eachdraidh | (sixth lemon cake) video ✧ open to both courts

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(sixth lemon cake) video ✧ open to both courts

[ before the lockets sits a well-composed and well-turned-out lady: her face is set with discipline -- though below it she wants to crack and cry. but sansa stark has a duty -- some imperative -- to speak calmly of grave matters. nothing about this is comfortable; nothing about this is within her conventional grasp. she could compare it to her makeshift trials before the lords declarant or her audiences with the king, but this stage is far wider. out of frame, her fingers tremble. ]

Dear Shardbearers of either court --

[ if her voice shakes then it is by design. some honest fear is permitted into her tone, for what better to move the hearts of strangers than to express genuine dismay at this great knotted problem? she would not have thought to even sell it as injustice until living here and meeting many a person who appeared outraged over these alliances. these marriages. these common cages. ] One turn of the moon ago, High Queen Morla delivered onto me an ultimatum: to marry some Unseelie lord of her choosing, or else invite war upon the Cothromach. Whatever your loyalties, I beg you all to recognize the attempt for what it was --[ and do please fill that blank with your own outraged conclusions. ] I call for aid and support.

[ some words are permitted more of a quiver than others: morla; marry; aid; war. ] But I fear war has come already -- has long already been present -- and today I will refuse the proposal offered, because I fear it was only ever a blade's poisoned edge. I would prevail upon some soul from that queen's court to speak my refusal to her. [ powerful men have met her vulnerabilities with laughter, only to turn and shake their heads when she took small careful steps towards decision. what else is she to do? if she will not play the game by their rules, she must try to write her own. but even now, she hinges her action upon the passion of someone else's protest. someone else's judgement -- for better or worse. ]

The Lady Keeper of the Cothromach will not swear away her city to another court by marriage vows or by vows of any kind. [ except for other partial vows made in quiet rooms with would-be neutral parties. but those meetings are a secret and her announcement today comes instead to engage the hearts and sympathies of prospective champions who might grow incensed over a bully's tactics. lady sansa is not above playing upon their pity if said pity will protect her, her family, and her new city. anyone's pity will do: seelie or unseelie alike. ]

High Queen Morla's dogs are at the gate; let us be wolves when we meet them.

( ooc; i know some efforts have already been made re: the unseelie camps by lancer and others -- there's also a fresh log for the battle itself. )

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They do and they don't. It's difficult to say. But if you'd like -- Merida -- that's all I'll call you.

[Merida smiles and inclines her head.]

An' you, Lady Keeper of Cothromach? What should I call you?

[ sansa prefers to keep her title. but -- when being addressed by a princess? there is no scandal in a simple name: ] Sansa Stark. Ah -- Sansa, alone, if you prefer.

Well met, Lady Sansa.

[She knows she asked her to only call her by name but Sansa looked a bit off put by the thought. But now isn't exactly a good time for introductions. And speaking of introductions...]

You have Cu Chulainn on your side. I have no doubt that Cothromach will see another day.

-- Strange. You are not the first to tell me so. Do you know him well?

He's mere legend in my time. A warrior my father told me of ever since I was small. All his battles were simply stories. [She pauses.] Meetin' him here was quite th' shock, believe me.

A true hero, then. Please. Tell me about him.

Oh, there's a number of stories. He single handedly defended Ulster from th' army of Connacht who were under th' orders of Queen Medb. Seventeen he was. Th' men of Ulster were under a curse, so he prevented her army from advancin' further by invokin' th' rights of single combat. [She grins.] He defeated champion after champion in stand offs lastin' months.

He sounds like legend. He sounds impossible.

Aye, but he exists.

And fights for the Cothromach. [ a deep breath. ] We are fortunate indeed.

You are indeed, m'lady. I was frightened when I met him in th' caverns when th' moon was taken, an' for good reason. [She shakes her head. None of that matters now.] Your keep is in good hands.

Would it be too much to inquire about your court, Merida?

[ she wants to trace these lines -- find who is less satisfied with what. and which allies they are willing to make. ]

Unseelie, but this has given me more than enough reason to go with my gut an' not trust th' High-Queen.

[She rather trusts the Black Shuck and those she considers friends instead, but does not say that.]

I was to be wed in my homeland, before I came. A marriage I rejected. Your situation is far too familiar to me, Lady Sansa.

Edited 2014-11-03 10:41 (UTC)

It is a common affliction.

[ and not necessarily a horrid one, she thinks -- but her luck has been bad. ]

I rather think others have better uses for my bow than th' High-Queen.

[No unusual reaction to her court, so Merida thinks it's okay.]

Aye. I bested my three suitors in archery. I didn't care for consequences, just that I got out of it.

You bested them?

[ mild shock. but not horror; not any longer. ]

Three arrows, straight into th' targets. I split th' one of th' suitor who hit it.

[She sounds like her pride in that is faltering, but she's prideful nonetheless, no matter what the actions after had been. And Wee Dingwall's had been a lucky shot anyway.]

I'm th' best archer in th' land back home.

That is...quite a claim. [ she doesn't disbelieve it. but it is...hard to believe. ]

I would nae be wearin' this bow just for show. I'm quite a good swordswoman too.

[She lifts her bow off from around her body, tilting her head before withdrawing an arrow from her quiver.]

Point me somethin' tae shoot, Lady Sansa. [She gestures around her, the outdoors wide and wild.] An' I'll entertain ye.

[Hopefully some fun would alleviate her fears for the Cothromach.]

-- Anything? [ she queries. ]

Aye. Anythin'.

That leaf. There. [ she points, though the pointing does her little good. ] The one on the tree to the left -- it's already wholly red with the end of Summer.

[ a fiery jewel in the thick of yellowed half-green leaves. ]

Edited 2014-11-07 11:48 (UTC)

That one?

[Merida turns her head, pointing to the tree just a little off to her left with a slightly raised eyebrow. Setting her locket down where Sansa can see, she knocks her arrow into place and pulls the string back. With a couple of carefully precise seconds, she lets the arrow fly

knocking the leaf off the branch and embedding it into the trunk of the tree, dead center.]

--Tremendous. Have you been training at your arrows long?

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