SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer
It was the last day in Kaeleer, and Dinah wanted just one thing: honey-pears. Since the little tree in Karla's room didn't grow many (and Karla was kind of bad at sharing the ones that did), Dinah knew this was could be her last chance to have any for a long time.
Beale
"A bowl of honey-pears, Miss Dinah," Beale said, setting down a serving bowl full of the fist-sized fruit. His face retained it's usual stoic impassiveness--there were guests and the SaDaiblo honor would be maintained at all costs--but there was humor in his eyes. "La--Miss Karla asked me to remind you that she will laugh if you eat yourself ill."
Dinah
"Thank you, Mr. Beale," Dinah said, doing a little sitting chair-dance of glee. "And if you see Miss Karla before I do, tell her I would never be so silly... and I can eat an awful lot before I get ill." She gave him a beaming smile of delight, and picked up one of the fruits, taking a bite and sighing happily. "Mmmmmm!" Even better in reality than in Karla's memories. She sighed, and picked up the bowl to hug to herself. "Incredible and delicious and yum."
Beale
Yeah, that chair dance wasn't doing much for his stoicism there. "Just Beale, please, Miss Dinah," he said. "Mr. Beale sounds..." he glanced around to make sure no one else had entered the dining room before flashing her a brief smile and finishing with "...silly. Though, of course, Mrs. Beale simply sounds respectable and rather imposing."
They were in one of the smaller dining rooms near the kitchen. And Beale was no fool.
"Is there anything else I can get you, Miss Dinah?" Beale asked, standing next to her chair. "Or would you prefer I leave you to your honey-pears?"
Dinah
"Maybe a glass of water? Eating is thirsty work." Dinah grinned at him. "And..." Alfred had drilled manners into her when dealing with someone who was technically working for you, but not really. You should at least offer to help, even if you'd get in the way. "I'll help wash up later, if you want? Especially if there's pickleberries around. I blame Karla. I want to try one, and see if they really taste like that."
Beale
Beale went to the sideboard and picked up the large silver pitcher. "I thank you for your offer, Miss Dinah, but that won't be necessary. Helene would have my head if she thought I was putting a guest to work." Calling in a crystal wineglass, he filled it three-quarters of the way and brought it back to Dinah. As he bent over slightly to place the glass precisely twenty degrees to the right of the bowl he added in an undertone, "We do our best to limit the contact that the Lady, Miss Karla, and their friends have with the kitchen. It's better for all of us, that way."
Dinah
"We found that out the hard way," Dinah said, keeping her voice equally low, and a little glum. "Especially when she's with Merlin. There were explosions." She took a sip from the glass, and sighed as she took another bite of honey-pear perfection, smooth and sweet and golden. "Thank you, Beale. This is awesome. I'm good for now."
Beale
Beale allowed himself another brief lip-twitch at the image of Karla blowing up a kitchen that didn't belong to the Hall, and another at the unfamiliar word. "Please, should you need anything, ring the bell." A small, silver bell appeared on the table next to Dinah's left hand. "That will summon a footman at once who will be most pleased to supply you with whatever you wish." With those parting words, he bowed to Dinah and left the dining room, pulling the large white doors closed behind him.
Dinah
Dinah settled in for a happy quarter-hour of looking out the window at the view-- gorgeous forest and lawns, and the sky turning colors-- and working her way through one honey-pear, and then starting her second. Could she eat four? Five? Who knew? Trying would be fun, though. Did they have honey-pear pie? Ooooo....
Lucivar
Lucivar was on the hunt. His Eyrien war-blade wasn't out, but he resigned himself to the idea that he might need to resort to it in order to get the quarry he was relentlessly stalking. Pulling an Ebon-Gray sight-shield over himself, he slipped through the wood of the door and entered the dining room. He sniffed, quietly, filling his nostrils with his prey's elusive scent. At the table in front of him was a female with long blonde hair--but not the blonde that he had been worried about.
Excellent.
Jaenelle must not know his quarry had a presence in the Hall. He'd never even caught so much as a scent if she had. He vanished his war-blade and let go of the shield at the same time and sauntered over to the table to grab a honey-pear.
Dinah
"Hey!" Dinah swatted at the hand reaching for her honey-pears before she even looked up, and picked up the bowl to hug it again. Looking up, she managed to restrain a gulp, then frowned. Karla had said manners and Protocol were important, and here Big Winged Hot Guy was blowing off both. "Get your own!"
Lucivar
What was it about blonde females and denying him honey-pears?! Darkness take it all, this one wasn't even a proper witch and here she was, baring her teeth at him like Karla's goddamn twin. "Don't you think there are more in there than a tiny thing like you can eat?" Lucivar rumbled. "Share."
It was...almost a request? Except for the part where it wasn't, of course. He reached out for another.
Dinah
"I am not tiny!" Roy was the only one that got to call her anything like that! Dinah was outraged, and stood up to prove her point. Still holding onto the bowl. And, okay, maybe a good seven inches shorter than him. "And it's 'please, share', or you can, I repeat, get your own. Beale got these for me." She took a bite out of the one in her hand. "I can't get them at home, and I loooooove them."
Lucivar
And Lucivar made sure to make good use of that full seven inches as he glared down at her. "Neither can I!" he protested. "Jaenelle always hogs them here. How did you convince Beale to just give you some?" he asked, sounding more suspicious than curious. "And this is my house. I don't have to ask. Not when there are plenty to go round. Or there would be if certain tiny girls weren't keeping them all to themselves."
Dinah
"I said please, that's how I got them." Dinah glared back up at him, neck heating up with embarrassment. "And I told Beale how much I loved them when Karla let me remember her eating them. I'm sure he's got some more he'd give you. Look, the kitchen's right over there." Crunch, mmmm, yum yum, no, none for Mr. Hotness, not if he kept glaring like that.
Okay, if he said 'please', maybe she'd hand one over. One. Her honey-pears! Beale promised!
Lucivar
Lucivar just looked at Dinah as if she were crazy. "I'm not going in there," he said, darting glances between Dinah and the wall closest to the kitchen. "Do you know who invades Mrs. Beale's territory? Fools and dead men. I'm not part of the first group and have desire to become part of the second, either!" Hell's fire, even dead men knew to avoid Mrs. Beale's kitchen. His father and brother only went in there with express permission.
NO ONE messed with Mrs. Beale. The stories got around. "Besides, if they're in there, it means that she's claimed them for dinner. Do you want to go in there and tell her she's got to give up an ingredient for dinner?" Lucivar pretended to consider that option. "Actually, you should. Leave the bowl here."
Dinah
"Mine," Dinah said stubbornly. "And where do you think I got them? I went into the kitchen to ask for a snack, and Mr. Beale-- Beale said Karla had already talked to him, and then I had a bowl of honey-pears." Crunch! Yes, she would continue to eat that in front of him until he said please. "And Mrs. Beale is nice. She said there was plenty!" Ha! Take that, Tall Bossy Person who is not Arthur and thus does not get cut any slack.
Lucivar
Lucivar just stared at the girl, dumbstruck. Perhaps she did have some kind of crazy power--Karla had mentioned that some of her friends had magic, even though it wasn't Craft by Blood standards. Perhaps this female was able to magically gain control of people's minds and get them to act in unnatural ways and do things for her. Was she using those powers on him right now? Was she thinking about it?
No. This line of thought was insane. On the other hand, could he really just go into the kitchen and get honey-pears from Mrs. Beale?
Right. So, this girl had creepy mind-powers she used to manipulate people...
In order to prove to himself that Karla's friend didn't actually have anything like that (or, at least, they weren't currently working on him), Lucivar attempted to steal a honey-pear.
"Ow!" he said, drawing back his hand. "You bit me!"
Dinah
Dinah wasn't sure if she'd been trying to prove he didn't intimidate her, or momentarily wondering if he was going to grab for her, but it was like she was five again. Instinct had taken over and now the big guy had bite-marks. Whoops. Nice one, Lance. Way to act like a good guest there.
Except for how she wasn't sorry. Pushy, bossy, arrogant, greedy ... git! "You didn't say please! Would it actually physically kill you?"
Lucivar
There was more of that incredulous staring. "You bit me," he explained, as if Dinah didn't realize that's what she'd done. "You. Bit. Me." Was this some kind of new spell Jaenelle was messing with? A shadow that acted like her, but looked like someone else? Lucivar was torn between shock and amusement. If she had even the slightest hint of Craft, he'd assume she was a new member of the coven.
"You bit me," he said again. "If you want to act like a four year old, fine. I'll treat you like one. You've got two choices: either share, or I'll turn you over my knee and spank you till you learn better."
He wasn't entirely sure if this was about the principle of the thing now, or if he just wanted to hear how she'd respond.
Dinah
This was starting to be funny. Although maybe she'd broken him? He was beginning to repeat himself. "You keep saying that." Dinah blinked at the Big Guy and finished off her honey-pear, then said, "I'll bite you again if you don't say please before you try to grab one, dude. Karla told me about Protocol. I told you the terms! You were the guy ignoring them!"
Her eyes narrowed and she growled, "And nobody gets to do that, bud. Not if they don't want to lose a hand." Dinah's voice was rising. "Say please." Some part of her mind was going, magic-user, way bigger, way older, fighter but the rest of her was too mad to care and was gonna make him work for it. "Jerk."
Lucivar
Lucivar howled and pressed his hands to his head, covering his ears. "STOP TRYING TO SHATTER MY EARDRUMS," he roared.
Dinah
"YOU TRIEDTO TAKE MY HONEY PEARS! AND SAID YOU'D SPANK ME! AND I CAN GET LOUDER!" Dinah yelled. "WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!" Yeah, when she started trying, maybe then he'd shut up.
Lucivar
"I TRIED TO GET YOU TO SHARE, YOU SHRILL LITTLE HARPY!"
Dinah
"YOU SAID "SHARE!" NOT EVEN WITH A PLEASE!""
Lucivar
"STOP YELLING OR I'LL DUNK YOU IN A FOUNTAIN TO SHUT YOU UP!"
Dinah
"I LIKE FOUNTAINS AND I'LL TAKE THE HONEY PEARS WITH ME!"
Saetan
SILENCE!
Lucivar
The windows rattled in their frames and Lucivar winced. Still, he took a careful step back, away from Dinah and looked to the man who'd entered, unheard, behind them. "Father," he said, tone neutral. Then he glanced back at Dinah and mouthed, 'Your fault.'
Dinah
Ooooops. Dinah turned to their host, Karla's nice scary uncle, and bit her lip. And wisely stayed silent.
She took one last bite of honey-pear. We who are about to die, salute you...! And then glared at Lucivar. 'So not!' she silently yelled back at him.
Saetan
The High Lord looked very stern, even as he attempted to appear fairly unruffled--save for the slight twitching around one eye. "We have guests, may I remind you both," he snapped. "And while I am thrilled with this display of sibling-like behavior--" Saetan stopped abruptly and blinked at Dinah. "I see. You're one of Karla's friends. I just assumed from the hair and the pears and the yelling...Never mind." He shook his head. "Regardless, I suggest you children work off your excess energy somewhere else."
Dinah
"Can I hit him with sticks?" Look, Dinah had to have the rules straight here. They were such sticklers about that. If she was going to get in trouble for dealing with Lucivar the way she wanted to, she'd like to know up front. "A lot?"
Saetan
Saetan gave Dinah a sardonic smile. "Please do. Repeatedly. About the head." He shot his youngest son a dark glare. Lucivar didn't shift like a schoolboy, but certainly gave the impression of wanting to do so. "Normally, he knows how to behave for guests."
Lucivar
"If she's going to try to hit me with sticks, I get to hit her back," Lucivar muttered.
Saetan
"The two of you can settle that between yourselves," Saetan declared. "Outside."
Dinah
Dinah reluctantly put the bowl of honey-pears down, snagging two. Then, just to be a pain, she threw one toward Lucivar. "Sorry we were loud, Mr. Saetan. We'll be outside if anyone's looking for us." She tossed her hair over her shoulder in a show of bravada that she didn't quite feel as she turned for the door, and called back, "C'mon, big guy. Time to put your money where your mouth is!"
Lucivar
Lucivar followed her outside, snickering quietly at his father's expression as they left. "Mr. Saetan?" he asked. "That's priceless. As a tip: if you want to be polite, his proper title is Prince." Lucivar bit into his honey-pear, pausing a moment to savor it. "Thanks, by the way. I wasn't kidding about never being able to get one of these."
Dinah
Dinah looked chagrined at having forgotten that. "Prince. Prince. Right. I just don't meet princes. Except Arthur. And Leto." Dinah's tone indicated that that didn't count, not really. She looked bemused as she watched Lucivar eat the fruit, and said, "Oh, now you have manners. Ha." But most of her outrage had drained away in the matching rudeness and scolding, and she sat down to finish hers, squinting into the sunlight. "I meant it about the sticks. If you're up for it. I brought some, they're in my room."
Lucivar
"Well, I'm a prick," Lucivar said loftily. "Or so I am told frequently and with great vigor." He finished off his honey-pear with apparent relish and made shooing motions towards Dinah. "Go get your sticks," he said. "I'll see how well you do with them. If I'm going to hit you with sticks I should know your name. I'm Lucivar. Prince Lucivar," he added with a disarming grin.
Dinah
Dinah snorted. "Excuses. You only get away with this crap 'cause you're cute, dude.... Dinah. Laurel. Lance. Not a princess, don't wanna be." She got to her feet, and pointed at him. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!" She jogged into the mansion to retrieve her eskrima sticks, and took a second to tie her hair back and change into work-out clothes.
She came back, twirling one, with her extra set under her arm. "Eskrima. Here's some for you, if you don't have your own weapon."
Lucivar
"Princess?" Lucivar asked as Dinah came back. "Prince is a caste, not a title, little wit--one." He rumbled a small laugh. "Hasn't Karla explained that to you?"
He glanced down at the eskrima sticks Dinah offered out and shook his head. "I always have a weapon," he said, calling in an unbladed Eyrien stick. It was one stick to her two, but it was much longer. Lucivar slid into a ready stance and motioned to her. "Let's see you work those sticks," he said, grinning. "Hope you don't get poked in the belly and lose all those honey-pears."
Dinah
Dinah rolled her eyes. "Over and over, and yadda. Queen, warlord, warlord prince, healer, black widow, la la la... I'm not a queen, so I'm not any of your things, and you don't have princesses, but you should," she concluded. "Something where you don't have to be in charge, but can still do stuff. But I'd rather be me and none of those, anyway." Dinah shrugged, then grinned wickedly. "Arthur already trained me on this. Let's hope you don't get poked somewhere worse."
And she usually did pretty well at it too. She fell into a practice stance and watched him, arms-legs-wings but shoulders and hips too, careful, look for how he was going to move... but the eyes were the giveaway, don't forget that....
Lucivar
On the one hand, Lucivar had over a millennia of practice wielding the sticks. On the other, he did spend the last few years working in the salt mines and was less than six months away from injuries that really should have killed him. It was a testament to Jaenelle's skills as a Healer that he was here at all, never mind sparring with something approximating his old speed and skill. "Don't want to be any of our castes?" he asked, stepping forward to test her defenses a bit. "That's an interesting position. Most landens would leap at the chance to be Blood." One end of his stick feinted towards her belly.
Dinah
"You think." Dinah dodged the feint. "Maybe they want power. Not part of your rules. And I have power. I don't need to be part of your system to get it." Whap! Dinah aimed for his wrist, in a move that really pissed off Arthur when it worked, and made him laugh when he hit her in the knees when it didn't, but fast enough to swerve away this time, at least. She spun one stick in her hand, and started to grin.
Battle!
Lucivar
Lucivar dodged backwards as her stick came for his wrist and then lunged forward again. One thing she might have been forgetting when she dodged away from him--his reach was probably longer than Arthur's, both by length of arms and of stick. So depending on where she stopped, there still may have been a stick aiming for those very same knees that Arthur liked to abuse. "Can't have the power without the rules," Lucivar said, his jocular tone all but gone now. "I've lived my life in a Territory where the Blood have twisted Protocol to suit themselves and their whims. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe. If Karla is giving you the impression that Protocol is just a bunch of stuffy rules made up by pedants--" he shifted, bringing his stick high and then whirling it down towards her hands, "then she's doing you both a severe disservice."
And would be something he'd be mentioning to his father.
Dinah
"Ow!" Yeah, Arthur would not be pleased. Time to speed up. Uno, dos, siete, doce, and Dinah started running the drill of blows, one flowing into the other. "No. I know they're there to protect you guys. All of you. From yourselves. From each other. Maybe protect the guys without Blood." Up, low, getting blocked a lot, and then Dinah twisted the stick to strike out at a reverse angle, fast as a thought when she saw an opening. "Power is dangerous, sure. But your downsides? All the ways you're at risk? Not the kind of thing they'd want. But the non-Blood aren't weak, you know?" And to illustrate, she gritted her teeth, trying to trap his staff between her two sticks.
Lucivar
"When the Blood follow the old ways and honor the Darkness, then everyone is better off," he said, taking her hit on his hip. It would bruise and it stung, but it was a lot better that taking the hit where it was originally going to land. "Everyone is protected and cared for, from the landens to the kindred to the darkest-Jeweled witch in the Realm. And landens are at just as much risk from each other than from us. Or is your world happy and at peace?" he asked. He glanced down at where his staff was caught between her sticks and smiled. "They may not be weak," he granted, "but they are do not have the same strengths we possess."
And then with barely an eyeblink of Craft, he sliced his stave into two pieces, bringing his left hand up to hit her shoulder while his right hand went low to strike her side.
Dinah
"Maybe they'd like to take care of themselves?" Look, Dinah didn't know anyone without power here. So trying to speak for them-- problematic at best. But who the heck wants to be lumped in as someone to be 'cared for', like an invalid or little kid? "Or care for you guys back, the ones trying to keep things together? Equal partners?"
And jeez, cheater. Ow ow ow, two blows at once that landed, but she'd had as bad from Arthur when sword fighting. And if he was going to bring Craft into it, she could use whatever she had. Which included pushing hard on his sticks in his hands, and aiming his *and* hers at his stomach, all four at once.
Lucivar
That was a move Lucivar hadn't been expecting. "So there's a bit of witch in you after all!" he laughed, though the laugh quickly turned into a wheeze as the sticks landed in his belly. Even tensing his considerable stomach muscles, there was a lot of force behind that push. "So then, how do you come to speak for the landens, hmm?" he asked, yanking his sticks away from her control. The Ebon-Gray Jewel around his neck glowed a little brighter as he began readjusting his strategy a bit. He picked up his speed a bit and added a bit more strength to his blows. She was making him work a bit more and he felt that comfortable ache in his muscles. "What do you know of them?"
Dinah
"I'll speak for anyone who's not being asked how things should go around them," Dinah said. "And I know how Karla talks about them. Or used to," she corrected herself. She had to stop talking for a while, blows going faster and faster and oh, this was going to hurt tomorrow. Good hurt, though. "Like they don't have opinions, because they don't have power. Like they don't understand your politics, because they can't participate." She took a breath. "Am I wrong there?" Whap whap whap and oh, ow, that one on her shoulder, that was gonna bruise.
Lucivar
"Wait," Lucivar said, taking a blow to the arm in order to score that hit to her shoulder. "So you're taking it upon yourself to talk for people you don't know? Planning on redefining their place in society without taking a moment to know who they are or how they feel? What's the difference between you and me then, save that I've actually stopped to talk to landens?"
And had been mostly frustrated by them, but details.
"They can't understand our politics," he growled. Discussing politics while fighting was definitely taking its toll on his concentration, as Dinah's next blow scored on him as well. "What it means to be Blood, to have Craft, to be bound by Protocol isn't something you can understand unless you are. No matter how Karla explains things to you, there will always be a fundamental gulf between what she's saying and what you understand. Because you don't know, witchy powers aside. And neither do they."
Dinah
"Bullshit. They're being affected by those powers, it's your job to explain it 'til they get it enough to know how to protect themselves. Or help you. They could, you know. There's more of them than there are of you Blood guys." Dinah winced at another blow, hopping away, circling now, just out of arm's reach. "And I'm not claiming to be their ambassador or champion. But I don't like how they're treated. Don't tell me I should shut up about it just because this isn't my world. Do you see me trying to get them to revolt? Even though maybe they should." She circled the other way. "They're second-class. They're defenseless against power, and if their Queen sucks in the way she treats them, they're screwed. She could make all her witches and warlord princes happy, and what could they do? The Blood can duel, they can strike back, but people without power are stuck. They don't get a say in the Queen's Circle. Or the Queen's Household. No one asks them. And how much is a landen kid's life worth, in this system you've got going?" Another blow aimed at his elbow, suddenly. "Twenty gold pieces? Thirty?"
Lucivar
"If you want to complain about the way they're being treated, you should go to Terreille. Maybe that will show you what real suffering is," Lucivar snarled, trying to keep his temper in check. But it was hard. He had over a millennium and a half of suffering under his belt that made explaining to a little ignorant girl the facts of life. "Do you know what happens when landens revolt? They die, little girl. By the thousands. Because Warlord Princes like me step out onto the killing fields and then they DIE. They explode and are shattered and boil away from the inside. You and your ideals know nothing."
Dinah
So why doesn't someone stand up for them? Dinah wanted to ask immediately, but gritted her teeth and concentrated, letting loose with the sticks, then kicking as hard as she could when she saw an opening, at the back of his knee. "So that's it? They should just all die? Awesome. Maybe they should just kill themselves and get it over with. Right? No point in fighting you guys. No point in hoping someone will speak for them. Why not just drink the Kool-Aid and give up now?" Another blow headed for his nose, and it wasn't so much that Dinah had lost her temper as put it off to the sidelines. "Good thing they're not asking your opinion, hunh."
Lucivar
"Don't twist my words around," Lucivar growled, tilting his head to take the blow to his jaw instead. "In Kaeleer, at least, their lives aren't spent like water, at the whim of anyone who walks by. And where that isn't the case, the Blood in those areas don't fare any better. No, they don't get a say in who their Queen is. But do you know what they do get? Protection. Care. Land. Yes, they suffer under bad Queens. But so does everyone. Either way, it isn't your place" attack "your people" attack "or your problem. So maybe you should talk to some of the people who you're trying to defend in ignorance."
Dinah
"I'd defend anyone--ow! Who needed it! And asked for it. And a say in who rules you is basic. I'll talk to anyone you want, but they deserve that, Blood or not. Whether they ask for it or not." Dinah thrust an elbow backwards toward his chest. "Did they tell you they want to be Blood? Is that how you know them so well?"
Lucivar
"I've known landens in my time. Fought against them, with them, and for them," Lucivar told her, rubbing his jaw with the back of one hand. "You make it sound like I don't believe they have a right to survive or something. They're people--they're just not Blood." And for Lucivar, that was the end of it. "The Blood were created to be the caretakers of the land and its people. As long as we hold true to that trust, the landens are satisfied."
Dinah
Which, okay, Lucivar was not the bad guy here, Dinah reminded herself. He'd just proven that. Just... dense.
"I disagree. And maybe that's because I don't get to say that I have powers, and represent my people in public back home," Dinah said, realizing that that was part of what was bugging her. She stopped, bending over to catch her breath, and hide her face a second. She took a breath, and straightened. "It isn't safe. So I can't imagine being satisfied with being voiceless in this world."
Lucivar
'From what Karla says, your world is vastly different than this one," Lucivar said, circling around and looking for an opening. "What you can't imagine as possible is fact here. And, from what she says, much of what you take for granted is mind-boggling and chaotic. Our worlds are not the same, our people are not the same. Though I'll grant you--" he darted in and swung "--I doubt human nature differs all that much, regardless."
Dinah
"Human nature to want to control your own life, Prince guy. You can get that, can't you?" Maybe those lessons with Ghanima were finally taking effect, because Dinah managed to twist enough to take the blow across her ribs, not center, and then continue, teeth gritted, to aim her stick for his jaw. "I'd still never want to be Blood. Three words: Moontime." Which, the depth of her disgruntlement there was probably obvious. "And virgin night. I bet money..." Ow ow, ow. Another kick, this one toward his groin, betting he'd move. "... there are girls here who wouldn't be Blood if you gave them power over the universe. Not with that price to pay."
Lucivar
"And I'm willing to bet you're wrong," Lucivar said, pivoting to take the kick on the thigh. "Have you ever asked Karla if she'd trade? Bet I know the answer to that. And she knows the downsides, much more intimately than you ever could." The pivot brought his shoulder into position to try to ram her with it. "Perhaps the landens would like some kind of political say. From the little things Karla has said, she's thinking about giving it to them. How much do you honestly think that's going to fix? It's not just Blood or landen as the dividing line. I was raised a half-breed slave. You think I had any say in what bitch-Queen I served? This is real life, not a class at a fancy school. Nothing is as uncomplicated as you'd like to think."
Dinah
"I didn't say the Blood would want to become non-Blood. I know Karla wouldn't give it up. Why would they want to be the 'lesser'? The ones without power. When all that matters here is what jewel you wear? Or what caste you're in? Not how smart you are. Or how determined. I said I bet the non-Blood are just fine with being what and who they are. And not wearing a jewel, not being Blood, doesn't mean they don't deserve their own say--"
She got the breath knocked out of her with that ramming, and slammed a fist into his knee on her way down, then rolled and rolled until she was clear enough to stagger to her feet. "I'm not talking about stuff from classrooms. You don't know me either. And I never said it was uncomplicated." She panted for breath, holding her side, almost spent. Not giving up yet. Not, quite, yet....
Lucivar
Okay, that punch to the knee? Hurt like Hell. He'd been expecting Dinah to just topple over, not to try to take him down with her. "I may not know much, but I know you've got brass," he said approvingly, even as he limped back a few steps as well. In a moment or two, he's be fine, but right now--damn.
"Those aren't the only things that matter," Lucivar corrected, though he had to admit they counted for most of it, yes. "I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, I'm just saying it's a lot more complicated than it seems to you. You're--what? Eighteen? Nineteen? I'm over seventeen hundred years old. This is my Realm, these are my people. Give me some credit for knowing a little about what I'm talking about, too. I'm not blind."
Dinah
Dinah looked up with a small glare, and muttered, "Eighteen in three weeks." She straightened, and took another breath. Maybe one more engagement in her before something went snap and she had to go look for someone to heal her up. "I just--" Another breath, and she cracked her neck, and set her feet. "Think. And yeah, it's just thinking. Not knowing." She gave him a penetrating look, and tightened her fingers on her eskrima. "But by your logic, you can't speak for them any more than I can."
Lucivar
"A little better than you, I think, in that I have met landens," Lucivar corrected. He opened his wings with a snap--hoping the unexpected noise would off-balance her a bit--and rushed. "But your points aren't entirely invalid." Just wrong. "Perhaps we'll have to take a detour to a landen village before you leave."
And then he was there, sticks flying in a barrage of strikes. Could she hold them all off?
Dinah
"I've met plenty of people without powers. From lots of places. And yeah, that would be fine--"
And no, she couldn't manage that. But Dinah could manage to bring the telekinesis into the fight too, hitting out with both her sticks to block his, kicking, head-butting, and aiming her power at the ground under his feet, giving it a good yank, before punching out with her power at his stomach as well as with her sticks.
Then he clipped her on the side of her head, and she went down, seeing stars. "Owwwww..."
Lucivar
Lucivar was happy to see her go down; that last barrage at the end had been a bit brutal. He was pretty sure he had wrenched his knee trying to stay standing when she'd tried to yank the ground out from under him. The knee she'd tried to take out, of course. It was still one of the better workouts he'd gotten since he'd arrived at the Hall--he hadn't quite worked up the nerve to ask the Demon Prince for a spar yet. This dust-up showed that he still had a lot of recovery to go.
"Well done," he said, bending over and offering Dinah a hand. "You fought very well. How's your head?" Injuries gotten while sparring weren't an offense against Protocol, but they certainly allowed for fussing afterwards. "Let's get you cleaned up, fed, and then maybe you should lie down for awhile."
Those weren't actually suggestions.
Dinah
"Mmmmmph," Dinah said in answer, pausing a second before taking his hand, and letting herself be pulled to her feet. She gritted her teeth and did a self-check, cracked one eye open and said, "Hurts. No concussion, though." She rubbed the side of her head, scowling, and then grimaced. "A shower would be nice, maybe. Or a bath in that big tub in my suite." Then she couldn't help the grin. "Really good spar." A bounce. Owie! But still, glee happens. "And thanks. Usually I don't get to let loose like that, you know? I figured you could take it."
And yes, it didn't hurt that he was big and cute. Even if he was dense. And mistaken. And wrong. Heh.
Lucivar
"Good spar," Lucivar agreed. "I'm glad you trusted enough in my skills to let go like that."
Lucivar carefully steered her into the Hall, leaving her in the capable hands of Helene who assured her that a bath was already being drawn for her. "Hey Dinah," Lucivar called before they vanished completely up the stairs. "Maybe next time you'll just share, huh?"
Dinah
Dinah leaned over the railing and grinned. "What, just for a little bruising? Nope. Next time, you'll get an even better lesson in saying 'please.'" No innuendo intended, and then Dinah turned red, hearing how that sounded. Ahem. She smirked and put her nose in the air. "Prince guy."
[Preplayed with the wonderful blondecanary]
Beale
"A bowl of honey-pears, Miss Dinah," Beale said, setting down a serving bowl full of the fist-sized fruit. His face retained it's usual stoic impassiveness--there were guests and the SaDaiblo honor would be maintained at all costs--but there was humor in his eyes. "La--Miss Karla asked me to remind you that she will laugh if you eat yourself ill."
Dinah
"Thank you, Mr. Beale," Dinah said, doing a little sitting chair-dance of glee. "And if you see Miss Karla before I do, tell her I would never be so silly... and I can eat an awful lot before I get ill." She gave him a beaming smile of delight, and picked up one of the fruits, taking a bite and sighing happily. "Mmmmmm!" Even better in reality than in Karla's memories. She sighed, and picked up the bowl to hug to herself. "Incredible and delicious and yum."
Beale
Yeah, that chair dance wasn't doing much for his stoicism there. "Just Beale, please, Miss Dinah," he said. "Mr. Beale sounds..." he glanced around to make sure no one else had entered the dining room before flashing her a brief smile and finishing with "...silly. Though, of course, Mrs. Beale simply sounds respectable and rather imposing."
They were in one of the smaller dining rooms near the kitchen. And Beale was no fool.
"Is there anything else I can get you, Miss Dinah?" Beale asked, standing next to her chair. "Or would you prefer I leave you to your honey-pears?"
Dinah
"Maybe a glass of water? Eating is thirsty work." Dinah grinned at him. "And..." Alfred had drilled manners into her when dealing with someone who was technically working for you, but not really. You should at least offer to help, even if you'd get in the way. "I'll help wash up later, if you want? Especially if there's pickleberries around. I blame Karla. I want to try one, and see if they really taste like that."
Beale
Beale went to the sideboard and picked up the large silver pitcher. "I thank you for your offer, Miss Dinah, but that won't be necessary. Helene would have my head if she thought I was putting a guest to work." Calling in a crystal wineglass, he filled it three-quarters of the way and brought it back to Dinah. As he bent over slightly to place the glass precisely twenty degrees to the right of the bowl he added in an undertone, "We do our best to limit the contact that the Lady, Miss Karla, and their friends have with the kitchen. It's better for all of us, that way."
Dinah
"We found that out the hard way," Dinah said, keeping her voice equally low, and a little glum. "Especially when she's with Merlin. There were explosions." She took a sip from the glass, and sighed as she took another bite of honey-pear perfection, smooth and sweet and golden. "Thank you, Beale. This is awesome. I'm good for now."
Beale
Beale allowed himself another brief lip-twitch at the image of Karla blowing up a kitchen that didn't belong to the Hall, and another at the unfamiliar word. "Please, should you need anything, ring the bell." A small, silver bell appeared on the table next to Dinah's left hand. "That will summon a footman at once who will be most pleased to supply you with whatever you wish." With those parting words, he bowed to Dinah and left the dining room, pulling the large white doors closed behind him.
Dinah
Dinah settled in for a happy quarter-hour of looking out the window at the view-- gorgeous forest and lawns, and the sky turning colors-- and working her way through one honey-pear, and then starting her second. Could she eat four? Five? Who knew? Trying would be fun, though. Did they have honey-pear pie? Ooooo....
Lucivar
Lucivar was on the hunt. His Eyrien war-blade wasn't out, but he resigned himself to the idea that he might need to resort to it in order to get the quarry he was relentlessly stalking. Pulling an Ebon-Gray sight-shield over himself, he slipped through the wood of the door and entered the dining room. He sniffed, quietly, filling his nostrils with his prey's elusive scent. At the table in front of him was a female with long blonde hair--but not the blonde that he had been worried about.
Excellent.
Jaenelle must not know his quarry had a presence in the Hall. He'd never even caught so much as a scent if she had. He vanished his war-blade and let go of the shield at the same time and sauntered over to the table to grab a honey-pear.
Dinah
"Hey!" Dinah swatted at the hand reaching for her honey-pears before she even looked up, and picked up the bowl to hug it again. Looking up, she managed to restrain a gulp, then frowned. Karla had said manners and Protocol were important, and here Big Winged Hot Guy was blowing off both. "Get your own!"
Lucivar
What was it about blonde females and denying him honey-pears?! Darkness take it all, this one wasn't even a proper witch and here she was, baring her teeth at him like Karla's goddamn twin. "Don't you think there are more in there than a tiny thing like you can eat?" Lucivar rumbled. "Share."
It was...almost a request? Except for the part where it wasn't, of course. He reached out for another.
Dinah
"I am not tiny!" Roy was the only one that got to call her anything like that! Dinah was outraged, and stood up to prove her point. Still holding onto the bowl. And, okay, maybe a good seven inches shorter than him. "And it's 'please, share', or you can, I repeat, get your own. Beale got these for me." She took a bite out of the one in her hand. "I can't get them at home, and I loooooove them."
Lucivar
And Lucivar made sure to make good use of that full seven inches as he glared down at her. "Neither can I!" he protested. "Jaenelle always hogs them here. How did you convince Beale to just give you some?" he asked, sounding more suspicious than curious. "And this is my house. I don't have to ask. Not when there are plenty to go round. Or there would be if certain tiny girls weren't keeping them all to themselves."
Dinah
"I said please, that's how I got them." Dinah glared back up at him, neck heating up with embarrassment. "And I told Beale how much I loved them when Karla let me remember her eating them. I'm sure he's got some more he'd give you. Look, the kitchen's right over there." Crunch, mmmm, yum yum, no, none for Mr. Hotness, not if he kept glaring like that.
Okay, if he said 'please', maybe she'd hand one over. One. Her honey-pears! Beale promised!
Lucivar
Lucivar just looked at Dinah as if she were crazy. "I'm not going in there," he said, darting glances between Dinah and the wall closest to the kitchen. "Do you know who invades Mrs. Beale's territory? Fools and dead men. I'm not part of the first group and have desire to become part of the second, either!" Hell's fire, even dead men knew to avoid Mrs. Beale's kitchen. His father and brother only went in there with express permission.
NO ONE messed with Mrs. Beale. The stories got around. "Besides, if they're in there, it means that she's claimed them for dinner. Do you want to go in there and tell her she's got to give up an ingredient for dinner?" Lucivar pretended to consider that option. "Actually, you should. Leave the bowl here."
Dinah
"Mine," Dinah said stubbornly. "And where do you think I got them? I went into the kitchen to ask for a snack, and Mr. Beale-- Beale said Karla had already talked to him, and then I had a bowl of honey-pears." Crunch! Yes, she would continue to eat that in front of him until he said please. "And Mrs. Beale is nice. She said there was plenty!" Ha! Take that, Tall Bossy Person who is not Arthur and thus does not get cut any slack.
Lucivar
Lucivar just stared at the girl, dumbstruck. Perhaps she did have some kind of crazy power--Karla had mentioned that some of her friends had magic, even though it wasn't Craft by Blood standards. Perhaps this female was able to magically gain control of people's minds and get them to act in unnatural ways and do things for her. Was she using those powers on him right now? Was she thinking about it?
No. This line of thought was insane. On the other hand, could he really just go into the kitchen and get honey-pears from Mrs. Beale?
Right. So, this girl had creepy mind-powers she used to manipulate people...
In order to prove to himself that Karla's friend didn't actually have anything like that (or, at least, they weren't currently working on him), Lucivar attempted to steal a honey-pear.
"Ow!" he said, drawing back his hand. "You bit me!"
Dinah
Dinah wasn't sure if she'd been trying to prove he didn't intimidate her, or momentarily wondering if he was going to grab for her, but it was like she was five again. Instinct had taken over and now the big guy had bite-marks. Whoops. Nice one, Lance. Way to act like a good guest there.
Except for how she wasn't sorry. Pushy, bossy, arrogant, greedy ... git! "You didn't say please! Would it actually physically kill you?"
Lucivar
There was more of that incredulous staring. "You bit me," he explained, as if Dinah didn't realize that's what she'd done. "You. Bit. Me." Was this some kind of new spell Jaenelle was messing with? A shadow that acted like her, but looked like someone else? Lucivar was torn between shock and amusement. If she had even the slightest hint of Craft, he'd assume she was a new member of the coven.
"You bit me," he said again. "If you want to act like a four year old, fine. I'll treat you like one. You've got two choices: either share, or I'll turn you over my knee and spank you till you learn better."
He wasn't entirely sure if this was about the principle of the thing now, or if he just wanted to hear how she'd respond.
Dinah
This was starting to be funny. Although maybe she'd broken him? He was beginning to repeat himself. "You keep saying that." Dinah blinked at the Big Guy and finished off her honey-pear, then said, "I'll bite you again if you don't say please before you try to grab one, dude. Karla told me about Protocol. I told you the terms! You were the guy ignoring them!"
Her eyes narrowed and she growled, "And nobody gets to do that, bud. Not if they don't want to lose a hand." Dinah's voice was rising. "Say please." Some part of her mind was going, magic-user, way bigger, way older, fighter but the rest of her was too mad to care and was gonna make him work for it. "Jerk."
Lucivar
Lucivar howled and pressed his hands to his head, covering his ears. "STOP TRYING TO SHATTER MY EARDRUMS," he roared.
Dinah
"YOU TRIEDTO TAKE MY HONEY PEARS! AND SAID YOU'D SPANK ME! AND I CAN GET LOUDER!" Dinah yelled. "WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!" Yeah, when she started trying, maybe then he'd shut up.
Lucivar
"I TRIED TO GET YOU TO SHARE, YOU SHRILL LITTLE HARPY!"
Dinah
"YOU SAID "SHARE!" NOT EVEN WITH A PLEASE!""
Lucivar
"STOP YELLING OR I'LL DUNK YOU IN A FOUNTAIN TO SHUT YOU UP!"
Dinah
"I LIKE FOUNTAINS AND I'LL TAKE THE HONEY PEARS WITH ME!"
Saetan
SILENCE!
Lucivar
The windows rattled in their frames and Lucivar winced. Still, he took a careful step back, away from Dinah and looked to the man who'd entered, unheard, behind them. "Father," he said, tone neutral. Then he glanced back at Dinah and mouthed, 'Your fault.'
Dinah
Ooooops. Dinah turned to their host, Karla's nice scary uncle, and bit her lip. And wisely stayed silent.
She took one last bite of honey-pear. We who are about to die, salute you...! And then glared at Lucivar. 'So not!' she silently yelled back at him.
Saetan
The High Lord looked very stern, even as he attempted to appear fairly unruffled--save for the slight twitching around one eye. "We have guests, may I remind you both," he snapped. "And while I am thrilled with this display of sibling-like behavior--" Saetan stopped abruptly and blinked at Dinah. "I see. You're one of Karla's friends. I just assumed from the hair and the pears and the yelling...Never mind." He shook his head. "Regardless, I suggest you children work off your excess energy somewhere else."
Dinah
"Can I hit him with sticks?" Look, Dinah had to have the rules straight here. They were such sticklers about that. If she was going to get in trouble for dealing with Lucivar the way she wanted to, she'd like to know up front. "A lot?"
Saetan
Saetan gave Dinah a sardonic smile. "Please do. Repeatedly. About the head." He shot his youngest son a dark glare. Lucivar didn't shift like a schoolboy, but certainly gave the impression of wanting to do so. "Normally, he knows how to behave for guests."
Lucivar
"If she's going to try to hit me with sticks, I get to hit her back," Lucivar muttered.
Saetan
"The two of you can settle that between yourselves," Saetan declared. "Outside."
Dinah
Dinah reluctantly put the bowl of honey-pears down, snagging two. Then, just to be a pain, she threw one toward Lucivar. "Sorry we were loud, Mr. Saetan. We'll be outside if anyone's looking for us." She tossed her hair over her shoulder in a show of bravada that she didn't quite feel as she turned for the door, and called back, "C'mon, big guy. Time to put your money where your mouth is!"
Lucivar
Lucivar followed her outside, snickering quietly at his father's expression as they left. "Mr. Saetan?" he asked. "That's priceless. As a tip: if you want to be polite, his proper title is Prince." Lucivar bit into his honey-pear, pausing a moment to savor it. "Thanks, by the way. I wasn't kidding about never being able to get one of these."
Dinah
Dinah looked chagrined at having forgotten that. "Prince. Prince. Right. I just don't meet princes. Except Arthur. And Leto." Dinah's tone indicated that that didn't count, not really. She looked bemused as she watched Lucivar eat the fruit, and said, "Oh, now you have manners. Ha." But most of her outrage had drained away in the matching rudeness and scolding, and she sat down to finish hers, squinting into the sunlight. "I meant it about the sticks. If you're up for it. I brought some, they're in my room."
Lucivar
"Well, I'm a prick," Lucivar said loftily. "Or so I am told frequently and with great vigor." He finished off his honey-pear with apparent relish and made shooing motions towards Dinah. "Go get your sticks," he said. "I'll see how well you do with them. If I'm going to hit you with sticks I should know your name. I'm Lucivar. Prince Lucivar," he added with a disarming grin.
Dinah
Dinah snorted. "Excuses. You only get away with this crap 'cause you're cute, dude.... Dinah. Laurel. Lance. Not a princess, don't wanna be." She got to her feet, and pointed at him. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!" She jogged into the mansion to retrieve her eskrima sticks, and took a second to tie her hair back and change into work-out clothes.
She came back, twirling one, with her extra set under her arm. "Eskrima. Here's some for you, if you don't have your own weapon."
Lucivar
"Princess?" Lucivar asked as Dinah came back. "Prince is a caste, not a title, little wit--one." He rumbled a small laugh. "Hasn't Karla explained that to you?"
He glanced down at the eskrima sticks Dinah offered out and shook his head. "I always have a weapon," he said, calling in an unbladed Eyrien stick. It was one stick to her two, but it was much longer. Lucivar slid into a ready stance and motioned to her. "Let's see you work those sticks," he said, grinning. "Hope you don't get poked in the belly and lose all those honey-pears."
Dinah
Dinah rolled her eyes. "Over and over, and yadda. Queen, warlord, warlord prince, healer, black widow, la la la... I'm not a queen, so I'm not any of your things, and you don't have princesses, but you should," she concluded. "Something where you don't have to be in charge, but can still do stuff. But I'd rather be me and none of those, anyway." Dinah shrugged, then grinned wickedly. "Arthur already trained me on this. Let's hope you don't get poked somewhere worse."
And she usually did pretty well at it too. She fell into a practice stance and watched him, arms-legs-wings but shoulders and hips too, careful, look for how he was going to move... but the eyes were the giveaway, don't forget that....
Lucivar
On the one hand, Lucivar had over a millennia of practice wielding the sticks. On the other, he did spend the last few years working in the salt mines and was less than six months away from injuries that really should have killed him. It was a testament to Jaenelle's skills as a Healer that he was here at all, never mind sparring with something approximating his old speed and skill. "Don't want to be any of our castes?" he asked, stepping forward to test her defenses a bit. "That's an interesting position. Most landens would leap at the chance to be Blood." One end of his stick feinted towards her belly.
Dinah
"You think." Dinah dodged the feint. "Maybe they want power. Not part of your rules. And I have power. I don't need to be part of your system to get it." Whap! Dinah aimed for his wrist, in a move that really pissed off Arthur when it worked, and made him laugh when he hit her in the knees when it didn't, but fast enough to swerve away this time, at least. She spun one stick in her hand, and started to grin.
Battle!
Lucivar
Lucivar dodged backwards as her stick came for his wrist and then lunged forward again. One thing she might have been forgetting when she dodged away from him--his reach was probably longer than Arthur's, both by length of arms and of stick. So depending on where she stopped, there still may have been a stick aiming for those very same knees that Arthur liked to abuse. "Can't have the power without the rules," Lucivar said, his jocular tone all but gone now. "I've lived my life in a Territory where the Blood have twisted Protocol to suit themselves and their whims. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe. If Karla is giving you the impression that Protocol is just a bunch of stuffy rules made up by pedants--" he shifted, bringing his stick high and then whirling it down towards her hands, "then she's doing you both a severe disservice."
And would be something he'd be mentioning to his father.
Dinah
"Ow!" Yeah, Arthur would not be pleased. Time to speed up. Uno, dos, siete, doce, and Dinah started running the drill of blows, one flowing into the other. "No. I know they're there to protect you guys. All of you. From yourselves. From each other. Maybe protect the guys without Blood." Up, low, getting blocked a lot, and then Dinah twisted the stick to strike out at a reverse angle, fast as a thought when she saw an opening. "Power is dangerous, sure. But your downsides? All the ways you're at risk? Not the kind of thing they'd want. But the non-Blood aren't weak, you know?" And to illustrate, she gritted her teeth, trying to trap his staff between her two sticks.
Lucivar
"When the Blood follow the old ways and honor the Darkness, then everyone is better off," he said, taking her hit on his hip. It would bruise and it stung, but it was a lot better that taking the hit where it was originally going to land. "Everyone is protected and cared for, from the landens to the kindred to the darkest-Jeweled witch in the Realm. And landens are at just as much risk from each other than from us. Or is your world happy and at peace?" he asked. He glanced down at where his staff was caught between her sticks and smiled. "They may not be weak," he granted, "but they are do not have the same strengths we possess."
And then with barely an eyeblink of Craft, he sliced his stave into two pieces, bringing his left hand up to hit her shoulder while his right hand went low to strike her side.
Dinah
"Maybe they'd like to take care of themselves?" Look, Dinah didn't know anyone without power here. So trying to speak for them-- problematic at best. But who the heck wants to be lumped in as someone to be 'cared for', like an invalid or little kid? "Or care for you guys back, the ones trying to keep things together? Equal partners?"
And jeez, cheater. Ow ow ow, two blows at once that landed, but she'd had as bad from Arthur when sword fighting. And if he was going to bring Craft into it, she could use whatever she had. Which included pushing hard on his sticks in his hands, and aiming his *and* hers at his stomach, all four at once.
Lucivar
That was a move Lucivar hadn't been expecting. "So there's a bit of witch in you after all!" he laughed, though the laugh quickly turned into a wheeze as the sticks landed in his belly. Even tensing his considerable stomach muscles, there was a lot of force behind that push. "So then, how do you come to speak for the landens, hmm?" he asked, yanking his sticks away from her control. The Ebon-Gray Jewel around his neck glowed a little brighter as he began readjusting his strategy a bit. He picked up his speed a bit and added a bit more strength to his blows. She was making him work a bit more and he felt that comfortable ache in his muscles. "What do you know of them?"
Dinah
"I'll speak for anyone who's not being asked how things should go around them," Dinah said. "And I know how Karla talks about them. Or used to," she corrected herself. She had to stop talking for a while, blows going faster and faster and oh, this was going to hurt tomorrow. Good hurt, though. "Like they don't have opinions, because they don't have power. Like they don't understand your politics, because they can't participate." She took a breath. "Am I wrong there?" Whap whap whap and oh, ow, that one on her shoulder, that was gonna bruise.
Lucivar
"Wait," Lucivar said, taking a blow to the arm in order to score that hit to her shoulder. "So you're taking it upon yourself to talk for people you don't know? Planning on redefining their place in society without taking a moment to know who they are or how they feel? What's the difference between you and me then, save that I've actually stopped to talk to landens?"
And had been mostly frustrated by them, but details.
"They can't understand our politics," he growled. Discussing politics while fighting was definitely taking its toll on his concentration, as Dinah's next blow scored on him as well. "What it means to be Blood, to have Craft, to be bound by Protocol isn't something you can understand unless you are. No matter how Karla explains things to you, there will always be a fundamental gulf between what she's saying and what you understand. Because you don't know, witchy powers aside. And neither do they."
Dinah
"Bullshit. They're being affected by those powers, it's your job to explain it 'til they get it enough to know how to protect themselves. Or help you. They could, you know. There's more of them than there are of you Blood guys." Dinah winced at another blow, hopping away, circling now, just out of arm's reach. "And I'm not claiming to be their ambassador or champion. But I don't like how they're treated. Don't tell me I should shut up about it just because this isn't my world. Do you see me trying to get them to revolt? Even though maybe they should." She circled the other way. "They're second-class. They're defenseless against power, and if their Queen sucks in the way she treats them, they're screwed. She could make all her witches and warlord princes happy, and what could they do? The Blood can duel, they can strike back, but people without power are stuck. They don't get a say in the Queen's Circle. Or the Queen's Household. No one asks them. And how much is a landen kid's life worth, in this system you've got going?" Another blow aimed at his elbow, suddenly. "Twenty gold pieces? Thirty?"
Lucivar
"If you want to complain about the way they're being treated, you should go to Terreille. Maybe that will show you what real suffering is," Lucivar snarled, trying to keep his temper in check. But it was hard. He had over a millennium and a half of suffering under his belt that made explaining to a little ignorant girl the facts of life. "Do you know what happens when landens revolt? They die, little girl. By the thousands. Because Warlord Princes like me step out onto the killing fields and then they DIE. They explode and are shattered and boil away from the inside. You and your ideals know nothing."
Dinah
So why doesn't someone stand up for them? Dinah wanted to ask immediately, but gritted her teeth and concentrated, letting loose with the sticks, then kicking as hard as she could when she saw an opening, at the back of his knee. "So that's it? They should just all die? Awesome. Maybe they should just kill themselves and get it over with. Right? No point in fighting you guys. No point in hoping someone will speak for them. Why not just drink the Kool-Aid and give up now?" Another blow headed for his nose, and it wasn't so much that Dinah had lost her temper as put it off to the sidelines. "Good thing they're not asking your opinion, hunh."
Lucivar
"Don't twist my words around," Lucivar growled, tilting his head to take the blow to his jaw instead. "In Kaeleer, at least, their lives aren't spent like water, at the whim of anyone who walks by. And where that isn't the case, the Blood in those areas don't fare any better. No, they don't get a say in who their Queen is. But do you know what they do get? Protection. Care. Land. Yes, they suffer under bad Queens. But so does everyone. Either way, it isn't your place" attack "your people" attack "or your problem. So maybe you should talk to some of the people who you're trying to defend in ignorance."
Dinah
"I'd defend anyone--ow! Who needed it! And asked for it. And a say in who rules you is basic. I'll talk to anyone you want, but they deserve that, Blood or not. Whether they ask for it or not." Dinah thrust an elbow backwards toward his chest. "Did they tell you they want to be Blood? Is that how you know them so well?"
Lucivar
"I've known landens in my time. Fought against them, with them, and for them," Lucivar told her, rubbing his jaw with the back of one hand. "You make it sound like I don't believe they have a right to survive or something. They're people--they're just not Blood." And for Lucivar, that was the end of it. "The Blood were created to be the caretakers of the land and its people. As long as we hold true to that trust, the landens are satisfied."
Dinah
Which, okay, Lucivar was not the bad guy here, Dinah reminded herself. He'd just proven that. Just... dense.
"I disagree. And maybe that's because I don't get to say that I have powers, and represent my people in public back home," Dinah said, realizing that that was part of what was bugging her. She stopped, bending over to catch her breath, and hide her face a second. She took a breath, and straightened. "It isn't safe. So I can't imagine being satisfied with being voiceless in this world."
Lucivar
'From what Karla says, your world is vastly different than this one," Lucivar said, circling around and looking for an opening. "What you can't imagine as possible is fact here. And, from what she says, much of what you take for granted is mind-boggling and chaotic. Our worlds are not the same, our people are not the same. Though I'll grant you--" he darted in and swung "--I doubt human nature differs all that much, regardless."
Dinah
"Human nature to want to control your own life, Prince guy. You can get that, can't you?" Maybe those lessons with Ghanima were finally taking effect, because Dinah managed to twist enough to take the blow across her ribs, not center, and then continue, teeth gritted, to aim her stick for his jaw. "I'd still never want to be Blood. Three words: Moontime." Which, the depth of her disgruntlement there was probably obvious. "And virgin night. I bet money..." Ow ow, ow. Another kick, this one toward his groin, betting he'd move. "... there are girls here who wouldn't be Blood if you gave them power over the universe. Not with that price to pay."
Lucivar
"And I'm willing to bet you're wrong," Lucivar said, pivoting to take the kick on the thigh. "Have you ever asked Karla if she'd trade? Bet I know the answer to that. And she knows the downsides, much more intimately than you ever could." The pivot brought his shoulder into position to try to ram her with it. "Perhaps the landens would like some kind of political say. From the little things Karla has said, she's thinking about giving it to them. How much do you honestly think that's going to fix? It's not just Blood or landen as the dividing line. I was raised a half-breed slave. You think I had any say in what bitch-Queen I served? This is real life, not a class at a fancy school. Nothing is as uncomplicated as you'd like to think."
Dinah
"I didn't say the Blood would want to become non-Blood. I know Karla wouldn't give it up. Why would they want to be the 'lesser'? The ones without power. When all that matters here is what jewel you wear? Or what caste you're in? Not how smart you are. Or how determined. I said I bet the non-Blood are just fine with being what and who they are. And not wearing a jewel, not being Blood, doesn't mean they don't deserve their own say--"
She got the breath knocked out of her with that ramming, and slammed a fist into his knee on her way down, then rolled and rolled until she was clear enough to stagger to her feet. "I'm not talking about stuff from classrooms. You don't know me either. And I never said it was uncomplicated." She panted for breath, holding her side, almost spent. Not giving up yet. Not, quite, yet....
Lucivar
Okay, that punch to the knee? Hurt like Hell. He'd been expecting Dinah to just topple over, not to try to take him down with her. "I may not know much, but I know you've got brass," he said approvingly, even as he limped back a few steps as well. In a moment or two, he's be fine, but right now--damn.
"Those aren't the only things that matter," Lucivar corrected, though he had to admit they counted for most of it, yes. "I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, I'm just saying it's a lot more complicated than it seems to you. You're--what? Eighteen? Nineteen? I'm over seventeen hundred years old. This is my Realm, these are my people. Give me some credit for knowing a little about what I'm talking about, too. I'm not blind."
Dinah
Dinah looked up with a small glare, and muttered, "Eighteen in three weeks." She straightened, and took another breath. Maybe one more engagement in her before something went snap and she had to go look for someone to heal her up. "I just--" Another breath, and she cracked her neck, and set her feet. "Think. And yeah, it's just thinking. Not knowing." She gave him a penetrating look, and tightened her fingers on her eskrima. "But by your logic, you can't speak for them any more than I can."
Lucivar
"A little better than you, I think, in that I have met landens," Lucivar corrected. He opened his wings with a snap--hoping the unexpected noise would off-balance her a bit--and rushed. "But your points aren't entirely invalid." Just wrong. "Perhaps we'll have to take a detour to a landen village before you leave."
And then he was there, sticks flying in a barrage of strikes. Could she hold them all off?
Dinah
"I've met plenty of people without powers. From lots of places. And yeah, that would be fine--"
And no, she couldn't manage that. But Dinah could manage to bring the telekinesis into the fight too, hitting out with both her sticks to block his, kicking, head-butting, and aiming her power at the ground under his feet, giving it a good yank, before punching out with her power at his stomach as well as with her sticks.
Then he clipped her on the side of her head, and she went down, seeing stars. "Owwwww..."
Lucivar
Lucivar was happy to see her go down; that last barrage at the end had been a bit brutal. He was pretty sure he had wrenched his knee trying to stay standing when she'd tried to yank the ground out from under him. The knee she'd tried to take out, of course. It was still one of the better workouts he'd gotten since he'd arrived at the Hall--he hadn't quite worked up the nerve to ask the Demon Prince for a spar yet. This dust-up showed that he still had a lot of recovery to go.
"Well done," he said, bending over and offering Dinah a hand. "You fought very well. How's your head?" Injuries gotten while sparring weren't an offense against Protocol, but they certainly allowed for fussing afterwards. "Let's get you cleaned up, fed, and then maybe you should lie down for awhile."
Those weren't actually suggestions.
Dinah
"Mmmmmph," Dinah said in answer, pausing a second before taking his hand, and letting herself be pulled to her feet. She gritted her teeth and did a self-check, cracked one eye open and said, "Hurts. No concussion, though." She rubbed the side of her head, scowling, and then grimaced. "A shower would be nice, maybe. Or a bath in that big tub in my suite." Then she couldn't help the grin. "Really good spar." A bounce. Owie! But still, glee happens. "And thanks. Usually I don't get to let loose like that, you know? I figured you could take it."
And yes, it didn't hurt that he was big and cute. Even if he was dense. And mistaken. And wrong. Heh.
Lucivar
"Good spar," Lucivar agreed. "I'm glad you trusted enough in my skills to let go like that."
Lucivar carefully steered her into the Hall, leaving her in the capable hands of Helene who assured her that a bath was already being drawn for her. "Hey Dinah," Lucivar called before they vanished completely up the stairs. "Maybe next time you'll just share, huh?"
Dinah
Dinah leaned over the railing and grinned. "What, just for a little bruising? Nope. Next time, you'll get an even better lesson in saying 'please.'" No innuendo intended, and then Dinah turned red, hearing how that sounded. Ahem. She smirked and put her nose in the air. "Prince guy."
[Preplayed with the wonderful blondecanary]