The seven Duchies of Central Rynmere and their respective baronies, cities, towns, villages, and landmarks each overseen by a Duke of one of the seven noble families and ultimately controlled by the King of Rynmere.
It is not something he is willing to admit aloud, but Daliane preferred the Venora family over his own. He holds no grudge against House Andaris, loving every noble within that family with all his heart. But to be truthful, the lords and ladies of House Venora understood him much better than anyone of House Andaris; including his own father and mother. Not to mention, some of the Venora nobleman treasured Daliane, as if he were something rare. They held him near and dear to their heart, sometimes choosing him over their own. This could possibly be because of the seven arcs Daliane had spent under the wings of Venora's proudest members, learning how to be just as seductive and pompous. Or maybe it is Daliane's looks, which House Venora noticed the moment he was born. Whatever it may be, the Venoras noticed something House Andaris did not even acknowledge.
Daliane wished to pay the family a visit. Packing a few of his belongings, he took a carriage to Fort Venora, where he hoped to soon meet the family and rekindle what he once had with them. He hoped not much had changed since he has been gone either. He hoped the manor the family took residence in was still just as beautiful as it was when he first arrived several arcs ago. The Venora's estate was a reflection of the family. Like the Venoras, the estate was absolutely gorgeous-- perhaps even breathtaking. Daliane had never been the sort of person to admire the interior design of a home but there was so much work put into the home of the Venora's, you cannot help but look around in awe.
As the carriage drew closer to the estate, Daliane could not help it but peer out the window and smile. "We're here, Summer." He looked down at the petite pig on his lap with excitement. The carriage soon came to a halt in front of the estate and the driver wasted no time opening the door for Daliane and helping him with his bags. Tucking the pig underneath his arm, Daliane approached the double doors of the house. Before he could even knock, the doors flung open and he was greeted by some familiar faces. The ladies of the house crowded around Daliane, taking turns showering him with kisses. "Hello!" Daliane giggled as he returned some of the kisses. "It's so nice to see you all again!"
The commotion was almost too much for Daliane's pig, Summer Nights. The poor thing could not handle the women's squealing and hollering. The piglet panicked, slipping out of it's owner's arm and running off. "Summer Nights!" Daliane excused himself from the group of women and chased after his piglet. "Come back!" He followed the pig into a large room. "Where are you?" After entering the room, Daliane lost the piglet.
Tristan had been back in Venora for all of two trials and was already getting tired of it. Or rather, he was getting tired of his relatives, of aunt Willlow in particular. The house was nice, and the food was of course great. He had intended to leave again in the afternoon, but he had unfortunately slept in, and the by time he had concluded some necessary business in the village, it had already been too late to leave. So he had decided to go into hiding to minimize the contact with a certain middle aged woman who just never shut up.
That was why he was currently in the library on the ground floor. He doubted that anybody besides his cousin Alistair regularly picked up a book, and Alistair was currently not at home. He was probably busy being chased by spirits and rabid squirrels, if what his slave had told him was at all true. The library also had the added bonus that it was relatively cool there, and he had lots of room. His old bedroom on the first floor was unfortunately a little cramped, and it was also the first place where his aunt would look for him.
He had pushed the table and the chairs in front of to the wall and spread a few large pieces of paper across the floor. Paints and brushes were scattered everywhere, and an sculpture that he had been working on stood on a tower he had made of a couple of dictionaries. That probably hadn’t been the best idea as the books had cost a fair amount of money, but he had thought a tower made of books would look funny, so he had made one anyway.
He didn’t know what he wanted to paint yet, he just knew that he wanted to paint, so he simply moved a thick brush across the paper and decided to wait and see what happened.
The sound of a carriage that arrived in the courtyard distracted him though. He put the brush down and walked over to the window that was open a crack to let some fresh air in. He recognized the boy that stepped out of the carriage immediately. There were few seventeen-year olds that were as beautiful without being members of his immediate family and even fewer that kept a pig as a pet. How that had happened, Tristan would never understand.
For a moment he actually considered going outside and greeting the boy - he’d always liked him - but then he noticed that the majority of his female relatives were already doing so, a woman he wanted to avoid among them. So he quietly inched back from the window and went back to his masterpiece in progress that consisted of a couple of wavy lines so far.
Unfortunately he was interrupted again but a few moments later as a pink creature ran into the room at lighting speed as if it was being chased by some sort of demon. It ran right across the fresh paint on his paper and finally disappeared under the table, leaving colorful footprints on the floor as it did so. Tristan looked at it, thoroughly stunned and wondered if he should catch it and return it to its owner. But then he decided not to. It looked cute, but it might still bite.
So he went to the door instead as he heard Daliane’s voice and gestured for him to come over to him. “Your pig is here”, he informed him and pointed at the table from under which Summer Nights was looking at him uncertainly. “It decided to help me with my painting, but then it got tired of it, and now we are apparently playing hide and seek. Come in, but close the door. Nobody knows that I’m here, and I’d rather it stayed that way.”
He searched the large room, mistaking everything small and pink for his Summer Nights. After realizing that the piglet had somehow vanished from the large room, he too left and began searching other areas of the house. Particularly the more spacious rooms, each being the size of a small cottage -- so it took him some time to rummage around the rooms from top to bottom. "Oh Summer, where are you?" He began calling out for the pig, hoping that once she heard the sound of his voice, she would come out of hiding and follow the sound of his voice. But she did no such thing. "Summer Nights..." He called for the baby swine once more, the sound of his voice reflecting how gloomy he was beginning to feel. "Please come back to me, dear."
He wandered the halls with an aching heart. Daliane could not believe he allowed something so little to slip from beneath his arm.
After calling her name multiple times, Daliane finally got an answer. But not from Summer Nights. It was from one of the many handsome young men of Venora who made Daliane aware of his pig's whereabouts. The handsome man called Daliane with a soothing voice, one that let him know that his beloved pet is alright and unharmed. The young man's mood completely changed. The heartache he was experiencing has gone away, being replaced by a feeling of comfort.
He spotted the man with no problem and followed his gesture, leading him directly to the pig. Before entering the room, he did as he was told and closed the door. Briefly, his eyes scanned the room. Summer Nights had interrupted this poor man, ruining his work of art. The footprints of different colors Summer Nights made led Daliane to her and once he spotted the pig, he crawled underneath the table to grab her. "Summer, look what you've done." He scolded the piglet as he scooped her up with one hand. "You've made a mess."
Daliane came out from beneath the table, his dark eyes shifting from the pig to Tristan. "I am truly sorry." He looked around the room again. " This is all my fault, I should've known all that noise would frighten her. This is really all my fault." Daliane heavily sighed, his gaze returning to the man. After staring at him for too long in silence, Daliane blushed. He could never get over how good-looking any of the men of this certain house were. The one that stood before him had long dark hair that curled and appeared to be soft. He had striking blue eyes too, the color of the sky. He was a bit taller than Daliane with a body almost similar to his own. "I remember you..." He spoke softly, hardly above a whisper.
Daliane never spoke to many of the men, preferring the company of the Venora women. It was the women of the house that taught him much of what he knew now and it was the women who interacted with him the most. But the men he did interact with were much easier to remember than the women. "You are Tristan, yes?" Daliane tilted his head and smiled. "You are the Duchess's grandson." He was starting to remember more now. "I am Daliane Andaris, do you remember me? It is okay if you do not remember me at all." He began moving around the room, stopping once he was only a feet away from the sculpture. "This is beautiful! Did you this by yourself.?"
Tristan watched Daliane closely as he crawled under the table to retrieve his little pig, but he gave no sign of trying to help him. The boy, he thought bemusedly, was rather agile which made him wonder what he did for a living. How old was he now? Seventeen? Eighteen? He pondered the question for a few moments before he turned his attention back to poor Summer Nights who had successfully been caught by her owner.
"Don’t scold her", he said and smirked. "She didn’t know it any better. Besides, my painting looks so much more interesting now." He pointed at the painting in question that was full of Summer Nights‘ little footprints. "This should probably be its own art style, although I’m not sure what the art style in question would be called. I wonder if there’s a gallery owner in Andaris who would be willing to exhibit it. What do you think?"
It was then that he noticed the way that Daliane was staring at him and blushing. He didn’t mind though – on the contrary. Tristan considered himself to be quite a good looking man and enjoyed it when men, women and children alike stared at him in awe. Humility had obviously never been his forte. "Of course I remember you", he replied. "We used to live here together for a while before I went to university. How have you been? And how is your cousin Peake? Is he really as violent as the Gazette claims?"
There were a lot rumors about the heir to the Andaris family. Tristan wasn’t sure if he should admire the man for the sheer creativity with which he executed his supposedly violent deeds or fear him. One thing was clear to him though, Daliane should have been born a Venora. The young man embodied the principles that Venora stood for better than some of Tristan’s relatives!
"Yes, of course", he replied as Daliane asked him if he had made the sculpture himself and looked at his half-finished masterpiece (it still needed to be baked and painted, among other things). The sculpture in question depicted a man in armor who held a sword with both hands and raised it towards the sky, like some sort of strong and noble hero.
"That’s what I do for a living, most of the time", he continued and turned back to Daliane. "Sometimes I also work for the theatre in Andaris. This particular sculpture will be a gift for one of the actors there. I thought he might be more inclined to accept the leading role in the play I’m working on if I gave him a gift. That’s supposed to be him, in his future role. My play will be about a tragic and slightly weird love story that may or may not have been inspired by real events."
"I'm sure the painting was interesting before Summer Nights stepped all over it. You're very talented," Daliane told him without even looking at his work. He didn't need to either. Daliane has lived with the Venoras long enough to know that many of them were very talented. They were painters, sculptors and everything in between. Creativity seemed to be present in their bloodline, unlike his own. Not too many of the Andaris were talented and many of them rely on the Venora when it came to decorating or anything close to it. The Andaris were better with politics. Well, most of them anyway. Which is why the royal family trusted his own.
It was good that Tristan remembered him. He glowed with pride and satisfaction, it was always nice to be recognized. "I am quite well, thank you." He raised his little piggy to his chest and pressed her against it as he thought about his cousin, Peake. It was funny how Peake and himself grew up in the same house, shared the same noble blood yet never got the chance to know each other. He hardly remembers his eldest cousin exist at times. "You would have to ask him yourself. I know your relatives better than my own." Daliane placed his free hand over his mouth and giggled like a child.
But he did know House Venora better than his own. Daliane knew their lifestyle and culture. If he were apart of House Venora, anything and everything he did would be seen more as a tribute to the house of beauty . The mocha-colored young man's actions could be seen as a disgrace to his family but an honor to the other. If Daliane could, he would marry into this house. He would replace his last name with a new one, he would replace it with Venora. Daliane Venora. He thought about it and smiled. It had a nice ring to it.
"I love the theatre. My favorite play being the one about Nora Andaris, the first queen." He truly admired the first queen. Daliane first learned about her when he was a child, his family speaking highly of her almost all the time, especially around her birthday. Nora was beautiful and admired by everyone, including the regular folks. The first queen was humble and cared deeply for others. It is a pleasure to tell people that he is related to her in some way. He liked bragging about it sometimes. I share the same blood as the first queen. It shocked him every time he would think about it.
"What is this play about? You have to tell me." Daliane's voice was soft and sounded almost as innocent as he looked. He walked around the sculptor, looking at it once more. "Please?" His eye grew wide like a puppy dog's and he inched a bit closer to Tristan. Daliane's age truly showed when he acted like this. He was still young and very much pure -- the cold truth of reality hardly touching him yet.
„Well, thank you“, Tristan replied as Daliane insisted that he was very talented. He smiled all over his face, and his eyes shimmered brightly. He absolutely loved receiving compliments, so what the young man had said was like music to his ears. He was unaware that Daliane hadn’t given his masterpiece as much as a look, or maybe he just didn’t care about that. “If you think it is that good, I might take it to the nearest gallery and ask them to exhibit it, complete with pig footprints because, as I said, I don’t think this is something that has ever been done before in the art world.”
“By the way”, he added and looked Daliane who had become a very handsome young man over as if he were already thinking about the work of art he would produce when he was done with his current one. “Have you ever posed for a sculptor or a painter? You really should.”
“I forgot that”, he murmured as Daliane informed him that he knew the Venoras better than his own family. “Do you ever meet your family at all? You know, you should ask Aunt Willow to adopt you. I don’t think she’d say no to a son like you. You are probably even more of a Venora than I am, and I am very much a Venora.”
Tristan couldn’t imagine living in the vicinity of Peake Andaris with his violent temper and with a family that probably thought that art was a waste of time and he’d better become a tax collector or something similarly conventional and boring. Of course he was unaware that his own cousin, Alistair, had a few skeletons in the closet as well (literally, the man was secretly a necromancer!).
Tristan was rather fond of Daliane, but at the mention of Queen Nora he rolled his eyes and looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “Please say that you were joking, and don’t ever speak of her in my vicinity again. Why is everybody so fond of her anyway? She stole my birthday!” Tristan had been born on the same trial as Queen Nora, so his birthday celebrations had mostly consisted of his mother and occasionally aunt Willow dragging him to Queen Nora-themed celebrations throughout Andaris rather than celebrating with him at home and giving him gifts. He still resented them that.
On top of that being humble and caring for others was overrated in his opinion. Tristan very much preferred to be self-centered. He didn’t see a point in helping others when you rarely got anything in return besides a pat on the back and a stupid smile that you couldn’t buy anything with.
Fortunately the conversation turned to a much more pleasant topic soon. At the mention of his play Tristan’s mood instantly brightened as he loved talking about his work.
“I’m still working on the details, but it will in essence be about a young lord who is about your own age and who loves art and music”, he revealed. “He tragically falls in love with a woman who is already betrothed to another. There’ll also be a third man who is very much in love with the young lord and who betrays him to his enemies because he doesn’t even want to look at him, let alone be with him. There’ll be great feelings, there’ll be violence, and there’ll be lots of surprising turns of events. I’m actually thinking about adding songs and music to it rather than just letting people talk all the time. That would be boring, wouldn’t it?”
“Maybe I’ll dedicate the play to Zanik. He loves art and music and things like that, doesn’t he?”
"Never." Daliane shook his head. "In fact, you're the first sculptor I have ever come across." He has met plenty of talented people back home in Andaris. He's met artist, musicians and even bards but never has he met a sculptor until today. The seventeen year old found sculptors much more interesting too. Daliane is very much interested in what they do too and how they do it. The sculpture Tristan made was breathtaking, he wondered how he created something so lifelike. How did he make the tragic hero look so realistic? Every detail in the sculpture was just perfect. The sword the tragic hero held even looked like it could cut just about anyone into a thousand pieces.
He's met with his family plenty of times. Still dependent on his parents, he has dinner with the other Andaris just about every night. Daliane has never engaged in conversation with many of them during this time but he very much enjoyed listening to what his cousins, aunts and uncles have to say. "I see my family all the time. I just choose not to talk to some of them because well...we do not have a lot in common. My father, for example, deals with the King. What business do I have with our beloved King?" Daliane has never even met the King. Occasionally, he would see him at different events and in spite of that, he knew nothing about him.
"Aunt Willow?" He shook his head and laughed. "A lovely woman, I am sure, and she has treated me right the seven arcs I've lived here but if there is anyone I'd want to adopt me, it would be Bianca Venora." The woman's name made him beam with pleasure. Bianca Venora was like a second mother to him. "She is a big part of my upbringing and she is part of the reason I've decided to visit you all again." He did not remember seeing her when he first arrived, which was a shame. But knowing Bianca, she was most likely putting the powers the Immortal, Zanik, had given to her to good use. Bianca Venora is a dangerous woman and the marks received make her almost deadly.
"I love that woman so much." Besides his mother, she may be the only other woman he will ever love.
Daliane's mouth dropped when Tristan conveyed his disgust for Nora Andaris. The first queen was someone almost impossible to hate in his mind. He understood why Tristan would dislike her though. He shared a birthday with her and despite her being deceased, Tristan was still in her shadow. Nora Andaris outshined him on his special day and that must be very upsetting. "I am fond of her because...she is like me...or I am like her? I don't know." Daliane sighed. "I like to believe that if she were alive today, she would like me and I would like her and-- I don't know why I am fond of her." He did not know how to explain it but Nora was different. She could change things too.
"I know sharing a birthday with her can be difficult and that is probably why you do not like her but Nora is special to me." Out of the sacred seven, he worshipped her the most. He loved her the most. "And if you promise not to hate her so much, I promise I will treat you just as special as everyone treats her on her-- I mean, your birthday." Daliane was close enough to reach out and touch Tristan. He reached out and touched his arm, rubbing it slowly and still, beaming. "If you promise, I'll go through with mine."
Daliane wanted Tristan to love the first queen like he loved her. He wanted to change his opinion on her and make him see that sharing a birthday with Nora Andaris is not a huge dishonor. You should take pride in sharing a birthday with one of the sacred seven. He thought.
"That sounds interesting!" He clapped. "But I have to be brutality honest with you, Tristan. I do not like tragedies too much. Someone's life should never be so terrible and heartbreaking." The young man did not care too much for sad stories. He is a romantic and has a belief that everyone will eventually get their happy ending. It may not come when they want it too but a happily ever after will come soon enough. "Yes, yes, songs and music make every play a little more magical. I love when the theatre puts on plays that have the actors dance and sing and smile. I love it!"
Daliane gave Tristan a puzzled look when he talked about dedicating the play to Zanik. "But it sounds like it should be dedicated to Vri? The play is about love, am I wrong?"
“In that case I’ll have to make a sculpture for you or of you”, Tristan decided as Daliane admitted that he was the first sculptor he had ever met. “And show you exactly how it is done. I’ll even do it for free because you are practically family, and you shouldn’t demand money of your family.” He loved his job, most of the time even though it was occasionally loud and messy, and he sometimes developed a few unfortunate antisocial tendencies when he was working on a particularly complicated sculpture and stuck in his workshop alone all trial long. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else, apart from working for the theatre which he would do anyway, if he ever managed to finish the play he was working on and the theatre director accepted it.
“Did you really never want to meet King Cassander?” he asked incredulously because he had never wanted anything more than to get close to the royal family. He wished he were just as rich and famous! “If you don’t have any business with him at the moment, you can always try to find a reason to talk to him. Myself, I’ll invite him to the premiere of my new play. I really want to get to know him better and show him how much fun life can be. He must be terribly lonely sometimes, surrounded by all those old, backstabbing and scheming nobles. He’s younger than the two of us and married to a grown woman.”
He shuddered a little as he said that even though Queen Freya was, put objectively, quite an attractive woman. He was just very opposed to the idea of arranged marriages, and the notion of an adult woman marrying a boy also seemed slightly disturbing to him. “Why was he allowed to marry her anyway? Don’t you have to be at least seventeen in order to get married in Rynmere? Do the laws not apply to our king?”
As Daliane spoke of Bianca, Tristan sighed in an almost dreamy fashion. His aunt was one of the few members of his family that he actually found tolerable, besides his cousin Andraska who had the unfortunate tendency to dress like a vagrant most of the time. When he had been younger he had had a little crush on her, but he decided not to mention that as people rarely wanted to hear that you found the woman they practically considered to be their mother attractive. “She never seemed very motherly to me, but then I was not as close to her as you were. Does she already know that you are back?”
He’d hoped that Daliane would get the hint and not talk about Queen Nora any more, but it seemed as if that trial was not his lucky trial. As the young man spoke of his fondness for her, Tristan frowned, and then he frowned some more, and his eyes darkened dangerously. As Daliane promised to treat him special on his birthday though, the look on his face softened somewhat, and he decided to relent. “If you make my next birthday worthwhile and celebrate it with me, I’ll try and see Queen Nora’s good sides a bit more. But I won’t do any of the usual Queen Nora stuff with you. I’ve done enough of that to last me for a lifetime and never enjoyed it particularly.”
He grinned and proudly raised his head as Daliane clapped his hands, but joy soon made way to another frown as Daliane informed him that his play should be dedicated to Vri instead. “Vri also stands for sadness death, and I don’t want to dedicate my play to the immortal of sadness and death. I think Zanik is a much better fit despite the fact that there is a love story at the center of it. Zanik stands for music and art and passion, and all three play a big part . I even have a character that is somewhat like him, that used to do bad things, but eventually becomes a good man and saves everybody’s life.”
“I’ll invite you to the premiere as well so that you can convince yourself of it. That reminds me, what do you do for a living?” His curiosity had finally gotten the better of him. “I’ve talked about my job in quite some detail, but I have no idea what you are up to these trials. Aren’t you almost old enough to earn your own money now?”
"What? You would really do that for me?" He was shocked. During the time Tristan called him family, Daliane's feeling of shock turned blissful. The teen felt the same way about the beautiful man and his family as a whole. "If my mother told me she is not only the wife of a Baron, but the mistress of a Venora, I would not bat an eye." He was only kidding when he said this. Rah'lyn is a faithful woman, who loved her husband and would never hurt him in any way. She would never have an affair, something that was considered a norm amid the society Daliane has grown to love.
"My mother would never cheat," He felt the need to say this,"She doesn't really care for the other Houses anyway."
He never thought about meeting King Cassander. Daliane was aware of the boy king and he's seen him a few times when his grandfather and father would interact with him but not once did he ever think about approaching the king himself and chatting with him like he would anyone else. "No. King Cassander and I have nothing in common. What would I say to him?" Daliane could not see himself talking to such royalty like he would anybody else. He would become intimidated and afraid to say the wrong thing. "I could try, maybe? The King does look like he is in need of friends." He shrugged. Daliane liked to ride horses, maybe the King could do that with him.
"Backstabbing?" Daliane rolled his eyes. His father and grandfather were not backstabbers. "My father is most likely the one and only person looking out for King Cassander. Maybe the Dukes of other houses are backstabbers, but not mine." He told Tristan. It is almost ironic that he would say this considering how he felt about House Andaris. Not too long ago, he was thinking about leaving his house for a new and now, he was defending it. Or really, he was defending his family -- his father and grandfather. Gavin Andaris and Thomas Andaris, the duke of Andaris, were trustworthy and if there is anyone the king should rely on, it should be them. Daliane's family is right underneath the King's nose! If they were planning on backstabbing the king, it would be almost impossible. For Nora's sake, Andaris lived in the same city as the king.
He placed his baby pig on the ground, continuing to listen to Tristan speak about the royal family. Summer Nights was calm now and chose not to leave her owner, leaning against him and closing her eyes. "I do not think the rules apply to the King, especially in his current situation." Daliane thought back to his school days. He remembers learning something about how the rules may differ for the royal family in certain situations. "King Cassander, first of his name and the last of his line, had to marry someone as soon as possible. If the Renault line must continue, he needs to produce an heir. In this case, Rynmere's laws do not really apply to him." He looked toward the ceiling as he talked and thought about the situation. "And why are you feeling more pity for him than the queen? He most likely had more say in who he should marry than she did." He doubted a beautiful woman in her twenties wanted to marry a child, even if he was the king.
"I do not think she is even here." He hoped to run into Bianca soon. Daliane would like to see how she is doing and catch up on a few things. "Knowing Bianca, she is most likely at a brothel." He blushed and covered his mouth. Daliane had heard of brothels and what people do there. He was curious about those sort of places but almost too scared to even go to one. "Bianca loves that place." Memories of her leaving almost every night began coming back to him. Brothels seem to be her place of comfort for some reason.
It was funny how an Immortal could stand for something as great as love and at the same time, sadness. Love is a great thing, one that causes many people to be happy and very passionate. It's true that there are some downfalls when it comes to love but nonetheless, love is remarkable. A remarkable occurrence Daliane hoped Vri would allow him to enjoy someday. "That is all true. Maybe the play should be dedicated to Zanik but do not exclude Vri. I'm sure that he would enjoy your play as well despite his domain also being sadness and death."
"I would be honored to see it!" Daliane was sure it would be a great play. Tristan seems to be a very talented man, who knows how to tell a good story.
"I do absolutely nothing at the time. But I would like to do something that involves my love for both people and animals."
He nodded. Daliane is at an awkward stage where he is considered an adult and yet, at the same time a child. "I am. But I have no real talent like you, my friend. I cannot write or create a beautiful sculpture. I cannot do anything."
"Yes, of course", Tristan replied and laughed at the shocked look on Daliane’s face. "You are practically family, and family occasionally do things for each other." At the young man speculation that his mother might be the mistress of a Venora, Tristan gave him a long and hard look. In his opinion it could very well be the case. As he had concluded before, Daliane was nothing like his cousin Peake, and thus he only half believed him as he insisted that Rah’lyn Andaris would never cheat. Nobles cheated all the time.
"I could come up with a few things to say to King Cassander", he let Daliane know because he had a very vivid imagination. "Forget the fact that he is our ruler for a moment and try to see him as a boy that is only a little younger than you are. Are you really sure that you don’t have anything in common? As for backstabbers, I didn’t mean your father specifically. I’m sure he’s a pretty nice guy, but just look at some of the other nobles. They probably have a few skeletons in their closet – literally!"
As Daliane asked him why he felt more pity for the king than the queen, he shrugged his shoulders. "I don’t know. It probably has something to do with the fact that he doesn’t have any family left and nobody he can really rely on. Queen Freya on the other hand, there’s something about her that I don’t trust. If you want to, you can support her while I try to make Cassander’s life a little less lonely and depressing."
That seemed like a pretty good idea to him.
"I’m sure I saw her here earlier today", he insisted as the conversation turned to Bianca and her whereabouts and pretended to look around as if he expected her to show up any moment. At Daliane’s statement that his aunt loved the brothel, he nodded, laughing at the same time because the look on Daliane’s face as he said the "b"-word was just too funny.
"So do I, Daliane, so do I. I’m surprised that we didn’t run into each other more often at the House of Roses. Maybe we were too busy with our respective companions to pay a lot of attention to each other. Did you ever accompany her?"
"As for the play, I could potentially dedicate it to both Zanik and Vri. Who knows, maybe they’ll both show up at the premiere and applaud me!" He laughed as he said that and shook his head because the idea of an immortal visiting him for any reason was just too ludicrous, although it would of course be fun if it actually happened.
"I’m sure that there is something you can do", he insisted as Daliane told him that he had no real talent. He felt the need to comfort the young man because he suddenly seemed a little depressed to him. "You express yourself well. You move with a certain grace, and you are as good looking as any Venora. You could try singing or acting or dancing, any job that requires a person to be able to speak coherently and look good. Although I don’t know how you could possibly combine singing, dancing and animals. Maybe you could try and teach Summer Nights a few tricks?"
