Disclaimer: I don't own Noblesse. However, the dubiously delightful heroine of this piece and other such original creations are mine.
A/N: This is for my Twin, for not dying. ::squishes her flat:: And for you all too, for still reading this. ::squishes everyone::
Girl: The Tale of a Dire Lack of Contraceptives and Sensible Baby Names
"I hear you've been trying to talk to me."
Cadis Etrama di Raizel gave the Lord a stiff nod. "The Princess informed me that you were busy," he said delicately, and blushed at the implications.
The Lord, however, showed no such grace. Plastering an indecently cheery grin on his face, he said, "The joys of married life are many, indeed. Someday, you'll know what I'm talking about."
Cadis Etrama di Raizel blushed harder and started at his teacup till the Lord got the hint.
He did not. In fact, he took his guest's extreme and pointed silence to mean curiosity as to the nature of this 'married life.' Never one to disappoint his guests, and especially not this guest, the Lord obligingly began unloading intimate details of his recent joys on the overwhelmed Noblesse. The details being of prodigious variety and exactness, Cadis Etrama di Raizel was very nearly a mental wreck by the time Bernadetta, Lady of the Nobles, emerged on the scene.
She announced her arrival by flinging a book smack into the Lord's nose. Miraculously, it survived the impact. The book, on the other hand, wasn't that lucky.
Cadis Etrama di Raizel surveyed its dented remains with grim satisfaction. He had always had a theory pertaining to the thickness of the Lord's head. Now here it was, proven beyond doubt.
"I am not the village barmaid," said the Lady, flinging herself into a spare armchair with lazy grace. "And he" – she indicated the Noblesse – "is not my sister."
"He doesn't mind!" the Lord protested.
Bernadetta stared at the Noblesse's stiff shoulders and flaming face, then raised an eyebrow at her husband, who got the hint this time, making Cadis Etrama di Raizel wonder if there was something wrong with his hinting style. At any rate, the Lord didn't look like he was going to make introductions any time soon, so the Noblesse pulled out a nod of acknowledgement from his recently learned repository of polite body language – Brutislava had been training him well – and studied the Lady from under long eyelashes.
What he saw filled him with dismay for the Princess. When he had heard that the new Lady was Verdana's sister, he had been filled with optimism for the future. Verdana – flighty and voluptuous in her tastes, but with a heart that overflowed with affection – how could Verdana have such a stately, imperious sibling? He delved into her soul, eager to be proven wrong, but the Lady Bernadetta was the perfect Noble in and out.
Oh she would be kind, and dispense her duties to her husband's first daughter very conscientiously. She would even, out of loyalty to her husband, strive to feel some affection for the girl.
But she would never love Brutislava. In her eyes, as in the eyes of every Noble, things had their proper places. Brutislava would always, to this woman, have a place. Family, but just outside the intimate family circle. Important, but essentially useless. And when she conceived a child, the future Lord of the Nobles, what could Brutislava be but a glorified advisor to it? Speaking, but never receiving the attention commanded by people such as Gejutel K. Landegre and Ragar Kertia. Not because she was incompetent. The Noblesse was certain that the Princess, despite her oddities, had inherited her father's excellent brains. He knew, from her own mouth, that she was being educated accordingly. But what she lacked in aloofness and hauteur would be her undoing. He could see the future envisioned by Lady Bernadetta, who loved the Lord but would ensure that her children would grow up to be as unlike him in demeanour as possible. Which self-respecting traditional Lord would countenance an illegitimate halfling dishing out common sense?
No wonder Brutislava had taken to practically living at his mansion these days! Cadis Etrama di Raizel frowned and made a mental reminder to have Gejutel send over a good supply of the girl's favourite desserts and sandwiches. Brutislava tended to get hungry when she was depressed, as the Noblesse and his rapidly depleting larder were coming to learn.
But the point of this visit, he reminded himself, was not to secure an indefinite supply of food for his unwanted houseguest. It was to get rid of her – or at least return her to 'visitor' status from her current 'occupier of unlikely corners at unexpected hours.' His privacy had been shattered by the Princess, which did not sit well with him. Privacy was one of the few requirements of Noblesse-dom that he insisted on and expected to be met.
Cadis Etrama di Raizel decided to bring the conversation back to its beginning. "I am here to ask about your plans for the Princess." As an afterthought, he added, "I wish to be alone with you while receiving your answer."
The Lord refrained from raising an eyebrow at such high-handedness. The Lady was not so circumspect in usual circumstances, but when the Noblesse demanded a request, one tended to grant him his desire without question. She got up without another word and left the two men alone.
"Now that you've kicked my new wife out…," remarked the Lord, but the Noblesse turned a coolly unrepentant face to him. The Lord sighed and rested his chin on his knuckles. "Why is this eating at you so much? I'm aware that you've done a marvellous job of tolerating my daughter, but it's unlike you to be such a worrywart."
The Noblesse did not answer him. He was here to interrogate, not converse. The Lord's eyebrows scrunched together in a frown at the lack of response. "If it's obligation – if you feel you are obligated to stand for my girl-"
"I am obligated," the Noblesse agreed flatly. "I consider it necessary."
"Why?"
Cadis Etrama di Raizel did not answer that either, but the Lord was not so willing to let it go. "She's my daughter, Cadis Etrama di Raizel. Even if you are the Noblesse, over my daughter I take precedence. I must know."
The Noblesse's eyes flashed scarlet for an instant as he met the Lord's eyes. His voice was flinty as he iterated, "What are you planning for Brutislava?"
The Lord was powerful, but the flashing gaze carried behind it the weight of generations, the history of the world as they knew it, and a presence so ancient that its age was unfathomable. He wondered whether Cadis Etrama di Raizel himself knew how old he was, or who had come before him, if there even had been someone before – before this creature, but he did not dare to ask. The emotions radiating from those eyes were not those of a man who made it a habit to concern himself with individuals, or who even felt his own individuality. They were weighty with judgement and the desire – for something, a kind of balance, perhaps – the Lord could not be sure what it was exactly that lay coiled behind the Noblesse's discontentment, but one thing was clear to him. He would not remain unscathed if he did not cease asserting his authority to this creature who was his equal, but whose life had placed him above everything save justice.
The realisation of this pleased him immensely, even as it told him that he was about to lose a very large measure of the Noblesse's regard. In about two minutes you will be as distant from me as you are from the rest of our frozen race. But I am happy; it is the price I must pay to achieve my ends. And they are worthy ends, my friend. Someday, you will know and smile over them.
"Lord."
The single word was laced with sharp command. The Lord pasted a flippant smile on his lips. "Ah, yes. Forgive me, it surprised me that you do not already know. I thought she would have told you. Brutislava has agreed to act as advisor to my future child – when there is one." He paused to slide his fingers through a shining lock of blonde hair. "I see that the news isn't unexpected to you. But you must've guessed; after all, there aren't many things she can do. Others won't be as forgiving of her human blood as we are. Advisor is just right – she will stay here, by her family, and be provided for always. She will go into training for it soon."
The Noblesse digested all this quietly. So the worst would come to pass. He wasn't fooled by the rosy picture painted by the Lord. The future would never be so kind to the Princess, something her father would probably not grasp because he viewed everything far too optimistically. For the first time since he had met the Lord, Cadis Etrama di Raizel felt that this was more of a fault than a virtue. It had to be, if the man couldn't even see that his grand plans would eventually reduce his firstborn to an upper servant in the family hierarchy.
Of course, the Noblesse never doubted the Lord's intentions. He just didn't trust the new Lady, with her kind but unyielding soul. His eyes wandered back to the Lord's, taking in the wholesome faith in the goodness of his plans, and in that moment, the future was born.
The Princess – he would devote his life to watching over her, to thwarting the Lord's intentions, to creating a home for the ill-fitting girl if it became necessary to do so – and it would be necessary. He was an outsider himself, he knew how these things happened. Somewhere in the cogs of his brain, Brutislava had just been upgraded from 'unwanted houseguest' to 'mine.'
As he left, the Lord sighed and slumped back against the banquet of his chair. "That went better than expected," he murmured to himself. He was aware that in Cadis Etrama di Raizel's eyes, he would forever be a blithe fool.
But he didn't care.
From this day on, my dear Noblesse, you belong to my daughter.
Yes, because the mark of a good daddy is that he will not hesitate to manipulate a hapless ancient powerhouse into becoming his future son-in-law.
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