Magic of the Marriage Market

A headache throbbed at her temples, her mouth tasted as if she'd cleaned her shoes with her tongue, and Blair would have thrown up if there was anything left in her stomach to do so. As if to compound the fact that it was her fate to be miserable, Blair's tragically hungover state did not spare her at all from her duty as an older sibling. She wanted to die, and instead she was out on the promenade, in the bright sunlight, walking with Alaric and Gavin while they kept an eye on the picnicking Derbie and Lady Ban.

"I understand it's my punishment to be here," Gavin spoke softly to Blair, slipping her an herbal drop that would alleviate her symptoms no doubt, "but why is Alaric punishing you too?"

"You got caught sneaking back into the house after curfew," Blair smirked up at her baby brother, knowing exactly why her 16 year old brother was blushing, "I got caught being dropped off by City Watch. Again."

Although he was younger than her by five years, Gavin was built like their father and Alaric, and he was starting to loom over her like them and Edwina could. Only Hida was still on her level, but even the goddamn baby was already taller than her. "You know Blair, one of these days you'll explain why you drink so much, and we'll all still love you."

Blair gave a humourless smirk, "there's no great tragedy Gavin, I'm just aware that to most interested Suitors it's my body or my name they want, not me."

Gavin made a face, obviously grossed out at the idea of thinking his big sister was sexually appealing, but he didn't argue. Although she was the shorted in their family, Blair had also inherited their mother's astonishing beauty. Champagne blonde hair, sky blue eyes, a luscious body, an da face Blair had heard crudely described as made for ruining. And it wasn't that Blair didn't want to get married someday, she did. At least Blair figured she would, if she ever met a Suitor who wasn't just excited by her appearance and family connections.

"We could always poke a man's eyes out for you, then you'd know what he was appreciating," Gavin's offer was full of humour.

"You've been spending too much time at the Sikali's," Blair teased back, "only a Dukedom could get away with that, not a mere Countship like us Briggs."

"He's been sneaking out to spend too much time at the Sikali's," Alaric's disapproval saturated his words, "I wonder where he learned such terrible habits?"

"I resent that, I never once got caught sneaking in past curfew," Blair objected while shooting Gavin a wink.

"That heavily implies that you used to still sneak out," Alaric gruffly pointed out.

"Does it? Well I'll be damned, it does!" Blair faked surprise. "And here I just meant that if he learned from me HE wouldn't have been caught either."

Alaric sighed while Gavin tried to smother a laugh. "She's got you there Briggs," a semi familiar voice interrupted and all three of them turned in surprise to see who it was.

"Clayton!" Alaric's tone turned to excitement, "Welcome back, though I am sorry about Alphonse."

"Thank you, it's hit the family pretty hard," Clayton confirmed. "It's good to see you two again too, I can at least say that you're getting taller Gavin." It was a subtle dig from her brother's long time friend.

"I may be short but you're as bald as a billiard, what happened?" Blair remembered Clayton as a tall, skinny guy with tightly curled black hair and dark brown skin, now he had only skin on his skull but a short trimmed beard with moustache.

"I've been on the Southern Island for two years," Clayton had been around the family long enough that despite he recent absence it wasn't awkward. "And although it is no where near as ghastly as the Principality of Hinikia, it is quite humid. It is customary for the men there to go with a bald head and so I decided to follow suit."

"You look like a prisoner," Blair insulted.

"And yet despite being so green you could pass as a toad, you're still beautiful," Clayton shot right back.

"I may puke on you," she warned dryly.

"Blair, go sit with Derbie and Lady Ban if you can't at least try to be decent," Alaric interjected.

"Wait, Derbie's already Courting someone?" Clayton sounded astonished.

Alaric sighed, "I had hoped he'd find love, but is it wrong that I also hoped it wouldn't be the one hysterical Lady that Debuted?"

"She was screaming at the Debut?" Gavin asked, confused.

"No, she fainted," Blair corrected, "something that men believe they can't do but somehow passing out is allowed."

"Hard to see why there are no Suitors chasing your hand Blair, you're like a cold wind...in an outhouse," Clayton's insult might have hurt if Blair hadn't already burned all the Letters of Intent sent for her.

"Just wait Clayton, all manner of opportunists are going to chase you like a lion does a wounded gazelle," Blair reminded snidely. "You became the most eligible bachelor and now that you're back do you really think you'll make it through the Season untouched?"

"You are an Earl now Clayton," Gavin helpfully pointed out, as if anyone could forget.

"Not until after Alphonse's funeral," he corrected with obvious grief.

"Sorry," Gavin mumbled.

"Since you're here, why don't we collect the love birds and go have an early supper in town?" Alaric suggested.

"If you don't mind a Wignell amongst you Briggs," he agreed readily enough.

"Why are you walking so funny, did a horse kick you in the ass?" Blair demanded as Clayton's odd gait stood out.

"Blair," Alaric's tone was a warning, but since she was an adult there wasn't much he could do.

"I spent the last six months at sea, I'm used to the waves still," Clayton explained, not at all put out.

"Pirate," Blair insulted.

"Trophy," Clayton shot back, knowing her well enough to know how to get under her skin.

"Go get Derbie," Alaric barked at her so Blair turned on her heel to do just that.

Oblivious to the world, and society watching, Derbie was sitting on a picnic blanket with Lady Ban, and they were both reading different books, looking almost as if they weren't even aware of each other. But then Blair witness it as they both put their bookmarks in, then took turns catching the other up on what was happening in their 온라인카지노게임. It was adorable, and even though she was still nauseatingly hungover, Blair couldn't help but smile. She was glad Derbie was finding love; maybe if Alaric got married she would look less appealing as her brother's current Heir. Like her looked, Blair's economic value was a huge draw for many Suitors so she was planning to wait until after Alaric was wed to worry about her own nuptials.

"Lady Ban, Derbie, we're going to go grab supper with Lord Clayton," Blair could use honorifics, and often chose to only to make people uncomfortable.

Her interruption had both quickly getting to their feet, and Blair smirked as her little brother rushed to fold the blanket up. "Thank you for the invitation Lady Briggs," Lady Ban was unceasingly polite.

"I will insist you call me Blair and drop all this Lady nonsense soon," Blair warned with a friendly smile. "But Alaric's head may explode if I do that today."

"I can't help but feel Lord Alaric doesn't care for me much," Lady Ban confessed.

"Alaric can be a bit of a dick, but he means well," this time her blunt rudeness made Lady Ban gasp. "It's not that he doesn't like you, it's that Derbie is the first of us to find love after Debuting and he has no idea what to do as the eldest."

Both Derbie and Lady Ban looked at her with surprise, as if that level of understanding hadn't been expected from her, but Blair wasn't offended. "If I am not mistaken, I believe there may be a tempest starting between Alaric and Lady Aayina Ram," Derbie spoke up, "he was quite distracted by her at the Bouts."

"And I missed it," Blair could only imagine Alaric being 'distracted'.

"You were hungover, like you are today," Derbie pointed out with a perfectly neutral tone. "Why are you hungover again?"

"I took Edwina out to an opera to celebrate her invitation to the university," Blair shrugged, knowing most people wouldn't indulge excessively at such an event. It helped that she only ever had to pay for the first cup.

"When does Lady Edwina Debut?" Lady Ban asked cautiously.

"Next year, though she'll likely skip the Debut Season if Master Gentileschi agrees to take her," Derbie answered.

"Do you think she'll find a Suitor at the university?" Lady Ban seemed to have the same romantic nature Derbie did, "maybe he'll be another student at the university, a classmate to challenger her -OH! A rival maybe?"

Blair grinned at her enthusiasm, not bothering to point out that Edwina was more likely to fall for a statue, the second Briggs daughter only seemed passionate about her paints. "Is that one of the plots you're reading?" she indicated the book in Lady Ban's carry sleeve; it was an innocent question but the way the younger woman blushed and Derbie all but swallowed his tongue answered it. "I'll take that as a yes."

"What nonsense are you up to now?" Alaric's tone was almost acidic.

"Literary nonsense," Blair was honest and saw Alaric narrow his eyes as if doubting her. "We were discussing whether or not Eddy will find love while attending the university. Lady Ban thinks its possible, I say unlikely, what do you think?"

"Little Winnie can't already be old enough to attend university?" Clayton denied as if he hadn't been away for nearly three years.

"She's 18 and quite the prodigy," Alaric sounded as proud of Edwina as Blair felt.

"I recall a certain incident with paint and a certain bust of Diogenes," Clayton sounded serious but Blair snorted loudly.

So as not to exclude Lady Ban, Derbie started to explain. "Before Lord Clayton left for his Tour of the Southern Island, in fact before any of us had even Debuted, Blair convinced our sister Edwina that all the marble statues in the garden were dreadfully dull in just white. Edwina was and still is a fantastic artist, but at the time she was still only ten so she didn't hesitate to add a multitude of colours to every single statue."

"And for some unfathomable reason," Alaric sounded annoyed but Blair could spy the smile twitching at his lips, "mother's favourite bust of the philosopher Diogenes was painted a ghastly puce."

"It's not unfathomable, in fact its ever fathomable," Blair had to argue, "Diogenes was the one that said if you can't find an honest man, be one."

"And that earned him a layer of hideous purple paint?" Clayton sounded confused.

"Same shade as forget-me-nots, and his advice shouldn't be forgotten," Blair flippantly clarified.

"Was that really the reason?" Lady Ban innocently asked.

"It was eight years ago, I barely recall honestly," she grinned as her response to Derbie's Lady proved her to be a liar earlier to Clayton. "I do know for a fact that the statue is still in the garden and still has a faint stain in the marble if you look at it."

"We can look for it together at the Masquerade," Derbie offered to Lady Ban and Blair saw the same love sick foolishness in his eyes as Gavin had for Eniola, or mother did for father.

"Have the Social Events started already?" Clayton helped move past the saccharine sweetness of the moment.

"There are a lot of Debutantes this year, but the Events haven't started yet. The Viscount Ram's garden party is at the start of next week," Alaric eased.

"We can hide that bald head of yours in a darling flower crown," Blair said it sweetly but Clayton shot her a glower. "Would you prefer a bow?"

"It's days after my brother's funeral, certainly I can miss out," Clayton wasn't joking.

"If you do you know the Queen will expect you to hold an Event at some point," Alaric pointed out, leaving Blair wondering just why Queen Akiyama was so obsessed with pairing her nobles off but still hadn't found a husband for herself.

"I'll gladly figure out another ridiculous Social Event later than try to attend a garden party while still wearing my mourning clothes," Clayton confirmed and Blair didn't blame him. "In fact, I really don't have time to linger like I am. Thank you Alaric, Briggs', and Lady Ban, but I must be off."

Blair couldn't imaging the grief he was dealing with, Clayton had lost his mother and older sister Bryah when he was only three, then his father passed away five years ago and left the title of Earl to Alphonse who had tragically died in a theatre fire a few short weeks ago. He'd be heading to an empty Estate, and an even emptier Hold back in the Earldom; coming from such a large family herself, she truly couldn't comprehend it.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" she cautiously and quietly asked Alaric during their meal.

:I think he'll need friends in his corner this Season," Alaric tried to protect his friend's pride.

"If you'd like to go be in his corner, I can be a responsible adult and keep an eye on this lot for you," she volunteered, more than capable of chaperoning.

Alaric looked at her as if expecting it to be a joke, but then he seemed ot realize Blair was being serious. "Thank you, I think I will take your suggestion."

Blair didn't often take responsibility for others, and she had no intent to turn dictator now that both Derbie and Gavin were in her care, but neither was she going to make it too easy on any of them. "So tell me your opinion Gavin, could you do a better job on the meal?"

Gavin was a natural caretaker, and his growing magic suited that by imbuing any food or drink he wanted with a literal dash of love, or at the very least fortification. A practical side effect was Gavin's growing talent in the kitchen, he was as much as prodigy there as Eddy was with paints. And given then challenge Blair had just given him, Gavin carefully tasted his next bite of food before chewing thoughtfully. "It depends on what you mean by better, all of the ingredients are cooked perfectly but I might have chosen slightly different flavours to emphasize."

After that Blair listened while keeping an eye on the couple she was supposed to be chaperoning. "Did you ever notice how many of our magics involve food or drink in some way?" she pointed out as a way to draw their conversations together.

"How do you mean?" Derbie wondered.

"Alaric protects it from rotting, you can purify rot or water, I can refill a cup, and Gavi is almost able to heal people with his cooking," Blair gave a very poor summary of what they could do but it was still a basic summary. "The other half of the Briggs siblings are all a little more varied and random but half of us is still a significant amount don't you think?"

"I read a study on inherited magic versus spontaneous magic, "Lady Ban spoke and Blair liked that she wasn't afraid despite fainting at the Debut. "One of your parents has strong magic related to food, but your other parent had a spontaneous magic compared to others, you as their children just express that in a very precise manner."

"I'm not at that level of learning yet," Gavin admitted easily, he was a big 16 year old.

"Inherited magic is exactly what it sounded like, you can trace it back to a parent or ancestor," Blair felt her eyebrows lifting, the moment Lady Ban spoke on something she was passionate about she transformed. "But you can't deliberately breed for traits, its been tried but there is no controlling whether the children get inherited or spontaneous magic. The closest it what Taroton currently has; an equal distribution of inherited versus spontaneous. But even in pairings where both parents have inherited magic, spontaneous magic can still present in their children; it'll just be slightly less likely. And the reverse is also true, two parents with spontaneous magic can still have a child that inherits their magical type."

"So the fact that half of us have food magic like dad is expected, but no one having magic like mom or each other is also expected?" Gavin sounded confused.

"Actually, some of you could have magic like Countess Briggs, but it might not seem that way until careful inspection," Lady Ban smiled as she corrected and Blair could SEE Derbie fall more in love with her.

"Our father has the ability to 'store' food in a space no one else can see or feel, while mother has the ability to float not matter how far her feet are from the ground," Gavin seemed to be listening just as carefully as Blair was. She'd had the same lessons on magical archetypes in Taroton as any adult, but it seems to be Lady Ban's area of interest and she clearly knew more.

"And how certain are you that your various magics DON'T fit together?" Lady Ban's question wasn't rude but pointed, as if she'd already figured out they were wrong.

"Well you heard the brief summary of those of us who know our magic is inherited," Blair was starting to enjoy Derbie's Lady. "Alaric does food preservation," she summarized the summaries, "I refill drinks, Calvin can be invisible for short periods of time, food purification, Eddy can paint and create a duplicate object, and Gavin's food fortifies you." She kept Hida's ability to see the future to herself as the exact details of how it worked hadn't been determined yet.

"In a broad scope you could lump the magics into the same elemental categories that the Cador Kingdom uses; earth air, fire, water," Lady Ban's home bordered on Cador so it made sense that she knew it well. "It would be easy to assume Count Briggs' magic would fall into earth as it involves food but truly it'd be air. He doesn't create the food, he stores it. So in that sense both your parents are air type magic."

"Making food endure sounds more like earth than air," Gavin seemed intrigued by this new way of categorizing, "And Blair's would be water. Calvin would be air, Derbie earth, Edwina air, Farran and I are earth, and Hida's unknown. Any of us with earth or water are spontaneous instead of it being about food?" Gavin puzzled it out. "Which is only two of us, unless Hida gets a spontaneous type too, which according to you could be likely?"

"I'm not only the shortest Briggs," Blair was amused, "I'm also the strangest magically?"

"It's an oversimplification," Lady Ban gently corrected. "As I said before, because while being able to store things in a space no one else can is air based magic, the fact that Count Briggs can only do it for food items implies a heavy earth correlation too."

"I'm officially too sober for this," Blair declared loudly. "It's fascinating, it really it," it was just giving her a headache again, "but we're supposed to be chaperoning your date, not participating in a lecture; go be inappropriate."

"Alaric's going to have a thing or two to say about it if we do so under your watch," Derbie pointed out, face a flushed as Lady Ban.

"Oh no, someone's disapproval; I shall wither and die!" Blair's sarcasm made Gavin snort. "Go walk hand in hand around the lake, I'll follow behind with Gavin and ignore you unless clothes start coming off."

"I would never!" Lady Ban actually sounded offended.

"She didn't mean your clothes," Gavin explained, "when I was ten I decided it was too hot and ..."

Lady Ban looked shocked, scandalized, and faintly amused.

"So he stripped to his light clothes and jumped into the lake," Derbie finished the explanation.

"Everyone thinks I'm the bad influence," Blair smirked because she really was, "but I've never taken my clothes off in public."

"Yet," Gavin coughed into his hand and despite her obvious surprise Lady Ban laughed.

Blair watched as Ban gave Derbie a shy but sweet smile, "when you explained that you were one of the more easy going Briggs siblings, I didn't realize hot honest you were."

"Just wait until the Events start, then you'll see," Blair playfully warned, though she had no intent of attending herself.

She liked doing fun things, socializing, and thumbing her nose at traditions. Social Events were the opposite of all of that. No thank you.