Time to Tend the Fences

Riverhold Keep – Mastery


 * The master of Riverhold Keep - originally Yontalas Lomasa, but these days the castle is run by his descendant, Norran - holds court in this chamber of gray stone blocks, with a bearskin rug sprawled below the dais that holds the Riverhold Throne.


 * The throne, made of biinwood, features the likeness of the Lomasa trademark bull trampling a trio of Wildlings along the upper curve of the chair. A large oval wooden table sits off to the left of the dais, and it is at this table that the keep's master occasionally meets with advisors, allies and even enemies for discussions and sensitive negotiations.

Currently seated upon Riverhold Throne is the armored form of Norran Lomasa, Retribution leaning against his leg as he idly taps on the claymore's hilt. A couple guards dressed in Lomasa tabards and chainmail armor flank the Mastery's entryway, watching those seeking to enter court with the Duke.

One such figured dressed in white and black velvets approaches such guards. The blonde noblewoman walks with a tired air about her, dark circles rivaling the black corset at her waist. The image of a mongoose curled about a flaming torched embroidered in silver partially hidden by her hands which remain ungloved at her waist. Celeste's steps are hushed by her own velvet slippers on the worn floor. She dips her head to the guards, mumbling softly to the man.

"Well, then," speaks Norran from his suit, his posture remaining relaxed as he leans his arms across his claymore's crossguard. "Look who it is who's come to my hall. If you come here regarding our last encounter, worry not. Since you found it so /convenient/ to accuse me of trespassing, even though you'd not have said a word about my entering or my sword if I'd come inside grinning instead of yelling, I fully expect Rowena to completely forget all the respect I've paid her over the years and see me punished. I've no wish to deal with that sort of trouble, let some conservative nobleman with no family to shame talk down to you, if there's even such a man left these days."

"I have kept my word to Lady Lomasa and spoken to no one of your actions in my home," notes Celeste calmly, raising her voice to heard from the doorway. "This is where they told me I could find you, if you would bid me to leave, then I shall, but I had come to make amends and speak with you of our intentions. There is no animosity in my heart, but your yelling came on the heels of a trespasser already upon my grounds. Nerves were taut, and your words did little to soothe my own calm." The Mikin remains at the door, waiting patiently to either be turned away or allowed entrance.

"Perhaps I reacted too harshly, but I tried to uphold my station and remember my place. Before I was away in that mine, the mere image of that foreign creature and that mark on the floor would've drawn all of your kin - Mikins and Scourges alike - to burn what you had created to the ground in zealous fury and seen you executed on Blades Day. I thought my reaction was surprisingly more tame than that, don't you?" remarks Norran thoughtfully, hands draped leisurely about his claymore as he speaks from his throne.

"And it is such fear that I'm wish to educated against. It was and is today a symbol of Light. It was found in the Stanchion as well, your grace," notes Celeste calmly. The noblewoman looks a bit tired but at least dressed for the audience. "The Mark is to remind those that the chapel is for everyone that is a citizen of Fastheld - whether they be holy blessed, touched or somewhere in between. That no matter where you stand in the balance, you can still fall to the Void, and must be diligent never to falter. Do you believe one of the Light cannot fall to the Shadow? Or a man who is neither cannot murder and show the taint of his soul in another manner?"

Celeste shakes her head, "But this putting the cart before the horse. I came to apologize for the severity of my response. You see, those who have taken refuge there did not realize who you were and that you bore some threat to what we are trying to accomplish ,which is little more than see that the Law is upheld with little prejudice as possible."

"I'd not seen or heard of such a mark before it was announced to identify Touched, but I've never been to the Stanchion. I've been to Sun's Keep, but never there. I was raised for twenty years to think a certain way, and I am far kinder and less severe than most. You cannot expect such introductions of foreign creatures, representations of the light or not, to be accepted with open arms," replies Norran with a shrug of his shoulders. "Whatever the case, you needn't worry. I could care less of the matter now."

"They are meant to educate, your grace. Nothing more. Such is what I intend to do with those who are awakening, so that we do not return to the darkened days of the Church. It is a new dawn, one I would hope that you welcome with open arms," replies Celeste, reaching up to brush back the hair from her eyes. "You once asked a great favor of me, and to put my own prejudices aside. Now, I entreat you to do the same. There is no animosity in my heart, Your Grace - only a concern for where Fastheld could return if facing a dawn of fear and terror. It should be one of enlightenment and Light. Would you not say the same after what you saw at the Aegis? That now is a days of dusks and dawn instead of black and white?"

"A few pretty lights and a gap in a wall do not unsettle people's beliefs and faiths as much as you might think. While I've no wish against Imperial Law treating Touched equally, introducing religious figures seen over the Aegis and segregating Touched from the Kissed and Untainted have nothing to do with that. It will do nothing to aide relations, what you should be doing is what Milora asks - going into temples where the people are and teaching them better ways - not removing them from society and having them all congregate in your little corner of Fastheld. It seperates and divides the people - and that's all it's doing. I used to see Master Temple, Master Firelight and Master Taran travelling all over Fastheld. Dropped in for visits regularly. All they do now is huddle in your home, hiding from injustice instead of fighting it and reclaiming their place in the world. I'll not abide by it, but there's nothing I can do."

Norran breathes a sigh after his words, leaning back into his throne and resting Retribution across his lap. "Take that or not, it is how I feel and there's little you can preach from your moral pedestal that will change my mind. Go if you'd like. And if you do, tell Vhramis that the next time that self-righteous coward wishes to insult me and turn tail and vanish out the side door, that he turn to stay and face me so I could send him whining back to the misbegotten whore of a mother that brought him into this world. After all I'd done for him and all the kindness I'd given him, he'd dare spit venom at me when I said not a word to him? You, I hold no grudges against. He's another matter. He should remember his place, the both of you, but him most of all."

"You two were once friends, and I hope that you can find one day that you can be again. As to huddling, there is none. People come and go as they please but since my life has been threatened, there are some who try to remain and see to protection. This is neither asked nor sought," sighs the noblewoman.

She shakes her head, "You /say/ these things occur in temples and such...yet, I am the priest who's seen. Though it may be held true here in East Leg, it is not in many places of Fastheld. There is ideal, and reality. Truth and ideal is that my brethren would see the errors of their ways. But this prejudice has been in place for far longer than you or I have been alive and does not change in the blink of one man's lifetime. There is not introduction of strange symbols or ideals, if nothing more, the dragon was little more to me than a dream is to a Touched man - a foreshadowing of what was to come." Celeste bows towards the seated form of Norran. "Light guide and protect you, my friend, for that is how you will always remain, for my words is nothing but truth. Perhaps someday, you will realize that what I do now is for Light... and love."

"Quite fine that it is a foreshadowing to you, Celeste, but to others it is foreign. It is different. It is change, and it is change that effects the very Light people hold their lives to. You contend that priests toss Touched out of Temples, so I suggest that you /go/ to those places. You go with others of like mind, and you see to it attitudes are changed and those who disrespect the Emporer's Law are adequately dealt with. Was my duty when I was one of the Emperor's Men, but if you truely wished to change the hearts and minds of Fastheld, you'd be far more successful to go to them instead of spiriting Touched away to your lone chapel and hiding from the problem rather than seeking to enlighten or solve it. But, it's not my task."

"Light be with you, hopefully," bids Norran in farewell, his face etched into a disappointed frown as he watches Celeste take her leave.

''Return to Season 6 (2007)