The Prime Source

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 25th June 2017

Characters: Fymer, Kiomo
Description: Fymer learns the truth of why Kiomo left Garnet Valley Hold.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 12, day 17 of Turn 8
Notes: Notes: Refers to the events surrounding "SWE: Tragic Tale" (m2d3t4)

After the card game with Kiomo, Fymer found himself intrigued by the young man. Their game had ended pretty much even. Since all the harpers formed a kind of network of information, it was easy for him to send a discreet inquiry to Garnet Valley's harpers. He still had to wait for the answer for awhile. When it came, he found it very much interesting. He decided he wanted to find Kiomo's side of the story before deciding what to do with the knowledge. So he went to seek him out. Diningh hall during diner time was logical place to start.

Kiomo recognized the Harper immediately. Smiling broadly, he greeted him. "Good evening, Fymer! Trying to tempt me into another round?"

"Not today, Kiomo," Fymer replied with slight smile. "If you don't mind company for a meal, I thought we could talk."

The Holder couldn't quite pin point why, but the Harper's turn of phrase made him feel a little on guard. "Oh? Just a chat or something particular on your mind?"

"The latter," the harper replied and made a gesture that they should pick out one the more private tables at side.

But Kiomo could guess what the Harper wanted to talk about. Harpers, he knew, loved secrets. "I have a better idea. Why don't we get our dinners to go and take them back to my office where we can talk freely?"

"That's fine with me," Fymer agreed.

Kiomo gave him a nod and a rather self-assured smile. "Then why don't you grab the drinks and I'll grab the food, and we'll meet there?"

"Alright. Do you want something stronger than klah or water?" Fymer asked. A glass or two of wine probably would make the talk smoother.

Kiomo assured the Harper that whatever he chose would be fine by him. Carrying two trays of food to his office, he greeted Fymer outside the door. "The door is unlocked. Go on in and hold the door please. The glows are to the right."

Fymer had brought them a bottle of wine and also pitcher of water with some citrus peels floating in it. "Here we go," he kept the door open for him.

"So, what would you like to talk about?" Kiomo asked after setting the trays down on the table and motioning for his companion to take a seat. He was pretty sure he knew, but he wanted Fymer to show his hand first.

"I've been in contact with the harpers in Garnet Valley, I learned all kind of interesting things," Fymer saw no reason to beat aroung the bush. "Now I'm trying to decide what to do with that information."

Kiomo chuckled softly. He was sure Fymer had heard all sorts of things. "Fymer, if you really know what happened, you know _I_ am not the one you can hurt with the information. What can you accuse me of? Being a man with male needs?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything," Fymer said disarmingly. "I know all about needs," he just didn't have the courage to act upon those.

"Do you want to just know all that happened?" Kiomo saw no reason in hiding what he did. Nothing was illegal, after all, or he would have been arrested rather than removed.

"Of course I want to know, I'm curious and I'm a harper. Those two words mean the same. I would love to hear your side of the story. Now I just have the official, which as a harper, I know can be..incomplete."

"Then let me fill in some of the details." Not all of course. For example, Fymer did not need to know of Kiomo's failed attempt at wooing Thalia, his affair with the Headwoman, with Master Vintner Fielton's daughter, with his Lord's sister and the future wife of the Smith Hallmaster... "Not long after I arrived in Garnet Valley, I was accused by a Minor Holder of getting his daughter pregnant. Lord Ishek had visited the Hold, and I accompanied him as his assistant. He was unmarried, and so the Holder had hoped his daughter would catch his attention. Well, he apparently didn't suit her tastes. When her attempts to catch his eye failed, I guess she cast her eye on me. The Holder, quite upset, came to Garnet Valley, demanded to see Ishek, and claimed she was pregnant, and that I was the father of her child."

"Well, that's one way to try to secure a marriage," Fymer chucled and gestured him to go on.

"Indeed. But, thankfully, it was discovered that she had had an affair with a stable boy in the Hold she had been fostered to, and I was acquitted of all charges." Of course, it helped that Kiomo had sweetened the deal by 'fostering' her to his family's Hold until she had the baby and there the child remained when she returned home. "But the seeds of doubt in my character had been sown, shall we say, in that incident."

"Indeed, I know how that goes," Fymer symphatized. "For example, people accuse me of being cold and indifferent towards my children, when I choose to let them stay in Jade Harbour. They had loving grandparents and family there. I would not be able to look after them the way they can. My wife died, you see. People don't realize how much it pains me to be apart of them."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Kiomo said with a slight bow of his head. He was not sure if Fymer was sincere or not, but it did strike him that the Harper seemed to jump very quickly to his own defense. But he had no reason to doubt the man. Yet.

"Anyway," he continued, "I had a few minor trysts here and there, as men do. There was a young drudge that I had to see relocated elsewhere when she fell pregnant, but it was all discrete and handled properly." Losing Gleniel had been sad, but unfortunately necessary. She could have ruined his plans with Thalia, after all!

Fymer could see tha pattern there. Not that he blamed Kiomo. After all, he was up to his ears in depts most of the time. They all had their failings.

"Then a while back, one of the important Minor Holders in Garnet Valley 's territory came for a visit. He brought his wife, probably because he didn't trust her alone at his Hold." Ironic, really. "It was quickly apparent they were not a happy couple, possibly because of their lack of children. Lady Larcilla was obviously lonely, and she took a fancy to me. I _thought_ it was just a dalliance. Now I know it was revenge." Kiomo shrugged a shoulder. He had misread the situation. Grossly. It was stupidity on his part. Very few ever played him like that!

"We were working on a very important project. Sometimes Ishek and I would go to their Hold, sometimes they would come to ours." Really, Kiomo should have stopped it, but she was a remarkably beautiful woman, and an amazing lover! He was blinded to the consequences. His one weakness. "Larcilla caught. I told her she needed to find an excuse to leave. I even suggested some... options..." Kiomo had spent enough time in a Weyr to know that unwanted pregnancies could be dealt with quite easily. "But she needed an heir. And she assured me that there was no way it was mine. But she knew. She lied."

"I can see where this leads," Fymer said and poured them more wine. He was fasinated by Kiomo's tale.

His companion was sure Fymer already knew the end of the story, but he continued. "The moment the babe was born, it was obvious. Both she and her husband are fair-haired and light-eyed. She admitted, with a lot relish, I believe, who the father was." Kiomo took a long sip of his wine. Truly, he should have thought twice before getting involved with a woman scorned. "I should have known that it could be trouble that first night. Dessert hadn't even been served yet at their welcome feast and she had me in my chair in my office with my pants down and her on her knees in front of me. I should have known."

"That bad?" Fymer had to admit he felt envious. He didn't have Kiomo's charming good look and women seem to give him wide perth.

"That was just the _start_, Fymer," Kiomo said with a shake up his head and a soft chuckle. "The woman was insatiable. I mean, can any man blame me?" He let out a long sigh, knowing that if given the choice, he would do it all again. She was worth all the trouble it caused. At least, for him. "Her husband, of course, could blame me. He had every right to be angry. He finally gets his heir, and it turns out it's not even his. The boy was not even a day old and her husband ordered the Harpers to draw up divorce papers, and was on his way to tell Lord Ishek the news."

The holder shrugged slightly as he studied the stem of his wine glass. "What could Ishek really do? I had created a scandal at his Hold. I had put in danger a project that had been more than a Turn in the making and strained a relationship with an important ally. I had done nothing illegal, but I also could not stay at Garnet Valley. And so... here I am."

His eyes lifted to the Harpers. "Does that fit the rumors you heard, Fymer?"

"Yes, it does. Of course, what I got was second hand, and you're the prime source," Fymer replied. He didn't quite believe all the things Kiomo had told but he was convinced that the core of the story was true.

"Anything you want to ask me?" As far as this incident in his life was concerned, Kiomo felt he had nothing to hide. He was a stupid man, but just a man, after all.

"No, I'm good," Fymer chuckled.

"A Harper with no questions... Do I really tell that good of a tale?" Kiomo asked, looking at Fymer over his glass, but smiling broadly.

"You should have been a harper," Fymer said as a compliment. "And certainly, I'm curious and have questions but those are rather personal nature and I leave them to be until we know each other better."

Kiomo lifted his glass in an understanding salute. "And maybe that's the time I can ask a few of _my_ questions." After all, everyone had secrets.

Last updated on the July 4th 2017

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The Prime Source