[ open ] freedom hangs like heaven

[cesar]

Date & Time: anytime in September
Location: all the places
Characters: Cesare Borgia and YOU
Summary: Cesare knocks on certain people's doors or otherwise trawls the city, all formats are fine by me!
Warnings: n/a

Fortune favors not the bold, but the early bird, the night owl, the one who sleeps not. She favors those who know precisely where to aim before the enemy even rouses himself from sleep, from pleasure. It takes only one shot to make or break one's fortune, yet there is so little time and so much to learn, too many red herrings to eliminate.

Only five more years until his twenty-sixth year.

Cesare spends so little time in his room when he isn't bathing or sleeping (sadly still a necessity), usually returning home as the night sky grows brighter and leaving just before noon to start his nocturnal wanderings again. But when he is home, he keeps to himself, silent as a ghost and as absent as if he isn't there at all.

He gives training only the requisite number of hours, because strength and force will never be his advantage. This he already knows. Better that he deals in stealth and information, in learning more about this world to figure out which strings to pull if he were to secure his and his mother's freedom. The Initiative's intent to overthrow the tyrant is a fool's errand so he would lend it little assistance unless the mission keeps him in their good books or aids his eventual escape.

Otherwise Cesare can be found in the city, cloaked in black velvet with the hood drawn up to hide his face. But even his attire would easily betray him, since his vanity would not allow him to dress in rags to hide himself better, and the sword on his hips gleam too brightly against the dismal surroundings. His hand grips the hilt warily as he moves from one shop to another, seemingly in search of something. He would be careful not to reveal his intent while there is another customer in the room, pretending to browse the goods on display, unless they catch him in the middle of a discussion with the owner. Then they might overhear words such as maps and pearls and bullets being discussed.

 

Comments

[inafadingcrown]

[You, sir, are going to be a handful. She can already tell.]

Yet most are given out of either affection or obligation, are they not? We have not yet known one another long enough for you to have grown fond of me and you owe me nothing. And so I cannot help but wonder at your purpose.

[cesar]

[ Perceptive, which is perhaps why he's here in the first place. ]

Can one not offer payment in advance? For services yet to be rendered.

[inafadingcrown]

And what manner of services do you anticipate asking of me?

[cesar]

I told you. [ He smiles, simply. ] A conversation.

[inafadingcrown]

[She gestures to the couch.] Sit, then, and we shall converse.

[But instead of seating herself, she makes her way to the little kitchette in the apartment.]

Would you care for wine, Cesare? Circumstances as they are, it is not nearly as fine as I might wish to be, but we must make do. [And it had taken a fair amount of searching and haggling to even get what she had.]

[cesar]

[ Cesare moves as directed toward the couch though he doesn't take a seat yet. That would be impolite. ]

Wine. Wine is good. I have gone to many troubles to procure some for myself as well.

[inafadingcrown]

[She returns with two glasses of a red wine and offers him one.]

If any luxury merits such effort, it is without a doubt fine drink.

[cesar]

[ He smiles a simple one and takes his glass with a nod, waiting for her to take a sip before he would. ]

In my imagination, perhaps. But the mind can make its own Heaven and Hell.

[inafadingcrown]

[And she does take a sip, leaning back in her seat. The little kitten jumps up into her lap and she pets her absentmindedly as she talks.] And what has your mind made of your present circumstances?

[cesar]

[ The kitten draws his attention. Unusual given the state of things. ]

Would you force my hand into flattering you?

[inafadingcrown]

[A soft little huff of a laugh] Flattery means little to me. [At least not the usual sort.] I speak of our broader circumstances.

[cesar]

[ Flattery is cheap to give and sometimes expensive to earn. It's not worth seeking but probably worth doling out. ]

I should mourn the lack of greenery and vineyards, but I am grateful for the company I keep.

[inafadingcrown]

[A smile] I would say precisely the same.

[cesar]

And I am relieved at the lack of enemies, for all their talk of war.

[inafadingcrown]

It is a different manner of war we fight here and it seems strange to me still. I have little love for battle of any sort, but I think I should prefer steel against steel to this queer sort of dance.

[cesar]

[ He prefers this queer sort of dance but only if he remains the aggressor and not the victim, forever on the run and losing little by little instead of winning. ]

Steel against steel do not make a pretty sight.

[inafadingcrown]

[She might have said the same... if Exsilium hadn't been bombed not three days after her arrival. He hasn't seen the strangest of it yet, she thinks. He can't have.]

You hardly need tell me. [She gestures at the sword she often carries, carefully set nearby- out of the way, but within easy reach.] I do not carry this for looks.

[cesar]

[ He spares the sword a glance. ]

Is that the weapon you chose for yourself? I would never have guessed.

[inafadingcrown]

It is. [She's not surprised that he's surprised. Even in Middle Earth, a woman wielding a sword is rare, so she gives him a small smile.] I do not have the look of a swordsman, I know.

[cesar]

No, not that.

[ He rubs his chin in thought. A habit. ]

I would think you are a subtler fighter. Swords are too direct.

[inafadingcrown]

[Ah. That seems to please her from the way she smiles.]

The sword is my weapon of last resort, but, alas, it is somewhat necessary as a means of defense. For all my subtleties, if a blade aimed at me, I would prefer to have a weapon to match.

[cesar]

A good philosophy.

[ He thinks too many women take the hit without fighting back. ]

What other weapons would you choose if you are not cornered thus?

[inafadingcrown]

Words and wit, of course. [She leans back in her chair] There is much that I can do with diplomacy and with careful planning. But I have also other gifts which you might think strange. Some have called it "elf-magic."

[cesar]

[ He takes that chance to take a large sip of the wine. Diplomacy he agrees with but only as cover. ]

I have discovered that there are many kinds of magic. Which is yours?

[inafadingcrown]

[He is wise to make the distinction and wise to ask, she muses.]

I have power after the usual manner of my people- in understanding the world as it is and commanding what parts of it will heed my words. But the magic of Galadriel, if you will, is in seeing what is hidden.