(no subject)

[sythyry]

Confronting Yarwain [12 Trandary 4261]

Me:"Yarwain? I understand you have a secret these days."

Yarwain:[Bowing slightly]"Yes, indeed, I have a secret."

Me:"Are you sure you're being entirely fair to Thery?"

Yarwain:"Rather the contrary. I am sure that I am being unfair to Thery, and worse to various others. But the main alternative was worse to us."

Me:"Worse? But you have lived with her for some months now ... you seem to get along fairly well, when you are about in public at least."

Yarwain:"Well, yes, and we get along well enough in private too of course." He shrugged, tail lowered with worry. "I do hope that will continue when there are three of us."

Well, most Rassimel prefer to marry by couples, but I imagine a few could by triples, or eighteens if they like. I had not thought that Thery liked Iska so well, nor Iska liked Thery, but I suppose it could be...

Me:(Cautiously)"When will that be?"

Yarwain:(looking quite worried)"Seven months or so, if all works well. Unfortunately Thery's family has a tradition of things not working very well."

Me:"Well, I imagine that if everyone were cautious and worked hard to be kind, it could work out passably."

Yarwain:"Well, under the circumstances we can hardly rely on Gloun to work hard to be kind. She could be somewhat the opposite, and nobody would think the worse of her for it."

At this point I realized that, not only had I misunderstood things, I had misunderstood what I had misunderstood, and had absolutely no idea. So, how to get Yarwain to tell me what he was actually up to, without admitting how wrong I had been.

Me:"It's hardly my area of greatest skill, but if there's any sort of assistance I can give you, please call upon me." If he was up to something horrid after all, I could always demur.

Yarwain:"Provide us refuge in half-legendary Drchmaer, in case my family doesn't take as well to its increase as I expect them to?"

Me:"Is that a likely need?"

Yarwain:"I think I know my parents well enough. They have met Thery, and found her not wholly disagreeable. They would prefer an actual noble; yet her birth is high enough for them not to be overly embarrassed."

"Aha!" I thought to myself. "Yarwain, you are planning an elopement!"

Me:"Will you be married here? Or in Ulmarn? And when?"

Yarwain:[with a little self-depreciating laugh]"We can hardly make such plans yet. Presumably here, and presumably performed in a great hurry."

Me:[with much unintentional blinking]"What, you don't know?"

Yarwain:[shaking his head sadly]"Oh, there are certain signs, and certain spells for that matter. But what we know today may no longer be true tomorrow; this is the difficulty. Thery's family is healthy in most ways, but not in this. In a month or two it will be less risky."

Me:"I see..." Which I did not, or not entirely, though as I transcribe the conversation it should have been obvious.

Yarwain:(shrugging)"There's little enough I can do to help at this point. My part is one of the easiest. It is, as you say, greatly unfair to Thery. Yet it was her idea to begin with, nor did she choose it with anything less than full understanding of the risks to her body and family and status and all. But for now I would rather speak of other things. Plotting and scheming deviously does not please me... but we have a single cast only, and we must line up as many tiles as we can."

Well, at least Iska is not involved, and Thery and Yarwain are on the same side, so it is not so bad as I thought.

Comments

[redbird]

Poor confused sythyry.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I think I begin to see the point to the Zi Ri tradition of acting mysterious and wise and quiet. If one says little, one is less likely to slip one's tail deep in one's throat.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Where I come from, that's called a "shotgun wedding."

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard grins. "Where, in this case, the groom holds the shotgun to his own head."]

[jennicacat.livejournal.com]

Forgive a poor monster for inquiring but I found the comment "it was her idea to begin with, nor did she choose it with anything less than full understanding of the risks to her body and family and status and all" somewhat odd.
Is birth control on the tree perfected to a point where accidents don't happen? The only other way to interpret it is that Yarwain is refering to Thery's relationship with him. But why would Thery deliberatly endanger herself by concieving, when so many society and practical factors are against her such as 1)her student status, 2) family medical history, esp. since she is without the presence of trusted family doctors 3) her social/rank status?
And has Sythyry gotten it yet - or is zi still as confused as when zi first posted?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Well, they can use simple magical spells as contraceptives (Strenata sold some bound ones earlier), but whether or not that's 100% reliable, it sounds like Yarwain is saying that it wasn't an accident in this case.

Which means that it's part of a nefarious plot for Thery to evade her obligations, I guess. She's supposed to be an indentured servant for thirty years to pay for her education, in a completely different region than Yarwain is committed to living in.

If they're married and have children, then obviously *something* has to break, and it won't as necessarily be their relationship as if they weren't.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Terrycloth has the right of it. Contraception can fail if a spell botches or a membrane breaks. (Tethezai claims that this is an important advantage of transaffection, for which contraception is unnecessary; but of course it is unnecessary in a substantial number of cisaffectionate couplings as well.)

Oh, and Zi Ri don't need contraception, for three
reasons:

1. Reproduction, for us, uses an entirely different set of
   organs than sexplay. These organs are not easily
   touched. For which I am very grateful -- even the
   thought of someone touching me there makes me cringe
   with a wincing! Actually concieving children is very
   painful, for Zi Ri. Hren Tzen did not want there to be very
   many of is.
   


2. Since there are not very many of us, we often find
   ourselves in transaffectionate relationships, as above.
   


3. Judging by my ancient and deep experience, even those
   transaffectionate relationships stop rather short of
   satisfying intimate contact.
   

In any case, Thery might have gotten pregnant by
clumsiness, carelessness, or misfortune, though the first
two are not so likely for her or any Rassimel. I imagine
that nobody will ask her deeply about whether it was
intentional.

But it does seem that Thery has decided that Yarwain is
more important to her than Countess Gloun, and is willing to
risk a great deal for that. (But one bit of your comment
confuses me -- her social status will not suffer. Almost
nobody will lose status for being married to a Great
Baron's heir! Well, I suppose that the Countess Gloun
herself could probably do better, or the Duke of Vheshrame,
or Iraz Varuun, but such people are rare.)

Clarification of social status

[jennicacat.livejournal.com]

I think I am defining Social Status differently than you are. My definition is more along the lines of: interpersonal interactions between people of the same and different rank as youself, and the degree of respect therein.
A title is valuable around strangers, and doesn't matter around friends. It counts for very little among those in Yarwain's family, and court gossip mongers. Yarwain's family sounds like they are, for the most part, accepting. However, Thery will most likely face attacks along the lines of: "Manipulative chit," "Reaching beyond her station," and "Betrayed her patroness" in court gossip circles.
Maybe I am over-anticipating a problem. Maybe Thery will be embraced in the social circle she enters into, because of her sweetness, beauty and maternal state. And maybe Dustweed will be loved for her courage and individuality. But I suspect that people will continue being people, whatever shape, size, or species they are.

Re: Clarification of social status

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Ah! I had not quite thought of this.
When she moves to Ulmarn, she will be known first as "Yarwain's wife". Still, this does leave her perhaps some years of being "The Rassy who betrayed Countess Gloun" in Vheshrame.