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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2024 4:12:09 GMT
He stalks through the streets, peering down the hill at the water level at the dock: with all this rain, how long before the harbor starts to flood?
He doesn't want to sneak into the castle, so it's time to see who's watching that barred gate. It's been a hot second, but his command of Thari hasn't failed him.
"Hello? Someone here to admit a Prince of Amber?"
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Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2024 5:59:44 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/m49Z7y8/depositphotos-74499351-stock-illustration-rampant-unicorn-a-illustration-of~jpg Coming through the city, he passes a burning building with a couple of regular folks and a bunch of soldiers from the Church of the Unicorn. One of the churchy ones is yelling something about inquisitions and some sort of Saint-King Brian. Three guards stand in front of the barred doors. A crowd complaining about their important business stands in a semi-circle about them. "Lord Jacob, welcome back to Amber," one of the guards says. The gathered people sense royalty in their midst and begin to harangue him about getting into the castle. "The Regent has commanded that the doors not be opened for anyone, family included," the guard yells to him over the noise of the crowd.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2024 13:58:30 GMT
Jacob could not help but roll his eyes a little, as he pulled the hood a little closer to avoid eye contact with anyone but the guard.
"I suppose there would be something to that if I thought about it long enough. Is there any proscription against the front doors?"
He inclines his head towards the great double-doors of the castle some distance from the gate.
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2024 5:09:07 GMT
OOPS: I meant the doors to the castle. That's what I get for trying to fancy up my words! Normally it wouldn't matter, but Cody had just seen the guards there a few posts ago.
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2024 5:34:33 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/m49Z7y8/depositphotos-74499351-stock-illustration-rampant-unicorn-a-illustration-of~jpg "No one in or out, lord. A rare command, but not entirely unprecedented," the guard says. "More often now that Princess Florimel is Regent," adds another. "True. King Random was much more relaxed about these things. It was his style, you see. Made him beloved by all in the city," the first guard says. "Not to say that there are complaints about the Regent," second says. "Certainly not! A new ruler brings a new way of doing things," the first. The third guard stays silent, chewing his tobacco and spitting long, dark brown streams of spit into an overflowing spitoon.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2024 6:36:46 GMT
Jacob's eyes narrow slightly - Yes, good. Turtle up while the city is drowning. Gods, Flora, you're smarter than this - but he nods trying to keep the rain out of his face.
"Alright, we'll try asking - could you have someone dispatch a message to the Regent or her designee, that her cousin Jacob has come home with information useful to the defense of the realm and would like to speak with someone, preferably while not having regular buckets of water dumped on my head?" The edge in his voice was unmistakable, his patience, after the fuel stop, the patrols, the wandering child of Benedict, the vacant training ground, and now this, was finally stretching thin where many of his cousins would have been taking heads days ago.
Even as he appeared to wait patiently however, he started tuning into the limited, soupy magic in and around Amber - he felt he might need that lynchpin if he ran into one more roadblock.
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2024 4:31:56 GMT
"I suppose so, although this is quite irregular. But seeing as you're a favored relative of the Regent..."
He makes a complicated rhythmic taping on the great doors, then takes out a piece of paper and a pencil. He stares at Jacob for a moment, then writes a few words. Stares again, then writes a few more. One long stare, then finishes writing. A string with a fishing hook on the end is lowered down from a high window. The guard spikes the note on the hook and it is raised.
The mention of a cousin to the Regent and favoured relative sends the crowd into a frenzy around Jaco. Some are minor lords with complaints, others are merchants with complaints, and the rest are servants and guards wanting back inside before they are found to be AWOL.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2024 1:02:43 GMT
Jacob makes the best use of the time he can - complaining minor officials and staff are probably the best (and most honest, if biased) intelligence source he's going to encounter in the city.
So...he listens. He makes people stop talking over one another, but he does listen. Like any good politician, he never promises to actually do anything, but he makes sympathetic noises, nods at the right moments, and lets the citizens of the city give him as much information as they're willing to complain at him.
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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2024 4:26:52 GMT
The complaints are mostly mundane. Some of the nobles have concerns about a place called Ghostwood and the unfair distribution of land. Jacob learns that Flora has ordered the clear-cutting of Garnath and the land parcelled out to the great families of the city.
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Post by Admin on Feb 18, 2024 4:54:35 GMT
As he listens to the complaints another person joins the group. She is a teenager in violet clothes.
" may I ask what is going on?" she says to him.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2024 17:18:51 GMT
Jacob slowly collects a picture of the current state of the city from the complaints, getting a sense of how bad the political situation has become, before turning to the violet-clad teenager.
"The regent appears to have closed up the doors and is not admitting anyone. I'm trying to figure out why."
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zra
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Post by zra on Feb 18, 2024 22:21:37 GMT
" why is the easy part, they felt like it . or maybe because everyone is upset about the rain. " she will say quietly to him " the question is why now."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2024 4:18:11 GMT
"Because they are not sure what to do, and that is because they are not sure what is going on, so they are exerting control over what they can, albeit in a...well, not the fashion I would have chosen."
Jacob watches the doors to see if there's a reaction, but keeps speaking to the young woman, "What has been your experience these past few weeks?"
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zra
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Post by zra on Feb 19, 2024 16:38:07 GMT
" people don't love this rain. It's making life harder on them then those without weeds for a roof " she blurts out " they are testy about a lot of things. This new thing with the church. The woods being chopped down but not usable, why is that?" She raises a hand asking. Only to get a fat drop on her hand. She scrunched up her face. " oh and there's something brewing in the city, that feel of below but not, yeah that, but I can't put my finger on it."
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Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2024 22:32:23 GMT
As is the way of things, now that Jacob is so close to the castle and has met someone who might know what's going on, he feels the unfamiliar itching of someone reaching into his brain with a trump. So far as he knows, Eivor is the only one who has a card of him.
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