Roleplay from Catherine Chamberlain
The festivities had been on-going for some hours, Catherine picked t each platter of food presented and held a hand over her goblet as the serving men passed continually looking to fill her cup. Looking around the room, all, even those who did not like her, were her friends, or at least the friends of Nivemus. But could she say as much for her betrothed. He was talking sporadically to Ecthelion, but she could see the troubled water between them almost as visible as the waves on the peninsula.
The music had been a mixed offering, with singers from all parts of the continent, the sad harmonics of a pair of singers from Perleone, singing of death and ice had her thinking of her father. How she wished he would have come. Their offering ended and the Black Bard of Montijo took up his lute and played the merry strains of the Serpents Coupling. She had heard that Erik Serpentis had sought the tongue and hands of the writer of this song, but had found himself enamored of the woman and instead ended up gifting her a half-elf. The room split into lines of couples following one another snakelike around the floor. She took her opportunity and seized the hand of Ecthelion Tezokian.
The ancient began to protest in amiable fashion, (so unlike his kinsman of Oroya who would simply have sat back down.)
"You cannot deny me, Prime Minister, I am to be wed on the morrow and this may be our last dance for some time." He grudgingly allowed himself to be pulled toward the floor. Seeing their approach the snaking nobles began to shrink back from them. The bard noting the change in the room spotted them and quickly changed the refrain to Ora's daughter. It was a song sung by many a father to his daughter, a slow and gentle refrain. She smiled up at Ecthelion and they joined the dance. For one so old he moved with a grace quite unexpected. He was a man with whom she had always felt safe and secure. Brocks words about the roads we choose in life echoed with her as she moved on the floor with the great man. Nivemus was Sirion's daughter, she had always been safe in Sirion's ancient embrace, and on the morrow, she would put that safety and trust in another, she would risk the possibility of standing alone upon her heart's desire.
"My father did not come," she said to Ecthelion. He smiled a sad smile, giving her hand a light squeeze. "You have been like a father to me in many ways, you have guided me and supported me," she laughed to herself. "Perhaps a distant uncle is a better description." At that he laughed, it was a rare sight, "I wonder if I might ask a final favor? In normal circumstances my father would have given the speech in answer to Garas, I wonder if you might do this for me... I can think of none better..."
