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Post by Richard on May 14, 2007 19:14:04 GMT -5
"For the record, Faye, I've only enjoyed these benefits for a year now, since I was elected. They don't care who you are when you die. I've spent the last several centuries working my way up from the bottom. None of the prestige I have now was carried over from what I had in life- I worked as a printer's assistant for the first 85 years!"
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Post by Faith on May 14, 2007 19:19:49 GMT -5
"While I can plainly see that you've enjoyed your "benefits"," *she said scathingly, letting her angry gaze rove over his crumpled and booze-stained form, lingering on his inside-out shirt.* "The impression I got was that no amount of time and effort would make it alright for me to love someone who lived. I just don't see how something as noble as love is treated as naught while a man in a position of power is allowed to--" *she broke off miserably, having no vocabulary to express the depths of her disdain for the crude practice. She sat back at the table, sheer will keeping her from slumping over it with her head in her hands. Her spine rigidly straight, she kept her face an impassive mask.* "It's not fair," *she said finally.*
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Post by Richard on May 14, 2007 19:21:25 GMT -5
"If I were sober, I would never have done what I did last night, Faye."
He paused, his hands clenched. Suddenly, it seemed as though something unexpected had dawned on him, and he sank into a chair.
"You're absolutely right," he said darkly. "It isn't fair. I of all people should have realized that..."
He looked at her again.
"The Viceroy who condemned Katherine had a whole harem of men at her disposal. I remember cursing her and her whole lot for their hypocrisy, and now... Faye, I'm sorry."
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Post by Faith on May 14, 2007 19:29:19 GMT -5
"Sober or drunk...it doesn't make a difference. I could help falling in love with Aimery as much as you could help...doing what you did," *she mumbled.* "Love is like that...like being drunk, I suppose." *She sighed and passed a hand over her brow, reverting back to the habit of running an inn in an instant.*
"Oh what's the use of fighting about it? --If you're going to stay solid, you might want to have a bath--leave your clothes on the landing and I'll wash them." *She went to the hearth that dominated one wall of the kitchen and stoked the fire so she could head a cauldron of water.*
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Post by Richard on May 14, 2007 19:31:40 GMT -5
"Thank you," he sighed.
He waited for a moment.
"Do you want me to resign?"
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Post by Faith on May 14, 2007 19:40:42 GMT -5
"Would you, if I wanted you to?"
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Post by Richard on May 14, 2007 19:42:21 GMT -5
"I might," said Richard, staring into space.
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Post by Faith on May 15, 2007 0:38:28 GMT -5
*Faye grit her teeth and dug her nails into the palms of her hands.*
"Do it."
*Her eyes burned blue--the hottest part of any flame.*
"I don't want the protection of your position. I want to face what I've done. I want it resolved."
*Her eyes fell shut wearily.*
"I'm aching for consequences. I tire of this waiting for the axe to fall. Anticipation is worse than obliteration."
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Post by Richard on May 15, 2007 13:28:22 GMT -5
"Very well. Tonight I shall dispatch a letter to my wife, informing her that she has inherited the title of Viceroy, and that all protective immunities are to be removed from my person."
He slumped forward onto the table.
"God, my wife... What am I to tell my wife?"
He quickly looked at Faye for a moment.
"Don't answer that."
Another moment of silence passed. Richard stretched uncomfortably.
"I'm going upstairs for a moment," he said flatly.
~*~
If the Church would not give him the guidelines for penance, he would do it himself.
In his room, Richard pulled out his dagger from its scabbard in his old set of clothes and stared at it for a moment. He set it aside on the dresser and went on to search the drawers of the room for a pair of shears. Once located, he turned to the mirror and quite calmly cropped his hair as short as the scissors would allow.
Once this was done, he picked up the dagger again and looked at it closely. He nodded with grim approval and removed his shirt.
Using his reflection as a guide, trying hard not to let the pain show although no-one was watching, Richard used the dagger to carve the symbol of an A into the left side of his chest.
When this was done, he collapsed backward onto the bed, gasping with pain and a perverse note of satisfaction.
He had officially marked himself as a repentent adulterer.
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Post by Faith on May 16, 2007 13:11:35 GMT -5
*Faye went through the motions of the distracting and mind-numbing process of work to do laundry before she went and called up the stairs.*
"Richard! The oil water is boiling! Throw me down your clothes! You smell like a distillery!"
*She took a smaller pot and filled it with hot water and set it on the lower steps.*
"There's more water here if you want to have a bath or something in your room."
*She went back to the kitchen and began to hunt for some soap.*
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Post by Richard on May 16, 2007 13:15:29 GMT -5
He sat up slowly and pulled his hand away from his chest. It was covered in the close equivalent of blood.
Good.
"All... all right, then," he said in a fairly tremulous voice. "Wait- how do you expect me to get my clothes there and undress my- myself without-"
He couldn't finish; the pain spiked anew.
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Post by Faith on May 16, 2007 13:18:56 GMT -5
*Faye poked her head out the kitchen door and rolled her eyes at nothing.*
"Just grab the water before it gets cold and haul it up to your room--then you can undress there and just throw your clothes down the staircase and I'll come and get them in a few minutes."
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Post by Richard on May 16, 2007 13:22:27 GMT -5
"All right..."
The blood-stuff was trickling down and starting to stain the top of his trousers. He wiped up the excess with the shirt he'd cast off and went downstairs long enough to fetch the water, then quickly undressed and threw the bloodstained clothes down the stairs without thinking.
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Post by Faith on May 16, 2007 13:27:04 GMT -5
*Faye gathered up the armload of clothes and dumped them into the pot in the kitchen, stirring them around with a wooden paddle and wrinkling her nose at the smell. She frowned at the pink swirls in the water, then bit her tongue for a moment before she stomped back to the foot of the stairs to holler up again.*
"If you're going to self-flagellate, I certainly hope you're not getting blood all over my bed linens!"
*With a scowl, she went back to the kitchen and dumped a handful of soap into the hot water.*
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Post by Richard on May 16, 2007 13:29:35 GMT -5
~*~SOME TIME LATER~*~
Richard came back downstairs silently, dressed in his old clothes, and slumped onto the tabe again.
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