After the cantrip session with my squire, I had a few more meetings at the castle before heading off to dinner in the great hall. With the birth of my niece and what that signified for the Barony a real feast had been prepared and we celebrated long into the night.
I woke up the next morning with a terrible hangover and it took all my will power to get up and start my morning training. Hangovers seem to get worse as a get older there was a time a training session like that would have cured mine now I had to take one of the last two hangover cures that I had bought from a herbalist in the Imperial capital. After taking it, I ordered the servants to heat water for me to have a bath and contemplated have one of those new-fangled sweat lodge built. They were an innovation introduced by the Dwarven ambassador to the Imperial Court in recent years. Though the Elven Ambassador claims they got the idea from them.
While I was waiting for the bathwater to be heated up I paid a visit to Bagrat Dischal and Tobia Jalen who were writing out the official copy of my last will and testament for me. I previously already had one but during the journey to Membe with the help of my senior retainers I had two versions of a new will worked out I had even had a lawyer look at them while we visited Helfin, the only city in the whole of the Western Marche. It turned out that they were nearly finished and they just had to add some flowery touches to it. I had Bagrat hand over the rough copy of the other version of my will and burnt it in the room’s fireplace.
My new will named and my sister Lilou and my illegitimate half-brother Juan as executors. My brother Dako was named as my heir and if I died before he reached his majority it named my brother in law Stoyan Talesh as regent. The rest of the will remained nearly the same as my previous one did, transferring Rachana’s wardship to Juan if I died before she reached her majority and Leonid hadn’t needed removing from it as he had never been featured in the previous one.
Now knowing that Leonid had named me in his will it all seemed more than a little petty but at the time it had seemed reasonable to me.
When I came back from that meeting I had a nice long soak in the bath which was cut short by a page informing me that Nazma wished to have a word with me. Even though I thought I had made myself clear yesterday I had kept what had happened a secret so it would seem strange if I refused to meet with her.
“Before you ask is with my sister and I won’t bother apologising for what I and my sister got up to yesterday, we got caught and thus must pay the price, that is not why I asked to see you anyway.”
“Then why?”
“I thank you for keeping it a secret, I imagine it wasn’t for my sake or even that of the memory of your brother but rather the reputation of the family and all that. My sister managed to secret the boy out of the castle last night and did with him as you requested and I wish to hand over the magical device to you in the hope that doing so will increase my chance that it will remain a secret and I will thus not suffer for it more than I will already.”
“Before you do so I must ask you how it came into your possession?”
“I have no idea where it came from originally but it fell into the hands of my great-great-grandmother who as far as I know never made use of it for anything but her enjoyment. My sister and I are as far as I know the only ones to use it for nefarious purposes. I don’t expect you to believe that but it is the truth as far as I am aware.”
“I do not care to even argue with you on that point or anything else for that matter. All I want from you today other than the device and all remaining pins is the means by which I may make use of it.
“There are instructions as to its operation inscribed on its base, I don’t care if you use it or not but please don’t get caught doing so, that would no doubt be the end of the secret. The pin used by my sister is the only other one that my family now possess though another once did it stopped working and was then thrown into the ocean or so our mother informed us.”
“Thank you for your candidness and I will return it in kind, hearing about the boy some may guess as to what happened but keep to what I asked of you yesterday and I will never acknowledge your secret.”
“I will do as you asked, the alternative is unthinkable but if as I certainly expect you to die before me then I will in no way mourn your passing.”
“I expect to greatly outlive you but time will tell, now when do you plan to move into the Manor House.
“That is the question and the answer depends entirely upon how you wish to be seen by the world at large. Without knowledge of yesterday me moving to the manor house within the week could make you seem cruel and uncaring towards me and your niece but the longer I stay the more you will no doubt feel the pressure of my presence. Thus the day after your investiture ceremony seems like a good compromise, don’t you agree.”
“That is as good a time as any, I will visit you or at least Myrna every day until then but I won’t stay for long. I imagine every member of the extended Malla family had been to see her already and all things being what they are I hope nothing untoward has been said during such visits by anyone?”
“No they have all been very kind to me, some of them commiserated with me on the fact that it wasn’t a boy but nothing more.”
“Well then if you have nothing else to say to me I’ll go pay a visit upon Myrna, leaving you to your fate, please have your sister deliver the device into the hands of a page by the end of the day and have him in turn sent it on to my rooms.
“Goodbye for now then Amondo and may you end your days painfully and alone.”
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