Far from being annoyed by this, Calyn had leveraged this to her advantage. Creating this link to the Governor of Ethavel for the clan was great merit as far as she was concerned and she had argued as much. She had argued that for this, she should be allowed access to all six levels of the clan's ascension manual. The elders of the clan, however, were only willing to agree to this if the marriage lasted five hundred cycles. Something she wasn't willing to abide by. While she was willing to be used by the clan in the short term to gain benefits, she wasn't willing to throw her entire life away at their whims. She had long-term plans of her own that she wasn't willing to forego for them.
She therefore countered with an offer of access only up to the fifth layer in exchange for a hundred cycles of marriage. The stubborn goats, however, wouldn't take anything below three hundred cycles. In the end, unwilling to go beyond a hundred cycles, they settled on the agreement that she would get access to the layer appropriate to the tier she climbed to in that one hundred cycles along with material support from the clan. In theory, she could get all six layers if she managed to climb all the way to the sixth tier in the next one hundred cycles. To climb from the second tier to the sixth in just a hundred cycles, however, was nothing but fantasy. If she could get to the fourth tier in that hundred-cycle window, Calyn would be content.
Of course, all of this was internal clan negotiation. When Deriel arrived at the clan to ask for her hand, you'd have thought that he'd asked them to carve out their hearts and give them to him, the way the old goats were acting. Negotiations had lasted for a whole three months. Three months in which several benefits were negotiated for Calyn before he was allowed to take her hand in marriage. Some of the things negotiated were critical, others trivial all weaved together in a random order so as to confuse their visitors as to what really mattered and what didn't. For example, they spent a whole three weeks negotiating how long Deriel would be expected to be monogamous before he was allowed to take a second wife. At the start, the elders had acted like even the suggestion that the young man would look at other women was a grave insult to them, and had even threatened to chase Deriel away. By the third week, however, they were arguing about how many women he could have after their seventieth cycle of marriage. It was twenty more cycles of monogamy than was usual, the elders wouldn't go below this.
At the same time, however, they only took two days to arrive at the decision that Calyn would be supplied with all the ascension resources she'd need, within reason, of course. Their attitude that this was something that didn't need to be said made this part of the negotiation move quickly. Despite the stark difference between the time allocated to these two issues, however, Calyn cared more about the latter than the former. She couldn't have cared less if Deriel chose to see other women on the side. So long as she was provided with all the resources to continue rising in power, then Deriel would just be a footnote in her past if he failed to keep pace. Just because she thought like this, however, didn't mean that she didn't understand why her elders had put up such a fight on this. Anything cheaply obtained is often cheaply valued. The harder the young man had to fight to get her, the more weight her position as a wife would hold. So she'd said nothing and let the negotiations go on.
After three months of negotiations, it was now Calyn's turn. She would similarly have to go live with her husband-to-be for three months while they evaluated her to see if she would make a good wife to Deriel or not. Naturally, she had several servants, advisors, guards, and a chaperone to ensure that nothing untoward happened between the two of them before the marriage was formalized. She would have to play the role of Deriel's wife in everything other than physical relations. If Deriel's family found her to be satisfactory in the role, then a ceremony would be held and the two would be married.
In truth, Calyn didn't find the idea of being married to Deriel that objectionable. A gifted second-tier illusionist from the school of mind, already closing in on the third tier despite being less than ten cycles older than her. Physically, he was above average in looks with an angular face and well-defined body that he'd honed for battle through unforgiving training. Calyn had seen him spar with a few of her clan mates a few times. Not only was he good physically, but he had weaved his use of illusions into his fighting style. And the switch was so seamless that one second, his opponents would be fighting him, and in the next, they'd be attacking the air just beside Deriel, having completely lost track of him. The most unsettling part was that this wasn't some hidden card of his. He didn't rely on the element of surprise or ignorance on the part of his opponent to do this. Even people who had been standing beside the ring when he used an illusion against others, were themselves wrapped in a web of illusions when they stepped into the ring with him. The most embarrassing moment had been when one of her cousins had laughed, presumably at Deriel, loudly declaring that his illusions wouldn't work on her. All the while, in reality, Deriel was standing to one side of the sparring ring while her cousin was valiantly fighting the air before her.
Her only complaint, and the main reason she had steered clear of the young man for most of this trip, was his tendency to brag. Being a descendant of a major clan like the Sydrak clan, Calyn was self-aware enough to know that she was by no means a humble person. However, with every third statement out of Deriel's mouth being a brag, Calyn had found herself quickly tiring of his presence. The worst part was that he wasn't even bragging about personal achievements. Ninety percent of the things he bragged about were either about his father's position and authority or things he had managed to get because of his relationship with his father.
If, by some twist of fate, he'd been born to a different family, then most of the things he bragged about would have nothing to do with him. As someone who was obsessed with her own personal power, Calyn just couldn't understand how Deriel didn't see this simple truth. Powerful as his father may be, when all was said and done, it had nothing to do with him. If he didn't work hard to become as powerful as the man, then it wouldn't mean anything. He'd just be another name forgotten to history like the majority of the people with powerful relatives.
A sigh left Calyn as she forced her mind to abandon her musings and focus on the present. Rising to her feet, she exited the meditation room attached to her sleeping chambers. Just a moment after stepping through the door, Astra, her head maid had already stepped up beside her. The clan had provided Calyn with several servants for this journey and if all went well, for the hundred cycles she would be married to Deriel. However, they couldn't follow her everywhere like ducklings after their mother, it'd just be awkward and stifling. Which is where a head maid came in. All Calyn had to do was communicate her desires to her and Astra would coordinate the other maids to get it done.
"Run a scented bath for me and have some clothes prepared. I'll be spending some time with Deriel," she instructed even as she pulled off the robes she'd been meditating in. There wasn't one of her servants that hadn't seen her naked several times before, so there wasn't even a hint of shame in her as her lithe naked form was exposed to all. Her instructions were simple but it set off a whole cascade of events. In short order, a bath was drawn in an adjacent room. Inside there would be servants that would help clean her, and others with brushes ready to attend to her hair. Being a luxury vessel, the airship provided a range is scents for the bath. Calyn, however, wouldn't be caught dead in any. One of the servants in charge of the supplies produced a whole array of vials filled with scents for Calyn to choose from, each far more expensive than anything on the ship. There were servants already going through her wardrobe. When she came out, there'd be three outfits laid out for her to choose from for the day. There were already other servants that would contact Deriel's servants letting them know that she wished to spend the rest of the day with him. In short, the simple statement was enough to shape the rest of the day in accordance with her will.
The dress she had on as she stepped onto the deck was a bit more constricting than the fighter in her liked. She, however, knew that there were arenas in which looks were just as deadly as fists, so she didn't mind too much. Off to one side of the deck, several guards were already standing around the table at which Deriel was seated. The airship was full of the upper crust of society. That, however, didn't mean that they all occupied the same station, and Deriel seemed keen to ensure they all knew. With a smile on her face, Calyn approached. She too had her own entourage with her. Just behind her were her head maid, Astra, and two maids behind her. In a triangle formation around them were three tier-three guards. One walked ahead of her and two were just two paces behind on either side of her and the maids. In case of any danger, they were expected to fight to their very last breath to protect her.
The smile that had been playing on her face stiffened a bit when she noticed who else was at the table with Deriel. Her father, Sydrak Heran, wasn't head of the clan. That role went to her father's brother, Sydrak Hadriel. Current clan head and father to the other woman her age who was currently seated at the table laughing with Deriel. It was harder to find a bigger contrast between two people than between herself and her cousin Nerissa. While she was focused to an almost obsessive degree on rising through the tiers, Nerissa was a political animal through and through. Calyn didn't exactly dislike her cousin. Rather, their very different natures had made it impossible to connect on more than a superficial level.
