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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rolzup" data-source="post: 3424273" data-attributes="member: 10105">Interlude: End of Eve"Me neither” says Meiji. "I need a break from having people try to kill me. Then again, you haven't got to know me that well yet, so that's still a possibility eventually.""I'm practically certain I wouldn't enjoy it.""You flatter me." Meiji looks around at his companions. "So are you guys just being polite and not interrupting, or waiting to see how much of a fool I make of myself?"The Lady Eve lingers over another bottle of wine with them conversing on lighter subjects; fashion, theater, the upcoming Narayan Biennial, things of which everyone but Eve is thoroughly ignorant. At one point Burne tries to flash-mull the wine in his cup using pinch saltpeter from the Engine and the flame of his hat.It takes Lucre, the box office manager, the entire duration of their conversation with Eve, not to mention an entire bottle of cheap red wine to work up the courage to ask them to leave. Before Eve goes, she gets Lucre's attention with a wink, and proceeds to walk through the wall separating the foyer and the auditorium.After stepping back she says. "Do you know why this theater is called the Palladion? It’s named for an ugly lump of iron that fell from the sky like a star, right through the roof of the original owner’s house. It’s miracle it didn’t kill him.  After it cooled he put in on display in the lobby, right there, in fact. That is, until it the pirate-kings began fighting over it."Now one side the Palladion was said to resemble the face of one of CITY’s patron Goddesses, which it sort of did. If you were blind, or meant the Goddess of Iron Lumps."Honestly, I have no idea what made Roderique of Wrackreach go so far as to start a war over the bloody thing. I thought he had better taste than that.  He was such a gentle soul, and good at interior decorating, if you know what I mean."Eve removes one of her earrings and gives it to Lucre. "It’s nowhere near as big as the Palladion, but on the plus side, it has been through solid matter. You can put it on display; maybe even rename the place after me. I won’t mind. Perhaps ‘The Magic Lady Theater’, wait, no, that’s either a drag show or a massage parlor.”Eve gestures in the direction of Meiji and company. “Let them stay here as long as they want." With that, the Lady Eve takes her leave, choosing to open the front door instead of walking straight through it.  Like any common lady.The next morning, at King Daikon’s, over coffee and hot crossed buns, Joachim Driftwood comes face to face with Mercutio the Mesmerist, who he immediately recognizes as the man in the demon-haunted carriage from that day months ago at Delphine’s family estate.“What did you do to her?” asks Joachim evenly. His nonchalance is chilling. Like Kenji’s.“Nothing, nothing, well, not much. No permanent harm, I swear!”"It is good that you have done little damage. After having gone to some effort to find and keep you safe, I would find it most distressing to have to kill you for hurting the Magnaeta.” Rackhir tells Mercutio."Kill me?” says the now sweating Mercutio. "What happened to protecting me from the evil Shirac mind-witch? Can't we go back to that?"I can assure you that Malgrazia was very gentle with the Magnate's daughter. She might have forgotten a birthday or two, tops. It's not like I enjoy using the rod like that. I still lose sleep over that guy I convinced to be a chicken....""You're a comic genius," Burne blurts out.  "A chicken, indeed!"“Indeed you are most fortunate in your choice of paths, since your former associates have caused Lord Kenji to become most... annoyed with them. I have found this to be a very 'short' lived state of affairs” says Rackhir.“Why would you do such a thing to my Delphine?” asks Joachim.“Look, Master St. Sous seemed convinced that his daughter was throwing her life away on some no-account bum, and coming from a long line of no-account bums myself, I could see how this would affect a doting father, particularly one with complex business dealings that could benefit from a comely daughter of marrying age."Also, I was paid."Joachim stares quietly ahead, pondering how much foie gras to use when he stuffs Mercutio’s emptied skull."It wasn’t personal. I was hired by those other two; the Bottleman and the Doorman. So I might be true that I was looking to get in good with them. At some point in every man's like he needs to find a real job. And its not that I was entirely without prospects.  I had a magic demon rod.""Of course, of course...all perfectly reasonable.  The man's a fine fellow," Burne explains to the room, "And I'm certain that it's not his magic that's making me say that."He pauses."You're a genius," he explains, earnestly.</blockquote>

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