AChapter 17
Silmeria's party is in full wing, the receiving line has passed and the guests, every noble passenger on board the Pearled Amethyst is now in the grand ball room! It is a magnificent chamber, a glass domed, marble floored centrepiece that dominates the after end of the mighty luxurious airship. His Grace, the Grand Duke Hamilton of Mosphoran and Her Imperial Highness Princess Carmelian, Grand Duchess of Tchita were the last to arrive as the highest ranking nobles onboard. The band is playing a slow, beautiful air and the guests are milling around waiting for the official entrance of the lady Silmeria and her guests.
Despite how brilliant it is to organize a party for everyone to get involved so attention doesn't have to be split, Ainsley is finding it overwhelmingly difficult to pry herself away from Lee's side, out of fear of the noble politics that she is about to witness. She holds onto his arm with both of her hands. She's in those fancy red clothes, of course, styled according to Giruvegan tradition. Since they haven't entered yet, she waits with a nervous shuffling of her feet. Fretting. Because so many nobles.
Azar is looking fairly confident, having attended gatherings like this before. She looks to Ainsley, and smiles brightly. "It will be alright. We can tag team in and out if you get cornered, okay?" She looks to Lee, "Watch her back, and I'll keep an eye on Silmeria's. Wingmen are important." Lastly, she smiles at Silmeria. "Are you ready, m'Lady?"
Lee stands with Ainsley, one arm captured by her hands, while his free hand rests lightly atop hers, attempting to soothe the scholar's nerves a little, while Lee himself seems rather calm and relaxed, his mind either not on the potential political pitfalls that may be waiting with every step he will take, or simply not concerned overmuch about it, his usual slightly lopsided smile gracing his lips. He cleans up nicely, though, dressed a bit fancier than usual in Archadian-style finery consisting of a smart-looking suite with a tailed coat in a shade of red so dark that it verges on black, his usual black gloves replaced by white formal gloves, and his hair actually, wonder of wonders, tamed and combed so that it's not a shaggy nest atop his head, his crimson eyes unobscured for once. Those eyes turn to Azar, hand his smile transitions briefly to a grin, "Oh, aye, 'course I will, goes wi'out sayin'." His gaze turns to Ainsley, and the smile softens again, his gloves hand patting hers, "She's right, though, luv, we'll be fine, an' I'll be wi' ya, eh?" He looks to Silmeria, "Aye, we're ready when you are, looks like."
Silmeria draws in a deep breath, smoothing the front of her skirts. "I have to say," she murmurs, "this is certainly more than I'd expected to have to deal with, when we were simply searching for a ride..." Turning back to the rest of the party, she flashes an encouraging, if slightly brittle smile. "Well... I doubt I'll ever be ready, but since we can't be rude..." Turning back, she opens the doors to the ballroom, leading the party through the knot of Archades' most rich and important, headed for the midpoint between the Grand Duke and the Imperial Princess.
The herald, one of the ships Moogle's flaps up into the air above Silmeria and her entourage as they enter and his voice booms out over the hall. "By the divine right of Lord Hades, Silmeria, Handmaiden of the Abyss, Route Guardian of the departed. Lady Ainsley of the Grey Scholars, Leonard Carlyle and the Lady Azar Zareen." He bowed rto them and the gathered guests bowed in turn. The Grand Duke and Imperial Princess incline their heads and step over toward the party.
The attempts to calm Ainsley meet some limited success. She nods at the reassurances, but remains silent. And especially after the announcement. The title 'grey scholar' makes her wince a bit, and she silently hopes that none of the clan is actually in the crowd. They tend to infiltrate noble gatherings, being a cult of subterfuging weirdos, after all. She relaxes her grip on Lee's arm, and interlocks her fingers with Lee's, as they all prepare to step forward. Azar hmmmphs at being introduced, and follows Silmeria into the crowd, a winning smile on her face. The smile falters for a moment as both of the emminent guests make their way to Silmeria.
Lee follows Silmeria in, side-by-side with Ainsley with hands held, and returning any greetings directed his way with a polite and respectful bow of his head, while keeping properly behind Silmeria, like a retainer would, in accordance with the necessary deception they all had boarded the airship under. Noticing Ainsley's wince, he gives her hand a squeeze and leans down a bit to murmur, as the Grand Duke and Princess approach Silmeria, "As soon as th'formalities are done, wot say we find th'buffet table, eh? A nip an' drink'll be a balm fer th'nerves, no doubt." Straightening, he keeps to proper, if a bit rusty from long disuse, etiquette in the face of approaching royals.
As much as she would like to agree with Lee, the approaching nobility seals Silmeria's lips, and a second bracing breath taken. Both luminaries, received with a deep curtsy and a low bow of the head. "Your Highness, Grand Duke... Thank you both, *very* much, for gracing this little event. I must apologize for not answering your *very* kind invitations... But of course I'm sure you both can well understand how impossible it is for the Temples to be seen to take sides in... political matters."
The Grand Duke smiles softly and inclines his head, "Of course lady Silmeria I understand quite well... we wouldn't want the temples involved in a War now." The Princess sniffs and shakes her head, "You have little recourse for speaking such your Grace, the will of the emperor and the divine path set before the people should be acknowledged by the heavens as well as his Majesties government. The Judge will walk forward as his majesty commands, why should not the temples?" They glare at one another then turn to regard Silmeria and her group, "We were not expecting you to hold such a.... beatiful event. We thank you for inviting us."
The exchange that the two nobles have gets an uncertain gaze out of Ainsley. She looks a little perturbed by what they've said, though she seems able to keep herself composed. She opens her mouth -- and then promptly closes it, because she knows speaking out of turn to nobility would be a profoundly rude thing to do. She defaults to awkward, uncomfortable silence, watching the nobles like a very careful, scared deer.
Azar keeps her mouth closed, and offers a polite curtsey as the nobles approach. The woman keeps her eyes slightly averted, though it does appear that she is listening carefully, for a slight frown crosses her face when the princess speaks. The frown quickly vanishes, replaced by that same smile from before.
Lee keeps his piece, as well, the Princess's opinion on the matter gets a slight tilt of his head, though nothing more than that, keeping his smile firmly in place, effectively masking any thought he may or may not have on the subject. The slight tightening of his grip on Ainsley's hand reveals, at least to the scholar, that he in fact does have thoughts. He gives a glance to Azar and Silmeria, to see how they reacted, before returning attention to the two nobles. While Ainsley may look perturbed at the Princess' comments, only many long years of servitude, politeness, and ground-in cheerful deference keep Silmeria's jaw from falling right to the floor. "You are, of course, quite welcome," she says instead, dipping her head once more before, finally, rising from her curtsy. "It's not much compared to the efforts of the Imperial Court, I imagine, but altogether more than ever it could have been, graced by your lights, Your Highness, Your Grace." Brushing down her skirts, she glances toward the front of the room, an apologetic smile touching her tanned face. "...I'm very sorry, but I suppose I should properly start the event with a speech. By your leave?" Who decides to give the permission, it seems, left to the pair of them to decide.
The Grand Duke smiles and bows and glances at the Princess, "By all means Lady Silmeria, begin your speech... I am sure the Princess will want to try and find some friends. I see she is lacking those who would support her." The princess sniffs and waves a hand and glides away, "I do not need to surround myself with "friends" to know that I have the strength of position your Grace. By all means Lady Silmeria, begin your speech." She walks away until she is standing on her own out under the dome so she can watch.
Azar resolutely follows Silermeria to the front of the room, standing to one side while the woman in black prepares to speak. "So far, so good, m'Lady.", she whispers, just loud enough to be heard by those close by.
Lee follows along as well, guiding Ainsley, to place himself and the scholar to Silmeria's other side, opposite Azar, while using any additional elevation that part of the room might give him to scan the crowd, looking for... Who knows? Maybe to see if a certain hated head of hair can be seen amongst the finely-dressed attendees.
Judging by the brief look SIlmeria throws Azar, the analysis of 'good' could only be accurate for certain values of the word. As the brightest lights in the room move aside, she makes her way to the musicians' stage, clearing her throat and raising her hands. "My Lords? My Ladies?" she calls, taking ruthless advantage of the stage's acoustics to project her voice over the throng. "First, I'd like to thank you all. Whether or not you believe that the coming war is a necessary thing, the Temples can only praise your generosity in supporting those whose work will be to ensure its cost, in souls and heartbreak, is not too high. For while tales of glory and honor, courage and valor are certain to arise from the Emperor's campaign... we must never forget that too often their glory will come at a heavy blood price. There will be wounded and dead, children orphaned and homeless, and the duty of the Temples will *always* be, before all, to tend the wake of history. The wounded will need mending, the dead returned to their families and interred with respect, the homeless housed, and the orphans cared for, and as it is the duty of the Spirits to tend the world that we may live and act upon it, so do the Temples and the Clergy."
"That, my Lords, my Ladies, is the purpose of this ball; that I may take the message of your regard back to my High Priest, and he may spread among all the Convocation, how even as the greatest of Archades prosecute their campaign, they do so with full regard of the costs of war, and respect the sacrifices to come as deeply as we. And you can all be assured, the Temples will be certain to remember you, one and all, in our prayers."
There is a moments silence and then applause, the assembled notables clapping earnestly Silmeria's words. The Grand Duke leading the way, walking forward with a warm smile on his face as the party cheers. "My Lady Silmeria," he says softly, "Your words could not strike closer to my heart, your earnest words have only helped to reaffirm my belief that this warm must not happen. That those orphans, those homeless should not come to be." he turns to those around and smiles, "Can we not take this message, the Handmaiden of Hades' message back to the court and let all know what we believe, that we support peace so that the Temple's great works can continue without the added burden of war atop them all. If we cannot stop it, if we cannot turn aside the tide of his Majesties advance and ambition then we can at least give our support to the Temples, so that they can perform their duties as required." As the applause dies down during the Grand Duke's speech someone else starts to clap, a dead-panning, sarcastic speech. "A beautiful speech your Grace, just the sort I'd expect from a traitor." The Princess pulls something out of her bag and points it at the ceiling, "I applaud your work Lady Silmeria and I applaud your droll tongue. The temples will remember their place, I bid you all good night." She fires the grapple from her gun and rises up after it, her bustle, skirts and peticoats left behind as up she flies up through the room, swings around one of the braces of the dome and with a crash kicks her way out of one of the domes windows. For a moment there is silence and then with a sickening lurch the airship shudders and tilts as the distant sound of an explosion echoes through the ball room.
"..." Ainsley stares at the end of the speech, and then the talk of nobles, and then the Princess fleeing away. And then the sound of an explosion makes her pupils shrink. And then she releases Lee's arm, and stares up at where the Princess had fled. "/WHY/!?" She motions dramatically at the exit point, "AAAAAAAUGH NOBILITY!!" She grips at the headdress and then throws it to the floor. Then she looks to the others, and lets her eye twitch with her fiery rage. "What do we do now, then?" she asks, more evenly.
Azar takes a hold of Silmeria's arm, and then the Grand Duke's, "I think we best get out of here. Unless you two have any backup plans, that woman is likely heading for the only way off of this ship, and we best be meeting her unless we like long drops in the moonlight..." She looks to Ainsley and Lee, "Any ideas?"
Lee smiles as he listens to Silmeria's speech, almost moved even, were it not for the fact that he half-expected something of this nature from Silmeria's speech. The Grand Duke's response gets another nod from the man, and then the Princess's rebuttal. Her use of the word 'traitor' makes him blink, then frown with curiosity. And then, the Caped Crusader Escape, which just leaves him slack-jawed, "Well, would y'lookit that..." He's brought back to the present by the explosion, and the lurch of the airship, Shifting to keep his balance and taking a look around at the panic that is inevitably brewing, if it hasn't broken out already, "Augh Nobility, indeed." Azar's comment makes him grin, "Well, followin' Her Highness out tha winder would work, an I like long falls through th'moonlight, pers'nally. Half a mind ta go chasin' her an havin' me a Royalty snack, truth b'told, as I take objection ta bein' crashed by some spoilt imperious brat, but dun think I kin carry four people. Three, per'aps, but not four." Silmeria and Ainsley would likely know what he means, certainly, but whether that makes any sense to Azar or the Grand Duke, well...
The Duke stares in shock at the dome then around at the others, of the thirty over people in the room none of them seem to know what to do. He looks at Silmeria and staggers as the ship stutters, "I can't believe... she'd kill us all to start a war. Lady Silmeria... we have to get away from here but..." he frowns at Azar, "I suspect our good Princess has help nearby, the sort of help that flies imperial colours." The door to the ball room crashes open and the captain lurches in followed by a couple of imperial guards, "Your Highn..." the captain begins them stops and stares at the remains of the Princess' dress then at the ceiling. They start to draw their guns as the ship captain carries on down the steps, "Your Grace, the engines are down, the Dauntless is off our starboard bow and...." he drops with a sigh as one of the Imperial Guardsmen pops him in the back with a gun and they level their weapons at the crowd. "Well..."
"*Unacceptable,*" Silmeria says, Azar's suggestion of escape and Lee's offer to 'carry three' snapping her out of the sort of shock one only suffers when slapped across the face with weaponized hubris. Shaking her head, she looks to the four with the fires of determination in her eyes. "There is a ship *full of people* that we have to make sure don't meet my Lord's arms, if at all possible... Sir!" Calling to one of the crew on hand overseeing the party, she motions him over, hurriedly. "This is important; *are there enough escape boats for everybody?*"
The Duke stares in shock at the dome then around at the others, of the thirty over people in the room none of them seem to know what to do. He looks at Silmeria and staggers as the ship stutters, "I can't believe... she'd kill us all to start a war. Lady Silmeria... we have to get away from here but..." he frowns at Azar, "I suspect our good Princess has help nearby, the sort of help that flies imperial colours." The steward flies down and hovers in midair, moogle wings beating, "Yes your ladyship, there are escape derricks for every..." he stops as the door to the ball room crashes open and the captain lurches in followed by a couple of imperial guards, "Your Highn..." the captain begins then stops and stares at the remains of the Princess' dress then at the ceiling. The imperial guard start to draw their guns as the ship captain carries on down the steps, "Your Grace, the engines are down, we have to get everyone to the escape derricks, the Archaedean battlecruiser Genesis is off our starboard bow and...." he drops with a sigh as one of the Imperial Guardsmen pops him in the back with a gun and they level their weapons at the crowd. "Well... this is a fancy party," one of them says with a sneer, "I am afraid... we're going to have to ask you all to stay here... whilst our tragic deaths at the hand of some Emberstrand fire-brands shifts some public opinion.. mainly amongst your heirs."
As everyone prepares to start moving, and the Captain gets shot, there's the distinct sensation that Ainsley may have just snapped under the displeasure of what she had just witnessed. "So what you're telling me," she says, "Is that I'm a fire-brand, and that public opinion will shift when the ship crashes, because everyone will think I'm the evil one here, because some lying noble said so." Her voice is very calm, not even menacing. "Since the only way to stop you and get everyone off the ship /anyways/ is to kill you, let's go with that. Win-win, right?" And then she raises her hand to prepare a fire spell aimed right at the man who shot the Captain.
Azar hmms and grins at the wee lizzy wizard, "Well, us Reds have to stick together hmm?" She reaches down to her dress, to the part that poofs out at her knees, and yanks the lower half off with several quick tugs. Her lower legs each contain two sheaths, holding her sword snugly to her. Two blades come free with a ring of metal as Azar steps forward, picking the bastard to the left of Ainsley's target.
Lee hrms and nods to Silmeria, "Yeah, gotta help the people first, o'course; I mean, I didn't mean we should haul off an' leave 'em, naturtally." The arrival, then sudden death, of the Captain gets his attention, and he actually growls, a deep rumble not natural to the human form, as he eyes the Imperial Guards, "Silmeria? Think we got sumfin' ta worry about before we think about life boats. Please tell me I kin kill 'em? 'Cause I'm gettin' t'where I've about 'ad enough o'this..." He glances to Ainsley, and grins, "Like th'way you think, luv, though I'm not sure tha bloke meant you *specifically*; prolly more like us *collectively*, I'd guess, not that it much matters any." He tugs his gloves off and shrugs off his jacket as he ushers the Grand Duke back and steps up in front of Ainsley, front-line to protect the Caster, whisps of black flame starting to flicker around his own fingers, crimson eyes starting to glow slightly with their own light as he gives a wicked grin, one fang showing in a snaggle-tooth fashion, "Jus' mind yer precision, Ains, lest we cause too much colla'eral damage."
Silmeria flinches backward as the gun goes off, and a heartbeat later repeats the motion, as though her attention was caught by something in the close vicinity of the murder. Pausing a moment, she tilts her head, a gentle smile growing on her face. As Ainsley steps forward to voice her intent, the priestess turns her head to catch the steward's eye. "Your Captain was a good man," she murmurs. "Get the word out; start preparing the derricks as soon as it's safe, here." Turning back to face the guardsman, she takes two precise steps forward, raking the would-be mass-murderers with a disapproving glare. "Yes, Lee," she says, not taking her eyes from the soldiers. "Because Ainsley is right; the surest way to see to the safety of the crew and the passengers is over their dead bodies." She takes one more step forward, both hands rising. ~(You have made a grave mistake,)~ she says, her voice taking on a quality, truly not of this world. ~(You have killed a man whose only concern is for the safety of his charges. This is a mistake you will never survive, for I am *bound* to carry out his final wish.)~ Her hands rise further, then drop sharply -- and the *CRACK* of wood meeting wood rings out, as an ebony-handled scythe appears in her hand, pulled from apparent nothingness, in much the same way as the blue-steel Gunblade in her left. Her skin turns white as paper, hair and eyes darkening to a black that all but eats the light around it and black-tipped, charcoal-colored wings unfurl from her back. ~(I also bear a message from my Father,)~ she says quietly, ~(*None* command the Spirits. Remember that, when you meet Him.)~
The steward Kupos and nods and starts to fly up toward the hole in the dome and yelps, backspinning and deflecting a bullet with the tray he was carrying. "KUPO! bitch!" he glares at the guard who just shot at him, "You totaly dick who does that!" The Arch Duke lets himsef be ushered back, the assembled notables of southern Archaedes moving backwards behind Silmeria and her party as the ship lurches again and starts to descend slowly at the foreward end. Several more Imperial Guards are filing into the room, guns drawn, long tridents readied as the one who just shot the captain smiles at Ainsley, "It helps when everyone hears how the Conduit of Shemhazzi has corrupted the leadership of Emberstrand... it does help with the public press." The Grand Duke Hamilton pulls something out of the sleeve of his jacket, a long sceptre, "I should have known something like this would happen, what of the other passengers!" The guard sneers, "All those loyal to her highness are already leaving the ship... they did not need to know about this, as far as they are concerned they are being aided to flee by her Highness' people after terroists attacked the ships engine room." He glances at Silmeria and laughs softly, "You think we aren't prepared for you?" He motions a hand and a figure in a robe carrying a summoning staff steps inside and levels it at Silmeria, she pushes back her hood revealing a familiar figure, long Vieran ears, slender, beautiful body, "I am ready Colonel, have your men subdue the others, I have unfinished business with the Lady Silmeria, I'll dispatch the Handmaiden back, her filthy presence is an affront to the empire." The colonel brushes back his hair and smiles as the viera blows a kiss at Silmeria. It would appear the game.... is on.
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