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DerynifanK

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Happy St Patrick's Day. Enjoy the one day of the year when the whole world is Irish.

Possessed--Part One

Started by Evie, January 24, 2011, 09:56:05 AM

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Evie

   Part One—Back from the Mearan Front

   August 2, 1124
   Rhemuth Castle


   Lady Javana and her younger sister Lady Jashana stood on tiptoe in the crowd lining the upper bailey area of Rhemuth Castle, watching the returning knights and men-at-arms filing through the Gatehouse, their eyes straining to catch a glimpse of either of their brothers.  Every once in a while one or both of their gazes landed on some fighter wearing Arilan colors, but a closer look at his shield or surcoat revealed he was not one of the men they sought, so they continued to scan the column of soldiers anxiously.

   The Earl of Carthane, followed by his levies, filed through the gatehouse.  Javana spotted a familiar face and device in that group; not one of her brothers, alas, but someone else who perchance might have some news of them.  She lifted a violet veil high above her head, waving it wildly until the movement caught his eye.  A flash of a grin, and Sir Stefan de Varnay paused long enough to sweep her into a quick embrace.  

   "Seisyll?  Sextus?" she asked quickly before he could be swept away again.

   "They're both fine," he assured her, "though Danoc's and Jenas's men are well back in the column, so you might have a bit of a wait before you see them come through.  I'll seek you out once I'm free."  The Earl's men moved on as new arrivals continued to file through the gatehouse.  Stefan spared Javana one more brief glance over his shoulder before moving out of sight with the other Carthane knights.

   Javana turned to her sister, eyes alight with excitement.  "Did you hear, sister?  They're both well!"  

   Jashana nodded, though she bit her lip as another group of fighters came through the gatehouse, hoping from their colors that they might be from Cassan.  Her eyes scoured this levy anxiously, seeking a particular face but not finding it.

   Javana, realizing who her sister sought, touched her arm gently.  "Sir Ronan might have gone straight back to his own lands in Cassan instead of coming south to Rhemuth, you know.  I doubt any of the Cassani men would want to travel this far only to have to turn around and go back north to their homes."

   The last of that small group of fighters, headed by one of their officers, filed past the two sisters.  Jashana sighed.  "I know.  But rumor has it that Cassan took heavy losses again in this war.  I wish there were a way I could find out for sure if he's all right."

   "I'm sure he'll be fine, and you'll be happily wed come Michaelmas."  Javana gave her sister a gentle hug.  "Are you excited about your wedding?"

   Jashana gave a half-hearted laugh.  "Well, as excited as I can be, given I barely know the man.  But he seems likeable enough.  And I am hoping to get to know him a little better before Michaelmas.  Otherwise, going off to live with a stranger's apt to feel a bit awkward, isn't it?  'Hello, nice to have met you thrice; are you ready for bed now, darling?'"

   Javana giggled, though she felt a twinge of sympathy for her younger sister.  "I'm sure Seisyll wouldn't have arranged your betrothal if Sir Ronan weren't a perfectly suitable match for you.  He's old enough to make a dependable husband for you, yet not so old that he's become stodgy, and he's still fairly handsome.  And at least you do like him.  Remember the husband Bess de Marais's family picked out for her?"

   Jashana wrinkled her nose.  "Mercy, yes!  I know he's titled and quite wealthy, but I can't imagine Bess settling in happily with him, nor he with her.  He dresses like a peacock, bathes in more rosewater than an entire Eastern harem, and Sextus says it's more likely he'll spend their wedding night swiving Bess's brother rather than Be—"

   Javana clapped a hand over her younger sister's mouth, eyes wide with shock.  She glanced around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation.  "Jesú, Jashana, you've been spending far too much time around Sextus and his cesspit of a mouth!" she hissed.  "Try to remember you're a lady, not a camp follower!"  

   Blue-violet eyes danced over Javana's hand.  "Well, it's true!" Jashana managed, her voice muffled behind her sister's fingers.

   Javana stifled a laugh.  "It may well be, but it's hardly ladylike to say so, especially like that, and in the heart of Court, no less!  Mother would be horrified!  Seisyll's kept you cooped up at Tre-Arilan for far too long, sister.   I'll have to appeal to him to let you remain in Rhemuth until you're safely wed; you've got to learn something about proper deportment."  The older sister's grin took the sting out of her words.  "We can't have Sir Ronan trying to return you after a month of marriage, looking to trade you in for the better behaved Arilan sister."

   Jashana grinned back.  "You can have him if you'd like.  I hear Cassan's cold in winter."

#

   The Arilan brothers arrived at Rhemuth Castle later that evening, exhausted from several days of travel.  Sextus proclaimed himself ready for a filling meal and a hot bathhouse, not necessarily in that order.  Seisyll, grim and unsmiling, spared a few moments for a kiss from both of his sisters, but excused himself from the general merry-making in the Great Hall shortly after their arrival, asking leave of his sisters before escaping to his barracks and leaving them in Sextus's keeping.

   After a few minutes, Javana also excused herself following a whispered conference with her sister.  She left Jashana to tend to their younger brother, who had found his hot meal and was now going through a copious quantity of Ballymar whisky with more dispatch than attentiveness, advising Jashana that she might wish to locate a couple of strong squires to help her figure out how to pour their brother up the Keep's stairs and into his bed later that night, should he prove incapable of negotiating the steep staircase without assistance.

   Javana encountered Sir Stefan on her way across the bailey to the Keep.  He appeared refreshed, travel stubble shaved off and smelling clean and faintly of clove soap as he bent over her hand.  His hazel eyes scanned her face.  "You've found your brothers by now, I hope?"

   "I have.  In fact, I was just on my way up to visit Seisyll."  She glanced up at the high Keep.  "Jashana and Sextus are still at the Great Hall."

   Stefan nodded.  "I'll see if I can catch up with them, then.  That is, unless you'd like an escort up to your brother's quarters?"

   She shook her head.  "Seisyll looked tired and not in the mood for company.  He'll probably find my visit an imposition, but I intend to impose anyway."  Javana smiled wearily.  "Though it's lovely to see you again, Sir Stefan."

   Seisyll's former squire brother smiled back.  "May I call upon you tomorrow, Lady Javana?  It's been far too long since I've seen you, and I'd love to renew our acquaintance.  That is, if Seisyll will permit...."

   Javana curtseyed, blushing slightly.  "I'm certain he will.  Duchess Meraude has asked me to be available tomorrow morning—the ladies are collecting alms and putting together some care boxes for our injured soldiers and their families—but I should be free by midday, if you'd like to call on me in the afternoon."

   Stefan bowed over her hand.  "Until tomorrow afternoon then, my lady."

   The older Arilan sister continued on, ignoring the wolf-whistles of two grinning men-at-arms wearing Carthmoor colors as she moved past them to enter the Keep where the Rhemuth soldiers were housed.  She took the spiral staircase up to the level where her brother was housed, knocking on the heavy wooden door to his barracks.  The door swung open to reveal a young squire.  He smiled at the visitor.  "Sir Seisyll, it's one of your sisters, I believe."  The squire stepped back to allow Javana in.

   "One of his real sisters, or one of those city 'sisters' Sextus keeps slipping in past the guards?" a man half-asleep on his pallet joked, rolling onto his side.  "Now there's a man who likes to keep his 'sisters' close...."  Seeing a noblewoman in the room, his eyes widened and a flush darkened his cheeks.  "Jesú....I beg pardon, my lady!  I thought Gib was jesting."

   Javana nodded absently, walking across the small chamber to knock on a second door.  It opened just as she got there, Seisyll peering out at her with a slight frown.  "Javana, you really shouldn't be up here unescorted."

   "I'm not unescorted.  I'm with my brother," she countered.

   Seisyll sighed, opening the door wider to allow her into the room where he was billeted.  A squire tended to his armor in one corner, while a page gathered his dirty clothing into a bundle to bring down to the castle laundrywomen.  In another corner, a chambermaid poured steaming hot water into a larger half-cask that was already partially filled, stopping after pouring half a bucketful of the hot water to check the bath's temperature.  "That should do ye, Sir Seisyll.   Warm, but not too warm, just as ye like it."  She glanced at the noblewoman, her cheeks growing a little pink.  "Will ye want...um...shall I wait outside, m'lord?"

   "Hm?  Oh.  No, that should do.  Thank you, Maisie."  The knight stepped further back from the door to allow the chambermaid room to exit with her buckets.  He dropped onto the foot of his bed as his sister closed the door, giving a backwards look over her shoulder as she did so.

   "Did I interrupt something?" Javana asked, raising a brow in speculation.  

   "No."  Seisyll gave a half laugh, sighing tiredly.  "Jesú, no.  All I want is to soak out my aches and then sleep for a day or two.  Which I'd go ahead and get a start on, except I gave up bathing with my sisters in the room when I went off for page training."  He gave her a strained smile.  "Javana, sweeting, it's not that I haven't missed you, but can this wait?"

   "I'm sorry.  It's just...you slipped off so quickly, and I was concerned about you.  I'll come back once you're better rested."  

   "No, don't come here!  I'll look for you tomorrow.  Why don't we meet for dinner in the Great Hall tomorrow evening?"  His expression grew shadowed.  "I've news for Jashana about Sir Ronan, but I want you on hand when I tell her.  Though perhaps it would be best if I keep that for a more private conversation.  In the Chapel Royal, maybe, after dinner?"

   Javana's heart sank.  "We heard a rumor that the Duke of Cassan's forces were ambushed by Sicard's army.   Was Sir Ronan...injured?"

   Seisyll shook his head.  "No, sweeting, he's dead.  The King's had me helping with compiling the casualty rolls.  He was missing and presumed dead after the ambush, and I just got official confirmation of his death earlier this week."

#

   August 3
   Rhemuth Castle, Outer Wall


   Sir Stefan de Varnay and Lady Javana Arilan walked along the allure at the top of Rhemuth Castle's outer wall until they reached the tower midway between the castle's apartment block and the Abbot's Tower at St. Hilary's.   There they rested, sitting in the shade of the portion of watchtower that jutted up slightly above this section of wall, using the relative coolness of the shadows and the breezes wafting over the river below to escape the August heat.  

   "Yes, I had a chance to speak with Seisyll briefly around three days out, and he mentioned that he was working on the casualty rolls, though he didn't mention Sir Ronan specifically," Stefan told her, concern darkening his eyes.  "Was it a love match?"

   Javana shook her head.  "No, Jashana barely knew him.  Still...."  She sighed.  "She did know him, at least slightly, and she was hoping to enjoy married life."

   The hazel eyes studied her face.  "And what about you?  Seisyll's not arranged a marriage for you yet?"

   Javana shrugged, laughing softly.  "No, Seisyll says I'm a right pain.  He's brought up a few offers, but no one who really struck my fancy, and he hasn't felt strongly enough about any of them so far to push the subject."

   Stefan's eyes teased her.  "Picky, are you?"

   "Well...."  Javana grinned, blushing slightly.  "Maybe a little.  I could've been betrothed this time last year to a Connaiti knight...if I didn't mind one who reeked of garlic, had eight children already from a previous marriage, and was old enough to be my grandfather."

   Stefan burst into laughter.  "Tell me Seisyll didn't seriously consider that offer for you!"

   "No, of course not."   Her blue-violet eyes danced.  "But he couldn't resist telling me all about it.   For weeks."   She gave her brother's friend an appraising glance.   "And what about you?  No thoughts of settling down yet?"

   Stefan shook his head as he gazed off into the distance, shrugging slightly.  "No.  Not really in a position to marry yet, truth be told."  He gave Javana a sidelong look.  "I don't know if Seisyll happened to mention it, but I had to leave Rhemuth right after we were knighted two years ago because my mother was dying and I was needed at home."

   "Yes, he did mention something of the sort.  I'm so sorry."  She reached out to touch his arm, her eyes filled with compassion.   "My mother's similarly afflicted now; she started showing signs of a wasting disease last summer, and our physician tells us it's just a matter of time."  

   Stefan, after a moment, covered her hand with his own, giving her a slight smile before allowing his gaze to wander off into the distance again.  "We had several bad years in a row around that time—crop blight, mostly, but there were the medical expenses as well.  My father ended up having to remarry last year, in hopes of getting out of arrears sooner."

   "Ah.  He found an heiress, then?"

   Stefan snorted.  "He did, but considering who he found, better him than me!  I couldn't have stomached her."   He sighed.  "We're slowly recovering, but it will be a few more years yet before Kestrel Mote can make enough of a profit for me to even consider marrying.  I could, I suppose, find a position in someone else's service in the meantime, but Father really could use my help more at home, and aside from that, it seems the great lords prefer to give the better paying positions to men who are truly knights errant and need those jobs more, rather than someone who stands to inherit land, no matter how impoverished he might be at the time.  Or at least it certainly seems that way, though I'll grant I've not looked all that far afield yet."

   "Well...."  Javana smiled brightly at him, hoping to lighten his mood.  "At least that gives you a bit more time to practice charming the ladies before you have to settle down to just one."  She grinned.  "I imagine you must have cut quite a swath through Meara, laying siege to all those lovely Mearan maidens.  They probably never knew what hit them."

   Stefan looked startled by the thought.   An odd look, amusement mingled with something else Javana couldn't identify, crossed his features.  He gave her a sheepish grin.  "You really haven't had much news come back from the front lines, have you, sweeting?"

   "No, not much.  Bits now and again...."

   Stefan's hand tightened briefly around Javana's.  "Let's just say, then, that I don't think the Mearan women would've been very open to the knights of Gwynedd attempting to charm them.  Especially not the ones my division chanced to encounter.  More often than not, the Mearan army had arrived at those villages ahead of us, and...let's just say Ithel's men had already subjected their own countrywomen to a fair bit of rough wooing.  Not even the convents were safe havens."

   "Oh."  Javana looked stunned, then indignant.  "We heard rumors that Ithel's men desecrated Saint Brigid's Abbey, and that he despoiled a princess in hopes she'd agree to wed with him after so he could get more heirs for Catrin of Meara's cause.  Prince Conall brought some of the sisters here to Rhemuth a short while back.  I had no idea the atrocities were more widespread than that, though."

   Stefan shook his head.  "No, the first half of that rumor is true, but the irony is that Ithel apparently had no notion he'd forced himself on a princess until right before he was executed for his crimes.  He might have wished he'd offered for her, had he known earlier, but given what he did at Saint Brigid's, I'm sure the princess in question would liefer have impaled him with his own sword than accept such an offer.  God knows I was glad enough to see the man hang for it!"  

   "So Prince Conall didn't exaggerate," Javana mused.  "Not about the Mearan army wreaking havoc on their own folk, anyway."

   Stefan shot a quick glance up at the top of the watch tower to ensure the guard stationed there was out of earshot.  "No, not about that.  Though I'll warrant he might have played up his own part in the relief work after.  Twit."  He grinned at her.  "And I never said that!  I'll deny everything."

   Javana grinned back.  "I'd never repeat it, and especially not to him.  Jesú, the lad makes my skin crawl!  It's a shame, really.  I adore Duchess Meraude.  I just don't like being sized up by Conall Haldane as if he thinks I'd look especially tasty on toast."

   Stefan laughed.  "I truly doubt it's toast he's thinking of, though I'll not deny he's probably thinking you're a tempting little morsel.  You can do far better than Prince Conall, though."

   "I can do better than a Haldane Prince?  My, you're more ambitious for me than Seisyll is!"  

   Stefan shook his head, smiling.  "I'm not referring to his rank.  You deserve a better man than that."

   Javana gave her brother's friend a sidelong look, then glanced away.  "Oh, a simple knight shall do well enough for me, just so long as he has a good heart and good humor, and I enjoy his company."  She chuckled.  "And hopefully I'll end up with one who's not too uncomely, not reeking of garlic, or old enough to be my grandsire."

   "That last might not be so bad," Stefan teased.  "He could leave you widowed early, and if he's wealthy enough, you'd have your pick of young, handsome, non-reeky suitors after."  He grinned as he dodged her playful slap at his arm.
 
   "If he's wealthy enough?  You think I'd need wealth to provide enough inducement to offer for me?"  Javana tried to look offended but failed utterly, her amusement sparkling in her eyes.

   Stefan grinned.  "Oh, you underestimate your charms if you believe that."  A faint shadow crossed his features.  "Though a bit of wealth never hurts."  

   "Oh, Stefan...."  Javana bit her lip in consternation, studying him.  "I'm sure Kestrel Mote will recover in good time."  She leaned her head against his arm.  After a moment, he slipped it around her, holding her in a gentle embrace.  He raised his other hand to give her cheek a tentative stroke.

   "Javana...I'm really not in a good position to court someone right now...."

   "I know," she whispered, pulling her head away slightly to look up at him, her lips twitching slightly.  "It might help if you turned this way just a little, though."

   He gave a surprised laugh.  "No, I meant...."

   She laid a finger gently across his lips.  "I know."

   He kissed her fingertip lightly, watched as her eyelids drifted shut.  "Seisyll probably wouldn't allow me to court you anyway."  A slightly abashed smile.  "He knows me a little too well, your brother does."

   Javana sighed.  "Maybe.  Hard to know, with Seisyll."  She laid her head against his shoulder again.  "I just hope when my brother chooses someone for me, he'll be someone I can like at least half as well as you."

   Stefan laid his cheek against her dark hair, touched and a little unnerved by her admission.  He had long admired Seisyll's lovely sister, but hadn't dreamed she might hold him in such high regard.  Hadn't dared to dream such things of late, considering her far out of his reach, at least for the moment.  And, admittedly, his attentions were prone to wander from one fair lass to the next, though in the end, his roving eyes had always brought him back around to Javana.  He'd always assumed that was just because she seemed as unattainable to him as the sun above, and therefore more of a challenge to his desires than many a pretty girl offered, but now that he actually held her close, he had to admit he was even more captivated by her, not less so.

   Her hair smelled of violets and amber.  He lifted her face to his.  The black-lashed eyes opened, dark amethyst eyes meeting his gaze, and he found himself kissing her.

#

   The watcher sat under a tree in the castle parklands, gazing up at the young couple as they kissed.  His lips tightened.  His master would not be happy to learn about this tryst.  It would be needful, he suspected, for them to make their move soon.


Part Two:  http://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php?topic=649.0
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

AnnieUK

Poor Stefan. :( 

And nice to see this fic all neatly tied in with your earlier ones - which I am still intending to go back and reread, just as soon as I find a shop with a round tuit in stock.

Evie

#2
As it happens, I picked up a Round Tuit at Chattacon this past weekend....  (No, really, I actually did!  ;D )

And ever since those few cryptic lines in Maidens of Mayhem in which some sort of altercation in Stefan's and Seisyll's past involving Javana was briefly alluded to, I figured there'd be a story around all that someday.  I just didn't know what that story was yet.  After that, whenever Javana would get a mention in some other story, she still hadn't told me her own story yet, but it became clear to me that hers wasn't going to be the usual "...and they lived happily ever after" sort of tale.  But up until I started writing her sister Jashana's story, Javana wasn't speaking to me.

In the middle of me writing "The Arrangement," Javana suddenly spoke up.  Boy, did she!  Much more than I really wanted to know at that point!  :o   I had another story--something much more light-hearted--that I was planning on using my Christmas holiday to write, but Javana was ready to talk, and she wouldn't let me go.  And once I learned more about her story, I couldn't bear to make her wait any longer either.  So that's why you're getting this one now, instead of some lighter, fluffier story that would've been so much easier for me to write during one of my "busy times" of the year.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

The phrase "them to make their move soon" is very scary.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Evie

Cue ominous music.  Carmina Burana would do nicely.... :D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

derynifanatic64

We will never forget the events of 9-11!!  USA!! USA!!

Alkari

#6
Quote from: Evie on January 24, 2011, 07:37:07 PM
Cue ominous music.  Carmina Burana would do nicely.... :D

Hmm - will give thought to suitable theme music for Sir Walter and his pal Aylmer.    Probably music to Psycho would be appropriate!  Must say I've never found even the opening of Carmina Burana to be ominous in any way.  It's a fun work, full of passionate young lovers and somewhat dissolute churchmen having a good time drinking and gambling in the local taverns ...   I reckon that In taberna could be Sextus's theme song  :D

Evie

#7
Quote from: Alkari on January 25, 2011, 05:45:07 AM
Quote from: Evie on January 24, 2011, 07:37:07 PM
Cue ominous music.  Carmina Burana would do nicely.... :D

Must say I've never found even the opening of Carmina Burana to be ominous in any way.  It's a fun work, full of passionate young lovers and somewhat dissolute churchmen having a good time drinking and gambling in the local taverns ...  

Well, yes, you're absolutely correct about the lyrical content of the full body of work, and if that anonymous "Sister Therese of Nyford" ever writes an under-the-table scandalous story about Duncan's seminary years, guess what's going to be playing in the background?   ;D

I should've been more specific in referring to Orff's musical score for "Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Fortuna ), and not to its literal content (given that your average listener these days wouldn't understand the Latin anyway), but to what it evokes nowadays in 21st C. pop culture among those who don't know the Carmina Burana opus from Adam's housecat, but who recognize that one song from the various movie and videogame soundtracks and trailers which use it whenever a mood of dramatic foreshadowing or "high stakes" is required.  (Here's a handy list of examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff%27s_O_Fortuna_in_popular_culture ) Even in the SCA, where you tend to find people more 'in the know' about medieval stuff than in the general population, a lot of times when that song is heard, people say, "Oh, that's Carmina Burana!", not "Oh, that's 'Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi' (or even 'O Fortuna') from Carl Orff's early 20th Century composition that uses medieval Goliard lyrics!"  

I had brought home to me recently how much this song has affected pop culture in this way when my son came home and started Googling "Carmina Burana" to find this one piece.  I asked him what had stirred his interest, and he told me that his AP History teacher, a man with an understated and often devilish sense of humor, had set the mood for their end-of-term exam by playing "mood music" from Carmina Burana as they'd walked through his door....beginning, of course, with those famous strains of "O Fortuna".  And believe me, not a single one of those 15 and 16 year old students said, "Oh, wow, we're going to have a fun exam about passionate young lovers!"  They were growing wide-eyed and muttering, "OMG, you're about to kill us with this exam, aren't you?", while their teacher stood at his desk with a growing smile and a wicked gleam in his eye....   :D  I'm sure none of the students had read the Wikipedia entry on this song beforehand, yet they were definitely expecting a "dramatic or cataclysmic situation," and they'd only have been more terrified if they had known the translation for that piece!   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Alkari

#8
Out here, the O Fortuna opening has been used in advertisements for all sorts of products, most of which make me smile when considering the substance of the work itself.  I would think Sextus Arilan would know many of the lyrics by heart, of course, as they seem more appropriate to his, er "activities" than even to Sister Therese's suggestion of scandalous tales!  :D  

The beneficiaries of Carl Orff's estate must certainly be smiling at the royalties ;)   Although probably not quite as much as Agatha Christie's grandson, who was given the rights to "The Moustrap" as a present ...