(no subject)

[sythyry]

[10 Hivvem 4261]

Apologies in advance for improperly transcribed dialog. Not that my transcriptions are ever more than impressionistically correct. In this case, the impression is second-hand. Also, Enziet's lines aren't even in the original language half the time -- she mainly spoke in sign language. I have haphazardly replaced them by ordinary Ketherian.

Anoof and Narngi confronted Enziet, with evidence and with questions. Enziet started off being evasive ... not quite downright lying, but deliberately misinterpreting the questions, or giving true but irrelevant answers. Like this:

Narngi:"Well, we've got a good sorcery student [I blush! -sythyry] ["sorcery" is a word used for very skilled magicians, which Sythyry isn't. -bard] in the house, and there's no concealing spells."

Enziet:"Well, there might be a spell on me, of course."

Narngi:"More than 'might' -- there is a Destroc Sustenoc Airador Illusidor spell on you, a spell of perpetual silence."

Enziet:"Redundant, I'm sure."

Anoof:"What can you tell us about it?"

Enziet:"If it's an Illusidor spell, probably nothing. I'm not at all good at magic analysis, and strong Illusidor magic and trick even the best."

Which is perfectly true. There could be a thousand Illusidor spells of insanely high power upon her -- or on me -- and I would never know, just by the ordinary way of things. Which is irrelevant, since (1) the spell in question has a power of only 5, and (2) the Eye can sense Vae's best spells, and that's good enough for most purposes. It took the Cani a while to figure that out though.

Narngi:"Sythyry said it's a spellweave. You'd surely know about that -- it'd take hours for someone to cast that on you!"

Enziet:"I could have been asleep, or drugged."

Anoof:"I suppose so..."

Narngi:"When did you discover the spell on you?"

Enziet:"I haven't been talking for about four and a half years."

Narngi:"And the spell?"

Enziet:"It has been on me for somewhat less than that."

Narngi:"And you didn't try to break it?"

Enziet:"I don't know much about magic. Aren't spells hard to break?"

Anoof:"You didn't ask anyone about it?"

Enziet:"I didn't want anyone to know about it!"

Narngi:"Including your fiancés?"

Enziet:"I had none at the time."

Anoof:"You do now!"

Enziet:"The matter is years scent-faded from my nose today."

Eventually, though, they got tired of the evasions.

Anoof:"Why do you suppose someone might put such a spell on you?"

Enziet:"Well, often when a malevolent sorcerer puts a spell on a noblewoman, there's a ransom note of some sort coming soon."

Narngi:"You're an unlikely target of ransom."

Anoof:"Did you get such a note?"

Narngi:"My parents might have chosen not to trouble me with the details."

Anoof:"Enough of these cobwebs and phantoms! To the best of your knowledge, ignoring any quibbles or existential quandaries, did any such thing happen?" He apparently jumped up on the table and thumped it with his heel for emphasis, and did all manner of Cani dominance things.

Enziet:"... no ..."

Anoof raved and menaced for a bit longer. Narngi took the nice side of the interrogation, and invited Enziet to tell what did happen.

Enziet had, some years ago, managed to fall deeply in love with her village's Gormoror knight-protector. Her parents fired the Gormoror, and hired a knight from a different order. Enziet took a family charger and galloped a hundred miles to be with her love. Her parents pursued her, caught her, and used fierce Cani tactics on her -- and forbade her to ever talk to her lover again.

"Then, by my word of honor, I shan't talk to anyone ever again," she said. Word of Honor is a Gormoror concept -- they're physically punished if they ever break it -- and Cani have no such issue. Still, she has evidently kept it. And got a spellweave to make keeping it easier.

Anoof and Narngi did all the right Cani mannersome socialsome things to set things aright after ripping her entrails out Cani-style. (After seeing that done nendrai-style, I think the Cani style is the less bloody, but the nendrai style is the less painful.)

Which leaves some questions...

1. What will Anoof and Narngi do with the engagement?
2. What will Havune and Leiska do with this knowledge? Or with the fact that Anoof and Narngi pounced on it without chatting with them first?
3. Will Enziet still be interested in marrying them, after such treatment?
4. Will Enziet start talking again?
5. Will Enziet forgive me for discovering this to Anoof and Narngi?
6. Was I just absolutely horrid to another traff?

Comments

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

Number six is easiest to answer, so I shall answer that and content myself with the entirety of this reply.

The fact that she loves those who are not the same as her does not excuse her deceit. You're not her sibling just because of your choice of bed-partners, so you have no reason to help her with her deception.

Good for you.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I believe Sythyry did the Right Thing, but that doesnt change the fact that, by some standards, Sythyry was a part of and a proxy to something horrid happening to another traff... granted, she Had It Coming, but that doesnt change that she'll probably think Sythyry did something horrid.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Honor is pretty important to Cani too, isn't it?

At any rate, as long as 'such treatment' is limited to a single interrogation, I don't see why it should merit any permanent falling out amongst the parties involved, at least not for Cani, who are supposed to be good at such things. Unless they want to proceed in different directions based on the information revealed, I guess.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Oh please. She was keeping a fairly important geas from her fiancees. Just because it turned out to be benign doesn't change that it was a big, scary mystery that needed to be cleared up and she wasn't going to be anywhere near honest.

[waterotter.livejournal.com]

That explains why she would choose not to speak, and not to remove the spellweave, but doesn't explain the spellweave itself. Did she put it on herself to reinforce her oath?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oops!

(She hired a spellweaver to do it... *edit*)

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Does "Ripping one's entrails out cani-style" translate to "tearing you a new one" in my language? Translator?

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Okay. Problem answered... but other problems lay ahead.

This geas is important; though she may not be Gormoror, she would have reacted as a Gormoror who broke her Word of Honor if someone forced her to speak.

On the other hand, these Geases can become vital. If possible, the whole marriage-to-be needs to sit down with Enziet and get any OTHER stories that might prevent the marriage...

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Could've been worse, like one of those Celtic ones. "Honey, could you prove to me you're not worried about climbing out of a river under an enclosure, stepping on a goat, and simultaneously getting stabbed with a spear that took a year to make?"

[vernononfm.livejournal.com]

This is a very good point. Enziet may feel unfit for marriage if forced to break the Word of Honor, and thus if they did force speaking upon her, it would be a doom to her. If the marriage does go through, some arrangement should be made so she is not forced to speak. As deceptive as she was about it, loyalty to a mate would likely make this a necessity.

Zie did do the right thing, though. Zie could not have known the circumstances of the spellweave, and to let your friends go through with the marriage under such pretenses would have been very unkind to them. This way, they were able to choose how to deal with the deception, and what the resolution will be.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

Sometimes there's no way to be the "good guy", as you now know...