Scarburg Meadhall

[Galadriel55]

Ledwyn

Lady Saeryn left no room for protest. Ledwyn felt uncomfortable and embarrassed, despite Lady Saeryn's best efforts to achieve the opposite. She wished she would have been treated like a servant, not a guest. She would be much more at ease if Lady Saeryn would not stoop below the line her rank set for her, out of generosity or humility or whatever reason it may be. If only everything in this Mead Hall would be as she had imagined it! Yet she could not gainsay Lady Saeryn. Leastways, Lady Saeryn was right about the children.

"Perhaps it is so, my Lady," Ledwyn said. "I might be worrying unnecessarily. It has been at my home as you have said - the older children took care of the younger, but the young ones never strayed far. You said it true that my son will soon run around everywhere and this would go unheeded, and that my son has not been gone too long. I suppose I think too much about it. I should concentrate on the work at hand more."

Ledwyn drank her tea quickly, thanked lady Saeryn and Ginna, and stood. She looked around for more work to be done.


Theolain

A game! And a good one too. Theolain definitely liked this man. He felt like this grown-up knew exactly what he thought.

In the breakes between the rushes, when both laughed and caught their breath, Theolain looked with admiration at the man. He knew that he would not be upset if this man caught him in the game. Yet, sometimes, he had a different sense of purpose when he ran at Theolain, apart from the game. Though Theolain could be caught in the game, he did not want to be caught in that other way, to fulfill that sense of purpose behind the carefree play.

Of course, he did not think in those terms. He perceived that if he does not want to be caught for real, he has to run for real. However, he trusted the man. That trust meant that no harm would come to him from that man, but games could.

[Nogrod]

Sitting at the end of the table lord Athanar looked around.

Lord Eodwine was sitting next to his right with lady Saeryn by his side. On the left there was first his lady Wynflaed and Coen right beside her. After Saeryn on the right side sat Thornden and the grim-looking carpenter called Stigend. On the left there was Degas sitting beside Coen but the last chair was vacant.

Lord Athanar eyed at everyone and took his time while mead was poured to all.

"My friends. I think we all know what is it that we're sitting around this table for. Let us have a toast for wisdom and good judgement."

They all raised their cups and took sips of the excellent mead produced by a neighbouring farmer they had learned to appreciate in matters of mead. "To Wilfer, the master of mead", Coen added as he laid his cup on the table.

Lord athanar glanced at his second in command but then concentrated back on his duty. "Hilderinc! Bring in the accused!"

He had wished to make it low-scale but the word had spread. Not many dared to come inside the hall to actually eavesdrop what was going on, but Athanar could see faces glued into the windows of the hall willing to get a peak at what was going on. Don't they have duties to attend to... Athanar cursed to himself but was not too bothered with it. He had nothing to hide here. It was only that he was not willing to repeat those two open trials he had given and which had turned into catastrophies. The eorl would be just but it would not be something any sorts of fools could find sparks to their already burning fires this time: close hearing, no agitation to any side, a quick judgement. That was the way he was used to and which he was happy to come back with.

Hilderinc brought Scyrr to the other end of the table and with lord Athanar's mark took the last available seat for himself.

Scyrr stood at the other end of the great table in front of his lord and all the others with an expressionless stare which wasn't broken even when his lord addressed him. But he did respond to his name being called.

"Now Scyrr, you have been serving me well - as your father served my father and it breaks my heart to see you standing here after all these years. But today I think you face some serious challenges as to your behaviour and it may be I have to punish you for the first time in our time together." Athanar fell silent for a moment looking at his man in the eye.

"It's not that you've been a dove before this day - and I haven't hired you to be one anyway". Hearing this Scyrr grinned, but only slightly.

"But if what I have heard you've done is true, you've clearly gone over your rank and limits this time. So let us hear your account of what happened between you and lady Saeryn, and lord Eodwine here. Now speak. At ease!"

Scyrr had been standing in attention but with the command he took a more relaxed position letting his arms hang loose. "Be brief and be true, Scyrr." Athanar said and then fell back in his seat to hear what his man had to say.

[Folwren]

Thornden sat at the table watching the members of this scene closely. Mostly his eyes rested on Saeryn as the proceedings began. As Hilderinc went out to bring Scyrr in, Thornden reflected that no matter what happened here, it could not help Saeryn. True, Scyrr may withdraw his insult from Eodwine and make his amends, but it would embarrass Saeryn further than she had been to have it all rehashed and discussed.

However, it had been her own actions that had brought this about. It was her own fault this had not been avoided. Thornden sighed silently and looked down at his hands folded on the table before him, and then looked up as Scyrr entered.

Athanar spoke, beginning the small trial with a few, choice words.

"But if what I have heard you've done is true, you've clearly gone over your rank and limits this time. So let us hear your account of what happened between you and lady Saeryn, and lord Eodwine here. Now speak. At ease!"

Thornden felt for this man. Athanar spoke well of him – a trusted, faithful soldier who had long been with him – and he had borne the brunt of the ill-ease of the old Scarburgians, nearly being killed that second day. Clearly, this change had not been easy for him.

“My lord,” Scyrr began, “I cannot remember clearly everything that was said. I was deep in my cups last night. It began with a quarrel between me and the stable-master. Afterwards, I went out, intending to go in for the night– Captain Coenred advised me to, I think. He hoped to help me avoid a fight. But a fight sought me out, even outside.” His eyes shifted from Athanar to lady Saeryn as he said this.

Thornden tensed instinctively as he felt the threat toward Saeryn. There was a heavy pause, and then Scyrr continued.

“Lady Saeryn followed me outside and spoke with me. Her manner, my lord, was aggressive and domineering.”

Thornden shot a glance towards Saeryn. It was clear that she was not pleased at Scyrr’s description of her.

“Her words were less than ladylike, and more fitting a man of authority, and I knew that it was not her place to come and speak to me in the way that she did. She meant to tell me to leave the stable-master in peace from that night forward, but I told her that this matter did not concern her, but rather her husband, and if he wished to speak of it with me, he could find me. Was I wrong to show her how rough, how unwomanlike her manner was? She was acting on behalf of her husband, and that was wrong. This I sought to make clear to her.”

Saeryn started to her feet and with one hand she pointed at Scyrr as she accused him loudly: “You called my husband a liar and a coward in one breath, you rogue! Answer the lord Athanar as he has commanded you, briefly and in truth!”

[littlemanpoet]

Scyrr knew not whether this woman of the old eorl's was a spoiled too rich wench by birth or her lashing tongue were because she carried a brat. It did not matter.
He scowled at her. One thing was sure, she knew not her place.

"Lord, you see what it is I faced last night. This woman knows not her place. Here is her lord and she can't or won't shut up and let him be the man."

[Nogrod]

Athanar glanced at Saeryn hiding his discomfort with her fiery tongue. She was clearly not making this easier... But he looked back at Scyrr with a stern look when he made his complaint which seemed to Athanar being his only way he was going to defend himself. Athanar shook his head with sadness in his eyes hearing his words: "Lord, you see what it is I faced last night. This woman knows not her place. Here is her lord and she can't or won't shut up and let him be the man."

Athanar drew breath and when he opened his mouth his voice was stone cold: "And since when has it been added into a sergeant's duties to show ladies their place? Or to make public judgements on their behaviour, or about their relationships with their lords?"

He didn't take his gaze from Scyrr's eyes but let his will to be understood by Scyrr in no uncertain terms. "Unsoldierlike behaviour and overstepping your rank, proved, in the presence of wittnesses. And let me remind you, you're not far away from a verdict of insulting a lady". Here Athanar had to bit his tongue to not state frankly what she thought of Saeryn's behaviour, but he felt forced to give in for a slight rounding up of his message: "Although I think lady Saeryn hasn't been exactly innocent on this issue as rows take two to be put up. But for now it suffices that it is you Scyrr who have violated a strict rule about taking and accepting your place and insulting your superiors. And I think that has now been proved beyond reasonable doubt."

With that lord Athanar finally leaned forwards and reached for his cup fast glancing at lord Eodwine before addressing Scyrr again. "So what was that brawl you had with lord Eodwine then?"