Session 7

Miranda helps to put the sobbing Duchess Manot to bed, then retires herself. As she lies crying in bed, she hears Jasra arguing with a couple of Palatine outside her door. Jasra is arguing that Miranda's been through a lot and wants them to wait until morning. They won't. Then the door opens and a black-garbed man enters with Jasra. He tells Miranda that she needs to roust herself for some questions, then goes into her study to wait. Jasra brings her a robe and asks if she's up to this. Miranda asks what they want. They need to verify who was there. Miranda responds that all of her friends were there, and bursts into tears again. Jasra says this will be too much for her and rubs a thumb over her cheek. Everything goes dark.

Miranda wakes up the next morning and lies in bed crying for a while. A servant eventually brings in a light breakfast and draws a bath. Afterwards, Miranda gets dressed, realizes she has no one to call on, and cries some more.

Eventually, Miranda recalls that she has a training lesson with Kail this morning. She doesn't much feel like attending, but forces herself to go down there out of duty. Kail is sword-fighting with a tall, pale man with short red-brown hair and blue eyes. A shorter, more androgynous-looking man with shoulder-length, black hair, brown eyes and a yellowish cast to his skin arrives behind her and tells Kail that his student is here. He has a strange accent. Kail stops and bows to her, at which point both other men do likewise. Kail introduces them to her. The tall man is Driscoll. The short one is Yut-Lung. Yut-Lung asks if this is the pupil Kail thought might want to learn weaponless combat from him. Yes. Miranda asks how one can fight without weapons. Yut-Lung offers to demonstrate with Kail. Kail keeps his practice sword. Yut-Lung asks to borrow Miranda's reticule, which he uses to grab the sword and move it aside while he fights. He eventually manages to disarm Kail and throw him, although he seems surprised at Kail's weight when he does so. Miranda admits she would like to learn how to do that. Kail suggests that perhaps today she should forgo her lesson. Miranda agrees and departs.

Miranda decides to see how Manot is doing, and goes to her quarters. There is no answer to her knock. A servant comes along with a breakfast tray at this point, and figures Manot must still be asleep. She opens the door and backs in, holding the tray. As the door opens, Miranda is able to see Manot's dangling feet over the girl's shoulders. It appears that she's hung herself. Miranda screams. The servant turns at this, drops the tray and screams as well. Then she pushes Miranda back out of the room, closes the door, and runs for help. Miranda remains staring numbly at the door. At some point, she is led back to her room, given something bitter to drink, and quickly falls asleep.

Miranda wakes up with the feeling that she's been asleep for a while. It's a bright, sunny day outside. She pulls the sheets up over her head and just lies there for a while. She hears someone enter the room, and the clinking of a breakfast tray. Then Jasra tells her to pull those sheets down. Miranda obeys. Jasra tells her she needs to eat. Miranda begins picking at the food with little interest. She's still very upset, and reiterates that all of her friends are gone. So make new ones. If she'd liked any of the remaining girls her age, she would have invited them to the ball. Jasra tells her that there will be a funeral. Miranda doesn't want to go. She has to. She argues that Merlin will just show up there and kill everyone. She says something about Merlin that makes Jasra ask what she hasn't told them. She explains how he warned her a few minutes in advance. Jasra asks why? Well, he knew about Trump, and that she could use it to escape. So why warn her in advance when she could have escaped anyway? That hadn't occurred to her. Jasra thinks he was just trying to torment her. Miranda tells her about the dream she had involving Merlin, and how he called her a nexus. Jasra isn't familiar with the term. Someone to whom things happen. Bad things, apparently. Given the way Merlin talked to her at the ball, she believes the dream conversation actually took place. She also tells Jasra that Merlin claimed he was in Thelbane all the time, but couldn't be seen. Jasra thinks that will have to be passed along to the Palatine. She also tells Miranda that there was something she could have done to save everyone. What? Trump out with Merlin. Miranda doubts that would have worked. Why? When she talked with him in the dream, he claimed he had the god Comet under his control. Jasra looks surprised. Miranda is bitter about Manot's death. What was the point in saving her if she was just going to kill herself? Jasra calls Manot a sentimental old fool. Miranda wants revenge against Merlin. Jasra says he could easily kill her. What's to stop him from coming to Barimen? Her father. He taught Merlin some of the things he knows. Merlin may have gone over the line in bothering Miranda, though. Was Merlin any good as a fighter? No. Then again, Miranda figures she isn't all that good either. She'll have to work on that. Jasra gives her an appraising look and asks if she wants revenge that badly. He killed all of her friends! Yes, she wants it that badly. Jasra has an idea, but she's not sure Brand would approve. Why not? He doesn't like exposing her to danger, and Jasra's idea will do that, but might help against Merlin. Miranda figures they may as well take advantage of the fact that Merlin is likely to bother her again anyway. Jasra asks if Miranda trusts her. Yes. She'll have to. Then Jasra runs her thumb over Miranda's cheek again and says they'll talk more of this later. Miranda asks how long she was sleeping. Three days.

A week after the explosion, the funeral takes place. Driscoll and Yut-Lung are acting as Miranda's bodyguards. Lord Bances gives a nice speech about how the victims died having fun, which Miranda knows is completely untrue given the panic she witnessed. Then the Emperor speaks. He looks very old, and goes on about pain being a way of life, Merlin will be caught and punished, and a way has been found to prevent him from attacking again with technology. Technology is still bad, not just by his dictate but their god's. It is the will of the Serpent that technology is still forbidden, and anyone who uses it will suffer. As Merlin will suffer.

After this cheery speech, there is a reception organized by House Medraut. Miranda does her best to avoid the Hendrakes, knowing Driscoll's history with them. She also tries to steer clear of anyone from House Medraut, since she's been warned to avoid them if she can. This is mainly because Medraut is a house of couriers, and they would be extremely interested in the power of Trump if they knew it existed. One of the women of House Medraut does try to approach Miranda during the reception, but Miranda manages to avoid her for a time without being obvious about it. The woman tries again after Miranda has moved back to join her family. When Jasra notices her approaching, she suggests they meet one of their hosts. The woman introduces herself as Maseera. Miranda says it's a shame they have to meet under such circumstances. The deaths are touched on briefly. Maseera says she hopes Deirdre turns up. Miranda hadn't heard she was among the dead. She knows Deirdre wasn't at the party, but says nothing. Maseera says she's heard that Miranda represents Barimen on the Assembly. Yes. Maseera may be asking her for advice, then, since she'll be replacing her sister, Faiella. Miranda recalls that Faiella, who died at the party, was Medraut's representative. She warns Maseera that most Assembly members won't take her seriously because of her age.

After Miranda and Jasra move on, Miranda tells her mother quietly that Deirdre wasn't at the party. She knows, but Deirdre tends to go off on her own sometimes. For now, they'll let everyone continue to think she's dead. Then Jasra says, more loudly, that they should go mingle with the Hendrakes. Then she smiles at Driscoll. Just kidding.

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Last modified on September 6, 2001 by Kris Fazzari.