Summary:Varanim and Zahara enjoy another night out.
XP:V1, Z1
Tags:< Anything is Possible | Sol Invictus Logs | Through a Glass Darkly >
Varanim "So basically," says Varanim as the vendor fries up their order of Firexican food, "you get that problem any time you have a large enough pile of bodies and enough time for gas buildup."
Varanim "How was your day?"
zahara "Huh. Well that explains a lot, really..." She frowns thoughtfully. "My day? Busy as always. More and more, the idea of taking a year off is sounding better."
Varanim snorts derisively. "I'll bet you don't last a week."
zahara "Shush, you." She wags a finger at her. "I've spent a whole hour not doing things already today."
zahara "Frankly, it wore me out."
Varanim "Time spent dragging Cerin under the desk for a quickie doesn't count." She considers. "Well, it does count, but you can't actually do that for a YEAR."
Varanim snickers.
zahara "Oh, I dunno... the boy's got stamina."
Varanim leans back, kicking her feet up on a chair that some other customer was about to use and tilting her head at Zahara with slightly narrowed eyes. "What are you going to do with him, when you make a clever dynastic marriage someday?"
zahara wrinkles her nose. "Dynasties require having children."
Varanim "Not always; plenty of monarchs have gotten on fine by adopting adult heirs. It saves the worst gambles of one's own idiot children, at least." She smirks. "And, you're dodging."
zahara "I can't imagine marrying anyone else."
Varanim "Really? You're usually much more pragmatic." Varanim leans sideways to hook their plates from the vendor, balancing on two legs of her chair without looking away from Zahara.
zahara "There are few things in Creation that make me irrational. Cerin's one of them."
Varanim "So," she says with some relish, scooping up a mouthful, "why not marry him? Since you haven't yet, unless you didn't invite me, which would be unusually sensible."
Varanim She bites down and immediately gets a funny look on her face, then tugs urgently on the vendor's sleeve for something to drink.
zahara inspects the food on the end of her fork minutely. "I know the alcohol is free at weddings, but..."
Varanim "That's my interest, yes," Varanim says a little indistinctly between periods of fanning her mouth. "Damn southerners, they think every ingredient should be some kind of pepper."
zahara nibbles on the sauce-slathered meat. "Must be the only thing that grows down there." She sets the fork down and sets her hands in her lap, toying with her ring, and staring at nothing for a moment. She blinks and takes a bite of the spicy food.
Varanim "So," she says, glaring at her food and marshaling strength for the next attempt, "there are the obvious reasons--that you're staying free to look available for an alliance marriage, or that he won't do it. Or you think that everything you build ends in flames, so you don't want to make an edifice of your most precious thing."
zahara grimaces, at the spiciness presumably, and grabs a mug of ale to wash it down with. "Sure. All of those."
Varanim waits for a moment until the person sitting at the next table is looking away, then leans over to steal a piece of flatbread for conveying her next more judicious portion. "Really? Since you haven't told me to piss off yet, I'll bite: why wouldn't he do it?"
zahara "What? Nobody told me that telling you to piss off actually worked." She follows this up with another bite of the burning concoction. When she finishes chewing, she sighs and shrugs. "I haven't asked."
Varanim "Good point, it doesn't," she agrees cheerfully to the first point, wiping her eyes a bit at the second mouthful but soldiering on. "Waiting for your year off?"
zahara "Maybe we can have a double marriage. You and Luc can sign up too."
Varanim chokes on her third bite, coughing and pounding her chest for several seconds before recovering. "I didn't quite catch that, but I think you were saying something absurd. Try to focus, we're prying at your personal life."
zahara "Oh no, if I can't dodge, neither can you."
zahara grins evilly
Varanim Varanim's expression goes distant and thoughtful for a moment, then she refocuses on Zahara and smiles thinly. "Fortunately for him, I'm practical enough for two people. He wants a royal dynasty, and sooner or later he'll marry some southern princess and set about making one."
zahara "But he doesn't love them. He loves you."
Varanim "There's a word for that in the politics of inheritance, and the word is irrelevant."
zahara snorts.
zahara "Luc is the type to throw a wrench in Fate for Love."
Varanim "Don't do that, you'll get peppers up your nose. As for Lucent, I'll grant you he's dense, but even he can't imagine I'd ever be a queen." She smirks, though the distant look still lurks in the back of her eyes, and polishes off her last bite. "But it's after noon, and I need my beauty sleep. Western food next time, right?"
zahara half-smiles. "You'd be surprised. He's extremely imaginative." She checks to see if the tines of her fork have melted, and nods. "Western... so long as it's not solid water or something ridiculous."
Varanim "Don't tell anyone, but I hear they have fish out there. Now go try to waste another hour." With a little wave and a cavernous yawn she melts into the crowd.
< Anything is Possible | Sol Invictus Logs | Through a Glass Darkly >