Teja and Pyrrha -- for the light-boat festival

[gotland_npc]

The door Teja opens comes out on a hillside, and in the valley below it, there's a large, prosperous farm with a longhouse and many out-buildings -- baking oven, forge, and so on. It's near dusk, and everything is covered in snow. To the right, there is the sea.

There are children playing in the yard, and light streaming from the open door of the longhouse, and smoke from the snow-covered thatched roof.

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"You must both come and have honey cakes with us now," one of the boys says, with an inviting arm movement he clearly copied from some adult.

Incongruously enough, he is wearing a cowboy hat.

[scarred_grin]

"Thank you," she says, giving a polite nod, and looks to Teja.

Honey cakes sound pretty good right about now.

[ostro_goth]

As they approach the house, a woman with a small child on her arm appears in the door.

"Oh, there you are!" she says. "Greetings, Lord King! Come inside, there's food and drink before we go and set the boats to water."

[scarred_grin]

"And you were saying you're mostly just a count," she whispers.

It may be a minor thing, but it makes a difference to her--there's more pressure, now.

[ostro_goth]

"I was, most of my life," Teja whispers back.

When they come inside, there are two brawny, cheerful, rather plain men and another woman with two tiny girls at her skirts, greeting Teja cheerfully and clapping him on his back and demanding to be picked up (that is the littler of the little girls) and talking about people and horses, and even jumping on him (that is a rather large red cat).

"I hope we don't scare you," says one of the men, tall and strong and homely, with blue eyes and brown hair. "I'm Adalgoth, the woman with the little girls is my wife Gotho, that there is Wachis, and his wife Liutha is the one with the little baby who greeted you at the door. I guess I could introduce all the children and the cat, but you'd likely get confused by all those names. Just remember Hilde; she's Teja's favourite."

[scarred_grin]

It's a lot to take in, all at once--she looks from person to person as they are named, and at the children and cat as they are mentioned, and tries to remember.

She can do this. She can't just turn around and go home.

"I'm Pyrrha," she says. "It's nice to meet... everybody."

[ostro_goth]

There are tables and chairs set up, and Pyrrha and Teja are offered the chairs at the head of the table, as guests. The oldest of the girls brings them hot cider, in somewhat dented metal cups that are clearly Roman, and have come from the south with these people.

Little Hilde comes and offers Pyrrha the first piece of honey cake.

[scarred_grin]

She murmurs her thanks as she is served--she understands that she is being treated as an honored guest, and is trying her best not to do anything that might be seen as rude.

Though it's hard to tell, going across culture lines. The circles she's traveled in--

And, well, most of her experience with families with small children comes from her childhood, and that's not a world she ever had to navigate as an adult woman.

There's a lot to think about.

[ostro_goth]

Teja puts his arm around Pyrrha, and squeezes lightly, as he can guess at her bewilderment.

Adalgoth comes to sit with them, as all settle down with their food and drink.

"It is good to finally see you content, Teja, after all that you did or did not do," he says. "And you are welcome to us, Lady Pyrrha. We must seem very strange to you."

[scarred_grin]

"I'm not really a lady," she says. "Just a Pyrrha. And you're not strange at all--just not what I'm used to. But what I'm used to isn't really normal, and anyway I'm the guest here, so I'm the strange one."

[ostro_goth]

"You aren't so very strange," Adalgoth says. "You are just more like Teja than any that I have ever seen; it is as if that large place of all-worlds the he dwells in has now brought him one that mirrors him: - a dark lady for the 'Black Count', as he was known before he was king but briefly."

Pause.

"And indeed, what rank we held in the south-lands, when there were many of us, and lands to rule, count nothing here now. We tend to our lands, see our families grow and our friends flourish, and make new meaning for ourselves."

[scarred_grin]

"We got a lot in common," she says. "Still some differences--we're not exactly the same--but I think we understand each other."

For the most part.

"My people aren't really big on rank. I mean, we've got queens, but that's not really the same thing, and they don't have power or anything. Just style."

[ostro_goth]

"No kings?" Adalgoth says. "Then you's is one of the futures ruled solely by assembly and common vote, that Teja mentioned?"

[scarred_grin]

"Well..."

That depends on how charitable she's feeling toward her time and place.

"It depends on how much money you have, really. If you've got money, people are more likely to care about your interests. If you're poor, they may not even let you vote."

[ostro_goth]

"Like the Roman republic, then?" Adalgoth asks.

Somebody is passing a plate with fruit and nuts down the table, and Adalgoth offers it to Pyrrha.

[scarred_grin]

"I guess," she says with a shrug. "Oh, they say they let everybody vote, that we're all a big happy democracy, freedom in action, but it's not true."

[ostro_goth]

"Just like the Roman republic, then," Adalgoth says, with a smile. "I think there's no ideal way of ruling or to be ruled; it changes, also, from how many people there are, and what kind of times they live in. Have some nuts and apples?"

[scarred_grin]

"Thank you," she says, and helps herself to some.

"I think people are better off governing themselves in small groups--where people know each other, and can look out for each other better. But with so many people, that doesn't work, and you need bigger groups. But the way it's done where I come from isn't a very good way."

[ostro_goth]

Teja takes the platter from Adalgoth, helps himself to some, and passes it on.

"It works here," he agrees. "But there is always the temptation to keep on growing, and then it will stop working."

Adalgoth nods, and takes a sip from his hot cider.

[scarred_grin]

"I'm glad I don't have to make any of those kind of decisions," she says.

Life is simpler, being nobody special. Not being responsible for anybody but herself.

[ostro_goth]

Teja will not now point out that she is special -- a denizen of Milliways, and an avatar of Loki!

"It is something one cannot decide, only try to steer," Teja says.

"Surely," Adalgoth says, "one may reason with people?"

[scarred_grin]

"You can try," she says. "But for that to work, everybody needs to be there in good faith, and a lot of people aren't. They're close-minded or they're just out to get what they can for themselves."

[ostro_goth]

"It is more reasonable to work together, because all will gain more in the end," Adalgoth says.

"People aren't always reasonable, neither Goths not Romans nor any other," Teja says. "And sometimes, our dear Goths must be fed reason from a special sippy cup."

Adalgoth laughs.

[scarred_grin]

"All you can do is try to look out for your people, and for the people who don't have anyone else to look out for them," she says. "The rich and powerful will take care of themselves. They always do."

[ostro_goth]

"It's quite a job to keep the balance, even here," Adalgoth says. "And there are always some who would use the weakness of others, or what they see as such, for their own greed and gain."