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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3158543" data-attributes="member: 3448">Jet served the main course of the dinner.  As usual, it was outstanding.Kaitlyn smiled as she attacked her dinner with gusto.  “My compliments to your chef, your grace.  It has been years since I have had food that even approached this quality.”  A second later, a guilty expression crossed her face.  “But how I can think of luxury while my people suffer…”Alistair said gently, “Enjoying a dinner won’t make their suffering worse, your highness.  It would be one thing to refuse to leave your comforts behind when your people need you, but I have no doubt that you’ve eaten many camp meals, and unless I miss my guess more than a few meals of unheated jerky when even a campfire would be too much.  You are serving your people best by being here, seeking … an alliance.  There would be no point in turning away from a good meal while you are here.”“Perhaps.  But so many of my people are hungry, and thinking of when we had luxuries of my own reminds me of the family I lost.”While they continued talking, Kit carefully monitored Princess Kaitlyn’s thoughts.  Kaitlyn had enormous regrets over the death of her father.  Her thoughts of the intaking were her most selfish; she had been too young to worry about suffering beyond her family’s, but she missed her brother who died in the intaking terribly.  Now, however, her concerns centered on her duties to her surviving people.Kit listened carefully for any hints from the princess about romance or marriage.  She could not probe Kaitlyn’s mind with the simple power she was using, but small talk left plenty of time for Kaitlyn’s mind to wander and Kit carefully read those thoughts.  Kaitlyn had a pretty clear idea that there might be a possibility of a political match with Alistair, but had not managed to summon up any warm and fuzzy feelings about him.  When Alistair mentioned the possibility of an alliance, the Princess’s thoughts reflected a willingness for her followers to even be incorporated as a new duchy, although her sense of familial honor made her want to retain the royal title.  And she knew that the only way she could keep that title if her lands became part of the Archduchy would be if she married the Archduke.Kit also noted that none of Kaitlyn’s thoughts about an arranged marriage touched on any current romances.  Kaitlyn thought about how part of her duty to her family would be to marry as a virgin, but Kit did not detect any particular regret about that, or any excitement about the possibility of physical relations with Alistair.  She wondered if Kaitlyn might be lesbian, but without the ability to probe the Princess’s thoughts more deeply, she couldn’t be certain.  All that she knew for sure was that the increasing interest she was showing in Alistair over the course of the evening was completely feigned.Over dessert, Dame Brionna asked Kaitlyn whether she had followed any particular path in her training before the South Kingdoms fell.“Yes, I was training to be a ranger.  I wasn’t supposed to be the heir, of course, and so could pursue my own interests.  And some of those skills have served me well leading our troops against the slavers.  But since the intaking, I have devoted myself more purely as a warrior.  A general needs those skills more, and there isn’t much call for the minor woodland magics or empathizing with animals.”Dame Brionna nodded approvingly at that answer.“Perhaps you would care to join me in the map room after dinner?  As you know, we have deployed several field armies to help the refugees against slavers and against unscrupulous ruffians who are seizing power.  We could perhaps coordinate some of our efforts.”Dame Brionna thought wryly to Kit, <<Oh, is that what they call it?>><<Hey!  I have to keep quiet back here,>> thought Kit with mirth in her thoughts.<<Sorry… You probably don’t want to hear about that…>><<No, it’s better to laugh about it.>></blockquote>

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