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 Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:43 pm
Valyrr sighed deeply as he came within view of the great manor of House G'eld. He had travelled for ages, it seemed, to reach the Westdark, and then a day more to reach Gallidurth and find the G'eld manor. It hadn't been terribly difficult. One had only to find the second-grandest edifice in the city, and that would be the estate of the G'eld family, or so he was told. He had refrained from mentioning that grandness was a matter of opinion, since that would almost certainly have gotten him struck for impudence. It had been easy to find, though.
He stood a moment longer at the gate, schooling his expression to unreadable blankness. This was not a social visit; he was running errands for his aunt, the matron of House Baen'duis. She had not, of course, told him what he was carrying in the message tube. She had sent him a message at the school where he was training for warriorhood informing him that she had an errand for him to run, and to come home immediately. He had obeyed, and thus ended up leaving Llurth Dreir and journeying north and west to Gallidurth. He tried not to resent the interruption in his already-delayed training too much. It was not his place.
After taking this last preparation, he rang the bell which should, theoretically, summon a gatekeeper or a steward, or something. He certainly wasn't stupid enough to attempt to simply open the gate. It was unthinkable that a family as powerful as the G'eld family would not have some sort of spell on their gate to guard against intruders and unwelcome guests. As he waited for some sort of response, he wondered how his aunt expected him to gain an audience with the matron of House G'eld, anyway, being a male from a nearly-rankless house in the Southdark whose only claim to any sort of notoriety was its unusual worship practices.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:23 am
 A bang on the door of the main mannor house of the G'eld family may well have almost gone unnoticed today. The matron of the house was in one of her most 'charming' moods, and she'd summoned all but the lowest members of her house to the courtyard to vent her temper on them somewhat. The guards were not maintaining their posts like they should, the warriors weren't training as she wished, and as for her sons, well, there was just no pleasing her today as far as they went, but then again the incessant quarrelling of her two eldest was always a source of great irritation to her, they were wonderful backstabbing boys, but sometimes it just got old. Prau, well, he was fine really. He got on with things but he'd still have been dragged along...
Bel, as it happened, hadn't been required. Ariadne, most of the time, simply overlooked his rather quiet existence. He was either cloistered with Prau burning his minions, or smelting and melting various metal contraptions with Arach, making some weapon or other that their rather unorthodox house would use to shock, appal and maim its enemies. As it happened the knock on the door had just about caught his rather good hearing, and he traipsed down the corridor with a curious look on his face. They didn't really have than many callers here, there was little that the house ever requested from the outside that they didn't go to fetch for themselves, so un-trusting was their matron...
The door gave him something of a struggle as he tugged on the heavy handle, it took him a minute or so to pull it back towards him, but he did finally manage to yank the large door open, and poked his head around the door with a cheeful smile, taking in the male drow that stood in front of him. "Hello there!" He stated brightly, and not in the manner that one would really expect of a member of the second highest house of the westdark, "What can I do for you?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:35 am
Val was rather taken aback by the cheeriness of the greeting he received, as it was hardly what one would have expected from anyone associated with House G'eld, even a doorman. Especially a doorman. Of course, the male who had greeted him did not have the demeanor of a servant, so much as that of a pet something. Possibly a kept mage or someone adopted into the House? He tried to imagine the status of who he might be addressing to avoid giving offense, but gave up, deciding that there was a good chance the person was more important than he by default. He was, after all, of House G'eld.
With a respectful bow Valyrr introduced himself: "I am Baen'duis Valyrr a Son of House Baen'duis of Llurth Dreir. I bear a message from Matron Baen'duis to Matron G'eld."
He didn't elaborate because it was really not necessary for whomever had answered to door to know the contents of the message he had been made to commit to memory. Besides, it was very bad form for a messenger to divulge the contents of their message to anyone other than the intended recipient. He'd been learning a great deal about what was expected of a messenger lately. His aunt seemed to think he wasn't being kept busy enough training for warriorhood, and so had to also be sent all over the Underdark with messages for other matrons.
He drew himself up to his full, rather impressive height, and gave a look he'd gotten quite good at, which basically said "Don't ask, I won't tell you what the message is." It wasn't exactly an unfriendly look. More one of cool professionalism. It was hard to maintain such a visage, however, in the presence of one who seemed so pleasant. He had to remind himself that others were more duplicitous than he, and so quite able to fool him with their manner.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:03 pm
Bel blinked at the other male for a moment, "I'm Bel.." he stated, "I've got other names but they're a bit of a mouthful really..." the friendly smile tugged at his face again. He was definitely more forthcoming with friendliness than was generally acceptable among the drow, but it was also generally accepted by his house here at least that he was sadly lacking when it came to the ability to use his mental processes for anything but burning, so he was generally left alone as far as it went. "I'm afraid you won't be able to see Miss Ariadne just at the moment.." he stated, chewing his lip once, looking a little thoughtful, but I can show you to a room where you'll be quite able to sit and wait, and even have some mushroom tea if you like it... its Arach's favourite!" He looked expectantly at their guest, his head tilted to the side, the long tails of hair he had flopping slightly as he shifted on the spot.
He didn't have to worry about allowing the male in, if he intended any harm to anyone in the house there would be a fairly large number of warning signs and loud noises to let people know that something bad had happened in the house, so if this... well, he'd not actually managed to pick up a simple name to call him from the jumble he'd been given, if this guest turned out to be less than nice companny then many burly sorts would be around to sort him out for the scrawny mage that was currently trying to usher him inside... "Are you happy to wait..?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:33 am
Val couldn't help returning Bel's smile and confiding as he stepped in, "I'm usually called Val. The rest is a bit of a mouthful."
He allowed himself to be ushered and stood obediently by while the door closed, listening to Bel explain that Matron G'eld was not available at the moment. He had, naturally, been instructed to deliver his message to no one but the matriarch herself, which might present some problems if she remained otherwise occupied for too long.
Well. Not really. He would just have to wait until she had time to meet with him. He was only delivering a message, after all, and not acting as an emmissary or ambassador. He was only empowered to deliver the message and a reply if there was one. And the contents of the oiled leather tube he wore slung across his back. He didn't know what the tube contained. It wasn't any of his business, and being curious would do him no good.
"I am content to wait," he replied to Bel's query. He wasn't sure if happy would be the word for it, but contentment was accurate enough. He wouldn't be happy if he had to wait for a long time, but he'd already determined that he would do so anyway if necessary. "Especially if there's mushroom tea involved. It would be a great treat, as the climate is usually too hot and dry in Llurth Dreir to grow decent mushrooms for tea."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:32 am
"Val," Bel stated with a nod as he gestured the other Drow to come inside and closed the large door behind them both. It seemed it was safe to bring Val in as none of the house's highly eccentric 'Arach-made' defences set off, which was probably a good thing as they had the tendency to not only take out the intruder, but whoever had the misfortune to be standing within a few metres of them as well...
As he'd suggested, he took the visitor to their house down a couple of the winding corridors to one of the ante-chambers he knew was often used as a waiting room for guests. He was so low down in the house that he rarely had to take care of this sort of thing, but he thought he was managing it fairly well. The dull blue flame that was burning in the grate in the room he chose was warm, but not bright, it kept the kettle of tea that was kept filled in the room warm without dazzling the eyes of the drow who used the space.
"Are you from the south dark...?" The young drow queried as he looked over at his current companion "I know you mentioned a city name, but my memory is a little scatty... I came from the south myself originally, though I think, ironically, I'm less likely to die here, even though I stick out like a sore thumb..." he set about pouring out two servings of mushroom tea into black glazed cups "Dwarf glazed, Miss Ariadne has a lot of it..." he stated as he offered one of the drinks to Val.
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Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:12 am
Val followed Bel, appreciating his surroundings as he walked, though he paid closest attention to his guide. He was beginning to become quite habituated when it came to automatically appraising his company. He supposed it was a skill he ought to have developed when he was younger, and he probably had, but he'd never noticed it before. Probably because he had not been formally trained to observe things and people before going to train as a warrior.
He observed that he was in the manor of a House much better off than Baen'duis had ever been, or could hope to become. Even Shri, when she got her way and the matronship, would not be able to bring Baen'duis to this level for many hundreds of years, if she lived that long as Matron. Val would do everything in his power to see that she did, but sometimes things were beyond his control or ability, though fewer and fewer things were beyond his ability nowadays.
As he dutifully admired the glazing on the cups Val thought about what Bel had said. It made sense that Bel would be from the Southdark. Something about the other drow's speech was familiar, and Val had thought he'd noticed a hint of an accent that didn't fit in with that of other denizens of the city. If Bel was from the Southdark, things made more sense.
"Ah, yes. I am from the Southdark," he said finally, amazed at his own lack of intelligent conversation. It had been a long journey, but not that long, and certainly less harrowing than others he'd been on.
He held the tea in both hands, not really taking any notice of how his hands made the cup seem very small. It happened when one was tall. Other things just look smaller in comparison.
"The work is very fine," he agreed, reluctant to pry into Bel's personal affairs and ask why he would be safer here than in the South. He valued his privacy, and usually made a sincere effort to respect others' privacy as well. "At home we mostly use glass pieces made by drow glaziers. Glass is easier to come by in the South, after all. Which makes it easier to replace should someone get into a temper."
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