symphony

[isthisart]

The day of the party approaches. Linya learns a Barrayaran-original solo piano symphony, adds some flourishes of her own where the composer has marked that it may be played "freely", memorizes the whole thing, and arranges to be playing it on the grand piano when party guests file in on the day of. She smiles and nods at them and takes note of how they arrange themselves in the room; there are thirteen minutes in the piece unless she decides she needs an extra three (if there seem to be a lot of stragglers; if there isn't a good path to the people she wants to meet and around the people she wants to avoid) and takes the repeat at the end to prolong it.

She doesn't wind up taking the repeat; the end of the symphony without it has her playing the final chord when Lord Auditor Vorthys is nearer than anyone she's hoping to evade. She counts out the beats, holds for a moment longer, and then lifts her hands from the keyboard. She has decided that given her choice of titles she's going to address this particular guest as -

"Professor Vorthys."

Comments

[first_loyalty]

"I... see."

[isthisart]

"I worry I'm making it sound worse than it is. It works for most haut most of the time. I'm unusual, or I wouldn't be here."

[first_loyalty]

"I... worry about the unusual people who aren't here, I think."

[isthisart]

"There are a handful. But only a handful. Does Barrayar work very well across all its strata for its unusuals?"

[first_loyalty]

"Well - I don't know. But at least we have marriage. I'm sorry - I must sound terribly provincial."

[isthisart]

"The haut have romantic relationships amongst themselves, I assure you. Just not - standardized ones."

[first_loyalty]

"Oh. Is that... good?"

[isthisart]

"I didn't have any, but they seemed to be arranged how their participants wanted them."

[first_loyalty]

"It sounds good, then."

[isthisart]

"By and large the way the haut live is a nice way to grow up and it would make a good place to retire," Linya opines. "And if it were more - porously bordered, it could be nice for the rest of one's life, too, but it is not."

[first_loyalty]

She nods. "I'd hardly even heard of the haut at all before, well, this party."

[isthisart]

"What made you decide to attend?"

[first_loyalty]

"My uncle offered us an invitation, and Tien said - well - most of the people here are well above our social grade and we aren't likely to get many other chances to meet them."

[isthisart]

"How does the social grading work...? If it's not a sensitive subject or something."

[first_loyalty]

"I'm - I'm not sensitive about it exactly, but I don't have the first idea how to explain. I suppose I could start with, not all Vor families have a Count anywhere nearby... we're all related to some if you go back far enough, of course, but that hardly, um, counts. None of my immediate ancestors for a few generations are especially famous, and even Uncle Georg wasn't anyone special before he was appointed Auditor. High Vor are all the ones who are closely related to someone with military or political importance, and the rest of us are... descendants of second sons and so forth. Still Vor, but not very important Vor."

[isthisart]

"Huh. Do you happen to know how Lord Vorpatril with his courtesy title fits into this? He's Miles's second cousin."

[first_loyalty]

"Courtesy titles are at least a little bit important... and if he's second cousin to a Count's heir, that's not too bad either. With there being so few Vorkosigans, he might be one of the closest people to the Vorkosigan Countship, and even if that doesn't matter for inheritance, it matters for - I'm trying to find a politer word than 'nepotism'." She smiles tentatively and adds, "Without success, as you can see."

[isthisart]

"Yes, if I recall correctly Miles has referred to his family tree as 'pruned'... Is there a concrete reason to want to attend high-Vor-ish parties or does it just seem to be the thing to do?" Linya wonders.

[first_loyalty]

"Well. One attends High Vor parties to try to make friends with some High Vor, is I think how it's supposed to go. It can be almost as good as being their immediate relatives, you see."

[isthisart]

"Yes, but armed with all that nepotism, you will accomplish - what? I've always had this problem understanding social status games and they don't make any more sense here than they did in Cetaganda."

[first_loyalty]

"Well... it makes opportunities for advancement easier to come by," she says. "Not for me, really, but for Tien - if there's a position to be had and the person in charge of filling it happens to know you already, he's likelier to consider you. And... if you have High Vor friends they might invite you to more High Vor parties where you... can meet more High Vor until you find one who'll give you nice favours? It sounds so mercenary when I put it like that."

[isthisart]

"It makes much more sense as a mercenary operation than it does as a time-consuming purposeless hobby, anyway."

[first_loyalty]

"I suppose maybe some people just like having highly placed friends the way some people just like collecting empty wine bottles, for that matter."

[isthisart]

"...Is that a real hobby?"

[first_loyalty]

"Yes. One of my brothers' friends does it, I think. Why?"