The climax of this Vintage Tale occurs a little to recently for it to truly be a "vintage" tale. However, as this tale follows from the story of our investiture it seems that this is the time to tell it.
Isolde and I missed most of the royal court at our investiture as we were waiting off stage, (in the kitchen actually), in order to make an entrance for our investiture. Because of this Isolde and I did not see the following incident.
As told in the previous vintage tale we had a great deal of royalty in attendance at our investiture. In addition to Their Majesties Ailgheanan mac Sitheagh and Caterina da las Callejas there were Their Majesties Trimaris whose names, unfortunately, I do not recall. Now, those who knew his Majesty Meridies know that Ailgheanan has a very mischievous and playful nature. Because of this, during court His Majesty started to pelt His Majesty Trimaris with small pellets of bread. I'm sure that His Majesty Trimaras took this in the spirit of jocular fun that it was intended.
Unfortunately one of his Majesties shots went awry and pinged off the crown of Her Majesty Trimaris. This caused a great deal of chagrin to our noble King who feared that this might be taken as a provocation by His Majesty Trimaris. His Majesty offered to make amends by ceding to Her Majesty Trimaris one square foot of the territory of Seleone where the shot came to rest. This was acceptable to Her Majesty and the court proceeded with out further incident.
When, after court, I was told of this action by His Majesty I could not help but think, "Great I'm not even invested baron and he's giving away pieces of my barony!" Now we must fast forward two and a half years to the Arabian Nights event held in Arenal in July of A.S. XXXV. At this time Ailgheanan was again King of Meridies. His Majesty and His Highness Seth of Newcastle were both in attendance at the event for they wished to confer with His Majesty and Highness Trimaris about the first of the Panhandle Skirmishes which was upcoming that Autumn.
When Ailgheanan and His Seth got to the event they realized, much to their mutual embarrassment, that they had failed to bring gifts for their visiting brothers! Consequently, Saturday morning His Highness waylaid me and asked me if I had any wine or mead I could spare to give to the King and Crown Prince of Trimaris. Being above all a loyal baron I of course said I could spare two bottles and it was arranged that I should present them at court in the name of Ailgheanan and Seth. Since it was Ailgheanan on the thrown again I couldn't help but think, "First he gives away part of my barony and now he has me give away part of my cellars." This gave me an idea...
When it came time for the visiting royalty to receive their presents I came before the combined court I made the usual speech trying to be both gracious and eloquent. I couldn't help mentioning that it was particularly appropriate for Viking Vineyards potables from Seleone be the gift as Trimaris owned a portion of Seleone. I could clearly see that is Majesty and His Highness Trimaris was puzzled by this pronouncement, but I left it for His Majesty Ailgheanan to explain what it was all about.
For my part, I am merely glad that Trimaris hasn't tried to collect rent of their property.