October 22, 2012

In Which Celina Admits to the Fault

March 17, 1180

"So... standing around in the rain is preferable to a visit with your ex-wife and your sister?"

Celina had meant it as a joke, but Searle just crossed his arms and continued to stare oceanward without so much of a twitch of his head to acknowledge her. She could admit to herself that it had been foolish to expect much more. She'd never been one for telling jokes, and he'd never been one for hearing them.

"Fine. Ignore me."

From what she could see, her brother was intent on doing just that--at least, until a minute or so breezed by and she hadn't so much as rustled to hint at her exit.

"Why are you here, Celina?"

His back remained to her, so she indulged herself with a smirk. "Out here with you right this second, or here in Carvallon?" Searle shrugged. Helpfulness had never been his strong suit. "Just looking out for your best interests. I'm the only sister you have left, you know; Mother made me promise I'd keep an eye on all my idiot brothers.

"That and the whole thing is sort of my fault."

Her brother sniffled. The weather in part, no doubt, but he rarely came closer to laughter. "You mentioned my whereabouts to Danthia. It's hardly your fault if Tivie happened to overhear."

"I meant for her to overhear." At last, he turned to look at her. Meddlesome as he seemed to think her--meddlesome as she was, though she wasn't about to say it aloud--she wasn't sure why it came as a surprise. Surely the odds of Tivie having been in the next room and Celina having been aware of this weren't exactly mind-blowing? "I told you I'd take care of it, didn't I?"

"Yes, because sending a sixteen-year-old girl off alone on a cross-continental journey is the solution to all of life's problems, isn't it?"

"If you doubt her capabilities, then clearly you haven't taken any chance to get to know her." She shook out her rain-weighted hair despite the fact that it wasn't going to get any dryer. Her husband would have scolded her for leaving the house without her hat, but she would have only shrugged him off like she always did. "Besides, what are Neilor and Landus? Her saddlebags?"

He grunted. Maybe Celina hadn't be the only one to catch that quick brush of hands before Neilor had gone to wake his brother. At least Searle had managed the tact to refrain from comment. "Well, I suppose there's no point worrying now. We all know she's safe."

"That we do." If only to annoy him, she flashed him the widest little sister smile she could manage. She didn't think she'd tried so hard since she'd told Tarien she wanted a pony. "Now, what do you say we head back inside? I can't be the only one who's damn sick of all this rain."

NEXT CHAPTER:

6 comments:

Van said...

And now back to your regularly-scheduled Naronis. Ish.

As you can see, this is not the only Searle to get a new outfit! Both were cases of my liking the old outfits but not feeling that they fit the characters. Cranky Searle has a new outfit too, but I don't know when we'll see him again.

Also, if you have an account at the Keep and have a hankering to create some CC in the near future, you should definitely sign up for this event that I'm running. Seriously, we need more people XD

Penelope said...

hehehe I really like Celina from the few times we've seen her. And hey, I'll check out the CC event! Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute.

Yay, maybe Searle will be inspired to make an attempt with Tivie.

Oh hey, Sunny Searle looks... *blinks back disbelief* happy...

Penelope said...

Okay, so at first I was like, "Yay! Whole month of November! I can do eet!" and then I realized, "Wait, I'm going to be out of town for at least a week for Thanksgiving, and I need my free time for dbl catch-up. D'oh!" :\

Van said...

She is fairly interesting, especially given the rest of her family and how she turned out ;)

They'll probably hang around for at least a couple more days, since I can't imagine either Danthia or Celina is keen on hitting the road immediately, regardless of how Danthia feels about Searle. So who knows? Maybe Searle will make more of an effort there :)

As for the other Searle, I guess we'll see...

No worries if you can't do the event; I do want me some DBLs :D

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I'm not sure how much credit Celina ought to take for Tivie running away -- sure, Celina gave her the tools, and she might have had a hunch about what Tivie would do with them, but Tivie did the job.

Of course, if I hear that Auntie Celina gave her a fast horse and just enough money to get her to Carvallon on that same trip, then I may start to change my tune. ;)

Still, I like Celina with her little sister grin! I can't believe she told her brother she wanted a pony. Did it work out for her? ;)

Van said...

Haha, fair enough... unless maybe Aunt Celina sent a little more money than usual for Tivie's last birthday? ;)

I'm not sure if she got the pony in the end, but if she had to ask her brother, then it's safe to assume that the parents, at least, said no XD