#moryis

maud selbie is an expat from the freefolk of iscolain. "freefolk" refers to a new nations that spring up in the years following the stampede, but for the most part the kingdoms they broke off from are too busy with other shit to try and reincorporate them. so you have these unofficial democracies running with varying levels of lawlessness. they do pretty okay for the most part, but maud has a histrionic/narcissistic streak and thinks she could have a better life beyond iscolain. which isnt really true, but once you leave the freefolk they dont let you back. sort of an echo of whats going on with orchidees story post-lafossa

maud basically works her way up from the bottom of the societies she travels through via scamming and fraud. when one day she sees the earl moryis mac niniane riding horseback through the streets in a parade, she is entirely taken by him. she weasels her way into a mid-ranking family and is able to successfully bid for his hand, mostly because she was such a menace to the family shes scamming that they were eager to be rid of her. this should have been a harder task, but moryis is more or less middle aged and did not expect marriage to be something he ever participated in, so the bar was low. he is the runt of his family and fought his brothers literally tooth and nail for the earldom, though because he has no children his nephew is his named heir

the thing is that moryis knows maud is pretending to be something she isnt, but is interested and attracted enough to entertain her and figure out what she wants and what her problem is. he might be pleasantly surprised to know that she doesnt want anything other than a comfortable life with a husband she perceives to be extremely desirable. they affectionately refer to one another as "lord husband" and "lady wife"