Arcaea/Dining Hall/Reactions to Gerda's Great Gamble
His Grace, the Duke Goffrey Massey of Nocaneb wishes to announce his marriage to the Lady Gerda Analise Rebane, formerly of Aureus on the East Continent, which, due to the current hostilities, took place quietly in Nocaneb last week.
Duke Goffrey is pleased to introduce Arcaea to his bride, Her Grace, the Duchess Gerda Analise Massey of Nocaneb.
Lady Edara Kindon Duchess of Talex
As Jenred sat, enjoying the unusual lack of activity and using it to catch up on some reading, a messenger came in with...A wedding announcement? From Goffrey of all people? Well...Would have thought to be invited...Who's the lucky...
Jenred screamed.
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
Edara was agonizing over the reports from the warehouses when the message came in.
“Empty! How can they be empty?”
How could she have failed so badly so quickly? She had never worried about the food in Nocaneb…the Imperial Chancellor had everything flowing in and out. Gods…she hadn’t been paying attention…so busy playing at being Duchess. Her people would starve…and Jenred would be so disappointed in her.
She glanced at the message, relieved to have something to take her mind off of her failure...
Goffrey…married? To…mother? How could her mother have gotten married without telling her…and to…Goffrey?
Edara put her head in her hands. She couldn’t understand this at all, but she would have to worry about it later. Right now she needed to figure out how to get some food into her city. At least…mother wasn’t here to see her fall on her face…that was something.
Lady Edara Kindon Duchess of Talex
Goffrey looked up from his where he was discussing tactics with Eugen, a slightly confused look on his face.
“What is it Ma’Lord,” Eugen said in a concerned voice.
“I just got the strangest feeling...and I could have sworn...did you hear a man screaming just now....” said Goffrey as he looked back at Eugen.
“New Message for you Ma’Lord,” said Goffrey’s scribe, cutting Eugen off before he could respond...
Needless to say Goffrey was terribly confused at how he was able to send any such message out when he had been fighting Ethialans for the better half of a week now...
After an hour of puzzling, he finally decided to shrug it off as one of those things he did, and then forgot about doing later. Those seemed to be happening a lot lately, like the small increments of money that kept disappearing from his purse every now and again.
He was still trying to figure out who could have authorized the purchase of all those new dresses in his name when a messenger walked in, informing Goffrey that Jenred had need of his counsel.
Goffrey hurried off to the palace, the urgency of the note adding a panic level to his step. He arrived at the front gates, with the guards waving the young duke in, ushering himself into the throne room where Jenred waited him.
“Jenred, I got your message, what’s the emergency...”
Goffrey Massey Duke of Nocaneb
Jenred leapt off the throne, dismissing the servants and guards with a violent jerk of his hand.
"GOFFREY!?!? What in all the hells are you doing marrying Gerda in the name of all the gods WHY?!?!?"
He panted, in complete shock and uncharacteristically incoherent, looking at Goffrey with wild and bright eyes.
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
Harmony was breakfasting quietly with her father in a private room at The Hawk and Phoenix in Remton. She wasn’t sure if they would be moving out or if she would spend another day training with her men and waiting. It was nice that father was here, though. He had spent several weeks in Talex with Edara and was making his way back home to Nocaneb.
Dougal was casually flipping through his correspondence when he made a choking sound.
“Father! What is it? Are you alright?” Harmony lept up from her seat and dashed to his side. His face was an alarming shade of purple and he was shaking all over.
“Are you choking?” She began thumping on his back.
“Read...this...read...it!” He gasped, waving away her attentions.
She looked at her father with exasperation, “Jenkins!” she called out.
“Milady?” Her secretary popped his head in the door.
“Read this and tell me why my father is having an apoplectic fit.”
Jenkins read the short message to her and Harmony began to curse.
“Oh, that poor little lamb! I can’t believe that witch got her clutches into Goffrey...well...dammit...I can...he’s so...naive...but... Blast it! If I’d any idea, I would have sicked Jenred on her...Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.*”
Dougal nodded, his face still mottled with rage.
“I should have killed her years ago.”
- Our lovely Bard Will
Lady Harmony Kindon (Dame of Nocaneb)
Goffrey blinked once, then for good measure blinked twice at Jenred’s outburst.
“Oh...,” he said, scratching his head nervously and suddenly finding the floor very interesting,”...I see you read that notice didn’t you...”
Embarrassed Goffrey looked up from the floor into Jenred’s blazingly wild eyes, “I was gonna tell you....eventually...son in law...”
Goffrey said the last part with a nervous sheepish smile in place, before it was washed away by another though...
“I didn’t do anything wrong...did I...,” Goffrey asked, genuine concern in his voice, silently hoping that he hadn’t screw up a relationship...again....
Goffrey Massey Duke of Nocaneb
Jenred took in a deep breath. Then another. He compulsively pulled his hair behind his ears.
"Goffrey. I love you like a brother. I have stood by you, and you by me and mine, through far too many years for us to be anything else. So when I say to you that Gerda is a snake, you must believe me. She willingly sent Edara off, almost uneducated, to Arcaea when we were at our worst. Her own daughter to the middle of the most one-sided war in the history of the Far East. On the losing side. And when I killed that bastard stepfather of Edara's, she barely blinked, and agreed to work with me to get through the wedding, leave, and never ever return. She cared nothing for her last husband. And she tried to have Edara killed. Have you met Dougal? Harmony's father? Good man. He has mentioned before that he wishes he'd killed Gerda before. Idelle, Edara's head of the house? The one who more or less raised Edara? She agrees that Gerda should be dead. The only reason I haven't dealt with her is that Edara still loves her mother, and would be heartbroken if she died."
He grabbed Goffrey by the shoulders.
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
Goffrey blinked at the sheer amount of new information hurled at him from seemingly no where. He stood there motionless lost in thought still trying to process all had been told.
In the end though, it really didn't change much, he still had no choice in the matter.
Goffrey sighed heavily, as he slid next to Jenred and slipped an arm across his shoulders in a brotherly manner.
"Jenred, my king, my friend, my brother in every way but blood...I believe you...and just as I believe you I ask that you believe me, when I say that, my...situation is rather more...complicated...then it seems...," said Goffrey in a weary sort of tone.
"Though, I suppose that's hardly an explanation is it..."
Richter Massey (Knight of Remton)
Jenred sighed.
"With that woman, I am hardly surprised the situation is complex...But...I suggest you explain precisely how...So I can figure out what, exactly, I'm going to do about it..."
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
Goffrey sighed wearily as he led Jenred over to his throne and motioned for him to sit down. Jenred gave him a skeptical look, but nevertheless took his seat and waited semi patiently for Goffrey to start talking again.
Nervously Goffrey paced back and forth before the throne, contemplating what exactly he was going to say. He repeated the motion before leaning his head against a pillar on the right side of the room, and taking several deep breaths.
He had promised his brother never to revel their families...lineage...yet Jenred was his King, his best friend, and he deserved to know the truth...but how to tell him...that was the lingering question.
Turning to face Jenred, who looked suitably less patient then before, Goffrey gave up trying to find a way around telling him the truth.
“I do not ask that you keep this secret Jenred, you are my friend, and I trust you to do with this information as you see fit...for good or ill...,” Goffrey said, as he took another moment to gather his thoughts.
“Jenred...how do you suppose...my father was able to beat me so easily when we first...encountered...one another back in Nocaneb...and how do you suppose I was able to survive that encounter at all for that matter...impossible right?”
Goffrey’s tone indicated that he deeply wished it was possibly, a subtle edge of terror ran through his voice, barely distinguishable but still there all the same. He realized at that point, that never before...aloud anyway...had he admitted this to anyone...certainly not to his father...not to his brother...not even to himself...he took another calming breath before continuing.
“And yet I was able to beat him...albeit barely...not so long after that...during the incident with Harmony...it doesn’t make sense does it...contradictions like that only happen in stories right...story’s where the hero somehow finds something within himself that gives him just the edge to defeat the villain and save the day...”
Goffrey wasn’t talking to Jenred anymore...more so he was talking around him...all his internal musing laid bare in a desperate attempt to get the truth out like a cancerous tumor.
“...well I found my edge...and just like in the stories it was deep within me...so deep...and when I dug it up in such haste...I failed to realize just why it was buried in the first place...heh...Richter’s the only one who knows when exactly it entered our line...I was too horrified by it to look myself...I really didn’t want to believe it at all... I just locked it away and throw away the key...until I need it...until I needed to be a hero...”
A glazed haunted look entered Goffrey’s eyes as he turned and locked eyes with Jenred, still barely taking notice of him.
“Except heroes aren't monsters...are they...”
Goffrey Massey Duke of Nocaneb
Jenred searched Goffrey's eyes for a long moment, seeing the pain...And rose from the throne to grab the larger man by the shoulders.
"Heroes are those that defy their baser instincts in pursuit of the common good. You risked your life against a foe that should have killed you...For someone else. That is heroism. All else is for personal glory and honour, worthy goals...But not the path of the true Hero. You have followed that, whatever lies in your blood in some distant past. My father let my mother die, and wanted rid of me. We both are descended from monsters, my friend, and have terrible legacies from it. The greater part of our honour derives from not letting those destroy us."
Jenred paused, unsure of how to broach this...
"But...Goffrey...What in the name of the Aenil has this to do with Gerda?"
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
Goffrey blinked once, and shook his head thoroughly, as he seemingly took notice of Jenred for a second time during the span of his conversation. Embarrassed at, not only being caught rambling like, but also failing utterly to explain why exactly he had ended up married to Gerda.
“Well...,” Goffrey said, his eyes wandering about in obvious discomfort...
He had already gotten past the initial embarrassment and had moved on to the embarrassment associated with explaining to Jenred his...intimate...practices...
Summoning all his tact, and willpower Goffrey managed to find his voice after only a few short, although seemingly long, moments.
“...you ever tried to hold onto a wild dog Jenred...nasty little bastard they are...no matter what hold you put them they can always find a way to scratch you or bite you or worm their way loose...it’s more of a practice of endurance really, because you have to keep adjusting your grip otherwise the bugger WILL get loose...and more then likely it WILL maul you...”
Goffrey suddenly found the floor incredibly interesting, as a red hue came to his face,
“And well...my natural instincts...combined with my...lineage...well...and with Gerda being so very...very...nice to me...well...I kinda...lost my grip...so to speak...and it mauled the both of us...so to speak...”
Goffrey laughed a short strangled short of nervous chuckle, as he absent mindly kicked bits of imaginary dust around on the floor.
“After that...I blinked...and suddenly I found my self in a state of matrimony...was that supposed to happen because I honestly don’t know...”
Goffrey Massey Duke of Nocaneb
"Ah...Yes..."
Jenred nodded.
"No need to elaborate, I get the idea...And...May I point out that Gerda has been seducing men with far more experience and knowledge in this particular area for longer than you have been alive? Her 'very nice' was assuredly intentional...And I will bet Orbeh that she wanted just this. It is not how things normally go. Even if she became pregnant...Which I doubt she would risk at her age, the standard procedure would be to pay her handsomely to keep the child in comfort, and possibly accept him into your court as a squire some day. Anything else is above and beyond the call of duty."
Jenred relaxed, smiling.
"Don't worry about it, my friend, such has been the fate of men and women since time immemorial. Some days man is the seducer...Sometimes the seduced. But, leave it to me, she will be dealt with, and we can all go on and pretend it was some practical joke, yes?"
Sir Jenred Bedwyr King of Arcaea
