☩ ００９．ＶＩＤＥＯ | ＡＣＴＩＯＮ

[mansuetus]

Tranquility!

[ Guess who is back in her high spirits. Lucrezia is wearing red silks and is evidently strolling the gardens this morning ]

It is my birthday today, I have decided.

[ a pause in which she just looks pleased with herself and then she explains ]

As I do not know how to count the days here when compared with the count common in Rome, I have chosen today for my birthday. I shall accept my greetings at the garden.

[ prim and proper but those who know her by now can see the jest in her words. ]

And I have decided what I wish as my gift, if you would hear it!

[ wait for it. ]

For the birthday of the one called the illustrious Lucrezia Borgia, me and garden both require - a swing!

[ a beat. ]

And cake.

[ that would actually be all. Lucrezia Borgia, ladies and gentleman. She would be sitting in the garden, reading a book, for those who wish to find her. ]

Comments

[wolfinthesnow]

[He's not letting anyone be under any impression he is after Robb's girl. That means no rumors. That means no touching.

He knows that much.]

I'll thank you for the honor.

[mansuetus]

Girls have such powers in their hands. It took me a few years to understand. Is it truly an honor? In Rome, most anyone kisses anyone on both cheeks.

Tell me this then: was it always like that in your realm? so many years of winter?

[wolfinthesnow]

In Westeros, we are not so informal. Especially not with the baseborn son of Lord.

[Pause.]

Yes. It was ten years of summer. Longer than any summer known before.

[mansuetus]

Is there someone on this ship who truly thinks you to be just the baseborn son of a lord? You are much more than that, Jon Snow. It's due time that you will accept that.

[ she hums in thought, grins a bit. ]

In a decade of summer Rome would have drank itself silly. A good thing winter comes to take their minds off wine and brothels.

[wolfinthesnow]

Sounds much like the south.

[mansuetus]

Then how would your south handle its ten years of winter? when there are no grapes to make wine from and no silks, for they are too thin for the cold? I imagine they would curse the weather and pray for the sun to return.

[wolfinthesnow]

I do not know. I have never been there, only heard the tales from my family.

[mansuetus]

Perhaps someday.

[ but then she frowns ]

What is there beyond Westeros? Outside of Rome there is Naples and Florence and further away France and the Britons. What are the names of the other realms?

[wolfinthesnow]

The Free Cities. Pentos, and Valyria.

[mansuetus]

What are they free from?

[wolfinthesnow]

Kings, I think.

[mansuetus]

Until a king would be brave enough to take them too?

[ or greedy enough. Lucrezia knows kings who take cities out of pure greed. The French King and his insistence on Naples comes to mind. ]

Then in your realm, there is the king of the realm, the king in the North, and free cities who answer to no king?

[wolfinthesnow]

Yes. Although it's not so small as it sounds.

[mansuetus]

If the south is so hot and the north is so frozen, it is bound to be vast. And one king truly ruled all of the realm? and its people?

[ the Pope of Rome rules one city and it it's hard to keep. ]

[wolfinthesnow]

Aye.

[mansuetus]

Then I am not surprised your realm is at war, Jon Snow. My Holy Father crowns kings perhaps, but he only ever ruled Rome and even that city along proves to be a den of snakes. The kind that can smile and say pretty words and bite at the next moment.

I cannot imagine anyone ruling over so many. The king of France knows the French and my father knows the Romans; but your realm - one king cannot know so many. And you tell me those of the north are not as those of the south.

[wolfinthesnow]

No. We are harder, less apt to smile, more careful. We know the dangers that come in the cold.

[mansuetus]

Are there no dangers that come in the heat?

[wolfinthesnow]

What manner of danger do you think of?

[mansuetus]

The subtle kind. The warm nights and the wonderful wine and the words that are almost as sweet. Until in all the sweetness something else is found and it takes the life away as quick as that.

[ a mosquito killed her friends, they told her. And she believed them but now she knows better. Now, here, she had grown. Grown to see the truth. ]

You are more solemn, more honest, harder where the dangers I know of are softer, but they are dangers still.

[wolfinthesnow]

Aye, it could be so. My sister did not take so kindly to the south. It hurt her heart.

[mansuetus]

Sansa.

[ Alayne as Lucrezia had called her but now she takes to calling her as she was. There is a pang of hurt there, she misses her, today more than usual. She would kiss her cheek and share her cake with her and they would whisper secrets as they had, were she here.

It hurt her heart. ]

She did not know the nature of it.

[ And Lucrezia does. A bit too well. She is a tender politician but ruthless all at the same time. Both their hearts were hurt, her own and Sansa's. Hurt, but hardened. ]

[wolfinthesnow]

Aye.

And my other sister.

Arya.

[mansuetus]

The one I have not met.

[ that she knows of. She had seen her once, but the name Arya never once made it to the girl's lips. ]

Is she older or younger?

[wolfinthesnow]

Younger. She is fiercer, a wolf with no disguise. She did not like the idea of becoming a lady. She was strong and stubborn and quick, quiet like a mouse, sharp and smart.

[And she loved him best, and he loved her most.]