With Open Arms
Ninth of the Eighth Month 294 AC
One might be forgiven for thinking the city of Sorcerer's Deep dwelt in an eternal celebration just as it did in the eternal springtime of the Winged Serpent's embrace. Ever since the spread of the Imperium to the sunset shores, the city had swelled even more with wave upon wave of new citizens, smallfolk with enough coin and enough courage to start afresh, merchants and craftsmen, sailors and tinkers. The Common Tongue of Westeros grows more common in the marketplaces, though it will be a long time indeed before it can challenge the Essosi trade tongues that were most common on this isle long before you came.
Among the newcomers are a particular breed of folk who earn their bread courtesy of the various tourneys, sure as any traveling hedge knight. Carpenters there were skilled in the making of linden shields and the carving lances from beech and ash, farriers skilled in the shoeing of heavy warhorses, heralds who had memorized the names and the deeds of Houses great and small, minstrels to sing their praises and seamstresses to stitch banners bright.
There would be rather less
mystery to this tourney than the last, with knights from all across the realm, particularly those parts which had been less supportive, eager to show their new fealty. The fact that many of the winners and even a few of the losers of the last tourney were now lords held in high esteem with their own keeps to see to and no time to attend would both give the newcomers a shot at the glory they craved and spur them all the more in search of it.
Given the trouble you have been having with getting the sons and daughters of the western nobility to actually engage with education and academia, this may be your best chance to show many the advantages of the Imperium and the reasons for loyalty beyond simple fear of punishment and hope for reward. Indeed, now is the chance to reach part of the nobility which has been almost wholly absent from the last tourney, the ladies, brought along by their husbands and fathers to watch the spectacle, to socialize and seek out matches, and in some cases to compete in archery.
According to your mother, quite a few of the younger set have actually taken up archery since it is apparently common knowledge that you look favorably on 'ladies of a more active disposition'. You snort inwardly, they are not exactly wrong, as your first foray as Buttercup in the Reach had shown, but that is rather missing the forest for the trees. What you appreciate seeing in women just as much as in men is ambition, and a desire to improve, be it in matters martial, artistic, or academic. Over the years you have come to conclude that hereditary nobility can be rather stifling to one's goals in life when propriety and social expectation is placed before one's passions and skills, and nowhere is that more pernicious than among the ladies of the realm.
What, after all, would Valaena have become had she lacked the good fortune to meet you under very specific circumstances? A dragon rider, a sorceress, a warrior? You doubt it, and so both her own fortunes and those of her house would have been less for the grim weight of expectations. Alas, it is not a sentiment even an Imperator can speak aloud in so many words outside trusted circles without causing offense, and so you must continue to hint and prod and hope for the best.
Perhaps, you think, looking out over a city seemingly holding its breath for the wedding,
this will be a turning point in more ways than one.
From the soft sigh you hear behind you, it is not you alone who is frustrated. "Trouble with the crown."
"The crown if fine, the crown is magic and I know magic. I just had a long talk with Lady Jordayne about how I
really do not need ladies in waiting by another name and I do not care how friendly they might bloody be..." She cuts herself off. "Well, alright, I did not say the last in so many words, but still has it occurred to anyone that it might be a bit
disquieting to be buying supposed friends off the hook like they are fish you rather liked the look of at the evening market?"
"Not if it is what you are used to," you point out. "I think the reason some of them are so insistent is you seem isolated when they see you at court besides our closest friends."
She considers that a moment then shakes her head, though it is clear from her words that it is more in frustration than denial. "They do realize I speak for academic institutions almost every week and keep up the correspondence. The reason I am not more gregarious at court is that it is not my principal environment. Actually, that gives me an idea. Do you think we could do some scholarly or artistic competitions in adition to the tourney? Show off the things we can do in peace and not just war? I am sure the Academy of Fine Arts would love the chance to show off and maybe gain new sponsors, the engineers likewise."
What do you reply?
[] Yes, take the chance to show what is great and good in the Imperium in peace as well as in war
-[] Suggestions for competitions (optional)
[] No, keep it to just the tourney and other events as they were last time
OOC: For prizes I am thinking of keeping what was on last time unless you guys have other ideas. Not yet edited.
