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February 27, 2005 | |
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Delivered via courier...
Lisle,
I am so sorry that I have not been around during the recent struggles in Amber. I suppose the politics of your position is rather intimidating to me. Given my "situation" I felt it best to be distant so as not to cause add any more difficulty to your efforts. A Regent of Amber has no business acquainting herself with someone who calls themselves Pestilence from time to time, don't you think?
I did hear of your engagement, however, and that is the basis for my letter. I would very much like to talk to you in private, Lisle. I confess I'm worried for you and don't exactly understand what is happening. If you can make time to meet with me, you know that I can be found at Webber's or at Gideon. I hope to hear from you soon.
Your friend,
Yo.
Pasture Behind Webber's -- Banished Sun...
Nestled behind the Inn amidst wild flowers and the dark woods of Banished sun is the pasture of a glorious white mare. Her head lifts abruptly to momentarily regard you before dropping it back to a patch of clover. The wooden fence disappears through the tattered necklace of virgin trees that surround the open field and a ghostlike mist hangs over the hills beyond - blending grey and green together.
Yosannah sits atop the wooden face, legs dangle over the other sides and feet are propped thereupon. She rests her elbows atop her knees, skillfully balanced. Before her, the white mare that calls this pature home, snuggles into her hand. Yosannah appears to be feeding the animal grain when Lisle arrives.
Rich flaxen blonde hair, awash with pale spring colors of life, falls to the small of her back. She is tall with Aryan eyes, bright blue, set into a pale complexion of peaches and cream. An oval shaped face is serene, shoulders often slouched with a casual graciousness. Intelligent, serious eyes look out from beneath the dark-rooted lashes over a delicate nose, a more generous mouth beneath, and high cheekbones.
She wears a pair of loose jeans that hang a little low on her hips and heeld black boots. A short black T-shirt reveals the delicate curve of her collar bones and a slim waist. She wears a ring of white gold, a single diamond surrounded by smaller sapphires.
Lisle gets out of the car, the boot of her heels first, then her tall, thin frame. Thinner than Yosannah has ever seen her, but not as thin as she was even three weeks ago. There are shadows under her eyes, but even those seem less when she turns her head /toward/ Yosannah. A hand brushes her hair behind her shoulder, and she walks toward her, "Yosannah!" Oh /horse/. Lisle loves Horses.
The mare snorts at the sound of Lisle's voice and paws it's hoof into the ground.
Yosannah turns her head over her shoulder to regard the lady of Amber. A slight smile forms upon her lips, pleased. Yet there is also a weariness in her eyes that lingers despite her friend's arrival. She swings her legs over the fence and drops to the ground, "Lisle, you came." She hurries to greet her friend, offering a gentle hug if the woman will accept.
Lisle not only accepts, but leans to hug Yosannah back, as if she's fond of her. "Yosannah, I am glad to see you. And now that I am done with this business of Amber I am free to search for our rings again." As if that had been weighing in her mind. She withdraws to smile at Yosannah, perhaps noticing her weariness.
Yosannah nods at this, distracted and obviously not enthused about the idea. Rather then pick up the conversation as offered by Lisle, she gestures toward the pasture and the fence, inviting the woman to join her. The topic is redirected, "You're engaged I hear."
Lisle might be a little surprsied by Yosannah's change in topic, her eyebrows up a little bit. She walks, long legged, beside Yosannah toward the pasture and fence. "I am. I felt, from your letter, that there was something about this that bothered you?"
When Yosannah reaches the fence, she settles her hands thereupon. She nods, mostly to herself, and lets her gaze drift across the fields and to the treeline. An early morning mist swirls about the distance. "I couldn't help but wonder if it was something you were being obliged into." She turns her head over her shoulder so that she might look at her companion, "Because of everything that's been happening for you in Amber."
Lisle rests her hands upon the fence too, and then leans her hip there, to face Yosannah, thin arms crossing across her chest. She shakes her head, a hand lifting to move the thin strands of windblown hair from her forehead. "I've been obliged to do many things I don't want, like hand Amber over into the hands of a man who trusts Mercedes to be his councilor. But marrying Laurent isn't an obligation. I've known him for ...years."
Yosannah asks, pointedly, "You love this man."
Lisle says, "I do. Why?" Her hands come out, palm up, "It sounds as though you might dislike him quite a bit, or know something of him?"
Yosannah shakes her head, honestly, "No, Lisle. I suppose I'm doubting the truth of what you say. And the fact of the matter is, I have no business doubting you." She turns her gaze out over the pasture so that she might regard the animal that frolics within. She exhales a long sigh, "Maybe I'm jealous at the idea that you're getting married and that someone else is going to have your attention and your time." She shakes her head again, light smile evincing how stupid she feels, "It's ridiculous."
Lisle says, "Oh, Yosannah. I ~love~ him. I'm not sure I can even express how much, and our relationship has been long, sometimes marked by jealousy and anger. We both have terrible tempers. But we are the same in some ways. He won't take me away from my friends more than Amber did; serving her, I had no time for friends." She pauses, "But you have the look upon you, Yosannah, as if you know him."
The shadow woman shrugs, "I only know of him, Lisle. He's Flora's son, isn't it? Funny," she allows for a pause to consider, "only that I thought Flora hated your father. And here her son is marrying his daughter." She bites at her lip, attention on the horse, "I know Amberite men, Lisle. Fickle and political. It just seems a dangerous game to play with your heart. I'm probably worried over nothing." She looks upon the Princess and lets a reassuring smile draw upon her lips, "Really."
You own a floating room: Assa L'Ombra - The Core(#12790)
Lisle smiles warmly, "Oh Yosannah. Flora and my father are very close. He sent me to her, did you not know? Years ago. She has supported every single one of his reigns, and he has been crowned three times. It is no dangerous game I play. I don't think so anyway. Not that I am under any delusions that he has been wild with ladies from Amber, to Rebma past the Yegg even until the Courts. But that is all past. I hope you will come to my wedding."
Yosannah exhales her smile into something resembling a chuckle. She nods, slowly, subtle, "Of course I will. You know that."
Lisle says, "Good. And though I know I have introduced you to him before, I hope to do so again. He's busy with Amber right now, but later." She turns back to look at the pasture now too. "I cannot help thinking something else is bothering you, Yosannah. You've never struck me as the kind of woman who would be concerned, even about arranged marriages. Though," she smiles at her friend, "I guess we've never talked about the men in our lives. Not really."
Perhaps Lisle has hit upon something as Yosannah goes quiet for a long moment before she offers a simple, "No. We haven't." Her jaw works quietly, "Damen is lost to us." Finally, something that has been lingering on her mind. "And you know what," she nods, to herself again, "It's not my fault. Gosh, there is so much to tell you."
Lisle says, "Damen was the man you were going to marry, isn't he? He was a son of Amber, too," she says, as though remembering that at least, "I'd like you to tell me. He was a friend of Ben's, wasn't he? You and he and Ben?"
Yosannah nods at this, silent in the thought of it all. "No one knows this, Lisle. Not even the member's of the Club. I didn't even know until very recently until I heard one night. Damen's voice calling to me. Down into the basement rooms of the Gideon. He was there." She swallows, "You wouldn't have believed it. Damen stood there with the man himself - Gideon. It was horrible."
Lisle turns her head into a bit of a breeze. "I don't know who Gideon is, but the way you say that, it is as if Damen has been transformed, or his past beyond the veil." And she assures, "I'll tell no one."
Yosannah nods, "He killed the man. He killed Gideon. Or what was left of the poor man. And he replaced him as the essance of Banished Sun. This whole shadow," her eyes drift this way and that in demonstration, "is Damen now. It was crazy, Lisle. There were tubes and fluids and magic and... I can't even describe it beyond that. I just can't."
Lisle looks away of a sudden and down. "I've seen things like that," she confesses. "I took Laurent, once, from a place where someone was trying to do something /like/ that to him. I mean the tubes, the wires, the coffin of water." She glances over at Yosannah, "I'm sorry. You loved Damen, I know. Do you know why he'd do something like that?"
"He was crazy." A pause, "Like his grandfather. He said, 'What greator power could there be... beyond simply manipulating shadow... I AM shadow.' He was out of his mind. He is not the man I loved. I stopped loving him years ago. He was something else."
Lisle gives a little nod, "I've seen people fall to insanity too. I'm sorry for your heart, my friend. I lost," she begins, then swallows, "I lost the man I loved -- long before Laurent - to insanity and violence. But. Do you mind if I ask who his grandfather was?"
Yosannah lifts her eyes to meet Lisle's, "Brand."
Lisle says, "I know Brand. I /love/ Brand, he is my teacher and mentor. I have heard, from Flora, though, that he was almost lost to insanity."
"They hated each other. Damen and Brand. Or so I'm told. In truth, I think Damen wanted, desperately, for his attention. It doesn't matter now, I guess." She forces a smile, "Damen's loss has been weighing on me, Lisle. That is all. I feel partly responsible for it. That maybe the eb and flow for my feelings for Corey made Damen angry with me. That I pushed him to this. Which is ridiculous of course. Stupid me to think that a man from Amber could be interested in a shadow."
Yosannah adds, somewhat sadly, "Either man."
Lisle wonders, "Do you mean my uncle Corwin?" And then, "Do not blame yourself, Yosannah. Each man makes their own destiny, their own fate, they write their own biographies, as we all do, and who can tell what makes one man live, and one man die. You are mistaken about my family's men do not love real women. It depends on the man, I suppose. And the woman. And what is in their minds." She pauses, "I have found things more powerful than myself in shadow. Sometimes, I think, my family was only suppose to be its guardian, and got lost somehow, in the long life. I think... I think it is from shadow that life comes, that genius grows. Some of us know that."
Yosannah smiles at Lisle and the words of wisdom that she offers, "You have always had a way about you Lisle. To turn my self-doubt away and to give me perspective. Thank you." Her face does, indeed, seem to soften, "And no, I do not mean your uncle Corwin. I'm talking about his son. Merle." She warms at the mention of his name. Maybe even blushes about her cheeks.
Lisle smiles at Yosannah from the depths of blue eyes, "Then you have done something I have not, which is even meet him. Merlin. I am told sometimes, from others, that I am like him. But I have never met him. Even when our paths /could/ cross they do not. What is he like?"
Yosannah crosses her arms atop the fence. She is thoughtful, "Quiet, reticent. In truth, it is difficult to engage him on personal matters. I have known him over a decade and I still know so very little of him." She thinks, "Though people talk about his power, I have only seen him use his skills once or twice in all that time. He's quite an enigma."
Lisle says, "Then I should like to meet him, I think. Have you seen him lately?" She leans a hip on the fence, turning to face Yosannah again.
Yosannah whistles for the mare. The creature lifts its head from a patch of clover at the call. She trots over to the pair, rubbing her nose into Yosannah's hands. Yosannah gestures, for Lisle's sake, to the bag of grain that lies open at their feet, "She'll love you forever if you feed her." And then, "I haven't seen him in a couple months, in truth. The last time was in Avalon. And before that..." She shrugs her shoulders, "Lisle, I don't know what to do. I'm not very good at this sort of thing."
Lisle leans down, but not for the grain, instead finding an apple on the ground, though there are no other apples around. She holds her hand out, palm flat, careful of her fingers. She holds it out for the horse. "Don't ask me, Yosannah. I'm not good at this either. I may well lose my own fiance in the coming conflict."
Yosannah wonders, "What do you mean?"
Lisle says, "I did not give over the throne willingly, Yosannah, though you must not tell anyone that. And so, depending on how things go, I may not be able to support Bleys."
Yosannah exhales a sigh at this, "Oh no. What will you do in the mean time?"
Lisle says, "I don't know. I will probably resign all my positions if things come to pass that are bad, and fade away. But Bleys then might disavow my fiance, and that would make him very unhappy. It all seems tragic."
Yosannah mutters, "Tragedy is our lot is seems." She looks to the Princess and smiles, "We are a pathetic pair, Lisle."
Lisle says, "We are," she agrees, wiping the apple juice on her jeans hip.
Lisle says, "And."
Lisle says, "I will have to face my father when he returns."
Yosannah nods at this, slow and repeating. She knows of what Lisle speaks. "I wish I had some encouraging words. I just don't."
Lisle says, "He may well kill me."
Lisle says this matter-of-factly.
Silence passes between the pair as the mare crunches at the fruit.
"Lisle, perhaps you might consider... I mean, I think I've mentioned it to Stone a few times... Perhaps you might join the members of Gideon. It would bring certain protections if you were ever in need."
Lisle says, "Aye? And what does that entail."
Yosannah strokes behind the mare's ears, "Simple, really. You agree not to public disclose the names of the members. Though, in truth," she offers a smile, "Most are known anyway. And you agree to extend aid as best you are able to any member that might require it. That there might be personal and political conflicts to that end are understood by everyone."
Lisle says, "I would be pleased to be a part of something like that."
Lisle's eyes go a little vague.
You sense Lisle is involved in some sort of trump activity.
Lisle says, "No word of my troubles, though, to anyone, Yosannah."
Yosannah nods, "Of course not..." She senses the distance in Lisle's focus and turns, quietly, to the mare.
Lisle is smiling into the trump, turning so her back is to the fence.
Lisle lifts her hand.
Laurent appears, grasping Lisle's hand.
Laurent does not release Lisle's hand upon arrival. He kisses the palm, instead, then leans in to kiss her cheek. "Hello," he says after this has been done.
With Laurent's arrival the mare lifts its snout and exhales a snort of air. A fence sits between it and the women.
Shining and golden, Laurent aspires to an elegant perfection. Hair seemingly spun from gold frames his handsome face, thick locks sweeping to the left. The sun has gilded his skin, providing the perfect setting for purest ice blue of his eyes. He is refined in feature, these finely chiseled and strong, and in form. Power and grace flow naturally through his movement - balanced between strength and agility.
Silk, leather, and denim, in blues, blacks, and golds, swathe his body. The shirt is of the finest blue damask silk, trimmed in gold at sleeves, waist, and collar. Over that he wears a slim black leather jerkin, upon which a rampant golden unicorn is pinned. Several pouches, a holstered sidearm, and a saber (the hilt made of a strangely luminous golden-bronze metal) depend from the belt that holds his black trousers around his waist. The entire ensemble is shrouded in a long black cloak.
Yosannah lingers quietly, her hand resting on the mare's nose. She regards the exchange between the couple.
Lisle kisses Laurent's other cheek, her fingers curling against his, and says, "Laurent, my love, will you meet my dear friend, the Lady Yosannah? She and I have studied the arcane together, and still do. Yosannah, my fiance, the Lord Marhsall of Amber, Laurent."
Laurent releases Lisle's hand and peels off the leather glove he was wearing. "Ma'am. A pleasure."
You own a floating room: Assa L'Ombra - The Core(#12790)
Yosannah offers a humble nod Laurent's direction, "Pleasure. Though I think we might have met once or twice before, sir."
Lisle says, "I think I intruduced you once, several years ago."
Lisle slips her hands in her jeans pockets. "But it was very brief."
Laurent puts both gloves now in his belt. "That's right," he confirms. "It's a pleasure." Not seeing any hand emerging from Yosannah to be kissed, he puts his arm happily back around Lisle's shoulders. "Any luck finding those rings?'
Yosannah sends a curious glance in Lisle's direction.
Lisle says, "I have not heard word in some time, but," and she tells Yosannah, "I hope to get back to the task. As soon as I may, I will start looking." Her hip leaning against Laurent's, comfortably. She isn't quite as tall as Laurent, but close.
Yosannah seems resigned to refrain from comment on the matter. She looks between the pair and offers a smile. It seems mildly feigned and, after a moment, she redirects, "When is the wedding?"
Laurent says "May, we were thinking."
Laurent says "You will come, I pray."
Lisle says, "We hope," not seeming to mind the change in topic, her head turning to regard Lauent's face in profile. Smiling in the way of distracted feeling, dark-rooted blonde lashes lowered.
Laurent says "Lisle and I have ... have long awaited a chance to proclaim our love to all our friends, family, and the worlds."
Laurent says "Excuse me for being mushy."
Laurent offers an apologetic, but not self-concious, smile.
Lisle glances back at Yosannah, her eyes brightening as an arm slips around Laurent's waist. "I thnk you must remember Yosannah, some years ago, when you told me I looked happy, and suspected I had a boyfriend."
Lisle says, "Even then, it was Laurent."
Yosannah smiles then, recalling, "And this is the man. Well then, congratulations." She rubs at the mare's nack.
The animal turns it's large brown eyes upon the pair, intelligence lingers in the creature's eyes.
Laurent asks. "What's her name?"
Laurent is speaking of the mare, of course.
The creature's ears tilt at Laurent's question.
"She won't tell me." Yosannah looks from the horse to the Prince, coy smile lingering on her lips. "I know, it's a little strange. But I'm certain she has a name already. It seems a bit trite to give her another one just because I don't know what her real name is."
Laurent nods approvingly. "That seems fair. May I?" He frees himself from Lisle with a smile and steps towards the mare.
Lisle regards the mare also, hands folding before her, as if she wore a gown.
Yosannah looks to the animal and then to the Prince, "Of course." She seems a bit uncertain despite her words
Lisle reaches a hand to touch Yosannah's shoulder lightly, if she allows it, smiling. "He will not hurt her."
Laurent's eyebrows lift slightly but he takes Yosannah at her words. He gently approaches the horse, experienced in such matters; confident in the way one must be with horses lest they sense one's concern. Merely a pat, a little feel of the form and warmth. No feeding of the sugar he certainly has in a pouch, or otherwise too much contact, in deference to Yosannah's hesitation. "She is beautiful."
Yosannah tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "Um, thank you." She scratches absent mindedly at her neckline. "Um, listen, I'd love to stay, really I would." She redirects her attention to Lisle, "I /have/ to stop by Gideon tonight. I have to close some things up there." She nods knowingly to Lisle.
Lisle inclines her head graciously to Yosannah, "I will see you soon," as if she plans to.
Lisle puts her hand on Laurent's elbow.
Lisle says, "My love, let us to the Folly."
Lisle adds, "I have something I would speak to you of," to Laurent. This while she reaches into her jeans pocket for a trump.
Laurent nods. "Alright."
Yosannah lifts her chin to Laurent. A departing gesture. She waits for them to take their leave.
Laurent laces his hand into Lisle's and lets her trump them both away.
Lisle studies the card, free hand reaching for Laurent's hand.
Laurent beams a smile of farewell at Lisle's friend, as he vanishes