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Tweak says, "Are you listening?"

Nevina Mordha (hideintheopen) wrote in watchers_rp,
@ 2017-04-18 13:12:00

Entry tags:

#day 002/02 may, nevina, reyne

Who: Nevina and Reyne
When: Midday
Where: Reyne's room

Nevina had been delighted to not only see her sister arrive yesterday, with the young Liona in tow, but in an actual dress. She'd showered compliments on her, both because they were true and also because she truly hoped she'd continue to wear them at least indoors, and would've spent the rest of the night with her if she hadn't had duties with Rona. The only reason she hadn't sought her out at the beginning of the day was because it had been Rona's morning. She had seemed a little distracted and that was the reason for Nevina's less-than-perfect mood as she finally went to find her sister.

Knowing the castle as well as she did meant that Nevina was able to go from Rona's rooms to Reyne's without coming across anyone but servants, and those she never thought worth mentioning. Her main goal was to avoid any of the clergy and their opinions since this was their holiday and she succeeded at that. Finally reaching her sister's door, she knocked once before pushing it open. It wasn't as though Reyne could be doing anything that she hadn't seen before, and her sense of shame had been quite thoroughly pushed out several decades before. "Do you know how nice it is to have people here that I know?" Nevina asked as she closed the door behind her, letting out a sigh of relief that it felt like she'd been holding since she first came to court under this name. "Especially you. Keeper take me, some of the pious fools in this castle make me want to throw myself off of the ramparts." She meant it too. The High Priest of Arcadie, Alvur, was especially irritating to her. He had such a grandfatherly vibe around him that most people naturally wanted to listen, but Nevina just wanted to see if he could grow that beard long enough for her to strangle him with it.

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-18 07:58 pm UTC (link)

Reyne did not hear the knock at the door. Actually, she’d heard nothing from outside since the night before when, in a wine-touched haze, she had put an illusion on her rooms. It was false privacy, as proven by Nevina and earlier the mute maid she had apparently bundled into the carriage with the twins, but it soothed her. As far as she was concerned, the castle was quiet. As far as the castle was concerned, so were her rooms. Which made her sister’s sudden and somewhat vocal entrance (at least in comparison to the maid) rather jarring. Reyne still refused to raise her eyes from the unlit candle she had sat carefully on the table in front her. “No,” she admitted. “Do you know how good it is to get away from the people I know?” Alright, her children, because the list of people Reyne knew was fairly long and the list of those she was acquainted with was longer still.

“Throwing them off the ramparts accomplishes more in the long run,” Reyne pointed out in a manner that sounded helpful but she knew likely wasn’t and didn’t particularly care either way because she couldn’t will a Keeper-forsaken flame into being like she had been doing since she was a teenager. Breathe. “Speaking of pious fools, Liona thinks I should have the twins fostered at Beinn.” She just wanted to see him writhe, that was all. “I believe you might have made her day making me wear a dress.” The fact she was wearing another right now was a detail lost somewhere amongst the noise in her head as her frustration grew. She was not admitting to having been transfixed by this issue since the morning.

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hideintheopen
2017-04-18 08:46 pm UTC (link)

Reyne didn't even look at her. Nevina could grow used to many things, but being ignored wasn't one of them. "Probably very, but you could at least look at me when I come in, Reyne." Why was she staring at that candle as though it held all of the answers to the secrets of the universe? It was just a candle. An unlit one at that. "Are you going to light the candle or just stare at it all day?"

Nevina brushed a hand through her hair before taking a seat. "Yes, but it would draw more attention and I am not quite ready for that yet." Once the entire Realm disintegrated into some sort of panic over the succession and different factions then yes, absolutely, she would be happy to pitch them over the ramparts and watch as their bodies broke apart on the ground below. She'd start with High Father Alvur. Just to make sure no one else was down there to cushion his fall. She snorted in amusement at the idea of Lord Lionel Colfna fostering Reyne's twins in his castle. "You should, if only to drive the man mad. He deserves nothing less." Nevina held suspicions the same as Liona's regarding the untimely death of her mother and would see the man bothered any way that was possible, even if she didn't have the time to dedicate her own ideas. "You look good in dresses, Reyne, I am sure that quite a few members of court wish to know you better if only because of how you look at them."

She would wish them no luck, knowing they wouldn't have much if they tried to follow through with those wishes.

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-18 09:35 pm UTC (link)

As the Keeper is my witness, I have tried that countless--“I intend to stare at it all day,” Reyne replied almost sweetly, though the effect was somewhat spoiled by the smile that curved her lips. It tended to precede a death, but only Nevina was present and they both knew she would never hurt her. Certainly not irrevocably. Then, having said that, she catapulted the wretched thing across the room with an unnecessarily hard flick of her fingers. As her eyes finally found her sister, the rest of her face refused to admit the candle might not have deserved that.

Naturally putting more thought into the deaths of Creator-worshiping idiots than was ever healthy for said idiots, mostly to keep herself distracted by the way her elementalism seemed to be missing an element, Reyne let her face slide into a thoughtful pout. “When did Kingswood last have a plague?” If ever. Surely something could be manufactured... Why would anyone disbelieve it when not even the king was the picture of good health? “I am tempted. I’d kill to have him begging my forgiveness because one or both have toddled off to the Island.” That was very nearly wistful. A seemingly socially acceptable reason for revenge would, in all fairness, be a first for her. “Liona said that. She said that too,” Reyne stated, leveling an accusing look at Nevina because clearly they were ganging up. That or there was some sort of female understanding here that she herself had not yet reached. “I do not hate them as much as I thought,” she admitted, before turning the subject away from her apparel. Well, sort of. “How do you put up with this place? Now especially.” Because Reyne was waiting until she found someone to kill.

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hideintheopen
2017-04-18 11:17 pm UTC (link)

Nevina raised an eyebrow at Reyne's sweet-as-pie tone, followed by her flicking the candle across the room. "Are we having a little trouble with fire this afternoon, sweet sister?" She retriever the candle and studied it, seeing nothing wrong with it except for the fact that it wasn't lit. She would have lit it herself, but she lacked the necessary things to start it the regular way and she never played with fire magically. It wasn't her area of expertise and she had had a bad enough experience to warn her off the things she hadn't already practiced. She held it out towards Reyne, eyebrow still arched. "Having a problem with your fire?"

"I cannot recall precisely, but there was sickness not too long ago." A muscle in her right cheek twitched at the memory and she looked down at her hands, frowning. "Rona would have passed in it, and one of her children did because I was too busy helping her to give any aid." The only people she aided in truth were them, and they didn't even know it was magic. It bothered Nevina and she didn't think that it should, but it did. "Well, then send them off. You know no ill will befall them if Liona is there to look after them." Liona was the good sort of girl, in the way that Keeper-worshippers could be good. Her father was just another story. Nevina gave a wide-eyed look of innocence and spread her hands. "We cannot be faulted if you look good. And I put up with it because if I did not put up with it then I would never see what I wanted fulfilled. One cannot very well end the Leavold line without being in the presence of the Leavold's. Not in any way that is truly satisfying."

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-19 08:59 pm UTC (link)

At that first question the Bringer merely snorted. Reyne, have trouble with fire? Oh, please. She had been setting things alight for reasons less consequential than breathing since she set foot upon the Island. With blame being such a hard thing to place in the way of natural disasters and unfortunate incidents, fire was her go-to when she was bored. If she had a problem with fire then it was not truly being caused by her. “Not precisely,” she managed through clenched teeth -- Watchers, but I will not curse my sister. -- reclaiming the candle with the look of someone who thought it had a vendetta against her. “Fire has a problem with me… Though if you were to take this out into the hallway I daresay I could light it.” Then, with the carefully weighed paranoia of one who knows how likely it is she is right: “Do you happen to know how many gifted clergy are lingering?”

Shrugging a shoulder, Reyne’s mind tried to return to the comfortable subject of killing off the clergy and the pious. “Where’s the harm in letting them think it has returned? It need only hit a few choice targets.” The High Priest of Arcadie was an old man. It only made sense that he should be carried off by an illness. “Had you split your attention both may have died.” Of course Reyne had noticed, regardless of whether or not she had been meant to. Whether anything she said would make her sister feel better was another matter entirely. Considering the fate of the twins, she tilted her head back. “I think I shall. As long as Lionel understands they are of Ardghal and if they do not see a training yard on occasion he will never bed a woman again.” Reyne opened her mouth to comment further on her appearance, then thought the better of it. Somehow that seemed like an argument that, if started, Nevina would win, and she hated losing to family. “No, no; that I understand. I do not understand the risk of having to spend time around other nobles.” She glanced briefly at her fingers then looked up, eyebrow arched. “Of those not related to me, the number of nobles I can stand to be around for any length of time does not breach one hand.” If she was completely honest, it boiled down to Liona. For obvious reasons.

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hideintheopen
2017-04-20 02:43 pm UTC (link)

Nevina knew that look on her sister's face, and had it been directed at anyone else then she'd have been sure they were about to suffer something terrible. For herself? Nevina had no fear that her sister would hurt her. Oh, she might want to sometimes, because sisters had a way of getting on nerves other people didn't even know about, but she wouldn't do it. "So you cannot light the candle." Her magic was acting up. Almost out of a desire to see if she could, Nevina seized hold of her own Gift and wrapped an Illusion around the candle. It worked and the thing appeared to be an overly large strawberry, the first thing that had sprung to mind, for a moment before she let it drop. "I do not think there are many, most went with their Mother when she had her little pilgrimage. And even if there were, how would they know to target you?" She said 'you' because she had had no problem working magic. She just refused to try her hand at fire again.

Nevina let out a sigh and shrugged. "If it will keep you entertained then by all means, whip something up and let it loose." Of course by loose she meant contained to targets she chose. Nevina didn't want to be mad at her sister for going and ruining all her careful work by killing the wrong person. "It will be amusing to see them scurry when ill befalls them during their holy time." She made no further remark on the matter of Rona and her lost child, just a quick nod of her head, having no desire to talk about it further. "I am sure that his newest wife would thank you if you take care of that for him." He was getting far too old to have a wife that young, even if the son and heir he sought eluded him. "Do you think Liona has done something to ensure he never has a heir? I would not put it past the girl." If there was an admiring tone there then it was meant to be, she'd have done something similar if she'd been born to a man that foolish.

"That number will not increase while you are here, I fear." Nevina didn't like other nobles either. "Though I suspect Rona will request to meet you and perhaps you can tolerate her for a bit." The unspoken addition was 'for me'.

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-20 06:54 pm UTC (link)

Reyne drew a circle on the table-top with her finger as though it somehow illustrated the point she had not yet made. “Since I woke this morning,” she started slowly, ignoring what had to be an illusion of a strawberry because she didn’t understand the why behind it. “There has been not one flame lit around me -- but the maid built a fire while I was in the bath. A roaring fire.” She paused both to let that sink in and to confirm for herself that it had indeed happened. That it was warm outside and she should not have needed a fire was neither here nor there. She had wanted one. “I could hear the logs crackle from through there.” One hand automatically gestured to where she knew the coppery bath was situated. “I came in to nought but smoke.” Then she had needed to flex her air elementalism to clear the place of it, but that had nothing to do with anything. The point was, she was smothering flames. As for how a member of the clergy (though admittedly, it needn’t be clergy at all) would know to target her, Reyne just shrugged. “How do I ever know to target someone specific?” She was told to. Maybe asked nicely. “You think I’m overreacting.” Not an accusation as much as Reyne testing the waters. She knew she was paranoid. But she also knew that didn’mean she was wrong.

“If you really think me capable of that degree of subtlety…” Though she supposed a minor epidemic in the middle of a holy year was not all that subtle. Less subtle, depending on the illness concocted. “I prefer my kills to be more direct. Although… There was that trick with the needle…” The idea having occurred to Reyne of killing clergy with a pin-prick and a certain poison saved Nevina from anything else she may have had to say on the subject of Rona and her child. Her eyes were too busy wandering about the room as though they could quite literally follow her trail of thought. At least, until she registered the phrase ‘newest wife’. “Hang his newest wife.” Reyne did not know the woman and did not care to. She was nothing but a vessel for children and Lionel’s replacement for Analeigh, and that made her easy to hate. “I would not put it past her at all,” she agreed, the thought amusing her. “Keeper, but that child should have been born in Ardghal.” Where Reyne viewed men as largely unnecessary.

She snorted. “Due to my personality or theirs?” Though technically she knew the answer ought to be both, she could not help but ask. “Because you will curse me into next year if I do not,” Reyne filled in with a faint smirk. “Are you going to warn her? That I’m… me.” Was that not the sort of thing you did when you wanted social interaction to run smoothly?

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hideintheopen
2017-04-21 12:12 am UTC (link)

Nevina listened to her sister and nodded as she spoke, but she couldn't get her eyebrow to lower itself. Yes, Reyne made very good points, but wasn't it a bit strange to think that she was unable to kindle flame? As for the reason why she might be target, Nevina snorted. "If their Creator were going to tell them to directly hinder or harm someone, do you not think it would be me?" She had been at court for over a decade, and damaging the king for a decent bit of time, not to mention the words she'd been whispering into Rona's ear. "But yes, I think that maybe you are overreacting." She drummed her fingers on the table and shrugged one shoulder. "But I could also be completely wrong and you could be legitimately concerned. Have you tried starting a fire outside of your room?" To be sure it was limited to the room and not necessarily to her.

The idea of Reyne going about poisoning the clergy with a needle was enough to make Nevina laugh lightly. "That would be intriguing. You should try that and see how far you get before they stop shaking hands or hugging." There were other ways to poison them. Nevina personally thought it should be done during a religious ceremony for added effect. Mentioning that didn't happen. She focused more on Reyne's reaction to the mention of Lionel's wife and what she thought. She couldn't disagree, it was his third after all, and that was too many. She thought she knew of a lady who had been married that many times. Nevina leaned back in her chair, nearly taking the front legs off the floor like she'd done so many times as a child. "You should have birthed her." Nevina's opinion on her niece fluctuated, but the fact that she hadn't sought her out upon her arrival hit the wrong nerve. "If nothing works out for her then Liona Colfna should die and someone else should take her place. A misplaced Mordha." They'd discarded enough names for one to do exactly that.

Smirking, Nevina let her chair drop back onto the floor. "I would not curse you, Reyne, I am much more inventive than that and besides, I would not want to harm a hair on your head." Nevina didn't hurt her sister, she was the one person completely off limits for any and all reasons. "I have told her about you, and that you are a little rougher around the edges than the ladies she is used to. As warned as a person can be."

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-21 04:16 pm UTC (link)

“Maybe their aim was off,” Reyne mused. Even she had made mistakes when her marks had siblings nearby who were close enough in appearance. True, on those occasions she compensated by doing away with the mistake and the intended, but nevertheless. “Or this is the intended hindrance.” Which would go to show how little whoever it was responsible actually understood Nevina if they thought this would really cause her to lose her focus. Reyne still disliked being told this was an overreaction when who had made it her mission to topple a kingdom after being turned down? Standing, she picked up the charred remains of a small log from the fireplace, crossed to the open window and threw it out. With a little rarely-used charm-work maintaining its height even as it flew away from the building, it didn’t take long before Reyne’s frustration engulfed it in flames. She dropped the charm. It would likely be burned out before it hit the floor. “Whatever the reason, I should think I would be easy to find in a feast full of candle-lit tables.” She rolled her shoulders, much of the tension in her having burned away with that log. It was foolhardy, but she’d needed it.

“I would rather spend an evening with a bow and arrow hunting them for leisure, but I still have that ring. You know the one.” Or maybe she did not. “With barbs like snake fangs on the inside? I do not think I’ve worn it since my seventies, but you said dresses so my accessories came also.” They were not the kind of baubles you could let small girls play dress up with unless you did not mind if they died, but they were baubles nonetheless. She paused. “I cannot imagine why anyone would hug me, though.” Not unless she initiated it, and for the most part that was not to be trusted. Taking herself back to her seat at that comment, Reyne’s eyebrow arched sharply, albeit in amusement. “What has she done now?” Needless to say, she was not referring to Liona. The ‘now’ was tacked on practically out of habit because in her experience, children had always done something. Especially if they were her children. Though enough of Reyne’s children had died not long after birth for the discovery of a whole clan of them to be unsurprising to the public eye. “I shall suggest it if ever her plans for Beinn fall through, though I do not blame her wishing to take the place from Lionel.”

Reyne very nearly grinned at that. “Rough around the edges and prone to scandalising lecherous old men,” she agreed, though the second part was a reference to her armour. “I can behave, or thereabouts.” Then, as a second thought hit her: “Does this mean I am not allowed to take a turn in the training yard?” Why she was asking, she did not know, because if Nevina forbade her she was only going to taunt a knight until he accepted a challenge from her. One that he would undoubtedly lose.

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hideintheopen
2017-04-21 11:39 pm UTC (link)

"Ah." Nevina hadn't considered that. "But still, that would make little sense as attacking me would be much easier when I do not have my sister here." Or sisters. Iliana was parading as her sister as well, if she remembered correctly, but she had not seen her, as she had spent the previous day waiting impatiently for Reyne and the earlier part of day with Rona without a word from the youngest Mordha. Watching as her sister threw a log out the window, Nevina rose one shoulder and let it drop again in a shrug. Her definition of overreacting was vastly different from everyone else's and, while she knew it, she wasn't going to admit to it out of sheer stubbornness. Her vendetta against the Leavold family was completely rational and it was hardly her fault if no one else realized that.

Nevina searched her mind for a memory of a ring as Reyne described it, and slowly she nodded as she recalled it. "Good, accessories are much needed when dressing for certain events. Even if everyone would not appreciate some of them." Nevina loved the more devious parts of her sister's wardrobe. "She is here, I know that she is, and yet she has not come to greet me. Is that a sort of rude? Everyone who counts know that I have been here for the past eleven years." Nevina was actually a little put out by it. Or she was going to act like she was because anyone else likely would have been. How could she explain everything to her in a way that she was sure the younger woman would understand if she did not come and see her? Nevina sighed and squeezed her eyes closed. "What plans for Beinn? That castle is widely known as too religious for my tastes."

A smile graced her lips at Reyne's description of herself, sure that she would behave enough for Rona. Everyone gave the sibling a little bit of leeway if they liked the other, just as Nevina intended to give a little more grace to the Halvari's than she did anyone else. "No, it does not mean that." How could Nevina deny her that when she herself did the same thing from time to time? "Enough of them have seen me with my armor and a weapon in hand to not be surprised at the same from you. We are from Ardghal, not Avalon, I merely expect you to dress as a lady of your station would when you are not training. Which!" She raised a finger and pointed it at her sister. "You cannot do every hour of every day, so that excuse is null."

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heldbytheblade
2017-04-25 11:07 pm UTC (link)

“I will not be attending this evening’s feast so long as there is a fire-smothering target surrounding me, paranoid or not.” Had she actually intended to go this evening? Reyne couldn’t recall, possibly because she’d not yet thought that far ahead, but clearly her mind was now made up on the matter. She would really rather not sit about while nobles sat, mystified by how their candles had gone out.

Trying to move her mind on from what else that rather compact jewelry box contained, Reyne tilted her head. It was not often she tended toward lenience with any of her children, but her eldest, at this point… Well… “Usually I would say it is rude,” she said carefully, “But Iliana has only ever seen Hel Mordha and the Island.” Ardghal and the Island. Same thing. “I cannot blame her for wanting to explore. And she is probably avoiding me, at any rate.” Which bothered her not at all, although it left Nevina somewhere towards the top of the list of people to stay away from if Iliana intended to do it properly. As for Liona’s plans for Beinn, Reyne suddenly found herself hoping she had paid attention. “Marry, become eternal Lady regent to sons who never come of age? I think I got that right.” She paused to consider Beinn’s religious affiliation. “I don’t understand why anyone feels the need to make their religious beliefs public. Our family never has.” Possibly because worship of the nameless, druidic gods was hardly considered civilised in the eyes of the Realm. Then again, there was public and there was public. One was invariably a lie.

“And when I am riding,” Reyne put in quite insistently. “By the Keeper, I cannot ride in a dress, Nevina. I’ve no understanding of how any woman can.” She had tried, too. Side-saddling, at least. Without the dress. There was little point to ruining any garment by falling off a horse in it when you could practice in leathers. “Else I shall have to have dresses custom-made to accommodate riding in a less ladylike manner.” Now that she had said that it felt like that was the option she would be made to take. Why had she said it?

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