Chapter 138: A Duchess's Reception (Part 1)

The second tent was larger than the first. Or perhaps it only seemed larger without the rows and rows of seats. In their place stood many circular tables, dressed in fine linens of red and gold. Most of the tables had five or six seats apiece. Several of them were half-full, most were as yet empty. The tables were, once again, split down the middle of the tent. On one side sat the parents, and on the other, the children.

The lantern light here was dimmer than it had been in the first tent, casting everything in a soft red. At the far back of the tent, I saw a small orchestra. For apparently, at these noble gatherings, there must always be an orchestra. Right now they played a tune soft and slow, one I barely heard at all over the murmuring of this many people.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, the tent's sides were lined with rows and rows of tables bursting with food. The servants who had carried them in had all disappeared without a trace. They had the talent of only being seen when it was required of them. I knew they would be back, when the time was right.

The three of us took two steps inside before the first of the people approached. The first, surprisingly, were Duke and Lady Thalos. Duke Thalos wore a suit of deep purple, one clearly of good make, though it still seemed to pale before the elaborate clothing of the rest of the nobility here. Lady Thalos wore a gown of a softer purple, her hair done up in careful braids.

"Lady Veyne." Duke Thalos tipped his head toward me, then again toward Violet. "Lady Indri. I am pleased to see that your investiture went well. I have overseen many of these ceremonies. And I must say, I can find no fault with anything at all. Perhaps the food might be lacking, but I have not yet had a chance to sample it."

Before, I might have thought it was a jab. That he was surprised the tents had not caught fire. By now, I knew it was a compliment and nothing more.

"You are too kind," I said.

"Yeah, well... I didn't set all this up," Violet said. "Mari handled it." I looked at her, and caught the hint of red on her cheeks. Was she blushing?

"And about your address-"

Lady Irene cut her husband off. "Come now, dear. I am sure she will hear more than enough about her address today. Do not start too." She looked toward us and smiled. "All three of you look lovely. But..." Her gaze turned to Sere, and she slowly bent down until she was eye level with her. "You look especially lovely, Sere. You wear that dress well. Not that the strange garment before was... bad," she meant the tunic, I think, "but this dress truly makes you shine."

Sere pulled out her notepad. A scribble from her should have taken a second. It took longer. She was blushing too. Thank you, she wrote.

Lady Irene smiled and straightened. "My offer is always open. It would be good to have a drawing partner. My son used to-"

"Dear." It was Duke Thalos' turn to interrupt his wife. "The others are waiting their turn," he said, glancing back. I followed his gaze. He was right. Just behind him stood Duke Wardell.

"Ah, where are my manners?" Lady Irene smiled again, and this one was surely for all three of us. "Perhaps we might get the chance to talk more tonight. Till then."

Then the two of them were walking off. And in the gap they left, Duke Wardell stepped in.

Duke Corin Wardell wore a simple black cloak. No jewels, no embroidery, not even the Wardell crest worked anywhere I could see. That made sense enough from what I knew about him. It was the rest of him that was…strange.

He looked tired. There were bags under his eyes, deep ones. But there was something oddly faint about them, as if someone had tried to- Ah. He was wearing powder then. And he was wearing it poorly, if even someone like me could notice.

"Lady Veyne." He tipped his head toward me, and then toward Violet, and his gaze settled on her. "Lady Indri. I wish to congratulate you on your investiture. May you live up to the name of House Indri."

That was all. Before either of us could so much as open our mouths, he was already turning, already walking, his black cloak swallowed by the red light and the crowd.

"What the hell was that about?" Violet asked.

I watched Duke Wardell's back until a cluster of nobles closed behind him. "Honestly, I have no idea," I said.

Duke Wardell had always been reserved. A man of few words, but in all the time I had known him, he had never once been outright rude. He was the closest thing to an ally my House had among the Golden Five, and he had just congratulated Violet in a way that sounded like anything but.

Was this my fault, somehow? I supposed I should have consulted him on some of the things I had done recently. I had gone to Duke Thalos about the wall and never once knocked on Wardell's door, even though Julian's hired swords were treading on his mandate more than anyone's. But I hadn't thought the man would act like this over it. At the very least, it wasn't only my fault. It wasn't like he had tried to reach out to me either. I would have to find him tonight and-

"Ah. It is like seeing Scarlet come again."

Julian Greenward stood in front of us, and he wore a smile that could be called smug and nothing else. He had an arm around his wife's waist. Seraine's smile was not smug. It was the perfect curve of a lip, one whose warmth reached her eyes. It was too perfect, and looking at it made me shiver.

"Indeed. It is like seeing that woman again, Julian." The emphasis was slight. No more than the barest weight, to the point where I almost wondered if I had imagined it. "Let us hope the resemblance is largely physical, yes?" Her voice was soft, as if she were only teasing.

Violet stiffened next to me. I reached for her before she could take a step forward. She stopped, but I could see the effort it cost her. "Julian," Violet said. There was no Lord. Then she turned to his wife. Violet paused and tilted her head, as if considering. Maybe she was. "Sorry, but I have no idea what the hell your name is."

There was silence. Many of the nobles closest to us had stopped their conversations entirely. Quite a few of them were staring. Even the orchestra seemed to dim, though they were far too distant to have heard a word of it. For a long moment, nobody moved.

Violet, it was going so well!

Then Violet smirked and folded her arms. "My bad. I'm new to this whole Duchess thing. So anyway, what was your name again?"

To their credit, both Lord and Lady Greenward reacted quickly, and as if nothing had happened at all. Not even their smiles flickered. "I am Seraine Greenward," Lady Greenward said. "I have spent much of my time outside of Aelheim. It is no wonder that you do not remember me."

Violet nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but Seraine continued. "Of course, a true Duchess would know the name regardless. But you are still a child. Only fourteen years old. I do hope you can grow into your role, now that you have it." She said it warmly, with a smile that reached her eyes.

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Violet stiffened. I almost heard her grind her teeth, and I definitely saw a vein bulge across her forehead. Then Julian dipped his head, just slightly. "Alas, we must be off. Perhaps we will have the pleasure of conversing again." His wife followed and dipped her head, and then Julian led them both away from us. They made their way toward one of the circular tables in the distance. We watched them go.

"What a bastard," Violet muttered. "The hell's his problem?"

"You're still asking that?"

Violet looked at me and sighed. "Guess not. Anyway, let's sit." She looked from me to Sere. "And I made damn sure they had a lot of sweets. So you better eat up."

"Violet, don't encourage her," I sighed. "And you shouldn't sit with us, remember?" I was sure she did remember, since I had mentioned it a few times, at least.

"Why the hell not?" she asked. She did not remember.

I pointed. I pointed to the table at the very far end of the tent. The single table that sat in neither the adults' section nor the children's, but between them. There sat two men, and a woman.

There was Lord Thalorin, Lord Caelum, and Lady Mirella. All three of them were Counts. All three of them were House Indri's Counts. They all had their special functions, just as Vance, Sterling and Calloway had theirs. Becoming Lady Indri was just one part of what Violet had to do today. The other part, and perhaps the most important part... was that she had to court three Lords who had been ignored for a very long time.

"God damnit," Violet grumbled. "I was hoping you wouldn't remember that."

"Violet...."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going, I'm going," she said. She took a step, paused, and turned. "Walk me there? Don't think that's too much to ask for."

It wasn't. I held out my arm. Violet hesitated. Her face colored, and she looked at it for some time. Isn't this what she meant? Then she took it, and stepped in close. Sere had taken a step back, and her pencil was moving. She was sketching again. Though what she was sketching this time, I could only guess.

We walked down the center of the tent. And there were eyes. There had been eyes from the moment I had first come here, but now it seemed like almost every eye in the tent was looking at us. I checked back, just to make sure Sere had not gone invisible. She hadn't, though she kept her distance.

"The hell's wrong with them?" Violet grumbled under her breath.

"You're Duchess Indri now," I said. "This isn't just a walk, Violet." It was no wonder at all that she didn't understand. Perhaps I should have explained it to her before we had started.

Violet paused. I took another step, before our joined arms yanked me back. "Well, good," Violet said, and then she started walking again. I had to keep pace with her this time.

There was one last interruption. This time, from my father. He stepped forward, steadying himself with his cane. If there had been eyes on us before, they only doubled now. My father looked from me to Violet, then down to our joined arms. He raised an eyebrow. There was no reason to feel embarrassed, but I felt embarrassed anyway. He'd just started to dip his head when Violet did the last thing I ever expected from her. She curtsied.

It was not a perfect curtsy. Violet bent herself at the waist too much, rather than at the knees. And so the gesture looked more like an awkward half-bow than a curtsy. "It's uh- it's a pleasure to meet you," Violet said. "Lord Veyne."

I stared at her. And for a brief moment I considered pinching my own cheeks just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. I decided against it, but only because people were watching.

"Please, please rise. It is I who should be acknowledging you," my father said, his free arm waving out in front of him.

Violet rose. I saw her hand jerk back toward her braid. She forced it forward again.

"I have no doubt you'll hear a great many things from a great many people," my father said. "I just want you to know that I respected your father, and your mother." Violet paused. My father's gaze was searching. "You look like both of them, in your own way. I'm sure they would be proud." He said it loudly, loud enough for the people at the nearest tables to overhear.

"Thanks," Violet said. "I mean, thank you. That's uh... nice."

My father smiled, and then he was walking away. He paused, and looked back at us. "Oh, and thank you for taking care of my daughter." Then he was gone. He walked fast, even with the stick.

"Thank fuck that went okay," Violet murmured a second later.

"You thought it wouldn't?" I asked. "My father is the last person you need to worry about."

Violet looked at me, and her red eyes met my own. She sighed and turned away. It felt like she had been about to say something but had decided better of it. "Well, let's just get this the hell over with."

We crossed the last stretch of the tent together.

The two Lords sat with their arms folded, and they were not looking at Violet at all. They were glaring at each other. Lady Mirella was the only one who acknowledged our approach. She looked toward Violet, raised one eyebrow, and said nothing at all. None of the three of them stood, as was proper when one's liege approached. None of them so much as shifted in their seats.

It was not too surprising. I understood it well. House Indri's mandate had been to deal in the city's magical engineering and arcane research. It had been so since Aelheim's founding. And for years, these Lords and Ladies had to sit there and watch as Julian swallowed everything they were responsible for. And all the while, they had simply been ignored. It was really no wonder that they were like this.

It was like Count Calloway, but if I had only gone to him after our entire District had become a slum. And there were three of him.

I sighed, quietly. This hill was going to be a long one to climb. Far longer than mine had been. "Good luck," I whispered.

Violet gave a single sharp nod, stepped forward, and took the remaining seat. Nobody at the table greeted her.

I turned to Sere. "We should find our own table."

Sere nodded, looking up from her notepad.

"What did you draw?"

She turned the notepad around. It was Violet and I, walking arm in arm down the center of the tent. She had given me a very large head, as was apparently now tradition, and drawn Violet at twice my size. Above the both of us, for reasons known only to Sere, hung a scattering of twinkling stars. I looked up just to be sure. There was just the tent.

"It's lovely," I said, turning back to her.

Sere beamed.

We made our way toward the children's section. The noble children watched us come. Many of them found somewhere else to look the moment I glanced their way. Others just stared and stared as if they expected me to sprout new arms. How rude.

I spotted Cordelia along the way. She sat at a table between two girls I half recognized from a tea party, Alexander seated at her side with his arm draped across the back of her chair. She was smiling, and the smile was perfect.

She had said we would talk later. How we would manage that, with her surrounded as she was, only the Gods could say.

I found Damian sitting by himself near the back, at a table that was entirely empty save for him. He saw us coming, stood, and bowed. He was wearing a finely tailored suit of black, with the Everstand crest small at the breast.

"You look well," I said.

"Thank you." Damian smiled at the both of us. "And you both look lovely."

We sat. Sere settled in at my left, and her eyes had already drifted toward the long tables of food lining the tent's side. She turned back to the notepad, and this time I was sure she was drawing the food.

"So," I said. "Have you seen or heard anything interesting?"

"Not really," Damian said. "Mostly people talking about the entrance. And the gown. A lot about the gown."

"And the speech? What did you think?"

Damian sighed. Then, slowly, he grinned. "Well... it's about what I expected. I think it went over well."

I nodded, and glanced back across the tent toward Violet's table. It did not look any different than it had when I left it. The four of them were simply sitting there, staring at one another. I hoped this went well. I truly did.

"So?" Damian asked. "What do we do now?"

"We wait for the food," I said, turning back. "Then we just... politic for a while, and everyone goes home." I looked at Sere. "That means you'll get your food soon."

Somewhere behind us, the orchestra swelled. I needed to talk to Duke Wardell, if I could. I also should talk to Count Calloway if I saw him. And I also needed to make sure my father's reintroduction into noble society was going well. He could certainly take care of himself, but it wouldn't hurt to be sure. Was there anything el-

"Pardon, but may I sit here?"

I looked up at a stranger.

She had bright pink hair and yellow eyes, and her ears came to slight points, which I knew to be the sign of an elf. But something was wrong. I could not figure out what. Something about her was simply...off, in a way that itched at the back of my skull.

"I'll take that for a yes." The girl sat down on my left, and she was smiling.

I stared at her. Damian had half-risen from his seat. Sere's pencil had stopped.

And it slowly dawned on me. The shape of the face. The lips.

Somewhere far in the back of my mind, Vaelin laughed. It was only the second time I had ever heard him do it. I liked it even less this time.

I groaned, and put my head in my hands. "Princess," I said. "What are you doing here?"

"I do not know what you mean," the girl said. Even her voice sounded different. It had a high and sweet accent that I had never heard before in either of my lives.

How? How in all the hells was she even here? The Karr at the gates had patted down everyone, though I supposed Aziah could get the Princess past them well enough. Was the Inquisitor still here? Come to think of it, I hadn't seen him since I'd come inside this tent.

"You look like you're not happy to see me," Katarina said, still in that same accent.

I groaned louder.