1865-08-20: The Betrayal of an Orderly Mind
The Betrayal of an Orderly Mind
Summary: As many thoughts as there are stars in the sky, and they keep coming back to this one.
Date: IC Date
Related: Pretty much anything over the past several days/
NPCs: {$npc}
Players:
Alina  

Alina lays in her bed in the al'Sylenthar manse in Lyioness, content with her day. A productive meeting with the Archduchess… a few pointed bits of information dropped, misdirection here and there, using her family's reputation and her own best to her advantage in negotiations… she did not gain anything noticeable of yet, but seeds when planted require time to grow.

Though she suspects in her exhaustion she may have not been quite as on her game as she might otherwise have been, what was the worst that could be— that the Arkanin realizes that she isn't the fool she plays at being? There were many that sometimes suspected that, especially since Father hasn't yet stripped her of her title of heir… something he wasn't likely to do in any event.

She stretches out, her skin scrubbed pink and raw from her bath, her damp hair combed out and drying on a silken pillow at the head of her bed. She is looking forward to the ending of all these tedious negotiations— the bulk of which is all but decided, if her conversations with the Archduchess and Princess Alessa indicate. It will be nice to have a friend in the south, even if that means it costs one in the court here.

She can always make more friends, after all; though none as fair as Alessa.

She lets out a sigh of mild discontent. It's none of her concern, though she feels… sorry for the poor girl. The Viscount Cassomir is a man of great reputation but rather boring personality, from what little Alina had seen of him. Perhaps he would be made less boring with Alessa around, but Alina… doubted it.

She regards her room, made perfect as she requires— everything clean, bereft of dirt and dust, in neat lines, perfectly in its place. She could not imagine sharing this with another. A husband would be inclined to mess and chaos. Even her brothers, both as well trained as they are, cannot manage without some chaos.

The light of the burning candles catches her eyes, reflected in the jeweled rose laying on the table beside her bed. It is the one thing out of place in the room and that would be enough to drive her to distraction normally. And that is why she is pointedly ignoring its presence.

Her life is orderly. Perfect. Everything planned, every potential outcome plotted, every line straight, every i dotted and t crossed.

And yet this was something she hadn't foreseen, she hadn't planned on. Using the Romante lord to further her own cover? That was a simple farce that should have been mindlessly carried out. He was a simple man, after all, a fool— incorrigible, a wastrel, useless…

…and yet, here he was, though miles and another country away, plaguing her thoughts and driving her normally ordered mind to chaos. His little trinket had already proved of use, politically and personally. But for whatever reason, her fingertips keep moving to touch it when she wears it. And whyever was she fool enough to give him her favor? Her favor, one that no one had ever been gifted, no matter who had ask it. And she had offered it!

To that… prince of fools.

She rolls over on her stomach, face drawing into a scowl. She expects better of herself. He is handsome, but there's nothing more to him that that, is there? Might there be something she somehow saw, she realized without realizing? She buries her face in her pillow and lets out a noise of rage and frustration. Why did he not fit into a neat little box?! Why could she not sleep without imagining his face as she drifted off these past several nights?

Alina sits up; then her bare body rises from the bed and she slips a silken robe on, tying it around her, moving to the window and looking out over the residential district. She stands there, musing for a time… on so many things that have been on her mind. Trade agreements, marriage contracts, troublesome vassals and secrets long kept. Lies and truths and betrayals new and old.

And… on one man that should not be in her thoughts at all.

She looks up at the stars.

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