1629, Fire Season, Death Week, Godsday
Context
Nayale has been talking to Ornkarth and has no idea what to believe. Session S5-O-6.
Events
“Lady Berra?”
Berra slow-blinks, and then looks. “Yes?”
Nayale is looking anxious. “I don’t trust him. He’s dangerous.”
“Uh, yeah?” Berra looks confused by that.
“The Lunar.” It’s midday and the young woman has been dutifully riding flank, as assigned. But now that they’ve stopped for a rest, she’s found her mentor.
“Yeah, I know who you mean. But d’you think I dunno that? Or are you asking me something?”
“Well… if he says things… about… well, about people I know. I can’t trust what he says, right? He’s not likely to tell me the Truth despite his tattoos.” She says the last as if she’s clinging to it.
Berra considers a while, tilting her head from side to side, and then sighs and pulls out a coin pouch. She holds up a Lunar that has Tarkalar on it. “What do you see?”
Nayale shrugs. “A coin. With a Prince.”
“Uhuh. So it’s true that it’s a coin, and it’s true that it’s silver. But if it was on the ground and I saw it and told someone I saw silver, that would be true, yes?”
“Yes. It’s still silver,” Nayale agrees, looking confused.
Berra nods. “Yep. But if someone doesn’t know that, and I tell them, ‘I was out in the hills and I found silver’ that sounds different, yes?
“Yeeees,” the young woman says, mulling it over. “But, you’d not be trying to twist the Truth.”
“Me? No. But it would still be true. And there’s a big difference between true, and the Truth. I couldn’t tell all the Truth. I’d be dead of old age before I got there. You’re muddling up the one true thing that we can’t see, with our best way of talking.”
There’s a soft huff as Nayale thinks about that. Then, without warning, she blurts, “he made it sound like you, Irillo, and that Vingan had allied with Lunars!”
Berra looks surprised, and then thinks, and then nods. “Yeah. He’d be able to. But we didn’t.” She shrugs. “I should maybe go have a word with him, though.”
“So he was lying?” Triumph animates her features. “I knew it!”
“No, he was telling you he found silver.” Berra holds up the coin, rolling it between her knuckles.
Nayale scowls. “But… if he knew it was a single coin and didn’t say so, isn’t he lying by leaving it out?”
Berra shakes her head. “Nah. Lying’s a deliberate saying. If you asked him enough, you’d get to the Truth, as he knows it, but he’s been told there’s silver there, or he’s heard there’s coinage, or he’s pretty sure there’s precious metal somewhere. Or he knows, but he thinks a Lunar’s a different thing. You know these used to be called guilders?”
Nayale nods.
“So if someone says he found a guilder, he ain’t exactly lying, but he probably doesn’t want to call it a Lunar. You used to get people like that, right? And there ain’t so many of them now, but they’ve … they were talking about a thing that to them, was true.”
“Yes but…” Nayale starts.
“Are you saying he’s just ignorant?”
“Mix of things. He ain’t going to know the exact truth – nobody could. And then he’s going to think of things different too. It wasn’t ignorance that keeps… kep’ people calling ’em guilders. Stubbornness, maybe. And does it matter what the Lunars call them, if you know what the coin is? If it’s got Tarkalar on it, then it’s gotta be a guilder, right?”
The young woman is scanning the camp, turning this way and that. “Mmmhmm,” is her absent reply.
“Um, if you’re thinking of putting his ignorance right, that was me saying you shouldn’t, if you’re wondering. Which you shouldn’t be, because you should be thinking about why I was saying it.” Berra gets back to picking at a bit of grime on her leather vambrace.
Nayale flushes. “Do you want me to clean your armour when we stop tonight?” she asks instead.
Berra shakes her head, and then considers. “Yeah, why not. I got two sets, and that’s a lot to keep clean.” She glances to the bison that holds her metal armour.1Critical Insight (Human).((…She knows she’s messing up somehow, but hasn’t quite worked it out. And with that critical, when she came to Berra, she was really, really worried he was telling her the truth. She needs to believe he was lying or wrong.))
“I’ll do a good job of it.”
Berra nods. “Course. And understand that he can believe the wrong thing, and it doesn’t have to affect you.” She does not stop looking after her own armour, although she does give Nayale a quick look.
The young woman looks embarrassed. “I … I didn’t want to believe him, but I found myself questioning and I realised we’d never talked about any of this kind of thing and while I knew I could believe in you, I wasn’t sure about the Esrolians and …” She’s babbling.
Berra puts up a hand. “Take a bit’ve time, and then we’ll talk about… well, some stuff.” She tilts her head a little. “S’just possible he was talking to you because he wants to put pressure on me – I should probably not be telling you any details of what happened, but telling you’d clear it up. Some dangerous stuff happened and we came out of it.”
Nayale stops herself with an effort and listens to what Berra tells her. The tension that radiates from her eases a notch. “You want me back out on the flank?” she asks without arguing.
“It’s a good place for you. The river’s worse because you need to keep an eye on the newtlings too.” Berra glances in the direction of their raft.
Nayale follows her gaze, but asks no questions.
Berra adds, “They are getting enthusiastic and I am pretty sure they are not going to be pirates but I’m thinking about what to do if they try.”
- 1Critical Insight (Human).((…She knows she’s messing up somehow, but hasn’t quite worked it out. And with that critical, when she came to Berra, she was really, really worried he was telling her the truth. She needs to believe he was lying or wrong.))
