Diplomatic Immunity--Preface: Vasha's Discovery

[Bront]

Vasha takes a sip of her juice "This is good, is it a local fruit?"

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Somewhat local. It grows on the prickly cacti of the desert, actually."

 

[Bront]

She sips it again. "Oh, yes, I remember now," she says excitedly. A bright smile crosses her face as a happy memory of her youth, sipping lyvaa while laying in the shade by the water with her father.

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Hmmm, I've never seen someone who liked lyvaa juice that much, but I'm glad it was able to make you smile."

 

[Bront]

Vasha is snapped back into reality. "Oh, just a memory, sorry."

"So, is there a companion of some kind in your life?" she asks.

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Oh, no. Not really. At least, not for many years."

 

[Bront]

"What happened? If I'm not being too personal." she asks.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Zythryd sighs.*

"Well, I don't usually like to talk about it, but..."

"When I was a young man, little more than a boy, really, I well in love with a beautiful slave girl. She said that she loved me too, and we made all sorts of plans together. I worked in three jobs and saved up enough money to buy her from her master, at which point I immediately freed her...And then...and then she walked away. Not so much as a thank-you. When I asked about 'us' , she laughed in my face."

 

[Bront]

"THat's a shame" she says. "While she must have hated her slavery, she was cruel to use you to get out of it."

Vasha clasps his hand "Sometimes those we love aren't what they seem. We just need to pick ourselves up and move on."

 

[Rystil Arden]

"I guess so...It still doesn't make it stop hurting, though."