Write about your father

[birthrightgreen]

My father? He had no right to such a name. She denied it, and I never called him so. But all right, sugar. If that's what you want. Let's talk about the man who sired me.

Women rule in Terreille, and the whole concept of Protocol has been perverted. It used to be a balance. District Queens served Province Queens who served Territory Queens--the strongest and the best, chosen by the dark Jeweled Blood of the Territory. Males served the Queen their heart led them to. The Blood looked after the landen, and the land flourished and it was good. Caste, social standing and Jewel rank worked together, a triumvirate of power and position that kept our people always in a dance of power and protocol and in balance. The strong protected the weak.

Or so I have been told. It is not so, now. Males, even privileged ones, are no more than slaves. Frightened, weak males strip any weaker female of all her power and frightened females ring strong males before they can become a threat. A strong Queen could challenge and change this, but males bed them too young and they rise from their Virgin Night broken and useless. No threat to the SaDiablo reign.

Kartane SaDiablo. Only son of Dorothea SaDiablo, Red-Jeweled High Priestess of the Black Widow Coven and ruler of Hayll. Most of Terreille has fallen into Hayll's shadow, into Dorothea's shadow. She perverts everything she touches, and her son is no exception. Weak-willed, cowardly bastard, he took his ire out on the weak, the helpless. Darkness forbid that a Queen could rise, strong enough to challenge Dorothea's rule. Any such she saw broken, and her son soon became one of her favorite instruments.

He was a pretty boy, I've heard tell. A broken man when I finally saw him, caught in the web that Jaenelle wove around Briarwood, but a pretty boy. His mother thought so as well. He was naught more than a child when she took him to her bed to pleasure her. They say that sort of thing can break a man. He couldn't stop her, so he took it out on those weaker. Servant girls speared so viciously they had to send him away because the other men complained they couldn't use the girls. He hated whores. The gossip in the houses was that he could only rise to the occasion if he caused pain, and only the lower houses allowed the games he wanted to play. He was banned from houses before he found ways to just dominate the young girls without marking the goods. But houses had rules, and he didn't have absolute power.

So he took to playing his mother's game. Find a witch, young, still a girl. Spear her, hard and vicious. Break her web of power and drive her beyond herself. He'd keep them sometimes. Make them play his game until he seeded them. Sometimes they aborted spontaneously. Sometimes he gave them a brew to drink. When the child was gone, he tossed them out to go back to their families or a Red Moon House or the gutter.

My mother escaped his depraved games. She'd worn the Green when he broke her past herself. She couldn't use more than basic Craft when he was done the first night. She escaped and she whored for her keep so Kartane couldn't find her and destroy the child she gave birth to. His child.

Me.

His mother's pawn found her while I was at school. Slit her throat. I ran, so they wouldn't find me.

And then I trained. I killed. Planned men's deaths carefully and cruelly and sent them to it.

Dress rehearsal, sugar. For the right place. The right time. For my meeting with my father.

Comments

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She nibbled on his lower lip, tongue teasing and tasting him. Languid, relaxed, with a touch of playful underneath.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He pondered her original schedule.

"Do we really have to leave the bed to eat?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She laughed. "I think we could just send down to the kitchen for something and they'll send it up when it's ready...."

She snuggled more into him and the sheets, stroking fingers down his chest, tracing the lines of his muscles.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He impulsively kissed her nose.

"I like the way you think."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She giggled just a little, ducking her head.

"It just makes sense...."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"Yes," he laughed, kissing her nose again. "But not everyone uses it."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She smiled and kissed him again.

"Are you hungry now?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

In more ways than one. But if they were going to spend the entire day in bed, food, and pacing were probally good ideas.

He nodded.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She rolled a little, half pinning him to the bed.

"What would you like?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

*You.*

He grinned.

"Whatever you order will be fine."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She took a minute to send an order for breakfast down to the kitchen, with instructions to send it up when it was done.

Then, she gave him a wicked grin.

*I'm all yours...*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He sat up again, and in one fluid movement scooped her into his arms. He smiled at the thought of the entire day with her.

"What do you like for breakfast?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She settled on his lap, arms loose around his neck.

"Hmm...all sorts of rather decadent things I'm afraid. Eggs, bacon, lots of breads. Fruit and cream." She settled a bit more comfortably. "Too many years with nothing or just thin oatmeals. It makes me rather greedy."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He nodded in agreement.

"Oatmeal isn't worthy of breakfast. At least not all alone."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She shrugged a little. "There were days I would have been grateful for it. Would have killed for it. But no longer."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He did a mental shift, followed by a grimace, but pulled her closer. Because there was no way he was pulling away.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She smoothed his hair back and kissed him lightly, almost reassuringly.

"It was a long time ago."

It gave her pause for a moment to realize that it was likely before his great-grandmother was born.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"You do realize I'm inclined to personally deliver you breakfast in bed for al least the next month now."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She grinned a little. "You'll spoil me."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He kissed her again, not denying it.

"And I will like doing it, too."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Her smile was a touch shy as she returned his kiss.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He was content to relax back into the bed, and hold her quietly until the door sounded, announcing breakfast.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Surreal just pulled the blanket over them, hiding her arm, and called at them to come in.

The maid shot them a small smile as she bustled in, leaving the tray and then hurrying back out, but Surreal was sure their tumbled condition would be reported downstairs.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He eyed the maid, reaching much of the same conclusion as Surreal. And then he eyed the food. Piles and piles of food.

"That is a breakfast."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She giggled. "I thought we might need stamina..."