Tehr nodded at alex,<strong>"I trust your opinion and your judgement Alex.  If you think that this man is bad news, and wish our family to avoid him, I won't press the issue.  I think you know well enough about the need to politic among houses, but so too do I trust your instinct when it comes to trouble makers.  After the business with Dale last year, the last thing I want to do is drag Wynt into another potential quagmire with people who's greed and ambition outreaches their skills or use."</strong><br/><br/>Tehr listened to the tale of the potential criminals and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.  It had been a long ride the last two days and he was starting to feel the exhaustion.  The ring he wore that sustained him was good for letting him avoid food and sleep, but this weariness was not simple, it was a sense of morale and nerves as well as not enough sleep.  He wasn't surprised that Carolyn had wanted to relax in the tub.<strong>"I don't think we want to get wrapped up in any potential underworld activities.  As to the urchins, their attendance isn't mandatory at the schools, it's just an option for them.  Learn without having to apprentice, which most of them can't get anyways, and get at least one solid meal in their bellies a day while being warm and out of the cold.  The fact of the matter is if unsavory characters want the services of a youngling, they'll always be able to find one, they may just find that it won't cost a pair of copper coins for an entire day's work anymore.  I'll feel no sympathy for those would bemoan having to shill out more coin than the urchins would need to buy what we offer for free."</strong><br/><br/>He rapped the butt of his staff against the floor with that last bit, and realized that his voice had grown louder and more angry as he spoke.  He sighed,<strong>"I'm sorry it was a long journey and the twists of last week were... unexpected."</strong>Turning to Alex he said softly, laying a hand on the woman in man's form's shoulder,<strong>"Go, see to your sister, she is likely more tired than I even.  Make sure she isn't as weary.  I'd like to speak to Christina in private if I may."</strong><br/><br/><em>"Of course master," </em>Alex said ever so slightly.  He knew that Tehr wouldn't dismiss him thusly if it wasn't something that might be too private for even his ears, and that Christina might tell him herself later anyways.  So he took his leave.<br/><br/>Only after Alex left did Tehr make sure the door to the lounge was locked and then went to pour himself a drink, then poured more into the glass making it a double of strong brown liqour.  He didn't imbue much, but his nerves were really shot and he felt the need to have a little calm before he engaged with his sister on this next bit.<strong>"Tina...."</strong>he said before leaning his staff against the wall and then flopping heavily into one of the overstuffed chairs.<strong>"Mother and I spoke about more than just her desires.  Tell me, how well did you really know father?"</strong><br/><br/>She sat in the chair opposite him and leaned forwards, placing one hand on his knee, squeezing it comfortingly through his robes.<em>"Probably better than you brother.  You forget, it was a long five years that you were gone away studying at Oxford with Uncle Lan.  I may have been young when you left, but... well.... Father was already ill when you visited that winter, you remember?"</em>Tehr nodded his head,<em> "But it wasn't a quick illness, it was something in his lungs he'd been carrying for months.  The cough, the cough you saw, he was taking something for it while you were there.  He wanted to be strong for your visit.  He demanded that none tell you how ill he was, but I think he knew that he was nearing the end.  James and he were spending so much time together, Father was trying to prepare him to take over as the family's head.  That's why James tried to be civil with you, though I know he was still of the opinion that you should be home helping the family, not at school."</em><br/><br/>She shook her head and leaned back in the chair,<em>"But father and I... we spent many nights together.  He liked it when I would sit by the fire and read to him.  He asked me to read even as he was coughing loud enough that it felt like I could feel it rattling my chair across the room.  There was a young medicine woman, she came a few times, from the village, and he would be better afterwards for a while.  But Father always tried to keep her away even though it did help."</em>She paused,<em>"I think I know father very well brother, why do you ask?"</em><br/><br/>Tehr sighed, drained his glass, then got up and poured a second, a little less than the first, and paced as he said,<strong>"Mother told me about how she'd attended father during the visits of the 'medicine woman."  He took a sip of his drink and it was obvious that he was using that term very loosely.  You know the history of our family, the legend at least?"</strong><br/><br/>Christina nodded her head,<em>"Oh yes yes,  The whole <span class="bbc_u">Gwynt</span> (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=120879.msg7796424#msg7796424) story.  A house born of the fey and humans, cursed with otherworldly lusts, yadda yadda yadda.  What of it?"<br/></em><br/>Tehr set the now empty glass down, wondering when it had drained itself so quickly before going and standing behind the chair he had occupied, looking down at Christina,<strong>"Mother told me that Father, and uncle Lan, truly believed in their hearts the stories.  That uncle Lan's decision to go off and work on his craft was an alternate way of satisfying the lusts that ran in his blood.  Father himself had mistresses, and mother knew of them, but in his later years tried to remain true to only her.  Apparently after I was sent away she.... she said some unkind things to him.  She said it was his lustful chasing of the Hlaford half elven servants that had caused me to be such a lech that he'd try to mate with his own sister.  So he vowed that from that day on he'd remain faithful to her.  She said the first year was fine, but after that she noticed his health turning.   Likewise his lusts towards her were magnified greatly.  Which she admitted with some embarrassment she did enjoy.  But that it always seemed like he was trying to hold them back, hold back something of himself, no matter how much she tried to satisfy him.  Then one day, maybe three years ago, he'd seemed like he'd simply given up.  That's when he started to fade, according to her.  She noticed that when she would initiate, when she would bed him, he would seem restored for a time.  But that his passions had just simply burned out too low, his lust for life had dimmed with his lust for women.  He wanted to be a good husband, to be faithful, and..."</strong><br/><br/>Tehr turned and shook his head,<strong> "...and mother thinks that is what killed him.  She thinks now that the curse of our bloodline is true.  She thinks asking our father to be monogamous, to give up his lustful nature, that... that is what killed him.  That is why she went through such a long morning period.  She blames herself for father's death.  That medicine woman?  A local beauty, she... our mother that is... our mother brought her in to ... service father.  Father hated it, felt he was breaking his promise to mother.  But still, mother said it did help for a little while."</strong><br/><br/>Christina stared at the floor,<em>"Why are you telling me this Tehr?"</em><br/><br/>Tehr turned around and moved to take Christina's hands.  Kneeling on the floor and looking up into her eyes.<strong> "I don't know if our bloodline is cursed, but father believed it, mother believes it, and it would certainly explain my almost unnatural appetites, as well as your own lusts which I know are not insignificant.  But the reason I bring it up is that I know you love Alexandria d'Hesfal, and she, he, whatever, loves you.  But I don't know if you'll be able to survive with only one partner.  Maybe it will be different for you.  But mother told me that our brother James had at least three secret lovers that she knew about.  He kept them well hidden of course, but his camping trips out into the woods were likely excursions out to nearby homes and farmsteads.  I just..... I just don't want to see you fade away like father did.  If you want to settle down with Alex, I support you, I support you in anything you might do.  But you need to understand that you may need to know what that will entail.  I... I fear that Alex, Alexandria, may not fully understand.  It's one thing to live a few years of this lifestyle that we've made here in Hewthorne hall.  Spending some nights with two, three, or more in bed with you.  Or trading partners as the whim strikes.  But I don't know if Alex is ready to approach an entire lifetime of that.  Mother certainly wasn't, and she regretted every day that she didn't understand how vital it was to father.  Thankfully the Hesfals have been a pancea on that pain.  But..."</strong><br/><br/>Tehr pressed his face into the back of Christina's hands, feeling for a moment that tears were close to springing forth at the thought of what he had to say next,<strong>"I love you sister, and I'd not want you to slip away because you wanted to be committed in the sake of love to one person.<br/><br/></strong>