard was a not-unimpressive title for those out of the know, but in times of peace his work was largely organizational--training exercises, scheduling shifts, checking up on the men to make sure they weren't slacking off. When he wasn't working, he slept. He ate. Every once in a while, he went into town and treated himself to a few drinks at the tavern, or maybe to a pretty little thing in the hut by the docks if he could spare some coin. There was nothing in his day-to-day life that couldn't be put off for an hour or two.
His sister knew that. "You're always so prompt when I summon you."Zareth grunted. Available or not, it boded well for him to be prompt; patience was not Devidra's strong suit, and expressing that fact was. "And?"
"Talkative as ever, aren't you?" Devidra leaned back against the arm of her throne and sized him up like a lioness taking stock of some wounded antelope. He wondered what he'd done to lose his herd, then recalled that he'd never had one to begin with. "But no matter. Remind me--how old are you again, brother?"
As if she'd really forgotten. He was hardly significant, but she never forgot a thing. "Twenty-six."
His sister frowned. "Mmm... closer to twenty-seven, am I right? The seventeenth of April, I believe?"
"So you know my age and birthday. You win the sister tournament." She smirked. He failed to see what was so funny. "What do you want, Devi?""Well..." She was playing with him. She had to be playing with him, or she would have been more to the point. "...I'm sure you'll agree that twenty-seven is more than old enough for a knighthood?"
Yes--definitely playing with him. "If that was a serious offer, you'd have made it ten years ago."
"Zareth, believe me, I have nothing to gain from stringing you along. I've kept you where you are because you're damn good at it, but I think you could be more useful to me in a more lucrative position.""So it's still all about you, then?"
"Never mind what it's all about. It will be more than worth your while." Her legs crossed and her arms followed in turn, one brow bent in a frustrated peak. "I'll give you that old castle by the Sea Watch--that one you used to like when you were a boy. I'll start you off with two of my best cooks and three of my best chambermaids and the most competent of all the stewards I've fired in the past decade. And you can take that little blond girl to wife if you like; it's not as if she's of much use as a lady's maid."
That was probably because she wasn't a lady's maid. "Princess Ramona's?""Yes, that one. Can't do her job worth two shits, but she's pretty enough. You could do much worse."
And for once, Devidra didn't know just how much worse she was talking about. "I can't imagine that would work."
NEXT CHAPTER:
9 comments:
The kid brother has a birthday, so I'll probably be late getting all the extras updated.
Happy birthday to Van's kid brother!
And oooh boy. So Devidra is willing to really put her foot in it. Somehow I'm not surprised that she kept Zareth in his job for all that time if he was really good at it -- she does seem like a ruthlessly practical soul in that way. She probably needs to be. But I wonder, why is she promoting Zareth now? What does she stand to gain from it?
And why is Zareth keeping Mona's secret? What does HE stand to gain from that?!?
At some point, I'm going to have to stop calling him "kid" XD
Considering how quickly Devidra goes through stewards, it's not surprising that when she finds a good Captain of the Guard, she wants to hold onto him (and it probably helps that he's her brother). As for why she suddenly decided it was time to promote him... well, we'll see ;)
Zareth's reasons will come out eventually too, although they may prove a little less practical than Devidra's ;)
Ahaha yeah happy birthday to your bro! (I have one too actually)
Hmmm, this kinda made me laugh but then think, what are they going to say when they find out Zareth knew the truth and didn't say anything? And wasn't Mona's plan to have an adventure, rather than just being boring and getting married? I don't see much difference between who she marries I mean, maybe Zareth will have the freedom to show her a side of the world that the king couldn't..
Really? Happy (early?/late?) birthday! Hope it's a good one :)
As for when the truth gets out... well, stay tuned. Knowing Devidra, she'll almost definitely be furious (with Zareth as well as everyone else) unless she can see some way to use it to her advantage.
I don't think Mona wants to get married immediately, although she'd probably find marrying a knight less objectionable than marrying a king. In any case, it seems Zareth isn't all that receptive to the idea at this point anyway.
Waaiiiitttt-- This guy is nobility, why does his sister want him to marry some maid? I think something is afoot here.
Alas, there is some back story here. It'll probably come up later, but some of it can be deduced from the profiles, so I feel okay about spilling some of the beans.
Zareth and Devidra are actually half-siblings. Zareth is their father's bastard (sired after Devidra's mother had died--his own mother died when he was quite young). Their father was a nobleman of decent rank, but he was pretty heavily in debt and couldn't really provide much for more kids than his heir, so he sent Zareth along with Devidra when she got married.
So Zareth is only kind of pseudo-nobility. He's what Severin would have been if Lonriad hadn't brought him up like a noble. He could probably do better than a maid, but he could also do worse, especially since Carvallon is less accepting of bastards than Naroni and Dovia are.
Ah ha, gotcha! This would also explain why he is only captain of the guard.
Ye-ep. If he was Devidra's full brother, he would have been a knight for a decade now.
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