Silver in Eillen 3: Lady Disdain
“What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” -
Benedick, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About nothing
<- 2: The Status Quo ~0~ 4: Lean and Hungry Look ->
On any other day, the only emotion that Vespasian would have felt upon facing an audience with his Duke was a faint irritation. Of course, on any other day, he would not foolishly have let his tongue get the better of him and promised more than he could possibly achieve. He wouldn’t be facing the possibility that in an hour he would either be heading home in disgrace or packing up to travel towards a city he had never seen. The fact that, if his plan succeeded, he was about to essentially hoodwink the Duke didn’t even figure into it.
Of course, that he should be nervous about Varin was ridiculous, so he knocked and entered the duke’s study with a confident stride, prepared to lie his face off.
“What do you want, Xylandos?” Varin asked from behind his desk, a pile of barely-touched papers indicating that he was trying to appear busy. At least, Vespasian thought dryly, he’s learned the value of looking like an actual ruler. He barely even noticed that Varin had called him by his last name.
“It’s about the trip to Eillen, your grace.”
The trick to getting the Duke to agree to this would be to make him think that he was right, which should be easy to accomplish. The second trick would be to make him think that everyone else thought he was right, which was where Vespasian anticipated the difficulty. But he had been right about using the title which he usually avoided - Varin sat up a little straighter, and actually began to pay attention.
“What about it?” Varin’s voice betrayed his interest.
“I was simply wondering if you required any help making the preparations,” Vespasian replied. The Duke scoffed.
“No, I do not.”
Vespasian nodded, though he would have liked arguing better. “Of course. I should have expected you to be prepared for the long journey and weeks of day-long ceremonial and business meetings with the heads of houses, and attending several days of their council meetings before they even decide whether to consider the deal or not. Forgive me.” He bit his tongue, wondering if the sarcasm he could hear in his own words would be picked up on.
He needn’t have worried - Varin was as observant as a blind mole. “Of course I am,” he replied, but it took him longer this time.
“Then I needn’t bother you any longer,” Vespasian replied, turning to go. He’d only taken a few steps before he paused, though. “Actually, Lucio and I discussed it yesterday, and it’s actually very clever of you to go during their ceremonial month of fasting. It’s a show of good faith.”
Varin frowned. He hadn’t heard of the Eillen ceremonial month of fasting before - likely because Vespasian had made it up - but Vespasian could tell that the idea didn’t appeal to him in the least. And Vespasian was counting on his proud words of the day before as an indication that “a show of good faith,” to the Eillenian merchants that the Renuan nobles looked down upon was not his intention. Vespasian took it as a cue to go on.
“Condescending to travel to Eillen yourself, and meet with the business proxies of the three houses, lodging with the third house instead of the first, and waiting for them to decide whether to bargain with you or not - all of that is an extraordinarily generous gesture for a duke to make to a gathering of merchants. The Eillenians will like it very much.” He added, then stopped, afraid of belaboring his point.
The Duke appeared to be thinking hard. “Yes, it is extremely generous to those gilded purse-cutters,” he replied, “probably more than they deserve.”
“Oh yes, definitely more than they deserve,” Vespasian was quick to agree. “Very generous of you, more generous than most Dukes in your position would be willing to…”
There was a thump on the door. After a moment’s silence, there was another, harder thump. Then, an unexpected but familiar voice came floating through the door. “Varin, if you want the documents you requested, then you’d better open the door. My hands are full.”
Vespasian crossed the room and opened the door before Varin could make up his mind. Then he immediately got out of the way in order for the person behind it and the stack of books, papers and maps that they were carrying to get through. It wasn’t until he deftly removed two thirds of the stack that the face behind it could be seen.
“Oh, it’s you,” Adriatica said, and then proceeded to ignore him as her armload came crashing down on a mostly-unoccupied corner of the Duke’s desk.
Vespasian grinned anyways. Adria might be an interruption to his plan, but she had two redeeming qualities that made her, in his eyes, infinitely more worthy than her older brother. First, she had the ability to carry on an intelligent conversation for more than a full minute, and secondly, she was much prettier.
Adria obviously neither knew nor cared what she was interrupting, for she proceeded to brace one arm against the desk, tuck her dark hair behind an ear, and shift through her piles for a map which she shoved under her brother’s nose. A thick, leather bound book followed it quickly, along with a sheaf of papers that, after Vespasian looked closer, turned out to be reports on the state of the mine.
“And this time actually read the reports before you make any announcements,” she instructed him, “Or have you forgotten how? Anyway, I made up a list of things that you should not talk about in Eillen, and things that you should not do, if you actually want this deal to go through. I thought about making one of what you should, but I know you’d get them mixed up, and I decided that this would be better in the long run.”
Varin glared. “Adria…” but his sister was immune to his feeble attempts to actually embody his status, and she continued on anyway.
“All right, listen carefully. The first day that you arrive in Eillen, your hosts will have a ceremony of greeting. You should be fine if you more or less repeat what they say. Most likely you’ll have to appeal to the Patriarch of the house either the next day or the day after, and then he has to present it to their council at its next meeting, and I couldn’t find any records of how that works. There’s also no records of whether it’s wise to lay out the offer we want or if we should go bigger and let them whittle it down…”
“Most likely the second, your graces,” Vespasian put in with seeming boredom. However, inside he could scarcely believe his luck. Varin’s confidence was disappearing like a fox down a hole. Adriatica was practically doing Vespasian’s job for him.
“What do you know about Eillen?” Adria asked, turning to him, “More importantly, why haven’t you said something about it before? We’re trying to organize an expedition here!”
Add placating Adria to the list of complications in his plan. “Only a little,” Vespasian replied, “I was under the impression that the Duke would have asked someone to do the research weeks ago, and that he was already prepared.”
Vespasian wasn’t sure whether the frown that suddenly crossed Varin’s face was from his comment, or from Adria’s exasperated reply.
“You would think that, wouldn’t you,” she began, “but that person is always me, and yesterday is the first I heard of this. Probably the first that Varin heard of this either.”
“I’ll have you know that I’d been planning the announcement for days,” Varin replied, stiffly.
“But you hadn’t spent a moment before that thinking of what you’d actually have to do to travel to Eillen!” Adria shot back, “Not to mention what you would do once you got there! The guard is dashing about trying to put an honor guard together, your servants are going mad trying to pack everything, the Librarian and I have been dashing around trying to find enough information on trade with Eillen to give you some idea of what you’re about to do, and Mother is in hysterics because she’s certain we’re going to end up finding you in the river! You’ve done a better job organizing drunken hunting parties!”
Vespasian winced. Adria had gone too far - there was no way that Varin’s pride would let him back down now. The best thing Vespasian could do after this would be to hope that Varin would get lost and end up in Genona.
Varin stood up, and Vespasian knew it was all over. “For your information, sister,” he said stiffly, “I have in fact given a great deal of thought to this expedition, and know more about this than you wrongly assume. For example, the negotiator will have to deal with multiple proxies before they can hope to contact any of the three main houses, after which their council will decide whether or not the offer can be made. You assume too much - and that is why my negotiator will not be needing your lists.”
Vespasian nearly left then, until the words “my negotiator” managed to sink into his mind. Adria beat him to it.
“Your negotiator?” she asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism.
Varin was ready for that. “Surely, sister dear, you don’t think that the Duke of Renua should negotiate in person with the proxies of those Eillenians? A representative will suffice.”
Vespasian stared at Adria, willing her to just shut up, even if it meant loosing the argument with her older brother. But he should have known that she couldn’t let something like this slide.
“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow, crossing her arms. “Tell me, brother dear, have you given any thought as to who will be your negotiator?”
This one, it was obvious that Varin wasn’t ready for. But he gathered his wits quickly enough, and Vespasian waited for the whole plan to come crashing down around his ears. Damn that Adria.
“Him,” Varin said simply, pointing a quill at Vespasian, who at that moment could have been knocked over by a breath of air.
For once, Adria was silent.
~x0x~
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