Common Ground

Writers: Ames, Avery
Date Posted: 18th April 2015

Characters: Danrina, Zelah
Description: Danrina and Xeladrie have a talk and find some common ground.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 12, day 5 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Bryvin

Danrina

Zelah

"Good morning m'lady," Danrina and the other ladies-in-waiting greeted
Xeladrie.

Xeladrie settled carefully into the chair and smiled at the ladies. "How
is everyone today? My stomach feels awful," she said with uncharacteristic
bluntness.

Danrina suppressed a snort at the Lady Xeladrie's frankness.

"Can we do something to help you, m'lady?" She asked.

"Not unless you can speed up the months," she quipped. "How is it going
for you?"

Danrina gave a half snort at that. Then with a sigh shook her head,
"Not as well as I would have liked. My Turn here is almost up and I've
yet to find a husband to wed. I fear my father will show up any day
and _demand_ I return home and marry the old lout he had chosen for
me," Danrina frowned. She toyed with her necklace in her agitation
over the matter.

Xeladrie's eyes narrowed slightly as she heard the other woman's words.
Unhappy political marriages were a subject she felt _very_ strongly about.
The idea of seeing one of her ladies consigned to that fate bothered her.
"That's awful. What's the man like?"

"He's _old_!" Danrina exclaimed with disgust to the giggles of some of
the other women. She turned and glared at them. "If you think it's so
funny, why don't one of _you_ marry him!" That shut up the gaggle
rather quickly.

"He's well over 50 Turns and only wants me to give him an heir. He has
money, which is why my father made the arrangement. The man lives like
a miser though. His halls are bare and cold. His two earlier wives
died unexpectedly. There's talk he had them disposed of because they
did not give him a son." Danrina shivered. Her own father didn't care
for her safety. He'd never cared for her. All he cared about where
appearances and money. And Galrad had money to spare. He'd offered a
pretty hefty sum for her hand. The only reason Danrina had gotten this
Turn was that she had pleaded with her father to let her find a more
suitable man with better connections to marry her. Her time, however,
was running out.

The tale arose Xeladrie's ire the more she heard of it. Bryvin wasn't
as old as this man, and he hadn't been married before. The talk of
disposing of a wife gave her a brief chill, though - could he be
ruthless enough to dispose of her if this child was a girl? Surely
he'd at least give her two tries...

But right now, it wasn't her fate at stake. "What if we told your
father your role as an Lady's maid makes you indispensable?" she
pondered aloud.

Danrina pondered that and then frowned. "I think that only the right
amount of marks would appease him," she replied.

Before she said anything else, Xeladrie took a moment to consider. She
still didn't know Danrina all that well. She was just one of the
single ladies who was part of what Xeladrie had become to think about
as her 'court' of ladies-in-waiting and other hangers-on. But the
woman was clearly smart enough to understand political matters and
spirited enough to be unhappy with the idea of being traded like meat.
A little flicker of kinship stirred in her spirit, and she felt the
ned to help Danrina. And if she helped the other woman, then she'd be
owed a favor...and favors were very useful currency in a place like
Sunstone.

"I'll think about what we can do," Xeladrie told Danrina, keeping a
note of doubt in her voice. She didn't want to get the other woman's
hopes up too high, but she wanted to stoke the possibility.

Danrina felt that the Lady Xeladrie actually meant to help in some
way. Though part of her was jealous of what Xeladrie had, she found it
hard to have bad feelings about the other woman.

"Thank you," she replied, wishing she had an answer to her own problems.

"has anything else interesting happened?" the lady queried.

"Not much really," Danrina replied, looking around at some of the
other ladies to see if they had news.

"I got a new dress," one of the piped up, swishing her skirts to show
off a bit.

"Pretty," Xeladrie said honestly. "And hopefully we'll have a real Gather
soon for showing it off at!"

"Ooo, a gather!" Many of the girls trilled and instantly the room was
abuzz with chatter as they started discussing Gather plans, Gather
dresses, and all the fun that would ensue.

Last updated on the May 5th 2015

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Common Ground