(no subject)

[sythyry]

In Which I Fail At Politics Again [10 Thory 4262]

This morning, Lord Eddarna was lurking in wait for me outside Enchantment class. (Oh -- I have decided to start a new enchantment. I shall need some help preparing the materials though! Mostly it will be easy, but I am going to have to track down a Gormoror, and Delframber.)

Lord Eddarna:"Sythyry, I believe you are, once again, defying the Duke."

Me:"Oh, dear. Am I going to be tried for treason again? Do you expect to get less humiliated this time?"

Lord Eddarna:"I expect you to follow the Duke's express command. You were to embezzle suitable remuneration, and to report it to the Exchequer. Which is to say, myself. You might have done the former; you certainly have not done the latter. "

Me:"Well, the last time I saved the city -- from two nendrai in the throes of passion, not my usual just one -- I embezzled an extremely powerful spell. Doubtless a very expensive one, being Mentador and all. It got broken before I could sell it though. How should I report that?"

Lord Eddarna:"Properly!"

Me:"Well, I think it was more of a city guard matter than an Exchequer one."

Lord Eddarna:"Anything valuable is an Excheckquer matter."

Me:"I will gladly contribute an insanely strong and insanely subtle Mentador spell to the Exchequer, or to you personally if you prefer. As long as I don't have to deal with another one ever again."

Lord Eddarna:"I do not appreciate threats against myself or my family. Especially from lizards whose morality is as dubious as their loyalty."

Me:"It's not a threat. I don't know a single Mentador spell, and don't plan to learn one."

Lord Eddarna:"Well, something has happened with my daughter, and your name has come up more than once in connection with it!"

Me:"I've barely spoken with Moria, and certainly never cast a spell on her."

Lord Eddarna:"Oh, you deny all responsibility, then?"

Me:"I've spoken with Chelinet. About how Moria was behaving towards her. From what I've seen, their dealings are now more mutually agreeable."

Lord Eddarna:"Yes -- if by 'mutually agreeable' you mean 'a stinking turd upon the family honor'!"

And if Moria+Chelinet is a turd on Eddarna family honor, what about what I hope to do with Mynthë on my own family honor? That's what I was thinking, anyways. I got a bit on the upset side.

Me:"I'm surprised there's enough of your family's honor to hold a whole turd, with you as its current steward."

I am not Cani. I routinely miss even the most obvious social clues. Especially on people who are not lizards, such as, well, nearly everyone I know. Still, Lord Eddarna's tail went into a huge bottlebrush and his ears went totally flat, so I think he got suitably angry.

Lord Eddarna:"I do believe there are laws on the books about corrupting the innocent."

Me:"Are you planning to humiliate your own daughter with a trial, perhaps as a means of further diminishing your family honor?"

Lord Eddarna:"I daresay she will take a suitable lesson from your conviction and punishment."

I carefully cast a big illusion of a roaring tempest around us, so that we could fight in the hallway about private details of his daughter's life without exposing them to everyone.

Me:"Well, I'm involved only in the most tangential way. Since the actual corruption was performed by your daughter, years before I moved to Vheshrame."

Lord Eddarna:"Nonsense! Impossible!"

Me:"Sense! Possible! Well-attested, even!"

I checked with some law students. There are a few laws about corrupting the innocent, though usually it means leading them into a despised profession like cley-seller or prostitute. They seem to go with coercion of some sort, not mere temptation. But they are laws, and thus written ambiguously. They could be used against Moria (for corrupting Chelinet). Probably not against me.

Anyways, Lord Eddarna and I yelled at each other a while, until a few people stuck their heads in to see that everything was OK. Which it wasn't. He stormed off, leaving me to deal with the illusionary storm.

Esory:"What was that about?"

Me:"I had really better get to embezzling. Not that Lord Eddarna will forgive me, even if I do, but I want to keep in His Grace's good graces."

She wasn't satisfied with that of course, but she has to wait 'til I finish this sentence to read it... like this.

Comments

[archadia.livejournal.com]

So... what was his *real* problem?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

All three problems are real, I think. The embezzlement part was our first spat. The humiliation when he got me tried for treason can't have helped. My involvement with his daughter's newly-confirmed life-long love was an extra bit of trouble.

Oh, and Zemi's been quarrelling with him since he started auditing zir accounts, decades ago. It's a family matter too!

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect the part where Sythyry not only fails to play the game properly but when Lord Eddarna did play the game properly *he* was the one who got reprimanded and humiliated instead of zir has something to do with it. Add in some old fashioned traffphobia which is exacerbated by his very own daughter engaging in the activity and you've got a recipe for him entirely losing his clearly already limited capacity for reason wherever Sythyry is concerned with an unhealthy dose of revenge-seeking poured on top of it.

Man, I'd rather have me some extra-special Doom than deal with that. Sympathies, Sythyry.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe instead of taking your friends to see her, you could let your enemies pay you for the privilege?

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

But Sythyry has extra special doom... visited upon zir twice a month (Or is that weekly), by the duke, to deal with Nirandi! I would have thought that extra not-so-much doom would be more entertaining.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Pay me, or I will bring witnesses? I don't think that's going to work...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Nendrai day is three times a week. That's plenty.

[archadia.livejournal.com]

I guess by that I meant I wondered what his true ambitions were approaching you in a hallway about private matters... but I definitely agree they are all three some tail-bristling enough for everyone.

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I think you got the best of him.

Heh ... you could always ask Vae to make a nice present for him.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

So apparently the correct answer to the "How will my relationship with Mynthë doom me?" question was "By inspiring me to make take a 'we're here, we're traff, get used to it' stand at the worst possible momment".

[esory.livejournal.com]

All right, now you've explained it more thoroughly and ...

I still don't get it. I wish Lord Eddarna would find some other person to grind his axes on.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

He's got a few! Zemi, if he wants someone more imposing than he is. But he usually wants easier targets, like me, and surely Chelinet.