overture

[isthisart]

Nine days into their fourteen-day trip, the courier ship arrives in the Komarr system. Five more jumps to go. Miles is not yet capable of peeling himself off a willing Linya before he passes out (and willingness is in no short supply), and the resulting peculiar sleep schedule causes Ivan no end of giggling. Linya draws him diagrams of more complicated braids as aspirational goals (getting five and a half feet of slidy-soft hair to be in even the simplest braid properly is a little tricky), which induces Miles to spend most of a day fascinatedly braiding and rebraiding her hair in various configurations. She, meanwhile, writes pen software that eats standard comconsole software and renders it for pen-ability in what she thinks is a user-friendly manner, and works on Russian.

When they reach the Komarr system, there's a message squirt, bounced at lightspeed from the little ships that do nothing but dance back and forth from side to side of the intervening wormholes collecting and broadcasting data. It says that Captain Illyan invites Miles to supplement his mission report by bringing his wife along.

Comments

[greatcomposure]

Cordelia sits too.

"I can definitely give you an outsider's perspective on the oath system. Mostly an outsider's perspective is that it looks completely insane... but everything manages to trundle along just the same. I'm afraid you'll have to ask me specific questions if you want specific answers, though. I am not quite oracular."

[isthisart]

"I have not seen enough individual examples of oaths to have detailed questions - though the idea of a second marriage ceremony in accordance with groat-related local traditions has been floated."

[greatcomposure]

The phrasing - 'groat-related' - surprises a giggle out of her.

"Has it? And did it swim, or sink?"

[isthisart]

"It has yet to definitively do either. I think I would want to look at the text of the promises involved rather than hearing them recounted in a fragmentary and editorialized fashion from memory, before deciding whether to recite them."

[greatcomposure]

"I'm sure I can dig you up a written copy from somewhere. What fragmentary and editorialized snippets did he give you?"

[isthisart]

"He forgot one of the pieces entirely and added a bit directed at hypothetical objectors. Included were phrases such as 'spouse and helpmeet', 'forsaking all others', 'united in love', 'giving aid where needed and accepting it where given'."

[greatcomposure]

"I can just imagine what he had to say to the hypothetical objectors," murmurs Cordelia.

[isthisart]

"It was not conciliatory."

[greatcomposure]

"He isn't, when something gets under his skin. Vorkosigan stubbornness."

[isthisart]

"Speaking of which - he was not able to give me much in the way of advice beyond being honest and direct, for when I meet your husband. Miles was confident that you would like me, and - less so about him."

[greatcomposure]

"I think," says Cordelia, "Miles was missing some relevant information. Aral is hardly in a position to complain about his son falling in love with a... quasi-enemy. Even if the Cetagandans are arguably less quasi- than the Betans, at least Barrayar isn't actively pursuing a war with anyone at the moment, and Miles didn't propose to you while you were his - very honourably treated, I must emphasize - illegally captured prisoner."

[isthisart]

"So you don't think it will be a problem?"

[greatcomposure]

"He might make some unhappy noises, but a few gentle reminders should set him straight. I will be happy to provide them."

[isthisart]

"Thank you."

[greatcomposure]

"Welcome to the family. Ah - what should I call you? I'm not sure what all the formalities are, let alone which ones I should be using. Or if I should be using any at all."

[isthisart]

"Linyabel is fine. Funnily enough, if I had married a ghem-lord I would have been officially trading in the 'haut' for a 'ghem' taking the same role in my full name - but since I didn't, I believe I'm technically entitled to keep it under a certain reading of precedent. Miles introduced me to his supervisor as 'Lady haut Linyabel Miriat Vorkosigan', but I'm not in the least attached to the formality for everyday."

[greatcomposure]

"Linyabel it is, then. And you can call me Cordelia."

[isthisart]

"Cordelia. Thank you."

[greatcomposure]

"Whatever for?"

[isthisart]

"General explanatory behavior. And telling me what to call you. I received a rundown of how to refer to miscellaneous Vor, but it has seemed incomplete - for one thing, I conducted the entire interview with Miles's non-Vor supervisor while avoiding addressing him by anything at all, because I didn't know if I was supposed to refer to a military hierarchy to which I do not belong and with which I have no formal status; and wasn't sure of other titles; and for another the etiquette seems sufficiently unfriendly that I suspect I'm missing a wrinkle. Within the stratification I'm used to there is literally no one I can't call by first name under at least some circumstances, all the way up to Emperor Fletchir."

[greatcomposure]

"It's correct to address Simon as Captain Illyan," she says. "But you probably can't get away with 'Simon' anytime soon. The unfriendliness is a semi-deliberate feature, I think. There's sort of an unwritten code to when you do and don't get to move to first names - they're very big on unwritten codes around here, either handed down verbally or transmitted by sheer social osmosis. Speaking of Emperors, though - I must assume somebody's let poor Gregor know about you by now, but I wonder if I shouldn't preemptively invite him for a chat. Before he's so swamped by Imperial notions that he forgets to be happy for Miles."

[isthisart]

"I don't object to meeting - Emperor Gregor, sooner or later as determined by people who know more about him than I do."

[greatcomposure]

"I'll make inquiries."

[isthisart]

"Thank you. Do you have any advice to supplement Miles's admonition that I be 'honest and direct'?"

[greatcomposure]

"Hmm... I'd say, try not to fall into the Barrayaran trap of considering the Emperor a title with a person attached, instead of the other way around. I think sometimes he thinks that way himself, but it isn't true. Emperor of Barrayar is a job he has, not something he dangles from on a string, and not the whole sum of his identity. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm explaining myself very well. But - Emperor Gregor is an office. Gregor is a smart young man with a strong sense of duty and a shortage of true friends. I can't say how well he'll take to you when I hardly know you myself, but it can't hurt to keep in mind that the possibility space is wider than the distance between allowing you to stay on the planet and... not."