Chapter 160 - 158: Letting Loose.

Chapter 160: Chapter 158: Letting Loose.

He’d never been very good at losing, after all. And it’s been an awfully long time since he last had.

​"That he is," her father admits, eyeing her cousin’s retreating back with thinly veiled curiosity, "...You know," he adds conversationally, "I’m starting to think that maybe we should have just had them married tonight."

​Now that gets her attention, and for entirely the wrong reasons.

​" What ?" Xena hisses, head snapping to face him in utmost horror. Her father, to her alarm, doesn’t look like he understands what he’s just suggested.

​"What?" he sniffs, like she’s overreacting — which she is most certainly not . Weddings are special occasions.

There are preparations .

There is ceremony . And while she’s never had a wedding herself, she’s pretty sure they’re not meant to take place the day after the two to be wed fought almost to the death.

​"They’re both here , for one thing," her father explains, as she bristles, "Dressed for it, too. And we’re already having a party.

Why not make a night of it?" He says it like he’s being so reasonable , and Xena can do nothing but gawk at him and his complete disregard for the parties involved. It’s very unprincessly, but in that second she doesn’t care, not one bit.

​"Father, you promised ," she pouts, and just barely resists the childish urge to stamp her feet.

​" — To let them get to know each other, yes," he reminds her, patient and ever so patronising, "And they have , and I think it’s safe to say that they’ve decided they don’t like each other."

​Well, he has a point.

​Xena hates that. Her mother had hated it, too. Among other things. But she’d still loved her father, she was sure of it.

​Eventually.

​(And despite her father’s assessment, she knows that there’s been a shift. That something has changed.)

​"...Maybe they don’t know each other well enough then," she states stubbornly, but changes tact when he gives her a pitying look. "...Silas would be furious."

It’s his alliance, after all. It would be wrong to seal it without his presence. From what she understands, he wasn’t too thrilled with having been unable to attend these festivities.

But even Silas Luminus can’t control the weather, and in his part of the world, winter is treacherous and comes hard and fast. "He’ll want to be here."

​Even her father can’t argue with that. And he looks irritated about it.

​"...Snows came early to Briyagi," he states slowly, eyes narrowed suspiciously, "...Bad, too, this year. Passes are frozen tight until at least spring."

​She knows.

That’s entirely the point.

And when he sighs, she knows he understands exactly what she’s getting at.

Frozen passes are notoriously difficult and dangerous to traverse, and anyone who dared try navigate them during the winter storming season was a right fool. One with a deathwish.

​And Silas Luminus might not be a very nice man, but he’s no fool.

​Xena waits expectantly for her father’s answer, and the longer silence continues to hang between them, the more it feels like victory.

​"So...not until at least spring, then?" she presses tentatively, wanting an answer. It’s clear --at least to her --that he’s weighing up his options; trying to find the one in which he doesn’t have to concede that she has a point.

​He doesn’t come up with one.

​"...Not until spring," he eventually relents, albeit with reluctance. They both know that at the risk of offending his future political ally any further, he really has no other choice.

And while on a personal level, Gurdet would love nothing more than to offend Silas Luminus, for the sake of his kingdom, and this silly little game of chicken the pair of them are playing, he’ll wait.

​And as Xena beams at him, relieved that she’s further stalled an unhappy union for her cousin, Gurdet has to wonder if it’s a promise he’ll come to regret, or one that he’ll someday be glad he made.

...

Hours pass, and as the moon rises higher and the wine takes hold, men and women alike become bolder; their inhibitions thrown to the moonlight and their playful looks more shamelessly obvious, and Gandy isn’t the only soldier to turn in early for the night with a pretty face at his side.

​Even Khobi gets his fair share of suggestive glances ,and not just from women ,and while he doesn’t actively pursue anything with anyone, he’s clearly not completely immune to the lure of a warm body on a cold night, because every now and then Rogard catches his gaze; loosened by wine, wandering when he thinks no one is looking.

No one’s quite drunk or stupid enough to openly proposition him at his own engagement party, but the offers are definitely there, and Rogard wonders if there’s anyone out there who could tempt him to accept.

​Gods know, if anyone deserves to let loose and have a bit of fun it’s probably Khobi.

​Maybe on another night Rogard would have been the same.

He’s been there before ,stealing away into the night with someone’s daughter ,occasionally a son , only to leave them when he gets bored, but tonight he’s content with the company he has; drinking with them, trading stories of past parties and failures with women, and laughing as they make new ones.

​Rogard finds himself at the butt of a joke more than once, but despite his protests and declarations that they’re all mean and jealous, it’s the most fun he’s had at a party in quite a long time.

​He knows his father is here tonight, always lingering at the edges of his vision, but somehow Rogard feels oddly untouchable, like for once he’s beyond his father’s reach.

It’s a nice feeling, being able to speak with who he wants and dance with who he wants, without having to pretend that the weight of father’s scrutiny isn’t slowly suffocating him.

​It’s a feeling he thinks he could get used to.

​Tonight he’s outside his father’s world, looking in, and he wonders, as his father laughs with the visiting nobility like they’re old friends, if any of them notice that his smiles never quite reach his eyes.

The men seem to find him intelligent and witty, and it’s clear that their wives think he’s rather handsome. Some of them --even the married ones --ask the princess for a dance.