Having received an invitation from the Matron himself to partake of breakfast that morning, Antimony was forced to shelve her plans to research Deep Dragon biology.  Even though she required no food at all to survive from day to day, refusing an offer from the Dread Mistress tended to drastically lower one's life expectancy.<br/><br/>It took her a little extra time to get prepared for her day, given who she would be spending it in the company of, but once she was dressed in finery fitting a courtier who would stand in the presence of the Matron of House Archwinter, she set off.  A little thought was spared for Thursk, who would undoubtedly be waiting for her in front of the library as ordered within an hour, but not much.  The orc would simply have to wait.  Admittedly, if she wished, it would have been easy to flag down a messenger and have them relay some new orders to him, but that wouldn't be as easy as simply collecting him at a later point in time and making up some story about having accidentally forgotten him.<br/><br/>Arriving in the banquet chamber, the sorceress was in for quite a surprise.  From the looks of things, it was clear that she had not been the only one to receive gifts from the Matron for exceptional service.  The house weapon-master was nine feet tall, after all, and sitting on the elaborate throne that was normally reserved for the Matron himself was, instead, a creature which the devil-descended half-drow recognized easily as a Brachina, a variety of fiend more commonly known as a 'Pleasure Devil'.<br/><br/>Of course, given the naked creature's quite visible penis and the uncanny resemblance it bore to the Archwinter Matron, Antimony was forced to conclude that she was in fact gazing upon Abduxuel Archwinter, and that there were magical shenanigans of some sort at the root of all this.<br/><br/>Bowing respectfully low, her own black-feathered wings pressed flat against her back, the house mage awaited the Matron's whims.