p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"5supth/sup of Frost Fall/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Blue Palace/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora took her place on the throne. It was the first time since arriving at the Blue Palace as the new Jarl of Haafingar some months ago, and it felt better than she had expected. She remembered how most of the Jarls she had met used to almost lay down in their chair – but Aurora was not comfortable doing so. Instead, she had straightened her back and tried to portray herself as regal as possible. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Her Thanes stood on her right side, and Nilsine, together with Ingun – on the left. They were expecting the Crowns envoy, and it had been quite a while since the Thanes received guests of that valor in the palace. Aurora had met with the Emperor, as well as the Skyrim, and both Hammerfell Kings, but she had never been the hostess of an important event before. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Just remember to refer to him as emyour highness/em," Nilsine whispered in Aurora's ear. "Oh, and the Silver-Bloods want an audience with you, they are building a manor outside of Solitude."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora looked at Nilsine with a confused expression, but the Stewardess did not have time to respond, as steps were suddenly heard from the stairs. Soon, two Redguard soldiers became visible. They had darker skin than the Nords or Imperials, and had shaved heads. Light fabric covered their muscular bodies, primarily of dark red and grey colours. At their waists, they had a yellow band, and on the left side of it, they each had a scimitar – the curved swords Aurora recognised very well./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"As the guards reached the top of the stairs, Aurora could see three more men, one of whom wore the finest golden kaftan she had ever seen. It was probably made of golden threads sewn on a white, light base, with decorative precious stones added in certain places. The man appeared to be in his early thirties or late twenties, he was muscular and absolutely stunning. As he smiled, pearly white teeth were seen. His nose was rather wide, and his chin pointy, his eyes dark, and hair short and curly. The Jarl assumed this was King Canpolat's brother./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""My Jarl, the Crowns envoy," Nilsine said and made a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"curtsy/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;". /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora's two Thanes paid their respect by lowering their heads. The Jarl did so too, in a quick and subtle manner. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""King Canpolat of the Crowns dynasty's younger brother, Ahliik," one of the two well dressed men spoke./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The King's brother bowed toward Aurora, who now bowed her head again, but this time for a longer times. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You have travelled far," Aurora said. "I know King Canpolat, and I am honoured to have his brother as a guest."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Thank you, my Jarl," Ahliik spoke once again. His voice was warm and pleasant, and he appeared genuinely interested in Aurora./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Suddenly, one of the two men stepped forward, presenting Aurora with a long, wooden box. The other man began explaining what it was. There was no need to, though. Aurora knew it was a scimitar, and a stunningly beautiful one for that part. The handle was probably golden, and red garnets adorned the sides of it. Afterwards, two other men came up to her, presenting different kind of jewels – necklaces, bracelets and rings. Slightly uncomfortable, Aurora looked at her Stewardess, who apparently tried to play it cool, but did not feel like she had the situation under control./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""King Canpolat wishes to propose marriage between his brother, his Royal Highness Prince Ahliik and the Jarl of Haafingar," the man who told her about the gifts suddenly spoke./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora froze. Her gaze turned at Nilsine, who appeared as surprised as her Jarl. Aurora felt how she was gliding away from the reality of the conversation, into her own world. Noises did not seem to reach her, and she did not hear a word of what Nilsine and the Redguards were speaking of. She only looked down to the floor and wished for the entire situation to be over. The time passed so slow, and she began to wonder when the Redguards would finally leave the throne room so that she could run into her office. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Nilsine was saying something, and the Redguard nobleman or Steward, or whatever he was, appeared to engage in a conversation with both Ahliik and the other nobleman. After what seemed like an eternity, the men bowed./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Uh… The Jarl will consider it," Nilsine said. "You will receive an answer tomorrow." /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The men left, and Aurora, still looking down to the floor, got up to her feet. Erikur and Bryling approached her, but she went straight toward her office without looking up even once. She shut the door behind her and sat down on her table. Nilsine entered in a hurry just after her. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Nilsine, what the Oblivion?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"The Stewardess seemed to have calmed down, but looked at Aurora with a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"skeptical/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" expression. "Surely you must have expected that people would court you."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""No!" Aurora said. "I haven't thought about it."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You are expected to take a husband and produce an heir, you do know that, right?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course!" Aurora said. "… But I didn't expect noblemen or… princes to just come up and ask it like that. I kind of imagined… I don't know what I imagined, alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""So what are we going to say?" Nilsine asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Decline of course!" Aurora hissed. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""And the gifts?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Send them back!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""No, not how it's done. You have to accept them and send him off with others," Nilsine said. "It's very disrespectful to return gifts."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Get me Ratibor," Aurora demanded, as if their previous subject had already been discussed./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Aurora…" Nilsine began./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Get me him, now!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She awaited Nilsine and Ratibor with much anticipation. She did not want to be alone, but at the same time, she could not figure out why she was so affected by the situation. She wished to brush it off as something completely new, and that it did not have much to do with the fact that she had to escape from her parental home to avoid a marriage, or that she had almost married Ulfric without having that kind of feelings toward him. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"At the same time, she felt immensely grateful toward Nilsine, who always managed to operationalise Aurora's ideas. She was not as comfortable in giving advise as the Jarl had hoped for her to be, but she was fiercely loyal and always had Aurora's back. She knew Nilsine would be the one bringing the Crowns envoy the news the following day, so that Aurora would not have to. In fact, Nilsine always walked the extra mile so that Aurora did not have to feel like she was alone in facing the struggles of leading a Hold. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She was no Ratibor, though. She had no real experience in managing such a large entity like a Hold. He always had answers to all of Aurora's questions, and she felt he was her greatest support system. There were matters which only someone with experience could guide her in, such as the taxation issues. Ratibor was a great mentor and emotional rock./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"They entered together, Ratibor seemingly in a rather good mood, Nilsine looking sceptical as always when matters concerned the heir of Kvatch. He was wearing black leather trousers and a black tunic with ruffles around the sleeves, as well as a cravat in the same colour. His black hair was reaching below the shoulders, and the waves in it bounced as he walked. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""A man proposed to me today," Aurora blurted out as soon as the pair entered the chamber./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Yeah, so?" he asked nonchalantly while walking up to her./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Ratibor!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, Aurora, it comes with being a high up member of society," he said as he stopped right behind one of the two chairs in front of Aurora's table. "So… a Redguard prince," Ratibor grinned./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora found no amusement in it at all. She crossed her arms in front of her chest while leaning against her table, nearly sitting on it. "How do we handle this?" she asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor sat down in one of the chairs, while Nilsine walked up to the other and took her seat. The man leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs. "Well, I bet you have received gifts."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"br /"Yes," Aurora said dryly./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You have to give similar ones to him. Then you have to tell him that you are very honoured, and couldn't hope for a better marriage, but that you are new to the throne and that you don't have marriage on your mind right now. You work hard on learning how to govern, and feel that taking a husband and having children at this point in life will be troublesome," he spoke as if it was the most natural thing on Nirn. He did not appear the slightest bit troubled at all and spoke as naturally as if it had been a discussion regarding what he had for breakfast./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Ratibor, we have no where near as expensive gifts to give," Nilsine said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Then give some of other value," Ratibor said, turning his gaze toward her. "The Dragonborn's sword, for instance."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora nodded. "I have some /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"jewelry/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" I found in old ruins and caves. They will have to do, for the construction of the roads and the expansion of Solitude has dried up the Hold's gold."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I'd recommend the Stewardess to get started," Ratibor said, looking at Nilsine./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She gaze him a displeased look, but got up to her feet and left, but not before catching Aurora's gaze to show her disdain for Ratibor's unofficial position as advisor. The door closed somewhat hard behind her, something Ratibor noticed and smirked at. After a short silence when Aurora took some deep breaths, the man got up to his feet and took some steps toward the Jarl. He then leaned back against Aurora's table, rubbing shoulders with her./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You appear shaken," he said, pushing her slightly with his shoulder. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She nodded while looking straight forward, gazing into nothingness. She wanted a hug. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to escape the situation./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The woman went for it and pressed into Ratibor's chest. He placed his arms around her back and embraced her while she put her head on his shoulder. She felt the width of his upper body and just wanted to sink into him as if into water. He would shield her from the haunting world around her, from requirements and socially demanding situations. She could feel the warmth of his body though his tunic, and it had a calming effect on her – as did the strong hold he had of her. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor chuckled, though, and did not appear to feel anything near Aurora did in that moment. "It cannot have been a surprise for you," he spoke kindly. "Why else would they travel so far?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Well, none of the men coming to Solitude have proposed before, so I kind of assumed… He wanted to hang out in Solitude for a while."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor laughed, not even trying to hide it. "Oh, you naïve creature," he said. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He loosened his grip of Aurora and leaned back a little and drew his head inward and downward. It gave him a double chin doing so. "But why are you so shaken, you don't take this personally, do you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora stood straight with her hands on his chest. "That someone proposes to me? Yeah, I take it kind of personally."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""But it is not," he chuckled. "This is purely political."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She let herself free of his embrace and walked away from him. "I need a drink."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She took some wine from a cupboard while Ratibor observed her. He did not feel like he could comment on the fact that is was still before noon./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora had gone to bed at around ten in the evening, deciding against visiting the men at Proudspire. Olfina and Idgrod had met up with Harrald, but the Jarl did not feel like hanging out with them. She hoped that she could fall asleep early and get some rest. She felt it was much needed after such an emotionally draining day. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Two hours later, she was still tossing and turning. Her /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"heart rate/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" just refused to drop, and it stressed her out that she still had not fallen asleep. She dreaded the following day, and while she managed to stop thinking about it, something /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"subconscious/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" still refused to let her relax. The woman even felt the sensation of a beginning headache. No matter how much she tried to focus on her breath, she did not manage to slow it down./span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"After midnight, she gave up. She took on a long coat, which she had ordered to be made for these kind of nights. It was informal, cozy, and covered everything from her neck to her wrists and ankles. It had a slightly longer tail, which she could use to cover her feet while sitting on chairs or in sofas. It was too cold to put her feet directly into her shoes, though, so she tied her socks up with two ribbons below her knees and neatly folded the excess fabric over the ribbon. Afterwards, she stuck her feet into her boots rather than the silk /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"moccasins/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;". She opened her door and ran down the stairs, hoping to avoid the girls if they were to arrive at the palace at that hour. It was very cold outside – winter had truly come to Haafingar. There was snow on the ground and it had been constantly frozen for the past days. Aurora held up the tail of her dress as she hurried toward Proudspire. As she approached it, she could see candlelight from the bottom floor windows. She smiled and hurried up the stairs, entering the manor without knocking./span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The men had not yet gone to bed, which did not surprise Aurora, as particularly Bogdan had a habit of sleeping until well into the afternoons. Vecheslav was going upstairs upstairs, though, but stopped as he heard the door being opened. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hi, Aurora," he said. "Good night!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She gave him a nod before going further into the living room. Egor and Bogdan stuck out their heads as she approached. Bogdan was lying down in the sofa, while Egor was sitting on a pelt on the floor, using the side table as a flat surface to draw on. The woman walked up to them and crossed her arms on her chest and drew her shoulders upward as she was a bit cold./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey," Aurora said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hi," Bogdan and Egor replied at the same time./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"At that point, Ratibor took a few steps out of the kitchen. He was holding three glasses turned upside down between his fingers in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other. His tunic was untied, exposing a considerable part of his chest, and only part of it was tucked into his trousers. His hair flung as he moved, and the /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"side swept/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" bangs covered part of his forehead and temples. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, hi Aurora," he said. "Want a glass?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Sure," she smiled./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora followed Ratibor with her gaze as he walked past her and up to the table in front of the sofa, placing the glasses on it. Egor had turned his attention back to his charcoal drawing, while Bogdan watched his brother, who by then had turned around and returned into the darkness of the kitchen. The younger Goldwine then looked up at the woman standing two yards away from him./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Taking it easy tonight?" she asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan grinned sardonically with his eyes half-closed. "Yeah, my brother has been acting like a slave owner today."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey!" was heard from the kitchen. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora and Egor laughed, but Bogdan just kept his gaze at the woman while tuning down the width of his grin. His hair was messy, probably from lying down in the sofa and rubbing his head against the armrest. The dark red locks shone in the warm light of the candles, and he had a tranquil expression on his face. Like his brother, he had not tied his tunic at the chest, but compared to Ratibor, Bogdan looked sloppy due to the fact that his clothing always was too big for him. Aurora wondered whether he just refused to have something new made for himself, and used to be much heavier than he was at that point, or if he simply was fond of the baggy attire./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You've come late," Bogdan said, now with a neutral expression. "You missed Vecheslav spilling wine all over one of Egor's sketches."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora covered her mouth and looked at Egor, who pointed toward a side table, where a piece of pink parchment was drying. The woman leaned to the side in order to get a better view of it, but the darkness made it difficult. Instead, she turned toward the painter, who just put his hands out to the sides as if to gesture that things like that happened./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I didn't actually plan to come," Aurora said. "But I couldn't sleep. So I remembered that book you read to me…"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She looked at him and tried to make puppy eyes. He noticed and smiled sardonically once again. "I'll go and get it," Bogdan said and got up to his feet. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora passed him as he left the sofa and took one of the candles from the table in front of the sofa. At that moment, the older Goldwine brother emerged from the kitchen with the last wine glass. As Aurora curled up in the sofa, Ratibor sat down in one of the armchairs next to it and began pouring wine. As he filled one, he gave it first to Aurora, then to Egor, who took it, but immediately put it to the side as he was busy drawing. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The woman took a sip and then placed the glass back on the table, being careful not to accidentally push it and thereby drenching yet another of Egor's drawings. Ratibor was obviously thinking about the same matter, as he too was cautious when moving the glasses around. It made Aurora chuckle a little. She looked up at caught his gaze – he was grinning too. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan returned, but his candle had been blown out by the movement down the stairs. He lit it again as he reached the ground floor by holding it toward another candle. The man then returned to the sofa, placing himself on the near end of it. Aurora then turned to the other side, placing her head on his lap as he opened the book. Without looking at her, the younger Goldwine began searching for where they had stopped the last time./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He began reading. Egor continued drawing while listening. Ratibor was simply leaning back in his armchairs. Aurora found it lovely – she felt safe at Proudspire. The atmosphere in the dimly lit room was warm and calm. The soft candlelight almost danced up the walls, with objects casting shadows all around them. The contrast against outside was considerable – the wind began blowing harsher against the windows, while it became considerably warmer with all people gathered close to one another. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor reached for a Nightshade stick and lit it against one of the candles. Catching Aurora's gaze and realising that he should offer it to her, he held it up with an asking expression. Aurora smiled and reached for it. He leaned over so that she could take it from him, before lighting another for himself. Meanwhile, Bogdan took it from Aurora mid-sentence and inhaled, then gave it back to the woman. Ratibor looked at Aurora. She caught his gaze and grinned as she exhaled. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"After a few minutes, Bogdan stopped reading and began explaining a reference to Aurora. In truth, she did not care much for the references as there had been so many of them up until that point, and she realised that she probably would have to go through the entire Kvatch library before being able to read Bogdan's work without his assistance. She had been trying to memorise the first ten or twenty, but been forced to resign to the fact that it was impossible to keep track of all subtle and obscure allusions or references. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Apparently, Aurora was not alone in this. Ratibor had both his elbows on the armrests, leaning back with one foot on his other knee. "Oh, that's what it was," he said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan looked up at him as his brother had spoken those words just before he was planning on continuing reading. "Well of course, what else could it be?" he asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Still leaning back, but now with a finger touching his cheek, Ratibor turned his upper body toward his brother. "I interpreted it as a reference to Empress Tavia's agony and suicide."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan looked at him with utter dismay. "Why would Isolda read Townway's work? She is a nihilist for Gods' sake."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I thought it somewhat peculiar," Ratibor said, inhaling smoke from his nightshade stick. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor looked at Aurora, whose gaze was running from Bogdan to Ratibor and back. She was holding her smoking stick between her fingers, sometimes giving it to the younger Goldwine brother who inhaled once in a while. It was quite evident she did not follow what was being discussed. She had not read the amount of esoteric work the brothers had, or much literature at all. Bogdan looked at Ratibor with a superior expression. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""I don't follow at all," Egor said. "Why could not Isolde have read Townway just because she is a nihilist? She is obviously in /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"possession/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" of a considerable /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"skill set/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" which…"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""Have you not thought at all?" Bogdan asked the painter, who stopped mid-/spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"sentence/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" and closed his mouth. "She condemns everything which has to do with /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"superstition/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;", so why would she read it?"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Egor looked up at Bogdan from where he was sitting, letting go of his charcoal to be able to use his hands to gesture. "Because she is also a person who keeps her friends close and enemies closer," he said. "It seems remarkable to me that she categorically would not read pieces on worldviews she does not agree with."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""That is first level thinking," Bogdan said. "How can you not have noticed her high opinion of herself and her thoughts?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""I agree with you," Ratibor said. "But I still think it's a more logic conclusion to draw that it was a piece of Waldshoer and not Townway she was /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"referring/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" to."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Perhaps you should read it again then," Bogdan said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor rolled his eyes and brought his hands out. "Well, I am listening to it now."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Aren't you sick of hearing it?" Egor asked, putting his finished drawing to the side. "You must have read that book at least twenty times by now, considering the fact that you are reworking it into a play?" he continued as he reached for a new parchment roll./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor grinned. "It's really good, though."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course it is, I wrote it," Bogdan said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor chuckled. "Hey, Egor, what are you up to, by the way?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The painter presented three pieces of parchment. Ratibor leaned over the table and picked them up. Aurora looked over her shoulder and saw the top of the three pieces. Egor had drawn Bogdan reading the book, holding the smoking stick between the thumb and index finger of his right hand, and the book in his left. Ratibor then placed the top drawing behind the last one, presenting the second, which was of Ratibor leaning back in his armchair. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, let me see," Aurora said, grabbing the one of Ratibor. "Oh, Egor, these are great."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor then smiled a little and held up the third one, which was of Aurora in profile. She sat up as she saw Ratibor holding it. "I look so calm," she said. She was smiling a little on the drawing too. "May I keep it?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course, he makes these on a daily basis. The entire house is full of those quick drawings," Bogdan muttered./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora looked at Egor. He gestured for her to take it. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Shall we continue?" Bogdan asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan returned to reading the book, but this time, Aurora climbed up in his lap. She leaned her cheek against his left shoulder. Without withdrawing his gaze from the book, Bogdan let go of it with his left hand and put the arm around Aurora's mid-back. He held the novel in his right hand only and continued reading while drawing the book to the outside of her left knee. She closed her eyes and felt how she began calming down to the noise of him reading. After a while, it was not evident if she was awake or sleeping. Ratibor fell asleep in the armchair to the monotone sound of his brother's voice./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He awoke after a while. The candles were low – it had probably been at least an hour since they last spoke. Ratibor streched his legs out and looked around. Egor was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone to bed. Bogdan was sitting up with his eyes closed and head leaning against the backrest. Aurora was obviously asleep in her curled up position./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey," Ratibor spoke to, his brother. "Shall we go to bed?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""She's asleep," Bogdan whispered./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hang on."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor got up from his armchair and inspected the situation. He then walked up to the woman and gripped her under her armpits, preparing to pull her towards him./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""On three," he continued. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan nodded. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""One, two, three."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor pulled Aurora while Bogdan pushed himself to the side. Aurora's lower back landed on the sofa, and Bogdan carefully held up her knees and moved sideways until he freed himself. He looked at the woman to ensure she had not awoken, and upon not noticing any movement, he he went to blow the candles out while Ratibor found a blanket, which he put it over Aurora. He then looked at his brother and gestured for them to go upstairs to their chambers. Bogdan nodded and went out in the hall. Ratibor placed a hand on his shoulder and let it remain there for a few seconds before they reached to stairs./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Blue Palace/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora took her place on the throne. It was the first time since arriving at the Blue Palace as the new Jarl of Haafingar some months ago, and it felt better than she had expected. She remembered how most of the Jarls she had met used to almost lay down in their chair – but Aurora was not comfortable doing so. Instead, she had straightened her back and tried to portray herself as regal as possible. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Her Thanes stood on her right side, and Nilsine, together with Ingun – on the left. They were expecting the Crowns envoy, and it had been quite a while since the Thanes received guests of that valor in the palace. Aurora had met with the Emperor, as well as the Skyrim, and both Hammerfell Kings, but she had never been the hostess of an important event before. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Just remember to refer to him as emyour highness/em," Nilsine whispered in Aurora's ear. "Oh, and the Silver-Bloods want an audience with you, they are building a manor outside of Solitude."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora looked at Nilsine with a confused expression, but the Stewardess did not have time to respond, as steps were suddenly heard from the stairs. Soon, two Redguard soldiers became visible. They had darker skin than the Nords or Imperials, and had shaved heads. Light fabric covered their muscular bodies, primarily of dark red and grey colours. At their waists, they had a yellow band, and on the left side of it, they each had a scimitar – the curved swords Aurora recognised very well./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"As the guards reached the top of the stairs, Aurora could see three more men, one of whom wore the finest golden kaftan she had ever seen. It was probably made of golden threads sewn on a white, light base, with decorative precious stones added in certain places. The man appeared to be in his early thirties or late twenties, he was muscular and absolutely stunning. As he smiled, pearly white teeth were seen. His nose was rather wide, and his chin pointy, his eyes dark, and hair short and curly. The Jarl assumed this was King Canpolat's brother./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""My Jarl, the Crowns envoy," Nilsine said and made a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"curtsy/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;". /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora's two Thanes paid their respect by lowering their heads. The Jarl did so too, in a quick and subtle manner. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""King Canpolat of the Crowns dynasty's younger brother, Ahliik," one of the two well dressed men spoke./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The King's brother bowed toward Aurora, who now bowed her head again, but this time for a longer times. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You have travelled far," Aurora said. "I know King Canpolat, and I am honoured to have his brother as a guest."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Thank you, my Jarl," Ahliik spoke once again. His voice was warm and pleasant, and he appeared genuinely interested in Aurora./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Suddenly, one of the two men stepped forward, presenting Aurora with a long, wooden box. The other man began explaining what it was. There was no need to, though. Aurora knew it was a scimitar, and a stunningly beautiful one for that part. The handle was probably golden, and red garnets adorned the sides of it. Afterwards, two other men came up to her, presenting different kind of jewels – necklaces, bracelets and rings. Slightly uncomfortable, Aurora looked at her Stewardess, who apparently tried to play it cool, but did not feel like she had the situation under control./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""King Canpolat wishes to propose marriage between his brother, his Royal Highness Prince Ahliik and the Jarl of Haafingar," the man who told her about the gifts suddenly spoke./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora froze. Her gaze turned at Nilsine, who appeared as surprised as her Jarl. Aurora felt how she was gliding away from the reality of the conversation, into her own world. Noises did not seem to reach her, and she did not hear a word of what Nilsine and the Redguards were speaking of. She only looked down to the floor and wished for the entire situation to be over. The time passed so slow, and she began to wonder when the Redguards would finally leave the throne room so that she could run into her office. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Nilsine was saying something, and the Redguard nobleman or Steward, or whatever he was, appeared to engage in a conversation with both Ahliik and the other nobleman. After what seemed like an eternity, the men bowed./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Uh… The Jarl will consider it," Nilsine said. "You will receive an answer tomorrow." /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The men left, and Aurora, still looking down to the floor, got up to her feet. Erikur and Bryling approached her, but she went straight toward her office without looking up even once. She shut the door behind her and sat down on her table. Nilsine entered in a hurry just after her. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Nilsine, what the Oblivion?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"The Stewardess seemed to have calmed down, but looked at Aurora with a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"skeptical/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" expression. "Surely you must have expected that people would court you."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""No!" Aurora said. "I haven't thought about it."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You are expected to take a husband and produce an heir, you do know that, right?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course!" Aurora said. "… But I didn't expect noblemen or… princes to just come up and ask it like that. I kind of imagined… I don't know what I imagined, alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""So what are we going to say?" Nilsine asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Decline of course!" Aurora hissed. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""And the gifts?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Send them back!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""No, not how it's done. You have to accept them and send him off with others," Nilsine said. "It's very disrespectful to return gifts."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Get me Ratibor," Aurora demanded, as if their previous subject had already been discussed./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Aurora…" Nilsine began./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Get me him, now!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She awaited Nilsine and Ratibor with much anticipation. She did not want to be alone, but at the same time, she could not figure out why she was so affected by the situation. She wished to brush it off as something completely new, and that it did not have much to do with the fact that she had to escape from her parental home to avoid a marriage, or that she had almost married Ulfric without having that kind of feelings toward him. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"At the same time, she felt immensely grateful toward Nilsine, who always managed to operationalise Aurora's ideas. She was not as comfortable in giving advise as the Jarl had hoped for her to be, but she was fiercely loyal and always had Aurora's back. She knew Nilsine would be the one bringing the Crowns envoy the news the following day, so that Aurora would not have to. In fact, Nilsine always walked the extra mile so that Aurora did not have to feel like she was alone in facing the struggles of leading a Hold. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She was no Ratibor, though. She had no real experience in managing such a large entity like a Hold. He always had answers to all of Aurora's questions, and she felt he was her greatest support system. There were matters which only someone with experience could guide her in, such as the taxation issues. Ratibor was a great mentor and emotional rock./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"They entered together, Ratibor seemingly in a rather good mood, Nilsine looking sceptical as always when matters concerned the heir of Kvatch. He was wearing black leather trousers and a black tunic with ruffles around the sleeves, as well as a cravat in the same colour. His black hair was reaching below the shoulders, and the waves in it bounced as he walked. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""A man proposed to me today," Aurora blurted out as soon as the pair entered the chamber./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Yeah, so?" he asked nonchalantly while walking up to her./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Ratibor!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, Aurora, it comes with being a high up member of society," he said as he stopped right behind one of the two chairs in front of Aurora's table. "So… a Redguard prince," Ratibor grinned./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora found no amusement in it at all. She crossed her arms in front of her chest while leaning against her table, nearly sitting on it. "How do we handle this?" she asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor sat down in one of the chairs, while Nilsine walked up to the other and took her seat. The man leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs. "Well, I bet you have received gifts."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"br /"Yes," Aurora said dryly./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You have to give similar ones to him. Then you have to tell him that you are very honoured, and couldn't hope for a better marriage, but that you are new to the throne and that you don't have marriage on your mind right now. You work hard on learning how to govern, and feel that taking a husband and having children at this point in life will be troublesome," he spoke as if it was the most natural thing on Nirn. He did not appear the slightest bit troubled at all and spoke as naturally as if it had been a discussion regarding what he had for breakfast./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Ratibor, we have no where near as expensive gifts to give," Nilsine said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Then give some of other value," Ratibor said, turning his gaze toward her. "The Dragonborn's sword, for instance."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora nodded. "I have some /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"jewelry/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" I found in old ruins and caves. They will have to do, for the construction of the roads and the expansion of Solitude has dried up the Hold's gold."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I'd recommend the Stewardess to get started," Ratibor said, looking at Nilsine./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She gaze him a displeased look, but got up to her feet and left, but not before catching Aurora's gaze to show her disdain for Ratibor's unofficial position as advisor. The door closed somewhat hard behind her, something Ratibor noticed and smirked at. After a short silence when Aurora took some deep breaths, the man got up to his feet and took some steps toward the Jarl. He then leaned back against Aurora's table, rubbing shoulders with her./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You appear shaken," he said, pushing her slightly with his shoulder. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She nodded while looking straight forward, gazing into nothingness. She wanted a hug. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to escape the situation./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The woman went for it and pressed into Ratibor's chest. He placed his arms around her back and embraced her while she put her head on his shoulder. She felt the width of his upper body and just wanted to sink into him as if into water. He would shield her from the haunting world around her, from requirements and socially demanding situations. She could feel the warmth of his body though his tunic, and it had a calming effect on her – as did the strong hold he had of her. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor chuckled, though, and did not appear to feel anything near Aurora did in that moment. "It cannot have been a surprise for you," he spoke kindly. "Why else would they travel so far?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Well, none of the men coming to Solitude have proposed before, so I kind of assumed… He wanted to hang out in Solitude for a while."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor laughed, not even trying to hide it. "Oh, you naïve creature," he said. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He loosened his grip of Aurora and leaned back a little and drew his head inward and downward. It gave him a double chin doing so. "But why are you so shaken, you don't take this personally, do you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora stood straight with her hands on his chest. "That someone proposes to me? Yeah, I take it kind of personally."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""But it is not," he chuckled. "This is purely political."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She let herself free of his embrace and walked away from him. "I need a drink."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She took some wine from a cupboard while Ratibor observed her. He did not feel like he could comment on the fact that is was still before noon./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora had gone to bed at around ten in the evening, deciding against visiting the men at Proudspire. Olfina and Idgrod had met up with Harrald, but the Jarl did not feel like hanging out with them. She hoped that she could fall asleep early and get some rest. She felt it was much needed after such an emotionally draining day. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Two hours later, she was still tossing and turning. Her /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"heart rate/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" just refused to drop, and it stressed her out that she still had not fallen asleep. She dreaded the following day, and while she managed to stop thinking about it, something /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"subconscious/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" still refused to let her relax. The woman even felt the sensation of a beginning headache. No matter how much she tried to focus on her breath, she did not manage to slow it down./span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"After midnight, she gave up. She took on a long coat, which she had ordered to be made for these kind of nights. It was informal, cozy, and covered everything from her neck to her wrists and ankles. It had a slightly longer tail, which she could use to cover her feet while sitting on chairs or in sofas. It was too cold to put her feet directly into her shoes, though, so she tied her socks up with two ribbons below her knees and neatly folded the excess fabric over the ribbon. Afterwards, she stuck her feet into her boots rather than the silk /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"moccasins/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;". She opened her door and ran down the stairs, hoping to avoid the girls if they were to arrive at the palace at that hour. It was very cold outside – winter had truly come to Haafingar. There was snow on the ground and it had been constantly frozen for the past days. Aurora held up the tail of her dress as she hurried toward Proudspire. As she approached it, she could see candlelight from the bottom floor windows. She smiled and hurried up the stairs, entering the manor without knocking./span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The men had not yet gone to bed, which did not surprise Aurora, as particularly Bogdan had a habit of sleeping until well into the afternoons. Vecheslav was going upstairs upstairs, though, but stopped as he heard the door being opened. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hi, Aurora," he said. "Good night!"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She gave him a nod before going further into the living room. Egor and Bogdan stuck out their heads as she approached. Bogdan was lying down in the sofa, while Egor was sitting on a pelt on the floor, using the side table as a flat surface to draw on. The woman walked up to them and crossed her arms on her chest and drew her shoulders upward as she was a bit cold./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey," Aurora said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hi," Bogdan and Egor replied at the same time./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"At that point, Ratibor took a few steps out of the kitchen. He was holding three glasses turned upside down between his fingers in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other. His tunic was untied, exposing a considerable part of his chest, and only part of it was tucked into his trousers. His hair flung as he moved, and the /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"side swept/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" bangs covered part of his forehead and temples. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, hi Aurora," he said. "Want a glass?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Sure," she smiled./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora followed Ratibor with her gaze as he walked past her and up to the table in front of the sofa, placing the glasses on it. Egor had turned his attention back to his charcoal drawing, while Bogdan watched his brother, who by then had turned around and returned into the darkness of the kitchen. The younger Goldwine then looked up at the woman standing two yards away from him./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Taking it easy tonight?" she asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan grinned sardonically with his eyes half-closed. "Yeah, my brother has been acting like a slave owner today."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey!" was heard from the kitchen. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora and Egor laughed, but Bogdan just kept his gaze at the woman while tuning down the width of his grin. His hair was messy, probably from lying down in the sofa and rubbing his head against the armrest. The dark red locks shone in the warm light of the candles, and he had a tranquil expression on his face. Like his brother, he had not tied his tunic at the chest, but compared to Ratibor, Bogdan looked sloppy due to the fact that his clothing always was too big for him. Aurora wondered whether he just refused to have something new made for himself, and used to be much heavier than he was at that point, or if he simply was fond of the baggy attire./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""You've come late," Bogdan said, now with a neutral expression. "You missed Vecheslav spilling wine all over one of Egor's sketches."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora covered her mouth and looked at Egor, who pointed toward a side table, where a piece of pink parchment was drying. The woman leaned to the side in order to get a better view of it, but the darkness made it difficult. Instead, she turned toward the painter, who just put his hands out to the sides as if to gesture that things like that happened./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I didn't actually plan to come," Aurora said. "But I couldn't sleep. So I remembered that book you read to me…"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"She looked at him and tried to make puppy eyes. He noticed and smiled sardonically once again. "I'll go and get it," Bogdan said and got up to his feet. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora passed him as he left the sofa and took one of the candles from the table in front of the sofa. At that moment, the older Goldwine brother emerged from the kitchen with the last wine glass. As Aurora curled up in the sofa, Ratibor sat down in one of the armchairs next to it and began pouring wine. As he filled one, he gave it first to Aurora, then to Egor, who took it, but immediately put it to the side as he was busy drawing. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The woman took a sip and then placed the glass back on the table, being careful not to accidentally push it and thereby drenching yet another of Egor's drawings. Ratibor was obviously thinking about the same matter, as he too was cautious when moving the glasses around. It made Aurora chuckle a little. She looked up at caught his gaze – he was grinning too. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan returned, but his candle had been blown out by the movement down the stairs. He lit it again as he reached the ground floor by holding it toward another candle. The man then returned to the sofa, placing himself on the near end of it. Aurora then turned to the other side, placing her head on his lap as he opened the book. Without looking at her, the younger Goldwine began searching for where they had stopped the last time./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He began reading. Egor continued drawing while listening. Ratibor was simply leaning back in his armchairs. Aurora found it lovely – she felt safe at Proudspire. The atmosphere in the dimly lit room was warm and calm. The soft candlelight almost danced up the walls, with objects casting shadows all around them. The contrast against outside was considerable – the wind began blowing harsher against the windows, while it became considerably warmer with all people gathered close to one another. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor reached for a Nightshade stick and lit it against one of the candles. Catching Aurora's gaze and realising that he should offer it to her, he held it up with an asking expression. Aurora smiled and reached for it. He leaned over so that she could take it from him, before lighting another for himself. Meanwhile, Bogdan took it from Aurora mid-sentence and inhaled, then gave it back to the woman. Ratibor looked at Aurora. She caught his gaze and grinned as she exhaled. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"After a few minutes, Bogdan stopped reading and began explaining a reference to Aurora. In truth, she did not care much for the references as there had been so many of them up until that point, and she realised that she probably would have to go through the entire Kvatch library before being able to read Bogdan's work without his assistance. She had been trying to memorise the first ten or twenty, but been forced to resign to the fact that it was impossible to keep track of all subtle and obscure allusions or references. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Apparently, Aurora was not alone in this. Ratibor had both his elbows on the armrests, leaning back with one foot on his other knee. "Oh, that's what it was," he said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan looked up at him as his brother had spoken those words just before he was planning on continuing reading. "Well of course, what else could it be?" he asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Still leaning back, but now with a finger touching his cheek, Ratibor turned his upper body toward his brother. "I interpreted it as a reference to Empress Tavia's agony and suicide."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan looked at him with utter dismay. "Why would Isolda read Townway's work? She is a nihilist for Gods' sake."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""I thought it somewhat peculiar," Ratibor said, inhaling smoke from his nightshade stick. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor looked at Aurora, whose gaze was running from Bogdan to Ratibor and back. She was holding her smoking stick between her fingers, sometimes giving it to the younger Goldwine brother who inhaled once in a while. It was quite evident she did not follow what was being discussed. She had not read the amount of esoteric work the brothers had, or much literature at all. Bogdan looked at Ratibor with a superior expression. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""I don't follow at all," Egor said. "Why could not Isolde have read Townway just because she is a nihilist? She is obviously in /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"possession/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" of a considerable /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"skill set/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" which…"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""Have you not thought at all?" Bogdan asked the painter, who stopped mid-/spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"sentence/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" and closed his mouth. "She condemns everything which has to do with /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"superstition/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;", so why would she read it?"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Egor looked up at Bogdan from where he was sitting, letting go of his charcoal to be able to use his hands to gesture. "Because she is also a person who keeps her friends close and enemies closer," he said. "It seems remarkable to me that she categorically would not read pieces on worldviews she does not agree with."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""That is first level thinking," Bogdan said. "How can you not have noticed her high opinion of herself and her thoughts?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""I agree with you," Ratibor said. "But I still think it's a more logic conclusion to draw that it was a piece of Waldshoer and not Townway she was /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"referring/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" to."/span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Perhaps you should read it again then," Bogdan said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor rolled his eyes and brought his hands out. "Well, I am listening to it now."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Aren't you sick of hearing it?" Egor asked, putting his finished drawing to the side. "You must have read that book at least twenty times by now, considering the fact that you are reworking it into a play?" he continued as he reached for a new parchment roll./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor grinned. "It's really good, though."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course it is, I wrote it," Bogdan said./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor chuckled. "Hey, Egor, what are you up to, by the way?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"The painter presented three pieces of parchment. Ratibor leaned over the table and picked them up. Aurora looked over her shoulder and saw the top of the three pieces. Egor had drawn Bogdan reading the book, holding the smoking stick between the thumb and index finger of his right hand, and the book in his left. Ratibor then placed the top drawing behind the last one, presenting the second, which was of Ratibor leaning back in his armchair. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Oh, let me see," Aurora said, grabbing the one of Ratibor. "Oh, Egor, these are great."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor then smiled a little and held up the third one, which was of Aurora in profile. She sat up as she saw Ratibor holding it. "I look so calm," she said. She was smiling a little on the drawing too. "May I keep it?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Of course, he makes these on a daily basis. The entire house is full of those quick drawings," Bogdan muttered./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Aurora looked at Egor. He gestured for her to take it. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Shall we continue?" Bogdan asked./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan returned to reading the book, but this time, Aurora climbed up in his lap. She leaned her cheek against his left shoulder. Without withdrawing his gaze from the book, Bogdan let go of it with his left hand and put the arm around Aurora's mid-back. He held the novel in his right hand only and continued reading while drawing the book to the outside of her left knee. She closed her eyes and felt how she began calming down to the noise of him reading. After a while, it was not evident if she was awake or sleeping. Ratibor fell asleep in the armchair to the monotone sound of his brother's voice./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"He awoke after a while. The candles were low – it had probably been at least an hour since they last spoke. Ratibor streched his legs out and looked around. Egor was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone to bed. Bogdan was sitting up with his eyes closed and head leaning against the backrest. Aurora was obviously asleep in her curled up position./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hey," Ratibor spoke to, his brother. "Shall we go to bed?"/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""She's asleep," Bogdan whispered./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""Hang on."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor got up from his armchair and inspected the situation. He then walked up to the woman and gripped her under her armpits, preparing to pull her towards him./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""On three," he continued. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Bogdan nodded. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;""One, two, three."/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;"Ratibor pulled Aurora while Bogdan pushed himself to the side. Aurora's lower back landed on the sofa, and Bogdan carefully held up her knees and moved sideways until he freed himself. He looked at the woman to ensure she had not awoken, and upon not noticing any movement, he he went to blow the candles out while Ratibor found a blanket, which he put it over Aurora. He then looked at his brother and gestured for them to go upstairs to their chambers. Bogdan nodded and went out in the hall. Ratibor placed a hand on his shoulder and let it remain there for a few seconds before they reached to stairs./span/p