So THIS is what it's like to be a courtier!

[Kender Bard]

The mock audience was ready. It was evening, before suppertime, and Twilight had taken steps to ensure the audience hall would be completely empty, even of the usual courtiers who enjoyed lingering there to chat.

Now the 'courtiers' were his friends whom he had explained things to. Several of them even had scripted questions to ask the 'king' and 'queen'.

"This is going to be fun!" Erik giggled.

"The young prince doesn't know what he's getting himself into," Rosetta laughed quietly and fussed with her hair. She'd even gone to the trouble of finding her nicest outfit, such as it was.

"Shh, they'll be here soon," Twilight laughed and moved closer to the thrones. He needed to judge and watch everything that happened and so was posing as a high ranking noble.

A servant brought Locket and Nagi to the room.

"I'm excited," Locket noted, smiling broadly. She walked with a serene grace, head held high. "Aren't you? We even get to use their thrones."

[Darastrix]

~I'm nervous,~ Nagi replied, glad at least that his experience with Schuldig had him at the point where he could carry on a conversation mentally while still paying attention to his surroundings. The heavy velvet cloak Locket had given him the Efilive before was a comforting weight on his thin shoulders, and he almost wished he could hide in it rather than face all these people. Being a guard behind Lucifer was a much more comfortable position than being out front as "king."

With his kingly training so recently begun, all Nagi had to fall back on was his training in Morilanta. He didn't use that in social settings much anymore, since he was no longer a guard, and well, shy though he was, he wanted to make friends, and Schuldig and Crawford's instructions weren't exactly conducive to that.

"You're small, so you're going to be underestimated. That's useful if you're the bait in a trap, but when you're escorting someone, do. Not. Show. Fear."

"Yeah, you can toss Farf, for fuck's sake. You're not helpless, so don't fucking act like it. They'll eat you alive otherwise."

Nagi didn't think that was the best approach to use, but it had to be better than appearing scared, right? So while Locket was graceful and all smiles, the young prince was solemn and businesslike beside her.


~How old is he?~ Zira asked Twilight. ~He looks younger than Erik.~

[Kender Bard]

Twilight frowned in silent scrutiny of the king. His brisk attitude was better than nothing, and nobody said the king had to be friendly, but he needed to show more pride. He's nineteen, Twilight commented. But he's short for his age and his inexperience makes him look even younger. We're going to work on that. At least his wife looks happy.

The servant that escorted them waited until they were seated on the thrones. Locket reached over and lay her hand against Nagi's, the thrones close enough for the gesture to be casual and comfortable. She tried to radiate a sense of calm for him.

The escort apparently doubled as a mock herald. "All Hail, the most noble King Nagi and Queen Locket."

A shiver went down the priestess's spine at that and her smile grew another fraction an inch. For all her worries and concerns, she was having a great time of this.

"Hail to the King and Queen. Long live the Kazimirs," came the echoed rote reply by many of those gathered.

Show time, Twilight thought and gave a slight nod to two servants who were dressed to show that one was of commoner stock and the other of only slightly better breeding.

Both the men bowed to the two royals.

"Your Majesty, I am Horacio Jarmil, a simple landholder of a couple of farms to the north."

"And I am Vincent Baudouin, landlord of similar state though I hold several more farms than this man."

"We both share the river Kreen, with a long-standing agreement to tend to the waters and not overfish them or pollute them. Baudouin holds the northen half and I hold the southern." The servant's eyes flashed with anger now. "But this son of a cow has reneged on his end of the deal. My people cannot draw from the waters as of late for fear of sickness as they have been dumping manure in the water! Poisoning it for a mile!"

"Not only do I deny these claims," the accused party stated, "but I come forth to claim that the Jarmils have broken our contract first. The waters have been barren of fish for over half of the season. They've fished it dry!"

[Darastrix]

Nagi felt himself growing tense as the men spoke, his eyes widening a fraction. How was he supposed to make a decision based on that? It was just one man's word against the other. Barring probing their minds (which he was certain would not be appreciated by anyone's people), how could he find out who was telling the truth?

How...

His brow furrowed slightly. How does a landholder with only two farms manage to overfish an entire river?

~Locket, watch Baudoiun's expression when I ask this.~

Nagi looked at Jarmil. "Has the river been overfished?"

[Kender Bard]

Jarmil's brow furrowed slightly. "There's been poor to none fishing, sire, but we didn't do it... I don't know what happened."

Locket stared intently at Baudoiun's face. The other man added, "Aye, and I think even Jarmil must admit that my people haven't been seen much around the river fishing the past season."

"True," Jarmil grudgingly admitted.

Locket leaned back in her seat, frowning thoughtfully. It was brief. But I thought I saw... smugness? No, not quite anything like that. A sense of victory though, like how someone looks when they know they're going to win at a game, like a gambler. A sure confidence.

[Darastrix]

At least the men were agreeing on something.

~I think he's lying, then,~ he told Locket.

Baudoiun could have ruined the fishing for both of them by dumping manure in the river, Nagi reasoned. But there wasn't any proof that he had to that end. Maybe this audience thing wouldn't be so bad...the puzzle-like aspect of the situation appealed to his Thuothan sensibilities.

"Unless Jarmil's two farms are extremely large, I can't see how his people could fish out an entire river. There may another reason for the poor fishing." Nagi glanced at Baudoiun. "Something in the water could be killing them, for example."

[Kender Bard]

Baudoiun's face flashed with disappointment and a hint of anger. "So are you saying this lying, grasping ass is right and I'm wrong? Why would I ruin my own river? I need it more he does."

Locket shifted in her throne so she could rest her cheek against her palm. Because if he planned it, perhaps he overfished it early so as to get everything he could from it. If he's upstream, then polluting the stream won't hurt him either. I don't know why he'd do something cruel like that but, well...

[Darastrix]

Then again, having someone on staff would could read minds and save time and pissed-off people might still be a good idea.

"I'm saying I don't believe Jarmil is responsible for the lack of fish. If it's neither of you, there's another cause. And mind your language, please." Nagi looked to Jarmil. "Has anyone witnessed Baudoiun doing what you claim?"

~Unless he just got careless once he'd fished out the river and knew the current would take what was dumped away from his land so he could use a shortcut for a while. ...or he could be trying to gain control of all the land along the river by running Jarmil out.~

[Kender Bard]

"No," Jarmil grunted.

Locket turned and gave Nagi a sharp look. You just gave a motive, love. Baudoiun's right, he wouldn't want to ruin the river. But if nobody saw his people fishing it out, then where did the fish go? The manure would kill a great deal of them, and I don't think either farmer can afford that. However if Baudoiun found a way to keep the fish from reaching tainted waters...

[Darastrix]

~Nets!~ Nagi's eyes narrowed slightly. "And he's right. He wouldn't want to ruin the river," he said, repeating Locket's thought aloud. "He 'needs it more.'" He looked back at Baudoiun. "Or just wants more of it. It occurs to me that dumping into the river wouldn't damage your prospects if the area further upstream is netted. And with tainted water and poor fishing, Jarmil might well soon be run out."

[Kender Bard]

"What are you saying sire?" the guilty party asked slowly, his tone a bit more guarded and less indignant.

"That makes sense, majesty," Jarmil mused. "And come to think of it, the lack of fishermen on your part is awfully suspicious Baudoiun. Majesties, if I send some of my people to inspect the area upstream - with your permission of course-"

"Granted," Locket said quickly.

"-then if we find that Baudoiun did indeed sabotage the river, I request full rights and authority to the entire river on both our properties."

"This is preposterous!" Baudoiun spluttered.

From where he stood, Twilight smiled very slightly.

[Darastrix]

Nagi nodded. "If the river's been sabotaged, your request will be granted." After a stunt like that, the one who did it should have his authority over the area in question revoked in any case.

~I do not envy him,~ Zira commented to Snowflake. ~I hate dealing with disputes as is, let alone having them done in this kind of setting.~

[Kender Bard]

Snowflake smiled quietly at Zira and nodded.

As the petitioners bowed, taking that as a dismissal, Twilight gave a small nod to Nagi - he'd done the right thing, by the King's estimation.

Locket fairly bounced in her seat, pleased.

After two more disputes of the same nature but not quite so hard, Kleio came forward and bowed to the two.

"My lords, I am Kleio Anarlison, a simple sculptor and merchant of crafted goods. I come before you on behalf of my family and those families that live within the district of Widor. We've had a very hard year. Our harvests have been poor, none of our merchants greatly successful in the market. Overall, I feel that we have a hard year coming. Our lord has not been able to find it in his budget to grant us reprieve or to purchase supplementary supplies that we will need for the winter. Therefore, I ask that you give us a reprieve for a year on our yearly tithe of taxes so that we may scrape together what meager money we have in order to make it through the year without starving or going without our other needs."

[Darastrix]

Taxes....

Nagi groaned inwardly. He wasn't entirely sure how the districts were laid out, and had no idea if it was possible for only one to have a lean year and the others prosper. Anarlina wasn't his land, after all.

~I wish we could just request their lord's ledger and see what's what.~ He rather doubted they would have made one up beforehand, though. Then again...wasn't that a lord's responsibility, to take care of the people in his district?

He shifted slightly, uncertain, and asked "Can you tell me why Widor's lord hasn't come forward with this problem?"

[Kender Bard]

"We aren't sure, my lord," Kleio responded with a slight bow of his head. "Perhaps he is too proud. We do not fault our lord for our problems, for he couldn't have done much more than he has." Kleio gave a small shrug.

Locket tilted her head. Ah, finances. She wished, briefly, she'd paid more attention to her father. Even though those hadn't been her lessons to be concerned with. No harm in asking.

"Could you bring us your lord's financial ledgers?" Locket asked.

Twilight spoke up at this point. "And presume that once you've seen it, it's clear that he wasn't hoarding money and that indeed, the district had simply fallen on hard times. The numbers would show that the yearly tithe, while percental, would still hurt the overall money situation of the land. The lord would be unable to buy extra supplies from even neighboring districts."

Kleio pushed the point a bit harder and hit upon the purpose of this particular exercise. In his most pitiful tones, he pleaded, "My lord, I have a wife and children. I fear that if the choice comes down to it, I will have to decide if my family eats for the winter and I go to debtor's prison, or they will sicken and starve." He even sounded on the edge of tears.