thisbluespirit (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2024-04-11 08:43 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote in rainbowfic2024-04-11 08:43 pm
Burgundy #5; Beet Red #16 [Starfall]
ETA: Mods, I need a tag for the Colour Beet Red. Thanks! ♥
Name: Acid Drops
Story: Starfall
Colors: Burgundy #5 (acidity); Beet Red #16 (Actions speak louder)
Supplies and Styles: Graffiti (both colours fit with April's Food Challenge)
Word Count: 2795
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some mild gossip/spite & a trick being played on someone.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan; Viyony Eseray, Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Kadia Barra, Ranir Maraseny, Nia Delant.
Summary: Viyony attends the kind of society party Leion told her to avoid. He may have a point.
The main room upstairs had a balcony overlooking the river. Like many of the larger houses along Riverside, it was built into the hill, so, despite having come up two flights of stairs, the back opened out onto a patio, currently strung with tiny starstone lamps, brightening now as the orange hued sunset faded slowly into night. A small group of musicians playing inside, close to the open patio doors—all very informal, but the singer was Pip Galveon, famous enough for Viyony to have heard of her away in the Eister Ranges.
She hid a smile, as she edged her way through the guests after Laida Modelen, careful not to damage her long blue dress. So this was Eollan's 'cosy little gathering'! It was probably the sort of affair that Leion kept warning her about, but that seemed even more absurd. If someone was going to harm her, they weren't going to do it in their own home, with a whole crowd of well-connected witnesses.
"You're here!" Eollan crossed to her side with ease, despite the crush. He nodded to Laida, and stretched out to squeeze Viyony's hand in welcome. "I'm never sure what Kadia's evenings will entail—very relieved to have a sensible person to talk to!"
Viyony laughed. "So I'm only here to keep you happy, am I?"
"Every soul for themselves in a tight place," said Eollan with a shrug.
Someone touched Viyony's arm lightly, and she turned to see a young woman standing beside her in pink floating drapes. "Oh," she said. "Hello. You're beautiful—and so is this." She pulled out the edge of Viyony's sleeve. "I love it! Where did you get it?"
"Don't be alarmed," said Eollan, moving in. "This is Tessine Hyan, a friend—probably another relative if we go into things far enough." He removed Tess's hand from Viyony's arm. "Tess, Viyony's not used to you. Are you drunk?"
"Not very much." Tess turned her head. "It is a party. I'm meant to be, aren't I? It's a bit much to lecture me for it."
Viyony bit back a grin, and took a drink from a passing member of the Barra staff. "You're at it again, Colonel Barra. Now you think someone has to be drunk to call me beautiful."
"Look at this, though," said Tess, touching Viyony's sleeve again. "It's such a lovely colour—a completely new shade on me."
"Stars," said Eollan, reaching for a drink as well. "Don't, Tess. She's here to sell the stuff. You've asked for it now."
Tess waved her hand to shut him out. "Excellent. I want some!"
Viyony spluttered over her wine, and then recovered, wiping her chin with the back of her hand. Tess passed her a small cloth from the side table that probably wasn't meant to be used for that purpose.
"I don't think it would suit me quite as well," said Tess, pressing her bare arm against the fabric of Viyony's sleeve. "Possibly. I'd like to try!"
"Viyony's family have a famous dye works somewhere at the back end of nowhere, so you're talking to the right person."
"We're looking into expanding the fabric sales," said Viyony. "Probably using a few select businesses here, but that's all for the future, I'm afraid. I'm just looking into it as a possibility. But if you want to make a special order, we could certainly arrange it."
Eollan threw Viyony a look. "See? I can be useful, too."
"Who said you weren't?"
"Your friend Valerno dropped by my office a while ago, poking around for his masters. Says you find him useful with that sort of thing."
Viyony shrugged. "Well, he is. He knows someone who's going to talk to me about warehouses as well."
"Tess merely finds him decorative, like everything else."
Tess stuck out her tongue. "I don't know that I do any more. He's grown very boring these days."
"I haven't asked how your business is going," said Viyony to Eollan. She took a sip of her drink. "Having any luck yet?"
Eollan put out a hand to steady Tess as she stepped back and stumbled. "So-so. I have a few orders for items, but mainly from well-meaning relatives. It's early days, though—I intend to give it a good go."
"How long have you been here?" Tess asked Viyony. "Have you seen everything yet? I could take you some places, if you haven't—the Tower, the Great Chambers, the Empty Temple, all the usual things?"
Viyony looked down with a quick smile. "I've seen the Empty Temple and Portcallan Tower already, and Leion's asking his sister about giving me an insider's tour of the Chambers, so I'm covered on that score."
"Leion?" said somebody else, halting behind them.
The three of them turned, and found Kadia Barra, Eollan's cousin, the party's host, standing there with a glass and plate in hand, brows lowering.
"Why are we talking about him?" she demanded. She shot Viyony a dark look. "He isn't welcome in this house. I'd rather you didn't bring him up and spoil my party, thank you—I want to enjoy myself."
Tess rolled her eyes. "Don't be so melodramatic, Kadi. It's not as if he's here!"
"He does exist," said Eollan. "He will crop up in conversation from time to time. Viyony didn't know. She's new in town, and staying with the Gerros."
Kadia gave a nod. She stretched out, laying a hand on Viyony's arm. "Of course. Yes, they are friendly with the Valernos, aren't they? Poor you. Stick to us, and leave him alone and you'll be all right."
There was still nothing friendly in Kadia's face. Viyony raised her head and lowered her glass. "Thank you," she said quietly, "but I choose my own friends."
"That's up to you," said Kadia. "Ignore me if you like, but Leion Valerno has a history of betraying his friends. Watch out you're not next."
Eollan watched her go and grimaced. "Sorry. She blames Valerno for her brother's exile. She's never got over it. I'd have agreed with her back in the day, but these days I'll allow it's a little more complicated. Atino could be a piece of work when he chose. Still, Valerno didn't behave well, either. She's not wrong about that."
"Maybe," said Viyony. "Leion told me to avoid your family. As I said, I shall make up my own mind."
Tess perched on the edge of a sideboard, heedless of the trays of food and drink beside her, though she managed somehow to avoid knocking any of them off. "Can you all stop being so tedious?"
"Yes, yes," said Eollan. "How about we talk of better things— higher things! Like your remarkable gift, for instance." He looked to Viyony.
Viyony stilled. She had to bite down a response that would have wrecked his attempt to smooth over the conversation. "No, please. Anything but that."
"But people should talk about it! Not you specifically, of course, but it's ridiculous to be so hole and corner about whether or not someone has affinity. We ignore so much of our heritage, especially in this District. You, I'm sure, are used to honouring the Powers at Eseray."
"Oh, yes. In our quaint, backward way."
Eollan shook his head. "I'm serious. And you yourself—you are quite extraordinary."
Viyony's stomach tightened into a knot. "Please. Don't. I mean it. It's not true."
"I beg to differ. But don't you see how much better it would be if you were able to more about it—have more control, more -"
"You can't," she said, keeping her voice low. "It isn't something that can be controlled. The dreams just happen or they don't. Of course I've tried stopping it and forcing it over the years. Who wouldn't? But I can't. They're a curse, not a gift."
"It would be different if more people studied these things—treated the subject with proper respect and reverence," Eollan returned. Then, the eager light in his blue eyes fading, he drew back. "Sorry! I won't bring it up again—especially at a party. But you can't shake my belief that better understanding and recognition of these things would help everyone."
Viyony gave a nod and small smile. "I won't argue with that part."
"But you are, I think, more than you know," he said. He raised his glass to her. "And I promise not to mention it again."
"Thank you," she said, but any pleasure she might have hoped to find in the party was rapidly evaporating.
"Imai Eseray."
Viyony, searching for Laida, turned at the sound of the voice. It was familiar, but only vaguely, which, after only these few weeks in Portcallan, was true of any number of people.
"I'm glad to see you." The speaker, in the blue uniform of the High Guards, gave her the formal nod of greeting, and it took her a moment or two more to place him. Captain Maraseny, the third of the soldiers she'd met on the road here.
She smiled. "That's kind. I hear you saved the High Governor—you're a hero now!"
"I did," he said, with a wry twist of his mouth. He moved in nearer. "It was touch and go, though. I was the hero of the hour, then I was chief suspect, and then they changed their minds again. Now, look." He gestured down at his uniform. "I'm an officer of the High Guards. I haven't caught up with myself yet. But that's what I wanted to ask you. How did you know the High Governor was in danger? I only spotted the assassin because I saw you looking at them."
Viyony bit her lip and then sighed, leaning against the wall. "Oh, dear. It was nothing—I saw their weapon catch the light. I was questioned over that, too. All North Easterners seem to be suspicious in their eyes."
"You don't have to tell me. I'm not even from North Eastern—I was only in the regiment—and they still went for me. And now I'm getting invited to places like this and exhibited like a prize vegetable. 'Tell us how you saved the High Governor!'"
She laughed. "How did you?"
"Charged after the assailant. Managed to bring him down." He shrugged. "Of course, I pad it out for an audience, but that's pretty much it."
"I don't merit the pretty story?"
Nia Delant landed beside them. She was a friend of Mierly Modelen's who had been with Viyony at the Modelen House on the day of the assassination attempt. "Imai Eseray! Captain! Finally, somebody sensible to talk to."
"Does anybody here like anybody else?" asked Viyony.
Nia pulled a face, and set to work on demolishing the contents of the plate she'd carried over with her. "The food's amazing, though, so..." She shrugged.
"It isn't bad," agreed Captain Maraseny. His gaze lighted on Viyony, who had a wine glass but no plate. "What about you, Imai Eseray?"
Viyony glanced over at the main refreshments table. Kadia Barra was standing there, talking to someone. "I'm avoiding our host. If she doesn't move away soon, I shall have to resign myself to starvation."
"Kadia?" said Nia. "Is she in one of her moods again?" She put a hand to Captain Maraseny's arm. "We'll get you something, if you like. I can deal with Kadia—anywhere that's at the opposite end of the room to that awful Vilefield."
"Vilefield?"
Nia pointed, although Viyony had no idea whom she was indicating. "Thinks he's so superior to everyone else. He was going on and on about the state of the theatre as usual, and it was all rubbish."
"No, don't worry. I'm bound to get a chance to forage for myself in a minute," Viyony assured them. "Have either of you seen Laida? I've lost her."
"I suppose Mierly isn't here." Nia didn't bother making it a question. She sighed. "She knows Kettah isn't welcome, of course. I can't blame her."
In her attempts to try the food, Viyony discovered Nia's nemesis for herself—a playwright by the name of Duvh Wylefild. She had heard of his work, although she had never seen any of his plays performed. Tess introduced him vaguely, before drifting on elsewhere and leaving them together. Viyony smiled and asked him if he would pass her a clean plate, since he was standing next to them. He looked down his nose at her before he slowly obliged, all but dropping it into her hands before he turned immediately away to speak to someone else.
Viyony raised her eyebrows, and then shrugged to herself. She hoped Nia was right about the food being worth it. She helped herself to various dishes, in a mood of optimistic experimentation. Few of them were familiar to her. There was some kind of flatbread, something cooked in a mildly spicy sauce, and the inevitable assortment of seafood. Portcallan's attitude to anything that washed up on its shores seemed to be to try and eat it, no matter what it was, or how many tentacles it might possess.
"You would think," Wylefild said to the person next to him without bothering to lower his tone, "that you'd be safe from wild Rosfallen types here, but apparently they're everywhere these days."
Viyony shot a glare at his back and swept away with her laden plate, stopping only to retrieve her glass from where she'd left it on the side. She resolved never to go and see any of his plays.
Moving away from the table, she raised the glass of white wine to her lips, but choked over its contents and spat it out, dropping her plate onto the tiled floor with a smash.
People turned to stare. Heat rose in Viyony's cheeks. She ducked down to pick up the fragments of the plate, trying to clear up the ruined food and liquid with her napkin. Other guests edged away. One of the Barra staff—or perhaps they were family members, co-opted to help, Viyony didn't know—hurried over with a damp cloth and a brush, and disposed of the mess with brisk efficiency. Viyony stammered out a brief apology and then hastily stood and retreated to the opposite side of the room, well away from the food.
"Are you all right?" said Laida, tapping her shoulder lightly and making her start.
Viyony turned. "Yes. Can you get me some water? Someone just swapped my wine for wine vinegar."
She looked up, and caught sight of Kadia standing beyond Laida, watching her with a smile. Viyony wiped her mouth with her napkin, and then coughed.
Laida followed her gaze. She kept her hand on Viyony's arm. "Stars and Powers," she whispered in her ear. "How old does she think she is?" She let go and disappeared somewhere off to Viyony's side, but came back moments later with a tall glass which she pressed into Viyony's hand. "Here."
Viyony drank the water gratefully, recovering her breath. She didn't dare glance up again quite yet. If she saw Kadia, she might snap and do something she'd regret. The sheer pettiness of the act in itself somehow made it worse than if she'd seriously tried to hurt her. A child might play a trick like that, or someone might do it to friend as a stupid joke, but it was a senseless way to behave to an enemy.
"Do you want to leave?" murmured Laida, keeping close. Viyony could feel the warmth of her, and was grateful for it.
Viyony straightened herself, and shook her head. "Not yet. I refuse to be scared away by this."
"What possessed her?" Laida watched Kadia wend her way through the crush of people. "She must be mad!"
"It doesn't matter," said Viyony, placing her hand over Laida's arm. "Pure spite, I think."
Leion had warned her not to get too involved with some of the elite families like the Barras. She'd have to tell him he was right. Her mouth twitched and laughter bubbled up within her. Somehow she didn't think this was the kind of danger he'd imagined, though. She pressed her hand against her mouth, fighting hard not to laugh. What would he say when he heard?
Laida gave her a light pinch. "It isn't funny."
"No," said Viyony. "It isn't, not really. I'd already thought I might walk away from this affair with a bitter taste in my mouth—but I hadn't expected it to be literal!"
She'd had so many vague warnings from people—Leion chiefly, but it hadn't only been him—that she'd ceased to take them seriously. What Kadia had done had been ridiculous and petty, but it made one thing absolutely clear. Viyony had found herself an enemy.
Name: Acid Drops
Story: Starfall
Colors: Burgundy #5 (acidity); Beet Red #16 (Actions speak louder)
Supplies and Styles: Graffiti (both colours fit with April's Food Challenge)
Word Count: 2795
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some mild gossip/spite & a trick being played on someone.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan; Viyony Eseray, Eollan Barra, Laida Modelen, Kadia Barra, Ranir Maraseny, Nia Delant.
Summary: Viyony attends the kind of society party Leion told her to avoid. He may have a point.
The main room upstairs had a balcony overlooking the river. Like many of the larger houses along Riverside, it was built into the hill, so, despite having come up two flights of stairs, the back opened out onto a patio, currently strung with tiny starstone lamps, brightening now as the orange hued sunset faded slowly into night. A small group of musicians playing inside, close to the open patio doors—all very informal, but the singer was Pip Galveon, famous enough for Viyony to have heard of her away in the Eister Ranges.
She hid a smile, as she edged her way through the guests after Laida Modelen, careful not to damage her long blue dress. So this was Eollan's 'cosy little gathering'! It was probably the sort of affair that Leion kept warning her about, but that seemed even more absurd. If someone was going to harm her, they weren't going to do it in their own home, with a whole crowd of well-connected witnesses.
"You're here!" Eollan crossed to her side with ease, despite the crush. He nodded to Laida, and stretched out to squeeze Viyony's hand in welcome. "I'm never sure what Kadia's evenings will entail—very relieved to have a sensible person to talk to!"
Viyony laughed. "So I'm only here to keep you happy, am I?"
"Every soul for themselves in a tight place," said Eollan with a shrug.
Someone touched Viyony's arm lightly, and she turned to see a young woman standing beside her in pink floating drapes. "Oh," she said. "Hello. You're beautiful—and so is this." She pulled out the edge of Viyony's sleeve. "I love it! Where did you get it?"
"Don't be alarmed," said Eollan, moving in. "This is Tessine Hyan, a friend—probably another relative if we go into things far enough." He removed Tess's hand from Viyony's arm. "Tess, Viyony's not used to you. Are you drunk?"
"Not very much." Tess turned her head. "It is a party. I'm meant to be, aren't I? It's a bit much to lecture me for it."
Viyony bit back a grin, and took a drink from a passing member of the Barra staff. "You're at it again, Colonel Barra. Now you think someone has to be drunk to call me beautiful."
"Look at this, though," said Tess, touching Viyony's sleeve again. "It's such a lovely colour—a completely new shade on me."
"Stars," said Eollan, reaching for a drink as well. "Don't, Tess. She's here to sell the stuff. You've asked for it now."
Tess waved her hand to shut him out. "Excellent. I want some!"
Viyony spluttered over her wine, and then recovered, wiping her chin with the back of her hand. Tess passed her a small cloth from the side table that probably wasn't meant to be used for that purpose.
"I don't think it would suit me quite as well," said Tess, pressing her bare arm against the fabric of Viyony's sleeve. "Possibly. I'd like to try!"
"Viyony's family have a famous dye works somewhere at the back end of nowhere, so you're talking to the right person."
"We're looking into expanding the fabric sales," said Viyony. "Probably using a few select businesses here, but that's all for the future, I'm afraid. I'm just looking into it as a possibility. But if you want to make a special order, we could certainly arrange it."
Eollan threw Viyony a look. "See? I can be useful, too."
"Who said you weren't?"
"Your friend Valerno dropped by my office a while ago, poking around for his masters. Says you find him useful with that sort of thing."
Viyony shrugged. "Well, he is. He knows someone who's going to talk to me about warehouses as well."
"Tess merely finds him decorative, like everything else."
Tess stuck out her tongue. "I don't know that I do any more. He's grown very boring these days."
"I haven't asked how your business is going," said Viyony to Eollan. She took a sip of her drink. "Having any luck yet?"
Eollan put out a hand to steady Tess as she stepped back and stumbled. "So-so. I have a few orders for items, but mainly from well-meaning relatives. It's early days, though—I intend to give it a good go."
"How long have you been here?" Tess asked Viyony. "Have you seen everything yet? I could take you some places, if you haven't—the Tower, the Great Chambers, the Empty Temple, all the usual things?"
Viyony looked down with a quick smile. "I've seen the Empty Temple and Portcallan Tower already, and Leion's asking his sister about giving me an insider's tour of the Chambers, so I'm covered on that score."
"Leion?" said somebody else, halting behind them.
The three of them turned, and found Kadia Barra, Eollan's cousin, the party's host, standing there with a glass and plate in hand, brows lowering.
"Why are we talking about him?" she demanded. She shot Viyony a dark look. "He isn't welcome in this house. I'd rather you didn't bring him up and spoil my party, thank you—I want to enjoy myself."
Tess rolled her eyes. "Don't be so melodramatic, Kadi. It's not as if he's here!"
"He does exist," said Eollan. "He will crop up in conversation from time to time. Viyony didn't know. She's new in town, and staying with the Gerros."
Kadia gave a nod. She stretched out, laying a hand on Viyony's arm. "Of course. Yes, they are friendly with the Valernos, aren't they? Poor you. Stick to us, and leave him alone and you'll be all right."
There was still nothing friendly in Kadia's face. Viyony raised her head and lowered her glass. "Thank you," she said quietly, "but I choose my own friends."
"That's up to you," said Kadia. "Ignore me if you like, but Leion Valerno has a history of betraying his friends. Watch out you're not next."
Eollan watched her go and grimaced. "Sorry. She blames Valerno for her brother's exile. She's never got over it. I'd have agreed with her back in the day, but these days I'll allow it's a little more complicated. Atino could be a piece of work when he chose. Still, Valerno didn't behave well, either. She's not wrong about that."
"Maybe," said Viyony. "Leion told me to avoid your family. As I said, I shall make up my own mind."
Tess perched on the edge of a sideboard, heedless of the trays of food and drink beside her, though she managed somehow to avoid knocking any of them off. "Can you all stop being so tedious?"
"Yes, yes," said Eollan. "How about we talk of better things— higher things! Like your remarkable gift, for instance." He looked to Viyony.
Viyony stilled. She had to bite down a response that would have wrecked his attempt to smooth over the conversation. "No, please. Anything but that."
"But people should talk about it! Not you specifically, of course, but it's ridiculous to be so hole and corner about whether or not someone has affinity. We ignore so much of our heritage, especially in this District. You, I'm sure, are used to honouring the Powers at Eseray."
"Oh, yes. In our quaint, backward way."
Eollan shook his head. "I'm serious. And you yourself—you are quite extraordinary."
Viyony's stomach tightened into a knot. "Please. Don't. I mean it. It's not true."
"I beg to differ. But don't you see how much better it would be if you were able to more about it—have more control, more -"
"You can't," she said, keeping her voice low. "It isn't something that can be controlled. The dreams just happen or they don't. Of course I've tried stopping it and forcing it over the years. Who wouldn't? But I can't. They're a curse, not a gift."
"It would be different if more people studied these things—treated the subject with proper respect and reverence," Eollan returned. Then, the eager light in his blue eyes fading, he drew back. "Sorry! I won't bring it up again—especially at a party. But you can't shake my belief that better understanding and recognition of these things would help everyone."
Viyony gave a nod and small smile. "I won't argue with that part."
"But you are, I think, more than you know," he said. He raised his glass to her. "And I promise not to mention it again."
"Thank you," she said, but any pleasure she might have hoped to find in the party was rapidly evaporating.
"Imai Eseray."
Viyony, searching for Laida, turned at the sound of the voice. It was familiar, but only vaguely, which, after only these few weeks in Portcallan, was true of any number of people.
"I'm glad to see you." The speaker, in the blue uniform of the High Guards, gave her the formal nod of greeting, and it took her a moment or two more to place him. Captain Maraseny, the third of the soldiers she'd met on the road here.
She smiled. "That's kind. I hear you saved the High Governor—you're a hero now!"
"I did," he said, with a wry twist of his mouth. He moved in nearer. "It was touch and go, though. I was the hero of the hour, then I was chief suspect, and then they changed their minds again. Now, look." He gestured down at his uniform. "I'm an officer of the High Guards. I haven't caught up with myself yet. But that's what I wanted to ask you. How did you know the High Governor was in danger? I only spotted the assassin because I saw you looking at them."
Viyony bit her lip and then sighed, leaning against the wall. "Oh, dear. It was nothing—I saw their weapon catch the light. I was questioned over that, too. All North Easterners seem to be suspicious in their eyes."
"You don't have to tell me. I'm not even from North Eastern—I was only in the regiment—and they still went for me. And now I'm getting invited to places like this and exhibited like a prize vegetable. 'Tell us how you saved the High Governor!'"
She laughed. "How did you?"
"Charged after the assailant. Managed to bring him down." He shrugged. "Of course, I pad it out for an audience, but that's pretty much it."
"I don't merit the pretty story?"
Nia Delant landed beside them. She was a friend of Mierly Modelen's who had been with Viyony at the Modelen House on the day of the assassination attempt. "Imai Eseray! Captain! Finally, somebody sensible to talk to."
"Does anybody here like anybody else?" asked Viyony.
Nia pulled a face, and set to work on demolishing the contents of the plate she'd carried over with her. "The food's amazing, though, so..." She shrugged.
"It isn't bad," agreed Captain Maraseny. His gaze lighted on Viyony, who had a wine glass but no plate. "What about you, Imai Eseray?"
Viyony glanced over at the main refreshments table. Kadia Barra was standing there, talking to someone. "I'm avoiding our host. If she doesn't move away soon, I shall have to resign myself to starvation."
"Kadia?" said Nia. "Is she in one of her moods again?" She put a hand to Captain Maraseny's arm. "We'll get you something, if you like. I can deal with Kadia—anywhere that's at the opposite end of the room to that awful Vilefield."
"Vilefield?"
Nia pointed, although Viyony had no idea whom she was indicating. "Thinks he's so superior to everyone else. He was going on and on about the state of the theatre as usual, and it was all rubbish."
"No, don't worry. I'm bound to get a chance to forage for myself in a minute," Viyony assured them. "Have either of you seen Laida? I've lost her."
"I suppose Mierly isn't here." Nia didn't bother making it a question. She sighed. "She knows Kettah isn't welcome, of course. I can't blame her."
In her attempts to try the food, Viyony discovered Nia's nemesis for herself—a playwright by the name of Duvh Wylefild. She had heard of his work, although she had never seen any of his plays performed. Tess introduced him vaguely, before drifting on elsewhere and leaving them together. Viyony smiled and asked him if he would pass her a clean plate, since he was standing next to them. He looked down his nose at her before he slowly obliged, all but dropping it into her hands before he turned immediately away to speak to someone else.
Viyony raised her eyebrows, and then shrugged to herself. She hoped Nia was right about the food being worth it. She helped herself to various dishes, in a mood of optimistic experimentation. Few of them were familiar to her. There was some kind of flatbread, something cooked in a mildly spicy sauce, and the inevitable assortment of seafood. Portcallan's attitude to anything that washed up on its shores seemed to be to try and eat it, no matter what it was, or how many tentacles it might possess.
"You would think," Wylefild said to the person next to him without bothering to lower his tone, "that you'd be safe from wild Rosfallen types here, but apparently they're everywhere these days."
Viyony shot a glare at his back and swept away with her laden plate, stopping only to retrieve her glass from where she'd left it on the side. She resolved never to go and see any of his plays.
Moving away from the table, she raised the glass of white wine to her lips, but choked over its contents and spat it out, dropping her plate onto the tiled floor with a smash.
People turned to stare. Heat rose in Viyony's cheeks. She ducked down to pick up the fragments of the plate, trying to clear up the ruined food and liquid with her napkin. Other guests edged away. One of the Barra staff—or perhaps they were family members, co-opted to help, Viyony didn't know—hurried over with a damp cloth and a brush, and disposed of the mess with brisk efficiency. Viyony stammered out a brief apology and then hastily stood and retreated to the opposite side of the room, well away from the food.
"Are you all right?" said Laida, tapping her shoulder lightly and making her start.
Viyony turned. "Yes. Can you get me some water? Someone just swapped my wine for wine vinegar."
She looked up, and caught sight of Kadia standing beyond Laida, watching her with a smile. Viyony wiped her mouth with her napkin, and then coughed.
Laida followed her gaze. She kept her hand on Viyony's arm. "Stars and Powers," she whispered in her ear. "How old does she think she is?" She let go and disappeared somewhere off to Viyony's side, but came back moments later with a tall glass which she pressed into Viyony's hand. "Here."
Viyony drank the water gratefully, recovering her breath. She didn't dare glance up again quite yet. If she saw Kadia, she might snap and do something she'd regret. The sheer pettiness of the act in itself somehow made it worse than if she'd seriously tried to hurt her. A child might play a trick like that, or someone might do it to friend as a stupid joke, but it was a senseless way to behave to an enemy.
"Do you want to leave?" murmured Laida, keeping close. Viyony could feel the warmth of her, and was grateful for it.
Viyony straightened herself, and shook her head. "Not yet. I refuse to be scared away by this."
"What possessed her?" Laida watched Kadia wend her way through the crush of people. "She must be mad!"
"It doesn't matter," said Viyony, placing her hand over Laida's arm. "Pure spite, I think."
Leion had warned her not to get too involved with some of the elite families like the Barras. She'd have to tell him he was right. Her mouth twitched and laughter bubbled up within her. Somehow she didn't think this was the kind of danger he'd imagined, though. She pressed her hand against her mouth, fighting hard not to laugh. What would he say when he heard?
Laida gave her a light pinch. "It isn't funny."
"No," said Viyony. "It isn't, not really. I'd already thought I might walk away from this affair with a bitter taste in my mouth—but I hadn't expected it to be literal!"
She'd had so many vague warnings from people—Leion chiefly, but it hadn't only been him—that she'd ceased to take them seriously. What Kadia had done had been ridiculous and petty, but it made one thing absolutely clear. Viyony had found herself an enemy.
no subject
Well, I'd like their cuisine.
The sheer pettiness of the act in itself somehow made it worse than if she'd seriously tried to hurt her. A child might play a trick like that, or someone might do it to friend as a stupid joke, but it was a senseless way to behave to an enemy.
That's nicely observed.
no subject
Well, I'd like their cuisine.
You would! (I'd be left the way I am visiting the sea side. Is there anywhere here that caters for a milk allergy AND is not fishy in any way, shape or form, lol? XD)
no subject
no subject
no subject
I've added your tag, and here are your two novelty beads!
1) “Is your mom afraid something will happen to you?”
“I,” said Harriet, with absolute confidence, “am something that happens to OTHER people.” - Ursula Vernon
2) Bonding
no subject
XD Thank you! And also for the novelty beads. <3