Direction

It is the Fourth hour by the Shadow on Riverstretch, the 30th day of Shadowreach in the year 626.

Snowflake Center - Entrance Hall 


 * ''The entrance hall of the Snowflake Center is a spacious chamber where many works of art and crafted items are put on display in showroom exhibits around a broad marble floor that provides ample space for reception gatherings and dance training. An archway leads into the main corridor of the facility, known as the Grand Spoke.

-

Winter stands on one side of the entrance hall, while she directs a pair of dances. Her posture is refined, back straight, as she holds one of her fans, pointing and making gestures. She nods once, makes a comment, and the dancers continue with her direciton.

Norran Lomasa enters in from the cold afternoon, metallic footsteps on the marble floor sounding into the hall. This time, the armor he wears is not of imperial steel, but of shiny reflective obsidian half-plate. He wears no helm, so his curious expression is easily seen as he glances around the hall.

Winter bounces her fan in a directing gesture, before she turns to greet the new guest. "Norran!-" she starts to greet him, but then blinks softly. She hmms, "Well, this is a different look for you." She says. She looks back to her students, "Ah ah, continue!" she says, and closes the distance betwixt her and Norran, "Greetings, Greetings, how are you?'

"As good as I can be, Cousin. With the Blades gone, all I can really do is wander around in my armor and scare people," muses Norran in his first words, bowing his head to Winter in greeting. "I got your letter, you had something to speak to me about? I get few enough people wishing for my attention other than my wife."

Winter ahs, "So, things haven't changed much in spite of the blades being gone then?" She says, smiling softly and winking to him. She nods softly, "How is the House doing?"

"Now the crown isn't telling me who to scare. More fun that way," admits Norran with a sigh of mock-disappointment, chuckling and smiling to Winter with a somewhat raised brow. "I wouldn't know anything about that. No-one talks to me out of our House, these days."

Winter grins softly, and giggles, "Well it does sound like you're getting along well enough." She says. She ahs, and nods softly, "Well, in that case, dear Norran...Where would you LIKE the House to be heading?"

"Somewhere other than nowhere," continues Norran, managing a smirk toward Winter as he continues to speak. "I can't say much of anything, until the proper declarations are made. Is there something you wished to talk to me about directly, or are you going to continue dancing around it?"

Winter nods, "An agreeable direction, certainly. But a direciton that requires focus." She adds. She hmms, and cants her head softly, "Proper declerations? Of what order?"S he says. She hmms, "Nothing direct, actually."

"I'm certain you requested my presence because you hear whispers that Norran Lomasa may become the next...important figure of House Lomasa. Nothing but rumor as of yet, but if I am to be chosen it will be either Imperial edict or those within us to nominate me. Until that happens, I am just another lowly Viscount that wanders around with his horse and his lance." Once his words are finished, Norran idly shifts his weight to another foot as he watches Winter's face intently.

Winter ahs, and considers, "Well certainly, if you consider that something direct. IF you are to be the Patriarch of our honored household, then I already look to you for direction. That is why you are here." she says. "That said, where does our house go?"

To this, all Norran can do is shift his armored shoulders into a shrug. "As I have said, I am no-one's Patriarch as of yet. Although these rumors may have been a pleasing caress to my ego, I've not been so confident as to begin making plans. All I can say is that I will strive to earn back the respect our House once had and will not tolerate the ignoble actions of the rest of us any longer, lest we turn into the Vozhd-Kahars or the Seamels."

Winter nods softly, "But anyone in a house with no direction can give the house direction. I look to you Norran. You are more experienced in these matters than I. You don't need to be the patriarch to make plans Norran." she says. "If this house were to have direction, you could at the least push for it, but what should you push for?"

"I just /told/ you!" returns the Lomasa with a tired laugh, reaching up to rub at his forehead with an armored hand. "To hold our House's honor and respect. Do you expect any sweeping declarations from me? Triple the amount of outhouses in East Leg? No Lomasa child can ever be named 'Dianna' again? Make war on the Seamels for proclaiming to be better horsemen than us?" The young nobleman breathes a sigh, shaking his head slowly. "The first thing I'd do is establish a Lomasa Order of Knights, and then join it myself. That is my only plan."

"Sweeping declerations no. A little direction for a house that you say has none, yes." She says. She giggles softly and shakes her head softly, "I'm not asking for any of that. I'm just asking a little direction." she says.

"Northeast," responds Norran immediately, frowning a little bit in annoyance at Winter's persistance. "That's the direction. Does that please you?"

Winter sighs, "You say our house is heading nowhere. And when asked where you'd like it to head, what you'd like to see it do...that's all you have? A Knight's Order, grand, and of the rest of us?"

"You ask me for direction, I answer you with honor and respect. Two absolutely grand directions for this House to follow. I have not asked for this duty, I have not spent my entire life preparing for it. Those are merely my initial thoughts, and plenty of direction in them. If I am declared as our House's leader, if there is a direction to go you /will/ know of it. Until then, all badgering me will do is get you nowhere," speaks Norran, his tone quickened and a hint of frustration heard along with it as he now stares downward at Winter. "Is there something less /vague/ you'd care to ask, or would you rather continue? That way, I can leave and you can continue devoting yourself to these empty halls instead of leaving this Nillu township and doing something of your own for this House."

Winter nods, and sighs softly. "I guess I really want to know what I can do for the House, or it's direction." She says. "I know Norran, I do..." She says. She nods softly, "I trust you." She says. "We'll just have to see where it goes then." She says. "I don't mean to badger at all, I look to you with respect, for guidance." She says. "I'm part of the house, I mean to act like it." She sighs, "My halls aren't empty, and I'd like to believe that anything I accomplish here reflects well upon the house. You don't need to get confrontational."

"I speak the truth, Winter," Norran continues, his face turning from annoyance to more of stony seriousness. "This place has never gained the popularity you intended for it to be. You have a master jeweler work out in the cold at a koisk to gain 'public attention' for this place, but it will never work because the very /idea/ of it is flawed." He pauses a moment, tilting his head toward Winter as he folds his arms over his breastplate. "This place reminds me of another venture, the Fahral Mikin Crafting School. It sought to be a sort of all-guild, drawing people to it rather than sending them out to learn on their own. It eventually burned down, never achieving what it was intended to have." He sighs again, his expression softening faintly as he looks over to the other noblewoman. "You could do far better for House Lomasa out in Fastheld, seeking other reliable ventures than sitting the rest of your life in this doomed experiment of a place. You cannot expect things to come to you if you sit there and make your idea attractive enough, you must go out among the Citizenry."

Winter furrows her brow at Norran, "I'm still working on it. Miss Moonstone is welcome to work inside, but she insists on working outside." She says. She sighs, shaking her head softly, "If you hate it so much, your welcome to leave Norran. I asked you to come so I could look to you for guideance, not so you could tell me to give up." she says.

"Give up? I merely suggest to abandon a waste of your talents. Hate has nothing to do for my distaste for this place, what it /steals away/ from our House is what powers it," responds the young Lomasa, beginning to turn away from Winter as he begins to walk toward the doorway. "You could do so much better devoting your talents to greater Fastheld, than feverishly putting all your time and effort into this place, doing no good at all. Abandoning this place is no failure, failure is never leaving it while you can."

Winter takes a step back and shakes her head, "So I suppose that my fantastic dance talents should be taken to Greater Fastheld?" She sighs, "I told you you can leave if you like, since you've such a distaste for this place."

Norran stops before the doorway, shooting Winter a smirk over his shoulder at her last words. "If all you really believe you can do is dance, perhaps you're better off wasting away here despite the folly in your belief. Light Keep, if you ever leave this place." This spoken, he continues on his way out, armor shifting slightly in his wake.

Winter shoots a glare at Norran as he exits the Center, just turning back to her students without so much as saying goodbye. She certainly doesn't look happy.

''Return to Season 5 (2007)