[He's not thick, so: that's nearly enough for Darras, who has heard enough of Yseult's stories (or parts of stories) to guess at where she might have been someone else to be recognized.
(It helps, also, that he would do anything for Yseult. Still.)
Still.]
Have wine waiting for us after, then. And the story, if it's one that can be told.
[ Have wine, the pirate says, and Bastien is primed to protest. It is not enough for him. But then Darras makes a request for the story—and is in a better position, probably, to insist—and the protest is immediately forgotten. ]
Wouldn't have called on us if you didn't know we'd be quick about it.
[Like, please.]
Main doors it is, mate. Yseult, darling-- [is it unprofessional to use darling in this context, well too bad] --stay hidden. You'll know when it's all clear. And you'll make that meeting of yours, swear it on--what's a good thing to swear on?
[ It is unprofessional in this context, but it's not as bad as other contexts and she'd like to not be stuck hiding in a stifling closet any longer than necessary, so Yseult lets it slide this once. ]
I don't require swearing, just doing.
[ They will find Madame Velez where Yseult said she'd be, fair hair and purple scarf easily picked out in the otherwise sparsely-occupied library. She is polite but reluctant to leave, and after some hesitation will ask whether there is a librarian working here named Katrine with dark hair and spectacles. No? But she could have sworn.... ]
—honor, [ Bastien offers, not over Yseult, but after her, in a whisper, as if to sneak the suggestion (intentional in its irony, a little, but there is honor among some thieves) past her demurral.
And then he is shortly afterwards standing beside Darras in the library and frowning at Velez with perfectly-pitched sympathy mixed with concern, the sort that might be aimed at an overworked someone who claims to have seen a dragon through the window when no one else saw a thing. ]
This was a Circle before we were here, of course. [ Everyone knows that. ] The Veil is very thin—so many died, so horribly. It is very common to see things that are not here. Just last week something pretending to be my grandfather joined me for breakfast.
Darras takes this to heart, as easily as he takes the position of second to Bastien's concerned sympathizer. Here as an agent of Riftwatch, he listens with patience--and nods, gravely, at the end.]
The funny bit is, his grandfather is still alive.
[He shoots Velez a smile--charming, a little teasing. More amused than concerned, the sot of man who would listen to an overworked someone claiming to have seen an otherwise invisible dragon and tell all his mates about it later.]
He's right all the same. Who is this Katrine, when she's at home? An old colleague? A friend? That might help us work out why you'd be seeing her, in this place. Not that it's her. Could be any old thing or grandfather.
[Velez hesitates, clearly uncertain. She looks between the two men before her, both of who have been so charming. Swallows, somewhat nervously.
I suppose, she allows, with grace, I might have been mistaken. Katrine was-- a friend.
There is a valley of a pause there. A chasm. One that any manner of speculation might fall into, or drawn out of, even. Darras feels his eyebrows raise.]
Edited (editing to npc ) 2019-09-01 21:45 (UTC)
95 years later you guys can ignore this if you want i just saw it while looking for something else
[ Velez doesn't quite blush, she has been in politics too long not to have developed a thicker skin than that, but she does glance away, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. And bemused by this situation as a whole. She'd always heard the Gallows was a strange place, and certainly there have been stories about Riftwatch--and the Inquisition before it--but...huh.
Odd as they may be, she is coaxed to rise, and is not opposed to exiting, though the escort is not entirely welcomed. Once outside she gives herself a little shake, and heads for the ferry, if not convinced by their excuses then certainly convinced that she would be better off not being in charge of these people.
Later, Yseult is as good as her word, or at least as much of her word as agreed to provide them with wine in exchange for this assistance. Decent wine, even, judging by the label as she pours for them. ]
[ Still flattering, to be included, but not remotely uncomfortable. He's very good at being a third wheel. He can do it while running two cons, while having one desperate and unrequited feeling, while juggling. He sits at the right distance for it, with the right earnest interest in fixing the straps on one of his boots before he has wine to be interested in instead.
But now that he has the wine, and it can't be withheld if he's a little impertinent, he lifts it as if to toast. ]
Katrine was— [ the accent isn't right, especially to a native Marcher's ears, but the expression is perfect, the inflection and cadence close to, the voice pitched high enough to suggest Velez's without achieving mimicry, and the pause here equally gaping as the one it is imitating ] —a friend.
[But he raises his glass all the same, once Yseult has poured out.]
Everyone's got-- [and this one's slightly shorter pause, a chasm that's more a crack, just for the sake of time] --friends. It's just that everyone's friends don't get tapped for head of Diplomacy for Riftwatch, and it's only a few whose friends would show up and see someone who's now become someone else. Bad luck is really the one to blame here.
[ Yseult waits until she has set wine glasses in their hands and is taking her seat before she rolls her eyes, to make sure they don't miss it. ]
It was work, [ she says, as if this should be obvious. Probably it should. ] We suspected she and her husband were involved in something and I was tasked to get close and find out. She proved the easier target. After several months, I had the information we needed, so we staged Katrine's death.
[If she was involved in something, chances are, she wouldn't have been around to be a candidate.
--This is what Darras thinks, and does not say. He's not about to insult Yseult, or give her away, if she's kept some bits back. And that's not even to have implied that Velez would have been killed. She might have simply been arrested, dragged off somewhere, depending on her crime. But she still wouldn't have been around, is the point.
Instead of saying any of that, Darras takes a drink and waits, patiently, for Yseult to answer the question.]
I'd go for wistful, yeah. Or something like nostalgic.
[Thoughtfully, Darras takes another sip of wine. Gestures, with the glass.]
I s'ppose that depends on the answer to the next question I have, which is: if you didn't break her heart, what did you break of hers? Sense of romance, perhaps? 'Cos nothing could ever be better?
[ Turnabout is fair play, obviously—he’s Orlesian, everything is fair play—and obvious, too, he supposes, that Darras is allowed to know these sorts of things. He doesn’t bat an eye. ]
If you ever meet anyone who is still looking into the distance like that over me, years later, you must tell me at once, so I can drop everything and marry her.
[Darras hasn't quite stopped laughing at Yseult's quick shift--indignation to admission in less then a minute's time.]
Oh, you don't want to get married, mate. You'll end up with a Yseult. Perfect. And then you'll be happy for the rest of your days--it's hard to be an artist and be happy, I imagine--what d'you sing about? Honestly, [this bit is to Yseult, obviously,] it's no wonder your paramour developed that quick attachment. Didn't I fall for the same. It was luck for me that it was reciprocated, that's all. If my luck hadn't been with me, sure and it would be me staring off into the distance. Asking everyone where that librarian had gotten to.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[Slowly, trying to give her plenty of time to break in with a proper explanation.]
I mean, you heard Bastien. He likes her.
no subject
She'll recognize me as someone else, and it will go badly.
no subject
(It helps, also, that he would do anything for Yseult. Still.)
Still.]
Have wine waiting for us after, then. And the story, if it's one that can be told.
[To Bastien--]
D'you do all right with improvising?
no subject
My friend.
[ Does he do all right with improvising. ]
I will meet you outside the main doors.
no subject
[ is sort-of thanks and no sort of promise (yet) that she'll explain ]
I'm late for a meeting as it is.
no subject
[Like, please.]
Main doors it is, mate. Yseult, darling-- [is it unprofessional to use darling in this context, well too bad] --stay hidden. You'll know when it's all clear. And you'll make that meeting of yours, swear it on--what's a good thing to swear on?
no subject
I don't require swearing, just doing.
[ They will find Madame Velez where Yseult said she'd be, fair hair and purple scarf easily picked out in the otherwise sparsely-occupied library. She is polite but reluctant to leave, and after some hesitation will ask whether there is a librarian working here named Katrine with dark hair and spectacles. No? But she could have sworn.... ]
no subject
And then he is shortly afterwards standing beside Darras in the library and frowning at Velez with perfectly-pitched sympathy mixed with concern, the sort that might be aimed at an overworked someone who claims to have seen a dragon through the window when no one else saw a thing. ]
This was a Circle before we were here, of course. [ Everyone knows that. ] The Veil is very thin—so many died, so horribly. It is very common to see things that are not here. Just last week something pretending to be my grandfather joined me for breakfast.
no subject
Darras takes this to heart, as easily as he takes the position of second to Bastien's concerned sympathizer. Here as an agent of Riftwatch, he listens with patience--and nods, gravely, at the end.]
The funny bit is, his grandfather is still alive.
[He shoots Velez a smile--charming, a little teasing. More amused than concerned, the sot of man who would listen to an overworked someone claiming to have seen an otherwise invisible dragon and tell all his mates about it later.]
He's right all the same. Who is this Katrine, when she's at home? An old colleague? A friend? That might help us work out why you'd be seeing her, in this place. Not that it's her. Could be any old thing or grandfather.
[Velez hesitates, clearly uncertain. She looks between the two men before her, both of who have been so charming. Swallows, somewhat nervously.
I suppose, she allows, with grace, I might have been mistaken. Katrine was-- a friend.
There is a valley of a pause there. A chasm. One that any manner of speculation might fall into, or drawn out of, even. Darras feels his eyebrows raise.]
95 years later you guys can ignore this if you want i just saw it while looking for something else
Odd as they may be, she is coaxed to rise, and is not opposed to exiting, though the escort is not entirely welcomed. Once outside she gives herself a little shake, and heads for the ferry, if not convinced by their excuses then certainly convinced that she would be better off not being in charge of these people.
Later, Yseult is as good as her word, or at least as much of her word as agreed to provide them with wine in exchange for this assistance. Decent wine, even, judging by the label as she pours for them. ]
no subject
But now that he has the wine, and it can't be withheld if he's a little impertinent, he lifts it as if to toast. ]
Katrine was— [ the accent isn't right, especially to a native Marcher's ears, but the expression is perfect, the inflection and cadence close to, the voice pitched high enough to suggest Velez's without achieving mimicry, and the pause here equally gaping as the one it is imitating ] —a friend.
no subject
Now, that's unkind.
[But he raises his glass all the same, once Yseult has poured out.]
Everyone's got-- [and this one's slightly shorter pause, a chasm that's more a crack, just for the sake of time] --friends. It's just that everyone's friends don't get tapped for head of Diplomacy for Riftwatch, and it's only a few whose friends would show up and see someone who's now become someone else. Bad luck is really the one to blame here.
no subject
It was work, [ she says, as if this should be obvious. Probably it should. ] We suspected she and her husband were involved in something and I was tasked to get close and find out. She proved the easier target. After several months, I had the information we needed, so we staged Katrine's death.
no subject
Was she involved in something? Or did you break her heart for nothing?
[ He needs to know how bad to feel for her, and how sorry to be that they've lost an otherwise promising candidate. ]
no subject
--This is what Darras thinks, and does not say. He's not about to insult Yseult, or give her away, if she's kept some bits back. And that's not even to have implied that Velez would have been killed. She might have simply been arrested, dragged off somewhere, depending on her crime. But she still wouldn't have been around, is the point.
Instead of saying any of that, Darras takes a drink and waits, patiently, for Yseult to answer the question.]
no subject
Her husband was. She didn't seem to be.
[ After a moment she adds, dry: ] I didn't break her heart.
no subject
no subject
[Thoughtfully, Darras takes another sip of wine. Gestures, with the glass.]
I s'ppose that depends on the answer to the next question I have, which is: if you didn't break her heart, what did you break of hers? Sense of romance, perhaps? 'Cos nothing could ever be better?
no subject
[ She shrugs. ] I hadn't counted on such a quick attachment. [ To Bastien, she adds: ] I'm sure you've done the same.
no subject
If you ever meet anyone who is still looking into the distance like that over me, years later, you must tell me at once, so I can drop everything and marry her.
no subject
Oh, you don't want to get married, mate. You'll end up with a Yseult. Perfect. And then you'll be happy for the rest of your days--it's hard to be an artist and be happy, I imagine--what d'you sing about? Honestly, [this bit is to Yseult, obviously,] it's no wonder your paramour developed that quick attachment. Didn't I fall for the same. It was luck for me that it was reciprocated, that's all. If my luck hadn't been with me, sure and it would be me staring off into the distance. Asking everyone where that librarian had gotten to.
no subject
You are both ridiculous. She was a lonely woman with a neglectful husband and a stressful occupation. Any amateur could have seduced her.
no subject
[ Thoughtfully now. But not too thoughtfully. He isn’t serious. And it isn’t that much money. ]
Maybe I should go after her. She cannot have gone far.
no subject
Oh, now. Mercenary. And this while we're talking about love, or something like it, anyways.
no subject
[ A dry look at Darras. To Bastien: ]
And I'm afraid she doesn't like men.
(no subject)
(no subject)
goes ruthlessly out of order
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)