Terence
Captain Jax Brightwater
Maith Mansion, Tonate Proper

Jax nodded, and turned to the Eclipse gathered there.

"Valentine, fall in.  The rest of you find the Prince, he is your main charge now."  Jax said.

"Aye, Sir!"  They saluted and spun on their heels to rearrange the formation around the Prince.

Satisfied for the moment, Jax began escorting Anya out of the hall just as the bonfires were being lit.

"I must say I was so looking forward to seeing more nobles embarrass themselves in some vain attempt to get Bradai's favor."  Jax chuckled, but his mind flashed back to Feyshore, the *Real* Feyshore, when they put him on Bradai's case for the first time.  If he had been more vigilant, how different Marin would be today.
Steven
Anyanka Durkhan
Tonate Proper

Jax gave his orders, and she waited long enough for them to assure they were followed before turning on her heel. He came with her, escorting her out of the party as commotion started up behind them. 

"You're welcome to stay and watch nobles embarrass themselves over favors they'll never earn." She offered, glancing sideways to him. "But you'll lost the chance to earn favor with Maiths most powerful ally."
Terence
Captain Jax Brightwater
Maith Mansion, Tonate Proper

"What, and let Valentine get all the credit once I leave?"  The younger woman broke her facade, chuckling from beneath her helmet.

"I'd be happy to serve, My Queen, for some favor."  Valentine whispered.

Jax raised an eyebrow, slightly turning his head back.

"Nevermind, it seems this is just as entertaining as some upjumped nobles."  He laughed, the sound echoing in the lavish halls, before growing quiet.

"Aleks.  Did you notice his abnormal behavior?  I haven't seen him like that in over a year, I wonder what came over the boy."
Steven
Anyanka Durkhan
Tonate Proper

She also was caught off guard by Valentine's comment, and she paused, turning back to look at the woman. A moment passed before Jax commented as well, and a genuine laugh escaped her, joy carrying in the sound. 

A small group of friends, pleasantly buzzed and enjoying a warm summers night walk back to their ship to return home. It was so.._nice_. 

She paused once more, her hand finding Jax's shoulder to stop him as well. She shifted her weight onto one foot, pulling off her heel and then starting onto the other. 

"I didn't notice." Anyanka admitted, letting the heels dangle from her fingertips as they started their walk again, careful of her steps as she walked, eyes down to look for anything that might hurt bare feet. 

"But to be fair, I don't pay close attention to your squire. What was abnormal about it? And what happened a year ago that made his behavior seem strange?"
Terence
Captain Jax Brightwater
Maith Mansion, Tonate Proper

He hooked an arm under hers to provide more stable support as she took off her shoes.

"Would you like one of us to carry those, My Queen?"  He offered before answering her other questions.

"Aleks has always been a good student, he's almost like the son I never had.  However, it wasn't something that happened a year ago, but more accurately something stopped happening.  When I first took him under my wing, he struggled to do anything besides serve drinks and read books.  It took me a year to get him to break out of his shell and gain some confidence.  He didn't have that great of a childhood so it's understandable, but that look he gave me today, it was like he had seen a ghost and returned to his old self."  Jax rubbed a thumb against his left temple.  "He thanked me for leaving, he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could."

He lost himself in thought, before realizing the answer himself.

"Oh, fuck.  Those people said they were Skagerllys, didn't they?  It was likely his own family that came down to the festival."  Jax went from pressing a thumb to his temple, to smacking his own forehead.  "I don't know why I didn't see it before."
Joseph
Lady Anna Barrmount
Maith Mansion

The young woman waltzed across the halls of the building, admiring her new gown as she approached the ball.

She was ecstatic after the walk through the town. Anna had chosen a beautiful and simple soft blue gown, which she couldn't stop admiring on her as she wore it.

It was finally her chance to enjoy a nice and fun event; no illness, no deaths, no wars, no hiding... Just a calm and fancy ball.

She reached the doors, and she stood frozen by the entrance as everything shattered.

*"House Skagerlly presents to you three gifts."* Said the voice of Kelsafyr Skagerlly.

Anna backed and instantly hid back into the corridor, her back pressed against the wall as her heart drummed at an alarming rate in her ears.

"No no no no." She muttered to herself "Why are they here? Not the Skagerllys, gods why?"

She struggled to breath, taking quick and shallow breaths, almost gasping. Were they there to kill her? Were they there to claim a successful taking of the lands of the Barrmounts? 

She closed her eyes as she leaned her head back against the wall, trying to get her breathing to normal. Every fiber in her body told her to run and hide, but that plan had not gone well so far. Fighting wasn't on the list either, as she was not able to hurt a fly with a slap. 

An idea popped into her head. 

...

A while later, as discreetly as she could, Anna slid next to the door that gave entrance to the ball. This time, she was back in her maid disguise. 

She heard voiced booming across the place, and was shocked to find three people with striking resemblance to the Carter brothers, and the man she wished to never see again, Nathaniel Vivayn. 

She stood frozen in place as she stared at the theatrical representation of the brothers rebellion, the day of her brother's wake replaying in her head as she saw the Vivayn look-alike. 

She came back to the present and shook her head, moving through the room towards Kirk. She reached him and stood really close, looking down to the floor and clearing her throat to try and catch his attention. 

"Lord Kirk Pinewood, sir..." She said to him in a hushed voice "I have a message from your wife."
Edith
**Lord Kirk Pinewood
The Ball, Maith Mansion**

After presenting his gift, Kirk was ushered out of the way to make room for the next presenters. He caught little of those that came after him with the crowd blocking his view and the movement of people filing in and out. He decided to busy himself with getting a drink.

Later, while receiving a dramatically re-enacted history lesson of the land he had married into, he heard a noise that caught his attention. Anna was standing near him, still in her maid clothes. Had the dress shop closed by the time he had sent her out to buy something?

"Go ahead..." Kirk hestitated, trying to recall the alias of her disguise. "...Braylena." He said quietly, wondering what this was about.
Marguerite
Catarina Tanner
The Ball, Maith Mansion

Cat grinned at Alva and relieved a passing servant of his burden of rum yet again. Setting it down in front of Alva, she replied, "Tends to be good for situations just like this. 'Reason it's 'liquid courage'." 

She winked and took another sip from her glass before continuing with, "If there's ever anything I can do for you, let me know! To be honest, I'm... Well, I'm really just a guest of a guest." She had nearly admitted her lineage, but decided not to disclose that information, just in case. "I'm happy to help, if I can. If you need something other than alcohol for your stomach or your nerves, I can get it for you." She winked. "I can even read your future."
Joseph
Lady Anna Barrmount
Maith Mansion

"There has been a problem." She tried to hint "She has encountered... *Rats*, unexpectedly. Of the same kind as the ones back at home." Her voice remained surprisingly calm as she tried to communicate the problem to Kirk. Out of the corner of her eye, she could spot the Skagerllys in the distance. 

"As you may imagine, my lord, she is very distressed at the fact such animals have reached this very place." She cleared her thoath, tearing her eyes away from the *'rats'*.
Edith
**Lord Kirk Pinewood
The Ball, Maith Mansion**

"Rats...?" Kirk repeated inquisitively, unsure of why the message warranted this odd appearance at the party in maid clothes. He looked to where she had glanced. There were people, a table, food. Suddenly, it all began to make sense. "Tell *My wife* That the rats where she is staying have not been known to spread plague." Her message was as clear as the waters of the Ibbish mountain streams. She had mentioned how there had been rats in the food carts at the outbreak of the plague in the Iron Plaines, how it had taken Rodrick so soon at the start of the chaos. The rats must have shaken Anna.

He gave Anna a wink to show he understood, and put a hand on his heart.
Elissa
Peraz Dumagne
The Ball, The Maith Mansion

The remainder of the procession to the Ball passed quickly, though perhaps that was because Peraz had made a conscious effort to ignore her youngest brother and instead focused on her surroundings. There was an odd sort of beauty to the Islander city.

Upon being prompted by guards, she gave her fullest name,"Lady Peraz Meserle-Dumagne of Togaira." *And Falsa* She wanted to add. Peraz felt a strange relation to her name, it seemed to have become a list of names given to her by men she loved and who she had lost prematurely. Sometimes, she omitted Adrien's name entirely - not out of disregard but rather for the sake of an aching heart.

The night very quickly became a blur of vignettes for Peraz, her social politeness had been wearing thin over the past hour or so since the siblings had been teasing each other on the boat. But she sat beside her brothers quietly in a garden lined with long tables. Occasionally, she would spot women in fanciful crowns gossiping over their fine dinner and wines and she felt rather out of place. She was a hard woman to miss in her tall visage and taller headdress, but Peraz refused to be any less than proud (even if her politeness was wearing thin) so she held her head high.

The gift giving progressed and Peraz had paid it no heed. She had brought a gift for the king; a concertina made of ivory and decorated with golden scallops, a trinket really in the eyes of a king but she would not embarrass her brother further tonight, instead she would send one of their guards back with it before they sailed off with a letter of apology. It wasn't until a man with greying hair, an amber eye and brands burned into either side of his face stepped towards the dais and held out the skull of Vronti Kelwynd that Peraz actually became attentive.

Peraz's jaw clenched. The damned thing had been gilded with shiny bronze. As Lutur began to speak, Peraz found herself taking his hand the way a sister would to calm her little brother, in a way that told him she understood what he was feeling.

She had not been at home when her father was murdered, in fact, news had not reached her until a good two weeks after. An irrational part of her always blamed herself for it, she would keep herself up late sick with the thought that *Had* She been there, *Had* She gone home for even a short time, she might have been able to save him.

"We were not the only ones to loose a father to that monster." She said with a voice as soft as a brook. When Lutur stood, dropping her hand, she almost didn't register it. 

Grief welled in her chest, her own mind went to wanting to hold the skull, if only to smash it on the floor and scatter the pieces - if only in attempt to erase the man's features from history.

But her grief was short lived, when a name she never thought she would hear again echoed through the room and she looked to Samsom with wide eyes.

"*King Caderyn*?" She mouthed before her head turned to listen to what the islanders were saying. It was difficult for her untrained ear to understand their words at first, the accents were thick and coarse, but eventually she came to an understanding. They intended to march on Terresol. 

To make matters worse, Samsom was not looking at her. *How suspicious*, she thought as she tried to regain his attention, only to be told to withhold what had been heard from their lord brother. Pursing her lips, she agreed. *If he is hiding something from me*...

In silence, she watched the play. Her head was too busy full of thoughts of grief and invasion to pay true attention, only paying a few smiles to Lutur when he laughed or joked about the play towards her.

It wasn't long before Lutur found some woman to flirt with, another Terreme? Though her dark hair made Peraz think of Azaryan ancestry. As the two laid it on thick to each other, Peraz went to roll her eyes at Samsom, only for her to watch him stand and a look of utter betrayal crossed her features.

Leaning slightly into Lutur's ear, she muttered,"What was that you were saying earlier of *Womanflesh*?"

With no one to talk to, Peraz finished her meal in silence, still deep in thought. Caderyn and Fleur lived yet and the Pirate King aimed to put one on the throne of Terresol? How troubling that Bradai would be involved in Terreme affairs.

It was then she saw her brother flail in the corner of her eye, and it took everything in her to stifle a laugh.

"Lord De Lysse!" Said Peraz with a polite smile,"A pleasure to see you, it has been so long since last I saw you. We greeted your son on the way here. Bastien has changed so much from childhood, you must be proud."
Felicia
```Cyprien de Lysse
Maith Mansion```

"Bastien emerged as the victor during the joust," Explained lord De Lysse. "The islander king was very impressed. It's enough to make any father feel satisfied."

He avoided using the word 'proud'. Cyprien was sworn to the Dumagnes, but a lord's relationship with his relatives was the concern of his House and no one else. It was a lesson that Cyprien had learned from his father.

"As always, it is a pleasure to see you, my lady" He told Peraz. His plum eyes darted towards Lutur, then back to the dragon of Falsa.

"Did you knew that they were spending their exile here?" His gaze was now directed at Caderyn and Fleur. The Vortigern one, not his. "As much as we owe the Pirate King for his hospitality, I must say that his den of privateers does not befit someone of their standing. The House of Vortigern does not belong with this flotsam."
Cedric
Fleur Vortigern
The Ball, Maith Mansion

She noticed the captain who had given the skull to her seemed unhappy with her receiving his gift instead of her uncle. But then again, there seemed to be lots of different expression watching her: some pleased, some unreadable, and some unimpressed. And then more approached after. She watched her uncle's face as the gifts continued, most for Uncle Bradai. It was pleasant and nice, but his eyes showed her that his mind was working fast in his head.

A man approached and told her of his father's service. The little girl's blue eyes blinked, fluttery dark lashes as she glanced from the man in front of her to the glistening skull, then back at the man. He had a kind face, but his eyes seemed a bit hungry as he stared at the gift she had received.

"I'm sure he was a good man," Fleur said to the man. "Kelwyn has hurt many good people. I'm sorry he killed your father." She tried to think of a queenly thing to say, but couldn't come up with anything very smart or good to say as she carefully let the man hold the skull. So she instead told the man, "I'm sure he still watches over you, and loves you very much, just as my parents do for me."
Phyllis
Alva Ivanova
The Ball, Maith Mansion

Alva smiled and took the rum Catarina had offered her. What had she done to deserve her kindness? A pang of guilt struck her chest. She had been so irritated and curt at the beginning of their conversation, yet here this woman was - nearly a complete stranger offering comfort. Being a recluse certainly dulled her social skills, but she decided she would redeem herself by the end of the night. 

"Thank you. I appreciate that. And... Likewise, to the best of my ability."

Now onto the elephant in the room. Read futures? Alva was rather skeptical of that sort of thing, but she figured she might as well humor her. She enjoyed a good parlor trick. She cocked an eyebrow and lightheartedly replied, "But anyway... Is that so? What does my future look like?"