[open]

[heirring]

WHO: Flint, Wysteria, Miriam, Cassius & You
WHAT: Catch-All
WHEN: Post-dreams, nebulously Guardian-ish
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Warnings (if any) in subject lines.

((OOC NOTE: Anything in bold is closed to one thread, though group threads a-okay.
Feel free to turn this into action brackets if The Spirit Moves You.
Wildcards welcome, bespoke starters available upon request.))

Comments

[radicans]

"Thank you," says Maud, after a momentary bubble of laughter after Ellis's forlorn and self-serious merciless secrecy, and a nod promising some further explanation to come. She manages a shade greater solemnity and sincerity in the next breath as she nods, "It means a great deal.

And I would be very happy to keep your secret, too, of course?" Which may be a touch of an understatement as she's leaned forward in obvious interest, as intrigued by this offer as Wysteria might've hoped.

[heirring]

"Well," she begins, grasping her holding chair firmly on either ide of its seat so as to discourage it from collapsing as she shifts it around by a few crucial angles so she might face Maud more directly.

Silentir, utterly forgotten above them, passes mournfully behind some heavy cloud: fine then.

"I will tell you a secret then that no one at all knows about save for myself and a particular gentleman. Indeed I have not breathed so much as a word of it to anyone else, including even the imminently trustworthy Mister Ellis."

Imagine, say Wysteria's raised eyebrows and the theatrical widening of her eyes.

"As it happens, a certain Orlesian and I have made arrangements to be contractually obligated to one another on this coming Summersday. But," she hastens to add before Maud might do anything so ridiculous as offer congratulations. "That is only half of the secret, and indeed I doubt it will remain a secret for much longer. The rest of it, indeed the one which you must swear to take to your very grave, is that it is entirely a financial consideration to slyly navigate around a series of rather inconvenient bureaucratic rulings to which that property in Hightown which I have told you so much about is presently shacked by. In a few months following, once all has been settled, the gentleman and I mean to have the whole thing dissolved and amicably be on our separate ways as if nothing ever happened."

[radicans]

There's a crinkling of humor for Wysteria's drama but Maud's more than interested enough to play along, exaggerating her expectant gaze, the bated breath. And then very genuine surprise, brows leaped upwards before she manages to moderate it into something still surprised but less, shall we say, alarmed? baffled? almost insulting in its degree of shock?

"You're getting married? Is it Monsieur de Fonce? But I thought--." She pauses, and then sets a hand on Wysteria's. "You're quite sure of how things are arranged? That it will all work out in your favor?"

[heirring]

Wysteria, being so rarely the sort of person who manages to keep a secret long enough to shock anyone with anything, can only take the nakedly aghast look on Maud's face in the pale moonlight as the very height of complimentary. It sparks a warm and very genuine pleasure somewhere in her chest. How wonderful it is, to on occasion be so very clever.

"It is the very same," she asserts, spare hand covering Maud's hand over hers, giving all of it a little triumphant shake. "And I am very certain. The laws as written are infinitely clear, and de Foncé himself has said in no uncertain terms that he has no interest whatsoever in Marcher property. So long as we can maintain the ruse long enough to avoid suspicion, everything shall come to pass as it ought to. Granted, to be divorced is no great thing. But I have confidence that it will not affect my future prospects too much. There is already enough against me that adding one more question of eligibility cannot be so bad, and I will be the only Rifter in all of Thedas who properly owns something all her own. Which I am already, technically speaking, but I believe this will allow me a great deal of agency over my finances and I should think the one rather offsets the other."

[radicans]

Maud's confidence in the plan, growing at Wysteria's steady certainty, is stopped short at the mention of divorce. That furrows brow again, though she allows Wysteria to keep talking beyond it (she could hardly do otherwise). A squeeze of her hand then, and a tilt of her head, clearly hesitant to deliver bad news.

"I'm afraid divorce is not an option here," she says, "Monsieur de Foncé ought to have told you. The Chantry does not permit such things, though they do grant annulments on occasion. Will--" another pause, this one more palpably awkward. "Will that present an obstacle to your plan?"

[heirring]

Her laugh is a sharp thing, more akin to a cackle in the cool pitch of the night than it is the pleasant chime of a bell or something more charmingly ladylike. When she has mastered herself with a great patting of hands and so on, Wysteria manages—

"No, not at all. De Foncé and I closer to rivals than to—" She clears her throat, allowing it and her eyebrows to do the work. "Well. Whatever else. No, forgive me. Annulment is surely what I meant. It is what was done in Kalvad before the Second Church recognized divorce, and I imagine it will be what returns when it is unrecognized. But your concern is that of a true friend."

[radicans]

"I see." Maud allows relief to outweigh the twinge of offense at being laughed at quite that hard, since at least it comes with hand-patting and some appreciation of the question's intent. "Well, I am glad to hear you have everything arranged. It sounds very clever of you." With another smile and final supportive squeeze, she withdraws her hand again.

"But why is it a secret from Warden Ellis? I had thought you two were very close. Surely he would be relieved to learn the truth of it? Or do you think he would he disapprove?"

[heirring]

Secure in the her own genius, Wysteria withdraws her hand and pulls the blanket tighter about her until she is little more than a self-satisfied face poking cheerfully from a bundle.

"I will no doubt reveal the details to him eventually. Truly, it is one of those things which I have said little about as if speaking any detail aloud will jeopardize it. A silly superstition. I have no doubt that Mister Ellis would be the very image of discretion and support were I to say something. —But we have gone on and on about my secrets! What is your plan to be rid of your maid?"

[radicans]

That question draws a sigh. "I don't know," Maud admits with a shake of her head, "I was sure the strange dreams would drive her off, but still she lingers despite my hinting that I could do perfectly well on my own. I may have to contrive to go on a mission to somewhere objectionable again--she was very upset for the few moments I pretended I wanted her to come to the icy southern reaches with me."

[heirring]

From her blanket burrito, Wysteria hums thoughtfully. She takes a moment to tip her head back and squint, without really taking in any of the features, at the sky

After some consideration the angle of her chin comes down again.

"Perhaps you could say you have been assigned some secret intelligence work posing as a lady's maid for some extended period of time. A lady's maid surely cannot keep one of her own, and so it would only make sense for her to return to Tantervale until such a time as your assignment was finished."