eachdraidh | video ; both courts, open

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video ; both courts, open

I don't want a locket.

[ katsa's dangling hers in front of her face, close to and giving a clear (as much as the locket's image quality is capable, anyway) image of her mismatched eyes, one an unnaturally vibrant green and the other a bright blue. she's Not Happy, if the pull of her eyebrows is any indication, and her voice is impatient. though the scene behind her isn't easy to make out, since she's holding the locket close, an astute observer might notice the twisted branches and dark green flora of la llorona. ]

I don't want any gifts. I'm not here for any kings and queens, so you can have this back—I'm not going to be yours more than I am anyone else's to do your bidding. There are enough kings to deal with already in Lienid and the Middluns. Do you imagine I won't find my own way?

[ well, all she heard was "from high king and queen" and "send a message" as she was busy trying to kick an imp in the face when she got her locket, so she thinks this is how this works. ]

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[ Katsa assumes the shift in tone is more to do with her reputation than merely her title. It's a shift that's not unfamiliar, so her own resulting change in tone is almost automatic, terser and quieter. ]

...But it never attacked. [ it's half an assumed statement, half a question. ] Could it have been a monster, if it let you go?

Edited 2014-10-06 02:50 (UTC)

One of the mates on the ship said we outran it. The wind was with us, so it let us alone when it tired of chasing us.

[It's what he believed at least. Everyone had been pretty tense during that time.]

[ That makes more sense to Katsa, though it does nothing to lessen her curiosity about seeing one. ] You're lucky. At sea, there'd have been no room to move.

[ But she can't help but wonder, her own imagination suddenly kicking into overdrive, how one might fight such a monster on a ship. They would have to keep damage from the ship itself, or draw only its attention above the hull. How well would arrows work? Perhaps one could dive under...

Maybe it was luck, or— ]

Was your captain Graced?

[Graced? He tried to relate it to his own (sometimes unfortunately limited) vocabulary. He associated that to mean purity or greatness of some kind. The captain had been a bald and bitter looking woman with a nasty tongue and not a touch of sweetness about her. Gendry had liked her, but she was certainly not graced.]

No more than I am. She knew her business at sea. It was enough.

[ And that's fair, too, though it must have been an impressive woman to reach such a position without a Grace. Katsa's silent for a moment, thinking about this. ]

That's all a sailor needs, I suppose, to know their skill and the sea.

[ Graced or Ungraced, man or woman, what mattered was getting where they needed to go and staying alive to do it. ]

It's all most folk need is to know their trade.

[Not titles and lands and servants to be useful for you. That's his subtle implication anyway.]

And with it, the opportunity to reach their highest levels.

[ she doesn't quite grasp his implication ]

[He snorts.] If they live long enough for it. It's not like to happen with highborns and their bloody wars.

[ Again, Katsa doesn't answer right away, ignoring him to play with the twisting locket on the chain. She's never been much confronted with her own status. Her uncle was a neutral king and her leash-holder for all but the last year of her life, and Katsa's only job had been to obey his orders and, later with her own initiative, to help the people who couldn't help themselves. Barring that, her best friends are mostly royalty and landholders.

She takes a moment to consider Gendry's statement. ]

Is that not why people with power should help them?

[ Her work with the Council had started as a reaction against Randa's control, but as time went on she found it absurd that those already with power were trained to become even more so and the people born without it left defenseless. ]

Little chance of that. They're best if they bugger off and keep to themselves.

[But he's venting uselessly. He's not even particularly unhappy. But he's come to like or tolerate the nobles from his own world, so he's left with little to do but to point all his unhappy anger about the nobility on unsuspecting nobles from other worlds.

He figures they probably deserve it.]

[ This would usually be where Katsa ends a conversation, neither sure of how to reply nor willing enough to try. However, she doesn't yet have a handle on how the locket works, and even she thinks it would be strange to put it away here, anyway. She shrugs instead. ]

I doubt that's likely to happen.

You're not wrong on that. [He frowns and decides to just go with the question on his mind.] So who's your king, eh?

[The safe answer for anyone is of course Tommen, but he's curious to see if perhaps she has some other loyalty.]

[ That's a weird question to ask, and since she's already told him her name and her title, Katsa wonders if he simply doesn't know the names of other kings—or even his own. She frowns back. ]

My uncle is King Randa of the Middluns, and Queen Bitterblue is taking to her new role well in Monsea. But I owe my allegiance to none but myself, and those to whom I choose to give it.

[ There are no conflicting claims over the same thrones in Katsa's Seven Kingdoms, only the squabbles of kings across borders. ]

[None names that he recognized. He should have guessed.]

My mistake, m'lady. I took you from someone else from the Seven Kingdoms.

[ deeper frown. ]

For what other person did you mistake me?

[ it isn't arrogance, really. her name is mostly recognizable alone, and the colors of her eyes she thinks should have sealed the deal. ]

No one. I ain't ever had time to learn the names of all the important highborn lords and ladies and where they build their keeps at.

[Still he'd not even looked at her, as the locket hung loosely at his chest. He was silently cursing himself for his confusion. He shouldn't have assumed.]

Most lords keep to their own lands, at least in the Middluns. I stayed in my uncle's court until last year, for the most part. You've not heard of Randa's Graceling killer?

[ her tone is dry. she expects it. ]

No. But there's lots of killers these day.

[Who can be expected to keep up with them all?]

[ Katsa responds no more but to make a small noise of concession, having nothing to say in response. Few so savage, she almost wants to say, but she shoves back the thought. She is not the killer she was months before, she reminds herself, and she knows well that few is still too many.

She changes the topic instead, with little fanfare. Speaking of killers, if they might be such— ]

Those creatures who brought me here. You came from the seven kingdoms the same way?

You mean the fairies? Aye, they asked me along. I was stupid enough to follow.

[But he was glad he did, stupid or not. This might be a war, but it was better than the one he left behind. At least from his own perspective.]

[ incredulous. ] You were given a choice?

Aye, more or less. Maybe they would have taken me anyway if I didn't agree. But I didn't have much reason not to come.

If only we all were so lucky, for such a hand and offer. There might not even be someone else's war to fight.

... imps?

[The question was simple, but he knew what it would mean when she confirmed his suspicions. She would be Unseelie and so, by technicality, his enemy. Gendry whose loyalty to his court was halfhearted at best, had little desire to discover he was trading words with someone who might want him dead.]