To Nereus

[TennyoCeres84]

What was your initial meeting and the subsequent weeks with Meris like, when you purchased her from her previous owners? What was your impression of her? What was her health and demeanor like?

[IamLEAM1983]

"I had every intention of capitalizing on her skills as a healer, but I'd been made aware of the treatment she'd received before reaching me. It might have struck the Chamberlain as being counter-productive, but I allowed Meris some time to recover on her own. After being subjected to so much abuse, it stood to reason that she'd be vulnerable, and not entirely keen to trust one of my own. The best I could do was allow her some time with other women, freed from the responsibilities my concubines were expected to shoulder. For two weeks, I stuck to traditional remedies and ordered several girls in my care to do everything in their power to heal her, both physically and emotionally. In the meantime, I had to reassure the pressuring gnat my Chamberlain always was of my ability to hold on, despite a rising fever and a solid infection site.

Not that I was concerned, mind you. He'd tried to kill me once before and had shifted the blame on one of the serving girls. As I'd survived, he'd allow me more than enough time to recover. More than enough - or so he hoped - to forget. As long as I held on, he would grovel at my feet and attend all the services I couldn't, as only the most obedient of Prelates ever would. My very weakness was, quite honestly, my best bargaining chip.

After two weeks, I was strong enough to take to the steam baths to attempt to disinfect the wound. Meris and I met much as you've read thus far, although I wasn't entirely conversational, initially. Making my way to the basins was enough of an ordeal for my weakened system that I usually collapsed into a snoring heap as soon as I managed to sit down and take in a generous helping of our therapeutic mineral salts.

Over a month, I turned from a placid subject who was too preoccupied drooling over himself to be of interest into someone who at least had enough mental gymnastics left to ask a few questions, make polite conversation. I was still fairly exhausted on most days, however, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to know that Meris saw my more sensitive side long before I'd see hers. I perhaps would've been more guarded in better circumstances, but I couldn't go four hours before feeling like I'd run the Boston Marathon. I rarely had any energy to devote to subterfuge, so I allowed myself to act as I wanted to - and not as I should have.

Give it a while and, well, I'd come to realize I had no intention of lying to her or of manipulating her. Exposing her to the Black Speech quickly seemed like a terribly wasteful idea. What started as a case of near-permanent exhaustion turned into me being unable to imagine my relationship with her not being based on honesty.

You have to understand, most Void Weavers become pathological liars by necessity, and hypocrisy is essentially a virtue in Dalarath. To have someone truthfully see me started as an odd window of vulnerability in my persona as Augur, but it became something I wanted more, lusted for more often than food or drink.

The rest, as they say, is history. Clinging to her as my only source of genuine exchanges made me realize I loved her. If it were in my power, I'd be a frightfully blunt type, honestly - someone who says what's on their mind, come what may. I've spent centuries pussyfooting, and Meris is the one who made me yearn for what it might feel like to have actually insulted someone else, hurt someone's feelings. Not for the sake of having been hurtful; but for having defended my own opinions; stuck to my damned guns!

I don't understand some people's hatred or mistrust of the electoral system, for instance. How could you be jaded toward something that acts as your ultimate form of self-expression? If a politician fails me after I've voted for him, you'll find me in the angered mob crying for his destitution!"