Dasen. I shouldn’t have made
such a deal of it. Your father’s right. It might be a thing for a
week or two, but it will blow over, especially if she’s not like
that when you arrive. I mean, if she shows up and actually looks
and acts like a normal girl, people will think it was an
exaggeration or even a lie. It will never hold up. Just like the
rumor that Albin Churler’s mother was a simpleton. It followed him
for a while, but when his parents visited and people saw that she
was just plain stupid, it died out.”
“ You started that rumor,”
Dasen reminded Rynn.
“ Which is another
advantage you have, the most virulent rumor monger at the
university is your best friend.”
“ Small consolation that,
but I do think you are on the right track. We do have six months.
By then it will be old news, and if we arrive and Tethina is
nothing like the rumor, it will be done. By the time we reach
Liandrin, she needs to seem so demure and delicate that no one will
be able to imagine the rumors were true. I’ll just have to make it
very clear that she can’t continue as she has, that it is against
the Order. She hasn’t had a man in her life to guide her, after
all. She probably just needs a strong hand to show her what is
proper.”
“ See,” Rynn declared. “I
have galloped in to save you yet again. All I need is a white
steed, and I could be a folk hero.”
“ I think the horse is the
least of your needs, but thank you. Now that I know what I’m
dealing with, I’m going up to my room to put some thought into it.”
Dasen rose and patted Rynn on the shoulder before starting up the
stairs. Somehow, despite finding the match to be worse than his
wildest fears, he was relieved to at least know what he was facing.
In the end, Tethina was nothing more than a mistake created by a
lack of proper male guidance, but the Order always sought to
correct itself. All he had to do was make Tethina see her proper
place, push her strongly back into that place, and the Order would
reestablish itself.
#
Ipid pushed the contract away in
disgust. He sat back from the small desk and pulled at the few
strands of hair remaining on either side of his scalp. A cry of
frustration rose inside him. He restrained it with grinding teeth.
How could he have made such a complete mess of every truly
important thing in his life? It was not supposed to be like this.
Kira was supposed to be here to keep him grounded, to keep the
ambition from overcoming the man. That had always been her role.
When he got ahead of himself, spent too much time dreaming and
planning, she always brought him back, reminded him what was
important. She’d come to him at times like these, when he was so
focused on some scheme that he didn’t know his own name, and lift
his head forcefully from the paper, remove the pen from his hand,
and lead him without a word to the table, to their son playing
before the fire, to their bed. Without her, he had no idea how to
separate himself from his ambitions, how to let it go and focus on
what is really important, how to relate to the only person that
really mattered, his son.
And his friends. They had trusted him
to look after their daughter, and he had abandoned her. The fire
had taken everything from her, and he had done nothing to restore
her, had left her with a widowed aunt and disappeared with her only
friend. And now as he tried to bring them together, to complete the
only promise he had left, all his mistakes were coming back on him.
Dasen and Tethina were meant to complete each other, and Ipid had
driven them so far apart that they were doomed from the start. How
could he possibly think this would work, that Dasen and Tethina,
given the lives he had made them lead, would ever fit together
again? But even here, his ambition would not be restrained. He
pushed them together with every ounce of his will no matter how
they resisted, no matter the consequences to them.
Go to
him , a voice sounded in his head. He
looked
such a deal of it. Your father’s right. It might be a thing for a
week or two, but it will blow over, especially if she’s not like
that when you arrive. I mean, if she shows up and actually looks
and acts like a normal girl, people will think it was an
exaggeration or even a lie. It will never hold up. Just like the
rumor that Albin Churler’s mother was a simpleton. It followed him
for a while, but when his parents visited and people saw that she
was just plain stupid, it died out.”
“ You started that rumor,”
Dasen reminded Rynn.
“ Which is another
advantage you have, the most virulent rumor monger at the
university is your best friend.”
“ Small consolation that,
but I do think you are on the right track. We do have six months.
By then it will be old news, and if we arrive and Tethina is
nothing like the rumor, it will be done. By the time we reach
Liandrin, she needs to seem so demure and delicate that no one will
be able to imagine the rumors were true. I’ll just have to make it
very clear that she can’t continue as she has, that it is against
the Order. She hasn’t had a man in her life to guide her, after
all. She probably just needs a strong hand to show her what is
proper.”
“ See,” Rynn declared. “I
have galloped in to save you yet again. All I need is a white
steed, and I could be a folk hero.”
“ I think the horse is the
least of your needs, but thank you. Now that I know what I’m
dealing with, I’m going up to my room to put some thought into it.”
Dasen rose and patted Rynn on the shoulder before starting up the
stairs. Somehow, despite finding the match to be worse than his
wildest fears, he was relieved to at least know what he was facing.
In the end, Tethina was nothing more than a mistake created by a
lack of proper male guidance, but the Order always sought to
correct itself. All he had to do was make Tethina see her proper
place, push her strongly back into that place, and the Order would
reestablish itself.
#
Ipid pushed the contract away in
disgust. He sat back from the small desk and pulled at the few
strands of hair remaining on either side of his scalp. A cry of
frustration rose inside him. He restrained it with grinding teeth.
How could he have made such a complete mess of every truly
important thing in his life? It was not supposed to be like this.
Kira was supposed to be here to keep him grounded, to keep the
ambition from overcoming the man. That had always been her role.
When he got ahead of himself, spent too much time dreaming and
planning, she always brought him back, reminded him what was
important. She’d come to him at times like these, when he was so
focused on some scheme that he didn’t know his own name, and lift
his head forcefully from the paper, remove the pen from his hand,
and lead him without a word to the table, to their son playing
before the fire, to their bed. Without her, he had no idea how to
separate himself from his ambitions, how to let it go and focus on
what is really important, how to relate to the only person that
really mattered, his son.
And his friends. They had trusted him
to look after their daughter, and he had abandoned her. The fire
had taken everything from her, and he had done nothing to restore
her, had left her with a widowed aunt and disappeared with her only
friend. And now as he tried to bring them together, to complete the
only promise he had left, all his mistakes were coming back on him.
Dasen and Tethina were meant to complete each other, and Ipid had
driven them so far apart that they were doomed from the start. How
could he possibly think this would work, that Dasen and Tethina,
given the lives he had made them lead, would ever fit together
again? But even here, his ambition would not be restrained. He
pushed them together with every ounce of his will no matter how
they resisted, no matter the consequences to them.
Go to
him , a voice sounded in his head. He
looked
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