In a way, he had dreaded his return to Verdimond. Yes, the country was beautiful, but he remembered (and remembered very well) the treatment he'd gotten last time. The last Ambassador assigned had been a Lord's younger son and had grown much more used to people simply giving way to his suggestions. His failure had become very known.
Kithaniel, however, had been successful. Or at least partially successful. Successful enough that, though she had expressed her regret, Her Exalted Highness had found it necessary to send him once more to Verdimond to renew many of the agreements that had been entered into and had been neglected in the tenure of Allenis Lithren.
His carriage had passed into the capital city from a direction other than the one he had come the first time, and the countryside had been a pleasant distraction from the reality of knowing he would, once more, be excluded in all but name from the proceedings he would need to preside over.
What he hadn't expected was the word that Aria, the young man who had been so jealously guarded upon his last visit, had been stripped of rank. He heard murmurings of why, but none would tell him the full truth of it - though what he did hear was enough to start his temper at a simmer that he knew may well grow to a boil.
Though he and His Grace had not agreed on many issues, what Kithaniel had seen was that Aria had a sweet nature. The things they said of him were patently impossible to be deliberate. And though he knew that this would irreparably tarnish his reputation (he had to remind himself that, while Temperance was a virtue, so was Justice), he needed to find Aria, to speak to him and learn the truth of the matter -- and if the need arose, to send word to his Exalted Empress to request political asylum in Vendesey for the young man, and perhaps call an end to all treaties between the two nations for reasons of inhumane activity.
As such, he had hired a fine carriage for the evening and asked what direction he could (though it was sparse and vague) to find where His Grace Aria had ended up. That was how he came to be riding down the street, peering through the carriage windows to try to spot the likely establishment. A bodyguard rode on the box, hired in case he would have to enter into unpleasant neighborhoods, and Kithaniel hoped his services wouldn't be necessary.
His stomach turned as he realised that he may have to solicit His Grace for the night just for the chance to speak with him - but some unpleasantness would have to be faced. Perhaps one night of peace could do him good. And if nothing else, Kithaniel could give him that.
It was the sight of a familiar head of hair, the image dragged from memory, that had him tap his cane on the carriage ceiling, signalling the driver to stop. Reluctant as he was, he opened the door and stepped down onto the street, knowing, then, that he had been correct. "Your Grace?"
Aria started at the voice, scrambling to his feet immediately and preparing to hurry inside. Then he saw the man who had spoken, the clothes he was wearing, and a memory of a foreign stranger came to mind. He paused and regarded the man warily, squinting to make out his features in the half light from the street lamps.
"... Lord Ambassador...?"
In an odd way he hoped that he was mistaken - he had found the Ambassador to be a nice and respectable gentleman and the thought of him seeing Aria in such a state, having fallen so far from such a high position and having been robbed of his pride, it was enough for the poisonous shame inside him to begin to burn once more.
Aria looked very different to the last time he had met the Ambassador, he had lost weight and was now unhealthily skinny, his eyes were shadowed in dark circles. He was wearing a pair of small shorts, barely covering any of his thighs, and the low cut sleeveless shirt he wore had been ripped carefully by the designer to show off glimpses of pale flesh. There was a crude brand marking 'W' on the inside of his right wrist, and another of a curled 'S' on his left shoulder, neither scar had yet settled completely.
His condition sickened Kithaniel and, for his own sensibility, he couldn't bear to look directly at him. He hoped that the downturn of his eyes could be perceived as respectful instead of pitying. "Yes," he answered. "I arrived this morn and couldn't believe what I was told of your absence. While many are content to speak of you in whispers, none of their words have the ring of truth."
The sheer amount of bare skin made Kithaniel wish that he had brought a longer coat or, at the very least, a blanket to wrap him in - but he had neither. As a person of extreme privacy, it disturbed him that someone should be deprived of it.
"Is it possible that I could speak with you? If I so need, I could--" He had to swallow. "Pay."
His mother would be ashamed of him. It was possible his Empress would be as well. But this hearkened back to so many of the virtues. Courtesy, Generosity, Justice, Kindness, Responsibility. All that was good and decent in him begged to see this wrong put right. Even at the cost of his personal reputation and the fact that it would imperil diplomatic relations.
Aria couldn't look at him, his cheeks were flushed with embarassment, the shame causing him to want nothing more than to run away somewhere dark and sob until he died. But he had to swallow such desires and instead stood still. "You may speak with me if you truly wish, sir, but my master does not allow anyone inside without paying a fee." he swallowed, "You shouldn't be here, sir, it is not the kind of establishment for a gentleman of your standing to be witnessed to have frequented."
"I'm aware of that," he answered, and oh how aware he was. Already, he was aware of just how many rumours would have been started by his appearance in the area, let alone his stopping before this structure. His social consciousness was screaming, but the blinding light of the Virtues kept him precisely where he stood. "But these are circumstances I cannot ignore, Your Grace. I will pay," he hesitated at the word 'pay', "if I must. For your company for the full night, though at the house I have acquired for my own stay here."
It was that - taking him away from this building - that he knew would ask a higher sum. But once more, he reminded himself: Justice, Kindness, Responsibility. This was necessary.
Aria had not left the brothel since his arrival, the prospect of doing so filled him with hope. He longed to spend some moments somewhere clean, quiet and peaceful. However, he didn't quite understand why the Ambassador would be willing to do that, to pay for his hire for a night, it made him begin to doubt whether th Ambassador was quite as respectable as first impressions had suggested. He was, after all, unmarried - perhaps he remained so to seek wilder pleasures in dens of lust such as this. Aria made no sign of these thoughts or doubt and just nodded. "That will be arranged immediately, you need only ask the man inside, sir." Aria bowed respectfully to the man who was now far above him in standing, "Please follow me."
Aria led Kithaniel inside the brothel, the smell was putrid and the sounds of lustful moans and grunts echoed throughout the building from the rooms upstairs. The occassional whore walked past, most with clients. The workers were all beautiful young men and women, but they seemed broken, exhausted and sickly looking. Aria showed Kithaniel to a room where a man in fine dress sat at a table counting money. "Excuse me, sir..?" Aria approached the man timidly, his voice quiet and anxious." "What?" the man snapped at his whore immediately. "This gentleman wishes I spend the night at his home." The man eyed Kithaniel, saw immediately that he was no commoner, and agreed straight away. He named a steep price and then went back to couting his money once it was handed over.
Aria knew he should have felt pleased leaving the brothel that night, the break would be welcome, but he couldn't help the anxiety in his chest either, nor could he explain it.
He paid the price - steep but expectedly so - in gold and with a silent apology to his family for using the gold in such a manner. But with the fee paid, as he had once before at the ball, he offered Aria his arm. No matter the circumstance, Aria was still His Grace to Kithaniel. This particular social more was one he couldn't understand.
Escorting him to his carriage, he opened the door for Aria to climb inside. He had now been seen in this neighborhood, soliciting a brothel, and departing with a hire for the night. His reputation would never be the same.
He climbed in and sat across from the fallen Bride, eyes scanning the carriage's interior. There still was no hint of a blanket. He would simply have to weather this challenge.
Aria was painfully aware of his lack of clothing and as he sat in the carriage he crossed one leg over the other and folded his arms across his chest in a vain attempt to cover himself up.
He was silent for a while as the carriage started to move, but eventually he had to speak. "What was it you wished to speak to me about? What did you wish to know?"
That answer, at least, was instant and almost instinctively asked. "What happened? What could possibly have happened to have you cast aside this way? I know how your husband reacted to me - but please tell me it wasn't my presence."
If it was, how could he live with himself? But he knew that was not likely the case. Self-disparaging, however, remained a tactic of diplomats. If the fault could be cast upon him, all the better for a lack of disharmony within the country's nobility.
"The things I have heard... They couldn't be possible."
"No, sir, it had nothing to do with you, never fear. It occurred some time after you left the city," Aria assured him immediately. He seemed to become very interest in the carriage floor and his next words were very quiet, "... I would not be so quick to assume what is possible. What is it that you heard? Please tell me, I will not take offense."
"I've heard that, in some manner, you shamed your lord husband. That the offense was unforgivable and you were summarily cast down. But I remember well how affectionate and solicitous he was of you. I cannot believe that you would have acted in any way against him."
Out of character was putting it lightly. Aria had been so enamoured of his husband that they let propriety go to the winds even in public. It had made him uncomfortable then and it made him uncomfortable now - for many more reasons.
"What you have heard is truth," Aria confessed, "But acting against him and shaming him in such a manner was not intentional - if I could change what happened I would do so in a heartbeat. I still love his Highness with every inch of me, I'd give my last breath for one more day with him."
Aria knew that the Ambassador would want to know what offense he had committed, so he decided to save him further questioning. "I was convicted of adultery." As he said it his hand went self-consciously to the 'W' branded onto his wrist.
The gesture brought his gaze to that wrist -- and a wrist was safe enough for him to focus on. A scar. But a scar from what? He frowned, brows drawn, as he tried to puzzle what the W could stand for, and if it had been incised or burned in place.
"I cannot believe that, Your Grace. I saw how you cared for him. Adultery is not in your character."
"Not 'you Grace', just 'Aria' now," the blonde murmured, needing a moment to find a way to phrase what happened to him so it didn't hurt him all over again.
".... The act of adultery was not one I consented to... I was forced into committing the crime."
He could only hope that Kithaniel would understand his meaning.
He did understand, and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes. "And you were blamed for this? For something you had no choice in?"
He knew in that moment that this would be the deathknell for diplomacy between Vendesey and Verdimond. The Empress was very staunch in her opinions of those who forced themselves on others, male or female. To hear that one could be punished and cast down for such things here - that would be the end of it.
"I should have fought harder to prevent it, if I were meant to escape this fate I would have, Rased makes no mistakes. I must have done something to be deserving of such treatment," Aria murmured, but his word were hollow, they sounded scripted.
He was merely relaying what his husband had said when Aria had fallen to his knees and begged him not to exile him from the palace.
Kithaniel, however, had been successful. Or at least partially successful. Successful enough that, though she had expressed her regret, Her Exalted Highness had found it necessary to send him once more to Verdimond to renew many of the agreements that had been entered into and had been neglected in the tenure of Allenis Lithren.
His carriage had passed into the capital city from a direction other than the one he had come the first time, and the countryside had been a pleasant distraction from the reality of knowing he would, once more, be excluded in all but name from the proceedings he would need to preside over.
What he hadn't expected was the word that Aria, the young man who had been so jealously guarded upon his last visit, had been stripped of rank. He heard murmurings of why, but none would tell him the full truth of it - though what he did hear was enough to start his temper at a simmer that he knew may well grow to a boil.
Though he and His Grace had not agreed on many issues, what Kithaniel had seen was that Aria had a sweet nature. The things they said of him were patently impossible to be deliberate. And though he knew that this would irreparably tarnish his reputation (he had to remind himself that, while Temperance was a virtue, so was Justice), he needed to find Aria, to speak to him and learn the truth of the matter -- and if the need arose, to send word to his Exalted Empress to request political asylum in Vendesey for the young man, and perhaps call an end to all treaties between the two nations for reasons of inhumane activity.
As such, he had hired a fine carriage for the evening and asked what direction he could (though it was sparse and vague) to find where His Grace Aria had ended up. That was how he came to be riding down the street, peering through the carriage windows to try to spot the likely establishment. A bodyguard rode on the box, hired in case he would have to enter into unpleasant neighborhoods, and Kithaniel hoped his services wouldn't be necessary.
His stomach turned as he realised that he may have to solicit His Grace for the night just for the chance to speak with him - but some unpleasantness would have to be faced. Perhaps one night of peace could do him good. And if nothing else, Kithaniel could give him that.
It was the sight of a familiar head of hair, the image dragged from memory, that had him tap his cane on the carriage ceiling, signalling the driver to stop. Reluctant as he was, he opened the door and stepped down onto the street, knowing, then, that he had been correct. "Your Grace?"
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He paused and regarded the man warily, squinting to make out his features in the half light from the street lamps.
"... Lord Ambassador...?"
In an odd way he hoped that he was mistaken - he had found the Ambassador to be a nice and respectable gentleman and the thought of him seeing Aria in such a state, having fallen so far from such a high position and having been robbed of his pride, it was enough for the poisonous shame inside him to begin to burn once more.
Aria looked very different to the last time he had met the Ambassador, he had lost weight and was now unhealthily skinny, his eyes were shadowed in dark circles. He was wearing a pair of small shorts, barely covering any of his thighs, and the low cut sleeveless shirt he wore had been ripped carefully by the designer to show off glimpses of pale flesh. There was a crude brand marking 'W' on the inside of his right wrist, and another of a curled 'S' on his left shoulder, neither scar had yet settled completely.
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The sheer amount of bare skin made Kithaniel wish that he had brought a longer coat or, at the very least, a blanket to wrap him in - but he had neither. As a person of extreme privacy, it disturbed him that someone should be deprived of it.
"Is it possible that I could speak with you? If I so need, I could--" He had to swallow. "Pay."
His mother would be ashamed of him. It was possible his Empress would be as well. But this hearkened back to so many of the virtues. Courtesy, Generosity, Justice, Kindness, Responsibility. All that was good and decent in him begged to see this wrong put right. Even at the cost of his personal reputation and the fact that it would imperil diplomatic relations.
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"You may speak with me if you truly wish, sir, but my master does not allow anyone inside without paying a fee." he swallowed, "You shouldn't be here, sir, it is not the kind of establishment for a gentleman of your standing to be witnessed to have frequented."
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It was that - taking him away from this building - that he knew would ask a higher sum. But once more, he reminded himself: Justice, Kindness, Responsibility. This was necessary.
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However, he didn't quite understand why the Ambassador would be willing to do that, to pay for his hire for a night, it made him begin to doubt whether th Ambassador was quite as respectable as first impressions had suggested. He was, after all, unmarried - perhaps he remained so to seek wilder pleasures in dens of lust such as this. Aria made no sign of these thoughts or doubt and just nodded.
"That will be arranged immediately, you need only ask the man inside, sir."
Aria bowed respectfully to the man who was now far above him in standing, "Please follow me."
Aria led Kithaniel inside the brothel, the smell was putrid and the sounds of lustful moans and grunts echoed throughout the building from the rooms upstairs. The occassional whore walked past, most with clients. The workers were all beautiful young men and women, but they seemed broken, exhausted and sickly looking.
Aria showed Kithaniel to a room where a man in fine dress sat at a table counting money.
"Excuse me, sir..?" Aria approached the man timidly, his voice quiet and anxious."
"What?" the man snapped at his whore immediately.
"This gentleman wishes I spend the night at his home."
The man eyed Kithaniel, saw immediately that he was no commoner, and agreed straight away. He named a steep price and then went back to couting his money once it was handed over.
Aria knew he should have felt pleased leaving the brothel that night, the break would be welcome, but he couldn't help the anxiety in his chest either, nor could he explain it.
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Escorting him to his carriage, he opened the door for Aria to climb inside. He had now been seen in this neighborhood, soliciting a brothel, and departing with a hire for the night. His reputation would never be the same.
He climbed in and sat across from the fallen Bride, eyes scanning the carriage's interior. There still was no hint of a blanket. He would simply have to weather this challenge.
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He was silent for a while as the carriage started to move, but eventually he had to speak.
"What was it you wished to speak to me about? What did you wish to know?"
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If it was, how could he live with himself? But he knew that was not likely the case. Self-disparaging, however, remained a tactic of diplomats. If the fault could be cast upon him, all the better for a lack of disharmony within the country's nobility.
"The things I have heard... They couldn't be possible."
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Out of character was putting it lightly. Aria had been so enamoured of his husband that they let propriety go to the winds even in public. It had made him uncomfortable then and it made him uncomfortable now - for many more reasons.
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Aria knew that the Ambassador would want to know what offense he had committed, so he decided to save him further questioning. "I was convicted of adultery." As he said it his hand went self-consciously to the 'W' branded onto his wrist.
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"I cannot believe that, Your Grace. I saw how you cared for him. Adultery is not in your character."
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".... The act of adultery was not one I consented to... I was forced into committing the crime."
He could only hope that Kithaniel would understand his meaning.
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He knew in that moment that this would be the deathknell for diplomacy between Vendesey and Verdimond. The Empress was very staunch in her opinions of those who forced themselves on others, male or female. To hear that one could be punished and cast down for such things here - that would be the end of it.
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He was merely relaying what his husband had said when Aria had fallen to his knees and begged him not to exile him from the palace.
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