Funeral: Ellehemaei Inheritance Law

[aldersprig]

First: Funeral
Previous: Funeral: Legacies and Unimportant People

The lawyer was waiting for them, all prickly and officious. “Miss Senga Monmartin, Mr. Erramun Silence. Here are the full details of Mirabella’s behest to the two of you. It encompasses all that was read in the will - both the rewards for compliance and the punishments for a lack thereof, as it were - but includes also this statement:

“‘Now, Silence, I know you, and you’re going to try to give up as little as possible, and Senga, I know you, and you’re going to try to be nice, because that’s what you do. Neither of those things are bad traits - but they don’t suit this plan of mine. If I’m gone - and if I weren’t gone, you wouldn’t be hearing this, now would you - you’re going to have to trust the plan, both of you, because nothing else will keep you both above water.

“‘In that vein, I will only consider you to have followed the letter of my will and the spirit if you swear to the Belonging in front of Mr. Maladono, my favorite lawyer, and if you do so with no qualifiers. Nothing but you, Silence, saying you Belong to you, Senga, that and nothing more.’”

Senga looked at Silence. He was growling softly under his breath, glaring at the lawyer and the paper the lawyer was holding. The lawyer, quite sensibly, took a step backwards. Senga resisted the urge to do the same as Silence turned his glare on her.

“This was not my doing,” she pointed out, “or I wouldn’t have bothered to be negotiating terms with you.”

“You’re fucked if I say no, aren’t you?” There was something amused under the growl. Senga struggled not to show anything on her face.

“You’re fucked if you say no, too, aren’t you?” she countered.

“Oh, yeah. But it’s nice to know we’re fucked together.... or not-fucked together.” He smirked at her. “Which defeats the purpose of me being under your Name, I suppose.”

She snorted. “I don’t think Great-Aunt Mirabella arranged this all just so my bed would be warmer. For that, I can imagine she’d have picked someone who wanted the collar. She had a few of those, didn’t she?” She turned that question on the lawyer, who was doing his best to pretend he wasn’t listening to this discussion.

He cleared his throat. “If you mean, were there people in Mirabella’s will… there were three. Those disbursements were handled separately, as that is obviously against the law in this state.”

“All states, I’d think?”

“Oh, actually, there are special laws in three states, including California, that were presumably put in place stealthily and under the aegis of other laws by powerful Ellehemaei. That being said, if you wish to discuss inheritance law vis-a-vis Ellehemaei, I’d be more than willing to do so - at another date. Right now, I need to know which path the two of you are pursuing.”


Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1300310.html

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Comments

[inventrix]

BUT WHAT IS THE PLAN, DANGIT

[kelkyag]

Though given what's been said of Mirabella so far, does either of them have any reason to believe her assertion that "nothing else will keep you both above water", nevermind trusting a plan they so far know nothing about?

[inventrix]

Definitely not. But they don't have much choice...

[kelkyag]

They have a choice right here, albeit a binary one. If they think she's wrong or lying, they can just walk out.

[inventrix]

Well... no, it's not that simple.

They do have a choice, but the choice is, "do we go along with this, or do we let the blackmail that's being held over us that will probably get us killed or worse be used". It's not "do we trust/agree with the dead lady", that doesn't really come into it at all.

[kelkyag]

Neither side of it is a good choice, but should they trust Mirabella even as far as believing that her plan is more in their interests than what they expect will happen if they turn it down (and clause 7 is deactivated, and envelopes A, B, and C are made known)? They pretty clearly each expect people to try to kill them (or otherwise take revenge) if they say no, but if they think they can make it out of the building alive, they might be able to buy time and eventually deal with those people. Whereas sheer jealousy and who knows what information or resources Mirabella left to other people may turn into as much or more trouble if they say yes, and they may not know where that will come from. Do you think there aren't backup copies of the blackmail information or other ways for people who hate Senga to dodge clause 7?

[inventrix]

*ponders*

I think, if there was a way to get around Clause 7, they would have done it already. They're Ellehemaei, we know, so one can assume Clause 7 is part of something actually binding under the Law, and they aren't following it purely out of respect - which they seem to lack for most people in general.

As for the envelopes, we don't know anything about them, so I can't really speculate.

[kelkyag]

I agree that Clause 7 is highly likely to be backed up by oaths. But without Mirabella around to notice and squash attempts at finding & exploiting loopholes, I suspect the rules lawyers will leap into action and eventually find *something*. Perhaps her lawyer will stave that off for a while.

But that's into wait-and-see territory -- or at least, I currently expect aldersprig to take the story down the keeping path. :)

[aldersprig]

well, this story STARTED as dubcom Fdomme Keeping and BECAME a murder mystery.

So… yeah :-D

[kelkyag]

Pft. Plot! Intrigue! Family politics!

[clare_dragonfly]

Really? Because if you read the first part, there's a lot of murder mystery and absolutely zero dubcon Fdomme :-P

[aldersprig]

“started” in this case meaning “the concept as it came to me.”

[clare_dragonfly]

Haha, that's what I figured ;)

[thnidu]

Should "dubcom" be "dubcon", for dubious consent?

[aldersprig]

Yep! This is definitely wandering into dubious consent territory.

[sauergeek]

Huh, so much for all the negotiation. Though I suppose they can keep it as a side agreement even while making the necessary statements in front of the lawyer.

Mirabella, you just can't give over controlling, can you. And this plan of yours stinks like a restaurant dumpster in the heat of summer.

[aldersprig]

Yep! I enjoyed all that negotiation and then being slapped with “nope~!”

[clare_dragonfly]

They don't even get a few hours to decide?! Sheesh.

And presumably Mirabella's plan hinges on them not knowing what the plan is, because otherwise it wouldn't work out...