an Enabling Gremlin

The former Inquisitor Daena is twenty-one, going on twenty-two and had been carrying on with both Dellamorte cousins since she was barely nineteen. It is a reasonably committed relationship on all their parts, though of course Illario still does seduction on missions whenever he feels like it.

And, more importantly, it is a secret. They aren't obvious about it and they try not to be seen in public where somebody might recognise them. Just in case.

And then they get a bit careless on a party. And Daena falls pregnant.

Which is a Big Problem for a Crow who is at odds with her Talon. Which she has been for years now. Viago definitely wouldn't let Daena keep the pregnancy, not unless she confessed whose child it is. And then he might try to leverage that to get concessions out of Dellamortes. Telling him is out of question.

Solution?

Run away before Viago realises something is up and try to rendezvous with one of the baby's daddies. Lucanis is running another job in Tevinter but Illario was supposed to be doing something around Hasmal. Much closer and easier to find.

Daena finds Illario, tells him what is what and together they decide the best way to deal with Viago's possible retaliation and whatever Crows he sent after her is to get hitched. Which they promptly do. Illario, being a little shit, sends an announcement notice to Caterina and Viago both. Plus some other acquaintances and friends for good measure.

And it's get better!

And when Lucanis asked why all these people were here?

"It's because I went and married Illario," came from one of the side corridors, where Daena materialised from to link her arms with Lucanis. "Come, cousin, I will explain everything once we aren't standing on ceremony in the foyer," she promised as she dragged him along to the corridor in, Lucanis noted, an opposite direction to Caterina's office or the parlour Teia was supposedly sitting in.

Lucanis wasn't sure what was there to explain. It wasn't like it would be the first time a woman - or a man, or a person - choose Illario rather than him. Granted, his cousin didn't marry any of them, but was it any wonder Illario would like to marry Daena? Lucanis certainly wouldn't have said no. It wasn't like he had been maybe hoping-

They got to a reasonably private parlour, where Daena promptly locked the door behind them and practically shoved Lucanis onto a sofa. And then immediately moved to straddle his lap.

What.

His hands definitely didn't reflexively move to bracket her hips. Other body parts didn't move either. Nope.

His confusion must have been very obvious because Daena had that impish smile on her face that heralded trouble.

"So, I'm pregnant," she announced proudly.

Oh. He definitely didn't expect that. Though if they grew close enough to want to marry, he supposes it was only normal, even expected, that they would have children together. He just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Daena frowned like she didn't like his reaction at all. He should probably congratulate her but he couldn't find words to do so, so he just looked a little helplessly at her.

"Lucanis. I've been pregnant since that ball in Salle at the end of the season," she said very slowly, like she thought he had a concussion or something. "You know, the one that I sneaked out of to spent with Illario and you. Together. In my apartment. You remember that part, right?"

Well yeah, it was hard not to remember when he spent half of that night in her bed watching her with Illario and the other half-

Oh.

Oh Maker.

But when they are in private?

They are definitely making up for the time apart. By making out. And having all the filthy hot sex they can manage in that time. And cuddling together in the bed or on a sofa or having a nice dinner (or breakfast) together.

Like that time in Salle when they decide to sneak away from a party at some baron's mansion to spend the time in Daena's little apartment. Which amounted to a take-out food for dinner - nobody was impressed by the buffet spread and they didn't wait until the supper - and then that turned into kissing and then sex. With both of the cousins taking turns with Daena (and each other, but they can do that in their own time in Treviso, so they preferred to focus on her).

***

Back to Treviso and Daena explaining to Lucanis how she figured out she was pregnant and didn't want to tell Viago that fact or who could be the father. And without that, well, he probably would have ordered her to drink a concoction of tansy and witherstalk, to get rid of the baby.

Not happening, if she had anything to say about that. Which she did, hence her elopment with Illario.

"If you were closer, I might have asked you," Daena assured him. Like it could be something he would ever hold against her. Ridiculous. "Or else have you and Illario choose between each other. I, didn't want to do that. I love you both too much to do it."

How that declaration led to them kissing passionately, with her still straddling his lap and his hand now far up her skirt, neither was entirely sure.

But that was how Illario found them when he took a break from arguing with Caterina to come looking for his wife and cousin.

Also, Luca is moving in with them in their new townhouse, no this is not negotiable, he will be moving in. Illario wants him close because Daena might not have that many weird cravings yet, but when she does Illario wants Lucanis there to cater to them with his cooking. And maybe he wants the great cooking for himself too.

Also, the horny midterms are about to start and Illario really wants some support for when they get there. Or else he might not get any rest for several months 🤭

For example, your travelers might know that they're near civilization when they start finding trees in the woods that have been tapped, for pitch or for sap. They might find a forester's trap line and trace it back to his hut to get medical care. Maybe they retrace the passage of a peasant and his pig out hunting for truffles. If they're coming along a coast, maybe your travelers come across the pools where sea water is dried down to salt, or the furnaces where bog iron ore is smelted.

Maybe they see a column of smoke and follow it to the house-sized kilns of a potter's yard where men work making bricks or roof tiles. From miles away they could smell the unmistakeable odor of pine sap being rendered down into pitch, and follow that to a village. Or they hear the flute playing of a shepherd boy whiling away the hours in the high pasture.

They could find the clearing where the charcoal burners recently broke down an earth kiln, and follow the hoof prints and drag marks of their horse and sledge as they hauled the charcoal back to civilization. Or follow the sound of metal on stone to a quarry or gravel pit. Maybe they know they're nearly to town when they come across a clay bank with signs of recent clay gathering.

Of course around every town and city there will be farms, more densely packed the closer you are. But don't just think of fields of grains or vegetables. Think of managed woodlands, like maybe trees coppiced-- cut and then regrown--to customize the shape or size of the branches. Cows being grazed in a communal green. Waiting as a huge flock of ducks is driven across the road. Orchards in bloom.

If they're approaching by road, there will be things best done out of town. The threshing floor where grain is beaten with flails or run through crushing wheels to separate the grain from its casing, and then winnowed, using the wind to carry away the chaff. Laundresses working in the river, their linens bleaching on the grass at the drying yard. The stench of the tanners, barred from town for stinking so badly. The rushing wheel-race and great creaking wheel of the flour mill.

If it's a larger town, there might be a livestock market outside the gates, with goats milling in woven willow pens or chickens in wooden cages. Or a line of horses for the wealthier buyer or your desperate travelers. There might be a red light district, escaping the regulations of the city proper, or plain old slums. More industrial yards, like the yards where fabric is dyed (these might also smell quite bad, like rotting plant material, or urine).

The Procgen Mansion Generator produces large three-dee dwellings to toy with your imagination, offering various architectural styles and other options. Each mansion even comes with floorplans:

Meta Monday: Where’s the Beef?

Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied. They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts. Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters.

–A Clash of Kings, GRRM

GRRM loves a good feast. Even describing a distinctly unappetizing meal like a bowl of brown obviously tickles his fancy. So we have lots to work with in determining the dietary habits, including the protein habits of Westeros. While GRRM sometimes serves up New World crops, such as hot peppers, sweetcorn, gourds, cranberries, peanuts, pecans, etc., much of the animal protein present in the pages of ASOIAF is downright medieval.

The wound is backstory. The structure they built on top , the habits, the walls, the jokes they make to change the subject, the way they leave before they can be left, that's character. So don't show me the wound. Show me the architecture.