Author Topic: The Silver and the Plum Tree - Adrianna Adamachi  (Read 642 times)

Dardonas

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The Silver and the Plum Tree - Adrianna Adamachi
« on: October 05, 2021, 03:35:04 PM »

A letter remains at the foot of a grave marked "Remus Adamachi" in the Wachter Estate's crypts.
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Dear grandfather,

During your war, was there ever so much death?  I smell it when I sleep at night and the sounds stir me in my slumber.  Gunpowder.  Cannon fire.  Screaming.  When the Wachters were about to behead Lady Nadia, did you feel the same pang of terror when you saw him?  Was he alone?

I put the uniform on to make you proud, but sometimes I wonder if I'd had made you prouder never putting it on.  Were yours as red as mine?  Would all the waters of Lake Zarovich wash this stain clean from my hands?  No, I fear the lake would be marred, making the blue one crimson.  Those dogs got what they deserved, though.  Even what he did to them in Castle Ravenloft was too good an end for them...

I think Svari would have married me if I had not married the Garda.  Adrianna Ionelus has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  It seems like a lifetime ago when I would sit in the Blue Water Inn and hope to see him, hope to get another invite to dinner or him to whisk me away for that private tour of the Citadel.  Maybe I should write him.

I should stop by and see you more often at the Wachter Estate, time just keeps getting away from me.


With love,

Adrianna Adamachi
« Last Edit: October 25, 2021, 06:19:36 AM by Dardonas »

Dardonas

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Re: The Silver and the Plum Tree - Adrianna Adamachi
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2021, 06:09:36 AM »
The letter remains unsent, long forgotten in the Silvervine Brewery.
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Dearest father,

It has been some time since I wrote, I hope you get this later with haste.  Rivina and Vasilica are back home, but I'm sure you already know that.  I told uncle he needed a much-needed vacation and he seems to have taken my advice.  It's just been me here, and between running the brewery and my work in the Garda I've been busy.  But, things are looking up.  I promoted a manager and have someone lined up to help with opening nights once we get the schedule sorted.  With the war having just ended, I will be helping coordinate the Day of Remembrance this year in Vallaki.  I've arranged for a conference to be tomorrow and I wanted to let you know I'll be putting down the family for a commitment of a few casks of our tsuika to help sponsor it this year.  I'm excited at the possibilities, it seems there is a lot of interest this year for it.

I know that we haven't always had the closest relationship, but I hope I have made you proud.  I think everything is lining up for me to make Lance Corporal soon.  Remember what you said?  "Make sure you let them know you are an Adamachi."  I don't think I have seen you since that day, but I hope that you have heard all about the things I have been up to and that when you talk to your friends about your daughter you smile when you do so.  Maybe I can see you at the gathering, or maybe the two of us can make the trip to the Wachter Estate to see grandfather's grave this year.  Together.


Your daughter,

Adrianna Adamachi

« Last Edit: October 25, 2021, 06:15:33 AM by Dardonas »

Dardonas

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Re: The Silver and the Plum Tree - Adrianna Adamachi
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2021, 03:32:53 PM »
Somewhere a journal lies open, its ink left to dry on a freshly scribed page...
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"Redemption."

Such a word never sounded sweeter.  But what does it mean to be redeemed?  Is it remorse?  Regret?  When I awoke from the darkness, I felt none of these things.  I felt hatred and despair.  Death did not redeem me.  It did not redeem the traitors in our midst either, however.  No amount of redemption will cleanse the stain of hatred I feel or the anger and betrayal I felt.  Even if I wanted it, Adrianna Adamachi cannot be redeemed.  I see that now.

Adrianna Adamachi has failed in too many things.  She did not become renowned or respectable.  Her name will be stricken from the mouths of her family.  Hers is but a legacy tarnished, torn asunder by foreign agents and traitors beyond repair.  Her name cannot be redeemed.

But redemption comes in many forms.  If not one way, it will be done another.  May my blood be redeemed as I was reborn from the darkness of iadul.  I will be the redemption of those who have wronged me.  I will set them right.  And if the name of Adrianna Adamachi cannot be redeemed, then she will shed that name and begin anew...

This will be my redemption.

Dardonas

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Re: The Silver and the Plum Tree - Adrianna Adamachi
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2022, 11:00:37 AM »
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"I think... I'm dying.."

Those were the last words I could eke out with what strength I could manage.  My legs could no longer keep me up and a numbing weight pulled me down the wall; all sound began to drown out.  I could hear the others speaking to one another and at me, but it was like I heard them through an incandescent ocean of blood.  I stared at my hand.  I stared at my ring.

Did Mother always know it was going to end up this way?  My thoughts took me through the horrific irony that I did not have control over my death, just as I did not have control over those final moments of my life.  Even now, I could still hear Cosmin's words: how there is no refugia for the two of us, only iadul.  I was so angry at the time, but now I see he was right.  I stared at my hand.  I stared at my ring.

I did not feel anger at this moment, however, but a bittersweet sort of sadness.  My vision blurred as I saw the three of them debating on what to do with me.  There was no empathy in their voices.  They did not care for me.  Discussing what to do like they need to do with me, as if they had dropped a piece of meat just freshly purchased from the butcher shop.  "Bloodsworn," they called me, not "Adrianna." And I stared at my hand.  And I stared at my ring.

If perhaps some wretched part of me were not cursed, I could remove my ring.  I could feel the thaumaturgy in my body, twisting me towards an inevitable fate.  If perhaps there were part of me that was good, I need only cut off the finger. There was nothing I yearned for more than the agency to decide my own fate...


And my hand was covered in my blood.

And my ring was covered in my blood.

..No, this was the death I had chosen.  This was the agency I desired.  And when I looked back up, I saw the old night and it was the shadow of a man.  He was cold—and even in that embrace, I was alone.


« Last Edit: January 31, 2022, 11:06:04 AM by Dardonas »