AlsaceAndLorraine/Background

[17:20] <Sara> It's been a week since the failed assasination attempt.
[17:21] <Sara> A week of wondering , a week of worrying...if Frei permitted himself worry.
[17:22] * Frei allowed himself some worry, though mostly he poured over three years of planning and plotting to try to discover how and where he had gone so very wrong... the fact that Nagezzer had not even mentioned it angered Frei and put him off his center. The Slug acted as if it hadn't happened, and that insulted Frei, it offended him.
[17:25] <Sara> The invitation arrived on a sheet of crisp, watermarked paper, heavy, and scented with the perfume of roses. In the elegantly curling script that was Sesus Nagezzer's own hand, Frei was invited to 'a private interlude in the west garden.' There was no signature, no date indicated. But then, there didn't need to be.
[17:27] * Frei folded the paper carefully. He felt the urge to tear the paper or burn it with his own powers, but he refused himself the indulgence. Such a thing would not benefit him as much as short moments of preperation would. One must always prepare when about to be met with inferiors - to those superior ever more.
[17:27] <Frei> He placed the paper on the small study desk and straightened the courtly robes that felt even more 'borrowed' considering recent events.
[17:28] <Frei> What did The Slug have planned for him he wondered, trying not to indulge his imagination but inadvertantly doing so all the same. What fates and punishments could be brewing in the old man's head? What creative torments brewed there for Sesus Frei?
[17:29] <Frei> "Time will tell Frei." He said to himself, chiding himself for being on edge. Such things did not become him, he was better than that.
[17:30] <Sara> The slight, bald boy who had delivered the message had waited politely outside the door, and now lead him at once to the west garden. The glass candles that illuminated Emerald Manor reflected eerily off the boy's scalp; the slave's skin was pale, so pale it seemed almost translucent. He seemed so fragile, it would be so easy to crush that head like an egg...and yet. He was the Slug's own slave.
[17:30] <Frei> He wrapped an elegant golden chain studded with jewels and looped it many times around his neck, fasting it with a large stone pendant as he walked.
[17:30] <Frei> He did not share his uncle's taste in slaves, nor did he dwell on the thought.
[17:31] <Frei> He was about to play a dangerous game with the pieces stacked against him, and the final one fated for the checkmate would be tied to his own life.
[17:33] <Frei> He would not make it easy for Nagezzer. Frei smiled slightly, a facade of polite respect coming over him as the boy lead him down twisting marble pathways laid haphazardly through the tangle of vegetation.
[17:35] <Sara> 'The West Garden' is a wild, rambling affair which in fact spilled around the manor south and north as well. The plants came from all over Creation, and contained many rare samples. They were engaged in constant competition for sunlight and water. The resulting chaos could barely be called a garden, but the Slug professed a fondness for it.
[17:36] <Frei> Life was like that. Each trying to starve his neighbour for valuable sunlight and water.
[17:37] <Frei> The symbolism was not lost on him.
[17:38] <Sara> Nagezzar, chuckling, had compared it more than once to the Dynasty. It was an apt place for private meetings, and the chaos was illusory; Nagezzar himself carefully arranged each plant, and pruned them carefully down when one species got too aggressive. If some rare species went extinct, strangled by vines or ivy, it was to make way for the newest arrivals.
[17:38] <Sara> The Emerald Manor was not the only Manse Nagezzar posessed. He rarely held parties here, in the shadow of the rambling hugeness. It was a place for quiet meetings, for reflection...for assasinations.
[17:38] <Sara> It was time to face consequences.
[17:40] <Sara> The boy leads Frei nimbly down the narrow paths, until one widens at last into a sunny clearing. Two simple stone benches were placed so that guests might sit and chat, but the Slug himself is on his knees in the mud, heedless of the stain on his expensive verdant-green robes.
[17:41] <Sara> He is regarding a plant very narrowly, clippers held steady as he contemplates. There is a tray balanced on one of the benches, with a steaming pot of tea and three cups, as well as a pile of delicate wafers.
[17:42] * Frei positions himself quietly, linking his hands in the small of his back, regarding the oversized elder exalt with his cold cerulean eyes as he worked. He hated the man. And Nagezzer knew it.
[17:42] <Frei> It was the nature of their relationship now, and they both accepted it, though one more than the other. Just who it was is a subject based on ones point of view at a given time.
[17:43] <Sara> If there had been only one cup, Frei would have known that the Nagezzer meant to kill him. Two, and he would stay his hand. Three...three might just meant the servant had gathered cups carelessly onto the tray with the snacks. Though of course that hadn't happened, and Frei wasn't meant to think it. Nagezzar's servants weren't careless.
[17:43] <Sara> The boy leaves at once without a word or a bow, and Sesus Frei is left alone with his fat crippled uncle.
[17:45] * Frei waits for the elder to acknowledge him, but when nothing is forthcoming Frei bites down his frustration. "You sent for me, uncle."
[17:46] <Sara> "Have you ever seen a winter rose?"
[17:48] <Frei> "Not recently no, uncle." Frei replied quietly, supressing annoyance at the little games Nagezzer endlessly played for his amusement alone.
[17:50] <Sara> Nagezzer does not turn his head to look at his nephew. He continues frowning at his little plant, then at last, with a grunt, he snips a leaf carefully from the plant. "No, of course you haven't. I have the only specimen in the Realm here, and it hasn't bloomed yet." He trims another shoot off the plant, and then leans back with a satisfied nod.
[17:51] <Frei> "Your staggering botanical knowledge astounds, uncle." Frei answers. At first it did.
[17:54] <Sara> "Of course, there's no saying it ever will without the care of a skilled gardener." The Slug chuckles. "Which of course it has. They're hardy plants, very hardy, they bloom year-round in the harshest weather. It's said a distillation of its petals protects against most poisons. But they take careful grooming in the beginning, or else they'll become ordinary roses, and fragile ones at that,"
[17:54] <Sara> Nagezzer continues his nephew's unwelcome botanical education.
[17:55] <Frei> "Did you call me here just for a discussion on blooms?" Frei asks, spurred to action on Nagezzer's mention of the word 'poison'.
[17:57] <Sara> "There's much we can learn from these simple plants, if we care to listen." Nagezzer tells him ponderously. He stands with the help of his cane, raising his bulk. "In the North, the winter rose is a symbol of strength. Now the South, the South produces other kinds of flowers..."
[17:58] * Frei closes his eyes for a moment to calm himself, and allow him to endure.
[17:58] <Frei> "And what pray-tell, are those flowers, uncle?" He asks.
[18:00] <Sara> The Slug limps a few feet, and points his cane at an elegant, deep purple blossom. It had never been possible to hurry him. "Those flowers there. They're from An-Teng, you know. Expensive, but common as dirt in most botanical shops. You can scatter a handful of seeds across a plot dirt, and sure as the Dragons, when you return a month later they'll be these beauties blooming there."
[18:01] <Frei> "Fascinating." Frei tries not to drone.
[18:02] <Sara> "An-Teng call these flowers 'endurance', though they'll be dead a month later. And the Blood Lily is, of course, a noted poison." The Slug drags his bulk to the bench, and heaves himself down on to it, becoming a giant lump of fat of a man. "I have an errand for you, boy," Nagezzer says, finally coming to the point.
[18:03] <Sara> He almost always calls you 'boy.'
[18:03] <Frei> "An errand." Frei repeats, still standing. He does not react to his derogatory nickname - after all there were far worse things than a name.
[18:05] <Sara> "You have heard of the Middlemarches, I trust? They lie halfway between the Riverlands and the North. An area of some contention..and rich jade mines, to say nothing of the money made from timber." You can't help but notice that he had felt the need to explain anyway.
[18:06] <Frei> "I have heard of them, yes. Also a den of anathema, rogue gods and banditry to be brief." Frei adds.
[18:10] <Sara> Nagezzer dismisses these concerns with the wave of a plump hand. He fixes his nephew with a serious stare. "One of my White Rose banners have gone missing. Their last message came two months ago, and it was hastily sent. There are troubles there, in the Middlemarches, and in the Citadel at its center."
[18:11] <Sara> "You, Nephew," and now the Slug seems very grave indeed, "Are to go there and find them."
[18:13] <Frei> "You have men better suited to such a task uncle, surely. Investigative spies, informants, scouts -" Frei replies, frowning darkly. "This is not what you trained me for."
[18:14] <Frei> It was true, Frei was far better at pulling strings, social manauvering - rescue missions in the wilds were not his area of expertise.
[18:15] <Sara> "No," he agrees easily. "I have trained you for other things. Return, Sesus Frei, when you know why I sent �you�."
[18:16] <Frei> "What kind of game are you playing uncle?" Frei asks flatly, his eyes firmly on the fat old dragon.
[18:17] <Sara> "The same game I have always played." The Slug puts his cane to the floor, and heaves his massive bulk up. "The game of the Realm. You may provision yourself as you choose from my stores, of course, but I advise you to keep your party small. A thousand men did not protect Mars Kala or her lover, it seems. "
[18:19] <Frei> "That's it?" Frei asks. "That is all you can... that is all you *will* tell me?"
[18:21] <Sara> "I would not wish to prejudice you," the Slug says judiciously, pursing his lips. His gaze falls heavily upon Frei. "This is a test, boy, as all challenges the Dragons give us our tests. Succeed or fail, you will serve the Realm."
[18:22] <Sara> The Slug nods his head once to his nephew, and begins his hobble from the garden.
[18:24] * Frei stands there stock still, watching the limping man's back as he made his way ever so slowly back through the winding pathway out of sight. Frei stared down his nose arrogantly, not willing to be beaten by the old lizard. The tea on the bench rapidly cooled.
[18:25] <Frei> "Very well Slug." He says, speaking each word carefully and with conviction. "I shall take your little 'test'."
[18:26] <Frei> He took a slow and differing route out of the garden, his mind was already working on just who he could dupe or otherwise convince to join him on such a fools errand...what was the name of that cousin...? Dano...