cyrodilicbrandy
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- Joined
- Nov 8, 2018
In the Rialto Bay, Antiva
Vincento D'Arugula's merchant galley, the Queen Asha
6.00 Steel
High noon
Vincento D'Arugula's merchant galley, the Queen Asha
6.00 Steel
High noon
Lucia had many complaints in this moment, the least of which was the unrelenting beat of the sun directly overhead. For much of her journey home, she'd barely paid any attention to the crew aboard the Queen Asha - why should she; any respectable Antivan lady did not concern herself with people who were not respectable - but she did envy them in that, as men, as sailors, they were able to do away with their shirts entirely, some even pulling up their breeches to their knees in an effort to stop themselves from baking under the blazing sun. Lucia did not have that freedom; Maker, she had very little freedoms. She had spent the last few years in Orlais, under the matronly eye of the Comtesse Solange. She had learnt the intricacies of courtly love, learnt something of the Great Game - though she knew she never would have been destined to become a proficient player - and learnt that young women across Thedas, noble or common, were very lucky if they were able to be independent. Still, she had been allowed enough leisure time to learn certain skills, practical ones, not just sewing or painting, for the Comtesse, though sometimes something like a schoolteacher in her attitude, was indulgent when her charges showed promise; Lucia accompanied physicians to patients and learned the basics of applying bandages, administering medicines and poultices, and the like. Her father wouldn't be best pleased that she was 'debasing' her hands in something so... earthly, but as one of the few things she was able to choose to do, she could say that she enjoyed it immensely.
Sweltering in her silk and damask gown, every little thing was quietly infuriating to her. The rocking of the galley, though she'd since gotten over the sea-sickness, the constant shouting back and forth between the crew, the incessant squawking of seagulls overhead; the sooner she was off this ship, the better. They weren't far now, D'Arugula had informed her this morning, as she emerged from her cabin, and he made it very clear he expected to get into no trouble within sight of the port - pirates were clearly just as much trouble near Antiva than they had been when she'd left for the Comtesse's estate. Still, they wouldn't reach Antiva City for a few hours and then she had another short journey overland, before she would have finally reached the Adorno estate.
As much as she wanted to get off this thing, away from the sweaty sailors who insolently looked at her like she was a piece of meat, Lucia wasn't much looking forward to her homecoming. Her father, a widower of five years, and of extensive merchant property, saw Lucia as something expendable. He was more focussed on her brothers, one older and one younger, and even her bastard half-brother, Antonio, had more precedence. Perhaps, if her mother had not died, her father wouldn't have undergone such a change; blind-sided by having to finish raising a teenage daughter, she shipped her off to Orlais, which would look good on paper next to her dower when she was finally of marriageable age. And here she was, returning home, only to be very soon packed off to yet some other place, where a man maybe thirty years her senior would be the one to curtail her freedoms. Such was her destiny, and that was one of her many complaints.
It was then that a clamour was raised, even more ear-splitting and annoying than it had been before, men running hither and thither across the ship - Lucia was pushed, hissing out a "Watch yourself!" as the sailor moved away, paying her no notice. It seemed as if a panic of sorts was rippling through the crew, and Lucia turned her head this way and that way askance, before D'Arugula hurried up to her, his tanned face wrinkled into a worried expression. "My lady Adorno, it's best if you go down below now - seems some ships bearing no known Antivan heraldry have been spotted on the approach, hard to tell with the way the sun is hitting the water. Anyway, my lady, please - if they be pirates, seeing a lady such as yourself..." Lucia's attendants had scurried away, into the cabin, like the little rats they were, but Lucia liked to think she was made of stronger stuff, and with a stubborn set of her face, she stayed where she was, resolutely. "Good ser," she began, her voice determined. "If they are indeed pirates, it's likely some of your men might need medical assistance; I can staunch their wounds. I'm quite resolute." The captain stared at her, aghast, before turning on his heel with a muttered: "Blasted woman!", all politeness for her rank and status demolished by her determination. Still, Lucia could feel her heart beat in her chest as if it was going to burst, and anger too. She was so close to home!