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Borderline
Hospitality
The Evening According to The Lady Lucia Di Malefici
Lucia's
attempts to discover information
about Kheysur were not entirely
successful; without questioning the
steward fully (and thus arousing
suspicion), there seemed to be
nobody that could or would divulge
information. This unsettled Lucia
slightly because she never looks
forward to negotiations where she
has so little background
information. Still, she played it by
ear and correctly surmised that the
best way to deal with Kheysur (since
he seemed intent on dismissing
anything she said) was to deny his
requests. It was a gamble she felt
she had to take; he could have
easily forgotten about the whole
meeting and she would have had to
find another way to approach him.
However, the gamble paid off better
than Lucia had hoped for. She was
counting on the fact that her denial
had made him notice her (she didn't
suppose he was a man to whom many
said no); this it did, to such an
extent that he felt she had
humiliated him (so it seemed to
Lucia) and so he felt it necessary
to order her removal not only from
his side but also from her position
at the other table. The latter was
slightly unexpected but Lucia felt
she could turn it to her advantage.
Lucia
explained to Kheysur's steward - a
wise man – that whilst she
understood that his master had
capitulated to Lady Elena, thus
losing face once, she had no desire
to lose face herself. Manners and
the need to further her family's
fortunes dictated her unwillingness
to openly show her host the
disrespect she felt Lady Elena had
and so suggested that if Guelfo were
to be seated at the end table, she
would then have a reason to go there
herself - to all intents and
purposes to speak with him. The
steward agreed this was an
acceptable solution. He also told
Lucia that Kheysur admitted that her
gown was the finest that he had ever
seen and desired it, despite Lucia's
refusal. She explained that his
request was tantamount to declaring
that he would see her out of her
gown and as such was completely
improper, if not insulting. She'd
had men horsewhipped for far less
improper suggestions at home in
Roma! The steward explained that was
not the intent of Kheysur, that he
wanted the gown for one of his
favourites and would pay whatever
Lucia asked. Seeing this as the best
opportunity she could have hoped
for, Lucia agreed to the deal and
stated her conditions thusly:
*
That Kheysur would meet with her
father and open trade negotiations
*
That safe passage would be accorded
Lucia and Guelfo, plus her father,
his companions and any trading
supplies ( e.g. silks) between
Kheysur's domain and Roma
*
That Lucia would have an identical
gown made for herself to replace
this one
The
steward advised Kheysur who agreed
(though probably wasn't told about
the replacement gown!) Of course,
Lucia does not trust the word of one
so ill mannered – a man who
demands respect from all around him,
yet refuses to show it to others.
As
the evening wore on, Lucia and the
Lady Elena reached an agreement to
help each other. Without Elena,
Lucia would be unlikely to find any
kind of prosperity or profit in
Tirnalis and without Lucia's money,
it is quite obvious that Elena would
soon be in reduced circumstances due
to the fact that her husband and
children have been murdered. The way
Lucia sees it is that people are
rarely murdered without motive.
Since Elena's husband was a Warden
of Tirnalis, there would be plenty
of people happy to see him out of
the picture. As she explained to
Elena, the higher the social ladder
one climbs, the more enemies one
makes; the most deadly being the
ones you do not suspect of
harbouring ill intent. Being a noble
citizen of Roma, Lucia understands
this only too well.
Along
with Elena, Lucia was approached by
Dmitri – an impoverished son of
Tirnalis. Claiming that he has the
rank and title of one of the noble
houses of Tirnalis but not the money
(after being disowned), he offered
Lucia the protection of his men and
introduction to Tirnalian
society…for a price. This
mercenary was possessed of a silken
tongue but it didn't fool Lucia.
Being more than prepared to pay for
his services, her only concern was
the level of loyalty which her coin
would buy and the efficiency of
which he and his men were capable.
Thinking she would have to use her
authority and charm on this
mercenary in order to gain the best
possible service for the best
possible price, she was somewhat
surprised to find that Dmitri began
to behave as though he were
completely smitten. It occurred to
Lucia that perhaps he had imbibed
one of the Gael trader's 'unctions
for men' but it seemed not. Perhaps
it was the mead that Dmitri was
quaffing? Perhaps the perfume Lucia
had been anointed with earlier had
had an effect on him (the Gael women
certainly seemed to be rather taken
by it as they sniffed Lucia)?
Whatever the answer was, she was
neither flattered nor well disposed
to offering him more money than she
deemed him worth and so informed
Dmitri that they would discuss terms
in the morning when he had a clear
head. Lucia is a woman who makes
absolutely sure that any deals she
makes are watertight – she will
not take advantage of someone's
drunkenness…not because she feels
it is unethical but because she will
allow no loophole that will enable a
deal to be called off.
Shortly
after this, Lucia was approached by
a Jahanian silk trader, wishing to
join the caravan. She sent him to
speak with Snake.
Summoning Guelfo, she bade goodnight to those
she'd had dealings with during the
evening, making sure she informed
the serving girl, Jess, that should
she seek alternate employment, the
position of lady's maid would be
open to her. After a brief
conversation with Dolohov (if that
is indeed his name!), she and Guelfo
took their leave.
SNAKE’S
RECOLLECTIONS OF WHAT HAPPENED AT
THE RECENT BANQUET HOSTED AT THE
OUTLYING TIRNALIS FORT BY THURAM'S
UNCLE
It
all started with the guards at the
fort insisting that we line up in
order of importance for entry into
the fort. I, of course, put myself
at the front of the line along with
my Cocal colleague. We had been
joined by two noble Ladies who I put
next in line, followed by the priest
and knight and then the merchants (I
let them fight it out between
themselves which one thought they
were more important than the other!)
We were then ushered into the hall
one by one and greeted by a guard
and one of the Wall Guards from
Tirnalis who insisted we leave our
weapons in a large tub by the door
as they would be looking after us
and swords and daggers would not be
necessary. This unnerved me a
little, leaving our protection to
people we didn't know, but not
wanting to show any disrespect to
our host we all removed our weapons.
The
Wall Guard (he had some fancy title
but Rangers and Wall Guards don't
get on too well so I didn't make a
note of it!) insisted that the top
table toast the evening with a glass
of vadkar which was probably the
start of a steady decline…
We
were introduced to Thuram's uncle
who seemed an honourable man much
like his nephew and the banquet
began. There was much good food and
fine wine and we were advised of the
etiquette of the region, always
accept anything offered to you and
always take it with your right hand.
I noticed one of our noble Ladies
was left handed and struggled a bit
with this one!
We
had some visitors who claimed to
want to see the merchant’s goods.
I was a little concerned by them
both as they didn't look like the
nicest of people and at one stage I
managed to get my sword back just in
case. They left after a while and my
sword was quickly returned to the
tub by the guards.
I
then had an interesting meeting with
Thuram's uncle which didn't go too
well to say the least. It all
started off fairly nicely; he
welcomed me as part of the family
and we took some wine while we
chatted. The conversation turned a
little as he asked me what had
happened while we were in Vetiver. I
didn't want to say too much as I
wondered what Thuram had told his
uncle and didn't want to put him in
a difficult situation, so I sort of
brushed over anything important and
just said we had done some good
trading.
Unfortunately
someone else told him about the
problem with the tax collectors, the
Gaels, the fight with the city
guards and so on and so forth, and
he wasn't too happy. He then held
some kind of trial where I was
accused of lying and I was supposed
to be part of the family, why would
I lie to him and so on, which went
from bad to worse. At one point he
decided to have me executed there
and then, but with good character
witnesses and some quick talking I
managed to avoid that but I doubt
very much that I'm still Cocal…
The
evening drew on with a slightly less
happy atmosphere. I had a row with
the Wall Guard, over what I don't
remember but as I said, Rangers and
Wall Guards don't get on too well,
it's an historic thing, they're all
lazy bastards standing on top of
their wall while the Rangers were
out in the lands saving them from
the Gaels. He eventually came at me
from behind and knocked me
unconscious. I had no weapons and
what with the other things that had
happened, I decided to keep quiet
and ignore the episode when I came
round.
At
some stage during the evening a body
was found by the merchant’s tables
covered in furs or something. I
didn't get involved in any
investigation, I was to busy arguing
with Wall Guards and uncles!
Things
started to quieten down after a
while as people slowly fell asleep
after too much wine and food, but
there was a final problem.
The
two blokes who had made me concerned
earlier in the evening came back, I
didn't notice them but the guard and
the bucket of weapons disappeared so
my guess is they were smugglers and
the guard was in on it which is
probably why all our weapons were in
a tub by the front door, easy for a
grab and run.
The
reason I joined this caravan was to
earn my way back home to Tirnalis so
it was an eventful first evening
back in my home state. A caravan
with no weapons to guard it and I'm
probably no longer Cocal. The only
good thing was that the left-handed
noble Lady is looking for someone to
protect her, so I might have a new
job - but with no weapons I wouldn't
be surprised if she goes somewhere
else.
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