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

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

He pulled the blanket tighter, tugged her closer. Not admitting to himself it was as much for him, as it was for her.

Tonight was simple.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

For all her desperate eagerness of a few minutes before, she was asleep in almost no time, curled up tight against him.

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

He watched her sleep for a long time. Her face. Her arm. Making sure both rested. He could have done it all night. But something about her presence eased things for him as well.

A few hours later, he was asleep too.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She woke up slowly, shifting a little bit at the realization that she was held tight against a warm body. Groggy, memory only returning slowly, she lifted her head, wincing at the pain in her arm, which sent the memories flooding back.

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

For a moment he didn't want to let her move. He enjoyed her just where she was.

"Hello."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She blushed, remembering her behavior the night before, fighting the urge to pull away, to run. Instead she buried her heated face in his chest before he could see.

"Hello."

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

He felt it though. He tucked two fingers up under her chin, and kissed her good morning.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She returned the kiss, still blushing.

"I'm...I'm sorry. About last night."

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

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." He tilted a gaze that told her she had nothing to be sorry for. "Because I got to stay the night? Sleep next to you?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"B-because...." She moved her arm, wincing again as it stung, skin pulled.

"I'm sorry."

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

"I'm not."

He had been there. He meant what he said about holding her.

And he wasn't sorry.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"I don't usually...I mean, I've never..." She was staring at her arm, the faint red of the towel where she'd bled partly through.

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

He gently placed one hand on top of the bandage.

"I understand."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Do you?" She looked up at him, worry in her eyes.

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"I do," he said firmly. "It is all right, Surreal." He touched her cheek tenderly, then look at the bandage again. "Do you want me to try and clean it? Or should I find someone to do it properly?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"No." Panic in her eyes for a minute. "Please, no. Please don't tell...I don't want..." Him to know. Jaenelle to know. "Please...no one else..."

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

He sat up, and pulled her up into his arms, running one hand through her hair to ease what I could.

"I know," he said softly. "I know. It is why I didn't call anyone last night. Did the best I could manage."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She closed her eyes, leaning against him. A little nod.

"I couldn't stand it if they knew..."

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He nodded as well.

"Then they won't."

For all his dedication to Jaenelle, he did not even have to think about it.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Thank you..." Soft fingers on his chest. A trusting nuzzle at his jaw.

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

"What do you want to do today?"

He was willing to give her anything she wanted, if only to dull the memory of the night before.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She considered that for a moment. It seemed almost too much to decide. A whole day.

"I was supposed to..." She frowned, not remembering for a moment. "Tea. Tea with Lady Analissa."

She glanced at her arm. "Clearly I don't think I can make it."

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

He almost offered to send word around, but wasn't sure if she was ready for what that would imply.

"Do you want me to send one of the servants to let her know?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Please? Some..excuse..I don't want to seem rude.."

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

"I'll take care of it." He tried to encourage a smile. "I'm excellent at appearances."