After the Snow
Nyji inclined his head slightly when he noticed that
Woe had not ordered any meat dishes. He did not know whether the man was a vegetarian himself or had decided not to eat meat in order to be polite, but he appreciated the gesture in any case. The ancient biqaj’s menu choices turned out to be similar to Woe’s – he went for the more subdued and simple options. Lissa didn’t order any meat dishes either, but she decided to be just a tiny bit decadent - and asked for two desserts instead of a dessert and a salad.
Upon hearing Woe’s statement that Perdita was one of the more impressive artists to come out of the Scalvoris University, Nyji looked at the young woman, his eyes turning a subtle shade of green with curiosity.
“I’ve often found that there is something calming about art. It can take you to another world in an instant, or soothe your soul. Why do you paint, Miss Wescott, if you don’t mind me asking?” he wanted to know.
“My sincere apologies, my lady”, he continued in a calm and polite tone of voice and inclined his head respectfully when Eve slammed her palms down upon the table’s surface and stated that she would find someone interesting to sit with.
“I didn’t mean to ignore you. I hope that we haven’t offended your companion”, he remarked to Woe.
“The Spirit’s Rest Oasis”, Lissa answered
Perdita’s question, but made sure to also look at Woe while she was talking.
“Serves as a retreat for individuals that are seeking aid with stress and anxiety. We provide them with lessons in meditation as well as therapy sessions, among other things. Among our guests are war veteran as well as children from violent homes as well as mages seeking guidance”, she continued. There were rumours that her hair had turned white, and that she had lost her eye due to a mage attack in her youth, that she had in fact been the victim of a failed flaying, but the tone of her voice was calm regardless, almost eerily calm in fact.
When the time for the toast came, both Nyji and Lissa joined in, of course.
“Indeed”, Aidan remarked and chuckled slightly when
Oram remarked that it was a season where people gave each other gifts and unwanted fashion advice. The Chief Ranger gave him the impression of being something of a kindred spirit, and he felt a little less ridiculous as a consequence.
“Buckles though?” he wanted to know and leaned a little closer in order to get a better look at Oram’s scarf, provided that the other man let him do so.
“Let’s hope that His Grace and your sister-in-law never meet. We’d get glittering leather scarves with buckles and a number of other things. A white suit sounds perfectly acceptable in my opinion”, he added.
He was not
really complaining about Devin, at least not too much. He actually really liked the Mortalborn, although he was a little too eccentric for him sometimes, and his tone of voice was cheerful as a consequence. The outfit Devin had persuaded him to wear aside, he was having a lot of fun!
“Anyway, yes, Heidi’s a doe”, Aidan said and glanced at the little goat. Heidi for her part mostly ignored him and made a step towards Oram in order to nudge him a little instead. She was curious about him. It was obvious what she wanted. Heidi really, really wanted to be petted!
“What are your wethers called, by the way?” he then wanted to know, his eyes shimmering brightly with curiosity. Unlike Devin, Aidan didn’t care about fashion particularly, but he really liked animals (which was something they actually had in common).
As for food, Aidan picked the glowing breaded meat, among other things.
When the time for the toast came, Aidan raised his glass and joined in. Heidi on the other hand stared around blankly for a moment before she bleated and stuck her tongue out.
Both Raihi and Terrence smiled when
Elisabeth said that she had heard many wonderful things about their farm and Beacon. Raihi especially seemed to be quite happy to hear that. When Elisabeth admitted that she would enjoy visiting Hope Farm, the woman nodded.
“We’d love for you to visit”, she said.
“We mostly raise goats, but we also have bees and grow different kinds of vegetables and herbs, if you are interested in learning about those things”, she said, only to briefly pause when her husband nudged her. She looked at him for a moment before she nodded at him.
“We could also trade a bit, if you are interested. You mentioned a farm – Munny Farm, isn’t it?” she asked, in order to make sure that she remembered the name correctly before she continued, assuming that “Munny Farm” belonged to Elisabeth personally, and “Munny” was just its name.
“What kind of crops do you grow on your farm, Miss Angelus?”
Both Hales seemed to be quite happy that Elisabeth had picked the goat cheese, and they ordered the same, of course. They were interested in finding out what exactly Baron Devin had done with their cheese. Besides that, they both went for the filet mignon, and they picked a soup, and a desert and a salad as well, of course, and joined the toast.
When
Yina made a beeline for the table, they turned around and looked at her with obvious curiosity. Raihi especially seemed to be fascinated by the Tunawa and her mount and she pretty much echoed what Elisabeth had said.
“Please come and join us, Miss. What’s your name? I’m Raihi, this is my husband Terrence, and this is Elisabeth”, she introduced themselves.
Provided that Yina took a seat, a servant, a fluffy white cat cadouri girl, would approach her and ask her what she wanted to eat and drink before she told her,
“We have Tunawa-appropriate portions, and if you want to, we can find a chair and a table that are more like your size. We could even put a small table on this table here!”
Yina had arrived late, and in a somewhat unusual manner, but nobody cared about that. She hadn’t come to cause harm, so, she was welcome at the party, just like everybody else!
Both Magdalene and Laura shook Darius’ hand, although Laura did so with some hesitation because she found shaking an actual Baron’s hand a bit overwhelming, to be honest.
“We’ve both been studying at the university for a few seasons now”, Magdalene replied for both of them because Laura was suddenly staring at her feet intently and gave no sign of wanting to answer Darius’ question which Magdalene found a bit rude, to be honest. That was why she decided to nudge her friend ever so gently.
“We are both doing our Licentiates”, the young woman mumbled and blushed.
“We shared classes with Baron Devin for a while”, Magdalene revealed.
“And I haven’t decided if I want to join the Order yet. Opening a private practice sounds tempting as well. What do you think, Laura?” she asked her friend in an attempt to get her to open up a little more.
“I’d very much like to join the Order. I admire their work”, the young woman admitted. For the first time, she was looking directly at Darius, and there was a soft smile on her face.
“Please join us!” Magdalene said when Eve arrived at their table and smiled at her.
“I’m Magdalene, and this is my friend Laura. I’d love to play Chase The Ace!” she told Darius, and Laura nodded. The two young women hadn’t imagined that they’d be playing cards at Baron Devin’s luxurious winter party, but they were quite happy to do so.
When the time for the toast came, both Magdalene and Laura joined in, and then they began to eat. Magdalene had picked the fish, while Laura had gone for the vegetarian options. Darius would find that the two students weren’t particularly good at playing cards, but they enjoyed the game!
Devin had decided to go for the goat cheese, the basil and tomato consommé with poached shrimps (He really liked shrimps!), the warm potato salad, the glowing breaded meat and the chocolate cake. He was really excited about eating the food, in no small part due to the fact that he had come up with most of the menu. He loved eating his own food!
And he was already having so much fun that he felt as if he were on top of the world!
“I already like Rymid”, he remarked when Alyssia told him about her companion’s eating habits.
“We could feed Rymid and Myrixa a mixture of fruit and meat then. What do you think? How did you come up with their names, by the way?” he wanted to know.
“And oh!” he continued and leaned a little closer to her in order to whisper something into her ear (He felt like quite the conspirator, he had to admit!).
“Don’t tell anybody, but I have another surprise planned for the very end of the party. Do you want to guess what it is?”
“Marvin! It’s great to see you again!” he greeted the engineer who had helped him with a lot of important projects such as the road and the guard house in an enthusiastic tone of voice.
The young cadouri engineer for his part joined the toast, just like the other guests. When the time to order the food came, he lowered his voice to a mere whisper and asked the servant that took his order if he could have extra-large portions. Marvin loved engineering, but even more than that, he loved food!
When Alyssia leaned over to him and whispered to him that it seemed as if they had two new guests, Devin raised an eyebrow slightly before he looked at where Yina and her companion were.
“I don’t think that’s a cadouri”, he decided as he took a look at the squirrel.
“But I’m pretty sure that the stick is a Tunawa”, he added and waved at Yina and her companion because he was quite happy that they had joined the party, too.
The Donation
Before long, all the guests were given their food, and their drinks, too, provided that they had ordered any. If someone had asked for a song, their pieces of paper were being collected at the same time The animals and other companions received a similar amount of attention as the humanoid guests. Everybody that had brought a pet was asked what their companion(s) would like to eat, and provided that it was available, they would get it (if not, the staff would suggest alternatives). There were some people that considered animals to be lesser creatures, but in Baron Devin’s opinion, they should be treated with respect, too.
Everybody should have fun at his party, no matter how many legs they had, and no matter what they looked like!
The musicians continued to play during dinner. Their music was pleasant to listen to, but not loud enough to be distracting. It merely served to enhance the atmosphere in the ballroom.
When everybody had eaten, the servants asked the guests if they would like seconds and collected their empty plates and bowls. The dinner was not completely over with that though. The final part was a small palate cleanser, served on a pretty porcelain plate that had been painted with snowflakes in order to match the theme of the evening.
Afterwards, there was a short pause during which the guests could interact with their tablemates once more, and then Devin rose to his feet again. The music abruptly stopped playing. The young Mortalborn in his extravagant suit with a magnificent train looked around and smiled at all the people that had come to join him that trial for a few moments before he began to speak, in a firm, loud and clear tone of voice.
“In a bit there will be dancing, and we will play the songs that you requested – I will play at least one of them personally – and there’ll be another exciting thing before the evening is over, but before the fun begins, I’d like to direct your attention to a more serious matter, a matter that I’ve already mentioned earlier this evening. One of my aims is to gather donations for the Spirit’s Rest Oasis. Mister Nyji Toraj who is one of my guests this evening, just like his employee, Miss Lissa Maewell, is the manager of said establishment”, he told them and gestured towards the aging biqaj and the one-eyed woman at Woe’s and Perdita’s table.
Both of them inclined their heads.
“The Spirit’s Rest Oasis serves as a retreat for individuals that are dealing with stress and anxiety. They receive therapy and can take part in meditation lessons there. Among the Spirit’s Rest Oasis’ clients are war veteran, people that have suffered traumatic injuries and children from troubled homes. Especially in recent times, our beloved island has dealt with great catastrophes, such as the collapse of the docks, the eruption of the volcano here on Faldrass and the conflict with Slag’s Deep”, Devin said and paused for a moment in order to give his guests time to think about that.
“I was one of the people that volunteered after the collapse of the docks. I witnessed some of the tragedies first-hand. We may be rebuilding, or may already have rebuilt, but people are still dealing with the aftereffects, and may continue to do so for a long time. I’d like to make all their lives a little easier. With your donations, the Spirit’s Rest Oasis could help more people in need”, he pointed out in a very serious tone of voice in order to hopefully convey how important that was.
“You don’t have to make a donation, of course”, he continued.
“If you just want to enjoy the party, that’s totally fine, and I hope that you’ll have a whole lot of fun. If you don’t have any money to spare, on the other hand, consider simply volunteering for a break or two. Spend time with people that are lonely or suffering. Cook a meal for the poor, tell a group of orphans a story or visit that old person in your street that doesn’t have anybody left. Help can take a lot of different forms, apart from money”, he told his guests because that was something that absolutely needed to be said in his opinion.
“With that being said”, he continued and gestured for one of the servants to bring him something, a pretty silver box. He opened it and removed a number of shiny
onyx nels15 WP from it.
“I would be a bad Baron if I didn’t put my money where my mouth is, not literally, of course – because I can’t imagine that nels taste very good – but figuratively”, he remarked and grinned.
“The Spirit’s Rest Oasis will receive the sum of thirty onyx nels from me to-trial, and I also plan on hosting a dinner for those that are less fortunate than I am in the near future”, he added and proceeded to sit down again.
Some people would likely think it strange that the High Priest of Delroth, the Immortal of Greed, Vanity and a few other great things, cared so much about charity and helping people. Mental illnesses, poverty and traumata were unpleasant though, so nobody should have to deal with those things more than necessary in Devin’s opinion. He’d been poor himself once, and it had kind of sucked. Besides, everybody loved someone who cared about others!
I will post again in approximately two weeks.
