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Visionaries--Part Two--Chapter Twelve

Started by Evie, January 27, 2012, 09:26:48 AM

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Elkhound

Quote from: Alkari on January 28, 2012, 01:20:39 AM
PS:  Speaking of hissing and spitting, I watched The Women again this afternoon - Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell certainly know all about female cattiness, with a little help from Norma Shearer and Mary Boland!   :D  

As a confirmed bachelor with no sisters, I have to ask---do women really behave that way when they get on their own?

AnnieUK

ROFL!  Getting a serious case of deja vu here, Elkhound. See page 2 of this thread...

http://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php?topic=519.15

Elkhound

A friend of mine is married, has four teenage daughters, and his mother-in-law lives with them.

He's very active in Masonic activities--Blue Lodge, York Rite, Shrine, Scottish Rite; I wonder why?   ;D

Elkhound

Quote from: Evie on January 28, 2012, 01:35:33 AM
Quote from: Elkhound on January 28, 2012, 12:03:09 AM
Quote from: Evie on January 27, 2012, 02:24:35 PM
She's turned self-absorption into an art form.   ;D

She's pretty close to a sociopath, isn't she?

Yes.  Not the more obvious sort of sociopath that Walter was, but she's got the same lack of conscience. than anyone else, as you've seen in this chapter.  

Too bad she wasn't a few years older.  She could have been married off to Walter and each would have given the other exactly what s/he deserved.

bronwynevaine

Aewige reminds me of a long-ago roommate. Not that she ever killed anyone, but if she would have it wouldn't have been her fault.
I don't just march to the beat of a different drummer...I dance to a beat no one else can hear :)

Alkari

#20
QuoteShe'd have just tried to extricate herself from Briony's well-meant interference as neatly as possible and then gone on to find some other, more malleable priest to give her what she wanted, even if it meant having to take control over his mind to make him say the "Latin stuff."  If she's making the extra effort to get back at Fr. John for denying her what she wanted from him, it's become a personal quest for revenge...and therefore, IMO, malicious.

True, but I wonder whether, had she reacted more calmly, she would still have been so vindictive towards him.  I got the impression she had psyched herself into going to confession and seeking absolutiion (tick another tedious chore off her list!), without ever considering the possibility that she could be refused, or that she would not be able to control the priest on duty that day.   Hence her show of self-centred temper against him, which I suspect is going to prove to be her biggest, and probably fatal, mistake.   If she'd just said a cold "I will think about it" and marched out from Fr John, all the while working on Plan B to find another non-Deryni priest who could be manipulated into granting absolution, then there was no way her secret could be revealed.   In a way, I almost felt that her violent reaction was partly against herself for not anticipating this - but as SHE can never be at fault, such as for lack of planning, then obviously the other person is wrong.  

Her second big mistake is the manipulation of Briony, because as Melissa noted, Duncan is no fool and will quickly smell a rat when Briony goes to talk to him.  Had Aedwige just calmed down and headed Briony off, perhaps with a story of Fr John having given her a really unpleasant penance or whatever, she could have proceeded with Plan B.   But I somehow think that 'using' Briony that way is not exactly A Very Smart Thing, given that Briony is not 'just' a Duke's daughter, but is also Duncan's niece and the King's god-daughter!  The likelihood of crossing the King (and Queen), the Duke and Duchess of Corwyn, and Rhemuth's auxilliary Bishop is something that would give most people nightmares.  Not to mention that if you have your beautiful, soulful eyes set on a handsome young earl, manipulating his younger sister is not going to endear you to him if/when he finds out :D

Elkhound

Yes, she's probably over-reached herself.  If she'd really thought things through, she would have realized that catching a Deryni priest was something statistically likely in that chapel, and perhaps popping into a parish church while on some shopping expedition in town where one would almost certainly get a nice, manipulable non-Deryni might have presented itself as a better idea.

Evie

#22
Well, she did know what day and time Father Shandon was in the habit of hearing confessions, so she had every expectation of dealing with a human priest without having to go into the City and then shake off a chaperone who might have asked nosy questions about why she was seeking out some other priest when there were already several to choose between at the Schola.  Where she went wrong was in going ahead with her plan even after she found Fr John taking Fr Shandon's place.  Had she just waited another week or two for Fr Shandon to return to his duties, she'd have gotten her way and left everyone none the wiser.

And yes, as John's friend and as someone who probably knows John's character better than most at this point, Duncan would have his doubts about the allegations against him.  At the same time, though, as an experienced bishop who has been a priest for almost 30 years by this point, and who has doubtless seen his share of Church and Court scandals, he would also be well aware that not all the wolves within his flock are in obvious wolves' clothing, and that there are times when even the most upright-looking, respectable-seeming of men (and women) turn out to have a hidden dark side.  Just thinking of the women I deal with in my recovery group for abuse survivors, it's true that if you were to meet some of their abusers, you'd walk away thinking "I'm not at all surprised he'd do such a thing...he looks like a walking mugshot!", but it's equally true that you'd come away from others thinking "Oh, surely she has to be making those stories up!  He's an outstanding member in the community...one of our best-respected doctors / lawyers / deacons / police chiefs / mayors / fill-in-the-blanks...and everyone knows what a fine man he is!  He can't possibly be a wife beater / child batterer / pedophile / fill-in-the-blank."  And yet the latter group aren't somehow any more immune to having a dark side than the former; they just tend to get away with it more often because everyone around them "knows" that they are "good people" and just give them the benefit of the doubt every time.  At least until the evidence can't be hidden anymore, and even then there are those who will choose to doubt the evidence rather than doubting the man.  (And of course the same can be said of women who abuse; I just happen to work with a set of female abuse survivors among whom about 90% of their primary abusers were male.  Statistics may vary somewhat in a group of male abuse survivors; I honestly don't know.)

So yes, Duncan's heart would certainly want to give John the benefit of the doubt.  At the same time, his integrity as a bishop would demand that he fully investigate the charges regardless of his personal feelings toward the man, and properly report them to his superiors (in this case, Archbishop Cardiel and King Kelson, who normally wouldn't be involved but who would be in a need-to-know position in this case since it's his chaplain under investigation).  He can't simply take John's word for it that he's innocent.  And this is for John's protection as well; if John goes through a formal investigation and is cleared, then it would become harder for anyone to say, "Oh, he's actually guilty, but he's a friend of the bishop so the Church looked the other way.  You know, protecting their own and all that...."
"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!

Elkhound

#23
Bring in two Deryni to truthread him while being questioned.  Kelson has already established that truthreading is admissable under Gwynnedian (if that is the correct adjective) law, and the Bible--the rule & guide of faith, given that this is a church matter--says 'by the testimony of two men shall it be established.

Then empanel, lets see, Duchess Richenda, Princess Rothana, and at least four other Deryni ladies of rank as a Jury of Matrons to examine Aedwige.

Evie

#24
Yes, there has already been the precedent of Truth-Reading being allowed in a Church inquiry in canon (the tribunal inquiring into the legitimacy of Duncan's marriage to Maryse), and now that Archbishop Cardiel has seen how useful that particular Deryni gift was in that instance, I'm sure he'd have availed himself of it since then in times of need.  Considering that his Auxiliary Bishop is Duncan, it's not like he'd have trouble finding a Deryni willing to help him in that way. The inherent problem, this being a private Church matter, is finding Deryni in the Church who can be counted on to be unbiased in their assessment.  (Remember, Duncan is John's friend and Denis Arilan was John's first mentor.) Fortunately for John, this is 1136, not 1125 or earlier, and therefore there are quite likely a few more Deryni in the Church than there used to be before the Statutes of Ramos were struck down, making it a little easier to locate Deryni without a personal bias towards or against John who could participate in an inquiry.

As for a panel of ladies investigating Ædwige, though, they'd have to find out who made the allegations against John first before anyone would even consider bringing her before a panel to Truth-Read her.  Briony's not about to divulge her source, at least not unless and until she is convinced that she's been lied to.  But at this point, she still has every reason to believe in Ædwige's honesty, so it might be a while before anyone else discovers who Fr John's accuser is.  (In fact, I know it's going to be a while...I've written several chapters beyond what's been posted thus far, and no one within the story has figured it out yet!  :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

#25
QuoteWhere she went wrong was in going ahead with her plan even after she found Fr John taking Fr Shandon's place.  Had she just waited another week or two for Fr Shandon to return to his duties, she'd have gotten her way and left everyone none the wiser.
Exactly.  Aedwige let her temper get the better of her, and didn't deal well with the unexpected.  But she obviously got her devious little brain working again pretty quickly though, because she was certainly very adept and cunning in turning Briony's arrival to her advantage. 

QuoteThe inherent problem, this being a private Church matter, is finding Deryni in the Church who can be counted on to be unbiased in their assessment.  (Remember, Duncan is John's friend and Denis Arilan was John's first mentor.)
And even if Duncan and Cardiel were minded to go outside the Church, the only Deryni they could bring in, whom they absolutely trust to keep matters confidential, are also too close to Fr John and/or Duncan to be seen as unbiased.  Justice has to be seen to be done, and not leave any room for Aedwige (or anyone else) to claim that the person doing the truth-reading was too close to the accused.  They're obviously not going to bring in Kelson or Araxie, so that leaves Dhugal, Alaric, Richenda and Rothana.  Alaric and Richenda have both been involved in John's training, Dhugal is Duncan's son, and Rothana is close to Duncan and Fr John through work at the Schola.

So - we look forward to meeting your 'new' Deryni expert!  :)



Elkhound

Now that good relations have been re-established with Torenth, if outside Deryni clerics are needed, the Patriarch of Beldour could send a delegation.

Elkhound

It occurs to me that Aedwige's first mistake was to use rat poison.  If she had arranged for the Baron to have been perscribed a strong pain medicine, and she had overdosed it, she could have plausibly claimed that it was an accident--that she miscalculated the dose.  Or if she couldn't sell that, giving a too-large dose of a pain medication could arguably have been misplaced compassion.  "Nobody would
have allowed a dog or cat or horse to linger in such pain--is a human entitled to less mercy?"

Jerusha

On the other hand, Aedwige probably did not plan to kill her husband initially; but when the rat poison conveniently showed up with the medicine for Gilrae, she saw the opportunity to make a "mistake."
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Elkhound

Quote from: Jerusha on January 29, 2012, 09:29:14 PM
On the other hand, Aedwige probably did not plan to kill her husband initially; but when the rat poison conveniently showed up with the medicine for Gilrae, she saw the opportunity to make a "mistake."

She asked for rat poison, and when Sister H. asked about the rat problem during her visit, she at first didn't know what she was talking about.  No, I think she intended to do away with her husband from the first.

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