Andlátkyn; Vandr Sanses unin Alagaësia

Trial of the Long Knives

"But we are your people!" An accented voice cried. Geno sighed irritably, knitting softly in the corner of the red pavilion, the cool blue strings rubbing soothingly on his phalanges as he leaned on the low table covered in reports and maps that lay haphazardly on it's surface.

He shot a look at the group of dark-skinned humans despite being unseen. Outside stood a guard of a pair of humans, pair of dwarves and pair of Urgals. Across from Geno and just as invisible via spells stood Kin, oddly enough.

He didn't know much about the strange, green-clad wild skeleton with a tail, just that he was warned of a sickness that turns him semi-feral when it strikes.

He didn't really like that, but shrugged it off. He wasn't one to complain unreasonably.
Okay, he complained, but not that much.
... Only around Reaper was it a lot.
But that wasn't important.
Nasuada's life was.

In total, it was three people hidden in the room by various ways, the skeletons by spell and the strange human child named Elva by the curtain behind Nasuada's chair.

Geno had no idea why the Twins favored her.

She reminded him of Chara.
A part of him hated her already because of that.
That demon child had ruined so much of his damn life, sent him to his own personal hell for so long, even doing the same thing to a predecessor- his brother- he couldn't just forget that when this Elva felt so damn similar.

Either way, he was here to watch Nasuada, not muddle over Elva. The kid could read his mind, after all.

The reason they were here in the first place was the man bedazzled in gold. He was just covered in it. Gold breastplate, gold chains round the neck, in his ears, all over his arms in annoyingly loud clanking bracelets, and to top it all off, a crown that was so large it probably weighed a third of his own enormous weight.

What a complete, gaudy waste of gold. It looked like if it were melted down, he was carrying close to.. 600 or 700G's on his person. It was ridiculous.

His men wore similar overly flashy outfits. They sure loved to show off their wealth. In his opinion, Geno felt it was a pathetic display.

It's always much more powerful to show your wealth by not giving a shit.
Error was the best example of that.
'Mind your own business, question me and you'll find out I have more money than your entire planet has'.
The poor goof just never realized exactly how rich he was- he was his own treasury times ten hundred.

Sure, everyone here had some jewelry or something like that of their own- especially Nasuada, but no one cared to wear them.
.. Except Nasuada.
She didn't want to seem partial to the tribesmen of Surda.
Unfortunately, this seemed to be the basis of the argument.

The leader, Fadawar, slammed his scepter into the dirt again.
"Blood is the first thing! First come your responsibilities to your family, then to your tribe, then to your warlord, then to the gods above and below, and only then to your king and your nation, if you have them. That is how Unulukuna intended men to live, and that is how we should live if we want to be happy. Are you brave enough to spit on the shoes of the Old One? If a man does not help his family, whom can he depend upon to help him? Friends are fickle, but family is forever."

"You ask me," Nasuada questioned. "To give positions of power to your fellow kinsmen because you are my mother's cousin and because my father was born among you. This I would be happy to do if your kinsmen could fulfill those positions better than anyone else in the Varden, but nothing you have said thus far has convinced me that is so. And before you squander more of your gilt-tongued eloquence, you should know that appeals based upon our shared blood are meaningless to me. I would give your request greater consideration if ever you had done more to support my father than send trinkets and empty promises to Farthen Dûr. Only now that victory and influence are mine have you made yourself known to me. Well, my parents are dead, and I say I have no family but myself. You are my people, yes, but nothing more."