Blair
Guests had been arriving on the world of Bastion none stop for the last months. Highborn and lowborn alike have filled the starports as they arrived to take part in the celebrations of the wedding.
Blair was use to the bustle and hussle of a bust world, but Goldenfields could not match Bastion on it’s best days, and the ammount of high born lords, and nobles put her brother’s own vassals to shame. Lords from every part of the Commonwealth of Drala had been arriving each day. Even some minor lords from her home sector of the Furmann in the Kingdom of the Salians across the Dralan Trade Route had come to pay their respected before the return of her brother.
Blair ensured that she met with each of those lords as they came, and as many as the lords of the Commonwealth as she could, but she could not see them all. There were too many, but it was important to her to show the respect to her brothers vassals, and their vassals.
Her handmaiden Yarrow had little free times in the weeks since her brother had left Bastion and Commonwealth Space to return to the Furmann sector. King Oswald had been kind and granted her a dozen more staff which Yarrow had put to use at once, and even that seemed like too little.
The feast was likewise important to Blair. She had been planning it since before they had arrived in Bastion. The King’s family was very important to him, and she wanted to show that they would be important to her as well.
The children of King Oswald did not seem to share the same belief as their father. At least not the older ones. They had all arrived late, and Blair had pushed the feast back again and again. She had held out hope each time that perhaps her brother would return by then, but it was not to be. The Lord of the Furmann Sector was busy with his own issues.
Not only had Blair been forced to push the feast back several times, but it had enlarged with more people. Sons and daughters of minor lords, or of common birth.
The Crown Prince had refused to come without his own escort of his own staff from his command. Prince Gregg had arrived with only a young female by his side. Prince Ubbe, unlike his older brothers, and even his younger brother had not joined the Commonwealth Forces, and he seemed to have a new lady on his arm each time he saw the prince, and also eight years older than herself. Even the youngest of the King’s ten children to leave the nest Edwyn had brought several members that served with him in the Commonwealth Forces, who had followed in his older brothers footprints.
The youngest of the King’s children was little Oswald, who she saw daily. The kid was an image of his father even at one and half. The last child of his former queen before her death, but a sweet child. Most of the young ones were, but the oldest five seemed to have nothing but disdain for their father.
Even still, Blair had been glad when she were able to gather them all. Yarrow was more stressed than she was, but he had created a beautiful feast for the royal family. Foods from all over the Commonwealth were served, and several dishes from Blair’s own homeworld of Goldenfields.
The royal house of Gisking was large, but if Blair knew better she would think they were at war with one another, or at least with their father. Edwyn was kind, and pleasant, if not a little shy. His three companions flanked him, and stood out. Lyida Wild, Daughter of a System-lord, and Richard Vault was likewise the son of a system-lord who found himself with two siblings that served the crown prince and the King’s Guard Hilda Grip who sat near the king.
Blair had heard rumors about the King’s Guard. The youngest in history to be named to the post which was once filled by her mother. It was no secret that her mother had been a lover of the king. Oswald and the Queen had long fallen out before her death. Those rumors also spoke of the King’s affair with the daughter when she was hardly out of puberty and with her own mother’s consent.
Yarrow had tried to confirm the rumors for Blair, but been unable. She knew could rumors could spread. Goldenfields had it’s share, and less than half of them were true, and most of those that had some truth often had more false information than true information, like the one of her and Yarrow.
It was true that Yarrow would share her own bed at times. It could get lonely in bed alone, but they were hardly lovers, and nothing more than that. Ansel Yarrow was a loyal servant and friend, and sometimes a good fuck, but he had also been single, and wished to experience things in life which was not easy for the daughter of a lord to experience. Those encounters were few and far between, and not something she would consider continuing after her marriage, and nor were they anything any child of a lord would do with their own servants.
The King’s Guard Hilda Grip was a beautiful young woman though, and someone Blair realized she would have to watch. Her aide was the oldest of the Vault children, and served in the Kings Guard Forces, although not one of the thirteen sworn members who always surrounded the king day and night.
The other Vault sat with the Crown Prince as he surrounded himself with the children of nobles that served on his great warship ‘Skreap’. Osmund spoke firmly to his brothers and sisters, the man of one who was use to commanding. He did not address his father, but he was every bit the prince and warrior Blair had heard about. Polite to her and the others in the room, gentle in speech and an easy smile. His escort though was larger than that of the King’s own guard, and Blair could tell something serious had come between father and son, but had no clue what.
The feast was pleasant throughout the evening as they ate, drank, and laughed with one another. The king remained silent, but he seemed to enjoy it more than any of them as he watched his children interact with one another and Blair. She looked to him often, and was often rewarded with a smile.
The other quiet one sitting at the table with them was Magnus Underwood. The king looked to him often, but spoke little to him or any of them. The brother of Payton Underwood, Thane of the Eight Systems and constant thorn in the side of the King. Of all of them, Blair felt sorry for him. He looked out of place, nervous, and shy.
Any of the disdain the children felt for the father, they did not feel for one another. Blair could see and feel the love, and bonds between them, and she thought it a good sign of the family she were to join. They treated her kindly.
