Reality-Ambiguous: Opening Negotiations.
May. 18th, 2012 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
privatepropertyThis was quite possibly the strangest conversation Lady Ovelya of House Noggra had ever been in.
She had to hand it to the woman looking up politely at her; for all her careful, contrived words, she was neither liar nor coward. She had come alone to a house that had not been friendly with "hers" in several generations, and there had been none of the wheedling, misdirection or appeal to greed that might have been expected of an Orion... or many of House Duras.
Still, it wasn't a good idea. Especially not since she knew the woman was far more than a servant. She'd seen, several times over chance encounters throughout the war, how the Orion looked at the General. "Go home and enjoy your love, Dahlfes daughter of We-Don't-Tell. I've had one of my own."
"I know, my lady," she said earnestly, still looking up at her. "I won't pretend it could be equaled. I won't even pretend my master could be all yours." She smiled. "In fact, I've been forbidden. But that doesn't mean you couldn't come to care for each other at all, and... I think the two of you would make wonderful parents."
A pause. "...You were saving that."
"Yes, Ma'am.
"..Well done, Dahlfes. You have now made facing my future mother-in-law's genealogical interrogations seem simple. I trust you won't be trying to conduct the ceremony itself?"
"No, my Lady. I have someone else in mind for that. I have no intention of embarrassing this family before it's even off the ground."
"Well, then I think you, the General, and I have a lot to talk about."
She had to hand it to the woman looking up politely at her; for all her careful, contrived words, she was neither liar nor coward. She had come alone to a house that had not been friendly with "hers" in several generations, and there had been none of the wheedling, misdirection or appeal to greed that might have been expected of an Orion... or many of House Duras.
Still, it wasn't a good idea. Especially not since she knew the woman was far more than a servant. She'd seen, several times over chance encounters throughout the war, how the Orion looked at the General. "Go home and enjoy your love, Dahlfes daughter of We-Don't-Tell. I've had one of my own."
"I know, my lady," she said earnestly, still looking up at her. "I won't pretend it could be equaled. I won't even pretend my master could be all yours." She smiled. "In fact, I've been forbidden. But that doesn't mean you couldn't come to care for each other at all, and... I think the two of you would make wonderful parents."
A pause. "...You were saving that."
"Yes, Ma'am.
"..Well done, Dahlfes. You have now made facing my future mother-in-law's genealogical interrogations seem simple. I trust you won't be trying to conduct the ceremony itself?"
"No, my Lady. I have someone else in mind for that. I have no intention of embarrassing this family before it's even off the ground."
"Well, then I think you, the General, and I have a lot to talk about."
