FANPORT OVERFLOW LOG

[maskormods]

WHO: ImPorts!
WHERE: Heropa's Convention Centre.
WHEN: April 14-16, from 9 AM - 12 AM every day.
WHAT: Registration is in motion alongside FanPort, the most popular imPort convention around! Come on in and see imPort-led panels, the artist's alley, cosplayers, and more! If you have any questions, or wish to amend the way we have written up your characters' panels, let us know here! The original log can be found HERE.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; please let us know if this should be changed.

Comments

[protects_the_small]

[Kel closes her eyes and breathes out slowly.]

It seemed too neat. I wasn't sure I believed it.

[The relief is palpable. She couldn't ask Peachblossom, naturally, and the thought that her people couldn't get attacked (again) without her there (again) took away a weight she'd forgot she was carrying.]

[vorbarra]

Was that worrying you? You haven't abandoned any of your duties by being here, I promise.

[protects_the_small]

A bit. I'd hate to lose my first posting by mysteriously deserting without meaning to.

[That and she already used up her 'get out of treason free' card]

[vorbarra]

[ She might be surprised to learn that Gregor's had to lean on the technicality that the Emperor can't commit treason before. ]

God, you aren't kidding. The hardest part of my cover as Vorthys was that I had to pretend to be a deserter. I did leave, but I went back of my own volition. [ Which he has been trying to convince himself is enough to make up for said departure. But Kitty's words about not expecting himself to be inhuman dug deep and found a home somewhere... How else could he be expected to react to news like that? ]

[protects_the_small]

[Kel is quiet for a while, it seems like an off-hand remark and probably does not require a confession in return, and yet-

Somehow, she very much trusts Gregor. And this is, perhaps, something he should know if they are to be friends]

[Quietly:] I did. Desert once. Or something enough like it that it shouldn't have made a difference.

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor goes still and reserved. Desertion is tantamount to treason, absolutely as serious a crime as one might expect on Barrayar. In some circumstances that's still punished by exposure in the public square, if one is Vor.

But he knows Kel well enough by now to suspect there is more behind this story, just as there is more behind his.

Just as quietly, ] But like me, you went back. You must have.

[protects_the_small]

[Flatly:]
There was an attack while I was delivering messages to my commanding officer. They slaughtered my soldiers and took my people to be sold as slaves and their children to have their souls enslaved for the Scanrans' killing devices.

My lord ordered me back to his fort after I'd finished burying the dead.

[She does not blame Lord Wyldon, of course, not after what Owen had told her. But he had still been wrong.]

I did go back, but not until I had them all. I couldn't have abandoned them at the border.

[vorbarra]

[ He lets out a breath in sympathy. He can see both sides of this, but... ]

No Barrayaran would expect you to obey an order like that, if it helps. Anyone who'd abandon their sworn duty to their people would be brought up on charges much worse than insubordination.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel gives him a very small smile. It does help, a little]

I was not charged, in any case. Or those who helped me. [The blockheads.] I think it helped to get rid of the mage who was building the killing devices.

[vorbarra]

[ A soft, brief laugh. ]

I can see why your lord trusts you with responsibility. He sounds like a good man.

[protects_the_small]

[Simply:]

Lord Wyldon is a hero, and the kind of knight I want to be.

...Even if he does always wish I were born a boy.

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor snorts. ]

Because it'd make his life easier? [ he says dryly. ] Amazing how many eminently respectable men wish women would quietly go away and not make trouble.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel considers this quietly for a few moments. Generally, she had stopped guessing at Wyldon's motivations on things since she had become a squire, and of course the last time she'd seen him she had been certain she was going to be executed for treason, but....]

I do not think it is that.... Exactly. It would be easier for him, yes, but only because I force him to consider things he isn't used to. My friend Neal told me once that you can hit people in the face with a haddock and they'll call it a mouse if that's what they want to see. [Wry grin] Neal is the one with a dramatic flare.

Anyway, my lord Wyldon would rather the haddock didn't exist so he wouldn't have to call it something else. [Kel makes a face]
...If that makes sense.

[vorbarra]

[ Gregor takes this in with his characteristic attentive listening. ]

I can't say I'm unfamiliar with that conundrum. My favorite bodyguard as a child was a woman, but it had to be an unofficial posting. She was my mother's attendant or my babysitter-- she just happened to be able to wrestle the majority of the service to the floor.

[ Indeed, he sounds wistfully affectionate as he recounts this. ]

[protects_the_small]

That does sound like a way to trip up assassins who might be dismissive.

[IE: the stupid ones]

[vorbarra]

You're not wrong.

But I know it always bothered her that others saw a discrepancy in her as a woman and as a combatant. She was allowed to be one but not both at any given time.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel nods at that one, Goddess knew her own friends probably had trouble thinking of her as one or the other at the beginning]

I wore dresses to meals, just to make sure they couldn't forget. My mother was shocked when I wrote to ask for more to be sent, since I always hated wearing them back home.

[vorbarra]

But when you get to stick it in their faces, it's worth it? I don't blame you.

That must be quite an adjustment about being here.

[protects_the_small]

I didn't want them to ever think I was ashamed. That was one way.

....Yes, it's rather odd to have people focus on the 'knight' part rather than the 'lady'.

[vorbarra]

I admit I'm not familiar with knights myself. We seem to have skipped that element of feudalism on Barrayar. We do have Armsmen, but they're not quite the same.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel tilts her head and looks at him, interested]

How would you say they differ?

[vorbarra]

I can't speak to how knights operate in your country, but Armsmen are a Count's private force, whose oath to their lord is seen as sufficient defense against even treason if they were operating under orders. There's a limit of twenty per Count. Historically they've often functioned as a defense against Imperial tyranny when necessary, though fortunately that's not something I've had to contend with.

[ Seeing as he's not a tyrant. ]

In practice they're... effectively members of the family. They and their families live with their liege-lord and operate as batmen, bodyguards and attendants.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel shakes her head]

Every fief has guards, depending on how rich they are, but I would say rarely do they become family... Perhaps in the older, richer fiefdoms.

[A small smile] -which mine is not.

Knights are usually the heirs, though if your family has enough money for armor, sending younger sons is common too. Pages train for four years in the palace, basic fighting and an education, then are squired for another four. Usually to a friend of the family, though knights will take an interest if they have a wish to teach. A knight's first loyalty is to their people if they're an heir and then to the Crown.

[vorbarra]

[ He hadn't totally realized she has a fief, which reads to Gregor that she's the daughter of a District Count, making her higher up the rankings in his estimation than he'd previously assessed.

Knights as heirs is very surprising to him. ] That's totally different, [ he admits ruefully. ] Count's heirs go through the military academy and serve once their schooling is finished, by convention though not law-- and before the academy, their education was through an apprenticeship system more like what you describe, but...

[ Gregor shakes his head. ] That's not what I was expecting. Vor would never become Armsmen; it's an honored position for proles, often veterans or former members of the municipal guard. They're lifetime appointments.

[protects_the_small]

[Kel frowns and shakes her head]

That sounds more like castle guards or.... Or the army. Those are for common folk, only the nobility may become knights. The Prince Heir must be knighted, if he couldn't pass his Ordeal of Knighthood, there's no way he would pass his Ordeal of Kingship.

[She grimaces slightly] -it may be my family is just odd. We were away from our fief for most of my childhood, and then I went to page training. I never got to know our people very well.