:( :( :( 

Welp. Time to do his new job. 

The day immediately following the end of her contract, she bids farewell to her company (they all very sympathetically wish her luck; they're assuming she's off northward to deal with some manner of Witchy Bullshit) and then drops by a slightly different field office, set up quite the same way, where Marshall and Roderick are poring over a map.

"Excuse me," chirps the Farseer. "Sorry, Ser Riordan, could I please borrow Commander Patricks for just a moment?" 

Squint. Didn't they break up? He thought they broke up. Marshall was sulking about it for weeks. "...sure." 

"Good morning, Farseer. How can I h--" 

Nope no talking it is kissing time. 

??? okay ?? ?? ? ? ? yay ??? 

Just briefly, though, they have other business. "Right! With that made sufficiently clear, you good for me to go have diplomatic negotiations with your mother about the hypothetical future inheritance situation?" 

??? is ??? is that a ??? good idea ???? he thought several years ago that it was a very appealing idea but he kind of assumed after getting to know her better that it was not a very realistic option ????? 

rod help,,, you are an adultier adult,,,

sorry dude can't help you with your noble politics bullshit. this is a regular-ass soldier who is busy laughing too hard to breathe 

??? 
"............if? you want? to do that? yes?" 

"Good good. Talk soon. Don't die." 

Blink blink blink. "I will as ever do my best." 

And away south goes the witch. 

"The Baroness will see you now." 

"Thank you." She will glide in, feet just slightly off the ground. 

(Overland Flight isn't that often worth the slot, even for people who hit fifth this year after all that drama with the mirrors and are still really excited about it, not when it's competing with Teleport and especially not if it's competing with combat spells, but having it still going for enough of the day that she clearly can't've just been keeping fly up works great for very genteelly yet pointedly highlighting being a serious wizard. Especially when she's spent her last several years on Crusade and even in brand new clothes definitely gives off the distinct impression of being more of a soldier than a court lady. Floating helps with that too, really, it means she can arrange her limbs into an appropriately elegant posture and then simply not move any of them.)

"Your grace, thank you for your time," she greets her counterpart politely. The cloak-flourishing curtsey she was taught as a child (behold, how I respectfully doff my protective furs, for I have accepted your hospitality) is definitely wildly foreign-looking to the Taldane eye, but it seems worse to try to do the local one badly.  

After considerable use of the castellan as intermediary so that she didn't have to personally admit to her visitor's face that she had no earthly idea what the appropriate style is for politely addressing a White Witch of Irrisen, the Baroness does know now, and she sounds completely confident, like she definitely didn't learn several new vocabulary words this morning. "Jadwiga Aelena, welcome." In direct descent from the witch-queen, no matter how many steps, they share the name, and are called all the same title, unless they are additionally serving some political leadership role. And of course they would not now be having this conversation, if this particular one were doing anything of the sort, no matter how well-written the letter she had sent ahead of herself. "I have considered your proposition carefully. Naturally I cannot entertain romantic flights of fancy without due cause, but you make, I must say, a compelling case." 

(a fifth-circle crusade wizard! of arguably royal descent! of course they want that in their bloodline if it's on offer! normally nobody gets that for their highly successful swordsman sons unless the sons in question are making really appalling adventuring party decisions but this one offered to swear to an Abadaran that Marshall has been a perfect gentleman the entire time she's known him! if she's bad at sounding high-class at parties they can just delegate that to a cousin!) 

 "However, there remains the very concerning fact that any daughter of yours cannot in any enduring sense be properly a granddaughter of mine." It's not that bad if a witch's daughters predictably get funny ideas about women's place in society, if they think they can get special treatment in this respect by virtue of magical talent and a good upper-class education they'll simply be objectively correct about that, but it is a huge problem if her children get, you know, eaten by the Baba Yaga at age ten. You can't make reliable marriage alliances with them that way. 

"Indeed they could not, no. That is why I fully intend to never have any," Avaryne says, cheerfully. "We have a spell for choosing the sex of a child, you see. My cousins are in the habit of using it to ensure an optimal number of daughters but there is no reason it can't be used in the opposite manner. I will someday be spirited away to wherever it is She takes us; my sons will not."

"Fascinating." And reassuring. "Ah ... I apologize for my bluntness, but it does seem rather important to avoid any misunderstandings on this particular point... I have heard it said that the Jadwiga kill their sons, if they manifest magic?" And in most families with a bloodline sorcery, it seems to turn up just about as often in the one as the other. 

Wince. "We are by the law of Irrisen obliged to do so, yes. Here, however, I understand that such uncivilized behavior would be frowned upon by the glorious Emperor of Taldor may he live forever? A fact which certainly I would not dream of disregarding regardless of my personal feelings on the subject." She assesses the Baroness's facial expression carefully, and then adds, in a slightly different less formal tone, "...and to be clear I also don't want to, I think it's a stupid law." 

Well. All right then.