thisbluespirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2023-08-14 09:09 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote in rainbowfic2023-08-14 09:09 pm
Vienna Orange #13 [Starfall]
Name: Point of Debate
Story: Starfall
Colors: Vienna Orange #13 (I haven’t come to say I’m sorry, but I swear I’m on your side)
Supplies and Styles: Paint-by-Numbers fromshadowsong26 (Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we can’t support each other) + Life Drawing
Word Count: 1023
Rating: PG
Warnings: Mentions of an upcoming unwanted marriage of convenience.
Notes: 1313, Eseray, North Eastern District; Viyony Eseray, Isiyan Eseray. (24-years-earlier storyline again: Viyony & her mother, a month or two before she leaves for Portcallan, in a prologue of sorts.)
Summary: Viyony and her grandmother have things all planned out, but her mother has a condition of her own to make.
Viyony locked the door to the empty section of Eseray works. Turning the key seemed, with the same motion, to bring down an unseen weight upon her head. She closed her eyes and leant her head against the wooden door, framed in a pale shaft of wintry light and floating motes of dust.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
Viyony drew herself up sharply, opened her eyes, and turned around to face her mother. “Oh, Mother. It’s no use saying anything – please, don’t. Grandmother and I are agreed on everything. The documents are ready to send – don’t make it harder than it is. What else are we to do?”
Isiyan Eseray cast a glance at the locked door, as if acknowledging the echoing space that had once been filled with bustle; what such losses had brought them to. “I’m not here to argue. I don’t approve of your solution, but something must be done, I know. I wish – but that’s neither here nor there.”
“We need Imai Fioris and everything he and his family can offer us,” said Viyony, weariness shading the words. Mother knew this. They all knew this. There had been weeks of arguing and, before that, whole years of worrying. “This is the best way to be certain of the deal – for both sides.”
Isiyan led Viyony down the central walkway. “No, no. I’m not here to go into that again. I came to tell you that I have made a stipulation of my own – and your grandmother has agreed. You must, too, or I will object to the rest.”
“Mother!” Viyony halted beside her. Mother never insisted on anything. She left running the Eseray estate and the dye works to Grandmother and Viyony; she always had. Even now she’d spoken only in her usual soft tones. Viyony prodded at a small heap of dust on the stone floor with her foot, choked with sudden frustration. “What is it?” she asked, and couldn’t help being grudging. She was the one giving up the most to marry Moren Fioris, after all. She didn’t need Mother making it harder.
Isiyan took her arm and gently moved her on. “You were planning to meet your betrothed in one of the ports – and that was what decided me. You’ll go, not to Southall at the end of the summer, but to Portcallan in the Little Spring. You will stay with my Aunt Diyela, move in all the right circles, make useful contacts for the business, and in the autumn, as agreed, you and Imai Fioris will have the wedding there.”
“But, Mother – what is the point of that?”
“You haven’t stayed for any great length of time outside Eseray before, and before you do this, I insist that you must.” Isiyan laughed and put a hand to Viyony’s face. “Don’t look at me like that, lovebird. You’ll enjoy it, I know you will. Just think what you could do for Eseray – much more than you could merely waiting here.”
Viyony pulled away. “You think I’ll find someone who will change my mind, don’t you?”
Isiyan met her gaze. Then she reached for Viyony’s unwilling hand and clasped it in both of hers. “No. Once you’ve made it up on a point like this, I know you too well to hope for that.” She drew back to study Viyony’s face more carefully. “Perhaps it is an odd idea – perhaps not kind. But I think you must understand more fully what you are asking of yourself. Know your own strength, your own measure – and your limits. The agreement may be all but sealed and done, but finer details and personal matters may be altered till the last – and even after.”
“I think it’s completely unnecessary,” said Viyony, all the more irritated because she could hear the sulkiness in her own voice.
“So I gather. But it is this or nothing.”
They emerged together into chilly and clinging mountain mist, blinking nonetheless at leaving the darkness of the vacant workshop.
“Then I have no choice,” Viyony said. Better than Mother continuing to cast obstacles in their way – and she wasn’t wrong about the opportunity Portcallan could present to them. But the idea of further delay – that perhaps someone could endanger the plan – that was what caused her to shiver, not the weather.
Viyony closed her eyes, seeing her dream again – the new one. A cold and fathomless wave of misery washed over her. She didn’t need further warnings: she had tasted the unhappiness that would follow her decision already. It was just better than the other dream; the one she’d had so many times before she and Grandmother had come up with this plan to save them all.
“You think I don’t understand,” said Isiyan, watching Viyony’s face. “Perhaps I don’t. I’m not entirely blind to what this means to everyone here, but, well – see life a little first, darling. Have some fun, if you can imagine such an outrageous notion.”
“And I’ll thank you one day?”
Isiyan smiled, if a little sadly. “If we’re all lucky, if we live so long, if your pride allows – perhaps! But,” and she put her hand to Viyony’s face, “you now have a trip to plan, the best people to meet, for the business – and all of that, you will be excellent at, as ever.”
“I really don’t know what you expect to happen there, though!”
Isiyan did not yet release her. “Neither do you, which is the point.”
“If you say so.” Viyony pulled away, but also breathed out and let some of the annoyance fly away, off over the mountain tops. “I suppose it will be a distraction in the meantime.”
“That, too,” said Isiyan, and hugged her. “Isn’t that something?”
Probably not best to stay halfway up a mountain in a crumbling mansion, brooding till the wedding, when she could go to the capital city, see new places and people, and do something proactive instead. True. Viyony forced a smile, but the edges of the other dream, the worst dream, encroached into her thoughts and would not leave her alone.
“Oh, yes, Mother,” she said. “It’s something.”
Story: Starfall
Colors: Vienna Orange #13 (I haven’t come to say I’m sorry, but I swear I’m on your side)
Supplies and Styles: Paint-by-Numbers from
shadowsong26 (Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we can’t support each other) + Life DrawingWord Count: 1023
Rating: PG
Warnings: Mentions of an upcoming unwanted marriage of convenience.
Notes: 1313, Eseray, North Eastern District; Viyony Eseray, Isiyan Eseray. (24-years-earlier storyline again: Viyony & her mother, a month or two before she leaves for Portcallan, in a prologue of sorts.)
Summary: Viyony and her grandmother have things all planned out, but her mother has a condition of her own to make.
Viyony locked the door to the empty section of Eseray works. Turning the key seemed, with the same motion, to bring down an unseen weight upon her head. She closed her eyes and leant her head against the wooden door, framed in a pale shaft of wintry light and floating motes of dust.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
Viyony drew herself up sharply, opened her eyes, and turned around to face her mother. “Oh, Mother. It’s no use saying anything – please, don’t. Grandmother and I are agreed on everything. The documents are ready to send – don’t make it harder than it is. What else are we to do?”
Isiyan Eseray cast a glance at the locked door, as if acknowledging the echoing space that had once been filled with bustle; what such losses had brought them to. “I’m not here to argue. I don’t approve of your solution, but something must be done, I know. I wish – but that’s neither here nor there.”
“We need Imai Fioris and everything he and his family can offer us,” said Viyony, weariness shading the words. Mother knew this. They all knew this. There had been weeks of arguing and, before that, whole years of worrying. “This is the best way to be certain of the deal – for both sides.”
Isiyan led Viyony down the central walkway. “No, no. I’m not here to go into that again. I came to tell you that I have made a stipulation of my own – and your grandmother has agreed. You must, too, or I will object to the rest.”
“Mother!” Viyony halted beside her. Mother never insisted on anything. She left running the Eseray estate and the dye works to Grandmother and Viyony; she always had. Even now she’d spoken only in her usual soft tones. Viyony prodded at a small heap of dust on the stone floor with her foot, choked with sudden frustration. “What is it?” she asked, and couldn’t help being grudging. She was the one giving up the most to marry Moren Fioris, after all. She didn’t need Mother making it harder.
Isiyan took her arm and gently moved her on. “You were planning to meet your betrothed in one of the ports – and that was what decided me. You’ll go, not to Southall at the end of the summer, but to Portcallan in the Little Spring. You will stay with my Aunt Diyela, move in all the right circles, make useful contacts for the business, and in the autumn, as agreed, you and Imai Fioris will have the wedding there.”
“But, Mother – what is the point of that?”
“You haven’t stayed for any great length of time outside Eseray before, and before you do this, I insist that you must.” Isiyan laughed and put a hand to Viyony’s face. “Don’t look at me like that, lovebird. You’ll enjoy it, I know you will. Just think what you could do for Eseray – much more than you could merely waiting here.”
Viyony pulled away. “You think I’ll find someone who will change my mind, don’t you?”
Isiyan met her gaze. Then she reached for Viyony’s unwilling hand and clasped it in both of hers. “No. Once you’ve made it up on a point like this, I know you too well to hope for that.” She drew back to study Viyony’s face more carefully. “Perhaps it is an odd idea – perhaps not kind. But I think you must understand more fully what you are asking of yourself. Know your own strength, your own measure – and your limits. The agreement may be all but sealed and done, but finer details and personal matters may be altered till the last – and even after.”
“I think it’s completely unnecessary,” said Viyony, all the more irritated because she could hear the sulkiness in her own voice.
“So I gather. But it is this or nothing.”
They emerged together into chilly and clinging mountain mist, blinking nonetheless at leaving the darkness of the vacant workshop.
“Then I have no choice,” Viyony said. Better than Mother continuing to cast obstacles in their way – and she wasn’t wrong about the opportunity Portcallan could present to them. But the idea of further delay – that perhaps someone could endanger the plan – that was what caused her to shiver, not the weather.
Viyony closed her eyes, seeing her dream again – the new one. A cold and fathomless wave of misery washed over her. She didn’t need further warnings: she had tasted the unhappiness that would follow her decision already. It was just better than the other dream; the one she’d had so many times before she and Grandmother had come up with this plan to save them all.
“You think I don’t understand,” said Isiyan, watching Viyony’s face. “Perhaps I don’t. I’m not entirely blind to what this means to everyone here, but, well – see life a little first, darling. Have some fun, if you can imagine such an outrageous notion.”
“And I’ll thank you one day?”
Isiyan smiled, if a little sadly. “If we’re all lucky, if we live so long, if your pride allows – perhaps! But,” and she put her hand to Viyony’s face, “you now have a trip to plan, the best people to meet, for the business – and all of that, you will be excellent at, as ever.”
“I really don’t know what you expect to happen there, though!”
Isiyan did not yet release her. “Neither do you, which is the point.”
“If you say so.” Viyony pulled away, but also breathed out and let some of the annoyance fly away, off over the mountain tops. “I suppose it will be a distraction in the meantime.”
“That, too,” said Isiyan, and hugged her. “Isn’t that something?”
Probably not best to stay halfway up a mountain in a crumbling mansion, brooding till the wedding, when she could go to the capital city, see new places and people, and do something proactive instead. True. Viyony forced a smile, but the edges of the other dream, the worst dream, encroached into her thoughts and would not leave her alone.
“Oh, yes, Mother,” she said. “It’s something.”
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject