Siv On Marriage

Longbeard Den
Firelit, this comfortable chamber above the Longbeard Tavern holds many amenities for the casual guest of The Mountain. While the light is perpetually dim and there is a faint haze of wood-smoke in the room, it seems rather large, perhaps big enough to comfortably hold a number of dwarf-sized sofas, easy chairs, and small tables. While the room is primarily used for relaxation away from the hubbub of the common room below, a large table in the center of the chamber for games and meetings is still available. Stately doors of mahogany and walnut at each quadrant of the chamber lead to private salons.

Elendor time is: Mid Afternoon (1600) on Hevensday, Day 9 of February 3045.
In the outer world's overcast Winter sky, Tonight the moon will be waxing crescent.

Leather and applewood smoke perfume the air. It is a quiet room, quieter now for being mid-day a place for a serene conversations or a thoughtful pipe shared with a friend. Hildis stands watching her brother and father leave. Her father's expression is still severe she had insisted that she would like to stay and enjoy the comfort of the room and he was not happy with her.

She sits spreading the wide skirts of her embroidered gown round her carefully and contemplates the crackling fire. It gives a rich glow to her iron red hair and beard and plays tricks with the green stones braided into them, turning the green to brown and amber. She sighs and settles herself into the chair.

[Siv(#24218)] Another dwarven woman slips into the room this one glad in a long skirt of silvery blue, small flowers embroidered in long stripes down the length of it. It's Siv, and she makes her way to an empty table, probably to order some food for lunch. SHe walks right by Hildis's brother and father, not recognizing them.

There is movement in the room, Hildis peers around her wing backed chair, her beard flowing over its stuffed arm as she looks. Her green eyes widen and she sits back abruptly in the safety of the wings, her lips pursed as though considering something,

[Siv(#24218)] "Oh, hello Hildis!" Siv calls cheerfully, spotting the woman. "Having a bit of lunch? That's what I'm here for...how are you?"

Hildis smiles to herself, shrugging slightly at her own attempt at hiding and looks around the chair. "Siv! Finished already, my father and brother and I had lunch together. And...I'm fine, thank you. How does the day find you?"

[Siv(#24218)] "Good, good," Siv pulls out a chair at Hildis's table and sits down, signalling a server over to her. "Ale please...and stew..." She looks back to Hildis, hands folded on the table before her now. "I ran into Ranol the other day. He's very upset by any mention of his father."

With an expression of mild amusment Hildis watches Siv join her but mention of Ranol smoothes her face into bland expectation. "Natural - considering the circumstances. His father left today or yesterday it may have been."

[Siv(#24218)] "But where was he going? and what is he doing?" Siv asks, digging out coin from purse as the server now sets food and drink before her. "And Ranol seems to think that any mention of Ranor at all is dangerous and detrimental. And he got angry when I said his father had threatened me."

 The Barazin dwarf inadvertently takes a deep breath at Ranol's name. No answer is forthcoming from her, she sinks back into the arms of the chair, eyes averted perhaps carefully considering her words. "He is going to visit family in the Iron Mountains, a brother, I believe. And if your family were involved in something as unsavory as Ranor has been or seems to have been, wouldn't you be irritable at the mention of it?"

[Siv(#24218)] "Suppose so," Siv shrugs, blowing on a spoonful of hot stew. "I guess it -is- his father after all...but...well, I still wonder what it was all about. Don't you? And why he was let off in that way? I mean, he had you deliver a letter to a known criminal. Do you think it was gambling debts?"

Siv's questions set Hildis off on a longer round of silent contemplation. The fire crackles and there is the muffled clink of bottles being moved behind the bar. "Would that I knew. Something serious enough to have me in jail, that is certain. But I have never learned what the letter said. I didn't know there were gambling debts on him..."

[Siv(#24218)] "But that's the rumors, no? He's in debt up to his ears, or so I had thought?" Siv replies, alternating between soup and ale. "But then, of course the whole family would keep that kind of thing to themselves, and you know how inaccurate rumors can be. Or accurate....I don't know. Why would he try to get in touch with a known criminal?"

And that question provokes a laugh from Hildis, far from humorous, sadness and irony darken her expression. "You are asking all of the questions I spent many long hours with in that jail cell. So, perhaps, gambling debts are behind it. But behind what? If we do not know who wrote the letter and what it said...well, we can only speculate."

[Siv(#24218)] "Well...speculation will get you nowhere. I -do- know..."

"What do you know, Siv?" Hildis asks despite herself.

[Siv(#24218)] "Well...speculation will get you nowhere. I -do- know..." Siv glances over her shoulder, then drops her voice, "Ranol picked up one of his father's gambling debts 3 yearas ago, but Ranor's gambling debts have been increasing since then. So more than likely it's about that."

"Poor Ranol. He will only be able to do so much. There will be a time where his father will outrun himself completely and then Ranor will be ruined, I think." Hildis frowns hard at Siv's words. She lifts a hand to a passing server and makes a circular gesture over her tankard and Siv's to order another round.

[Siv(#24218)] "Thanks," Siv grins. "The stew is good if you'd like some, too. In any case, I think you are right. Ranor's debts are going to overpower Ranol one day. Makes him a poor marriage prospect, if you ask me." She eyes Hildis.

Hildis returns her gaze, a small smile playing around her lips, as she nods her assent. "If money were the only reason to marry, I would agree with you," she shrugs. The tankards are brought and lined up next to the ones on the table. The Barazin lays a coin on the table and waits for Siv's response.

[Siv(#24218)] "Well!" Siv takes a deep breath as if to launch into a long diatribe, though her tone is not angry. "Marriage -is- a business arrangement of sorts and if you completely ignore the issue of money and the major problems that it may cause, then you're a fool."

Eyebrows raised, Hildis listens, her smile deepening at the word fool. "Ah, I have been looking for the word to describe myself, then. Fool." She does not reach for the tankard but folds her hands in her lap, contemplating them as she murmurs, "A good dwarf always looks to accumulate more, doesn't one? Poverty is a source of conflict, I would think. But in the history of my house, I have never heard of it..."

[Siv(#24218)] "Nay, not poverty, but debts hanging over your head, a constant source of worry and irritation," Siv answers. "Mark my words, it will eat at the two of you. That is, should you decide to marry. What is love? A passing fancy, after all, that will be slowly worn down by the daily irritations and worries of time and life. And a debt hanging over your head, from his out of control father? That's the worst possible scenario ever. Sure, -now- you say you love him and will walk through fire with him. But 10, 20, 50 years hence, when there are babies crying at your feet for food, grown children asking for money, a business that falters because of the weight of Ranor's debt? Then it will be an irritation and a sore that comes between you, that never goes away."

"I have not said I love him, nor he I, Siv. I feel I hardly know him but attracted I am." HIldis colors deeply at her own words. "Nor is a son expected to take on his father's debts. Ranol chose to but I think he won't take on anymore, he is not bereft of sense though he is honorable as any dwarf. If his mother and sister need help then I expect, from what I know of him he will take care of them without a murmur. His poor sister - without a dowry...

She does not finish her sentence, anger hardens her eyes when she says, "Ranor cannot escape the consequences of whatever he has done forever. I won't believe it. But he is not in jail..yet."

[Siv(#24218)] Siv hmmphs quietly. "Well, just make sure that if you go into anything, you go into it with your eyes open, Hildis. Why, you yourself just said to me that Ranor's debts will bury Ranol, no? Or did I hear wrongly?"

"I think...I think he will not take on more but will certainly care for the family," she replies without certainty. "What is Lord Gimli thiking letting him go away so blithely? Investments and letters dangerous enough for me to go to jail with no explanation. Well? Zinbar pushed it, Zinbar must know why?" Hildis narrows her eyes at Siv.

[Siv(#24218)] "Don't look at me!" Siv replies, alarmed. "Thane Ovor doesn't reveal his secrets to his clan, least of all to me! If you want to know what Zinbar's invovlement and knowledge of this is, then ask him yourself! Or ask Braldor--he's the one that set Ranor free, after all."

Hildis appraises Siv's face for the truth and nods. "Then, I will."

[Siv(#24218)] Siv arches a brow. "Which? Ovor or Braldor?"

"Both, I think...Braldor to begin," she taps her lips speculating and then takes up her tankard and takes a long quaff. Putting it down, she smiles, relief and decision in her face. "I have waited and been patient, all the while they thought me guilty. No longer, I think. No longer."

[Siv(#24218)] "I think that is a fine idea, Hildis!" Siv smiles, encouraging the woman. "You were accused, after all--you are entitled to answers. I agree wholeheartedly."

Doubt clouds Hildis's expression when Siv seconds her so enthusiastically. But she nods and then nods again seeming to find her way back to confidence. "Ranal mentioned that you had...talked the other day, Siv. But he wasn't happy about it for some reason."

[Siv(#24218)] "Oh?" Siv answers lightly, stabbing a piece of meat from the stew with her fork. "What exactly did he say? I know he was upset--I brought up his father, after all."
Siv says, "yes."

 Shaking her head Hildis shrugs, "Only that ...only, he met you and did not want to talk about it."

[Siv(#24218)] "Really now?" Siv laughs, her eyes twinkling merrily. "Well...now that's interesting. Well, we spoke of a few things here and there. His father--I made him angry about it. And...other things." She shrugs, picking up her ale and looking as if she is not likely to say more on that.

Something of HIldis's stubborn Barazin streak shows itself. "Marriage?"

[Siv(#24218)] "With Ranol? Don't be a ninny, Hildis," Siv says. "Of course not. I told you--I'm not marrying Ranol, nor any other man. I've made my choice."

Ninny nearly gets a rise out of her, Hildis colors and she bites her lips till her moustache nearly covers them. "Then what would make him so angry, Siv? What is the mystery about that made you both so upset?"

[Siv(#24218)] "Oh! That?" Siv drains her ale. "Why it was my bringing up his father and the letter and the fact that the I mentioned that Ranor had threatened me. And then I threatened to go to Thane Ovor about it, and he accused me of being a tattletale. That's what made him angry."

"-That-made him angry?" Hildis shakes her head in bewilderment. "You should go to Thane Ovor if you were threatened."

[Siv(#24218)] "Why? What's the point? Ranol seemed to think I was just further spreading lies and rumors and accusations about his father and that I was being a crybaby." Siv considers, then shakes her head. "On the other hand, if Ranor tries anything..."

"Dragon's breath may burn my bones," Hildis intones. "But a threat is a threat. What would he threaten you about though?"

[Siv(#24218)] "Well...first, he came to me after the whole thing with Thari and said that he would support me. That he thought that Thari's father and clan were very rich and that they used it to control everything and everyone, and that Thari accusing me of slandering her was just a ploy to further the interests of her clan. And then he said some very nasty things about Thari and Frarin's personal life, which I won't repeat." Siv pauses for breath. "And then, when I came to him after you were arrested, I guessed that he had given you the letter--I asked him about it, and suddenly he was telling me to keep my mouth shut and threatening me that I would regret it and that he would start supporting his niece in matters. As if he ever actually did anything at all for me in the first place.... "

Hildis opens her mouth several times as if to speak but waves her hand at Siv to go on. After a long quaff of ale she sets her tankard down and considers Siv a moment. "Ranor carries the suspicion of jealousy and believes himself the victim of everyone but his own bad decisions. If you go to Thane Ovor then it will be one more piece in the puzzle of all of this. You know he will deny it, Ranor will. He denied giving me the letter in the first place."

[Siv(#24218)] "Well," Siv says, standing now, "I think I will do that. Yes, right away in fact. Thank you Hildis!" she chirps, hurrying out of the pub.