Paris & Calais.
The Party had delivered their news to the Duke, received their rewards, seen Kivan and Yvonne reunited, and learned of the new guilds in town. Finally they were back in their house on the new Jouet town square.
Paris, having shed her armor in her own room and tidied what little she had else to leave there, stood herself in the doorway to Calais' room. "Calais, can we talk? I have an idea about how the Duke might change his mind about allowing you to study with his artisan. But -- you might not like the idea -- and it might not work right away -- but," she shrugged, "we could talk about it, you and I."
Calais: "Yeah, I had the feeling you understood what was going on there. What's it about?"
Paris started, "I could tell that the reason that the Duke is so reluctant to allow his artisan to train anyone is that the skills of an artisan could be turned to very bad purposes. The Duke has to be able to trust his artisan completely: his artisan has, almost literally, in his keeping all the Duke's treasures as well as the Duke's own safety and the safety of his entire household. Only a man beyond reproach and completely loyal to the Duke could be trusted with such duties. Someone who was neither, could easily betray the Duke and rob or kill him."
She continued, "And yet the skills of the Duke's artisan and that of a Master Thief are -- I would guess -- somewhat similar. One would need to know how a thief -- or many different styles of thieves -- or an assassin operates, in order to protect against them."
"The Duke's town probably wasn't completely free of evil men, of thieves, of those who would put their own gain before their Duke's honour -- even though his duty is to protect all in his domain. Any evil person who may have been gifted by the magic cards may think to do harm to the Duke or his property by ingratiating him -- or her -- self with someone as well trusted as the Duke's artisan. This was no doubt why he said so many have asked to train and help the artisan. Not everyone wants merely to train. Or to train in an honest trade."
"I know you have some of those skills, too, Calais. And I also think that you, like me, want to better the skills we now have. It is good to want to master one's talents -- or so I think. And I do not think you would intentionally betray the Duke. But, sometimes," she hesitates, "sometimes, you know, you do things -- take things -- without thinking about it, without meaning harm. In a place like the Duke's palace, though, that could never be allowed. I'm sure you understand that."
She breathes deeply. "However, I know -- and the Duke doesn't -- yet -- that once you have promised something, you keep your word. You have never ever broken a promise that I know of. So.. the thought I had was: if you were willing to swear loyalty to the Duke, to become his man above all others, then, I think, you would be the type of man the Duke could use as an artisan."
Paris watches Calais carefully to see his reaction to this idea -- and all her lengthy speech.
Calais seems to weigh Paris's words carefully, but he appears discouraged by her conclusion. "I know I sometimes end up with things that maybe I oughtn't, but as you say, it's not that I'm trying to steal stuff. It's just second nature for me to pick things up that I find lying around, and sometimes it turns out that maybe I should've left them where they were, and sometimes it turns out to have been a good thing that I picked them up.
"But the problem is that, like you said, I do it without even thinking about it, maybe not even realizing it. So how can I promise I won't? 'Cuz it's true, I keep my promises, so I won't promise something I can't live up to.
"'Course, you didn't really suggest promising never to pick things up that the Duke might rather I not. You said swearing loyalty to the Duke. If I did that, and promised not to take stuff deliberately, and always to give stuff back like I usually do anyway, would that be enough, do you think?
"Even that could be tough for me, though. You know I've never been one for listening to orders, at least not since Dad died. Do you really think I could ever really follow orders as loyally as you're talking about? Or is this not a question of following orders, but more a question of putting his interests ahead of mine? I think I could do that, 'specially it meant not having to scrape all the time for trainers to improve my skills."
Calais has been brightening a bit as he worked through all this, but then looks discouraged again. "But even if that would be enough, how is the Duke supposed to know how much importance I put in keeping my word? He can hardly, um, take my word for it. Do you think he would believe you if you told him? Or is that why you said it might not work for a while?"
Paris shakes her head. "I'd happily tell him this if he would listen to me. But there's no more reason, that I can think of, for him to listen to me than there is for him to listen to you. That is what I meant by it taking a while. We both should be on the look out for ways to prove ourselves, to prove that we can be trusted with the really important things, so then we can ask this favour for you. And be believed."
She pauses for a moment. "If I get any more ideas, I'll tell you. But this one was one that I knew wouldn't work if I sprang it on you out of the blue. It's you who has to know yourself well enough that you could swear the sort of oath the Duke would want. I know you can be trusted with anything or anyone or any situation -- if you've made up your mind you can."
Calais: "Okay, I'll try to spot opportunities to prove to the Duke that he can trust me. Like if we ever find out he needs something else done like we did finding the Magician and his books. But for now, I guess I'll have to find training on my own. And it's expensive. It's gonna cost me all the coppers we found on all those orcs just to train for one week, and that's even with me spending half my time helping to train others so I get a break on the price. It just doesn't seem fair that the others can just study in the Duke's library for free."
[Player note: Of course, some might argue that the money I'm spending is party treasure, so it works out. Still, if I have to scrape up this much money for every week of training, we'd better start finding richer orcs!]
"Oaths" copyright 1999 S.Knowles & D.Woods. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.