IP: 82.14.67.140
Posted on June 8, 2013 at 05:29:21 AM by victoria bolton-zabala
Warning: this post contains language inappropriate for younger or more sensitive readers.
| Victoria shot the prince a wicked smile over the top of her steepled fingers. She’d read the intelligence file before coming over, and knew that her addresser was Prince Tristan, the son of King Arthur and the grandson of Mallos. There was a much closer resemblance between father and son than between son and grandfather on first glance, she reflected, but a second look showed more similarity between Tristan and Mallos in the facial bone structure. She’d never met the Auran priest whom he was presumably referring to – Lord Smithy or something – but she assumed he was as boring as most church administrators were. Auran church administrators were more boring than most, too.
She accepted the wine goblet with a smile and poured it with some enthusiasm. This definitely beat the room-temperature water she was generally offered on this crappy diplomacy missions. Victoria was not the most perceptive of people, and could not presume to know what was going on behind the king’s carefully controlled face, but even she couldn’t fail to notice the lengthy pause between her finishing and his beginning to speak. That was the effect Victoria usually had on people upon meeting them for the first time, so she thought nothing of it and simply waited for him to sort himself out while she took a sip of wine. It was good quality. Obviously. He was a king. He eventually responded with acceptance (what other kind of response was there?), but before she had an opportunity to answer his question she felt something tugging at her robes under the table. She glanced down and just caught a glimpse of the golden-brown puppy chewing on her clothes before the prince snatched him up. Her face brightened noticeably. “Oh, he’s cute,” she said, leaning over to scratch the puppy behind the ear. “I wanted a dog, but my boss outright banned them from the temple complex because he’s a shithead like that.” Pause. “Er, because he’s concerned about… health and safety, like that.” Recognising the second verbal blunder in as many minutes, Victoria inadvertently pulled a face and turned back to Arthur. “S’all a bit complex. Officially, I’m here to extend a friendly gesture of greeting and offer you any assistance the Church has the resources to provide.” She pulled another face. “Basically, my bosses got wind of what’s going down between you guys and the Auran priests, and they can’t keep their noses out. There’s a bit of a backstory.” She paused to take another sip of wine and collect her thoughts. “The demigod affair really came to light about a year ago, which is when the Auran Church and my one both started making moves towards your planet. Mallos stepped in, fired a load of people who wanted to bring his kids to Earth, and put out an executive order which basically told everyone to leave you alone. Huge scandal,” she swirled the wine, looked Arthur directly in the eye and smiled authentically. “Gods don’t get involved with churches, as a general rule, and it caused a massive uproar. I was one of the people Mallos hired instead, which is why they sent me here.” She raised a hand in acknowledgement. “They’re hoping I screw this up so they can sack me. I’m not really good at this diplomacy crap. “The Mallosian Church is decentralised, which means we don’t have any proper official leader. The churches are divided by country, and the church with the highest favour is the one in charge of the rest. That’s nearly always the Spanish division, where I’m from, but since the scandal last year they’ve been out of favour and there’s been a bit of a power struggle going on. So, my bosses are currently clutching at straws, trying to get back in favour with Mallos,” she smiled slyly. “Meanwhile, the Aurans are trying to get what the Mallosians want – access to a demigod. The general feeling from my bosses is that if they can’t get a demigod, then they don’t want anyone else having one neither. They genuinely want to help you against the Aurans, on that front.” She sat back in her chair. “That’s what I know. What I suspect is that they’re also keen to get people over here to snoop around.” |
Replies:
- chased your ghost across the yard - By a r t h u r June 13, 2013 at 06:03:01 PM
- it just reminds me of before. - By victoria bolton-zabala June 13, 2013 at 09:39:08 PM
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