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TRANSCRIPT:
YANORA: Well, it is my doing. It’s far too late to say I’m sorry - but for what little it’s worth, I am. I’m sorry we hurt you - and to no good purpose. But: Now you’re where you are, with some problems I know and others I can guess - and unless you’re going to go into exile with Dole the Enchanter or something else melodramatic, you need to use the power you currently have to correct your own course.
MALDIK: Hmff.
YANORA: So - if you’ll forgive an impolite question - who are you marrying? As the prospective mother-in-law I ought to know, after all. Needlework, trousseau, that sort of thing?
MALDIK: I’m … uh ... Anina …
YANORA: The bishop’s niece. Well, he’s become bolder and bolder.
MALDIK: Yeah.
YANORA: The entire family is abominable, even compared to ours, and as you can understand better than most, that is a very low bar, indeed. Naturally, the nuptials cannot happen without your brother’s consent and the council’s stamp of approval.
MALDIK: Yeah.
YANORA: Hmm - with enough threats and bribery, I think the Council Of Bishops would vote for it. Nonetheless, your brother is still in the middle of a holy war far far away, so I think that it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
BETHELA: More wine, your Highness?
MALDIK: Yeah.
YANORA: Paradoxically, I think Gudik’s quite safe in combat, barring the unforeseen. A very good thing that no one is planning to assassinate my older son. Isn’t it?
9 thoughts on “Who’s the lucky girl? – Page 1128”
Freelance
“I… uh… plead the 5th.”
Phoebe
Oh look at that Maldik! A brain working FOR you for once! Even if it’s a borrowed one! I think he finds the experience a bit relieving… 😛
jd.
Ooooh, I’m afraid she’s overplaying it. He may sniff that she knows here.
But I like how she’s taking charge while making it sound like it’s for his own benefit (which it is, of course, just not in an easy way he might like best).
And she did apologize, while acknowledging that it did little actual good. We’re moving forward and showing good will. j
Freelance
Well, she _could_ play it as the logical process of steps if she lays out the obviousness of them. The Bishop wants the power of the throne, but can’t get it himself, so he needs a puppet–thus marrying his niece to the prince. Of course, Gudik wouldn’t the type to play that game–marrying or being a puppet–so it would fall marrying her to Maldik, the more malleable sort. To get *him* on the throne, though, that would require eliminating the obstacles: Yanora herself and Gudik. Room arrest wasn’t enough; she can call out how the Bishop *did* poison her before. Would it be that far of a leap to send an assassin out for Gudik as well?
SeanR
But she doesn’t know. The War Council knows that an assassin has been sent, and she has stated openly that she wonders just whose idea it was to send Zonn’s bastard to do the deed.
At this point, Maldik may be complicit, a dupe, or completely unaware. Bishop Macon would have enough power and information to do this all on his own, without consulting Maldik, so that possibility remains on the table. Maldik may have been mislead on the actual objective, or allowed to be willfully ignorant, (a crime in its own way, in a leader). Considering, Maldik is possibly the least equipped to arrange this particular assault. He probably isn’t even consciously aware of the existence of Thann. The poetry of it would be completely beyond him.
Of course, it might still be one of Gorshash’s spelled out instructions, followed by Maldik without considering its full reasoning, but I’d figure more likely it’s Bishop Macon’s hand at work, and he doesn’t need Maldik for this play.
Prairie Son
And suddenly I’m hearing Katharine Hepburn’s line from The Lion in Winter: “The needlework alone will take years.”
Soulworker
My bet? She is simply fishing…trying to see how deep he is really into the plot. I think SeanR is right in that Maldik is probably not been completely informed or even aware about the details of his little adventure. Am betting that he doesn’t know about the attempted poisoning of his mother at all.
Lora
You can tell that the words hit home and that Maldik realizes he’s fucked up. ‘Yeah’ is a very expressive word; so many uses for it.
Now it can go two ways; either Maldik owns up to his attempt to seize the throne through Gudiks murder, or he get furious again and goes off at his mother before storming off. But he already sought her out, and whether he wants to admit it or not, he *is* looking for a way out and knows his mother might be able to help him.
SeanR
Well, that’s one way to interpret his one-word statement.
Here are a couple more, in order from less likely to more likely.
1. Yeah. Relief. My big brother can take care of himself, and I can dump this in his lap. I’m in trouble, but. Relief.
2. Why, yes. I’d very much love another glass of wine. Please do refill this goblet which I have outstretched where you can most easily reach it while I am otherwise seemingly dismissive of your presence, and station just shy of my own, by not actually looking at you while you make the offer.
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