Chapter Twenty: Capvita Part Two
After their draining dinner, where Zaw Rronov spent most of his time feigning politeness towards Luc Gallus’ irritating comments, and then ignoring the growing tensions between the other clans -- including the persistent glare of the interim clan leader Tong, Tong Ming, the younger brother of the first clan leader, and enormous failure in his duties at that, Tong Pi.
By the end of the meal, Zaw Rronov didn’t want to bother with any more formalities or social exhaustions, but once Matsha and Refti returned to their rooms, and once Zaw Rronov was inside his room, it only took half a chas before there was a bold knock at his door. Rronov waved his hand, and the doors parted to let none other than Luc Gallus inside -- the only man self-assured enough to pester him. Luc Gallus pulled the doors closed and set down his golden pitcher filled with wine, and set down two cups on the table. Zaw Rronov joined him at the sitting area rather than his bed, and he accepted a cup of wine.
The wine preferred and brewed in Aurumte was made with grapes, while the most prominent wine in Tbai was brewed with barley, and sometimes blackberries. Furthermore the majority of the people of Tbai preferred to actually get intoxicated with as little drinking as possible, costing less money, and preferred distilled spirits, almost made with barley and sometimes tubers like potatoes or parsnips, to do so. Wine in Aurumte was too sweet for Zaw Rronov’s tastes, he preferred more notes of herbs in his drinks, but he sipped it to be polite, and to put Luc Gallus at ease.
Luc Gallus was already sporting a flushed face, and drooping eyelids. He had been tipsy at dinner, and he must have continued to drink after arriving.
“Brother,” Luc Gallus said, filling his cup up second. “That bastard spoke of the agreement once again. Not only did he disrespect me by bringing that disgusting bastard of his with him, but now he’s acting like I had any choice in the matter. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t make my beautiful, perfect, wonderful son marry such an annoying, romantic, and plain little girl. Who would want a wife that was so plain, and raised by a mother like the Nitini herself, she’s surely got ideas beyond her station as a subpar, weak little thing.” Luc Gallus’s throat enlarged as his cup of wine emptied all its contents down it, like a trash chute. Luc Gallus let out a burp he barely covered with his hand, his cup dangling from between his fingers, and he let out a sigh afterwards, and Zaw Rronov still didn’t think it was worth a response.
“What should I do, brother? Advise your little brother, won’t you?” Luc Gallus finished saying. Zaw Rronov sipped more of his wine.
“It’s your son. You should be able to dictate who he marries, not your wife. Are you willing to risk your wife’s displeasure, or a lifetime of your son’s disappointment in his own wife?” Zaw Rronov asked. He personally didn’t see the girl, Daha Yoli, that Luc Gallus was referring to as anything terrible. She was just a young lady as far as he knew, soft spoken and polite, and with an excellent pedigree. There was really no such trouble that Zaw Rronov could see, but neither did he see Luc Gallus’ son as anything noteworthy. The boy was just as useless as most of the latest generation, only this one knew he had his father’s money to solve all his problems, which actually made him worse.
“That bitch! My horrible wife would never let me have a single moment of peace if I broke this engagement. Oh, what will I do?” Luc Gallus whinged, throwing an arm over his eyes in a dramatic gesture.
“There are two fathers involved in this match. Who is to say you must be the one to break the engagement?” Zaw Rronov asked. “Perhaps clan leader Daha wishes to break the arrangement as well, and he’s more willing to take the burden of his wife’s rage than you may be.”
“Maybe,” Luc Gallus said. “Oh, I hope, I really do hope for that to be the case. I’ll speak with him in the morning then, just to make sure. What a good brother you are, Rronov. Always the calm-headed and rational one to help this poor brother of yours.” Luc Gallus sat forward with a grunt to refill both his cup and Rronov’s. “She’ll have to marry someone -- that’s the only thing noblewomen seem to know how to do. I just don’t want it to be my son, and Calpurnius has already told me that he thinks her obsession with him is bizarre. Of course, handsome men like us are often the obsession of many women, but we have to be careful with the noble daughters, they’re trickier to get away with deflowering, right?”
“You know I’m not interested in ‘deflowering’ or anything of the like,” Zaw Rronov said.
“Well, maybe you’re just surrounded by ugly women, like that elder you’ve brought with you. And that beautiful healer you brought along is your cousin. You know, I figure it’s okay to touch them as long as you don’t get your cum inside them. That’s when the problems start,” Luc Gallus said. Zaw Rronov inhaled sharply, irritated with this topic of conversation, but with Luc Gallus, things always descended into the territory of sex, pleasure, and debauchery.
“You know, I had a bastard of mine wander here not too long ago, a little over a year I’d say,” Luc Gallus said. “He came to me, begging to help his mother, a whore. I remember her, of course. Who wouldn’t? She was perfect, but I learned she could read and write, and what good is a woman who can do those things? They have too many ideas once they start learning, they become ugly, I say. They should really never use those skills. Women should be pretty. That should be their greatest concern,” Luc Gallus hummed as he reminisced for a moment. “He was quite beautiful, though. I’ve never fancied men, but boys like him are still young enough to pass as little girls. Delectable and so pure, like that--” Zaw Rronov leaned forward, for the first time showing interest in Luc Gallus’ terrible rambling. A boy with a prostitute mother who was deathly ill around the same time Nilhin’s mother had died? Nilhin had refrained from telling him about his father, always avoiding the topic expertly but never lying. Zaw Rronov found it best to allow him to keep his secrets. It may pay off, since he could find what he needed on his own.
“I hadn’t heard about this,” Zaw Rronov admitted. “Tell me more about this bastard.”
“So beautiful, with these very pretty legs, so smooth looking, and his arms were so small I could have broken his wrists with my bare hands. He came to visit on the day of Calpurnius’ birthday celebration, and of course I had him thrown out lest the bitch-wife see him and cause a bigger scene. It’s a shame. I went to the brothel where I met his mother, and asked for him, but he had left a few months earlier. It’s a shame. I would have loved to have experienced him when he was still new to the job. Maybe I could have taught him some things,” Luc Gallus said.
“To sate my curiosity, what did his mother name him?”
Luc Gallus snorted inelegantly before he drank more of his wine. He said, “She named him Nilhin. What an ugly name! He should have been called Amabilis, but I ignored all of her letters. My wife would have had a fit, since most of the women with my bastards don’t have the audacity to fault me for their mistakes… Why, brother? Have you found where he went?”
Zaw Rronov considered telling Luc Gallus about where Nilhin had gone after he left Capvita and the humiliation that came with it, or if he should just leave him out of it. He decided to play into Luc Gallus’ desires, because they were the easiest to manipulate.
“He’s a disciple in Neuma,” Zaw Rronov said. “A former servant, actually.”
“You should let me visit sometime, to pay him some special attention, brother!” Luc Gallus said with an excited giggle that shouldn’t have come from a man like Luc Gallus at all. “Is he still as alluring and seductive as his mother?”
“I never knew his mother,” Zaw Rronov reminded him. “And I don’t see people in terms of alluring or seductive. He is an admirable student. Very diligent in his studies, but he minds his own business. He’s very obedient.”
“Then you can give him to me when I come to Neuma next, so we can spend time together, like a father and his wayward bastard ought to, especially when he’s so pretty and delicate--” Luc Gallus flopped over in his chair-- “and breedable.”
Zaw Rronov set his cup down on the table, and stood up. He took the chalice from between Luc Gallus’ fingers and set it on the table. He picked Luc Gallus up and set him on the bed. The man moaned and whinged for a while before he pulled the blankets up over himself. Luc Gallus reached up to curl his fingers in his hair.
“Brother,” Luc Gallus whinged again. He shamelessly threw his leg over the side of the soft downy feather-stuffed mattress. “I can’t sleep in my bed alone. Let’s go to a brothel and have some fun. Just the two of us. You’ve advised me so well in the matters of fathers, let me advise you now in the matters of pleasure.”
“Go to sleep, Gallus,” Zaw Rronov said instead of even considering doing such a thing.
“But how will I sleep without a soft woman to keep me company?” Luc Gallus asked, his voice still grating with his whignes, only this time Zaw Rronov could hear the desperate quiver wobble his words. Zaw Rronov rolled his eyes.
“You’re too drunk to go to a brothel. Don’t make me force you to sleep,” he threatened. Luc Gallus let out a whinge before the sound died in his throat. Soon, he started to snore, since his face was smashed into the bed, causing a disturbance in his breathing. It wasn’t very attractive nor conducive to good passive cultivation of his energies. Zaw Rronov left the man to wake up with a crook in his neck and back before he folded his legs on the floor and held his wrists on his knees. He needed more insights, and particularly a way to circulate his negativity so he didn’t act rashly during what would bound to be a horribly boring and overly dramatic affair of a conference.
***
The conference in Capvita was as slow-going an affair as he suspected, although the strange non-Daha boy was amusing, often being reprimanded for speaking out of turn. The boy’s antics only seemed to anger the other clans, but Zaw Rronov found it to be the only redeeming quality of these boring discussions.
During a midday break from the congregation, he found the boy standing near a fountain in one of the many courtyards filled with only the most overwhelmingly scented plants of the most vibrant colours. He stood beside where the boy was playing with a vine he was dipping into the fountain, watching the frantic little fish inside scramble to try and eat it but also swim away in fear of its large size.
“It’s been three days, and no one has yet to tell me your name,” Zaw Rronov said in lieu of introduction. The boy was startled by his voice more so than his presence and dropped his plant into the water. He stepped back and bowed properly.
“My apologies, clan leader Zaw. I’m Daha’s Head Disciple, Ike Ondi,” the boy -- Ike Ondi -- said.
“How long have you lived with the main family, Ike Ondi?” he asked.
“Oh, well, for about four years now,” Ike Ondi said. “Uncle Odi found me and brought me home. I know it’s improper, but Hachi and Yoli are like my real family sometimes, especially since I can’t remember my own. I think after knowing someone for as long as four whole years, though, they’re definitely more than just my best friends, but my brother and my sister.”
Oh, how interestingly youth perceive the passage of time. Four years was hardly any time at all, especially not to trust someone. This boy, Ike Ondi, was clearly overly optimistic in a world that would eat him alive for it. There was nothing to be done now, however, but watch this young boy burn himself out.
“Your siblings, the princess and prince of Daha, yes?” he asked.
“Mhm! And as the oldest of the brothers, it’s my duty to protect both of them,” Ike Ondi announced, like a proud twelve year old was likely to do. Zaw Rronov nodded his head. Perhaps that was a reason that clan leader Daha Odi was bringing this boy into his family, to protect his birth children. A peasant’s child makes a great shield for noble ones, after all. Lady Luc and Lady Daha may both be blinded by their jealousy on behalf of their children, when really this was nothing more than a strategy by the clan leader, but Daha Odi was not a cruel man, in fact, he was too caring, to the point of self-sacrifice, and he wouldn’t do that to someone as far as Zaw Rronov could tell. Both women’s concerns were more valid than anything Zaw Rronov might have done -- things he might do to keep Nilhin safe, like sacrificing his birth children.
“My sons are all much older than you, except my youngest,” Zaw Rronov said, referring to Nilhin as his youngest despite nothing being official. “Perhaps you can meet him at a conference one day. His older brothers are rather odd, and don’t have the same attitude as you.”
“But they should!” Ike Ondi insisted. “It’s the duty of the older and wiser to protect the younger and littler.”
Zaw Rronov nodded, since Ike Ondi’s proclamation was said with such certainty. It was a surprising thing to hear come from a child so young. It sounded like something that came straight from clan leader Daha’s lips.
“They should,” Zaw Rronov agreed. “Tell me about your sister. I’ve heard she’s supposed to marry Luc Calpurnius.” Getting information from a child was lowly, but it was also more likely to be honest, especially from this little boy who didn’t seem to yet realise how much lying occurred between the gentry.
Ike Ondi made a dramatic display of pretending to gag himself before he said, “That’s how I feel about that. Calpurnius is boring and dumb, and he doesn’t deserve my sister. She’s so sweet, and she’s been in love with him for years because of Lady Daha and Lady Luc, but he’s just a big jerk. The last time one of these happened, she came home in tears because he was so mean to her, and he never responds to any of her letters. What a punk.”
Zaw Rronov never paid much attention to the other children before, despite remarking about how similarly uninteresting they were when compared to his own sons, who were the oldest of the legendary dynasties’ princes (and had yet to have any children of their own). However, he remembered being concerned when clan leader Daha had showed up with his daughter one year, during a seasonal meeting in Storkott, home of the Hvit Clan. It was the first pretty young girl that Luc Gallus had been entirely uninterested in. She had been about twelve, no older than fourteen, when Luc Gallus turned his nose down at her, and his little brat did the same.
He had seen nothing wrong with the girl. She was a little plain, as Luc Gallus had remarked, but she was the only daughter born to the legendary dynasties, and surely all the young princes were scrambling to marry her. Being plain was not inherently a bad thing, and there were far worse things a young lady could be.
“Surely if she has affection for Calpurnius, he can’t be that bad,” Zaw Rronov suggested.
“Sister should know better, he’s so dumb and mean, but she always has an excuse for him. It’s stupid. She said that it’s a girl thing, that I just can’t understand, and even Lady Daha seems to think he’s fine, so maybe she’s right, but when Uncle Odi acts like that to his wife, Lady Daha acts like she’s never faced a greater offense. Do you know anything about girls, clan leader Zaw? You’re supposed to be wise, but I just don’t get them.”
“Unfortunately, women are a mystery to even wise men like myself,” Zaw Rronov said with a small smile. Ike Ondi huffed, and waved his hand.
“That’s okay. I guess only girls can get that stuff anyway, and none of them want to tell me what it’s all about. What a conspiracy… Hey, why didn’t you bring your sons? Everyone says that they’re really old and need to get married, but maybe they’re just as clueless about girls as me. Maybe we could be friends, and if they’re older, they could teach me what they know.”
“Do you often seek mentorship from foreign clans, Daha head disciple?” Zaw Rronov asked. Ike Ondi didn’t seem to realise that this question was a prompt to stop pushing, because it was both an impolite inquiry and because it was improper to rely too heavily on other clan’s teachings. Each of the clans had a specific way of looking at the world, and the clans beneath them that had their own close variations, but intermingling of ideology was frowned upon. It may force the stiff scholars of the Tong Clan into a cardiac arrest just hearing the head disciple ask for the techniques of a different clan.
“Not really,” Ike Ondi said with childlike naivety that his own superior charge, Nilhin, had never been allowed to host, “I just don’t see why I can’t learn from everyone. Then I’d be able to help everywhere, wouldn’t I?”
“That’s quite an attitude. It’s also something that could get you in trouble, especially with the Tong Clan,” Zaw Rronov informed him.
“The Tong Clan…” the boy said. Ike Ondi’s cheeks started to redden as he gazed at the fountain with unfocused eyes. The boy grabbed a nearby plant’s leaves without a thought and twisted the stem between his fingers, plucking at the leaves and killing the poor thing. “I met the second prince the other day. I think he hates me… I don’t know how someone so pretty could bear to hate anything. I’ve only heard of his prowess and good deeds, too. I want to be just like that one day.”
Zaw Rronov turned his back on the boy, who was now too distracted to hold a conversation, likely taken by his new ally, the second prince of Tong, Tong Minbai.
“If you’re ever interested in what real power tastes like, the Zaw Clan would accept you. All you need to do is ask,” Zaw Rronov said, before he walked away, not bothering to wait for any response. The break was surely over now, and he would be required to sit and listen to the visiting subclans squabble over territorial, technique, and import-export disputes that they couldn’t handle themselves like the grown adults they claimed to be. Zaw Rronov couldn’t wait to return to Neuma, where he could begin to put in place the many steps of a scheme that would end with him not having to deal with these stupid meetings run by fools. He would only suffer the presence of those he trusted to obey his rule, and execute his will according to his standards. People like Nilhin.
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