Among Hounds and Ravens
25nd of November 2006 A.D.
Edgewater Dogpark is a park, made for dogs, at the water's edge a nice one with plenty of open ground for the various dog friends to romp 'round in, but
still. Perhaps it was the very on the nose naming that made Lydia choose to bring her raven there, to make things a bit more interesting. Midnight certainly seems to be doing his level best to liven things up in recognition of the age old kinship of canine and corvid, snatching up toys and sticks and tossing them about in good fun for the entertainment of dogs large and small, at first worrying their owners. Soon enough they are taking out their phones and filming this stuff and much to Lydia's amusement her familiar seems to find this state of affairs most pleasing.
"I didn't even know ravens
could puff themselves like that," you laugh as the bird in question is literally sneaking looks at the lady with the camera behind the nearest bench who is herself 'trying not to spook him', something that could not be farther from his feathered head.
"You learn something new every day," your friend replies, legs tucked under her on the bench in what really should be an uncomfortable position, but seems to suit her better than sitting normally. "I will go first since I'm sure to have the least interesting story."
Normally you would demure, but in this case there really is no way to argue the point, so Lydia continues: "Charles Barrowil is a piece of... work. Poor Eleanor nod only did not have a leg to stand on in a divorce court, she did not have a floor. Between the per-nuptial stuff..." she waves vaguely towards the waters of Lake Michigan as though consigning all legalese under the waves as as sacrifice. "And the way she presented the way her personal fiances looked
on paper, everything was put together so he could destroy her with a flick of his pen. I do not think he even imagined that his wife could leave him as opposed to being cast off, not given his more direct power over her, this was just force of habit or obsession I guess."
"So?" you prompt. "What did you do?"
"Well I started off threatening to put my fist though his heart. He said blah, blah the Court would make me pay for this treachery, I pointed out that would not make him any less dead, I'm the expert on dead."
"You wouldn't actually?" you start halfway between amused and horrified.
"What, on the spot? And break guest right? Of course not, I'm not
mad. But he would have to walk around outside his wards at one point and he had no way to ward off ghost spies so I would know when to strike and then..." She draws a line under her throat dramatically. "So then he said that his allies would hunt down the 'slave bitch' because either he was too scared to moderate his language because he wanted to show me how tough and totally not a soft target he was. Since I didn't answer at once he figured that it must be working so he doubled down on 'a human is a talking sandwich' and how his friends would be down with enforcing that. I don't know if you know this but that's
not a common position for House Raith, not when it comes to humans they are actually close to, personal physicians, lawyers, personal assistants, secretaries, spouses. It is the kind of thing you keep to yourself and definitely do not drag all your closest political allies into."
It's not hard to figure out where this is going. "You recorded him."
"Yep and I did the legwork in advance to know which of his business and personal connections would really not like to be associated with someone that intemperate, by reason of conviction or ambition. Then I hit him with the list of names after playing back the whole spiel to him. He of course countered that he would not have said all that if I didn't threaten to kill him to which I replied that it had all been hypothetical you know..."
At your somewhat confused look she explains.
"When you want to threaten someone with consequences way over the line without the words technically being an admission that you will do that stuff under the Accords, it's standard double-speak, everyone knows it and everyone translates it in their heads. By those standards I was
quite blunt about my intention to remove him from among the ranks of the quick, but now with a recording of him literally screaming about how his associates would torture the woman he is technically still married to it would look like I was just trying to unmask him."
"Are you sure you can count on public sentiment being with you in the White Court? I know they are not the worst but the older they get the more..."
"Oh it's not just a moral thing, not even primarily that. Treating people that close to you as disposable is bad
tradecraft when you are trying to keep a low profile," Lydia explains, a satisfied smile firmly in place. "Even Charles isn't as bad as he was trying to convince me he was, but what excuse can he give? 'I lost my temper again with the same person I was already censured for losing my temper once?' He's not going to make many friends that way, or even keep his old ones."
"So what did you get out of the deed, or I guess what did Eleanor get?"
"Seven hundred thousand dollar gift straight into her bank account to wrap things up and visitation rights to the kid, she is nice by the way but
scarily sheltered, on weekends. The whole thing was witnessed by Lara Raith. I got her on call. She was very professional about it, didn't laugh once at Charles' implied trouncing."
Silence falls for a moment then: "What about you? Anything earthshakingly loud happen to you?"
You wince. "It wasn't that bad."
"Molly," she gives you a serious look. "I am not the most observant person out there except when it comes to the dead and I heard it loud as thunder ringng in a crypt of brass. If I hadn't recognized it as something you-related I would have broken the speed record back to Chicago to help deal with whatever that was."
"Huh... the way the Merlin talked about it wasn't quite that loud, seers had bad dreams not gongs in their heads." Something is nagging at the back of your mind. "Maybe it's because you are familiar with me? No, not just that, we resonate together, like when we made Bane remember? Your power your Essence feels more like mine than anyone else I encountered."
She nods thoughtfully, her smile less smug recollection and more present warmth
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 14/15
Willpower now at 7/9
How do you explain all the stuff that had happened in Lydia's absence?
[] Take her to your Palace, maybe you can make a day of it, visit some of the cities
[] Stay here, try to talk things though, your doubts about leavng Broken Seeker alive, your fears about your friends, your unease with being worshiped
[] Write in
OOC: You guys have been slowly ticking your willpower up. 
