platinum and diamond

[go_meta]

They get to Casasha. Shara gets her cream puff and her fruit. Strangers incline their heads to her and call her "pennon"; a few recognize her personally or just know that there aren't any other Swanpennons her age and call her "princess". Casasha is pretty densely populated - there's farmland in parts of it, but the place the wilds spit them out in isn't it; it's a largish city by the source of the river they've been following, and after they spend a night in an inn there - and their horses are more thoroughly seen to than is possible on the trail - they'll be proceeding on a well-trafficked highway to the royal household.

Comments

[go_meta]

"It was him. He wasn't a prince, before, he wasn't even in the principal Swanpennon branch - full-on pennon, no tricky commoner ancestry making it awkward for him to try on the crown when it came up, but not living in the Swanpennon estate most of the year. He was - I think the nearest foreign equivalent is a knight? They're just called blades, here - flag blades if one disapproves of state-sponsored violence and likes to call anybody with a sharp object a blade. And he went around the town he lived in doing that policing misbehavior as it cropped up and then there was a flash flood - people think it was a weather raveler, but it's not clear - and Karaz got everybody who couldn't swim or who'd got hurt in the original wave out of the low-lying area. Including Auriny, my mom."

[in_tatters]

Adarin smiles. "He sounds nice, yeah. Good for him on saving people."

[go_meta]

"They actually didn't start courting until years later, although still before the then-princes and princesses had aged past their first shot and therefore before Karaz had a crack at it."

[in_tatters]

He nods. "Makes sense, it's still - kind of a cute way to meet. You know, aside from the flood in the first place, of course."

[go_meta]

"It was, by all accounts."

[in_tatters]

"Is it common for the monarchy to meet via - rescue? Or was it just a thing with them?"

[go_meta]

"It's - traditional more than it is common?" says Shara. "It's the obvious story. But not overwhelmingly typical."

[in_tatters]

Adarin laughs a little. "Ah, I see. Am - I going to cause rumors by my very presence?"

[go_meta]

"Probably. Please don't worry about them, though, no one who can do anything about it is going to be pushy, there's no one around who can make you."

[in_tatters]

"I don't think they could make me, I'm - just worried about - ugh, this is going to sound so stupid if I say it out loud. Do you want me to say it out loud?"

[go_meta]

"I have no idea what you're going to say. I promise not to laugh at you or anything."

[in_tatters]

"Okay, well. I'm worried about accidentally becoming an - I don't know, accidental stain on your honor due to rumors and my reprogramming due to horrible unethical magic."

[go_meta]

"Uh? No. Even if the likely rumors were true it would be the kind of thing that is considered perfectly traditional and I don't see what the horrible unethical magic has to do with it."

[in_tatters]

"See, it sounds stupid when I say it out loud. Okay then, as long as I'm not making any horrific cultural missteps that personally cause you trouble, then it's fine. Had to be sure."

[go_meta]

"You're fine," she assures him.

[in_tatters]

"Good. Let me know if I'm ever not. I'm kind of being obsessively careful, and all."

[go_meta]

"I'll tell you, I promise I'll tell you."

[in_tatters]

He laughs. "Thanks, I realize I keep asking the same thing of you over and over - it's important, is all. Sorry."

[go_meta]

"No harm done."

[in_tatters]

"I'll stop extracting the same promise from you over and over. I'll choose different wordings of the same one, instead," he jokes.

[go_meta]

"If that's what it takes to make you feel comfortable."

[in_tatters]

"Thank you," says Adarin, sincerely. "It's very kind of you."

[go_meta]

"You're welcome."

[in_tatters]

[go_meta]

"You're looking at me funny."