Why him?

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 20th May 2009

Characters: Zelanka, Shadux
Description: Zelanka and Shadux react to the news of their new Lord Holder
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 3, day 1 of Turn 5
Notes: Mentioned: Zathris, Benani, Benaran, Nimroy, Mariss

"Zathris? Why Zathris? In the first eggs name, Zathris!?" Zelanka was
in a shock after hearing the conclave's decicion.

Shadux stood in the doorway, bottle of something strong in his hand for
just this occassion. "Yeah, I thought you might have heard."

"I just did. What was the Conclave thinking of?" Zelanka replied and
asked rhetorically.

"A bunch of idiots who don't know the first thing about Amber Hills and
our traditions." Shards, how far back had Benaroy's line gone? Shadux
didn't even know. His family had always served the Lords of that line.
"Do you have some glasses in here?"

"Over here," Zelanka got up to get two from her cabinet. "It's not
that have anything against Zathris personally, he's a good man, but he
is not Benaroy's son. He is outsider."

"But Benani will be a good Lady, I think." Shadux had always thought
any of Benaroy's daughters would have been wonderful Lady Holders.
Especially Royani, if she had lived. But he had always expected them to
be Ladies elsewhere... "I don't understand what is happening to my
home, Zelanka. I don't know how Benaroy could have allowed this to
happen."

"I know that feeling, we are becoming minority in our own hold,"
Zelanka sighed. "It will be nice to work with Benani though, it's been
a while since we had a Lady," she continued.

"And in a few generations, I'm sure there will be a push to reunite
Zathris' line with Benaroy's again. And then they'll be decendants of
Benaroy's on _both_ sides." But it would take generations before that
was possible. Shadux wouldn't see it. Perhaps even his grandchilden
wouldn't see it. That saddened him as he pulled out the stop on the
bottle thoughtfully.

"If only," Zelanka snorted rather pessimistically.

"_All_ of this could have been avoided if Benaroy had just named a
sharding heir," Shadux muttered, pouring their glasses. "He had to know
he was dying. Faranth, we _all_ knew he was dying."

Zelanka didn't want to think bad of deceased lord, but she had to
admit Shadux was right. She nodded.

For Shadux it was easier to be angry at someone, and the easiest person
was the deceased Lord Holder. "Maybe that's what the Conclave decided.
That if he was too stupid to name his own heir, then his sons didn't
deserve to be considered. What a sharding waste."

"Or it was all politcs... Isn't Zathris Lord holder's son? A father
looks after his son and there was no one to defend Benaroy's sons...
Benaran or Nimroy would be able Lords too," she said. It was all
speculation of course, nobody knew what happened behind the closed
doors when the Lords came together to decide the fate of a hold. It
was bitter... their future in hands of others.

"They were _all_ trained to be Lord Holders. We all have been trained
to do a job. You don't just sharding mess with our system like that!
We all have place and a purpose. Everything's... out of order now!"
And it all started when his father was ousted from his rightful place by
Benaroy. It all started with him.

"Yes," Zelanka agreed whole-heartely. Things were definently out of
order. And she loved order. Order and neatness were almost obsession
to her.

Shadux shook his head, swirling his drink around in his glass, to
conflicted in his own mind to remember to sip at it. "Everything was
just fine here until he brought in those Amythest Cliff people. He just
got too greedy."

"Maybe," Zelanka said. "But they needed help and most of them are good
people." She wanted to be loyal to her Lord. "Unfortunately not all of
them," she added very quietly. She had had her share of problems with
housing, feeding and clothing unexpected, large number of people and
some of them had been down right difficult ones.

"Not all of them," Shadux agreed softly. He had rather liked Mariss,
after a while. After she had stopped being so annoying and started to
get interesting. "It's just so sharding crowded, sometimes I can't even
hear myself think. I miss the quiet."

"Well, I don't, not really, even if it means more work to me. I like
people," Zelanka said.

"I like _our_ people," her companion sighed, rubbing his face. He
didn't really mean it. Shadux just hated change, and there had just
been so much of it lately. "I just... wish we could all go back a
couple turns and live again in that moment."

"I could drink for that," the headwoman said.

Last updated on the May 24th 2009

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Why him?