The Duel

[unforth]

At the end of the Yule game, it came out that Count Leander had executed Andi unjustly. Kathryn was, understandably, upset about this, but not nearly as upset as Count Sergei, who considered Andi his true love. Furious, Count Sergei challenged Leander to a danse macabre, a duel to the death, in avenge is beloved. The date was set for two months hence.

The mood at the duel was somber. Many dignitaries from local barony's and county's were in attendence, and the general mood was somber. Kathryn spent a fair amount of time dodging around important people, though she made sure to take the time to meet one of the countess's, a dougal with a fair amount of experience in crafts of many sorts, in order to garner advice on the making of her masterwork. The suggestion of mercury has set her looking in that direction, and she also learned about Rodimer Brambleshanks (she later asked Dino to help to introduce her to Rodimer, who is a knocker who works in theoretical possiblities, such as might relate to Kathryn's masterwork).

(Kathryn wishes to make a...weapon...that becomes the bearer's ideal - mundane - weapon. So a swordsman who held it would find himself holding is ideal sword, perfectly balanced, masterwork craftsmanship, but lacking in any super powers)

Diezel pulled Kathryn aside early in the day, and, after giving her a little container of Valentine's candy, had an earnest talk with her. Diezel was concerned, apparently, about Amelie - she felt that Amelie had been lying to Kathryn, and hinted darkly at the time that Amelie spent with Dino. Nervous and a bit upset, Kathryn did her best to acknowledge these claims (which were completely false, OOC). She spent a fair amount of the rest of the day being depressed about this, and avoiding Amelie as much as possible.

Initially, Kathryn spent a decent amount of time talking to a representative from the Bes Din, an auditor specific there to look into Dino. At first, she was greatly alarmed, for to the best of her knowledge Dino was at Willowgrove, but the auditor said he was elsewhere. However, with a few phone calls she was able to track Dino to Soma, a restaurant owned by Kaye, and received assurance that he was fine, if a bit harried because the restaurant was busy.

Reassured, she spoke to the auditor a bit and learned a great deal, including that her relationship with Dino was likely to require a great deal of paperwork to be filed. The auditor talked a lot about paper work in general, and asked many questions about events in Muses and Dino's behavior, and Kathryn did her best to answer and hoped against hope that she wasn't getting Dino in trouble.

As the auditor moved on to other things, Kathryn spent an upsetting amount of time brooding. Finally, the time came for the duel to take place. Kathryn watched with everyone else; the danse was over all to quickly, though. Count Leander never stood a chance. Still, it all felt so hollow some how, and though Kathryn had been very angry with Leander for his treatment of Jediel and Andi, when it was done all she felt was sad, and she wondered if revenge was really necessary. It was all she could do to keep from crying.

To take her mind of things, she spent time talking with Pinnochio, Petra, and her other friends, trying to ignore the mounting depression that she felt. Indeed, she ended up in a fine situation, trying to convince the scary red caps Triza and V that they should not attempt to eat Pinnochio. Though she didn't know how she could stop them, she placed herself between the two, on the assumption she could at least buy the poor child a moment or two. However, she was spared this pain by the actions of a baumain (a type of sidhe who, knowing the end of the world was coming, decided that the only solution to problems was for all of the fae to kill themselves with cold iron and who, in order to facilitate this, had taken it upon themselves to start stabbing other fae with cold iron too) attacked on of the visiting dignitaries. He was baly injured. Many rushed in to help him, but the Count laid down his foot, and everyone backed away. The responsible baumain was killed, the dignitary healed.

Not long after, the auditor specific and a nocker that Kathryn didn't know approached her and asked for the use of the forge, so she lead them to Willowgrove. They didn't tell her what they needed, but they didn't take long, and so they all headed back.

Upon returning to the scene of the duel, Kathryn was approached by Ree, much to her surprise, and asked to participate as a member of a jury on a trial for Saadiq. The pirates who had attacked Yule had found a more appropriate way of handling their grievences; the purpose of the trial was not to determine Saadiq's guilt - for his guilt was not in question - but rather to determine if his soul was beyond cleansing, and if her could still be held accountable for the actions of his youth. The prosecuting woman was one with a sad story; she sought revenge for the murder of her father, and had even taken an oath that imperiled her soul to ensure that she could take that revenge. Though Kathryn was moved by her story, though, she couldn't deny that she felt that Saadiq's good actions of later in his life repaid his mistake and that his soul was clean, and so she voted not guilty - as did 10 of the 11 other people on the journey.

After Saadiq's acquital, Kathryn found herself talking to the Baron - now Count - about revenge and other concerns. They had a pleasant conversation over all, which culminated in a question that caused Kathryn to rethink a great deal of things she had believed: what would she do if someone she loved was killed? Would she get all soft hearted and "forgive and forget?" and the more she thought about it, the more she knew she wouldn't - she would seek revenge for that harm, no matter the cost to herself. This realization caused her to feel very sad for her actions at the trial - had she had the same conversation earlier in the day, she would have voted guilty (and shocked all the people who think that she is kind hearted!). Since then, she thought about this topic a lot, and the more she did the more she knew that she wouldn't change her mind. This prompted her to go and apologize to the poor, wrong woman from the trial, though that didn't go that well, for it came off as pity.

Meanwhile, Petros had met and befriended the Monkey Princess' hand maiden - who was actually the princess herself in disguise. Through the advice of Laughing Tom, it was decided that a small group would go in pursuit and rescue of the capture Dale Derring and her brain. However, the evil Ardala - who had been masquerading as Dale Derring for months - was in attendance, and so Kathryn got roped into helping to protect the Monkey and Petros. This resulted mostly in her spending some time standing around looking intimidating, including a delightful moment when Ardala made it clear that she knew exactly what was going on, commenting on the vile smell from nearby. She also stood guard duty with Grendel for a while, and listened to his reasons why all sidhe should be hated, watched him cut himself badly, eat flaming alcohol, make a pass at her, and generally behave like a big scary red cap. The end result was a decision, that Kathryn, Grendel, Careg, Amelie, Petros and Broderick Chrome (the nocker that Kathryn hadn't known previously) would quest to rescue Dale Derring from the Monkeys.

However, word leaked out of terrible things happening, culminating in terrible news: the White Fomori were free, and had invited us to go speak to them! With that bit of terrible news, it became clear that all of the fomori were now free, about and dangerous - the red fomori, who brought destruction; the white, who brought deception; and the green, who brought primordial chaos.

To top it off, Chet was accused of high treason for the destruction of Ember Hold, more of the aldara left, and things generally looked bleak.

Dino, though, after some thought, took a step for the better: he would start the actual crafting of the Edge Psyche, the sword he had asked for her help with, that night.

While they were working on it, Kathryn asked him out on a date - an actual date. :)



Events:
March SMART game: Prague and utter depression
March interlude: the birthday date, bes din membership, Chet's trial, the Monkey quest, suicide of the dauntain
BGA: open call: I want to help out and make stuff for people, the craftsmen unite
April interlude: phoenix egg hunt, the mind palace, the kite date, the wire man
April game: the court of the white fomori, getting lost, Harbinger Frost, protecting Pinnochio, talking to Petra
A Night Out: Dino and the Countess, "You're getting paid HOW MUCH??", explaining the mask
May interlude: (who is the armor for? are you going to make the mask?) I love you..., Kaye: What did you say to him??, advising Diezel, checking on Amelie and Careg, scolding Pinnochio


Next entry: SMART in Prague