Legend of Ransera

Aurin's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't frown. At least Reiner was being real; he could respect that.

"Thanks," he said and, for once, it didn't sound mocking.

"If I stop being useful to your cousin, your goodwill would hardly change that. And..." He laughed at nobody's expense in particular. "Never fucked a wing boy. I'm not from Kalzasi. Don't particularly like being considered anyone's inferior, wing boy, fellow human, or other. Might let one suck me off to let off some irritation, but..." He shrugged.

"I asked because I didn't know and I wanted to know. Lots of... Kathalan names... others not so much... Dardouen, Angevin... Whatever. I'm a rover. I try to understand the people wherever I go, the better not to make some faux pas and get my ass strung up."

He took a thoughtful draught of his draught.

"I find you hard to read too. I mean, sometimes it's obvious what you're thinking, but a lot of the time... not." He shrugged. "Mysteries are intriguing. Not trying to social climb or climb into your bed. Just trying. Tell me to stop and I will, though. I'm a bastard, I know, and not everybody's cup of tea. No offense. I'd respect an honest verpiss dich more than... I don't know, putting up with me."

Aurin glanced down at the dog and tried, "Verpiss dich."

She wagged her tail and licked her chops, eyeing him expectantly. He sighed, mumbled, "was worth a shot."

Aurin almost rolled his eyes and countered with how blatantly Dornkirk and Kämpfer were about the fact that they were fucking, but he was trying not to antagonize the prickly little Schönling and actually... maybe he didn't realize he wasn't so slick about it. Or maybe he had just crawled that far into the closet. Or maybe Kämpfer was pulling a masterful long-game on him. As another bad, bad man, he could respect that too.

In any case, he was getting more coherent and thoughtful words out of Dornkirk than perhaps he ever had so he could reel it in, play it cool, and see if they couldn't be friends.

"I think that's the most words I've heard you speak at once, though," he said, smiling more than smirking, trying to telegraph that he was pleased about it and not mocking. "Anyway, leave the poor bitch alone. She deserves better than me." He gave her head a pat; she whined and put her paw upon his knee. "Oh, come on, you should play hard to get or I'm going to have to tell people Zaichaeri bitches are easy." He laughed a little. Then, thoughtful, "Have I spoken ill of your fatherland? I don't think I have. I don't hate Zaichaer—wouldn't keep coming back if I did. When I lived here, I was poor enough people in the Knob would sooner spit on me as look at me, human or not. Took a chance on Kalzasi, lived in the Midden for a while until I clawed my way up into the Low City and then..." He shrugged. "Managed to make it work. I'm not a Kalzasern citizen. I don't share in any political animus that lionizes one race over another—which isn't a read of Zaichaer either. I've had to sweat or bleed for everything I've ever gotten. So do I want Zaichaer to trounce Kalzasi? Not really, because I don't want my house burning down. It's small, but it's mine. Do I want you licking Avialae boots? No, I don't want that either.

"I'm glad you all are out of the crucible. Hopefully you won't need a rifle again any time soon."

He raised his glass. "To the Zaichaeri Pax."

Then he caught the bartender's eye and threw up two fingers for another round.

"I said I was asking," he reminded Reiner. "As an outsider everywhere I go, I wanted to understand why so many Zaichaeri cling to Kathalan and not other languages that are part of it's history. Not that I'm a great student of... well, anything... but also history."

He sipped meditatively through Reiner's rejoinders.

"It's not really about being too good for this place or that place," he realized softly, a moment of honesty before he smirked at himself. If he was sharp with others, they shouldn't be surprised to know that he cut himself bloody with his own wit most of the time. "I come here and there are things I like and things I don't like, but I don't fit. I've had success in Kalzasi, but I don't fit there either. A couple of jobs have come my way from Gel'Grandal, so I have spent some time there. Believe me, I don't want them annexing anyone. The capital's under lock and key, but you go out into the duchies and..." He shook his head.

"Maybe I'm not good enough for Zaichaer, huh? Couldn't make it work. What's that say about me?"

He laid himself open, just a bit, but like many people with his sense of humor, even if it was honest, it was part of some game whose rules even he didn't know.

"Pax is a fancy word for peace. Dunno, thought it suited the High City of Karnor."

"There's dissent in the duchies," he said plainly. "The emperor demands too much in taxes and doesn't dole out much beyond 'the protection of his Kathar', but it sounds like tax collectors and bureaucrats are most of what they see. Nobody in their right mind is going to attack the Imperium without an alliance of smaller powers, y'know? Like, maybe if Karnor was united and Zaichaer was willing to work with the Dratori to pincer attack or something... Assuming Sangen wouldn't step up to help. Never know with those bastards." He even made the air quotes appropriately.

"At least your cousin's sending soldiers to patrol the roads to keep them safe, sending bread and medicine. Like I said, there's plenty about Zaichaer to admire. Again, I'm no big brain. Clever, maybe, but not intelligent. Seems to me the Imperium got too big, too complacent, and now too focused on the people in the capital. So maybe Zaichaer will annex them before long, eh?"

The last was a joke, mostly, but he grinned and drained his glass as he saw the next round en route.

"Eh, you're all right. Putting in the effort and all that. Spilled your blood, too. Ah... most of Ailizane... Sol'Valen, yes. Not so much Dalquia. Passed through it once or twice en route to the Imperium. The elves of Ecith, too, but not the Orkhan. There's something queer about them." He couldn't put his finger on it, so he shook his head. "Cathena, Auris, most of Karnor. Chasing work. Chasing tail.

"How about you? Ever trooped past the borders?"

He raised his new doppelbock and took a sip.

"Oh, you're telling me," he agreed with some gusto. "The Kalzasern rich will contort fit to make a whore blush to get out of paying this or that tax. For the theater's sake, I talk them into donations that they can use as tax write-offs. The spend some to save more, and artists get to work and eat and be housed and all. And they still want you to kiss their asses for their generosity." He rolled his eyes. "Rich are like that most places, it seems. If not playing the bureaucracy, then..." He shrugged, shook his head, and took a drink.

"Orkhan live in the jungles. Elves live in the desert. Ran away from Sol'Valen back... I don't even know how far back. Mingled with the grey elves of Auris or their kin... were enslaved by the humans down there, then eventually turned the tables on them. Fucked some dragons. Would think it some bard's wet dream if I hadn't seen it for myself. Humans aren't treated so bad, even have their place in the government, but it's the elves and, more recently, the dragons again who rule. Use that hypnotism magic to keep people content. I guess they're content, though." He shrugged. "Just another place I don't fit in.

"Anyway, I'm no Kalzasern citizen, so if Zaichaer moved in, I wouldn't rightly care so long as I still had a job, means to feed myself. And maybe you'd make me lick your jackboots, or maybe you'd have come had drinks with me and your cousins." He shrugged. "Maybe they were just being polite, but they came to see a show and rub elbows a bit. Didn't realize they were there to crash the wedding party. Clever, eh?"

Aurin would have loved to know the full story on that. From what he gathered, elements from the Imperium, Zaichaer, and possibly some actual pirates had conspired to sneak past Kalzasern security, swan into Talon Novalys' wedding feast, and fuck everything up. One had to admire the audacity and competence they had shown. Of course, if Arry hadn't made it out of the party unscathed, Aurin would have torn a rift through Zaichaer himself somehow, choked the Dornkirks out with his bare hands and skull fucked their corpses in front of their pretty wives, and... but Arry had, so he could party with the Zaichaeri elite. No point getting upset about might-have-beens.

"Anyway, hearing rumors your cousin's going to incentivize people to make more Zaichaeri babies with tax breaks for married couples and people with children. Going to take a page from the rich and knock up some pretty young thing for the tax break?"