Lords and Haunts

[Jennifer Hazelton]

Jennifer considered for a few moments as silence stretched between them. She was comfortable with this silence.

"I have had conversations with her Grace that makes me feel as though she is understanding of what the Oaths could offer. I was not as clear as I could have been in the initial proposal.
I have been studying other cities, and believing in presenting how other Invictus princes have chosen to use the Oaths. "

Jennifer tilted her head minutely in thinking about Jack's primer conversation.
" There are different factors. I am sure we don't know every factor that the Prince is considering. I am sure that you made valiant efforts to the idea of an oath. Perhaps we can speak to her about it together."

( Out of the house, sorry no color)

[Jacque]

Jacque quietly considers her suggestion. Eyes drift across Jennifer as he measures his next words carefully.

"I am not certain that would be beneficial," he responds giving a brief pause before continuing, "Having already primed the conversation and you having already discussed the matter with her, returning to her on the same subject together is inherently suspicious regardless of our intent or motive." He smiles as his hand turns to signal an explanation, "I have great respect for Lady Antinori's poise and wisdom and I owe much to her recognizing and fostering my potential by guiding me to the First Estate."

He stiffens his posture, "All that aside, she is what she is- the Savage Prince of Sacramento. I don't need to tell you that most Kindred have an angle they're trying to play to benefit themselves, which means any proposal such as this is met with heavy scrutiny. I fear that a united approach to pushing this issue may provoke a defensive stance towards both of us which would be quite catastrophic to accomplishing our goal."

Now that he thoroughly explained why he felt that wouldn't work, it is clear that the Lord is pondering heavily on a better suggestion.

[Jennifer Hazelton]

"I believe that a general conversation on what Oaths can achieve would be beneficial. With current events - or what happened at the Oath Swearing Ceremony - I am unsure if every one is on the same page regarding possibilities. Yet, I certainly would not want her to feel ambushed," Jennifer nodded slowly. "- I do like the idea of general discussion. Honesty in all things.

I was a bit surprised with how the Ceremony shook out. Who would have thought that would happen? In my decade as a Notary, no one has tried to re - write my Oath. Certainly not one that was approved by former Prince Asa Clarke."

[Jacque]

"Perhaps I don't have a clear understanding of what was discussed during your visit with the Prince," the Lord concedes, as he would have envisioned the conversation to cover that.

His lips twisted into a frown at the mentioning of the ceremony events, "Lady Notary, his efforts were not in good faith. He was hiding something and given the nature of the modifications it was something to be hidden in his future. As a very old lawyer he lost me when he tried to pass off the 'I swear to have sworn' bullshit."

His lips pursed in thought before adding, "Truth be told, I had my own reservations regarding the choice of language, but I respect you far too much to make such suggestions during your ceremony and before I took the time to learn how to employ the Blood-Tell Oath myself."

[Jennifer Hazelton]

"I mainly suggested holding Kindred to their word with an Oath. I was told that holding those of the non Invictus to them would be objectionable. I do feel as though I need more of a history for the past Domain officials to have a complete understanding of how I can serve her Grace best." She held out a hand, open, signalling her humble opinion.
"I serve at the pleasure of the Prince. I have been clear that my main goal here is to strengthen the First Estate. I have an obvious bias that the Oaths are the best skeleton with which to do so. Moving to the Ceremony - I was quite offended by Mr. Heinrich's behavior at the Ceremony. Never before have I seen its like. I thought he simply did not understand the Oath at first - yet he had every opportunity to square that away with me before the Ceremony. I would love to hear your thoughts regarding the events."

She tilted her head at Jack. "I did observe your reaction to reading the Oath." She noted, keeping her composure nuetral.

[Jacque]

The Lord hums in thought as Jennifer restated her earlier outline, "If you want to meet together we can, but if I were to approach her alone I'd come from a respect of curiosity about her decision and see if I could get her to volunteer her perspective before sharing my own insight. In my opinion, this has the best chance of success but I'll differ to your wishes."

"As you should be," he bluntly replied, "His manipulations of the verbiage were clearly to pervert the intent and effectiveness of the contract. I have no idea what could possibly be so dire of a secret that he would sully his reputation with both his Priscus and Covenant, but whatever it is it clearly made him uncertain of his ability to uphold very basic commitments to the Laws of the Domain and the Covenant." He scoffed in an unusual display of emotion, "Frankly, I'm surprised he got away with merely an expulsion since the red flags allude to a much more widespread issue."

"I apologize if my face betrayed an uncertainty or disagreement with your oath. The suggestions I would have had would have been in line with the intent of the contract, but again out of respect for you I would not make such a suggestion unsolicited or draw a line in the sand as Mister Heinrich chose." Words delicately suggesting he'd talk more about it if the Notary wanted to, but he was content to let it go until he was more educated in the oaths himself.

[Jennifer Hazelton]

"Perhaps. I have weighed your words, and would not want to appear to second guess her Grace. She has her reasons for her decisions. We have but a small view of what is occuring in the Domain..." For being Priscus kept one's thumb on the pulse of the Clan, they were not needed to be kept in the loop on Domain matters.
"I was mostly confused by the choices he made to obscure. The lineage. I started with the 'line if known' and noticed that he moved that position in his draft. To better suit his purposes of obfuscation, or simply because he wanted to get in 'swear to have sworn' past first? I suppose it is of little matter as he is no longer a part of the Covenant. Although I am a bit... concerned with what he managed to conceal. I put together the Ceremony based on a display of unity and solidarity."
"I would be surprised if you had not displayed some reaction, Mr. Jack. You are a wordsmith." Dark eyes regarded Mr. Jack for a moment, measuring.

[Jacque]

Jack nodded to her agreement, "I would hope it is an unnecessary precaution, but as you may have already deduced I tend to try and anticipate and mitigate risk." After all, their first conversation together was with a similar purpose.

"It is, but the echoes of the events I fear will reverberate through his future in the domain. Some of his modifications were specifically in regards to obeying the Laws of the Domain." He leaned back with a sigh, "Alder Judex Twist may have allowed him to walk out of the theater that night, but I can't imagine that the Prince wouldn't continue to take issue with his inability to simply swear to uphold the Laws." He smiled at her statement of intention, "Of course, and that night was a demonstration of the unusual weeding out of members who are not of the proper quality and dedication to support our desired Unity and solidarity. It is the very reason why the Oaths are needed."

He looked back at the serpent-voiced friend as she declared him a wordsmith. He could only draw the conclusion that his opinion on the language was not desired at the time, "Well, decades of legal experience help me effectively navigate through contract verbiage. It can be a dangerous thing when words are not carefully considered."

[Jennifer Hazelton]

Jennifer nodded in agreement with Jack's assessment.
" One has to mitigate the risk to oneself."
She says. The Nosferatu mused over the whole of Jack's statement for a few moments, silent.

Finally she spoke.
"I'm not sure what the goal was, and that's what irritated me the most. They seemed to be around the section regarding her Grace, as well. I get the sensation that he would rather have sworn to the invictus leader, her Grace, the Judex Twist. Which I am trying to understand.
He went from saying he didn't understand Oaths and not progressing when I tried to give him some initiative in that lesson with Miss Black, to knowing enough about oaths to have sworn a conflicting one?
That's what I understand from the refusal."

A slight smile.
"I wouldn't be adverse to discussing this language with you, privately. It was the audacity of rewriting in the actual Ceremony, when as far as I know, he had made no attempt to meet with me privately. Former Prince Asa approved of that language, but Edward had issue? I had just started to like him.
I haven't seen him around since that evening m Have you?"

[Jacque]

"Not just to myself, but to keep things progressing forward in the most ideal of circumstances." He twisted into a wry grin, "My goals, the goals of allies..." he casually listed off, "And of course the stability of the Domain is a great boon to prosperity in both wealth and knowledge."

"Being honest, I was also surprised to be more directly sworn to Lady Alessandra than to her Grace, Judex Twist. It still supports the same goal overall, so it wasn't worth pressing in my opinion. Then again, Lady Alessandra was the one who brought me into the fold, sponsored me and prepared me to not make her regret her choice by being an embarrassment." He smirked, "So there's that difference between me and Mister Heinrich."

"Thank you for being open to a scholarly discussion," he bows his head respectfully. "I still feel it is best for me to learn the basics from you first before I attempt to question or negotiate the language chosen by you and former Prince Clarke." He considers her question before responding, "Honestly, his presence was inconsistent prior but if he's more of a shadow these nights I can't blame him. Covenants in general can be protective of their secrets, and then there is the embarrassment of his unwillingness to commit as I mentioned. It is probably best for him to remain forgettable until the heat dies down." In his mind, Edward should be thankful he walked out of that place.