Often the perfect variable in one situation is untenable in others.
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"I'm sure you've met my son Lian by now?"
"Indeed I have, Lord Teretho. He and I have been acquainted in the past." Mostly at the wrong end of Lian’s fist, but the statement wasn't a lie. Jair maintained a polite smile as he inclined his head in a half-bow, half-nod.
Lord Kyson Teretho needed to be handled with cautious truthfulness. The man despised liars and sycophants, but it would set them at odds if Jair were too honest. Teretho’s only son and heir was already underperforming academically. To accuse him of unseemly violence would cause a familial rift that interfered severely with Jair’s integration.
Lian would hold a grudge for years, but given an opportunity to join a rising cadre he could be convinced to let it be, regardless of how badly they clashed here and now. His eagerness for his father’s favor made it easy to brush their past history aside with a few of the right nudges. There were even plenty of timelines in which Lian and Jair ended up at least pretending to be friends.
Though with so much other attention on him, he may not need to resort to toadying up to Teretho at all.
"Excellent, excellent. I'm sure the two of you can become even more closely acquainted now.” Lord Teretho reached into his pocket and withdrew a thin metallic circle. “You should come to our oasis for Solaria. We hold a gathering there every year, you know."
Jair's eyebrows rose involuntarily as he accepted the disc, inscribed with the transit key for Teretho Oasis and the Solaria date a few weeks later. "Thank you, Lord Teretho. I will take it under consideration."
The sheer superficiality of these people never ceased to astonish him. He’d known that many opportunities were denied him because he was lacking the right connections, but to have it thrown in his face so blatantly that all his years of striving to be the best mageblade in the school were worth less than a thirty-second display of a flashy magical weapon galled him. It was a perfect reminder of how much he hated Veori nobility.
Kyson Teretho normally took close to a year to ally with. Jair’s record was five months, and that had required forgoing practically everything else. To receive a Solaria invitation at their first meeting? Just because of his shiny weapon? Unprecedented. Things truly had changed far beyond what Jair had anticipated.
Judging by wealth and status alone, Teretho shouldn’t be at such a mid-performance gathering. A casual glance at the others showed several envious faces, Matricia Eldren foremost among them. But of those present, Teretho was preeminent, and none dared to presume now that he'd staked his claim. At least, not while he stood among them.
Luckily for the others in attendance, Kyson Teretho didn’t stay long, not even bothering to offer obligatory congratulations to his son. Matricia Eldren took advantage of this to swoop in and offer Jair her own token for Solaria, a move which would force him to essentially choose a side come the festival.
Then the two social powerhouses were gone, leaving Jair to the mercies of the rest of the squabbling nobility. A seemingly endless succession of introductions, congratulations, and fielding the subtle—and not so subtle—prodding about everything from Jair’s family and background to his grades and ambitions for the future. Not all of them knew what exactly was going on, but they readily took Teretho's cue and babbled on about how much they'd love for him to get to know their children.
In this, Jair's extensive knowledge of their futures served him in good stead. He doubted any of his classmates told their parents anything about him, so he was able to easily convey the impression of being a well-liked, perhaps even trusted, acquaintance. Some were familiar patterns, others required more innovation.
"Why yes, Lady Sectri, Noelle is a lovely young lady. Is she still pursuing her interest in the kalini? I have yet to hear her play, but she seemed quite enthusiastic about it."
He had heard her play in the future, and it was an experience he had no desire to repeat. Lady Sectri wouldn’t take kindly to hearing as much about her precious prodigy, though, so Jair stuck to technically-true statements. He was capable of being diplomatic when necessary.
“Ah, Ser Zialir, you must be very proud! I hear Njen placed favorably in the spring recitational, perhaps a contender in the future?”
That was an understatement. Njen was the closest thing to a genius creative that you’d find at the Astralla Institute. If not for the prestige of their family—and thus chances for ascension to rulership back home in Celsin—Njen would have been anywhere but Astralla.
“I understand Kael might be up for induction as a Silver Star in the next year? Truly an honor at such a young age, he can’t be much older than me.”
Indeed, Kael might be a frequent part of Jair’s engagement with the nobility in coming months. His trajectory as an aspiring adventurer gave him the kind of freedom of movement and varying connections Jair could use to full advantage. Not to mention Kael’s swordsmanship skill, which rivaled even that of House Veshin.
And, speaking of…
“Welburne!” Jair could only stand in pure surprise as Lord Curad Veshin himself, in all his rotund and decorated glory, met his eyes and strode over, a smile on his face. “It’s high time we were acquainted, considering your friendship with little Raina and all.”
Jair accepted his double-handed clasp of greeting. "Lord Veshin! An honor to meet you in person. Denor has always been an inspiration with the blade, I hope to reach his level someday.”
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“Actually,” Curad Veshin replied with his usual pompous air, accompanied by near-constant waves and gestures of his hands, “I wanted to talk to you about that. Denor and a few others will be showing at the exhibition this afternoon. Would you care to join us? Show us what you can do with that new blade of yours?”
Jair raised an eyebrow at that. The annual student exhibition at Veshin Oasis was a spectacle that far surpassed anything the school here could put on, limited to a smaller and more select group of higher nobles. They only brought in the best of the best for that, and Jair’s pre-loop incarnation had been anything but athletic. He’d be able to attend the next year’s, assuming he stuck around at the Institute that long, once he regained the necessary muscle and flexibility to properly show off his blademaster capabilities, but so soon? With no evidence of skill?
House Veshin was one of those hidden powerhouses, where on paper they were only of middling wealth and moderate influence, careful never to stand out either for good or ill too prominently. Unfortunately, their status as secretive and blandly conventional meant ingratiating himself to them was more difficult than most of the others present today.
Or that was ordinarily the case.
“No need to look so stunned.” Lord Veshin patted Jair condescendingly on the arm, eyes sliding down to rest on Maelstrom’s hilt. “Your performance was quite striking. I’m eager to see if you can back that potential up with talent.”
Jair bowed in formal acknowledgement. “I’m flattered, but this is very sudden. I didn’t think I was even in contention, my swordsmanship is far from exemplary.”
“Nonsense! You underestimate yourself, my lad. After a show like that, I’m absolutely convinced there’s more to you than anyone expects.”
Jair smiled politely and nodded. If you only knew.
“I’m terribly sorry that I couldn’t give you warning,” Lord Veshin continued grandly. “I trust you’ll still be able to perform? You needn’t do anything too dramatic, but there are some people I’d like to introduce you to.”
Ahhh, there it was. In one move, Lord Veshin undercut all the people buying themselves time to decide how much they wanted to gamble on him. Rather than waiting until Terlunia or Solaria like the rest, he jumped straight in, positioning himself as automatic sponsor and ally immediately.
A major gamble, all in from the start, no hedging his bets. If Jair turned out to be as much of a catch as they all thought, Lord Veshin was poised to significantly raise his own stature among the others, but also set himself up for a major social loss if Jair failed to put up a good showing. Though, at this point, Veshin didn’t have that much farther to fall.
Jair heard about Denor’s exhibition in the future, advancing into the sixth round even as a newly-advanced initiate, doubling the ordinary average and tying with Kael’s record, but the event itself never held any relevance to him.
The Astralla Institute liked to play at being a hotspot for nobility, but it was ultimately just a very expensive school. Veshin Oasis boasted some of the most prestigious venues not owned by the royal family itself. The house itself may be in decline and its popularity at an all-time low, but they still knew how to throw a party.
The Veshin Oasis initiation afterparty and spectacle was something of a tradition among the wealthy parents, who always vied for their children to take one of the coveted opening positions. And here was Lord Veshin personally offering Jair of all people a spot in the event.
Of all the things he thought would be changing, this was not even on the list. Until now, he’d forgotten about the event entirely, disregarding it like so many other insignificant and irrelevant details. It wasn’t something he could have gotten into if he’d tried, under any ordinary circumstances.
“Can I count on you to attend?” Lord Veshin pressed, dabbing at his forehead with an embroidered handkerchief. “I’ll have Denor help you get prepared, naturally. I’m sure between the two of you you’ll come up with something.”
This was an unexpectedly fortunate offer. Establishing himself in the noble community was the main point of the morning’s activities, and he couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity than this. Even most of the parents here wouldn’t be invited to attend, unless one of their children was selected. Prior to Maelstrom’s ascension, Jair would need far more than a single day of talking to warrant an invitation even to visit the oasis, let alone to a private exhibition that very day.
“Would Miss Serin be able to attend? I understand she and Denor already spent some time training together at the oasis.”
Denor truly was advanced for his age. Short of hiring blademasters to train with, he would be the best available option for a sparring partner. Training with the Veshin heir would give Jair a nice head start on reclaiming his full range of skill and flexibility.
They’d need to put up with the excessive familiarity of his rotund father and overly-involved mother, but given the potential benefits to his and Raina’s advancement he considered it worth the minor irritations that came with it.
“Certainly! Little Raina is always welcome to visit our side of the oasis. I’ll send an invitation her way. Serin and Veshin have always been very close, you know. Their ancestral land is in our oasis.”
Familiar with the man’s propensity for rambling, Jair kept his glee in check and gave another bow. “Then I would be delighted to join your son in showing off our newly-acquired class this afternoon.”
“I thought you would.” He passed Jair an envelope, containing a thick paper and a solid disc. “Come, I’ll show you around the place before it gets too crowded.” He grinned and winked exaggeratedly.
Jair glanced back at the thinning crowd, scanning in case he’d missed anyone important, but he’d already amassed three other invitations to visit various houses—Kenmirk, Falkon, and Domir—on specific dates, an open invitation from the Ielga, and more offers of ‘help’ assessing his new weapon than he’d ever need.
He saw no reason to pursue the connection to the Ielga unless he decided to lean heavily into the Teretho option. Their primary interest would be to marry him off to their daughter. She being heiress would then claim primacy in their partnership, leaving him as little more than a trophy. Not that he wanted the hassle of running a noble house either.
Teretho would be slow, even if he put everything into it, not fast enough to be relevant for the immediate future. Lian was looking murderous, but when did he ever look otherwise? Jair would deal with that problem when he couldn’t put it off any longer.
He’d accomplished everything he’d hoped to at this event and then some. Introductions finished, connections established, and hints dropped. There were openings here he could exploit, as well as whole new areas to explore at his leisure, but that could all wait.
Now that the necessary networking was set up for later, he could put it out of his mind entirely to focus on more immediate things. Solaria wasn’t for another three weeks, and the first of the scheduled invitations fell within a week of the festival. Plenty of time to deal with that whole mess later.
“Lead on, Lord Veshin. I look forward to seeing what your home has to offer.”
Curad Veshin beamed, clapped Jair on the back, and led the way to the transit platform, gesturing and talking the entire way.
Things were going nothing at all like Jair had imagined, and he couldn’t be happier.
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