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crystal | letter | cease and desist notices slipped under her door | action

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ipseite

If he had not killed me for leaving, if I succeeded in returning home, my daughter's life would have been forfeit. And then, when he argued that I could not be safe if I too did not know magic to protect myself in his absence, I did not have an uncle upon a throne who would spare my life for the crime.

Yes. I stayed.

From:

rathercommon

You couldn't have taken your daughter with you?

From:

ipseite

Marius's crime was witchcraft. He avoided, by virtue of his sex and his uncle's unwillingness to execute a male heir for a woman's crime, a slow death by burning. Veda would have been born on the wrong side of the blanket, unwanted by whatever man would take payment for absorbing the embarrassment of my scandal in marriage, and subject to the other consequence for witchcraft, which suffers not a witch's child to live lest they carry the taint of sin they were born from.

Her great-uncle would not have been so kind to about unwished for reminder of Marius. To bring her home with me would have been to sign her death warrant in my own hand.

From:

rathercommon

People really cared that much about whether you were a man or a woman in your home?

From:

ipseite

Legally speaking, I was the property of my father until such time as I became the property of my husband. Veda ordinarily therefore would be my father's to dispose of as he saw fit, but as her paternal family outranked ours, he would cede the Archiduc's will. I would have inherited my father's title, and it would have been my dowry, and become my husband's along with the estate and all of my inheritance.

From:

rathercommon

God. How awful.

From:

ipseite

I believed that we were best with Marius. That I knew him, at least, that we had once believed in the same things and I might influence him well. That Veda had her best chance beneath his protection. I had trusted him, once, and to his credit I have never doubted his love for his children.

( it wasn't a great decision, but there hadn't been great options. )

But it was. Awful. And- Marius's extremes aside, common. Terribly, terribly common. I wished to make it less so.

From:

rathercommon

How?

From:

ipseite

Originally, I thought to change culture by changing minds. To lead by example, and use what influence I might gain—to throw our political support behind endeavours that might improve matters. I wished, ( there is a wryness in her voice, ) to support education reforms, and to counteract the influence of the church in day to day society.

After Marius's exile—he would conquer that which had cast him out. We dismantled the architecture of the church's power and writ into law protections for the practising of its faith, instead. Laws against witchcraft were struck down, and we had been arguing for some time about the precise ways in which we should memorialize those murdered by the state.

I did not see the end results of his work.

From:

justashotaway

[Without preamble:]

Do you like cats?

From:

rathercommon

[ ????? ]

I...guess? I like that they've got claws.

From:

justashotaway

I like that, too.

[That's rather more reluctantly said; she's learned better than to confide true facts about herself in this girl.]

Do you want a cat?

From:

rathercommon

Oh.

[ Faintly alarmed: ]

I don't - know how to - do that.

From:

justashotaway

It is not difficult.

[Or, at least, Matthias insists it isn't. The same thing????]

From:

rathercommon

Caring for a cat? Keeping something alive?

[ That does not. sound easy. ]

From:

justashotaway

It knows how to keep itself alive. You would keep it safe.

From:

rathercommon

From - what?

[ Then, self-consciously - ]

I know I must sound awfully stupid right now. I'm just used to strays.

From:

justashotaway

...I am, too.

[She has to think about the question; she doesn't know exactly what the answer is. The cat knows that it should eat mice and other pests, and there are few predators to be concerned with in the Gallows. But she dislikes the thought of the kittens remaining in storerooms and kitchen cupboards, and Matthias had spoken of giving kittens to others...]

They are still very small. If you take one, you must keep it from hurting itself and leave water out for it to drink. Or table scraps, if it is hungry.

[Another pause, this one of a different sort of uncertainty. It feels personal to mention.]

If you are kind to it, it will vibrate.