FFXIVWrite2020-Prompt5-Matter of Fact
This was not going to be an easy conversation, but it was one that Isobel knew that she was going to have to have with her parents. She flipped angrily through the marriage contract the most recent ‘beau’ had brought her and sighed. There were so many errors in it, grammatical, legal, and there were even really easy words misspelled! Who in Halone’s name had they gotten to put this waste of paper together?
She scrubbed her hands over her face with a frustrated groan before taking a deep breath to calm herself before activating her link pearl. It took a few minutes before someone finally answered; the deep, calm voice of her brother coming over the phone. “Hey Jingle Bell, Mother and Father said to tell you they aren’t here.” He said in his blunt, manner of fact way of speaking. “Who did what?”
All of the wind instantly went out of her sails. “Ugh, Mel. If they didn’t tell you about it then they must be desperate. What ‘they did’ was send me a fiance who... “ She trailed off gesturing wildly and then realized that her brother couldn’t see it and sighed heavily. “Let’s just say that he is so stereotypical scholasticate that I wouldn’t be surprised if he shat Halonic texts.”
Isobel could hear him suck in a breath on the other side of the link, but she couldn't tell if he was laughing or was just as surprised as she had been. It was another moment before he spoke again. “All right. Well, you’re smart. Did you find a way out of the contract?”
“Of course I did,” she frowned. “It was written like a primary school student. What are you saying Mel?”
Isobel could hear him shrugging. “I’m saying that Mother and Father are scared. You’re the one who is going to carry on the family line. I’m sure as hell not going to and Octavian would have words with me if I did.”
“I know,” Isobel rested her forehead against her hand collecting herself. Their parents did everything they could for their children allowing them more freedom than many of her friends in Ishgard had. But the way their estate and inheritance had been set up generations before was if none of the Lancer children had children of their own, the entire family fortune would be lost as it couldn’t be left to anyone who wasn’t of the Lancer name and bloodline. As Isobel was going to be the likely heir, no matter who she married, she would keep the Lancer name and her husband would become a part of her family instead of the other way around.
“We don’t want that in our bloodline though,” she continued. “I will settle down and get married and have the heir and spare and whatever else is required of me. WHEN I AM READY!” Isobel paused, closing her eyes with several calming breaths before she continued more sedately. A smile spread on her face as an idea suddenly came into being. “I know my duty to the family. I shall draft a template contract for them for any marriage candidate they truly, TRULY think suitable. If that person then agrees to the contract. Then I will marry them.”
That time she could actually hear her brother laugh. “You’re going to create a contract equivalent of a glass slipper, aren’t you?”
Isobel smiled proudly, letting it seep into her voice. “I don’t know what you’re talking about”
