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[This had to be one of the more bizarre situations he'd been in--going up to the father of someone he was sleeping with to get clarification about their culture so he could determine for himself what exactly Gregor and Miles' relationship was.

Too late to back out now anyhow. He's wearing his plain black fatigues that he'd been ported in with today. He can't help but cock an eyebrow at the uniform but hide it in his greeting--shit what was he going to call him?]

Count Vorkosigan. Don't mean to interrupt.

You're on my summons. [He waves the conversational nicety out of the air. He nods to another employee, a bit further down the counter and pulls off his apron.] I've made arrangements.

[He quirks an ironic brow at Jim.] How do you like your coffee?

[He raises his chin a bit with a hint of a smirk.]

Hot.

[Which...was true, he didn't much care for how his coffee came as long as it had caffeine and was hot.

Then he realizes Aral probably doesn't know him well enough to understand his humor so he clarifies:]

...Black.

[It's hard to tell how the older man took it, as he just raises an eyebrow and pours two cups without comment. One is slid across the counter to Jim.]

The booths tend to be decent. [He nods toward some of the seating at the far side of the room.]

[Well this is going great already he thought wryly as he takes his cup, thanks Aral and heads in the direction of the booths and slides in.

He takes a quick sip of the coffee--it's a hell of a lot better than anything replicated that he ever had during late night study sessions. His eyebrows raise in mild surprise, then he takes another sip.]

[Fresh roasted and ground, Aral has started to finally make a really mean pot of coffee. Having a lifetime of military issue coffee bulbs, it's become a sort of pickiness that usually only manifests in coffee shop workers and residents of the pacific northwest.

The surprised approval from Jim gets a bit of a "damn straight" look from Aral before it smooths into the usual stern patience.]

You had questions.

Still do.

I was talking to Greg [Respecting the fact that they were technically in public, but with some emphasis on his name] about lord/liege-sworn relationships. I don't have a frame of reference from my universe so I thought I'd ask you.

[Loving this coffee. He didn't know it could taste good.]

[The additional emphasis drew an interested look from Vorkosigan. In fact, almost universally, Miles and Gregor's associates who suddenly come into the know about the whole bloody charade have been using it on some name or another.

In addition to that, with Miles' lover, from a conversation with Gregor ... to THIS specific topic... he could only begin to see the cats cradle this conversation was like to be.

He leans back and takes a sip of his own coffee, studying Kirk over the lip of the cup.]

That is a tangled question. Do you wish to know it as a function or as a true and total whole?

[He wasn't sure just how much Aral knew about them but really, this wasn't even about him. ]

Whatever you're willing to tell.

[He rubs his lips, considering the problem.]

As a warning, I've struggled to relate it, in all of its nuance to my very Betan wife and have yet to give one that satisfied the logical part of her.

As a second caution, I don't believe there is a short way to impart understanding, at least not in the context I believe you might be seeking it.

[He shrugs.]

I'm coming here already accepting I'm not going to understand it completely or even how much I want to understand it. But an idea would be helpful.

...That context being?

[He gives Jim a scathingly sardonic look.] Let us proceed with the idea that we are speaking of the same thing, and if I am incorrect, you can remedy it at the conclusion.

[He was intensely uninterested in putting names to these concepts in a public venue. He folds his hands, and searches for the point to begin on.]

Barrayar is a planet with no religious faith nor a government that one may rely on to go for more than a decade without ripping into itself like a mad dog. Lacking these two natural sources that a man might find identity and purpose from, we have found the concepts of honor and loyalty.

They are more than mere virtues to us. Sometimes it's the only thing that holds the simply tatters of our culture together. A man's word places all of their honor - their identity and self respect - behind that promise. To break it destroys some portion of yourself in ones own eyes and the eyes of society.

Loyalty is akin to faith. One gives oneself wholly in trust for security, for a banner, for purpose, for a chance to define their honor. In return those sworn to live to - or should live to - protect and serve those who have given their loyalty to them.

On a broad view, everyone swears to their district Count and the Counts to the Emperor, who holds everyone and serves everyone in turn. It is implied by birth and location, cultural and only as personal as a man makes it to be.

When one swears directly, body and blood, to another, it is a very different matter.

[He pauses here, taking another sip of his coffee and composing his thoughts on the more personal subject.]

[Jim is listening intently, but honestly has no frame of reference for this kind of way of life. His own was so much different, nothing as medieval as lack of government, using one's word to represent their whole self and being up to that point in their life.]

...I think I follow what you're saying, but what do you mean "body and blood"?

It is the deepest one man may serve another. It is to own and be owned by each other. The sworn guards the lord with his last breath and his last drop of blood. Works in his direct interest in all things, and follows orders - not blindly, never blindly. But with the fullest consciousness and thought of a man who knows the difference between the letter and the intent.

In return the lord is beholden to his men. He guards their welfare and their happiness, at the expense of his own, if need be. He must trust as violently and wholly as he protects for these men who serve him are his wealth when all else crumbles. His mind when he is drunk or asleep, and his arms when he is bound.

It is somewhere between governance and love. And like both, may be cruel in how it plays. Twisted when broken...

... The one you ask of, is how it is when it is proper and healthy.

[He takes a few seconds to let all that process. An abstract way of defining it, but Yeah he was absolutely downplaying the lord/liege-sworn relationship when Gregor had described it to him, but Aral's explanation is really conveying just how much he had underestimated its importance and gravity.]

Unconditional trust.

...Seems like a lot more of a two-way street than anything I heard from my Earth's history.

This kind of relationship happen often? Obviously not something taken lightly.

Yes. I've studied. But even ancient feudalism would have fallen apart if those that served did not also receive.

[At the question of whether it happens often, he can only after a wry expression.]

If that kind of trust could exist enough to be commonplace, the human race itself would be far improved, I think. But no, we do not see it lightly.

Well back then, they could use the promise of money to earn their "trust" so I'm not sure if that counts for too much. Not to mention it didn't sound like this much thought or...I guess, emotion went into it. Like a business transaction.

[Spoken like someone that has no idea about the concept of money other than what he's experienced here. He takes another sip of coffee. You may have yourself a new regular, Aral.]

What kind of circumstances would warrant that? I can't imagine people just wake up one day and decide that.

[Angling towards who he's really asking about...]

[It's a strange concept to Aral, but then, no one has ever served a Vorkosigan hoping for wealth.]

For something like that, you'd have to seek Jackson's Whole.

[The real question though... Vorkosigan gathers something of an abstracted look, considering that.] To swear outside or on top of duty usually is upon the heels of some large event or series of events, often life changing in some way.

...Do I even wanna know?

[He knows there's some pretty jacked up stuff in your universe, Aral. He's playing around with the rim of the cup.]

Now is that done without an already established personal relationship?

[The smile he gives Kirk is a bit of a black twist.] Depends on your stomach for dystopia, I imagine.

[He takes another sip of his own coffee, draining it.] It has been known to happen. A life saved, revenge offered, those sort of concepts. But it would be termed rarer these days, I imagine.

[He makes a bit of a face at that.]

Yeah we actually try to avoid those where I'm from.

[He's enjoying the taste of the coffee and isn't drinking it so much for the caffeine hit, so he still has some left. He takes another sip.]

Okay...what kinds of personal relationships are usually prerequisite to this?

An armsman to a lord, or a lord to an emperor. There is rarely cause for a relationship to exist, much less opportunity for that kind of trust and devotion to be built without it.

Those are considered personal? They sound more professional.

You asked the prerequisite. If they form, it is from such relationships, in truth.

[Another sip of coffee as he contemplates.]

...I think you answered just about all of the questions I had.

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