And on a side note related to Lela's comment of me being a rat bastard... yes I am
In later sessions, I became even more of a rat bastard as well.
In regards to taking out the Empress, I think Siabrey was ready to do so in the throne room meeting. The only reason she didn't was because no one was allowed to carry weapons in... otherwise I think Her Imperial Majesty would have found a katana embedded in her chest.
Though as I type, we get slowly closer and closer to the true fate of Siabrey, Luke, and the Empress....
Lucius Makes a Decision
As the party neared the Temple of Pelor, Tess looked and Lucius, and knew now was the time.
“Guys, remember I have that concert at the Darniva Theater tonight... you all are invited,” she said in a hopeful voice, “it might help get things off of your minds... but anyways,” she said absently, “I... um... need to go get ready. You know, practice with the singers, and the like?”
Siabrey nodded, but her secret senses were going into overload mode.
Tess wouldn’t be this nervous if she was going to practice to play normally... then again, I guess this Myria is a big star... maybe thats why she’s nervous... “Good luck Tess, we’ll see you tonight!” Siabrey called.
A few minutes later, just as they neared the palace steps, Luke held up his hand. “Oh!” he cried.
“What is it, hon?” Siabrey asked.
“I forgot, I have a... um... meeting with some of the Imperial generals... um... today... I’ll be back in time for the show!” He started to turn quickly, and Siabrey immediately caught something was up there as well.
Maybe its just he’s nervous about military matters, Siabrey reasoned. “Will you have time to clean up before Tess’ show?” Siabrey grabbed him and asked. Luke shrugged. “Hon.. you really need to,” she pointed towards his armor, which was already grimy from sweat from the morning’s fight. Luke nodded, and with a big smile, dashed off.
It was a few minutes later when Tess spotted him trotting towards the entrance to the Escaree Jewels, owned by probably the best jewelers in the Valley. Tess herself gulped as she waited; she’d seen the store, and dreamed of going inside, but she’d never had the money before to even look at their cheapest of items...
“Thanks Tess,” Luke breathed uneasily as he jogged up. “You’re a lifesaver!”
“No problem, Luke,” Tess smiled at him, as the two went inside. Her armor had been now glammered into the finest of dresses. Attendants, however, stared at Lucius’ grimy, and frankly, smelly armor.
“Um... madame,” one approached her, as she apparently looked to more cultured of the pair, “I am afraid we must ask that your companion there please step out...”
“You would deny a Count entry into your store?” Tess asked, raising an eyebrow. At the mentioning of Lucius’ title, the attendant’s demeanor improved rapidly.
“Why, um... no! Of course not!” unease came from his voice, “How may we be of service?” Money glinted in his eyes, even as his nose wrinkled from the smell.
“I am looking for a ring... something like this,” Luke pulled out his noble signet ring, “Gold with platinum etchings, and a single large ruby in the middle, with a small ring of diamonds around that. And,” he added, “is there any way I could get such a ring on short notice?”
Other attendants by this point had discovered Lucius’ title, and quickly a horde of them scurried through the store, coming back a few moments later with a ring that looked similar to Lucius’... save the ruby in the center was far larger. With beaming, puppy eyes they looked for his approval.
“Tess, what do you think?” Lucius held the ring up for her inspection, and the bard, with her careful appraising eye, took the ring and looked it over deeply.
“Hmmm....”
That ruby is enormous... and the diamonds... all are perfect cut! This thing’s probably worth 100 platinum easily... maybe more... “The ruby matches her eyes perfectly... though I think you should get an etching on the bottom.” She handed it back to him... and the attendants barely concealed odd faces at the remark she made about, “matching eyes.”
“Hmm... Tess, how does, ‘To the greatest lover, fighter, and friend a man could have,’ sound?”
“Luke,” she said, “that is
soooo cute,” she nodded her approval. Luke was about to head towards the counter and strongbox to pay, when he remembered something.
“Um.. say? Can you... um... real quick, add a gold etching of an eagle onto the surface of the ruby?” Once again several attendants dashed off, and fifteen minutes later returned with the ring as requested. Lucius smiled his approval, and set a rather large pouch of coins onto the counter. Tess couldn’t tell what was in there, but she could only guess by the awed reactions of the attendants, it was a hefty sum.
“Luke? How much is in there?” she asked quietly, looking as one attendant inappropriately whistled before being elbowed by the others.
“Alot,” he said quickly, and grinned when Tess frowned. “I’m not going to tell you Tess! You’d gossip it to Siabrey, and then I would never hear the end of it!” Tess laughed at his observation... it was true.
As the two left the store, Lucius turned to Tess, and looked her in the eye, his face serious.
“Tess... I want to ask her after the last song in your concert... can you arrange it so I can do it from onstage?” Tess laughed.
“I can ask,” she grinned, “and seriously Luke... you are too
cuuute.”
Makes me wish I would find somebody that’d treat me that cutely...
“Well, I’m going to head to Alexander, and talk to him about my dragon plan,” Lucius said, before giving Tess a hug, “Thank you for your help, Tesseron!”
“Its no... wait... dragons?” the bard asked quietly. “Luke... whats up?” He gave a sigh, and then leaned very close to her.
“Well, I was thinking of trying to get the dragons and some of the paladins together... and have the dragons act as... um... ‘flying cavalry’ of some sort. It could be useful... I need to talk to Alexander about the idea... Xanadu is supposed to run it by the dragons...”
Dragons as a part of the army? Tess’ mind wondered...
Thats brilliant!
“Well, I’m off!” Luke said, already heading away, “What time was your performance?”
“Seven o’clock!”
“Ok then! I should have enough time to wash up, so I can see you clean, as opposed to grimy!”
Siabrey looked at Luke as he walked away for his meeting with the generals, and then groaned as a whiff of herself rose to her nose.
He’s not going to have time to come back and bathe... ugh.... too bad for him... I had some plans... she sighed.
“Shaun, Elenya... we’ve got... what? Three hours until the performance? I think its time that we go and get ourselves washed up, so we look presentable at least.” She was surprised by the look of shock on their faces when she said this.
“Wait wait wait... Siabrey?” Shaun waved his hand in front of her face, “What... what happened to the old Siabrey! Did you get smacked on the head, or did you actually advise everyone to clean up?” He let out a laugh, as she playfully elbowed him.
“Yes, she did... and you need the bath too!” Elenya chimed in, and Shaun raised an eyebrow at her comment. She looked at him, giggled, but shook her head. “No... not enough time for that... get your mind out of the gutter, Shauny!”
They journeyed down to the bathhouse they had familiarized themselves with, the butt of so many of their jokes. There was a different attendant now, thankfully, and the three did not have blood on them as they had the first time they arrived... merely sweat and grime.
“What’ll it be today, then?” the man behind the counter, obviously of the more rough and tumble type, asked.
“Two rooms,” Siabrey said, and put down some coins. Shaun put down his own as well, and the party went to the rinsing stations to get the outermost layers of grime and filth off.
As Shaun pulled up his face from the small fountain alcove he was at, he looked on in semi-shock as Siabrey and Elenya were walking towards one of the bathrooms hand in hand.
Ooooo.... Siabrey, I knew you were a fighter, but I didn’t know you sparred with multiples... He got a grin on his face, a grin that grew when he saw both of them enter the first room the group had reserved. As he was about to catch the door, Elenya’s head popped out of the crack.
“You’re in the next room, love!” she pointed.
What?! What do you mean? Shaun stopped in disbelief.
I... I thought it was my lucky day! “Um... what?”
“You’re in the next room, silly,” Elenya motioned again. “Us ladies have some girl talk that needs to be done!” She laughed, and Shaun couldn’t start his next sentence before his fiancee closed the door.
What? I’m supposed to bathe alone? I ALWAYS bathed with Elenya!
”Hey!” he banged on the door, “why can’t I just bathe with you two girls? It’ll save us some money!”
“Shauny!” he heard Elenya’s faint voice behind the door, “No threesomes until after our wedding!” He recognized the tone as her, ‘no chance in hell’ tone, and heard Siabrey’s laughter echoing from within.
Aww....
“Why? C’mon!”
“There’s nothing going on in here other than me and Elenya talking!” Siabrey’s voice now came through, “and we don’t think you’d have fun as I’m talking about Lucius! Go next door to your room and get cleaned up!”
“But why?” his voice was now approaching whiny. He heard no response, other than Siabrey talking excitedly about her exchange with Luke and his offer for betrothal, and Elenya’s excited and giggling response. As the voices of the two started discussing wedding options (more Elenya telling Siabrey ideas, as Siabrey was lost when it came to such things), Shaun went into his own room, sat in the tub of hot water, and pouted.
As Siabrey, Shaun and Elenya returned to the Temple, feeling clean and smelly of roses and perfumes, they spotted a rather dingy, grimy looking Lucius coming up the street, a huge smile bared across his face.
“Luke!” Siabrey called, running over and thrust her arm up to by his face, “Smell!” He took a whiff, and smiled deeply.
“Roses and honey of some kind?” he asked, and Siabrey nodded.
“You like?”
“As long as you’re in it!” he grinned, “Which reminds me... what time is it right now? Anyone know?” He desperately wanted to clean himself up... part of his ‘meeting’ with Alexander had been a friendly sparring match where the Crown Prince had bested him after a half hour of grueling sword swinging.
“I’d guess five...” Siabrey said, looking at where the sun was in the sky. “There’s enough time for you to head to the baths I think,” she said looking his grime over... recognizing it was more than he hand when he left. “Did... you... spar?” she asked quietly.
Lucius dismounted from his horse stiffly, nodding a yes, and Siabrey gave a smile. “Hmm... well then, it looks as if you need someone to loosen up your muscles, as well as a bath,” she winked at him. He caught her insinuation immediately, and motioned for her to get on the back of his horse.
“Two washes in a day!” Shaun called as the two rode off towards the bathhouse again, “That’s gotta be a Siabrey Sipner record!”
“Who says I’m going to be washing!” Siabrey called back with a grin.
Tess, for her part, cleaned herself up at a smaller bathhouse near the theater where she would be performing. After cleaning up and donning requisite perfumes and her sweet smelling rose, she went to the Darniva Theater.
Unlike before, she went to one of the back entrances, where she found Myria shouting and surprisingly cursing at a man who dropped a large horn.
“Oh! Hello Tesseron!” she broke off her tirade momentarily, “Just making sure these blokes load things up properly.” The woman evidently saw Tess’ look of shock at her skill with the vulgar words of the Common tongue, and grinned. “Now, you’ll get a chance to witness some of the dirtier parts of concert going... come. I’ll introduce you to the other performers.”
Myria led Tess inside the back of the theater, as all around workers set up backgrounds, tapestries, and put last touches on set pieces. Myria’s next performance had a forest type theme, and painters were putting the finishing touches on three large trees that would stand on the edges of the stage.
“Three more of our performers came down with crotch itch,” Myria said with distate, “silly men. They were all backup singers, so with some... frantic housecalls this morning I found three other backups.”
Myria motioned to three women standing in the middle of the stage, looking over the large auditorium.
“Ladies!” she called, and the three turned... and Tess noticed the middle one was easily a half fey... her skin and features were too perfect, and her ears were gracefully wide and pointed, not like the narrow pointed ears of elves and half elves.
“This is Tessoren Keldare, she will be performing with you tonight to cover for our regular harpist, who is ill. Tesseron, this is Bylia,” she motioned to the graceful half fey, who gave Tess a curtsy. “She is the leader of these three... and let me tell you, their voices are
angelic!” Myria giggled.
Tess nodded and shook hands politely, even as her own mind wondered and worried.
Four performers down with disease in the space of two days... perhaps someone is arranging their sicknesses? She remembered the splotches that appeared on Quin when the Black Roses had hurt him, and she decided if she got a chance, she would take a glance and try to make a diagnosis of her own.
As Myria led her around, introducing her to people, she caught a glance of a man carrying one of hte smaller tree models onstage. He had no shirt on, and she coudl see around his lower belly, there were large splotches. As Myria took her over to introduce her, the singer remarked quietly, “That is Celitar... the harpist you are subbing for.”
As the introduction went, Tess carefully and discreetly glanced at the splotches.
Large... red and brown... not open sores... its definitely not a Black Rose... its most definiately crotch itch, she thought with distaste. In her more rough and tumble days earlier in her career, Tess had seen far too many tavern goers and merrymakers blessed with the splotches.
A little more at ease knowing at least one of the men was down with an actual VD, Tess and the others set about practicing. True to Myria’s word, the three background singers indeed sounded angelic in voice and tone, though the half fey shone about them all. Indeed, Tess was convinced that Bylia outshone Myria herself at some points.
As the last practice ended, about a half hour before the doors to the theater were to be opened, Tess approached the lead singer.
“A final request, Myria,” Tess started, “would it be possible, at the end of the performance, for a friend of mine to come on stage?”
“Hmm...” Myria pursed her lips, “That depends what for. If its a fanboy I really don’t want...”
“Well... a friend of mine has a certain lady he wants to propose to... would it be possible for him to do this on stage?”
Myria laughed. “Of course... tell me what his name is... and I’ll call him up at the end of the show!”
“Excellent!” Tess grinned, and told Myria of Lucius and Siabrey. As the two went backstage, Tess playing her self-written song about the love of the fighter and the noble, she had no idea that the concert of her dreams would soon turn into a concert of horror...
