3.4 The Talk of a Child

General Summary

Day 29

Before we sleep, Bran shows me the sword he has made for me. It is slim and elegant, and well-suited to the close-quarters fighting I often need to do.   Can make one additional attack for 1d3 damage if the first hit is successful. Can parry an attack with a contested attack roll. No STR bonus to damage.    

Day 30

In the morning, a human servant is waiting for me downstairs. He’s dressed very gaudily and stands with perfect posture. When I arrive, he hands me a wax-sealed letter from a Sir Martin. Apparently this Sir Martin has done me a favour by keeping the “uncultured, overly-ambitious local lords” away from me. And now he wishes to dine with me.   I fetch Rosalia to accompany me. It wouldn’t be proper for a young, innocent elvish princess to dine with a human lord alone. We take a very fancy carriage out to a sprawling riverside manor decorated in a very human fashion.   Sir Martin turns out to be barely older than Bran. He is dressed casually, with a signet ring that has an elaborate winged sword on it. When he takes my hand, I note that he has callouses from wielding a blade. I play at being young and naive, but I bleed through. It is so hard to hide my convictions. He notices that my voice changes when I say “family” but not “parents”, as I claim that I’m here looking to be reunited with my parents, and bring our people home.   The conversation is bizarre, and it takes a fair amount of effort not to laugh at the absurdity of it. He tells me that his grandfather is the First Lord of Haven, and perhaps wants to be king.   Apparently this young human noble is incensed at the idea that humans here continue to serve and pay taxes to their Old Kingdom across the sea. Here there is no king, and those in power struggle and vie over who will claim that title while the working class people suffer.   He is a duellist, though some would call him an executioner. He claims to have killed 12 people in duels, leaving a power vacuum where someone else might take power and treat their people better. This is unbelievable in its stupidity. Only 12 people? And leaving their successor up to fate? This is the talk of a child who sees adults handling their politics poorly and thinks it can be solved with a clever game of steel. The only sense he has is the belief that he must use his nobility in the service of his people, but his methods are childish.   Finally we get to the reason he’s brought me here: He wants to offer me a public show of support for me gathering my people and returning home. Presumably this will keep the other human lords off of me and open some doors. In exchange, he wants to get married, purely as a political move so that his grandfather stops attempting to arrange a political marriage for him. He thinks that no one would question his marriage to an elvish princess, and that he may become an ambassador between our lands when I’m able to return home. I refuse, of course.   Again, the talk of a child. I’ve refused better proposals from better men and it almost brings me a malicious sort of joy to say no to this one. He seems so proud of his station, his morals, and his clever way of killing his fellows and leaving the common folk to be ruled over by someone new.   He has far more in common with those he kills than those he claims to protect.