Lenore placed her hand lightly in his like the royal-born lady that she was, pleased by his gallantry as he led her to the study. She'd been raised on ideals of courtly love, but had very little experience of being treated like a lady from a song. Dracula's manners made her feel refined, even though she doubted he had any real interest in courtship. Despite their conversation on the topic the first day, she wasn't so vain as to think that she could turn his head. He seemed to her to be one of the rarest of men, who could not be seduced or flattered, not even by a master of those arts such as herself. But fortunately, at least, everything she needed from him could be gotten from the sort of civilized negotiation they'd done so far. She knew her value, and had already proven enough of it to have plenty to offer him in exchange for the things she wanted.
Settling into one of the chairs, Lenore folded her hands in her lap as she began. "I do know that you may know some of this already, my lord, but please indulge me as I tell the whole thing from the beginning. It's important that you understand the two sides of the situation, as the two of them see it.
"As you know, I went first to Lord Bogun. He told me that this matter had started because a river in between their lands had changed its course. Not by a vast amount, but enough that a dozen acres which had been on his side of the river were now on Lord Predimir's side of the river. Bogun went to Predimir to discuss this. The river would do as it pleased, of course, but he thought that perhaps Predimir would be reasonable and be willing to consider some small reparations for the issue.
"Predimir, he said, received him kindly enough, but once negotiations started Predimir became exceedingly hostile and combative, and all but threw him out of the castle. Shortly thereafter, Predimir began increasing the soldiers at all his border fortresses, in what seemed to be preparations for further incursions onto Bogun's land. This shameless display of greed made Bogun suspect that perhaps Predimir had diverted the river in the first place, as the first of his forays to claim more of Bogun's lands. So Bogun increased his forces likewise, and the two sides began to have increasingly bloody skirmishes along the border."
Lenore paused for a moment in her story, allowing it a moment to settle in Dracula's mind. She found the whole situation very interesting, but it was Predimir's story which held what she thought of as the lynchpin.
"When I spoke to Lord Predimir, he told me a very different story. The lands now on his side of the river had flooded, so that even though the main river flowed deeper into Bogun's territory, the meadows left behind were swampland--I didn't confirm that they're swampland now, and who knows, maybe they were swampland in the first place--but Lord Predimir was still willing to try to stay on good terms with his neighbor. They'd never gotten along, Predimir said, finding each other distasteful, but they could perfectly hate each other just fine from opposite sides of a river and never talk.
"But when Bogun came to negotiate, he ... he drained one of Predimir's maidservants. Predimir keeps a great many pretty human girls in his court, and he's very precious about them. They're servants--barely more than slaves--but he knows each of their names. They're like treasured pets to him. Pretty birds in cages.
"When Bogun killed one of them, Predimir was furious. He shouted at Bogun about it, but Bogun dismissed this complaint as foolish, since she was just some human, and Bogun had of course expected his host to provide food. Seeing that Bogun was so reckless of Predimir's possessions, Predimir resolved to have better protections for his things, and strengthened his borders."
Lenore spread her hands as the two sides of issue were fully laid out. "In a way, the whole matter is down to that misunderstanding over the value of the dead human girl. But Bogun if does not see humans as individuals, he cannot be made to see why the loss of one human is of any importance. They're all interchangeable."
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Settling into one of the chairs, Lenore folded her hands in her lap as she began. "I do know that you may know some of this already, my lord, but please indulge me as I tell the whole thing from the beginning. It's important that you understand the two sides of the situation, as the two of them see it.
"As you know, I went first to Lord Bogun. He told me that this matter had started because a river in between their lands had changed its course. Not by a vast amount, but enough that a dozen acres which had been on his side of the river were now on Lord Predimir's side of the river. Bogun went to Predimir to discuss this. The river would do as it pleased, of course, but he thought that perhaps Predimir would be reasonable and be willing to consider some small reparations for the issue.
"Predimir, he said, received him kindly enough, but once negotiations started Predimir became exceedingly hostile and combative, and all but threw him out of the castle. Shortly thereafter, Predimir began increasing the soldiers at all his border fortresses, in what seemed to be preparations for further incursions onto Bogun's land. This shameless display of greed made Bogun suspect that perhaps Predimir had diverted the river in the first place, as the first of his forays to claim more of Bogun's lands. So Bogun increased his forces likewise, and the two sides began to have increasingly bloody skirmishes along the border."
Lenore paused for a moment in her story, allowing it a moment to settle in Dracula's mind. She found the whole situation very interesting, but it was Predimir's story which held what she thought of as the lynchpin.
"When I spoke to Lord Predimir, he told me a very different story. The lands now on his side of the river had flooded, so that even though the main river flowed deeper into Bogun's territory, the meadows left behind were swampland--I didn't confirm that they're swampland now, and who knows, maybe they were swampland in the first place--but Lord Predimir was still willing to try to stay on good terms with his neighbor. They'd never gotten along, Predimir said, finding each other distasteful, but they could perfectly hate each other just fine from opposite sides of a river and never talk.
"But when Bogun came to negotiate, he ... he drained one of Predimir's maidservants. Predimir keeps a great many pretty human girls in his court, and he's very precious about them. They're servants--barely more than slaves--but he knows each of their names. They're like treasured pets to him. Pretty birds in cages.
"When Bogun killed one of them, Predimir was furious. He shouted at Bogun about it, but Bogun dismissed this complaint as foolish, since she was just some human, and Bogun had of course expected his host to provide food. Seeing that Bogun was so reckless of Predimir's possessions, Predimir resolved to have better protections for his things, and strengthened his borders."
Lenore spread her hands as the two sides of issue were fully laid out. "In a way, the whole matter is down to that misunderstanding over the value of the dead human girl. But Bogun if does not see humans as individuals, he cannot be made to see why the loss of one human is of any importance. They're all interchangeable."