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[Pedigree]019 An Interview
With The Press
[Pedigree]020 The Bones of Munagent
[Pedigree]019
An Interview With The Press
\Tim Ingman\
Tim
Ingman, Atlanna News Harold, Master Ellis, “How long have you known Elaina
Ceazal?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
have known Elaina for several years, Tim.
I met her here at the arena while I was fielding gladiators in the
weekday time slots. As you know
she is one of the of the few women of quality to be regularly found at the
Atlanna Arena. Most ladies
frequent the ballet or the opera, not the games.
I have long admired her for having the gumption to attend the games in
spite of the not always complimentary remarks that action has brought her from
other ladies. She has more drive
and more spirit than any other woman I have met.”
\Tim Ingman\
“Were
you seeing Elaina as a man during that time?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Well
Tim, I don’t know what else I would be seeing her as,” Nathaniel chuckled,
“a tiger perhaps?”
\Tim Ingman\
“I
mean were you courting her, Master Ellis.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“At
first, but then her father forbade her to see me that way.
I am, after all, not a nobleman. For
sometime we could only see one another under other pretexts.”
\Tim Ingman\
“Then
you didn’t stop seeing her?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“No,
not for long, but we had to be much more selective as to where we met after
that time. Eventually, Lord
Ceazal found out we were still seeing one another and the fact did not make
him happy. Thankfully, he never
forbade me to see Elaina; he tried to ruin me instead,” Nathaniel grinned.
\Tim Ingman\
“Is
there any truth to the rumor that an anonymous source connected with our rival
newspaper, the Atlanna Sun, had some written correspondence that circulated
between you an Elaina bearing an unmistakably romantic tone?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“There
were a few letters, but those were private property that was stolen, Tim.
My lawyers have recovered them from the Sun and the thief is being
punished. I have always had a
good relationship with the Sun, and I have decided not to bring a lawsuit
against them, but private letters between a man and a woman are just that,
private.”
Tim Ingman\
“Are
you afraid the recent publicity surrounding your affair with Lady Ceazal will
cause Lord Ceazal to order you not to see her.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Up
until recently I have been a great supporter of the press, however I fear I
will never be able to see Elaina again after you people get done with this.”
\Tim Ingman\
“Then
you would stop seeing Elaina if Lord Ceazal ordered it.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Ruined
or not, Lord Ceazal is still a nobleman.
I would have no choice but to follow his directive.”
\Tim Ingman\
“You
knew why Lord Ceazal was trying to ruin you, did you not Master Ellis?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Yes,
I suspected it had something to do with my seeing Elaina.”
\Tim Ingman\
“Why
didn’t you stop seeing her, Master Ellis?
Wasn’t there an awful lot at risk?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Just
money, Tim.”
\Tim Ingman\
“Just
money!? Master Ellis it was your
entire fortune at steak.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Indeed.
I thought about not seeing Elaina, but I just could not do it.
Instead I decided I would call Lord Ceazal’s bluff and beat him at
his own game.”
\Tim Ingman\
“So
your rivalry was not just about who produced the finest slaves, but about
whether or not you could see Elaina?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Oh
it was about who produced the finest slaves, all right.
If House Ellis had fielded too many inferior quality slaves, I would
have been ruined and out of the games. That would mean I would no longer
have been able to see Elaina. Don’t
you see? I had to make House Ellis the best, so I did.”
\Tim Ingman\
"Is
there any truth that you decided on your own to save the Ceazal family from
utter ruin, and that the King was so impressed with the gesture that you are
to be knighted?
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
I
believe the royal press agent has already spoken on this matter,
therefore I will confirm that I did decide to save House Ceazal, and that the
King thereafter decided to recognize my deed with knighthood. Mind
you I cannot forgive the debt because the contract outlining the bet was so
strict, and because I simply do not trust Roderich Ceazal for obvious reasons.
On the other hand, I have no wish to destroy one of the King's noble houses,
after all, that would be allowing a personal bet to bring detriment to the
crown. I am entirely too loyal to wish to see the King's interests hurt,
therefore I have made arrangements with Lord Siedrich Ceazal. He will
get what loans and financing he can from other sources, but I will loan him
sufficient money thereafter to buy Lord Roderich's lands. Siedrich will
be the new Marquis Ceazal.
----+======+++======+----
[Pedigree]020
The Bones Of Munagent
\Narration\
The
wheels of the black coach bobbed up and down violently as the sophisticated
suspension system absorbed what shocks the sheer diameter of the wheels failed
to mitigate. The road that snaked
up the mountainside was in a state of definite disrepair.
The eight men and two women chained on the flatbed behind the coach
were having a much less pleasant ride in the company of timbers and crates of
supplies. Half were errant slaves
who had been on their way to the mines, and the other half were white convicts
sentenced to death by hard labor.
Riding
in front of the black coach were five black horsemen on black light warhorses.
The neck sashes of the horses and the surcoats of the guards were also
plain black. Every guard carried either a crossbow or a composite short-bow
and at least two quivers of arrows. Their
equipment belts were crowded with canisters.
Another five men rode behind the coach. On the coach four guards accompanied the
coachman at the front of the coach and five more rode on seats that
cantilevered from the rear of the coach.
\Elaina Ceazal\
Elaina
yawned; the view out the window was breathtaking. Master Ellis had insisted on starting the trip at two
o’clock in the morning. Elaina
failed to see the logic in it. It
was true the roads were atrocious. Yet
if the group had started from the nearest inn where they had been staying at
dawn, they might have reached their destination by nightfall.
Once there, they could have asked to stay the night at the bone
mage’s castle, couldn’t they have? Elaina
supposed that if something had gone wrong, they would have had to traverse the
roads they were now on during the night.
She swallowed and thought better of her questioning Master Ellis’
judgment. One miscalculation on
these roads and the coach would have plummeted hundreds of feet off the
treacherous cliffs. Suddenly she
was glad for the ridiculously early start.
They now faced the cliffs in the noonday sun rather than the half-light
of dusk.
Elaina
guessed she was just on edge from the eerie pre-dawn howling of the wolves.
It was silly for her to be so frightened.
Thanks to eye drops from the Ellis alchemist, the guards had seen the
skulking animals in the darkness and fog and had quickly dispatched any
animals stupid yet swift enough to keep pace with the wagons.
The entourage had breakfasted an hour after dawn at the edge of a
river. The magnificent Ellis
horses had been fed, watered, rested and then the trip had resumed.
Elaina had not been able to actually sleep during the trip; however
since the inside of the coach resembled something between a living room and an
office, she had been able to lie down with Asheika on the bench seat that had
been folded out to become a bed. Master
Ellis had taken catnaps in his luxurious desk chair.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
Ellis heard the sounding of a horn and the coach slowed to a stop.
\Coachman
Hermes\
Coachman
Hermes voice came through the talking tube, “We are at the bridge, massa
Elllis.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Good,
I shall be right out to assist you.” Nathaniel
Ellis took a scroll case from his desk and went outside.
\Elaina Ceazal\
Elaina
Ceazal saw the ten outriders had parked their horses and the nine guards who
had been riding on the front and back of the coach had either taken up
defensive positions or were assisting at the bridge. There was no question that the bridge looked rickety.
Fresh timbers and stout oak planks with holes already drilled in
appropriate places were being taken from the flatbed.
Holes were drilled into the ailing bridge, bolts were wrenched home and
in exactly twenty minutes time the rickety bridge had a new lease on life.
Nathaniel Ellis got back into the coach wearing a satisfied grin and
the coaches rolled over the bridge.
A
few minutes later the black coach went through a raised portcullis into a
courtyard, but instead of parking there the coach turned around immediately,
exited the courtyard and stopped just outside the portcullis.
The slaves and convicts were unloaded immediately from the flatbed and it too joined
the coach outside on the road.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
had said we would arrive at noon. It
is nearly one. Munagent is
a very eccentric old man who has suffered at least one major curse in his
life. We must not wear out our
welcome. As a precaution we will
not even use our real names. The
less time we can stay here, the less chance there is of anything going wrong,
therefore we are in a hurry and cannot accept any hospitality from our host.
We wish to get the work done and leave here, for we must make the trip
back while the sun is still high. Let
me do the talking. No matter how
odd you think something might be, you are to ignore it or downplay its
strangeness. If anything goes wrong Tornado will take you back to the
coach. Asheika, you shall stay
here in the coach. Elaina,
come with me.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
By
the time Elaina got out of the coach, the five slaves and five convicts were
already standing chained in the courtyard.
Five guards accompanied them, and five more, including Tornado, came
with Nathaniel and Elaina. It
felt to Elaina as if she were being watched from the moment she stepped into
the courtyard. She could see
furtive shapes peering out from guard towers built into the walls of the
courtyard. They waited for what
seemed like the better part of an hour before an old man accompanied by two
monstrous humanoid creatures with fangs protruding from their lips and bone
spikes jutting from their bodies came out.
Age spots mottled the old man’s skin and his bright yellow-green eyes
looked deranged even in the full light of day.
Behind him seven other monstrosities fanned out around the perimeter of
the courtyard. He came to a stop
just before the place where the shadow falling from the courtyard wall ended.
Master Ellis took Elaina to meet him.
They stood in the light just in front of the old man.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Good
day Lord Munagent, I apologize for our tardiness. I had said noon but we did not arrive until nearly one.”
\Lord Munagent\
“It
is not a problemm, MMaster Siamm, as you see fromm mmy tardiness in greeting
you, I did not expect to see you until mmuch later. The roads have not been mmaintained in ages.
I amm afraid mmy fortunes have taken a turn for the worst in recent
years.”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
commiserate, Lord Munagent. I
hope our business dealings this day will aid your fortunes to some modest
degree. Thanks to some contacts
in the penal system of a country neighboring my own, I was able to get you ten
subjects rather than the five I had promised.
As you see, I was even able to get two women.
\Lord Munagent\
“Mmagnificent!
You are very generous Mmaster Siamm
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
Ellis took two heavy sacks from the hands of one of the guards and handed one
to Munagent. “Our time is
unfortunately very limited, Lord Munagent.
We must be away as soon as possible.
Here is the payment we agreed on.
If you will do the work quickly, there is a generous tip here for you
if the work proves especially pleasing. Nathaniel held up the second sack.”
\Lord Munagent\
“Goodness
goodness, Mmaster Siam this is a great deal mmore than I had expected the old
mage said as he pocketed one heavy sack and eyed the other.
I will do mmy best. Munagent
dug a tattered letter from his pocket and squinted at it. You wished your teeth done, a simple mmater, and the lady
needs her teeth done, her jaw shortened and her cheekbones are to be enhanced
with the extra bone.”
\Master
Ellis\
“Yes,
might you start with my teeth Lord?”
\Lord Munagent\
Simmple!
Simmple! Lord Munagent sniffed
and put on a pair of spectacles. Yes,
yes, open your mouth. Munagent
peered inside, then raised his hands and screwed up his eyes.
There’s the first part, now close your mouth smoothly and hold it
shut. …Good?
\Master
Ellis\
“Excellent,
Lord Munagent.”
\Lord Munagent\
Lord
Munagent’s cheek ticked and his eyes blinked, “The lady next.
This one is more complex, the teeth cannot be done until the jaw is
shortened, and yet the teeth must be moved around some to match the new
bite.”
\Master
Ellis\
“Yes,
it sounds impossible,” Nathaniel said breathlessly.
\Lord
Munagent
Lord
Munagent’s face stopped ticking as he puffed up, “With my skill it is
child’s play. Observe.
Open your mouth milady.” Munagent
raised his hands and tilted his head back and forth as he screwed up his eyes
and wiggled his tongue back and forth.
\Elaina Ceazal\
Elaina
Ceazal felt the bones of her jaw become liquid, bulges of liquid bone traveled
beneath her flesh. She closed her
mouth when the strange mage bid her. Everything
fit so perfectly when he had finished.
\Lord Munagent\
“Is
she not exquisite?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Your
work is without peer.”
\Lord Munagent\
For
a second he looked on Lady Ceazal as the proud artisan of perfection, and then
his face began to twitch horribly and he crooned loudly and began to raise his
hands.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Run,”
Nathaniel barked as he stepped in front of her.
\Tornado\
Tornado
grabbed Lady Ceazal and nearly pulled her off her feet as he ran her towards
the coach. The other guards put
their bodies between Ellis and the monstrosities positioned around the
courtyard.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Nathaniel
dropped the second sack of money on Munagent’s foot. The convicts, Lord Munagent, direct the curse at one of the
convicts.”
\Lord Munagent\
For
a moment Lord Munagent looked at one the convicts and the man’s bones grew
wildly contorting him in an instant into a wretched abomination, but then
Munagent screamed and turned back towards the fleeing lady. As he did so he met the eyes of Nathaniel Ellis and began to
shake as though he were fighting some internal battle.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“You
must resist, Lord Munagent.”
\Lord Munagent\
“Bahahaha!
Eeeeewweeee! Chagemmmm!
Suddenly
as if one of the nonsensical squeals Munagent had crooned were actually an
order, the portcullis came clattering downward.
\Tornado\
As
they ran, Tornado tackled Lady Ceazal. With
his arms protectively around her head and upper chest, he rolled with her
under the portcullis.
\Lady Ceazal\
Elaina
was sure the sharp points of the falling portcullis would skewer her as it
came clattering towards the ground. Chang!
The points stopped inches from her chest as she and Tornado rolled
under it. The Ellis guards had clandestinely inserted stout,
wedge-topped steel bars into the grooves down which the portcullis traveled as
a precaution shortly after they had arrived.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
It
was obvious why the old mage no longer got out much, Nathaniel thought as his eyes drilled into Munagent’s.
“Smoke,” The slavemaster croaked as if he was exerting himself in the
extreme.
One
of the guards next to Ellis yelled, “Smoke!”
Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light as the Ellis guards beyond
the portcullis fired ordinance into the air.
“You
will stick with our agreement Lord Munagent,” Nathaniel Ellis said
forcefully.
\Lord Munagent\
“Chafixxxx!”
Munagent crooned and his blinded guards began to move erratically.
Arrows flew through the thick blanket of smoke that had filled the air
just after the flash. I will ruin you all! Beauty
is a curse! A curse, I tell you!
You are no match for my power, slave master!”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“A
deal is a deal, Lord Munagent,” Nathaniel growled. “I am sorry you are unable to control your curse these
days. If you cannot control it,
then allow me.”
\Lord Munagent\
Aaaaiiii!
Munagent’s mind wrenched abruptly just as all of his power was about
to make quick work of the skeleton of the slave master.
Suddenly Munagent was falling, falling as his bones turned to jelly.
Somehow the slave master had caused Munagent's errant mind to redirect its power against
itself!
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
Nathaniel
dropped a scroll case and a canister from his pocket and ran towards the
portcullis at full speed, dodging the flailing monstrosities engaged with his
guards as he ran.
Thankfully Nathaniel had earlier used some of Jallan's eyedrops. They
made seeing through the smoke a simple matter.
Nathaniel could hear the bursts as his guards outside launched pepper
and glue bolts and grenades at Munagent’s guards along the outward-facing
walls. Arrows whipped through the air from the windows of the castle
even though Munagent’s guards should not have been able to see through the
smoke. As he neared the
portcullis he heard a satisfying pop as the canister of magic-bane went off
near the puddle of Lord Munagent. With
very little luck it would make Munagent’s job of reconstructing his own
skeleton much more difficult and time consuming, not to mention spoiling any
attacks.
One
arrow that should have been turned by his personal missile ward grazed
Nathaniel’s calf. He rolled
under the portcullis and came up hopping; his leg was already going numb.
Bolts from his own guards whizzed past him headed in the other
direction. Strands of glue
exploded from a castle window as one of Lord Munagent’s archers was
neutralized. Nathaniel
reached into his pocket and popped the cork off a steel-clad vial, drinking it
down as one of his guards carried him to the coach door and set him inside.
Coachman Hermes sounded the call for retreat on his horn once Ellis was
safely inside with Lady Ceazal. Nathaniel
could hear the guards mounting up and soon the coach was moving at full speed.
Nathaniel peered out the back window.
He could hear the squealing of the metal bars as the portcullis was
slowly cranked up in spite of being wedged in a mostly down position.
Out
the front coach window Nathaniel could see as one, two, thee, and four of his
outriders rode over the bridge. The
two guards they had clandestinely left behind to protect the bridge hopped
onto the mounts their compatriots led as the coach roared across the bridge.
The flatbed followed with the wounded.
Arrows from the castle fell short of their present position.
The last outriders cleared the bridge as a group of mounted
monstrosities poured out of the castle.
The last few mounted Ellis guards stopped, turned and tossed glue
grenades onto the bridge, then galloped after their master.
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“You
did not destroy the bridge?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Nay,
nor did we attempt to kill any of Munagent’s guards. My men were defending with swords, but attacking with
paralysis-envenomed darts. I will
have to talk to them to see how well we did at leaving Munagent’s servitors
and castle relatively untouched, except for his collapse-on-cue bridge, of
course,” Nathaniel grinned.
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Collapsing
bridge? How did you know?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
had his castle thoroughly skryed before the trip. His wards against remote viewing were old and badly in need
of changing. The guild mage I
hired had little difficulty bypassing them.
The best surprise is no surprise.
Munagent’s power carries a curse, for he once made a rival mage into
an ugly monstrosity rather than killing him for his insolence.
For that, the mage spent years cooking up a curse, and he sprung it on
a somewhat haughty Munagent when he was at a conference healing the
hopeless.”
“Munagent
was an artist with bone. He could
heal breaks and deformities of all kinds, and leave perfection where there had
been ruin. The curse was the
positive worst thing imaginable. It
made it nearly impossible for Munagent to stand beauty or perfection.
Thus the art he was so proud of became a source of anguish and that
erased a portion of his sanity. In
his younger days he could control the curse somewhat.
He would send those he had healed away quickly and he would distract
himself. It is very sad what he
has come to. He keeps to himself
and surrounds himself with monstrosities of his own creation.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Oh
my goodness, then what has he done to my face?” Elaina rushed to a mirror mounted to the coach wall and
gasped. Her high, regal
cheekbones complimented her perfect jaw line; even her nose had been changed
subtly. A goddess stared back at
her from the mirror.
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“I
am afraid part of Munagent’s loss of control was my fault.
When I saw his face ticking after he did my teeth, I sought to shore up
his confidence and challenge him to recall the old days of his talent and do a
perfectly marvelous job on your jaw, which he did.
Unfortunately the perfection of it activated his curse far past his
ability to control it. I tried to
distract him and when that failed I knew we would have to strike him blind
with the flash and smoke grenades and run or he would turn us all into
monstrosities.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Aren’t
you afraid he will come after you?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“No,
in essence he is a kind-hearted fellow, it is just that his curse gets the
better of him sometimes. In spite
of his outburst, I left double his fee and an apologetic note.
With luck he suffered few if any casualties amongst his guards.
\Elaina Ceazal\
“And
you did all this just to fix my jaw?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“The
one thing I could not estimate was how much Munagent’s control had slipped
with his advancing age. I did
everything I could to guard against his loosing control, Lady Ceazal.
I am so sorry that such heroics as you witnessed became necessary.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Flashes,
smoke, exploding glue? Where did
you get all that stuff?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Have
I told you about my alchemist Jallan?”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“The
one with the breast fetish?”
\Nathaniel
Ellis\
“Indeed.
He is an old man and has many tricks up his sleeve.
Such a pity he is an alcoholic. Otherwise
he could have done much better than working for a slave master.”
---
\Lord Ceazal\
Lord
Ceazal blinked and gasped as Elaina came through the door of his study.
Elaina is that you?
\Elaina Ceazal\
Elaina
flopped into the chair opposite her father and sighed.
\Lord Ceazal\
Lord
Ceazal chuckled, “It is you!”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Yes
father, I am back from another hair raising adventure with Master Ellis.”
\Lord Ceazal\
“Hair
raising? Goodness Elaina that jaw
work you had done changes your face entirely, but the effect is magnificent!”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Yes,
he put the extra bone from my jaw onto my cheekbones, and I think he changed
my nose a bit, not to mention fixing my bite and all of my teeth, but father
it was insane!”
\Lord Ceazal\
“Insane?
You must let me know where this mage practices.
There are many I know who could use his services.
Perhaps I could charge a commission…”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Forget
it Father. The man is cursed,
deranged; he almost turned me into a monstrosity after doing this because he
is cursed to find beauty intolerable.”
\Lord Ceazal\
“But
how could a man who found beauty intolerable do such exquisite work?”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Well
before he was cursed it was his greatest love, his high art to create beauty
and heal the sick.”
\Lord Ceazal\
“Oh,
and the cad that cursed him took that away by making his art intolerable to
the artist. How utterly fowl.”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Yes,
I pity the poor old man, but I about had a heart attack when he lost it.
Nathaniel had hoped he could resist the curse as he had done in his
younger days, but he lost it, father, and nearly turned us all into
monstrosities.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Heavens,
how did you escape?”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Master
Ellis had a contingency plan. He
and his guards used smoke and flashes provided by the Ellis alchemist to keep
the old mage blind and busy while one of the guards got me back to the coach,
and then we rode out in a big hurry.”
\Lord Ceazal\
“Did
Ellis make it out?”
\Elaina Ceazal\
“Lucky
for us, brother's loan officer did make it out relatively unscathed.
He took a graze from a poisoned bolt, but he had a potion to cure it in
his pocket. He was lame for a few
minutes is all.”
\Lord Ceazal\
“Lord
Ceazal mopped his brow with a handkerchief.
These wild risks of his could be the end of us.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Yes,
I am so glad I had but one bad jaw. Unfortunately
one of the Ellis guards died in the altercation.
He put off gulping his potion for too long.
Well I guess he was in combat at the time.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Hair
raising. It sounds like you
witnessed a battle.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“I
would have if I could have seen through the smoke like all of Ellis’ men
with their magic eye drops. As it
was I saw a lot of smoke and heard a lot of grunting and yelling.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
Lord
Ceazal tried not to chuckle but it was a lost cause, “I am afraid you
didn’t miss much. Grunting and
yelling is what most battles are all about.
At least that’s the way it was when I served as an officer in his
Majesty’s cavalry during The War of the Cornflower.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Oh
please father, you know I’ve heard all of your war stories a hundred
times.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Well
they used to fascinate you.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“They
were wonderful the first ten times, daddy.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
Lord
Ceazal laughed, and then he whispered almost inaudibly, “I take it from the
fact that Master Ellis went to such great lengths to get your jaw fixed that
you are agreed on this wild proposal of getting me to let you marry.”
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Yes
father, my soul now belongs to Nathaniel Ellis and the wedding will be set as
soon as we are able to talk you into allowing the marriage.”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Well
the press has been working overtime trying to convince me to soften my hard
heart. Of course I won’t have
it. Ellis is a bastard!
He’s not even a gentleman, let alone a nobleman.
Well he is a rich bastard, but he won most of his money from me!
\Elaina
Ceazal\
“Oh
father, please, you have been trying to get me married off for years.
Why don’t you just give up?”
\Lord
Ceazal\
“Elaina,
I will not budge,” Lord Ceazal winked.
========================================
Author's
note: At some point I may or may not flesh out the narration below, however, Dark
Icon and I are currently drafting a collaborative piece called, "Captured
Souls," which takes place in autumn only a year or so after the events
detailed in the narration below.
Captured Souls will feature the vengeful return of Blaymore and Zade to the kingdom of
their birth and to Nathaniel Ellis.
========================================
\Narration\
Lord
Roderick Ceazal’s son was made Marquis Seidrich Ceazal thanks to Sir Nathaniel Ellis
who loaned him all the money necessary to purchase the Ceazal lands from his
father. Both the King and the new Marquis knighted Nathaniel Ellis for
the gesture, and the King transferred Lord Roderick’s title to Lord
Seidrich, the new Marquis Ceazal.
Two
months after Elaina's return from Munagent, Lord Ceazal relented after being
hounded without end by the press and such noble friends as Sir Stalart and Lord
Garound. A date was set for the wedding of Nathaniel Ellis and Elaina
Ceazal. The wedding was held at
the Atlanna Coliseum on a Saturday after a team bout where the Ellis
gladiators trounced the competition. Lord Ceazal gave the breathtaking
bride away to the deafening applause of a full house of fans.
As
a gift to his new In-laws, Nathaniel Ellis forgave a small portion of the
Ceazal debt. With it Seidrich was
able to clear the Ceazal manor house and as much land as most knights held of
all debt. Seidrich in turn, with
the approval of the king, knighted his father and put him in charge of the
debt-free fief. Roderick Ceazal
vowed that he would manage the land and give Seidrich all of the profit to
help pay the Ceazal debt.
Elaina
Ceazal-Ellis, the Mistress of house Ellis soon became the chief promoter of
the Ellis gladiators. Nathaniel Ellis gradually took less and less time
away from his secret magical practice of possession and slave creation to
officiate for house Ellis at the games. Thus Elaina Ellis increasingly
opened the events, accepted and placed the bets, and handled the post-bout
press interviews. She spent a great deal of her time in residence at the
Atlanna training camp of House Ellis. Asheika continued to perform at
the games, and was often seen with her master and or mistress in the Atlanna
area.
The story continues in
[Pedigree]021 Captured Souls, A Collaborative work
with author Dark Icon.
copyright 2000-2002, by Rapina
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