The Power and the Glory

Book 4 Chapter XX: Fire-wing

'Ach, people're always telling us no' tae do things,' said Rob Anybody. 'That's how we ken what's the most interestin' things tae do!' -- Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

After the first two days the gossip about Mirio and Lian's supposed engagement mostly died down. Somehow or other word got out that Abi was a notorious troublemaker -- which was true -- and that led to the rumour that she'd probably eloped with Lian herself -- which was so far from the truth that Mirio found it a real struggle to keep a straight face. That rumour was widely believed in the court. Mirio almost felt sorry for Abi. Almost.

Unfortunately that rumour was not believed in Seroyawa. As far as his father knew, he really was engaged to Lian, who really was going to come back at some point and ask to marry him. Mirio had never gotten so many angry letters from various relatives in his life. Most of them covered the same topics: it was stupid for Mirio to get engaged to someone after knowing them for at most a month, who was Lian anyway, how could Mirio debase himself by marrying a common foreigner from gods alone knew where...

It was almost enough to make Mirio want to marry Lian just to spite them.

He amused himself by imagining the wedding when he had nothing else to do -- and now that his cousins had gone back to their usual hobby of backstabbing each other and it was best for Mirio's physical and mental health to stay far away from them, he often had nothing else to do. Mainly he imagined the absolute nightmare it would be.

Possibility number one: no one told Raivíth who Lian really was. That would leave them with Mirio's family snubbing Lian as an upstart commoner and possibly a gold digger planning to use Mirio as a meal ticket. Not to mention how they would treat Mirio himself. He wasn't particularly popular with his extended family. They would show up to the wedding, of course, and behave impeccably in public. But the minute Lian set foot in Seroyawa he'd be subjected to all the spite and vitriol the royal court was capable of.

To say nothing of how the ordinary people would react. If news reached them -- and it would if this so-called engagement lasted much longer; Mirio knew better than to hope the papers wouldn't get wind of it somehow -- it would cause the biggest uproar since Great-Aunt Irodori broke up with her fiancé and eloped with a minstrel right before her wedding. Both Mirio and Lian would become the most talked about and least liked people in Seroyawa.

Add to that mess the chaos it would cause in Gengxin -- would Lian be allowed to stay as Zi Yao's doctor? Highly unlikely, and what would happen to Zi Yao then? -- and just thinking about it made Mirio want to run away and become a hermit living on a mountaintop.

Possibility number two: they did tell Raivíth who Lian really was. All of possibility one would still happen, with the added scandal of Lian being a disgraced prince, a murderer, and a dark magician. Someone was bound to suggest that Lian had cast a spell on Mirio, and it would all probably end with Lian being arrested again.

No, there was no way this fiasco ended well for any of them, and it was all Abi's fault. And yet, even as he thought of all those terrible outcomes, Mirio found himself also thinking about what it would be like to be married to Lian.

He knew he would have to marry someone at some point. The most likely candidate was a foreign royal. A few decades ago his father had considered arranging a marriage between him and a daughter of the Sultan of Ulurtah, and before that a potential spouse had been a prince of Kaxet'i. A grandson of the Empress of Saoridhlém would be a perfectly acceptable spouse -- in theory. And at least Mirio knew and liked Lian.

Setting aside other people's opinions, the only problem Mirio could see in this hypothetical marriage would be the question of physical intimacy. He didn't want it with anyone and he could never marry someone who did want it. That would be unfair to both of them and it would doom the marriage before it began. But did Lian want it? It wasn't the sort of subject that ever came up in conversation. All Mirio could say was that Lian had never shown any interest in men or women. Nor had he ever mentioned any former lovers.