sythyry | (no subject)

Yylhauntra to Dinner, part 2 [11 Lage 4261]

By which time, it was open season on first-generation Zi Ri.

Tethezai:"How long until people were transaffectionate? Or otherwise, well, not wholly bent on sex as a means of reproduction?"

Yylhauntra:"Transaffection, I do not know for sure. Karrakavva (Rassimel) married Barabrith (Gormoror) at one point, but they were born not created. Sex for fun, in ways that couldn't lead to children ... I can't say for sure. One day in the eighth year, I remember, all the Cani were lapping each other intimately in public. Though that might simply have been the invention of that particular modality -- or the first public demonstration of something that a few people had been doing for some time -- or if publicly doing that was the innovation -- or something else. It was so unlike what Zi Ri were doing that I wasn't very interested."

Havune:"How did clothing get invented?"

Yylhauntra's counterattack was devastating, though...

Yylhauntra:"Before my time!"

It is certainly preplexious when one of the first-created declares something "Before my time". Indeed, it can destroy many manners.

Havune:"Really?"

Yylhauntra:"Oh, yes. Not cloth, but leather and leaves. Everyone looked rather wild and Gormororly, by modern standards."

Narngi:"When did people start trying to look elegant?"

Yylhauntra:"By your standards, I should say that they have not yet done! By our standards, oh ... about twenty years in. About the time the first-born were starting to grow up a bit."

Mendrugai:"What did they wear, for elegance?"

Me:"Perhaps we could be a bit more like a group of friends and relatives gathered for dinner, and a bit less like a gathering of the Inquisitors' Club of Oorah Thrassen. "

Yylhauntra:"Thank you, Sythyry, but I don't mind: my powers as a conversational centerpiece are mighty! Mendrugai, we lacked many modern ornaments. Glirries and feathers, fur-dye and sparkling scapulae: these were popular, each in their turn."

And they continued to interrogate zir for the better part of an hour. Zie endured it with practiced grace.

* * *

Esory:"Are you a wizard, then?"

Yylhauntra:"Hardly! I'm reasonably skillful at magic, but I'm no Glikkonen or Llezcaryg or even Tabragore."

Esory:"Tabragore?"

Yylhauntra:"One of my great-grandchildren. Only a few centuries old, and quite impressively strong. No, I'm more of an architect than a mage of any kind."

Esory:"Architect?"

Yylhauntra:"Oh, certainly. I designed the previous Ducal Palace in Vheshrame, the one that got torn down three centuries ago and replaced by the current one."

Havune:"Were you angry about that?"

Yylhauntra:"Not particularly! It wasn't very good work. The then-Duke of Vheshrame wasn't willing to pay very much -- she wanted the cachet of a Yylhauntra design, but not any of the actual value of it -- so one of my assistants copied and adapted the palace of, as it happens, the Duke of Pelcour."

Me:"You designed the Viceroy's palace of Pelcour?"

Yylhauntra:"No, the Duke's, a good long time after I'd slaughtered the city and there wasn't a Viceroy any more, or a Calanchian Empire to be Viceroy of. I do have a house in Hrauminy, in Pelcour Mene."

Me:"Is that all you meant when you said you're still a Hrreptite?"

Yylhauntra:"No -- I still think Hrauminy and all should be their own city-states. It's ridiculous, having a single country two hundred miles long... but after Perfy won independence one century and rejoined Pelcour the next, it's distinctly a minority opinion."

* * *

And, over brandy, zie sprung zir trap. "You have asked me many questions about the first days! But now you must pay the price. I shall ask you many questions about the current days!"

All my friends had the good sense to look quite worried.