Here's an interesting one. Its part of a chain that I'll try to post in the correct order for your reading pleasure. Hang in there with me though, this means I'll have to do some juggling on my side. Its about Nemean meeting the young Duchess of Perdan city.
The Ducal Palace in Perdan City
Walking on the familiar boulevard that lay beyond the main entrance to the Ducal palace of his old friend and in many way, so much more, was strange. Looking around him he could see the small changes that had been made. Small, like different seasonal flowers that had been planted. Or how the attire of servants had been altered. Away from the familiar and into this new strangeness into which he was wading. Wading. An apt description he thought to himself as he reached the end of the path and arrived at the entrance of the building itself. He wouldn't be finding Smiddish here anymore. No, he was now going to find a young woman that had invited him. The new Duchess of Perdan.
The bowed heads of servants he hardly noticed. They had not forgotten who he had been. Though he was older now. Calmer as well he liked to think. Nemean's eyes slowly walked along with him on feet that trampled each and every one of the tapestries that hung on the walls as he approached her audience hall. He hadn't required directions from a steward or official or butler. They had all tried but his silent refusal had stumped them all. This palace wasn't new to him.
As he approached that final room though, he wondered what he was going to see. Why did she want to speak to him. His eyes spied ahead of the space he was about to plant his feet into. Magnificent. Bringing back memories of a former life. So Nemean strode into the Audiance Hall of the Duchess Storme. The letter had found him early, almost as if she had been watching him from before.
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Roleplay from the player of Aila Storme
The Ducal Palace in Perdan City
In the outermost holdfast of the Palace was a room build to face the West in order to catch the last bit of light any day had to offer. Prince Nemean would remember the huge window at the back of the room that had been sprayed with sea water and over decades had become clouded with salt. Since the changing of the land, the rains had washed it clean. It was now crystal clear and looked over the realm of Alexandria glowing pink and orange in the evening.
When guided into the study by a familiar attendant, the Prince will see the Duchess sitting at a desk far too large for her, in a seat that similarly dwarfed him. Heavy oak shelves lined the walls and were gleamingly polished but nearly bare, with a small collection forming here and there mainly made up of flower vases stuffed with suspiciously fresh autumn flowers despite the late time in the season. What decor was left was nautical, things that had been there all along. The prominent mantle above the hearth is scared and deeply scratched as if it had been attacked by something ferocious; a reminder of one of her most famous tantrums. The same arm chairs waited there for more long talks to be had.
Aila herself has changed since the days before he had left, no longer the demanding blonde knight wearing Perdan colors the only thing on her that remained from those days is the silver falcon chained at her throat; An azure dress accented in black represent house Storme instead today, deceivingly simply and outrageous in it’s opulence only to the right eye. As always her hair is the only gold she wears on display, twisted into a neat braid it hangs down her back secured by a satin ribbon.
A moment of hesitation takes the younger girl, as if she cannot decide whether to greet him or yell at him. Aila stands slowly from her massive seat and looks at Prince Nemean up and down, as if deciding if he were real or not. It becomes obvious what she has learned about nobility over the years and from who, as she rounds her desk and begins pouring two petite crystal cups with distinctly coloured plum brandy.
Finally she says something to him, with the tiny drink held out for him to take “It is what he would have offered you. Welcome home.” She still speaks in a perfectly Perdanese accent, nothing there has changed “Where have you been? If you have brought me a good story I can give you ten in exchange. Sit with me.
