Scully had appreciated that Prince Saetan was willing to meet with her; she she'd brought coffee along, in gratitude. She knocked on the door and waited patiently, gun in the holster at her side concealed by her jacket. She didn't expect any threats from Karla's uncle, but she'd learned a long time ago never to discount anything.
This time is was Saetan who opened the door, giving Scully an urbane bow as he did. "Please come in," he said, stepping aside and gesturing her through the door. My niece says that you might not appreciate our titles of courtesy--would calling you Miss Scully be appropriate, then?"
"I'm comfortable with either, sir. And no, I wouldn't find it inappropriate," Scully said as she walked in, smiling back. Charming, she had to give Karla's uncle that. "I brought coffee, to thank you for your time. And would you prefer I call you Prince Saetan, or Lord Saetan?" She glanced around the suite, automatically noting sight-lines and exits, then calmly looked back at the man as she set the coffee down on one of the tables.
Saetan noticed her caution and approved. She'd been trained well, though it might not be courteous to mention so. "Just Saetan is fine. When we first met, Karla called me a 'blood-sucking corpse,' so you can see, I'm not one to stand on formality where none is needed."
He retook his seat near the fire and waved her into the chair across from him. "The coffee smells delicious. Thank you so much for bringing some. Karla attempted to show me how to use the device that came with the room, but either the coffee was sub-par or we somehow failed to use it properly."
Karla made a face. "You just love trotting out that story," she accused. "Though you never mention the part where I stepped on your toes doing it. And the machine is defective, dammit."
Saetan! Stop making her sound twelve in front of Scully!
Scully sent her a very quietly amused look, and then turned back to Saetan and said, "It might have been the quality of the coffee provided here." However unlikely it was at a hotel like the Arms. "I'm sure it would have been fine otherwise." No matter what her voice hinted.
"I meant to ask, have you visited this Island before?" she added, taking a sip of her own coffee, and studying the man across from her, trying to get a feel for his place in Karla's world. Prince and administrator; prince and politician? Prince and bureaucrat? There were so many flavors of people in positions of power. "And how does it compare to your home?"
"This is my second time here," Saetan asked, reaching for the coffee now that Scully had tasted her own. And probing his with Craft because he also didn't believe in taking chances when simple precautions would suffice. "There was a family weekend in the fall, and Karla's cousin and I attended."
Morton had been able to make the coffee pot work, but Saetan wasn't going to mention that.
"As for how it compares...I'm afraid that's like trying to compare apples to pickleberries," he said. "It's nothing like ours--from the social structure to the standards of behavior, to the very way the world works. It all differs from our own. But all the people I have met are very kind and I have enjoyed the company of Karla's friends. So, in that, there is familiarity."
"I'm glad to hear that. I can only imagine how unsettling this place could be, coming to it from certain angles. I'm finding it enough of an adjustment." Scully had unconsciously slipped into the mode she used when talking to consultants in areas she wasn't familiar with, or visiting academics. "Karla's told me some things about your world. Particularly magic." She gave Karla a sideways glance, and than said cautiously, "Most of her explanations boiled down to 'magic', but she did say that the Jewels your people wear are linked to your abilities to use telekinesis, and teleportation; but then she simply said they 'came from the Darkness'? Has it always been like that?"
"The explanation is a little more complicated than that," Saetan replied, shooting an amused glance at Karla--who studiously ignored him and continued to drink her coffee. "Though it's a fairly large topic and that might be the easiest answer. All life comes from the Darkness, so it's not an incorrect one, either. But it's not as helpful as one might like."
He pulled out his pendant, the Black Jewel glowed with an inner fire. "Scholars have been searching for information about our Jewels for my lifetime and beyond, but haven't been able to find out much about their origins. The only person who is likely to know is Draca, the Keep's seneschal, and she isn't saying."
"I'm hardly surprised by that," Saetan said, his expression amused. "She is Witch, after all. The Darkness speaks to her in a way we can only guess at."
"Anyway," he turned back to Scully. "All of the records we have mention Jewels, and even the fragmented bits that turn to dust in our hands have some reference to them. In the millions of years of our recorded history, the Jewels have been a part."
Scully didn't follow some of the points he was mentioning here, but decided to come back to them a little later. "Interesting. And this is true everywhere in Tereille, and Kaeleer, and Hell?" She shook her head at saying that for a moment, then added, "I think I would understand this better if I knew what the Darkness was... or why your friend Jaenelle and Draca wouldn't give you more information about it. What purpose does that serve?"
"Everywhere," Saetan confirmed. "And across all the Blood races as well, human and kindred. One of Karla's friends is fascinated by the fact that our basic society has remained the same for millennia as well--and that also extends across species lines. Kindred wolves may have a different way of greeting, based on their physiology, but they have the same castes and Protocol as we."
Saetan paused to sip his coffee and gather his thoughts. "Explaining to you what the Darkness is may take awhile. It is both physical and metaphysical; tangible and intangible both. I suppose the easiest way to think of it would be as a kind of power that exists in all things and binds us together. It is the source of all life and Craft in our world. But it has a physical presences, too, existing within and between the Realms. To ride the Winds, for example, involves using the psychic roadways in the Darkness."
Scully's brain had been whirling at the cultural information-- which might have explained some of Karla's attitude toward her own abilities, and lack of questioning of the principles behind it, if it had been stable for so long-- when her mind caught up to Saetan's explanation of the Darkness. And promptly went bzuh?
"It's metaphysical... and it's physical," Scully said slowly. "Umm..." Not a metaphor. "Leaving aside what would be open to subjective interpretation, how does..." What did she want to ask? "I..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and blew out a breath. "Can you measure it?" She dropped her hand from her face, and sighed. "Well, you must be able to, if you can physically interact with it, but." Yeah, she was still flailing here.
"Can you measure the sky? At night, when the sky is everything? At least, in any way that's truly meaningful? We can measure the time it takes to get from one place to another while riding the White Wind or the Opal or the Black, but that means remarkably little. We know where the Winds and the Webs are, but how do you measure the space between the Realms?"
"By the speed of light through the distance within the location," Scully said automatically, then paused. "Wait. You're speaking of the physical place you rule over... that's the place for the dead." Which she hadn't really let herself think about too much. She rubbed her temples again. "Forgive me. Your world sounds as if much of it is-- a melding of what we can't experience here in my world. And things that can be."
Reply
Reply
Reply
He retook his seat near the fire and waved her into the chair across from him. "The coffee smells delicious. Thank you so much for bringing some. Karla attempted to show me how to use the device that came with the room, but either the coffee was sub-par or we somehow failed to use it properly."
Reply
Saetan! Stop making her sound twelve in front of Scully!
Reply
"I meant to ask, have you visited this Island before?" she added, taking a sip of her own coffee, and studying the man across from her, trying to get a feel for his place in Karla's world. Prince and administrator; prince and politician? Prince and bureaucrat? There were so many flavors of people in positions of power. "And how does it compare to your home?"
Reply
Morton had been able to make the coffee pot work, but Saetan wasn't going to mention that.
"As for how it compares...I'm afraid that's like trying to compare apples to pickleberries," he said. "It's nothing like ours--from the social structure to the standards of behavior, to the very way the world works. It all differs from our own. But all the people I have met are very kind and I have enjoyed the company of Karla's friends. So, in that, there is familiarity."
Reply
Reply
He pulled out his pendant, the Black Jewel glowed with an inner fire. "Scholars have been searching for information about our Jewels for my lifetime and beyond, but haven't been able to find out much about their origins. The only person who is likely to know is Draca, the Keep's seneschal, and she isn't saying."
Reply
Karla looked a bit irritated at that.
Reply
"Anyway," he turned back to Scully. "All of the records we have mention Jewels, and even the fragmented bits that turn to dust in our hands have some reference to them. In the millions of years of our recorded history, the Jewels have been a part."
Reply
Reply
Saetan paused to sip his coffee and gather his thoughts. "Explaining to you what the Darkness is may take awhile. It is both physical and metaphysical; tangible and intangible both. I suppose the easiest way to think of it would be as a kind of power that exists in all things and binds us together. It is the source of all life and Craft in our world. But it has a physical presences, too, existing within and between the Realms. To ride the Winds, for example, involves using the psychic roadways in the Darkness."
Reply
"It's metaphysical... and it's physical," Scully said slowly. "Umm..." Not a metaphor. "Leaving aside what would be open to subjective interpretation, how does..." What did she want to ask? "I..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and blew out a breath. "Can you measure it?" She dropped her hand from her face, and sighed. "Well, you must be able to, if you can physically interact with it, but." Yeah, she was still flailing here.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment