The Power and the Glory 6/9 [Gramis, House Solidor]
Canon Status: Up to FFXII-era, Archades.
Genre: General, intrigue. Some romance for this section, sort of.
Rating: PG-13.
Characters: Gramis, House Solidor AKA the OC Brigade.
Pairing: Gramis/OFC, OFC/Power.
Warnings: Possible mild spoilers, although not much for this chapter.
Notes: I owe Robert Graves more than I can say.
Summary: The life and times of House Solidor. Viali Medich Drusior arrived at the court of Archadia to take up a position as one of Strella's maids of honor.
Other Parts: Gramis | Strella | Zulia | Ceraano | Gramis | Viali
Viali Medich Drusior arrived at the court of Archadia to take up a position as one of Strella's maids of honor. As was frequently the case with the ladies who filled that office, she was the daughter of a petty noble, a baron to be exact, one whose family had been granted a title by Gramis's great-grandfather in appreciation of his services in the civil wars of that era. House Drusior was not nearly old enough to be of Senatorial rank, nor were they impressively wealthy, but in five generations their loyalty to the Solidor line had been proven a hundred times over.
It was on the strength of that loyalty that Viali was established at court in one of the few offices a young noblewoman could hold without expense on her father's part. The story was common enough; she was one of a dozen maids of honor to the Empress, all with similar reasons for being in Archades, and, as she was neither exceptionally beautiful nor inclined to become a source of scandal, she passed a year and half at court without becoming widely known. The highest society considered her nothing out of the ordinary until the Empress died, when Gramis first noticed her.
The maids of honor were all in some state of confusion after the assassination. Gramis had placed them under his personal care and protection when he had taken them into his household, so it fell to him, as so much else did, to reassure them and make provisions for their futures elsewhere. It would be an invitation to scandal if they remained in the Imperial apartments when the Emperor now lived there alone, and Gramis would not add to the scandal being heaped upon his House. Therefore, it was necessary to have interviews with each of the young ladies, so that he might tailor his arrangements to be the best for each.
When he requested an audience with them, the maids of honor appeared in a state little short of hysterics, some imagining that they were suspected of aiding Her Excellency's murder (an entirely groundless fear, as later events bore out), others fancying that Gramis would turn them out of the palace immediately (a fear even more ridiculous than the other; he could never do something so universally unpopular). Viali impressed him with her intelligence and deftness in controlling her fellows, though she had no difference in status with which to support her management. She was the one who assisted Gramis in arranging the private audiences without further exciting the ladies' imaginations.
Some of the maids of honor returned to their fathers' houses, some entered into betrothals with young gentlemen they had met at court, and some received new positions in the Imperial household. Viali was among the last group: she became one of the noble attendants on Zulia's wife, who, as the new lady of the house, required a grander household than before. Under those circumstances, it was only natural that Gramis should see her frequently.
His opinion of her improved upon acquaintance. It was true that she was not beautiful by the standards of the day, being dark, thin, and sharp of feature, but there was a grace in her movements that appealed to him, and her features, though sharp, were fine. Although he recognized that she could not compare to his former wife in terms of simple physical perfection, Gramis found the spirit evident in her every gesture ten times more appealing.
Conversing with her was a pleasure, when he found occasion to do so. Unlike most women of his acquaintance, Viali was unafraid to admit an interest in political problems; unlike most men, she was unafraid to offer her opinion before ascertaining his. She never, of course, disagreed with him openly, but, after listening intelligently to his explanation of the facts on which he based his opinion, she would only sometimes declare herself convinced of his rightness. When she did not, she neatly turned to a new aspect of the conversation, offering Gramis a smile. Besides this, she was slim, dark of hair and eyes, fair-skinned, polite under all circumstance imaginable, and had a trick of lifting her long-lashed hazel eyes to his that made him feel a lovestruck boy again.
He proposed to her ten months after speaking to her for the first time, and they were wed scarcely two months afterward.
At the time it had not entirely ceased to be popular to gossip about the personal affairs of the men of House Solidor, so naturally Gramis's hasty marriage drew the eyes, tongues, and speculations of all Ivalice. It was popularly concluded that Viali had been Gramis's mistress for some time already, and that the cause of the hurried wedding was that she was with child. Both these rumors were false, as it happened. Of greater concern to him, however, was the censure of those who considered themselves concerned in the matter. Aside from the unseemly haste of the wedding, ignoring the traditional betrothal period, Viali brought neither great wealth nor unusual connections to the marriage.
Zulia raised those objections loudly and often in the weeks leading up to the wedding. As his words made clear, he considered Viali no better than she should be, a woman who had set out deliberately to seduce the Emperor, playing on an aging man's loneliness. Moreover, if Gramis insisted on marrying her, such unseemly speed was not due the Emperor's dignity.
Gramis ignored him. Twenty-five years and more had he spent with the wife of his duty; he would not wait a week longer than necessary for the wife of his choice. He had wed and fathered sons for Archadia, but that part of his obligation was now fulfilled, and he could do as he would.
He did admit the awkwardness it would bring for the Empress to be younger than her stepsons, for Viali was then only twenty-one, a year younger even than Ceraano, but he would not give her up for his sons' comfort and convenience.
They were wed in a grand ceremony in Highgarden. Zulia was present like one on sufferance, his wife great with child by his side. Ceraano scarcely seemed to notice the tension, so absent in mind had he become. Still, both were cordial, in public at least, to Viali, who smiled on them with shining eyes.
Viali was radiant with triumph. She had hoped to marry well, but never had she seriously considered climbing so high. Having attracted the attention of the Emperor just when he could be prevailed upon to marry her was good fortune previously only found in dreams.
One dream having come to pass, she set herself to fulfilling others. Her ambition was without bounds; she desired nothing less than to achieve a control over the politics of the realm that only her husband could match. It was Archadia's great good fortune that she was as competent as she was ambitious. Her intrigues complicated the division of the court, but her tools were obedient to her will. Viali would see no harm done to Archadia she was not capable of mending.
In sharp contrast to the previous Empress, the gossips' lists of Viali's alleged lovers were extensive and specific. To hear them tell it, she was the loosest woman in the Empire, and her husband the blindest man. In fact, she encouraged infatuation on the part of her supporters, as it strengthened her control over them, but she was not such a fool as to allow their hopes to become more than that. In a position as tenuous as hers, she could afford no scandal. Gramis was infatuated with her, but he was no fool: if he discovered her unfaithful, his love would last a little longer than her life. Besides, her one lust was for power.
What she took, she held fast; her supporters rarely deserted her once she had them firmly under her sway. Within a year, she knew as much about the men who would rule the Empire as even Gramis did.
She was not shy about using the information she possessed. With terrifying regularity, those who opposed the will of the Empress found their most carefully-hidden secrets public knowledge, bringing humiliation at best and disgrace at worst. Although no one would tell Gramis what was suspected of his beloved wife, anyone with any political entanglements knew that Viali was not a woman to cross. Eventually, most stopped trying. Only Zulia's party remained strong, caring less for their secrets than they did for Archadia, which, in their view, Viali was all but destroying. They chose to attribute the Emperor's support of most of her enterprises to Viali's wiles, rather than the simple fact that the couple generally were in agreement on political matters.
Viali's ambition encouraged her husband's expansionist inclination; the greater Archadia grew, the greater grew her position as its lady. With her assistance (for Gramis trusted her advice, which was generally quite astute), the borders stretched ever further.
As she had only one desire, to reign over all Ivalice, so she had only one fear, loss of the powers she had gained. Gramis was much her elder; he might easily die while she was still young, and then Zulia would be Emperor. He would be Emperor, he whom she had never been able to control, he who had always hated her, and his wife would be Empress. Ceraano, should an accident befall his brother, would be no better: he would seek advice, but not from her, and those who would become his advisors were ill-suited to her control. Either way, it would be the end of her secret rule. Empress Dowager was a position of strength only if added to Empress Maternal. To keep her power in the future, Viali would need to make her position so strong that no one could depose her.
She would do it using the only other person she ever loved: her son.
Genre: General, intrigue. Some romance for this section, sort of.
Rating: PG-13.
Characters: Gramis, House Solidor AKA the OC Brigade.
Pairing: Gramis/OFC, OFC/Power.
Warnings: Possible mild spoilers, although not much for this chapter.
Notes: I owe Robert Graves more than I can say.
Summary: The life and times of House Solidor. Viali Medich Drusior arrived at the court of Archadia to take up a position as one of Strella's maids of honor.
Other Parts: Gramis | Strella | Zulia | Ceraano | Gramis | Viali
Viali Medich Drusior arrived at the court of Archadia to take up a position as one of Strella's maids of honor. As was frequently the case with the ladies who filled that office, she was the daughter of a petty noble, a baron to be exact, one whose family had been granted a title by Gramis's great-grandfather in appreciation of his services in the civil wars of that era. House Drusior was not nearly old enough to be of Senatorial rank, nor were they impressively wealthy, but in five generations their loyalty to the Solidor line had been proven a hundred times over.
It was on the strength of that loyalty that Viali was established at court in one of the few offices a young noblewoman could hold without expense on her father's part. The story was common enough; she was one of a dozen maids of honor to the Empress, all with similar reasons for being in Archades, and, as she was neither exceptionally beautiful nor inclined to become a source of scandal, she passed a year and half at court without becoming widely known. The highest society considered her nothing out of the ordinary until the Empress died, when Gramis first noticed her.
The maids of honor were all in some state of confusion after the assassination. Gramis had placed them under his personal care and protection when he had taken them into his household, so it fell to him, as so much else did, to reassure them and make provisions for their futures elsewhere. It would be an invitation to scandal if they remained in the Imperial apartments when the Emperor now lived there alone, and Gramis would not add to the scandal being heaped upon his House. Therefore, it was necessary to have interviews with each of the young ladies, so that he might tailor his arrangements to be the best for each.
When he requested an audience with them, the maids of honor appeared in a state little short of hysterics, some imagining that they were suspected of aiding Her Excellency's murder (an entirely groundless fear, as later events bore out), others fancying that Gramis would turn them out of the palace immediately (a fear even more ridiculous than the other; he could never do something so universally unpopular). Viali impressed him with her intelligence and deftness in controlling her fellows, though she had no difference in status with which to support her management. She was the one who assisted Gramis in arranging the private audiences without further exciting the ladies' imaginations.
Some of the maids of honor returned to their fathers' houses, some entered into betrothals with young gentlemen they had met at court, and some received new positions in the Imperial household. Viali was among the last group: she became one of the noble attendants on Zulia's wife, who, as the new lady of the house, required a grander household than before. Under those circumstances, it was only natural that Gramis should see her frequently.
His opinion of her improved upon acquaintance. It was true that she was not beautiful by the standards of the day, being dark, thin, and sharp of feature, but there was a grace in her movements that appealed to him, and her features, though sharp, were fine. Although he recognized that she could not compare to his former wife in terms of simple physical perfection, Gramis found the spirit evident in her every gesture ten times more appealing.
Conversing with her was a pleasure, when he found occasion to do so. Unlike most women of his acquaintance, Viali was unafraid to admit an interest in political problems; unlike most men, she was unafraid to offer her opinion before ascertaining his. She never, of course, disagreed with him openly, but, after listening intelligently to his explanation of the facts on which he based his opinion, she would only sometimes declare herself convinced of his rightness. When she did not, she neatly turned to a new aspect of the conversation, offering Gramis a smile. Besides this, she was slim, dark of hair and eyes, fair-skinned, polite under all circumstance imaginable, and had a trick of lifting her long-lashed hazel eyes to his that made him feel a lovestruck boy again.
He proposed to her ten months after speaking to her for the first time, and they were wed scarcely two months afterward.
At the time it had not entirely ceased to be popular to gossip about the personal affairs of the men of House Solidor, so naturally Gramis's hasty marriage drew the eyes, tongues, and speculations of all Ivalice. It was popularly concluded that Viali had been Gramis's mistress for some time already, and that the cause of the hurried wedding was that she was with child. Both these rumors were false, as it happened. Of greater concern to him, however, was the censure of those who considered themselves concerned in the matter. Aside from the unseemly haste of the wedding, ignoring the traditional betrothal period, Viali brought neither great wealth nor unusual connections to the marriage.
Zulia raised those objections loudly and often in the weeks leading up to the wedding. As his words made clear, he considered Viali no better than she should be, a woman who had set out deliberately to seduce the Emperor, playing on an aging man's loneliness. Moreover, if Gramis insisted on marrying her, such unseemly speed was not due the Emperor's dignity.
Gramis ignored him. Twenty-five years and more had he spent with the wife of his duty; he would not wait a week longer than necessary for the wife of his choice. He had wed and fathered sons for Archadia, but that part of his obligation was now fulfilled, and he could do as he would.
He did admit the awkwardness it would bring for the Empress to be younger than her stepsons, for Viali was then only twenty-one, a year younger even than Ceraano, but he would not give her up for his sons' comfort and convenience.
They were wed in a grand ceremony in Highgarden. Zulia was present like one on sufferance, his wife great with child by his side. Ceraano scarcely seemed to notice the tension, so absent in mind had he become. Still, both were cordial, in public at least, to Viali, who smiled on them with shining eyes.
Viali was radiant with triumph. She had hoped to marry well, but never had she seriously considered climbing so high. Having attracted the attention of the Emperor just when he could be prevailed upon to marry her was good fortune previously only found in dreams.
One dream having come to pass, she set herself to fulfilling others. Her ambition was without bounds; she desired nothing less than to achieve a control over the politics of the realm that only her husband could match. It was Archadia's great good fortune that she was as competent as she was ambitious. Her intrigues complicated the division of the court, but her tools were obedient to her will. Viali would see no harm done to Archadia she was not capable of mending.
In sharp contrast to the previous Empress, the gossips' lists of Viali's alleged lovers were extensive and specific. To hear them tell it, she was the loosest woman in the Empire, and her husband the blindest man. In fact, she encouraged infatuation on the part of her supporters, as it strengthened her control over them, but she was not such a fool as to allow their hopes to become more than that. In a position as tenuous as hers, she could afford no scandal. Gramis was infatuated with her, but he was no fool: if he discovered her unfaithful, his love would last a little longer than her life. Besides, her one lust was for power.
What she took, she held fast; her supporters rarely deserted her once she had them firmly under her sway. Within a year, she knew as much about the men who would rule the Empire as even Gramis did.
She was not shy about using the information she possessed. With terrifying regularity, those who opposed the will of the Empress found their most carefully-hidden secrets public knowledge, bringing humiliation at best and disgrace at worst. Although no one would tell Gramis what was suspected of his beloved wife, anyone with any political entanglements knew that Viali was not a woman to cross. Eventually, most stopped trying. Only Zulia's party remained strong, caring less for their secrets than they did for Archadia, which, in their view, Viali was all but destroying. They chose to attribute the Emperor's support of most of her enterprises to Viali's wiles, rather than the simple fact that the couple generally were in agreement on political matters.
Viali's ambition encouraged her husband's expansionist inclination; the greater Archadia grew, the greater grew her position as its lady. With her assistance (for Gramis trusted her advice, which was generally quite astute), the borders stretched ever further.
As she had only one desire, to reign over all Ivalice, so she had only one fear, loss of the powers she had gained. Gramis was much her elder; he might easily die while she was still young, and then Zulia would be Emperor. He would be Emperor, he whom she had never been able to control, he who had always hated her, and his wife would be Empress. Ceraano, should an accident befall his brother, would be no better: he would seek advice, but not from her, and those who would become his advisors were ill-suited to her control. Either way, it would be the end of her secret rule. Empress Dowager was a position of strength only if added to Empress Maternal. To keep her power in the future, Viali would need to make her position so strong that no one could depose her.
She would do it using the only other person she ever loved: her son.