contact part deux

[bouchonne]

if this were modern times byerly would probably make you listen to total eclipse of the heart before you were able to leave a message

Comments

[bouchonne]

I am not surprised to hear that is his opinion. I have the impression he thinks most people are dullards. Was the same true at the universities in your home, do you suppose?

[heirring]

I think the same thing is true in Kalvad as in Thedas, which is that universities are a place where one is permitted the time to ask all sorts of questions, and not expected to do so alone. In the sense that there are other people who have been asking questions or wishing to learn things before you, and then at the same time as you, so one isn't reliant entirely on their own cleverness. Which isn't to degrade the institution, of course. I think it's a very admirable sort of arrangement.

—But yes, of course. There are lots of dreadful Kalvadan scholars.

[bouchonne]

Men, mostly, I presume?

[heirring]

By and large.

[bouchonne]

Are there many female scholars there?

[heirring]

Oh almost none, excepting of course the magicians' college. But that's rather a different arrangement. It's not wholly unlike a Circle in a way in the sense that there are certain requirements as to the apprentice's arcane talents. And even there, I would estimate there are fewer ladies and most of them practice only specific disciplines.

[bouchonne]

Ah. Is that why you were not considered a scholar, then? Expectations of your sex?

[heirring]

Well—

[Here, finally, a prudent pause.]

Well I can't imagine this is actually of much interest to you, Mister Rutyer. Remind me, was there something you wished to make known with respect to this lyrium business?

[bouchonne]

Why do you think it's not of interest to me?

[heirring]

On account of it— Well on account of how it doesn't really matter, does it?

[bouchonne]

Doesn’t it?

[heirring]

I can't see how.

[bouchonne]

Presumably it matters in some way to you, does it not?

[heirring]

Why should it matter to me? I'll never go back there, and nothing about it will ever figure for much here in Thedas. It's all rather irrelevant, Mister Rutyer.

[bouchonne]

Hm. I shall never return to the house I was raised in, but I still shudder when I smell a scent that reminds me of the place. Iron never forgets the anvil.

[heirring]

How poetic.

[bouchonne]

Oh, I probably stole that line from a ballad. Do you fear my censure in some way? You have already more than proven yourself here, so the only consequence to sharing a tale of how abominably you were used back there is, I wager, that I will curse at them.

[heirring]

I wasn't abominably used. [She's very swift to say so, and there is something in her tenor that's quite firm.] How it all works there is just complicated, and so makes for a very dull story to anyone who isn't familiar with the little details. And there are things in Kalvad that are entirely different from what they might sound like in Thedas, and they would give off a poor impression.

[bouchonne]

Of Kalvad?

[heirring]

[Of her.]

Yes, that's right.

[bouchonne]

[ A hum. ]

And just to make absolutely sure, Madame - You are being truthful with me? As I endeavor to be truthful to you?

[heirring]

Why do you dislike to be reminded of the place where you grew up?

[Duck and roll.]

[bouchonne]

Maker, with your graceful turns of conversation, it's a pity you're not in my division.

[heirring]

Well I think you ought to be grateful that no one will hold you responsible for me.

[bouchonne]

[ As if all the division heads aren't held responsible for their errant charges. Not that Wysteria is the worst of them, all things considered. ]

Are you actually curious, dear Madame de Foncé, or are you asking merely because you want me to stumble?