Free Dinner (Milada, ST) (Spring 2011)

Page 1
Songbird

Nov 06, 2014#1

The first night Milada attends the nightly Freehold dinner, held in the green Spring ballroom for the season, she will be greeted cordially by numerous Freehold members. She may also get a sense of the large size of the Freeholds: the expansive ballroom is absolutely packed with other Changelings, all of them eager for their meal.

King Eric is there, and joins the throng of happy men (and more than a few women) excited to meet the pretty new human-seeming girl. His eyes dance at Ash, but he does not make any pointed comments in public.

A very pale woman heads the table of honor at the front of the ballroom, and Chatelaines and Brewers flit quietly about her, apparently on the business of catering. When she can spare a minute, she will introduce herself with quiet calm to Milada as Summer Queen Rivah, and will welcome her to the Freehold.

Up close, the woman looks the spitting image of a zombie ogre, and towers over the crowd, her bare arms rippling with deceptively understated muscles. Her leather bodice is tighter and shows more cleavage than might be expected of a zombie ogre, but the deathly white woman seems comfortable in her skin. Her dead eyes linger affectionately on King Eric and while she doesn't say much, she will leave Milada with the clear understanding that Milada is very free to play with the Spring King as much as she could ever desire, but that the Freehold does take the oaths against killing very seriously, just to be clear. Milada's empathy will pick up that the Queen isn't suspicious of her specifically, just concerned about the free-spirited Spring King.

When Milada picks a table for dinner, a strange woman will sweep into the seat next to her, though Milada will be quite certain she didn't see the woman approach. In her Mien in the Hollow, the woman's skin is as black as a Shadowsoul's, though her bright blue eyes dance with laughing stars. Milada can only see a fraction of the woman's face, however, and no other skin--she is shrouded completely in a pretty blue niqab, and even her hands are gloved and hidden. The woman will not speak through dinner, but her eyes laugh happily at anything Milada says to her. Milada may notice, however, that the mantle for the young woman is like the bitter cold of a cloudless winter night.

The woman disappears soon after dessert is served, and does not again approach Milada. If she asks around, she will be told that Etoile of the Heavens rarely speaks and seems to have very low clarity--she should try not to be offended by anything the quiet Winter courtier does.

(Go back to Worth Hollow)