Re: PBEM Game: Yarnspinners 2
Vanheim turn 24, for your amusement...
In which Vethru visits a neighbor, and Pherios is disturbed by art.
Vethru
Neither of us feels the cold, of course. She grew up with it. I've got no circulation to stop. Nevertheless, a little warmth in winter is pleasant. I use my magic to heat up the mulled wine I've packed. She reaches one white hand out from under the sable furs that cover our knees to take the mug. "Thank you," she murmurs.
"My pleasure," I say, and I transfer my own cup to my left hand so I can return my right arm to its place around her shoulders. We settle back into the loveseat I had installed in the longboat.
It's a beautiful night for a moonlight cruise. The wind is low, the air is crisp, and the ice hasn't formed on the waters of the gorge yet. Everything is frozen and still. It's very romantic. She knows that's not the only reason we're out here, but she doesn't mind. I like that.
"So what have you brought me to see?" she asks.
"The stars, the moon, the waves...the landscape," I say.
"Landscape? These rocks? Why, whatever for?" Her voice is alilt. She's teasing me. She's probably figured it out herself already. I like that, too. I like smart women.
I direct the dead men rowing our boat to bring her about to the southeast. I hand my lady a spyglass and press close to help her aim it to a point on the shore. "Do you see the light at the top of that tall, thin shadow? That is the wizard's tower at Iron Range. We are just off the border of that province and Imictan."
"How curious," she replies. "Now, why would you bring a girl here?"
"For the spectacle, of course." I give a sharp whistle, and Quellian Ji flies up.
"Hey, boss, Lady, how's it going? You folks having a nice night?"
"Yes," I say. "And I think we're ready for the main event. Give the signal. Tell them to make it loud and flashy."
He's gone in an instant. "A show?" she says. "For me?"
I get the boat turned to the north, then I snuggle in next to her. I find a warm place to put my hands.
About five minutes later, we see two large firestorms erupt a few hundred yards away, still a half-mile offshore. They are accompanied by a great deal of shouting and screaming, and the sounding of two ships' bells and horns.
"Oh, my!" she says, with patent insincerity. "I hope no one is hurt."
"Not likely," I say. We watch the fire for a few minutes, then I order us home, before any would-be rescuers arrive.
The dead make a very good oarsmen; their technique is impeccable, hardly a ripple in the water. As a bonus, they hear nothing, and they tell no tales. After a bit of pleasant time-passing, she asks me, "Will take me to that tower, after you invade?"
"My dear, whatever makes you think I want to do that?"
I'm sure she already knows the answer, but it's a fun game to play. She likes to show me how clever she is in picking up the clues and fitting them together. And I like to hear it. As I said, I like smart women.
"All of Paistellus heard your teeth gnashing when Pythium retook Imictan. Now that you can't save them from the troglodytes, I'm sure those burning ships will give you some kind of excuse. The question is, why?"
"It is, indeed," I whisper in her ear.
"Oh! Um, well, you found something in Cimri that brought you to Birman Heights. And there, you found something that made you very happy for a week, at which time you became somewhat disappointed," she says. "Mmm...that's very distracting."
"It's meant to be," I tell her, and I keep it up.
"Ahh...so obviously, you're still searching for whatever it is you're searching for, and you're going to check every place between the two places you had any success finding it. Am I right?"
I tell the dead to stopped rowing. "Exactly, my dear," I say. "What I found under the earth was...an inspired distortion, but one that could only have been created by someone who saw the real thing. It's close. It's got to be nearby."
"What is is?" she asks, excitedly, breathlessly.
"Later," I say, not at all sure that I will tell her later. "You've solved tonight's puzzle. Would you like to collect your prize?"
I make sure she doesn't get in another word.
Pherios
Petema knocked at the door to her library, where I was working. "Am I interrupting?" she asked.
I had been sealing the packets of reports I had been working on. They were not very informative; all I could see for months ahead was turmoil. True war was about to begin. I hoped that my uncle would find something of use in what I had seen.
"No. I was just going to call for a messenger to take this to the castle."
"I'll take it. I'm headed there later."
"You're not my personal courier," I reminded her. "But thanks."
Petema had been very good to me in the last six months. She gave me a room, let me use her library as my office, and never lectured me about why I should talk to Vethru again, or why I should go back to the castle. She just left me alone and let me live, something my parents had a hard time doing.
"Cousin, you have a visitor. I had her wait downstairs until you were through. It's the new seer."
She waited for my reaction. I didn't blame her. When Vethru sent word that another seer had been found, I didn't take it very well. I wasn't ready. I didn't want anything to do with him, after he refused to answer my questions about Galameteia. But I had started working again, and Petema finally convinced me that it would be in the best interests of Vanheim to a least talk to her.
The human girl sat quietly in a chair in the parlor with her hands folded in her lap. She was small, as all young human women are, and plain, even for her race. She stood up when I walked in but didn't say anything until Petema introduced her.
"Pherios, this is Molleteira of Vanheim."
She curtsied deeply, never meeting my eyes. "Thank you for receiving me, Lord Pherios." After that, nothing. She fidgeted, glancing around the room. She looked toward Petema as if seeking permission for something.
Petema said, "Sit down, Molly. Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, please. If it's not too much trouble."
Petema called for her maid, and after the woman left again, glared at me.
I didn't know quite how to start. "How old are you?"
"Seventeen, my lord."
"Are you full grown? I forget how it is with your people."
Before the girl had a chance to answer, Petema said smoothly, "What Pherios meant is, since you are young, you must find it disturbing to see these visions."
Molly looked uncertainly from me to Petema and back. "Your pardon, sir...ma'am. They aren't visions, not exactly."
Another pause. "Why don't you tell us about it?" said Petema.
"I hear voices," she said. "And sounds. It's like I'm listening in on the future." She seemed reluctant to say any more.
The tea arrived, with some small sweetcakes. I filled my mouth so I wouldn't have to talk.
"How do you make sense of it?" asked Petema. "You must hear things in different languages."
"Yes, Lady, a little. I don't pay attention to that much. But the rest...I understand the words, but I don't understand what they're talking about. Or who's talking. But over time, I started to recognize voices. And pieces started to add up." She had been talking mainly to Petema, but she turned toward me a little. "Lord Pherios, your voice is a lot like your uncle's," she said tentatively.
"You've talked to him?" I asked.
"No, sir."
More silence.
Petema stared at me.
"So have you heard anything recently?" I asked.
"Today I visited the castle. I saw the Valkyries practicing. They were throwing their spears at the statue of an angel. It was screaming. In my mind. I don't know why." She started to sniffle. Her voice became soft. "I hear a lot of shouting and screaming. I hear battle noises. Swords hitting armor. Swords hitting people. It scares me."
For the first time, she looked directly at me. "Is it true? Are we going to war? Have you seen it? Are we all going to die?"
In that moment, I hated Vethru more than ever. There was no cause to bring this poor girl here. "You're not a warrior. What do you do? Are you a farmer?"
"No, my lord. My father is a tailor. I sew dresses."
She sews dresses? What was she doing here?
"This is folly," I told her. "Go home. Ignore the voices if you can. If you can't, climb a high hill and shout what you've heard to the wind. Let everything pass through your mind. Don't keep it. Let it go. You'll be happier."
Petema frowned at me. Molly looked confused. "My lord? Vethru said Vanheim needed me. That I could help."
"You need to help yourself. Don't you see, it will consume you. You may think you've heard horrors, but you haven't even started. What will you do when you hear a woman begging for her baby's life, and the soldiers who laugh at her? When you hear a man burning to death? When you hear the whisper of an evil thing as it pulls itself from the grave?"
Molly shrank into her chair. Tears started to run down her cheeks.
"And that's not the worst of it. Someday you'll hear the voice of someone you love, dying. But you won't know where, or when. What then?"
She was crying loudly now.
"It hurts!" I told her. "You see everything, and you don't know what's true, or what to do. And usually there's nothing you can do. All you can do is watch it happen."
"Pherios, that's enough!" said Petema. "You're upsetting her. Stop it."
"You don't understand. It's like falling into a pit. She can still walk away."
"Can you walk away, cousin? Can you ignore it? I doubt she can. Help her. Help her like you helped Galameteia."
Suddenly, the air froze. Petema opened her mouth to speak, but said nothing. Molly stopped weeping and tilted her head. I saw two birds outside the window--a tiny wren watching a gull with a length of string in its beak. The string had a loop tied in one end.
The moment broke. Molly was staring at me. She burst into fresh tears and fled the room. Petema went after her.
I wondered what she had heard. My voice? My screams? Her own? Molly's face had held that same expression I'd seen too many times on Galameteia's. She'd just been touched by doom. My warnings were too late. Fate marked her, just like it had marked me. And Galameteia.
Petema returned. "That was inexcusable! What is wrong with you? Whatever your problem is with Vethru, you should not take it out on that innocent creature."
"I..."
"I'm not done! We serve, Pherios, never forget it. What you just did is a disgrace to this family. She needed help, and you turned your back. That is not what Alteion does. That is not what you should have done."
"I know. I'm sorry," I said. "It's just so hard..."
"It doesn't matter, cousin. You're better than that. You failed. Are you going to fix it?"
"You're right," I said. "Will you tell her I'm sorry? And ask her to come back again tomorrow?"
"No," she said. "I won't."
"Will you come with me? If I go talk to her?"
After a moment, "No." Her tone said, and you should know better than to ask.
I closed my eyes. "Where is she staying?"
"At the Green Leopard. On Rock Road," she said. "Don't be afraid. You can do it. You've got a good heart. Just remember, she is who she is. She's not Galameteia. She's probably never seen a Van before this week. She's just a scared young woman."
"I'll see her tonight. I promise, I'll be kind."
"You'll go tomorrow. We're having dinner at the mansion tonight."
"Do I have to? Is my mother in town?" My family's concern could be stifling. Intrusive. Uncomfortable, however well-intentioned.
"Everyone is."
"Sennei, too?"
"The whole family. Mirima is back from Man for a week, receiving instructions from Vethru. Belletennares is here with the army. All of Alteion will be under one roof." She didn't say, for what might be the last time. Belletennares would be marching to war again soon.
"I don't know..." I said. Too much potential history in one room. Too much risk of seeing something. Someone. "I don't like going to big dinners anymore."
"It's OK. They know. No poultry. No quills on the desks. No feathers in their hats."
"All right." I wanted to go. I hadn't seen my uncle in nearly a year. But I didn't want the future ambushing me when I was with them.
And then it happened. Damn. I didn't even have to be in the same room as them. In my mind's eye, a flock of birds flew in the wind--gulls, pheasants, herons. Again, as always, recently, a storm arose. I hoped, I prayed...let none of them fall to the earth. Let them all soar.
* * *
A few days later, I visited Galameteia's studio. I'd been paying the rent so her paintings had a place to stay. I hadn't been there for a couple months, but now I needed to feel her influence. If she were still with me, she'd know how to talk to Molly.
I lit a lantern and paced along the wall where Galameteia's visions hung. Where she had seen the future, I only saw her.
"I'm trying," I mumbled. "It's hard. We're too different. Our beautiful city scares her. She doesn't know the first thing about the military. She doesn't know any geography, or much history. She's a country mouse. If only you were here...she'd talk to you."
I stopped by the purple chaos Galameteia said was my doom. "I just didn't want her to end up like you. Or like me, without you."
I went to the end of the room where the big window was. Wait--something had changed. I froze. Only I had the key. Who could be coming in here? And...painting?
I held lantern high to illuminate the partially completed canvas. I had never seen it before. It showed an angry green landscape, with a dark horseman slashed in black in front of the trees.
I began to shudder. I knew the brushstroke. It was hers...almost. Cruder. Angrier. And left undone in frustration.
"No," I said. "Not yet. I'm not ready." I backed out, locked the door. I hadn't protected myself yet. I needed to solidify my memories of Galameteia, set them in stone so firmly that nothing could dislodge them. I wanted to freeze them so they could not be tainted by the tragedy I knew was still destined to occur.
I walked home, head down. Nonetheless, I saw a shadow of something blink across the moon. Whether I was ready or not, no matter how much I dreaded it, the time was coming. I would see her again soon.
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