Opening post by Lord Vickon Ryswell · #1
Look, I read The Salt Orchard by candlelight and stopped at the scene where the younger brother gives away the river land he has spent years coveting. I had taken my banner out of Envy yesterday, so the timing was uncomfortably tidy. A book making a fool of envy is one thing; making me recognise the fool is another, is it not?
Right, the brother does not become noble. He simply gets tired of measuring every acre against what was lost. That lodged under my ribs while I was looking at the hall and deciding which names I could still stand behind. You may call that surrender if you like, but I have seen surrender, and it is usually louder.
Look, I cannot tell whether I would have thought this before reading it, which is an irritating gap to carry around. The sentence is in my head, but not the road by which it arrived. Still, I left the banner, and for once I did not envy the men who stayed. That counts as a result, surely?