and when you're gone, will they say your name?

25 April 2010 @ 08:44 am

[log] i'm not scared of dying, i just don't want to

Three months or so have passed since Ewar was first given responsibility for the 'children', as Martel refers to them; if Ewar were to recount the conversation, he'd probably judiciously edit what was actually said to him ('make sure the children don't do anything miserably stupid while my back is turned') out of both tactfulness and loyalty.

It hasn't been a very taxing duty, but it's hard to say whether that's about to get better or worse when Martel amends his orders to 'I'm recovered enough, go and fetch her'. Ewar carries the message with him with his Lord's seal, and Martel occupies himself with his books while he waits.

He's not fully healed, and he doesn't have the range of movement without pain that he'd quite like- but it'll do. He's always chafed at idleness, and he suspects Magda has waited more than long enough.

Tags: [featuring] ewar, [log] arum, [with] magdalen kohlrabi

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10 March 2010 @ 12:25 pm

[log] but i pursue in vain the sinking god

The road to recovery is fraught with perils mostly the result of the man doing the recovering being a lousy patient. 'Uncooperative' is a kind word for his irritable attitude, and one can only assume that either the attending physician is being promised vast sums of money or a masochist. A distant third is the possibility of being just precisely that professional.

The wounds are cleaned, stitched (again - he's pitifully grateful for the nausea's passing), and healing; the physician watches closely for signs of an infection, but so far he seems to have been spared that, at least. This doesn't make it any less uncomfortably painful, and sleep comes fitfully at best. It's an altogether unpleasant experience and Martel spends much of it flat on his stomach, 'resting', partially because the physician threatened him with further bodily harm if he does anything now to rupture his stitches again.

Onelle's messenger ought to have found Candice by now, and since discovering that the Duchess sent word to his wife the thought has occurred to Martel that he's probably going to be in trouble when she compares one note to the other.

Tags: [log] arum, [log] treborea, [with] candice monaghan

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26 February 2010 @ 06:40 pm

[narrative] because honey you're murdering me

After the initial time spent drifting in and out of consciousness as the antidote began moving through his blood-stream, Martel spends a lot of time sincerely wishing he was still in that state over constantly bursting the stitches in his back when he's messily ill into the tin bucket by the bed. Nitral's personal physician stays with him through most of it, at least until he's able to go more than an hour or so without tearing his back open again retching. The cold sweat is almost worse and by the end of the week he's relatively sure that he's actually lost weight; there is a certain irony in his having been poisoned trying to protect the Duke, he thinks, and tries to be a good patient.

(He fails, mostly, but the physician is patient - and well-compensated for his patience.)

Onelle, Nitral's wife, brings him books to read and occasionally keeps him company simply out of, he thinks, gratitude. She's the one who brings him the paper and ink that he asks for, and who appraises him ahead of time that Koleika is taking the men ahead to Wenos to firmly discourage any more assassination attempts. She's also the one who pens the short note to Candice about Martel's condition ('incoherent' at time of writing), but the note he writes himself when he has the strength to master the spell needed to send it will probably reach his wife first.

I'll be late. Nothing to worry about. -M.

The problem that Martel doesn't consider is that Candice presumably knows him well enough to realize there is something to worry about if he feels obliged to tell her that there isn't. Sparhawk, too, gets one of these terse missives after it occurs to him that his brother may have been awaiting a response to his announcement that he'd made it back to their world.

Poisoned, irony of ironies. More details later. Don't do anything stupid. -M.

Onelle's messenger will reach Valdis a week after Martel's brief, ominous note. Martel endures the confinement and bedrest with poor grace, resting his chin on his folded arms and glaring at the wall that refuses to be intimidated by his pale, trembling irritation with the world.

Tags: [featuring] onelle, [featuring] sparhawk, [log] arum, [log] treborea, [narrative] purposeful, [with] candice monaghan

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21 January 2010 @ 01:08 am

[log] to bury my head, full of pain, in your skirts rendolent of your perfume

Several weeks ago.

For some time now, Martel's been steadfastly ignoring the knowledge wallowing in the back of his mind, and as much as he knows he can't continue ignoring it forever he'd really like to try. Relegated to the same place as 'Sparhawk used the word reconcile without spitting on it', his understanding of what he's been told lies not dormant enough for his comfort and in retrospect he sort of wishes he hadn't been able to grasp it so quickly. Another precious few moments ignorant, instead of this prissy refusal to examine the inside of his own mind-

He's not that self-pitying, he tells himself, and he's a very good liar.

"Candice?" he calls, pulling his gloves off as he comes down the hall towards wherever she's sequestered herself, having saved everyone a bit of time by merely asking where to find her when he arrived back from his bi-monthly tete-a-tete with the nearby chieftain and heading immediately in that direction. The problem with taking the time to go on horseback, alone, is that there's nothing better to do except think. He has a few thoughts, and there's really only one person he's inclined to share them with.

( in a slumber doubtful as death )

Tags: [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan

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23 October 2009 @ 12:29 pm

[log] i fall into the shadows, to the core of shattered things

After Henry and Hasi are gone following Ethina to their guestrooms, Martel speaks with Ewar briefly before meeting Langler at the library. No one (particularly Langler himself) is entirely sure why he's found himself more and more called upon personally - but nevertheless, there he is and he does as he's bid without complaining or questioning. The fact he's actually capable of working when he's set to it is probably why he's still got a place here in the first place- but that's not the point of this.

When Martel's satisfied with what he has noted down and has run out of errands to send Langler on, he dismisses him and files it away in his working library, and finally leaves work and wondering for the night. It's not nearly as late as it feels, just late enough that he can safely rely on expecting Candice to be in their rooms - which is his next destination. There are conversations he's been avoiding, and...he intends to continue avoiding them, but now he has something much, much more interesting.

And he prefers to spend as much of his time as possible in her company, yes, yes; obsession, thy name is Martel.

Tags: [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan

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01 October 2009 @ 03:58 pm

[log] we talked about the subjectivity of morals

Every now and again the opportunity to show someone (show off) his library arises and one of these days Martel won't immediately leap on it, but presumably that day is not today. He spends part of the morning ensuring that he can have at least two days free next week and nothing on that can't be rescheduled at the last minute to make room for those - he didn't know Enfys very well, but she was important to Candice and so she was important to him - and much of the rest of it making himself conveniently available to his aforementioned wife if she should like his company.

(He cancels everything that'd take him away from home before the week after next, and decides it'd be inappropriate to go to Tryst without her; he'll get around to apologizing to Hasi for skipping that 'personal invitation' sooner or later.)

In the afternoon, as promised (or bizarrely alluded to) Ewar is dispatched to 'collect' one (1) Henry Jekyll from the nexus. The wards have to be adjusted slightly to let him in, and mostly this means that no one can actually go directly to the castle from the nexus; there's a carriage waiting outside the estate's boundaries, which Henry will find himself hustled into by the aforementioned friendly kilt-wearing swordmaster.

(They weren't sure if he can ride, you see.)

Tags: [featuring] ewar, [log] arum, [with] henry jekyll

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08 April 2009 @ 06:53 pm

[log] and you can't get here fast enough

The lady of the house is expected home on the eighth, a full month after leaving, and since his schedule permits (it could as easily be a coincidence as something engineered, and it's a toss up as to whether Martel or Ewar would've done the engineering), Martel is there to meet her when she arrives home.

There's nothing especially unusual in the way he looks when he comes down the staircase to greet her; plainly dressed, his hair neatly tied back, he's probably been in the library for the better part of the day (with Koleika for some of that time, going back and forth as they do). Of course, he's pleased to see her: the point is that there doesn't seem to be anything justifying the fact that Ewar, a few steps back, is watching his lord like the man is a live snake.

Tags: [featuring] ewar, [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan

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19 March 2009 @ 11:07 pm

[prompt] thursday » absolute power.

Would you, I am asked, accept absolute power.

In recent years I told a man - brother and enemy, who survives me now as prince consort to a queen he raised, and I don't think I'll even begin to discuss that - that I am the lion, and thus, to me goes the lion's share. I'm sure I could provide you with a dozen references, easily, who would cynically predict my response, and I won't say the opportunity to be contrary isn't a pleasant little bonus of the fact they would, with a few possible exceptions, be wrong.

( Power doesn't exist in a vacuum. )

Tags: [log] arum, [prompt] charloft

12 March 2009 @ 04:22 pm

[log] but what's puzzling you is the nature of my game

The Brucolac's presence on Martel's property comes to his attention relatively quickly; he is his own security system, as it were. Really, he looks forward to when Severus completes the wards and he won't have to deal with unexpected guests (...as if this happens often, which it doesn't). Ewar's sent down to the library almost immediately to collect him, his expression decisively neutral.

"Sir," he says, matter of fact, "the Lord-" he makes it sound vaguely like some form of nickname, oddly, "-suggests you come and introduce yourself. I'll show you the way." It's undoubtedly obvious to everyone involved that this is not, actually, a suggestion - but fairly polite for how much Martel dislikes having his hard-won privacy invaded.

Tags: [featuring] ewar, [log] arum, [with] the brucolac

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05 March 2009 @ 09:14 pm

[log] time is never wasted when you've lived and learned

Between the things that keep Martel and Candice respectively quite busy, sometimes it takes him a while to corner her to talk (he can corner her really quickly for...other things), to appraise her of what he's been acquiring and generally to do something other than make a nuisance of himself.

Candice is quite possibly the most patient woman in the multiverse, sometimes. Martel likes to give the impression, occasionally, that he lacks any patience whatsoever; this is not true, like many things he likes to give the impression of from time to time.

"There you are."

Tags: [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan

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05 March 2009 @ 04:25 pm

[log] set their sights on something new while there's still something left

When Doul arrives, he'll be met at the guarded nexus door by a young Arum man by the name of Ewar, who introduces himself as his Lordship's swordmaster and informs the older man he'll be escorting him to aforementioned Lord.

Castle Valdis is...an interesting place. Old, very old, but much of it seems new or at least fresh clean; recently renovated, much of that only recently complete. It's a life's work, this place, and Martel is happy to make it his. The lights that follow through the building are seemingly glass torches, lit up with enchanted fire by a command. (Some of the Arum men seem more used to it than others, but they all take it roughly in stride.)

The staffing is sparse, only the necessities, and Doul is led to Martel's library - to which the most effort has been devoted in restoration. It's an impressive room, and large. Martel, lately Lord of Valdis, is at one of the tables nearer the fireplaces and their cushioned armchairs, bent over a choice of maps and family histories.

"Thank you, Ewar," he says, without looking up and almost before the door is quite open.

Tags: [log] arum, [with] uther doul

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11 February 2009 @ 04:39 pm

[log] but no one can assume the higher ground

Potentially against his better judgement, Martel's recently taken on another student - Anna, a sharp-eyed little thing from the nexus, plotting murder she's calling justice and he's calling vengeance in his head - and today he expects to see her, in the afternoon. There's a full morning's work that requires him before he can bathe and change his clothes (it's very physical work), and tell Ewar to collect the girl from the nexus doorway to see him in his study.

With the castle's required renovations more or less complete (the warding waits for Master Snape; Martel has more patience than some people realise), it's not an unimpressive place, and the casual touch of magic is fairly plain about it. If only because the unnatural choice in lighting is impossible to miss. On time, Martel doesn't wait; he works. (It's fascinating how much paperwork is actually manufactured by his endeavours, but he'd been aiming for Vanion's own desk once upon a time - he's not unprepared.)

Tags: [log] arum, [with] anna daughter of gorlois

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19 January 2009 @ 11:06 am

[log] i'm married to the sea but don't tell her i called her that

Sunday afternoon finds Martel ... working, as surprises probably no one. Idle hands and the devil's work, after all. He's in the library, at least, rather than shut away in his warded work rooms or the tower study. It makes him considerably easier to find, if preoccupied when you get to him.

The door that he directed Joseph to is precisely where and how he described it; locked on one side, with an armed guard of Arum mercenaries on the other. (Who already, conveniently, know to expect at some point a Joseph Kartell and to pass him off to Ewar as quickly as possible.)

Tags: [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan, [with] joseph kartell

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09 January 2009 @ 01:22 am

[log] i would just disappear if it weren't for you and your love like nails in my feet

[00:46] * Martel is in his study - settled at the top of his tower, where he can see most everything from, and where he's /really/ settled, looking as though he's been there for years and may or may not intend to winter there, too.
[00:48] * Candice comes to interrupt him, knocking at the door.
[00:49] Martel: "Come in," Martel says, distracted - though he's on his feet by the time he's realized who's knocking.
[00:51] * Candice meanders over, dressed--notably--in some of the fashions acquired via seamstress, though it's the lightest layer that's decent, long and sleeveless with a slit up one leg. "Are you very, very busy?"
[00:51] Martel: "Getting less busy by the moment," Martel says, putting himself between her and his desk smoothly. The interest in the slit up her leg is not feigned, but it /is/ convenient. "Hello, there."
( [00:53] * Candice eyes him like she thinks maybe putting himself between her and the desk isn't accidental. )

Tags: [log] arum, [with] candice monaghan