Vienna awaits!
Off to Vienna tomorrow - you know, it feels awesome to actually say that, and for it to be such an achievable thing. Whee.
Anyhow. Off to Vienna tomorrow. Boarding pass printed out (let's hope that they don't get unhappy because my printer was running out of coloured ink and it was mostly in black and white), phone account checked, bank account notified I'd be in Vienna, stuff waiting to be packed (my plane isn't till 5pm), bathroom cleaned, final laundry load planned, various items recharging . . .
If I don't post again till I get back, then take care all, and see you in a week's time.
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“My paternal uncles vary somewhat in what they think of me.”
“Your uncle Ao Shun appears comparatively fond of you.”
Strongrock shrugged. “Well, to be honest, I think he appreciated my mother, even though her rank . . . but that’s beside the point. But my lord uncle Ao Ji has never had a great deal of time for me, because of my mother’s rank, and the fact that I am the youngest son of my father and very much unproved in battle or rulership. He’s hardly going to take me into his confidence now. But even so - I feel that something’s wrong.”
“Forgive me, but that is twice that you’ve mentioned your mother’s rank. I don’t wish to pry, but is there some sort of issue with her position?”
Strongrock shifted uncomfortably, and didn’t look Vale in the eye. “Normally when one of the kings - or the queens - contracts for offspring, they do so with each other, or with the high nobility. My mother was neither. She was barely respectable, but on the same sort of level as Mu Dan. To take her as a temporary concubine would have been a little unusual on my father’s part, but within the acceptable bounds. But to contract with her for offspring? Scandalous.”
Vale reflected on how England might react if her monarch were to make such an inappropriate marriage. “The situation has been known among humans as well,” he said dryly.
Anyhow. Off to Vienna tomorrow. Boarding pass printed out (let's hope that they don't get unhappy because my printer was running out of coloured ink and it was mostly in black and white), phone account checked, bank account notified I'd be in Vienna, stuff waiting to be packed (my plane isn't till 5pm), bathroom cleaned, final laundry load planned, various items recharging . . .
If I don't post again till I get back, then take care all, and see you in a week's time.
---
“My paternal uncles vary somewhat in what they think of me.”
“Your uncle Ao Shun appears comparatively fond of you.”
Strongrock shrugged. “Well, to be honest, I think he appreciated my mother, even though her rank . . . but that’s beside the point. But my lord uncle Ao Ji has never had a great deal of time for me, because of my mother’s rank, and the fact that I am the youngest son of my father and very much unproved in battle or rulership. He’s hardly going to take me into his confidence now. But even so - I feel that something’s wrong.”
“Forgive me, but that is twice that you’ve mentioned your mother’s rank. I don’t wish to pry, but is there some sort of issue with her position?”
Strongrock shifted uncomfortably, and didn’t look Vale in the eye. “Normally when one of the kings - or the queens - contracts for offspring, they do so with each other, or with the high nobility. My mother was neither. She was barely respectable, but on the same sort of level as Mu Dan. To take her as a temporary concubine would have been a little unusual on my father’s part, but within the acceptable bounds. But to contract with her for offspring? Scandalous.”
Vale reflected on how England might react if her monarch were to make such an inappropriate marriage. “The situation has been known among humans as well,” he said dryly.