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rix_scaeduThis piece runs to 2,502 words and I hope that you enjoy it.
Rhoinday, 16 Deichen, 1893 C.E.
Jimool, 6 Kaalen, 2157 T.M.L.
1 Mikistli, 21 Coatl, 6.11.2.1.8.4.2
Dear Journal,
It was overcast with a light drizzle when I woke this morning, making me think that we had been lucky with the weather yesterday afternoon. When Nais brought me my warm water, I put on one of my visiting gowns, the yellow one, so that I would not need to change if Lord Elnaith came to take me for a walk during the day.
Miztli and I exchanged morning greetings in the foyer as he departed for his morning practice and I went in to breakfast. I was not the last person down to breakfast, half a dozen of my cousins arrived later than I did. The meal was the usual delicious, supplemented porridge, and the morning's conversation was on conventional and unexceptional topics. There was little challenge to my vocabulary or contextual comprehension skills.
After my breakfast, I attended to my correspondence - just notes to confirm that my preparations to return home are going to plan, given how comprehensively and how recently I last wrote to them there really is very little new that I can tell them.
These letters written and deposited in the hall tray with the rest of the outgoing mail, I settled down to spend the rest of the morning with my Aunty Ssang novel. I had read enough to know that I would like to visit the Falls of Lakai, if I ever get the opportunity and they aren't fictional, and to identify which of the introduced characters is likely to be the first body (or the villain) when Lord Elnaith arrived.
He came with an invitation to lunch, and an escort of his manservant and a maid from the consulate. The maid was because he knew that Nais had a free day today. Cousin Poktilui and Great-aunt agreed that I could go, and so we had a pleasant walk to the consulate. Once there, Lord Elnaith asked me to prepare a list of those people whom I would like to attend the wedding. He said that at this point we are gathering names to see how many guests we were looking at inviting. He also observed that he expected that Tallaig's list and mine would have some overlap.
My list took a little over half an hour of steady writing to prepare. I annotated the top of the list with my assumption that my Forbaign relatives, except for Axolin, would be too far away to attend. The list began with my siblings and brother-in-law, Axolin, and then my mother. After that came the members of my mother's social circle and their surviving spouses plus the dependent daughters, granddaughters, and companions I like of ladies I do not. Finally, noting that there were people I thought it would be politic to invite, I added people like the mayor and his wife, and my trustees (whoever they are) and their wives.
Lord Elnaith read through the list, agreed that a wedding invitation might go some way to soothing the trustees, who are still being obstructionist about the wedding and my twenty-fifth birthday. (Surely, they don't think they can delay my birthday? Are they trying to extend the trust? That seems legally dubious to me because I can't see that any of the obvious reasons for that apply.)
At lunch I sat on the consul's right, with Mr dh'Fhogain on my right. Lord Elnaith was at the other end of the table on Lady Mhaiplaicidh's right, with Mrs dh'Fhogain on his right, and Miss dh'Arhaign opposite him. I faced the Right Reverend dh'Ghruaign across the table. I believe that all of the consulate's diplomatic staff were in attendance for the meal, plus Miss Surasina. Miss Surasina was seated next to Mr dh'Bhraigh and a young man with a fashionable haircut whose name I cannot recall as I write this (I was introduced to half the room just before sitting to eat and I have not retained most of the names.) Both gentlemen treated her with what appeared to be avuncular/fraternal kindness.
Both my lunch companions tried, with reasonable subtlety, to garner details of my stay with my cousins and of Cousin Ghrus and Cousin Poktlilui's household. I replied that it has been delightful to meet mt many, many cousins - but I cannot consider the minutiae of their myriad doings to be of interest to people outside the family. And then I asked if there had been developments in the matter of Mr dh'Lhong that had not made the newspapers here in Tlemutsiko. There have been considerable developments and I barely needed to say anything for the rest of the meal. Mr dh'Lhong has been returned to his home province where, despite popular opinion, the list of serious charges against him has grown. Aside from the charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and intimate assault, the intimidation, bribery, and violations to the various factory and mine regulation Acts continue to grow. Mr dh'Fhogain told me that there has been a notable rush of factory and mine owners in some provinces having 'maintenance' conducted on their properties to get them into code compliance before the Imperial inspectors and auditors arrive at their gates. There are rumours, and the consul emphasised that they are only rumours, that more natural children of his have been identified and are being included in the support provisions being made from Mr dh'Lhong's (former) assets.
[I accept that there are legitimate and illegitimate children, because sometimes life is untidy, but why are illegitimate children called 'natural' children? Aside from anything else, it suggests that there are 'unnatural children and I do not see what they could be. Also, having regard to the conversation noted above, how do men have the gall to complain about how much women gossip?]
After lunch, there was general conversation in a parlor before Lord Elnaith took me home to my cousins' house. It was a pleasant walk, linked arm in arm together, and my pleasure in it may have been mildly enhanced by the random thought that my mother would not have approved of suck public intimacy. On the way home, I advised Lord Elnaith that I intended to tell Cousin Ghrus that the consul and vice-consul had tried to gather information about his family and household, but that I believed I had managed to deflect them, and how. After a few moments of silence, Lord Elnaith replied that he agreed that was probably the best course of action. Any problems that arose from the conversation, he added, would probably come from other elements of the Confederation administration who probably had their own sources within the consulate - an observation he told me I need not repeat to anyone, but I could assume that any permanent diplomatic establishment had been infiltrated by another party. He commented that this was practically expected in diplomatic circles and sometimes managed to the infiltrated party's benefit.
Lord Elnaith did not linger once we had returned to my cousins' house, but he did say, very clearly, that he understood that I wished, even needed, to have a private conversation with Cousin Ghrus. He handed me over to Cousin Ghrus, made his farewells, and left. Cousin Ghrus took me directly into his office and sat me down. In retrospect, he may have been concerned that the engagement had been called off and he was going to need to comfort and support a distraught woman. Instead, I told him about the consul and vice-consul's probing, and my side stepping. He asked me if Lord Elnaith knew that this is what I wanted to talk to him about. In response I recounted my exchange with Lord Elnaith on our return here. Cousin Ghrus' expression reminded me very much of the 0one he had worn in our first meeting, when he leaned back in his chair and asked me why I was telling him this. My reply was that I was trying to balance my duties as a loyal Imperial citizen, with those as of a relative and guest. I understand that Cousin Ghrus' activities (whatever they are, exactly) as an Obsidian Knight and government official may be of interest to various Imperial authorities, but I don’t see that it is appropriate to expect me to supply the details they want. Aside from that, and Mr dh'Fhogain's apparent interest in the household's domestic arrangements, at Cousin Ghrus' most official his solution for my 'punishment' would have given me an improved situation over my home life with my mother. Answering those questions would have been a poor repayment for Cousin Ghrus and, by extension, the Confederation's benevolence. Cousin Ghrus thanked me for frankness, commented that I should reconsider my personal definition of others' benevolence, and ushered me from his office.
I spent the rest of the afternoon engaged in my embroidery. I limited my comments about lunch to it being very pleasant, and that time spent with Lord Elnaith is always enjoyable. I finished another napkin and started on the next - despite the break from this project while I embroidered my gift to the temple, things are progressing well. The work in progress did spark a, to me, interesting conversation about personal colour choices and preferences with some of my cousins. Xiloxoch asked why I chose certain patterns and that led to a similar discussion about pleasing and harmonious design elements - which are not necessarily the same thing.
Dinner tonight was another delicious stew - potatoes, both types of yam, the stems of a green leafy vegetable that I have not seen prepared this way before, and meat. I sat with Axolin and Cousin Mizti, who both mentioned that Cousin Ghrus had asked them to keep me company tonight. Mitzli sat opposite me, flanked by Xiloxoch and Eloxochitl who in turn sat next to their husbands. I did wwonder how far Cousin Ghrus' instructions went. Conversation included the doings of the nursery troop - Coza seems to be developing his exploratory skills and a search of the house had to be held while I was out in order to locate him. (He was finally found in Great-aunt's dressing room where he had gotten into a wardrobe and was trying to open a drawer where he has seen sweets stored. Eloxochitl, Coza's mother, was unimpressed with Miztli's admiration of her son's skills, and would prefer that his door opening and sneaking skills had not yet progressed to their current level.
After dinner, we ladies retreated to the parlor for our kasoolht, and I mentioned that we had begun looking into who should be on the guest list. I apologised that I had assumed that the current company would be unable to attend both because of distance and because the wedding would be held in the Empire. Most of my cousins understood exactly what I was alluding to but I believe that Cousin Ghraimh did have to explain things to Umeatl.
When the gentlemen joined us, Cousin Mizti and Miztli organised us into a game of maistoto with Axolin, Xiloxoch, Eloxochitl, Cipac Chan, and Yeiteskatl. (I believe this was still the effect of Cousin Ghrus' arrangements at work.) I found the game dynamic very different tonight. Of course, Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl is no longer with us, but if I had to put my finger on it, I would say that all the gentlemen had put their thinking caps in tonight, and the play was more calculated and ruthless than usual. I found it hard to keep up at first, but the play was probably on the level of the best of my mother's friends, and elderly ladies can be truly ruthless. At the end of the evening Cousin Mizti, Miztli, and Cipac Chan were well in the lead and almost exactly on the same points. Axolin, Yeiteskatl, and I were in another almost even group some way behind them on points, while Xiloxoch and Eloxichitl were behind us, but not terribly so. As we went up to bed I believe both ladies started conversations with their husbands by asking what that had been about. I am going to bed tonight wishing that I was not in the middle of someone else's powerplay, because I fear that I might be.
Anadrasata Nearabhigan