drivingthepointhome
[[drivingthepointhome]] last edit on
Oct 4, 2006
9:03 PM
by kris
Driving the Point Home
Miho fetches Obi back to the vineyard
The morning after the duel, in ShadowVineyardLadyMiho
LordObi
Obi's enjoying his brunch which is spread out on the table before him across several plates. He's finishing a third cup of what passes for coffee in this Shadow when Miho arrives. The messenger rises and greets her with a kiss on the cheek. "All in one piece it seems. Either Dina was gentle or that medic that was flirting with you yesterday put you back together well."
Miho's response is surprise, eyebrows rising as she gives Obi and affectionate hug, then takes a seat. "He was flirting?" She is bemused by the idea.
"I could be wrong, it's happened before," Obi answers. "Perhaps someone dedicated to saving lives has purer intentions than an old man like me and I'm just projecting."
A faint flush stains her skin, but she does not respond.
"Have you eaten yet?" he asks as he regains his seat.
"I have not, but have you left a thing for me?" She gestures at his repast with a teasing smile. "You must have been left hungry by your evening, and tired as well, I would expect."
"For what I'm paying? There's definitely enough," he chuckles. "Please, join me?"
"Of course." She smiles.
Obi eats a healthy chunk of dark bread after slathering it with yellowy butter. "So, is she playing at being a young or ancient volcano?"
Miho seeks bread as well, slathering it with a rich fruit spread before taking a nibble. "Dina? She is as she is. She apologized for not believing we would find him, and absolved me of secrecy."
"Ah, the aged grumbling and bubbling core of heat, throwing off more ashes than scathing lava," Obi decides. "Good. I assume she's upset with my exit yesterday, but in the long run, it's trivial, and she knows it, so hopefully I'll be spared the drama."
"I'm happy that she's come to her senses on the secrecybit. Of course, absolved doesn't mean drawing our elders here is a good idea either." He sets about mixing some nuts, granola and dried fruit into his yoghurt before trying the first spoonful. "So what are your next plans now that you're not tied to Corwin?"
"I don't think she has as much come to her senses as realized she has no choice," Miho says. She nibbles at the bread, taking small bites. "As for me... I have not yet decided, but it seems to be the popular question. Without the promise on me, I should speak with my father soon. Or return there. Her retainers have asked for lessons so that they may keep up with her, and i have agreed to do that if they wish. What of you? Do you have plans other than the lovely lady of your company last night?"
"Well, I had hoped that you might give me a ride back to the vineyard, and at some point, I think I need to check in on my mother as well." Some granola crunches in his mouth as he dabs at the corner of his mouth with his napkin. "Beyond that, I've somethings to discuss with Corwin so we aren't mired in a civil war, I hope."
"Will he, do you think, if he remembers nothing of himself?" she asks. "Or do you think he could begin again from the start, and perhaps that is what someone feared, and so they tried to kill him?"
"Will Eric begin one or will Corwin?" Obi shrugs. "Eric will... or *is* making a play for the throne and is confident in being able to offer concessions. Will Corwin bring it all down about our ears? Perhaps, depends on if he wants it or if he just wants to deny it to Eric."
"But does Corwin know enough to want to deny Eric?" Miho frowns. "Florimel claims that Corwin would kill Eric if he were to know his own mind. But now he does not seem the man I was led to expect. You knew him. Is he himself, even without his mind?"
"He's far from himself, but centuries make somethings instinct," Obi concedes, pouring some fruit juice for them both. "He knows that he hates Eric and that's enough reason I fear."
"And then there are moments where he seems the friend I remember, but again it's a century and only part of my second, so the question is more accurate if he's the man I remember if not knew."
"Is Corwin an unfair enough man to bring it all down about our ears simply because he loathes Eric? Or would there be sense in it, if he knew the truth of himself." Miho sips at the juice, considering that thought. "And how is it that we can bring him to that truth, and yet keep him safe."
"Unfair enough?" Obi muses as he spears a sausage and the end of his eggs. "There will sense either way, both fueled by enough vitriol that I'm glad I only have sisters of the heart anymore."
"Neither of you two could ever get under my skin like that," he adds before popping the eggs and meat into his mouth.
"I would hope you do not come to hate me." Miho offers a bit of a smile before she blinks and that smile slips away and she hides the lack by nibbling on a slice of toast. "And even when she and I do not get along, I doubt it would ever go to such lengths."
"As to bringing to himself, he seemed to like my suggestion of a trip to Rebma."
"And what would he do there?" Miho asks.
"Rediscover his birthright, if not himself fully."
She thinks on that a moment, then nods, seeing what it is he means to have Corwin do. "Would it do that, do you think? How?" She stabs a bit of eggs, but pushes them on the plate rather than eating them just yet.
"I don't know, to be honest," Obi answers. "But he's walked it before, that's not a benefit I had."
"The Pattern, it's at the center of everything and Dworkin said it's what initiates one into the system of cards, the Trumps, right?" The Messenger continues without waiting for an answer. "So right now people can't Trump Corwin, not easily. So something's wrong with that. Walking the Pattern should... well... reset him. Will he remember more?" He shrugs answerign his own question.
"With people out there having cards that shouldn't exist, and Trumping some of us unexpectedly for unknown reasons, do we *want* people to be able to Trump him?" Miho asks, the memory of her own recent attempted contact obviously on her mind.
"No, not necessarily, but we want to know that even if he can't recover the memories, perhaps... can he still be a Prince of Amber?" Obi dabs at the corner of his mouth with a napkin and then licks his fingers clean.
"So, anything you need to accomplish before I return to face the volcano and her vinter?" Obi asks, pushing back from the table a little and patting his vest, looking for a cigarette.
A frown begins to furrow her brow at Obi's words about a Prince of Amber, and the frown only deepens as she thinks through what has occured to her. She shakes her head at his question. "No. I wished to see you, and gain your thoughts on the matter. Which I have." She looks over at him, brow still furrowed. "Is it possible that he is no longer a true Prince of Amber? That he could have changed enough that it could kill him to take the walk?"
"Well, I don't really know. Only someone like Barimen could answer a question like that I suppose, but on some magical level someplace, something changed."
Quietly. "Dina will kill you if it kills him."
Obi stands and lays his napkin on the plate, looking to the stairs for something or someone before turning back. "Why don't we head out? Would you like me to drive?"
Her gaze follows his to the stairs. "Have you said your farewell?" she asks quietly. "I will meet you in the car if you still need to do so." Then a quick smile. "You can drive."
"It's not farewell yet," Obi says offering her a hand up from the table. "But I don't have anything pressing." He extends his hand for the car keys.
He leads them outside and slides into the driver's seat. "Keep your eyes open for a panther stalking us," he mentions as he settles his dark sunglasses.
She looks out the window. "Why?" A note of curiosity in her voice.
"It seems that's the shadow that's been following me through Shadow. She's the enigmatic sort of psychopomp, but I expect she'll be close behind," Obi explains. "I'm just interested in how much she's going to let others see of her."
"She jumped out in front of Othar's RV yesterday, but the guys only saw her quickly and Marie not at all. But she jumped to follow me and it off into Shadow quick enough."
"In fact, Marie might take the job of Bodyguard to the Messenger and travel with me for a spell." The car starts quietly and he turns toward Benium's vineyard.
Miho was about to ask another question about the panther, but at that,she busies herself with the seatbelt.
"Oh?" Her gaze returns to out the window. "Is she better with a blade than you are?" A glance over at him. "I am certain she can keep your body well, but I would worry that anything that would come for you would go through her as if she were paper."
"I'm surrounded by women that are better with a blade than I. Between you, Dina, Marie, and my mother it's amazing that I even try anymore," he jokes. "You're right, she doesn't have our resiliency. Perhaps 'bodyguard' is a bit of an exaggeration."
She glances at him again, her gaze quiet and assessing. "You're surrounded by women who are sisters and Aunt. So you need Marie."
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you're accusing me of picking up a camp follower or something," Obi chuckles, drawing on red leather driving gloves, and up shifting the car. "I enjoy Marie's company and as things get a little more tense, someone watching my back on the road isn't a bad idea."
"I can't expect you to fall to my charms and follow me everywhere, now can I?"
Miho rolls down the window, leaning her elbow on it, her palm up to feel the air slipping through her fingers. She watches the landscape go by outside. "You wouldn't want me to, even if I did." Her expression is as it most often is, a calm mask. She curls her fingersfor a moment, as if to capture the air, then throws them wide again to let the wind blow between her fingers.
"Of course not," Obi agrees. "You need to live your own life, not stagger in the footsteps of an old man like me. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want you."
He turns to consider her, his eyes hidden behind the sunglasses. "Why? Are you suggesting that you would want to consider staying with me for a while?"
She bites her lip, glancing at him for a moment, then back out the window. "I have followed you through shadow before, and have again much of the time since we left Amber. Unless Dina pronounces my case critical, and about to expire from lonely, I see no need to leave."
Obi's attention goes back to the winding road, but he still asks, "Your case?" Obviously she lost him there.
"Dina seems to think I will go crazy for lack of companionship. She suggested I seek something in shadow. Rather like her Edouard or your Marie, I suppose." Her elbow is still on the edge of the window. She leans her chin on her fist, head tilted a little so the wind tugs at her hair, letting it flit out the window and back. "I don't see the need to do that. To find someone just to find someone. My heart," she stops, and flushes a little. "I don't plan to leave. Unless whatever it is we are doing needs us to go in different directions."
"While it's interesting to me that everyone assumes my intentions are less than honorable, I wonder what you two might have made of me if I had invited Othar along for the ride," he chuckles.
"I didn't go looking for Marie," he explains. "In fact, you were there when we happened to hit it off."
He hesitates for a moment finally parsing the end of that statement. "You don't plan on leaving you heart unless it goes in another direction or we go in different directions. Because that would suggest..."
to be continued - current to 16:05 10-4-2006