Arguments at the UISTOOD KYDIARIM (uisto,od kudiar,im)

While her entourage was by no means loud everyone was silenced by the dark sounds of her son's angry footsteps charging from his office towards her family room. All eyes followed her, desperately looking for instruction on how to proceed. Rightly so, she thought, her son was not known for dark moods but everyone in the room, bar her, was reliant on his good graces for their station. Before she could give command her son was at the door. His face was an amusing shade of red, one she had not seen since his marriage. She couldn't resist teasing him a bit, it was a perk of being his mother after all.
"Good afternoon PRATYMPLIOD, I was not expecting you, otherwise, I would have had the slaves make those little cakes you like. Have you taken an interest in your children's education?" she gave him no time to answer.
"Little RIOKSKEA is working on a damask pattern, a gift to the temple of RYSHE. Is it not exquisite?" The girl was beaming at the praise, being the youngest of the bastards she was often overlooked by her father, it was clear she would take any positive attention she could get.
"Yes. It is lovely." He muttered not looking at the work or the girl. "Mother" he turned to her "I need to speak to you. Alone" He was trying not to scare his daughter, good, he was not too far gone in his anger. There was nothing more tedious than trying to reason with the unreasonable. The slaves were dismissed wordlessly.
"RIO" she addressed the girl in her most grandmotherly tone "Why don't you join SKEI in the library, tell the tutor your lessons are to start early." The girl rose, respectfully bowed to her father, and left silently. Her son barely waited for the door to close before beginning the tirade, this conversation will likely be kitchen gossip by the days end.
"I can't believe you! You sent my idiot son off to go slumming in the south without even asking me. His behaviour has completely undermined the family. If it wasn't out of respect for his mother I would have named one of my bastard's heir and struck him from my will."
So that was why he was here, while she could understand his feelings, he was wrong about several things. She would need to educate him on the matter. Again.
"Little PIO managed to buy himself a pet, sneak it into the manse, convince your slaves to feed it," she popped a grape in her mouth "And wrangle the legal documents so that even if you found out about it you could not discreetly get rid of it." unbidden a smirk appeared on her face "My grandson is many things but stupid is not one of them."
Her son was clearly not appreciating the lesson "The entire city now thinks he's a degenerate!" he explained as if she was stupid.
"Young people behave scandalously all the time" she dismissed, "Do you know how may scandal's I have seem in my lifetime? The moment they cannot use it to provoke a response from you people will grow bored of it and find something else to gossip over" she stared at him pointedly. "More importantly we now know who has been selling our secrets, all without risking any of our political plays. Besides I have seen his pet, even if the rumours were true, it barely has anything to" she faked a cough "Conquer with".
That set her son off, his face glowing red, anger radiating off of him like light from the sun. Her eldest never did learn to effectively disguise his emotions. It is fortunate that he was blessed with a talent for rhetoric.
"That's not the point and you know it! It undermines his credibility as a man. We are supposed to BE the conquers, remaking the world in our image, not playing the woman to a savage grotesquery. You are a smart woman mother, you should already know this." ah he's finally got to the real reason for his behaviour. It was difficult not to hate her late husband for filling her son's head with such nonsense, it was difficult not to pity her son for his inability to see the hypocrisy in his words. The worst part is that if these words were said at the WYKSE his peers would be in agreement, this nonsense would require a response.
"Ah yes, the tenants of an imperial man." she spat poisonously, revealing more rage than intended "That's why when it comes to battle, the bravest and most noble men of the imperial colonies buy mercenaries to do the conquering for them. I may be a feeble old woman but I at least have lived up to the expectations of womanhood. I put my body at risk to bring you and your brother into the world and I raised you to be smarter than this." the anger felt good, she would need to indulge in it more often, especially since it seemed to counter her sons own petty annoyance.
While her boy's anger hasn't abated he looked much more sheepish now. "Is that why you sent him to live with them, so he can learn to fight?" He questioned while she tried very hard not to roll her eyes.
"No, I sent him to stay with the mercenaries who have been sniffing about, knowing too much about our political climate. I want to know where he's getting that information from. So I sent the member of our family who actually has skills in intrigue to find out." She explained as patiently as she could to a grown man who should have figured this out on his own.
"And you did it without consulting me." her boy countered, as if she needed his permission for every little thing.
"It is my duty to see to the future of our family in both education and marriage prospects. If you have expressed an interest before I might have requested your input but you have been so trusting with the future of our family, how could I know your behaviour would suddenly shift?" She tried to sound sweet and obedient but she refused to give up on the power given to her by her birth and sex. She had put the work in, she had left her childhood home a lifetime ago to serve another, she had risked her life to provide a future for this family and she will be dammed if she wasn't going to take everything she could get. This was her home now, she had built it with her own flesh and strengthened it with her wits.
"And who is he supposed to marry now? His reputation is tarnished and by extension, WE are tarnished. You are supposed to have taught him better than this" he questioned, as if she hadn't thought of this.
"We could use a spy network, whoever is making use of the southerner has one," she noted, watching his reaction. "They also have the resources to buy the loyalty of a noble mercenary family, we don't need their money but wealth and good breeding tend to go hand in hand. I'm sure you can work out where my line of thinking leads." she continued hoping she was right.
He seemed unimpressed, for a man who spends so much time in politics he never did gain an understanding of intrigue, fortunately, her other son had a better head for such things.
"If this mysterious benefactor is as accomplished as you say then why is he acting through those southerners?" he questioned weakly as if PEYRA WAHIERBI never married GLOE FRYIE PIRSAR.
"Familial connection perhaps" she suggested desperately trying to lead her mule of a son to a conclusion, the boy had clearly forgotten to consult the various family trees. "It is no secret that some of our more impoverished cousins have sold their daughters or sisters to buy an army from LORSA PRANSA, where do you think those girls go?" Her boy would not be the first to forget to consult linages through the female line, it can lead to all sorts of alliances.
"Fine, so you're hoping for some hidden son of the civilised world to be working behind the scenes with an eligible daughter for my son to marry, so you send the boy south to find them." PRATYM finally conceded "but what do you intend to do if this spymaster is just some savage thug using blackmail to get what they want?"
A fair point, given the information he has to hand, she conceded to herself. It was good to see him finally thinking things through. "If that was the case do you think the KIFE family would allow this thug to live?"
"The KIFE's? The ones from the YGATY's lesser line?" he questioned, remembering his lessons "I fail to see what they have to do with this. The mercenary is some half-wit from a minor line they used to try to integrate the savages into civilisation, some HAKI or something. A useful tool I suppose, but how would he gain the attention of an actually noble family?"
"By marriage I suspect." she was going to say more but her son's laughter interrupted her.
"Mother please don't make me laugh when we are discussing important business." he smiled, trying to regain composure before taking in her expression "By ABANY you're being serious aren't you? Do you know why they would lower themselves so?"
Relishing her son's curiosity she explained "It is hardly news, a daughter of the KIFE family is HEKAIM's second wife. Has been for about a decade or so. Technically she is the one who would be mentoring our PIO." Anyone lesser would have been an insult to her grandson.
Her son's face said it all, it would have been shameful enough for the girl to marry so far beneath her, but being a second wife means that her husband may be old enough to be her father or worse. Reaching for the only reason he could think of he asked "What scandal did she get involved in to be punished so?".
"The head of the KIFE household was five at the time, I doubt it took more than memorising his favourite sweets and telling the boy his father promised, children are rarely allowed to rule in their own right for a reason" there was probably a more complex explanation but this one suited her needs and her son was too busy to look further into the situation.
"Ah yes there was a plague or something then, it made for a terrible business year." her son muttered distractedly, clearly mollified by her explanation, "but in future I want to be informed on major decisions regarding the family. It makes me look a fool to be publicly ignorant of such things and I have enough things to do without having to regain credibility with our lessers." This was the closest thing to an apology she would get for his behaviour and she counted it as a win, her boy came into this conversation expecting contrition and was no longer sure what to do with himself.
"I am sure you are a busy man, my son, I wont take up anymore of your time. Don't want to keep the staff unsupervised less they grow idle." She dismissed with as much earnestness as she could muster. "I must talk to the steward about the evening meal tonight, no doubt one of your... esteemed colleagues from the WYKSE have invited themselves over and we must show ourselves to be untouchable" she continued, making a show of getting her frail form out of her comfortable chair.
"There is no need to get up mother, I will send someone on my way to the office" he promised before leaving to make good on his word.
With the few moments of solitude she considered the man her boy had become. He could be very bright when he wanted to be but, like BENA himself, her son's natural domain was numbers. He would fit easier into his role if he were innumerate but could instead know what makes men act. LYBO do sums KROMYI make decisions, no matter, she is here to drag him towards the right decisions and his son has the skills to bring the family into the future.

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