My mouth tastes of ginger and mango.
In other news, I think I need
sparks!
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Edit: Since LJ no longer allows us to have comment titles at all, here's what's been done so far. :)
Wild Roses:
Cat's eyes, or something else, in the verge of a darkening forest. - early Trickwood Unification, Geoffrey, Hernén, several wolves
new and interesting ways to give yourself a headache - ( Read more... )
sparks!
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Edit: Since LJ no longer allows us to have comment titles at all, here's what's been done so far. :)
Wild Roses:
Cat's eyes, or something else, in the verge of a darkening forest. - early Trickwood Unification, Geoffrey, Hernén, several wolves
new and interesting ways to give yourself a headache - ( Read more... )
Hours later, after half the camp had departed and he'd found himself stepping into Geoffrey's absent shoes, Usoa tracked him down.
"You promised me a map," she said, and he held up the stick he'd found after breakfast for answer.
They wound up near one of the paddocks since there were people in both her favourite places. If they'd been map drawing he might have seen if they could chase off the others, but for a family tree it wasn't worth it.
The dirt was hard-packed, pressed down by hooves, and he had to press the point of the stick in well to have it leave a mark.
He didn't bother with a timeline-map. Drew a small sunburst for his father, instead, and extended a ray, forked the end as he said "The twins are who's left of the kids before Dad's marriages. There were two others, but they died."
Pierre would have loved this, he thought, which still hurt. He would've, though, would have sent packets of spell designs and supplies as soon as Ulysse had tracked Hernén down. Would have defended the choice to their father's face if Aifiric ever objected, would have used Ian's legends as precedent with the aplomb of personal knowledge.
The stick creaked alarmingly under his fingertips, and Dón swallowed, drew another ray, forked that one much farther back. "Dad's first marriage was to Phoebe--"
"What sort of parent names a daughter after the Sun Queen?" Usoa interrupted, visibly disbelieving, and he tried not to grin.
"The Sun Queen's mother," he replied, and drew a bigger sunburst above the length of the forked ray, added stars to indicate Arianhrod and Fintain, then pulled a long, single ray out just below the level of Fintain's fork. "Ulysse was--"
"What," Usoa said, and he glanced up to find her furious, fists clenched.
"Qu'est-ce--" he started, and flinched when she moved. He'd been spending too much time around Ruadhan.
"Did you just say that your father married the Sun Queen--that he's the KING?"
He couldn't help blinking. "Yes?"
They held a stare for a while, then, clipping the words off through her teeth, "Who are you, then?"
"Donel Sabaey," he answered, "the Queen Brighid's elder."
She blinked. He glanced down, roughly sketched in the rest of the necessary lines, aped a tiny ship for Ulysse's position, curved Nicolai's ray so that he rested properly between More's and Etienne's stars, made Hernén's and Geoffrey's nearly parallel.
Pointing with the stick, "Ulysse you've met, next is me and my brother Ruadhan--he's the layabout. Then our sister M--Hilaire" he corrected himself, tapping his sister's star, "Nicolai, Etienne, then Hernén and Geoffrey."
A thump made him look back up, to find that Usoa's legs had folded underneath her and she'd dropped to the ground.
" . . Are you all right?" he asked, dropping down to one knee to bring himself nearer her level, and she blinked at him. Raised one hand, dropped it, opened her mouth, closed it again.
He waited. It seemed polite.
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Eventually, she managed "You know the Sun Queen."
"Not personally," he had to admit, and decided to keep his suspicion about who'd had a hand in training Hernén to himself.
She flapped a slightly dismissive hand. "You know her children, anyway--it's just . . She's a legend. Like Ian, like the mage with a red braid or the Bone Witch. You don't expect legends to come up your rivers."
She rubbed her hand over her mouth, frowning, then swallowed, pointed at the spiraled-sunburst map. "Name me mothers."
"I don't know, Phoebe--" he tapped the big sunburst, "I don't know, Brighid, Joceline, I don't know, Joceline again, I don't know but everyone's pretty sure she was a Sandoval, and I don't know."
"That's a lot of 'I don't knows'," she remarked, and he lifted one shoulder, dropped it again.
"I've never heard of anyone getting a straight answer out of Ulysse, no-one saw Nicolai's mother bringing him to Dad--all for the best, Joceline might have tried to kill her--and Dad and Joceline were fighting when Hernén and Geoffrey were young. I can't imagine her letting their mothers get away unscathed if she'd known who they were."
He really couldn't. Joceline had had a temper and hadn't been much concerned about who was in the line of fire.
When he checked, Usoa was frowning at the ground. He couldn't tell if it was at the map or if the map was just middle distance. "I've heard the name Joceline before," she muttered, rubbed at her chin again, tapped her nails against her belt, then nodded to herself. Looked up. "She's why Hernén knows horses, yes?"
He nodded, and she grinned.
"So why are you here?" she asked, sobering, and he grinned.
"Ulysse said Hernén could use a hand, and I had nothing better to do."
She blinked. "And that's that?"
"That's the shortest version," he rose, held out his empty hand, which she accepted, and he was careful to be gentle as he pulled her to her feet. "You'd have to ask Hernén why he's here, but I'm here because my little brother's fighting monsters, and that's easier if you're not alone."
"Hmn," she said, eying the map thoughtfully. " . . . did your father really cheat on the Sun Queen and live to tell the tale?"
"We're forced to assume yes." Talking was hard when he was trying not to laugh. "I think everyone's still surprised by that, Dad included."
"I would be," she muttered, then took a decisive step forward, danced across the map, deliberately scuffing her feet so that the lines blurred.
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He waited. It seemed polite.
<3 !
This is just so awesome. I love that she scuffs the lines at the end, and that she is so disdainful of someone naming a child after the Sun Queen and how Donel answered that question. XD So awesome.
Thank you. This is everything I had hoped for and wanted.
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(Usoa is stomping around and cursing; I think she would currently attend a Support Staff of Crazy Magebloods meeting.)
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And takes it all in. And scuffs the map so no-one else will see it?
:D Exactly.
I think she may go and beard Hernén as soon as she can and ask what policy should be, re: his connections. Do they let it get out? Do they ignore it?
(Considering that most of the barons don't seem to know what they're dealing with, I'm going to assume that it doesn't get bandied about everywhere just who's out there.)
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