The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Glenn » Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:12 am

He let her start to go, and then, with a wiry burst of strength, of which he had very little left, he lunched forward, as only one trained by Ariane Emory could, wielding his staff like a rapier, and sending the iron tip not towards her spine or head but instead towards her left hip, right below the buttox, a broad area that would be hard to block and would cause a great deal of discomfort (he imagined) if it struck true.

"No," regardless of its success, he would add. "We had a deal. Three parts of my story to three parts of yours. I barely think you've given me one, but at best, you've given me two and not three, and your kind has to live up to their deals. I demand a third part of your story and this with some substance to it."
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Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Dulcie » Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:15 am

She heard him coming, still in better shape than he was, whirling back around to block that walking stick with her own, glaring at him. He was right, they did have a deal and it was indeed something she had to honor.

"I've told two parts. You asked for a stupid story the second time and that's precisely what I gave you. What do you want to hear this time? Choose carefully, the substance can only be what I have to offer, I can't invent something that isn't or wasn't."
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Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Glenn » Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:20 am

She blocked him again and it was a sure sign of why he couldn't just end her here and now. If he was at his best and she had been starved for a month it would have been one thing. He was an expert swordsman, clever and canny. Right now he couldn't even blindside her with a cheap shot upon her rump. It was frustrating, but it also meant delaying her was all the more important.

"Obviously, duckling, I don't have the slightest idea what to ask. What do I know about the great lives of the... what, the sidhe? The faefolk? The Old Ones? Whatever you call yourself. For both of our sakes, why don't you pick a story about yourself that is the very most interesting and has the most substance to it. I think that's within our deal, that I may give you the choice. You know your life better than anyone after all." He was trying to hide it but was still huffing and puffing a bit from his failed exertion.
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Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Dulcie » Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:46 am

"Fine. And then after this I'm done with you."

She decided on a story easily enough and sat down on a tree stump, a long enough tale to necessitate such a thing.

"If you weren't so weak already I'd be able to give you a glamour for the effect of it, but I'm not about to waste my power on entertaining what's left of you."

She took a deep breath and began to tell her story.

"Many years ago I lived in a desert land. I was attracted to the place, full of myths and tales about the ancient ones who had lived in the harsh climate in the far distant past. It was a good place for collecting stories, perhaps a little like here. Full of it's own rich cast of characters to watch and mimic."

She began to sink into the story then, her magic taking hold and if Glenn was open to it he'd begin to see in his mind the picture of this desert city and a palace that shone at the end of it.

"In this town there was a King. He had been betrayed by his lady wife and had sentenced her to death, and each night after that he would claim another virgin bride from the town and have her killed the next morning before she had a chance to injure his heart as his first wife had once done.

After months of this the town was beginning to run short of young women, and I found myself rather intrigued by the story itself and in the midst of the folly of youth, wanting to test my talents in the most dangerous of manners. I elected a glamour of a young desert woman, the daughter of a poor merchant, and I volunteered to be the King's bride."

He would see then, the beautiful image of her wedding day, the dark skinned beauty that looked nothing like Grawnya's true self adorned with gold jewelry and red silks as she held the hands of the much older King.

"That night before the King was ready to retire I told him the story of a pauper who found a lamp, which granted him three wishes, and though the King begged me to tell him the end of the story, I refused, telling him I would only finish it the next night. The King agreed to let me live another day, and so the next night I finished the story and began another, and so this continued from one day to the next. A thousand and one nights my stories continued, until the King passed from old age, believing that he his life had ended with a loving and devoted wife.

It'd be impossible to deny of course that I enjoyed my time with the King, I rather did. It wasn't as you said a matter of love, but one of convenience. I had an audience and he had a young bride who would never betray him and who kept him entertained night after night. The people already had such open minds to magic and myth, they never thought to question the things that happened in their world, never thought to ask the King if stories had been told to match their events. Of course, the King was quite distracted in those years anyhow. I was quite disappointed when he died, I had so many more stories I could have told.

I had hoped perhaps, that Gloria might have been like my King. We could have lived quite happily together you know, had she not looked so hard to see the truth of the matter. That's the problem with some people, they don't know how to enjoy what they have."
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Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Glenn » Sun Sep 01, 2013 2:05 am

At least it was a story, a real story, and he'd heard variants over the years, one or two. There might have even been one in one of those books he had so treasured as a boy. The glamour had passed over him slightly, despite her words, yet at the end, the look on his face was wry. "Am I going to wake up tomorrow wanting to marry you since my wife betrayed me? I obviously have higher standards. It might be the end of you." He didn't seem too worried about being affected by the spell though. For one thing, she might well kill him in his sleep anyway, or worse. Did he need to be awake for her to tell a story to him?

"As for Gloria, you are, once again, a complete and utter moron. Your king may have been distracted and taken in, but Gloria Wynsee came from a land where she was oppressed, where she knew hardship. She is not some royal fop, born and raised in opulence. She is not some fae lording above human and seeing them fondly as one might the cattle led to the slaughter. She cares about people even if you are incapable. She has a sense of justice even if you can barely wrap your head around so human an ideal. She would never stand for the consequences of what you suggest, and if you don't realize that about her; it you can't recognize her inherent goodness and compassion, no matter how errant it may be, then you did not know her at all."
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Re: The Weeks After the Ball: Golben

Postby Dulcie » Sat Sep 07, 2013 5:33 am

There would be no magic to call into the present beyond what emotions Glenn might feel about the story. It was a truth, not a tale and thereby there was nothing to bring into this world. He had asked her to tell about herself, not a story that might have helped them.

"I wouldn't marry you even if you asked, I don't care how many stories you'd let me tell. I'm not surprised that your wife threw you into a pit." She shrugged and took up her walking stick. "What exactly do you intend to do about that anyhow? Revenge? Legal justice? Perhaps you'll just forgive her?" She was intrigued by that notion. One could assume what she would do.

She looked at him when he began on Gloria and just shook her head. "I don't think of her look that. She's not ignorant surely. But we could have enjoyed years together. Perhaps she could have helped guide my stories in a manner that was more acceptable for your kind. There's no knowing what might have been. I do hope she finds a happy life, she's a fascinating child."
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