Session 18: Family Affairs

When last we left our heroes... Pressing on towards Sencankarr, the party passed over the Northern Moors, down into the Royal Forest, and arrived at long last at the Holy City of Sencankarr--City of a thousand shrines and ten thousand pilgrims. Vanera offered to put the Company, along with Laran and his sister Kjanle, up at Rose House, the residence of the Kjavabo Family. Reiana decided to spend the evening at one of the great theaters in the city, while Tengelbur headed for Azure Courts, the now-dilapidated family home of the Sathneinor family, where he met with his father, mother, and sister--though not before sticking around at Rose House just long enough for Vitherai, one of Vanera's younger sisters, to develop a pretty definite crush on him.

What followed was a set of parallel scenes in which both Vanera and Tengelbur dealt with their families' various expectations and disappointments, each in their own way. Vanera's parents assumed that he had come home for good, and in fact had obtained work for him in the city. It was only with great difficulty (and reducing his mother to tears) that he explained to them that he had not in fact come to the city to stay, and that his "work" out on the Marches of the Cheyth was still too important for him to neglect. Inquiring after the latest gossip in the town, he found out that everyone expected Neras Garini to formally offer marriage to Talarja Sathneinor at the upcoming Feast of the Blowing of the Trumpet in two days' time.

Tengelbur, meanwhile, met with a much colder welcome at his home: though his sister was glad to see him, his father was indifferent, absorbed as usual in his studies, while his mother--the once beautiful, now bitter matriarch Arkjamu, strongly warned Tengelbur against interfering again in his sister's future. Arkjamu is determined, against all the desires and wishes of her children, to secure the family's future and restore its fortunes--and doing that means that Talarja's marriage to Neras must go off at any cost. Finally frustrated, Tengelbur entrusted an old family servant with the chunk of red amber he had cut from the tree in the Bent Grove, instructing him to give it to Talarja.

Tengelbur then went off into the city in the hopes of finding Feiral Kavalar, the young man on whose behalf he had fought a duel a year ago. Tengelbur eventually found him (along with his new wife, whose dowry Feiral is currently in the process of squandering thanks to his new-found gambling habit and gambling "friends," who he met mainly thanks to Tengelbur's help last winter. Feiral agreed to meet Tengelbur secretly for a bit of "debauching" after his wife went to bed.

Vanera, meanwhile, finally survived his parents' grilling and went up to his room. There he was surprised by Talarja, Tengelbur's sister and--as it was revealed, following a fairly brazen interruption by Tanurendal--Vanera's secret wife. Talarja informed Vanera that he had two days to intervene before she was offered in marriage to Neras Gerini...