Legend of Ransera

Kaus may or may not have raised a challenging eyebrow up at Raithen from where he had crouched for a moment to give feline greetings. Despite his generally cheerful mien, he would have been happy just then as a wallflower, a cat in his lap for pets so he could observe without having to be in the middle of things. He knew how to be the third wheel when Kala was with the hostess or her other two guests, but he wasn't sure how he ought to code-switch among all three of them. He was the easier at socializing, but Kala was the more purposeful.

He rather thought Phocion might similarly be more comfortable quiet on the outskirts of the interaction. Kala had learned to deflect attention away from him; it was a small sort of service for the elf she might marry, and he was always forthcoming with his observations after the fact when she provided him more space to be an observer.

Ladies first seemed to be the order of the day. Once everyone had a glass in hand, Kala brought hers to her nose, and then her lips, taking the smallest of sips just to sample. Kaus' sip was more voluminous, but he would argue that he was larger than she and so must perforce take a larger sip. Perhaps Raithen would want him to flap down to Æterna Noctis after digestifs, knowing Kala would almost certainly retire to quieter pastimes if Phocion invited her.

While Kala glanced in Sviras' direction with a faint smile, Kaus angled to sit next to Raithen. The twins would sit wherever their hostess bade them, but if they continued logically based on their positions now, Phocion would sit between the woman he courted and her brother, and Hilana between her lover and Kala.

"We will have to remedy that the next time you are in Kalzasi," Kala noted, her eyes returning to her hostess. "Our gardens aren't nearly so lush as Master Sivan's, but they are protected from the worst of Karnor's winter, and there are some transplants from our mountainous home."

The twins were, of course, pleased that their home had made a good impression upon Raithen. They had only shared the more rustic parts; the truly impressive parts remained a secret and likely would until Kala's divinity became common knowledge and House Leukos sued for independence.

"Oh, Metal," Kala said as she passed the salad. When Phocion seemed confused, she held the bowl so he could focus on the tongs. The Leukos twins had been raised to be as comfortable during a high feast in a foreign court as an impromptu meal in the kitchen, though she hadn't actually prepared a meal in—well, she would have to think about that one. "Yes, that would be lovely. And we have spent most of the time since you graciously included us in your trip to the Wood plane in Kalzasi. In a few weeks, we will be attending a party in Silfanore... at least, it begins in Silfanore. They do tend to have doors cleverly hiding portals and one never knows where one will end up."

She didn't balk at mentioning Sol'Valen. Phocion knew, and he seemed to be taking a pragmatic page from his newly awakened Gods, who seemed ready to set aside past prejudices and face the future. Hilana still clung to their old, established ways, however; Kala remembered her faux pas, mentioning the Orkhan intelligentsia in Kalzasi. That hadn't gone well.

"I have to go back and fetch the next volume in a series for Phocion." She smiled fondly at him. "He has made a smuggler of me."

And to keep Phocion up on other players on the wider field, "Master Sivan is the business partner of a runesmith sworn to House Leukos' service. He is an accomplished alchemist, artificer, and—to wit—summoner."

Kala didn't immediately identify Sviras as other than one of Hilana's pet serpents; she didn't know him, but she recognized what he was and calculated no risk to her suitor. Later, she might tell him that Hilana had a summoned wild spirit.

If Kala had met Hilana at the Citadel that housed the Custodes Deorum, she assumed the woman came by her runes and her spiritual companions with an eye to the letter and the spirit of Solunarian law.

"Will you come fly with us while we're here?" Kaus asked Raithen.

"Oh, Duck," he said, as if pitying Raithen for being an exceptionally slow, if sweet child.

But to Hilana, he brightened. "If you can secure a wyvern, you definitely should!"

Kaus had grown up with a sister denied her place in the skies; if anyone wanted to fly and had the means, he would support it.

"We seem to have impressed the royal family of Sol'Valen," Kala added, not apologetically, but carefully. "The Hytori aren't known for welcoming envoys from abroad or sending them out. Given the Imperium's role in the assassination of our former Shokaze, our current Shokaze would like to be on good terms with them as they could turn the tide should there ever be a full conflict with the Imperium." She didn't add the possibility of Zaichaer and its allies joining them, or even the Sangen Federation, although they had less contact with them. Some saw contact with Solunarium as superfluous, and yet the Leukos twins continued to visit and invite friends they made there to visit Kalzasi and their home in the mountains.

"I will not lie and say my time there is unpleasant, but while my primary concerns there are Kalzasern and trade-related, I am not putting their interests above Solunarium's. In any case, I may not be welcome there forever." She looked to Phocion. Whether she had intuited Hilana's askance or thought she might have spoken out of place by Phocion's standards, she would speak frankly if they had questions or concerns. And if she did wed Phocion, she would certainly lose whatever favored dignitary status she held.

The elves of Sol'Valen didn't think of their Solunarian cousins often, and the break was ancient. They remembered it, but she sensed no great enmity any longer, just a tradition of opposition. She would not share her opinion on the value or relevance of that, however. Neither of them were her people, and so it was not her place.

As for Phocion's question, her voice dropped somewhat to say, "I would imagine Kaus will go out to play. I plan to retire to the Umbrium when we quit Hilana's hospitality for the evening, unless you had some other plans?"

"They have Avialae there as well," Kaus told Raithen and Hilana, "although, like here, they consider themselves elves first, and Avialae second. Does anyone know how the crown prince's husband is doing in Drathera? That seems a clever gambit, sending a loyal foreigner in the place of whoever might be a more obvious envoy." He remembered seeing Phocion and his honor guard arriving in Kalzasi on wyvernback. The man courting his sister was a deft diplomat, but there were centuries of bad blood between the Re'hyæan elves and the Ecithian orkhan.