Tranquility
"How the heck did you manage to afford this place?" Indeed it was a large manor-style house, in the Gogur style, with two parallel, sweeping hallways, and two cross-connecting hallways, starting at the living room/den/solarium then were in. Which was peculiar, most solariums were not sun-heated pools, let alone a sun-heated set of two pools patterned after holy glades. The room itself was also huge, 35 metres by 20. Shibué was sitting, cross-legged on the floor, scratching her otter's scruff, while Linnaeus was on a long chair, with four aquafold adult cats louging on him and purring.
"Inherited it, well, me and my sister inherited it, and my sister wanted to move to City Ward, and I didn't."
"Wait, so, your parents, who were described to me as 'minor nobles', could afford this mansion?"
"They're only minor in Kagomei, I thought I explained that..."
"What? How do you change importance in a country?"
"Easy, it depends on who else is important, compared to you. My folks are big in Brescia, always have been, and Brunswick, and Saer, and Lolland, but in Kagomei, they're small potatoes, not related to the Matsumotos or the Dandelions or anyone else big."
"Just how big is 'small potatoes'?"
"How do I even express this?"
"Is there a castle?"
"Oh, there's castles..."
"Castles in Benevent or Brescia or Saer or Brunswick?"
"Err, all of the above? And I guess to some this manor would be called a small castle."
Shibue just sank onto herself, on the floor, stunned, in almost a fetal position. "In all of them?"
"Well, my parents and our uncle, and ... Kinda."
"Wait, like this is the small house?"
"Second smallest, smallest's in Lolland." She looked at him, as if to say 'not helping'.
"How big is the largest?"
"Well, granted that my sister has that one, say twelve times."
"Twelve times?"
"It's a kilometer square of floor space, over five floors. The Electoral Palace of Silas-Saer, Lusi has yet to visit, she promised I'd get to peek too. Also where Jean-Sébastien Wolfgang-Motzbach lived. But it is documented as having thirty-one rooms on those five floors."
"What, he of eleventh symphony fame?"
"And Ode to bliss, and Nightmusic to joy."
"Oi, even I heard... He's lived on your property?"
"He lived there, as a family friend, and rumoured lover of some of my ancestors, and at the Baronial Palace of Czarny-Las, where Auntie Mikhala rules. Which is part of Lusi's new place."
"Wait, you can inherit stuff atop other, bigger people?"
"You only inherit stuff if you're closely related to the people who had it before. Uncle was more closely related to Motzbach than to the Nattingham folks, whereas my dad was related to the Saer folk."
"I thought your dad was Bresciani?"
"He was born in Benevent, in Sottofumo, near Escor of all places."
"Escor? With the pirates?"
"Yeah, but close in this context is five hundred kloms, not five. It's a very agrarian part of Benevent."
"So your mom, who was just under a Mastareir in Saer, married a Brecian Lucair?"
"If you want the simple version, yes, the genealogists usually take ten minutes to explain this bit..."
"What?"
"My parents were born to the places you mentioned, but they themselves were from nobility of multiple places, so it's complicated."
"I got that much for free, we've been talking for three minutes, but I don't think you even named them, or their allies or anything most nobles do when talking about family."
"Well, mom, Sally Veneer to anyone in Kagomei, is really Lanungmei of Trusimon Countess of Alaszt-Lorren, Baroness of Ryalfi, Baroness of Relogna, Electoral Princess of Saer-Natthingham, and dad is Lanungmei of Saphirdom, Feyd Soshitan, , Lucair of Ferrare, Baron of Welf, Baron of Sottofumo-Tagliare."
"That's not castle-toting titles."
"Because they haven't inherited those titles yet."
"But they're dead, doesn't that mean their heirs do?"
"Err, yes, actually, my bad."
"So you and your sister are those titles, while the people who are Mastareir and Lucair and Dukes and Princes are still alive, but since they don't have any other heirs than you two, you're still expected to inherit?"
"Succintly put."
"I thought you liked keeping a low profile? Good luck with that and a Mastareir..."
"My sister's getting that, and the Electoral Princess thing..."
"So... you're 'only' the Lucair of Ferrare?"
"Well, only... not like that's not at least a castle double this size..."
"I know, and with vineyards that are famous."
"I wouldn't mind the honest work..."
"Are you helping manage it?"
"Kinda, Auntie asked me to drop in and keep an eye from time to time. Mostly when Amarat wasn't available."
"He's not Mastareir material either?"
"He was, until he became Bameimeito, those are incompatible."
"Oh, how come?"
"The line's drawn at an actual chief of state, capable of signing treaties, like Meihomei. And Amarat's legal standing is so close to that it's getting into small print territory."
"I am being very silly, aren't I?"
"Why?"
"I'm making a big fuss of you being royalty, but you're Nameihomei's nephew, and Amarat's first cousin, for anyone who doesn't live in the palace, you're royalty a few times over... Or at least, they can hardly tell the difference, and whoever thinks you're small potatoes in Kagomei needs an attitude adjustment."
"Err, could you not?"
"Could I not what?"
"Could you not remind me? I think I'm getting an anxiety attack, I mean, if anything happens to Auntie Amalthea, Amarat becomes Meihomei, and we're close enough to be sized up for bameimeito unless Amarat's got kids..."
"Oh, sorry, it bothers you that much?"
"Trying not to think about it, I mean, I just want to do my duty..."
"You helped write and sign the biggest treaty in Kagomine history... Obviously, your idea of 'just doing your duty' is pretty robust."
"You're waiting to see if you can make me blush, aren't you?"
"Well, before Jor-Jie gets bored and tries to crawl up my jacket, for sure. If you outlast Jor-Jie, you're off the hook."
"Oh, I get a reprieve?"
"If you're more patient than an otter, which, granted, aren't the most patient of creatures, I'll stop badgering you."
"Thanks, love you."
"Dit-dit! Dit-dit!"
"Hrmph, well now I wish she'd go back down..."
"What?"
"So I could kiss you..."
"Oh, behave."
"So, this is your ancestral home?"
"One of them, for some of my ancestors. That's the thing with any nobility family of any size, you get a few..."
"And you have the budget to operate this place?"
"I've got the budget to operate 8 manshions like this, in 4 countries, according to my sister, I can't say I've tried though..."
"Just how much of my budget for the detail are we talking?"
"How big is the budget's detail?"
"The exact number is classified... Oh, you can't answer 'is it bigger' than a classified number, can you?"
"Precisely."
"Let's say a hundred thousand sums every week..."
"It is bigger. Not by as much as I thought, but bigger. A hundred thousand sums a week is my taxes and utility budget for all the properties, since there's so much."
"What, you pay a half million a month for your properties?"
"Well, mine and my sister's because we haven't untangled that yet... She owns bigger ones, so her share should be bigger."
"Just how much money do you have, that you throw it around like that?"
"Oh, uncle Amarat was always good with money, set us all up with thrust funds, and companies to manage money."
"When did you manage money for the first time, say, a hundred thousand sums, all in one place?"
"I must have been ten?"
"Ten! With that much money?"
"One per cent of my trust fund vended to my control every year from age ten to age seventeen, then five per cent per year, every year, until I'm thirty-six."
"So, an amount of money so large, I've never even seen it all in one place, was an annuity, before you were even an adult?"
"Dad made a show of giving me my annuity in cash, the first year, before he died."
"Zorglub, so you saw that much money, in one place?"
"Yeah, was in Bresciani Dotto, but I saw it just the same."
"The one in platinum coins?"
"Euh, no, dotto in bills, err, not sure there's that much platinum in all of Arnd, let alone Brescia."
Knock-knock. "Yes?" "Delivery for Ninu dell'Auro, here, thank you." "Wait! She doesn't live here." "I don't need a signature, so I guess these are a gift to you in her name... At least, I imagine, sending this back to Eurani will be expensive..." "What? Who? What are these?" Shibue was never a morning person, especially not on the first night of her leave. She couldn't believe it, he'd taken her out dancing! And the next day, some high-ticket woman's items had been delivered, but in another woman's name! "I hope I'm wrong... I hope to Gehran I'm wrong..." Linni... Linni had swore! Shibue had only known him a short time, but she'd noticed he kept his language cleaner than most, clean as a new father with a young child he was trying not to give bad ideas to. So for him to swear by the capital of the underworld... "Ninny, Ninny-nel-noro?" "Ninu, Ninu dell'Auro. My ex-Miptun." "Your ex?" "My ex, I know I've mentioned her before, when we went balling." "Some ex, those are Bresciani!" "So is she?" "But I've seen pictures, she looks... Nisan?" "Half-nisan, half-gogurean would be her ancestry, but adopted, like her two sisters, by a Bresciani man and a Benevent woman." "dell'Auro, I should know this name." "You've met both her sisters, with Meihomei." "Oh, those dell'Auro? The ones that come for spring break?" "Them and their father get described that way, but I haven't seen him in two-three arnds, so I'm betting you've only met the daughters, his elder and middle daughter, not Ninu." "Is there a child?" "What?" "Did you father a child on the poor woman? It's not a hard question." "No, by all the elements, no, if you'd been here back then you'd know better than to ask such a question." "Why?" "Because that's why she's my ex... And Luci's, and Amarat's." "She's tried the whole family huh?" "No polite way to say it otherwise, but yeah, she seemed to have an interest in everyone connected to our family. Lusi she tried first, and they had a tumultuous breakup while they were both in their mid-teens, I had naively been happy for my sister to have found someone." "What was so naive about that?" "Oh, merely that I hadn't asked my sister if they were making each other happy, turns out they were fighting all the time." "I want to say this gently Linni, but some of that is your sister, she gets on everyone's nerves." "I know, but Ninu was the one pursuing Luci, then having tantrums when Lusi wasn't being easy to manipulate." "I doubt she was saying that in such blunt terms." "Neither was Luci, who was still a teenager, no older than Ninu or me, but younger than Amarat, for instance, but it's what it was, with the benefit of hindsight." "Let me guess, she jumped onto Amarat with both hands, after a scandalously short mourning period for the relationship." "I see you remember your Arndology classes... Yes, turns out she quite liked Amarat the dashing adventurous Namei as a rebound." "He's not like that!" "He's no longer like that..." "What, he liked to party a lot?" "Him and Luci were hard into the party scene. People called him and Luci the directorate of parties." "I know you didn't party that hard, but you were never that far from Luci, either. How did you negotiate that balance?" "Oh I'd say my cats needed me, or that I had to work late, or some other excuse. The real reason was that I didn't mind showing up to a party, but I did mind staying until it was over." "What was the latest you stayed at a party?" "Oh, I rolled over, twice, once at my twenty-fifth arnday, and once for Uncle Amarat's funeral drinks in Brescia." "Not in Kagomei?" "Kagomei doesn't do all nighters for funerals. But as Lucumon of Ferrare, he was due one according to Brescian and Benevent custom." "They do overnighters for funerals?" "They have a bard tell the story of a lord's domain, and Ferrare is the oldest one in Benevent, which is the oldest state in Eurani. When they go back, they go way back." "How old are we talking?" "Ferrare has written records that are candidates for the invention of viticulture. And among the oldest surviving fragments of writing." "I'm sorry, viti-what?" "Viticulture, the main tradition of wine-making." "Wine? What's next, the wheel? Tcha?" "Both wheels and tcha were attested in those texts, as... novelties from the last century. It's a tetchy subject." "I'm going to sit down... Your uncle's domain is around 60 centuries old?" "My aunts..." "I thought you said she'd given it up... To you!" "Err, yeah." "So, wait, you'd be a Lucumon of Ferrare, whose title traces back to things that were new when wine was new?" "Wine, wheels, tcha and writing were all pretty new, and all four are super-contested among historians, some say six thousand years aren't enough, some say it's too much..." "Anyways, going back to parties... You don't party a lot, so you must have been a suspicious match for Ninu, who'd gone for all the party folks in your family." "She'd expected this, and tried to tell me she was past this heavy party scene thing." "How believable was she?" "Oh she had expensive tastes, just not loud ones, as my Miptun. Things were going along, I had a miptun, my professional prospects liked that idea, many personal acquaintances kept telling me it was a good look on me." "Always a good thing, you were young, and impressionable. Then what happened?" "I was in Brescia, in Ferrare, I was drunk, it was that funeral party for uncle, I talked to Amarat 'junior', I asked him why she was his ex..." "Hardly an unwise question." Shibue approved, he may not have been the most untrusting of folks, but he could detect when things were going 'too well' in her opinion. "What did he say?" "That she had tried to enspell him, and that he had resisted her enchantment." "What?" She tried to put a whammy on a Namei? And she wasn't drawn and quartered?" "For all her faults, she has diplomatic immunity, as number six in Brescia's line of inheritance, she has that, and legal protections we don't always acknowledge, but she's, look, she's not exactly someone the Eurani would let us have, even if we had legal execution for the crime you specify..." "The hell we don't!" "We have legal execution for pretending to be a Namei, not for enspelling one..." "Oh, and this is different how?" "If you already are a Namei, you're not pretending to be one, even if because of the spell, you're not voting according to your own free will... Letter of the law vs spirit." "Oh, that's a loophole?" "Amarat's gotten it closed, by next legislature, but for now, it's open, and it'd hardly be a good look to retroactively want to execute someone from another country for a crime that didn't exist then..." "Ok, ok, and she's a diplomat?" "She's at least #4 in the Eurani Pact's diplomatic service now." "Any of her sisters above her?" "Annunzia's #2, #1 depending on de jure vs de facto." "Who's #1 if she's #2?" "Their dad. It's complicated." "And she was trying to whammy you?" "She did whammy me, I can't deny her putting her things in my place, for instance..." "What, but you're a Namei..." "I'm hardly a strong prince, but I am strong enough she tried to draw me in..." "Oh. you sweet, summer child..." "What are you saying?" "You should have had 7/24 protection from the moment we thought the Eurani, or the Nisan, were trying to influence Nameis, and your own status... Well, you're hardly inconsequential." "Is that a lifeguard finding?" "No, but it should be. Whoever abandoned you ..." "Was probably your father, let's just skip it." "What, Dad?" "And whoever else probably thought it wasn't worth upsetting a dawn striding flag over... I'm just a guy." "Dad was hardly upset when people said 'not a flag' you know?" "I've spoken to your father, he was kinda cool, if you weren't thrust into the upper sphere of fancy things." The young woman, her hair dyed platinum blonde had walked in, the security system recognizing either her print or her irises, and the door just opened into the Solarium. "Which means he got along ok with you, but hated your father?" "No, father was a commissioned officer, they'd probably not be too close friends, but they'd respect each other. It's my elder sisters he'd look askance at, being both politicians. By the way, where's Re-do?" "Re-do? Who's that?" "Re-do is her cute nickname for Firrson." "Why?" "He's like a little Linni sometimes, growing up in the same house, but younger, and they're a bit alike..." "A bit? You've not seen Dolphin in a while then." "Dolphin? That's his new nickname?" "Yeah, he's just that good a swimmer." "Oh, I knew he liked the water..." "He's made the all-lifeguards swimming team the last three years. It helps he's been actually guarding beaches early in his career, and served on cross-training missions with border guard ships." "I guess he's no longer a little Linni either." "Oh, no, not quite. He outmasses Linni by a half, and he's a hand taller than me, so almost two hands taller than Linni." "Oh, so you got a tall Miptun now Linni?" Her tone was teasing. "A tall herevallin. We got... married to use the Brescian term, three months ago." "Congradulations. Err, I really shouldn't have sent my stuff here, should I?" "Well, we're still obnoxiously newlyweds, Ninu, draw your own conclusions..." "Oh, my!" "Linni..." "Yes, Shibue?" "I just checked, she got cleared to stay with us..." "What? How? Neither of us knew she was coming..." "Oh, that's provisional, and we could rescind it... But I mean, she asked to stay with you, and no less than Senya and your Aunt thought it'd be a good idea..." "Sigh, I never did tell auntie she was my ex... I mean, by getting married, she probably had an idea..." "Oh, no, well check the date, this was planned... last arnd. Before we were married." "Well, err, I guess she was my ex already back then, but no one but me and her knew..." "Victory for discretion, but you might let other people know, before they assume any of your other exes can live with us..." "She's my only ex, but your point is still made." "What, she was your first?" "I always knew I was your first, it was so obvious." "First what?" "Miptun?" "Girlfriend." "You eurani are so strange, he must have had friends that are girls before..." "It's an idiom, it means a romantic friendship." "Oh, so it doesn't map exactly to Miptun either?" "Why not?" "Getting a miptun is explcitly entering a sexual friendship with a woman." "Oh, it mostly maps, but not exactly, you can have a girlfriend at a too young age, for one... Lover maps to Miptun and Grib for the sexual aspect, but it's agender." "Sex terms are always complicated in Arnd, but the Circles can't be bothered to try to make it easier to understand, I think some cults like the quiproquos that result." "Or the puns, some of them are wicked punsters." "I wouldn't know." "Oh, wait, you're not a sorceror?" Shibué had heard Linni saying she had tried to enspell, someone, but it was different when someone admitted it... "I am, but Linni's my only layman Grib. I can't go back after dreamy Amarat..." "Why do I think you'd go back to Linni, even if only as a fallback." "Oh, you got me there... Don't look at me like that, I mean, there's nothing wrong with him, and for all of our fights and disagreements, no one ever got through to me like Linni still does. He's the best communicator I know, plus, of course, I wouldn't be starting from scratch." "And you know all about his family and their holdings, probably more than I do." "I better, I'm the assistant to the Knights Herald of Brescia, if there's a holding in Brescia or Benevent you know better than I do, I'm going to lose the post!" "What? That's new Ninu, congradts." "Thanks, I did have to work at it, and I really, really owe that to you. No one but you even believed I could do anything I tried to, and you helped me find strengths I had, that I could apply. That's how I picked that." "You picked that five arnds ago?" "And I got it last arnd, it took a while..." "You said you were the assistant to, who's the main?" "It's vacant, so I'm assistant to, and interim, but I can't become to main, it's reserved for the Lucumon of Ferrare, in his fullest powers." "What, isn't that the title you told me you were going to inherit, Linni?" "Yeah. Well, unless they decide he can't commit to the job full time, seeming he's a noble in five lands..." "What? I thought he had foreign holdings in only four..." "Exactly, and I'm Ryder Kannagael, it's not an important Kagomine title, but I am still considered a Kagomine noble because of it." "Oh, sorry luv. I had no idea it stung..." "When others do it, it doesn't, when my wife does it... Ugh... I couldn't be more undermined if you put me under a mine." "Oh, ok, point taken, I guess I should know better. Wait, if I'm your wife, doesn't that make me a Ryder as well?" "Ryders aren't transmissible, I have to inherit dad's Feyd, and become Feyd Soshitan for you to partake." "And if I remember it right, his dad's a Lanungmei as well as a Feyd." "How come you know so much?" "I actually did a term paper on Amarat and Linni's families, studying to be the Knight Herald's assistant. For my foreign heraldry class." "Why them?" "Besides the fact they've been allies and rivals of my family for as long as my family's been around, that they're the second most important noble family in Brescia, and have the best wine, Ferrare Rispasso? No reason. I'm being silly, obviously, the fact that I had all this advanced knowledge helped tremendously, although the Kagomine parts did complicate my life a bit." "Why?" "I needed five hundred words just to explain who your Aunt was, Meihomei was, how they were related, and how it impacted the succession of four other kingdoms." "Four?" "Auntie Mikhala declined near-kingmaker positions in four lands, because she was the primary heir in Kagomei." "Kingmaker?" "Not in the political movement sense, in the Electoral-prince or massively influential sense." "Massively influential?" "Oh, Linni, you didn't tell her?" "I just told her about becoming Lucair of Ferrare..." "After you got married, I bet." "Eh, yeah." "What's the matter with that?" "He wanted to make sure you weren't marrying him for his position." "Well, I wasn't. I'm just interested in him as a person." "You're a bigger person than I am, I'd have liked to know in what country I expected to sleep in, too..." "What?" "Oh, well you can hardly be Lucair of Ferrare from all the way in Kagomei..." "What's a Lucair, you mentioned it earlier, but I don't have context?" "It's just under a Domei, more or less." "A Domei?" "Whoa, whoa, I'm just a little guy." "A little guy, he says, when the Lucair of Ferrare sneezes, the Bresciani Res asks the Mastarneir of Benevent how many days off he's going to need." "What's a bresciani res?" "It's complicated, but the short version is the mastareir of Brescia and Benevent, also known as the 'king' of Brescia." "Oh, so his +2?" "If he has one..." "What?" "My sister's more like his +1 at this point..." "Naw, I'm small potatoes." "Someone's going to inherit your Auntie's title in Benevent, you or your sister, most likely." "Sis is big potatoes in Sarn, she's happy with that." "Well, that leaves you as keeping my sister on her toes..." "Her sister?" "Bresciani Res/Beneventi Res Annunzia Dell'Auro, Mastarna of Bramant-Reigundy. There's talk she might actually unite Bleg and Brescia just by marrying." "From what I know, and what Amarat told me, good luck to her!" "What?" "Come on, you know she's the most demanding woman that's ever drew breath." "I'd say my sisters are both well-qualified for for that position. But being both women of power, they're certainly going to need to be... picky." "And you don't?" "Well, not as much, I had to renounce any and all title inheritance in Brescia to get the job, hopefully, that'll get them out of my hair." "You'll just have to fend off the ones who think you're a pretty fluffhead." "Aw, I missed how free you are with compliments, Linni."
"What's this?" "You ok Boo?" "No, I am fine, I'm just worried I might be going bonkers..." "What's wrong?" "The kittens are in the pool, and unless I'm hallucinating, Jor-Jie is giving swimming lessons, and the grown ups are all hiding in boxes!" "Now, now, I'm as surprised as you at the teacher, but the kits learning to swim is totally normal." "What? No, it's not normal for cats to swim!" "It is for aquafold, they're as at ease in water up to two fathoms as they are on land." "And you know this how?" "I've been keeping aquafolds for half my life now, I've seen their great-grandma teach her kits how to swim." "What, so Graînea?" "Robyn taught Grainea here... In this room. Robyn learned in Innu, from what I've been told." "And Grainea's kits?" "You mean Ariellyn? Here, as her sisters and brother, then Raven, Corbo, Corvo and Kruk, and now Raven's kits." "Just this room?" "Well, it goes with being the Kitten-Ra. They tend to learn at your house." "Did you have the glade then?" "No, I decided to add it once I found out, after Robyn decided to join me while I was taking a bubble bath... I shrieked." "Oh, my. I'm sorry..." "You're sorry about what?" "I just can't..." Shibue started laughing, a deep, belly laugh. "Not the last time that particular event generates laughter. And look who walked here from the Palace." He pointed down to between his feet, where the great-great grandmother of the kits was purring up a storm. "The Nameita herself, first of the name, terrifying in her furor, Robyn." She leaned down to pet that particular worthy cat. "Mew! PurrPurrPurr." "I swear, she's like an engine some days..." "There's something else we gotta talk about..." "What?" "That facial hair of yours... That lustache..." "What, it's just stubble, I just stopped cutting off my mustache." "That's what a lustache is!" "What? You don't like it?" "I don't like what it signifies in K-Music, they call it a lustache for a reason..." "What, oh, I can barely keep up with you boo..."
The true ruler of Tranquility is Raven, having established her rule over her three sisters with an iron paw in a velvet glove, mixing cuddles with clawed intimidation, and having delivered four kittens, aka intelligence agents, spies, etc, fully suitable to see everything going on. Linni has no clue, but he wouldn't stop it, probably, even if he did, as the term pussy whipped, in his case, well...
Knock-knock. "Yes?" "Delivery for Ninu dell'Auro, here, thank you." "Wait! She doesn't live here." "I don't need a signature, so I guess these are a gift to you in her name... At least, I imagine, sending this back to Eurani will be expensive..." "What? Who? What are these?" Shibue was never a morning person, especially not on the first night of her leave. She couldn't believe it, he'd taken her out dancing! And the next day, some high-ticket woman's items had been delivered, but in another woman's name! "I hope I'm wrong... I hope to Gehran I'm wrong..." Linni... Linni had swore! Shibue had only known him a short time, but she'd noticed he kept his language cleaner than most, clean as a new father with a young child he was trying not to give bad ideas to. So for him to swear by the capital of the underworld... "Ninny, Ninny-nel-noro?" "Ninu, Ninu dell'Auro. My ex-Miptun." "Your ex?" "My ex, I know I've mentioned her before, when we went balling." "Some ex, those are Bresciani!" "So is she?" "But I've seen pictures, she looks... Nisan?" "Half-nisan, half-gogurean would be her ancestry, but adopted, like her two sisters, by a Bresciani man and a Benevent woman." "dell'Auro, I should know this name." "You've met both her sisters, with Meihomei." "Oh, those dell'Auro? The ones that come for spring break?" "Them and their father get described that way, but I haven't seen him in two-three arnds, so I'm betting you've only met the daughters, his elder and middle daughter, not Ninu." "Is there a child?" "What?" "Did you father a child on the poor woman? It's not a hard question." "No, by all the elements, no, if you'd been here back then you'd know better than to ask such a question." "Why?" "Because that's why she's my ex... And Luci's, and Amarat's." "She's tried the whole family huh?" "No polite way to say it otherwise, but yeah, she seemed to have an interest in everyone connected to our family. Lusi she tried first, and they had a tumultuous breakup while they were both in their mid-teens, I had naively been happy for my sister to have found someone." "What was so naive about that?" "Oh, merely that I hadn't asked my sister if they were making each other happy, turns out they were fighting all the time." "I want to say this gently Linni, but some of that is your sister, she gets on everyone's nerves." "I know, but Ninu was the one pursuing Luci, then having tantrums when Lusi wasn't being easy to manipulate." "I doubt she was saying that in such blunt terms." "Neither was Luci, who was still a teenager, no older than Ninu or me, but younger than Amarat, for instance, but it's what it was, with the benefit of hindsight." "Let me guess, she jumped onto Amarat with both hands, after a scandalously short mourning period for the relationship." "I see you remember your Arndology classes... Yes, turns out she quite liked Amarat the dashing adventurous Namei as a rebound." "He's not like that!" "He's no longer like that..." "What, he liked to party a lot?" "Him and Luci were hard into the party scene. People called him and Luci the directorate of parties." "I know you didn't party that hard, but you were never that far from Luci, either. How did you negotiate that balance?" "Oh I'd say my cats needed me, or that I had to work late, or some other excuse. The real reason was that I didn't mind showing up to a party, but I did mind staying until it was over." "What was the latest you stayed at a party?" "Oh, I rolled over, twice, once at my twenty-fifth arnday, and once for Uncle Amarat's funeral drinks in Brescia." "Not in Kagomei?" "Kagomei doesn't do all nighters for funerals. But as Lucumon of Ferrare, he was due one according to Brescian and Benevent custom." "They do overnighters for funerals?" "They have a bard tell the story of a lord's domain, and Ferrare is the oldest one in Benevent, which is the oldest state in Eurani. When they go back, they go way back." "How old are we talking?" "Ferrare has written records that are candidates for the invention of viticulture. And among the oldest surviving fragments of writing." "I'm sorry, viti-what?" "Viticulture, the main tradition of wine-making." "Wine? What's next, the wheel? Tcha?" "Both wheels and tcha were attested in those texts, as... novelties from the last century. It's a tetchy subject." "I'm going to sit down... Your uncle's domain is around 60 centuries old?" "My aunts..." "I thought you said she'd given it up... To you!" "Err, yeah." "So, wait, you'd be a Lucumon of Ferrare, whose title traces back to things that were new when wine was new?" "Wine, wheels, tcha and writing were all pretty new, and all four are super-contested among historians, some say six thousand years aren't enough, some say it's too much..." "Anyways, going back to parties... You don't party a lot, so you must have been a suspicious match for Ninu, who'd gone for all the party folks in your family." "She'd expected this, and tried to tell me she was past this heavy party scene thing." "How believable was she?" "Oh she had expensive tastes, just not loud ones, as my Miptun. Things were going along, I had a miptun, my professional prospects liked that idea, many personal acquaintances kept telling me it was a good look on me." "Always a good thing, you were young, and impressionable. Then what happened?" "I was in Brescia, in Ferrare, I was drunk, it was that funeral party for uncle, I talked to Amarat 'junior', I asked him why she was his ex..." "Hardly an unwise question." Shibue approved, he may not have been the most untrusting of folks, but he could detect when things were going 'too well' in her opinion. "What did he say?" "That she had tried to enspell him, and that he had resisted her enchantment." "What?" She tried to put a whammy on a Namei? And she wasn't drawn and quartered?" "For all her faults, she has diplomatic immunity, as number six in Brescia's line of inheritance, she has that, and legal protections we don't always acknowledge, but she's, look, she's not exactly someone the Eurani would let us have, even if we had legal execution for the crime you specify..." "The hell we don't!" "We have legal execution for pretending to be a Namei, not for enspelling one..." "Oh, and this is different how?" "If you already are a Namei, you're not pretending to be one, even if because of the spell, you're not voting according to your own free will... Letter of the law vs spirit." "Oh, that's a loophole?" "Amarat's gotten it closed, by next legislature, but for now, it's open, and it'd hardly be a good look to retroactively want to execute someone from another country for a crime that didn't exist then..." "Ok, ok, and she's a diplomat?" "She's at least #4 in the Eurani Pact's diplomatic service now." "Any of her sisters above her?" "Annunzia's #2, #1 depending on de jure vs de facto." "Who's #1 if she's #2?" "Their dad. It's complicated." "And she was trying to whammy you?" "She did whammy me, I can't deny her putting her things in my place, for instance..." "What, but you're a Namei..." "I'm hardly a strong prince, but I am strong enough she tried to draw me in..." "Oh. you sweet, summer child..." "What are you saying?" "You should have had 7/24 protection from the moment we thought the Eurani, or the Nisan, were trying to influence Nameis, and your own status... Well, you're hardly inconsequential." "Is that a lifeguard finding?" "No, but it should be. Whoever abandoned you ..." "Was probably your father, let's just skip it." "What, Dad?" "And whoever else probably thought it wasn't worth upsetting a dawn striding flag over... I'm just a guy." "Dad was hardly upset when people said 'not a flag' you know?" "I've spoken to your father, he was kinda cool, if you weren't thrust into the upper sphere of fancy things." The young woman, her hair dyed platinum blonde had walked in, the security system recognizing either her print or her irises, and the door just opened into the Solarium. "Which means he got along ok with you, but hated your father?" "No, father was a commissioned officer, they'd probably not be too close friends, but they'd respect each other. It's my elder sisters he'd look askance at, being both politicians. By the way, where's Re-do?" "Re-do? Who's that?" "Re-do is her cute nickname for Firrson." "Why?" "He's like a little Linni sometimes, growing up in the same house, but younger, and they're a bit alike..." "A bit? You've not seen Dolphin in a while then." "Dolphin? That's his new nickname?" "Yeah, he's just that good a swimmer." "Oh, I knew he liked the water..." "He's made the all-lifeguards swimming team the last three years. It helps he's been actually guarding beaches early in his career, and served on cross-training missions with border guard ships." "I guess he's no longer a little Linni either." "Oh, no, not quite. He outmasses Linni by a half, and he's a hand taller than me, so almost two hands taller than Linni." "Oh, so you got a tall Miptun now Linni?" Her tone was teasing. "A tall herevallin. We got... married to use the Brescian term, three months ago." "Congradulations. Err, I really shouldn't have sent my stuff here, should I?" "Well, we're still obnoxiously newlyweds, Ninu, draw your own conclusions..." "Oh, my!" "Linni..." "Yes, Shibue?" "I just checked, she got cleared to stay with us..." "What? How? Neither of us knew she was coming..." "Oh, that's provisional, and we could rescind it... But I mean, she asked to stay with you, and no less than Senya and your Aunt thought it'd be a good idea..." "Sigh, I never did tell auntie she was my ex... I mean, by getting married, she probably had an idea..." "Oh, no, well check the date, this was planned... last arnd. Before we were married." "Well, err, I guess she was my ex already back then, but no one but me and her knew..." "Victory for discretion, but you might let other people know, before they assume any of your other exes can live with us..." "She's my only ex, but your point is still made." "What, she was your first?" "I always knew I was your first, it was so obvious." "First what?" "Miptun?" "Girlfriend." "You eurani are so strange, he must have had friends that are girls before..." "It's an idiom, it means a romantic friendship." "Oh, so it doesn't map exactly to Miptun either?" "Why not?" "Getting a miptun is explcitly entering a sexual friendship with a woman." "Oh, it mostly maps, but not exactly, you can have a girlfriend at a too young age, for one... Lover maps to Miptun and Grib for the sexual aspect, but it's agender." "Sex terms are always complicated in Arnd, but the Circles can't be bothered to try to make it easier to understand, I think some cults like the quiproquos that result." "Or the puns, some of them are wicked punsters." "I wouldn't know." "Oh, wait, you're not a sorceror?" Shibué had heard Linni saying she had tried to enspell, someone, but it was different when someone admitted it... "I am, but Linni's my only layman Grib. I can't go back after dreamy Amarat..." "Why do I think you'd go back to Linni, even if only as a fallback." "Oh, you got me there... Don't look at me like that, I mean, there's nothing wrong with him, and for all of our fights and disagreements, no one ever got through to me like Linni still does. He's the best communicator I know, plus, of course, I wouldn't be starting from scratch." "And you know all about his family and their holdings, probably more than I do." "I better, I'm the assistant to the Knights Herald of Brescia, if there's a holding in Brescia or Benevent you know better than I do, I'm going to lose the post!" "What? That's new Ninu, congradts." "Thanks, I did have to work at it, and I really, really owe that to you. No one but you even believed I could do anything I tried to, and you helped me find strengths I had, that I could apply. That's how I picked that." "You picked that five arnds ago?" "And I got it last arnd, it took a while..." "You said you were the assistant to, who's the main?" "It's vacant, so I'm assistant to, and interim, but I can't become to main, it's reserved for the Lucumon of Ferrare, in his fullest powers." "What, isn't that the title you told me you were going to inherit, Linni?" "Yeah. Well, unless they decide he can't commit to the job full time, seeming he's a noble in five lands..." "What? I thought he had foreign holdings in only four..." "Exactly, and I'm Ryder Kannagael, it's not an important Kagomine title, but I am still considered a Kagomine noble because of it." "Oh, sorry luv. I had no idea it stung..." "When others do it, it doesn't, when my wife does it... Ugh... I couldn't be more undermined if you put me under a mine." "Oh, ok, point taken, I guess I should know better. Wait, if I'm your wife, doesn't that make me a Ryder as well?" "Ryders aren't transmissible, I have to inherit dad's Feyd, and become Feyd Soshitan for you to partake." "And if I remember it right, his dad's a Lanungmei as well as a Feyd." "How come you know so much?" "I actually did a term paper on Amarat and Linni's families, studying to be the Knight Herald's assistant. For my foreign heraldry class." "Why them?" "Besides the fact they've been allies and rivals of my family for as long as my family's been around, that they're the second most important noble family in Brescia, and have the best wine, Ferrare Rispasso? No reason. I'm being silly, obviously, the fact that I had all this advanced knowledge helped tremendously, although the Kagomine parts did complicate my life a bit." "Why?" "I needed five hundred words just to explain who your Aunt was, Meihomei was, how they were related, and how it impacted the succession of four other kingdoms." "Four?" "Auntie Mikhala declined near-kingmaker positions in four lands, because she was the primary heir in Kagomei." "Kingmaker?" "Not in the political movement sense, in the Electoral-prince or massively influential sense." "Massively influential?" "Oh, Linni, you didn't tell her?" "I just told her about becoming Lucair of Ferrare..." "After you got married, I bet." "Eh, yeah." "What's the matter with that?" "He wanted to make sure you weren't marrying him for his position." "Well, I wasn't. I'm just interested in him as a person." "You're a bigger person than I am, I'd have liked to know in what country I expected to sleep in, too..." "What?" "Oh, well you can hardly be Lucair of Ferrare from all the way in Kagomei..." "What's a Lucair, you mentioned it earlier, but I don't have context?" "It's just under a Domei, more or less." "A Domei?" "Whoa, whoa, I'm just a little guy." "A little guy, he says, when the Lucair of Ferrare sneezes, the Bresciani Res asks the Mastarneir of Benevent how many days off he's going to need." "What's a bresciani res?" "It's complicated, but the short version is the mastareir of Brescia and Benevent, also known as the 'king' of Brescia." "Oh, so his +2?" "If he has one..." "What?" "My sister's more like his +1 at this point..." "Naw, I'm small potatoes." "Someone's going to inherit your Auntie's title in Benevent, you or your sister, most likely." "Sis is big potatoes in Sarn, she's happy with that." "Well, that leaves you as keeping my sister on her toes..." "Her sister?" "Bresciani Res/Beneventi Res Annunzia Dell'Auro, Mastarna of Bramant-Reigundy. There's talk she might actually unite Bleg and Brescia just by marrying." "From what I know, and what Amarat told me, good luck to her!" "What?" "Come on, you know she's the most demanding woman that's ever drew breath." "I'd say my sisters are both well-qualified for for that position. But being both women of power, they're certainly going to need to be... picky." "And you don't?" "Well, not as much, I had to renounce any and all title inheritance in Brescia to get the job, hopefully, that'll get them out of my hair." "You'll just have to fend off the ones who think you're a pretty fluffhead." "Aw, I missed how free you are with compliments, Linni."
"What's this?" "You ok Boo?" "No, I am fine, I'm just worried I might be going bonkers..." "What's wrong?" "The kittens are in the pool, and unless I'm hallucinating, Jor-Jie is giving swimming lessons, and the grown ups are all hiding in boxes!" "Now, now, I'm as surprised as you at the teacher, but the kits learning to swim is totally normal." "What? No, it's not normal for cats to swim!" "It is for aquafold, they're as at ease in water up to two fathoms as they are on land." "And you know this how?" "I've been keeping aquafolds for half my life now, I've seen their great-grandma teach her kits how to swim." "What, so Graînea?" "Robyn taught Grainea here... In this room. Robyn learned in Innu, from what I've been told." "And Grainea's kits?" "You mean Ariellyn? Here, as her sisters and brother, then Raven, Corbo, Corvo and Kruk, and now Raven's kits." "Just this room?" "Well, it goes with being the Kitten-Ra. They tend to learn at your house." "Did you have the glade then?" "No, I decided to add it once I found out, after Robyn decided to join me while I was taking a bubble bath... I shrieked." "Oh, my. I'm sorry..." "You're sorry about what?" "I just can't..." Shibue started laughing, a deep, belly laugh. "Not the last time that particular event generates laughter. And look who walked here from the Palace." He pointed down to between his feet, where the great-great grandmother of the kits was purring up a storm. "The Nameita herself, first of the name, terrifying in her furor, Robyn." She leaned down to pet that particular worthy cat. "Mew! PurrPurrPurr." "I swear, she's like an engine some days..." "There's something else we gotta talk about..." "What?" "That facial hair of yours... That lustache..." "What, it's just stubble, I just stopped cutting off my mustache." "That's what a lustache is!" "What? You don't like it?" "I don't like what it signifies in K-Music, they call it a lustache for a reason..." "What, oh, I can barely keep up with you boo..."
The true ruler of Tranquility is Raven, having established her rule over her three sisters with an iron paw in a velvet glove, mixing cuddles with clawed intimidation, and having delivered four kittens, aka intelligence agents, spies, etc, fully suitable to see everything going on. Linni has no clue, but he wouldn't stop it, probably, even if he did, as the term pussy whipped, in his case, well...
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Tranquilité
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