NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3426184" data-attributes="member: 3448">With the formalities taken care of, Princess Cecilia lead them all into a formal dining room.  Alistair carefully looked over the royal party.  Both the Queen and the Princess were dressed in the most formal of gowns.  Their clothing was beautiful, and the jewelry both ornate and expensive.  Their raiment was somewhat old-fashioned, however; the Queen’s style was not too unusual for a lady of her age, but her daughter was dressed in a similarly old-fashioned style, despite her obvious youth.  The princess was pretty and vivacious, although not nearly as beautiful as someone like Kit.  Alistair judged that she was probably about as attractive a woman as he was as a man, without the benefit of magic.  She was slight of build, almost boyishly slender, with straight blonde hair held in place by weapon hair-pins, probably an honor dagger and its mate.  Her blue eyes darted about the room, carefully taking everything in with a practiced look.  At a guess, she seemed very bright, although also young, and while she did not exactly seem nervous, neither did she seem completely comfortable.  The Princess carried no other weapons besides her hair-pins openly, and concealed weapons were most unlikely.  In contrast, her mother wore many small weapons, including a short sword-- she had probably served in the military as an officer for a while.In the early phases of the dinner, the chaperones dominated the conversation, mixing banalities and the news of the day.  The Queen commented on the noble palace that disappeared the other night, but Princess Cecilia waived her hand dismissively-- it was an eyesore, anyway, and she was glad to see it go.  The only briefly worrisome bit was when Princess Cecilia almost gestured towards Kit, hidden in the passageways behind the walls.Kit sighed mentally to Dame Brionna. <<Aunt Cecilia was this close to pointing to me. Thank you, Aunt Cecilia, for pointing out the secret location of the Spymaster.>><<Oh dear. We really need a new Imperial Matron.>><<Yeah, we do.>><<Well, and no one knows you're the Spymaster, but everyone knows you're Alistair’s companion, and that's disastrous here.>><<Yeah.>>As the meal progressed, the servants brought out ever grander dishes, such as whole roast pig split at the table.  Carefully and cautiously, Princess Mirabelle and Alistair began talking.“Your grace, they tell me that you traveled widely before your grandmother passed.”   “Yes, I toured much of Drucien.  It was a marvelous experience.”  He smiled a little sadly.  “I wish I could have spent more time traveling, still, but when my grandmother’s health started failing, duty required me here.”The Princess nodded understandingly.  “I envy you for being able to do it at all.  And adventuring is a good way for a man to start out, even if eventually other responsibilities interfere.  Did you have many exciting adventures?”“Indeed.  While we were in the North, we mostly concentrated on fighting slavery.  But then once news reached us of my father’s death and my grandmother’s failing health, we mostly concentrated on getting past the assassins to make it back to Canberry.  But even then, we worked to continue my family’s efforts against the slavers.”“Did Mother tell you they got some people out of Gates as well?  A few months ago-- they spread a great deal of money around, and purchased nearly two dozen young people, probably for sacrifice. It’s all very morbid.”“We hadn’t heard about their operations in Gates, but we know of the kidnappings of young people for sacrifice.  I assume that the victims were targeted because of elven blood?  That was really the first part of their conspiracy that we noticed, when we were rescuing children in Enclaves-- the first sign that it was even worse than the normal slave-taking.  There’s still more to be done, of course, but we’ve put a serious hurt on their efforts.”“It’s all so unpleasant.”  Princess Mirabelle shook her head, and really her whole upper body, as if to shake the unwanted thoughts out of her mind.  Alistair found the effect quite fetching, although it worried Dame Brionna:  a monarch, even a consort, would need to be willing to address unpleasant things directly.  “Did you have to kill many people on your adventures?”</blockquote>

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