The Servant Branch had just overcome his most daring duty of the day so far: Open the door from the foyer to the lesser banquet hall.

It was harder than it seemed, of course. The doorknob was hexed, and hexes are nasty tricks. Relatively harmless and difficult to prove intent. Had he not opened the door, he would have failed his duty. Had he opened the door and the hex activated, he would have failed his duty. Had he removed the hex...that could be failing the Game itself.

First danger arranged by the Surmount Butler avoided.

The first stream of guests arrived and quickly entered through the doors, then Daniel had to close the door in the Lren Style. Which was easy enough, it was basically the same movements backwards. His fingers were normally dexterous, but felt so clumsy in that moment. But he managed to close the door. He didn't manage to keep it within the Lren Styen completely, but it was his first day.

The Glasbin fae kept watching Daniel, probably waiting for the hex to activate. Daniel ignored him and let his mind wander to other things.

No one had told Daniel what the banquet was about. But Daniel really didn’t need to be informed about this. He was hungry and tired, but he knew his way around the block.

His way around the block? That was a weird sentence. Regardless, he just needed to see the people entering to understand the purpose of this luncheon gathering. Location was the first clue.

This was the O’Tell residence, a main family and a House. A House was a group or family who ruled or held significant influence over several courts. The O’Tell House was controlled by three siblings and their spouses sharing responsibility of the house, unlike the Red Sword Faction, which had only his Lordly Father as its sole head.

A House may be under the influence of another, or the very powerful could stand alone and answer only to the king. The O’Tell house was the latter kind.

The more decision making Lords, the more complicated the politics of the House. The O’Tell House was therefore involved with more factions and groups, as each member would join as best served their area of influence, sometimes in opposition to the other groups and factions of the other ruling O’Tell members. This muddied the water, but Daniel still needed only to see who arrived to figure out which group was meeting.

There were the usual bunch that attended gatherings, a gaggle of Lordlings or Chief Stewards who attended such parties to show face, but not there for any true political reason. He ignored those. Next he looked for who was in attendance that normally wouldn’t attend this type of gathering.

He saw over a dozen Friggans arrive and descend down the carriage or dismount their horses. So it involved the Mist Court, as Friggans were few in numbers and only attended banquets in mass when it involved their home territory. There were no high level enforcers or knights present, so the Justice Senate was not in attendance, nor the Knights alliance. This ruled out a several possibilities. In fact, Daniel saw no enforcers or knights of any rank.

He saw a few Mages but dozens of Wizards, all of them old and important members.

With these key factors, he suspected this was a luncheon banquet to start the formal talks about the creation of a new Magic Academy, probably with the financial backing of the Mist Court, or that the Academy would be placed in the Friggans homeland.

It wasn’t all pure deduction work, however, as he had seen indicators that the Friggans wanted to expand away from pure brute force of knights and start strengthening its magic prowess. The Mist Court was in the same faction as the Sky Court, the Walsa Alliance. But recently there had been signs that the Mist Court was trying to distance themselves from the powers that be in that faction and strike out on their own.

If they built an Academy, they would be able to create a powerful force that would allow their freedom.

The Walsa Alliance was highly ranked in the Sword Faction. If a small but important Court separated themselves, both the Sword Faction in general and the Walsa Alliance in particular would be viewed negatively.

So Daniel realized he would have to watch different members who were technically allies and stay away if they began actively sabotaging each other.

That deduction completed, he considered when and how he would be in danger again. Even if hostilities did not break out between the attendees, the Surmount Butler no doubt arrange other dangers for the Servant Branch.

Nothing major, but something that would truly upset the balance, or open a door for later trouble. But outside of awkward moments of gawking as guests arrived, everyone politely ignored him. If he was here as Lordling Elswith instead of Servant Branch, this would be an insult. Currently, he was just hoping a food fight broke out when the lunch was served and he got hit in the face with a potpie. But given this lunch started long before the sun went down, it meant that there wouldn’t be heavy drinking involved, so no such thing was likely to happen.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Before the incoming guests were a consistent flow, but the tide of guests slowed to a trickle, then down to a few stragglers as the opening hour passed. The important people always arrived almost midway through, late enough to make an impact but not too late to miss out on having secret conversations. Daniel opened his door for more ministers, people who arrived late to make an impact.

The stragglers changed from the very important people to those stragglers would weren’t important enough to mind being late or what impact they made, and no one would mind their late arrival. Finally, minutes would pass between guests.

A gaggle of Lordlings too incompetent, err, too important, to be set loose in any Campaign arrived. They were a little older than Daniel’s group, but near enough in age that they had contended with each other a few times over the years.

The term Lordling was a broad one, covering several different levels of existence and power. Young fae children of certain dispositions were called Young Lordlings, and as they grew older, through their teen years and then twenties, they settled into being called Lordlings. If one did not amass enough power to transcend the limitations, beyond a point they were called Old Lordlings, but never to their face. To their face, one was supposed to talk about their experience and maturity and the valuable experience they brought to the team would help it mature.

None of this group was Old Lordlings, not for another decade, but Daniel was pretty confident that many in this gaggle would never rise to Lord.

There should be no issues. They were from a different Circle, and had once contested, but not seriously for the last three years, and not at all for this last year.

Until of course there was. Lordling Parcel faced Daniel directly.

Why had Elswith's problems continued to haunt Daniel, when none of Elswith's blessings had seen fit to follow along?

Elswith had been motivated. He had begun his tenure as the Heirling of the Red Sword rather despised by the Red Faction. His weakness to most elemental magic was well known amongst the Lords of that Faction, and their allies. Especially fire. How did the Heirling of the Red Sword, the sword known for erupting in brilliant scarlet flames, not have aptitude for fire? So young Elswith had become very motivated to prove his place. During Seasons, when the Courts and Houses and Senate met, the Citadel would be very busy, but also offer many tournaments and challenges for Lordlings. Elswith had never truly excelled, but he always placed well enough to slowly change how others viewed him. It also meant that when he had felt he had the advantage, he would press forward and never let up.

Which had soured a few relationships.

One such person was Lordling Parcel. Daniel had won against him in the single battles part of the Lordling’s Tournament. Lordling Parcel was Sky Court, not son of anyone nor Heirling, but a cousin of a nephew or some such. Also, Lordling Parcel had remained in the Fae Citadel instead of returning to the home court between seasons, as had Elsiwth. There were only two reason to remain. The first was being in a position of high authority and expectation, and being groomed to handle the political elements and working with the other Courts and King.

The other was because no one from home wanted you to come back.

Elswith had been the first. And Lordling Parcel was the latter of the two categories. Lordling Parcel was seemed as though he would remain a Lordling for the rest of his life. Not for any lack of talent, resources, skills. Perhaps that was the problem. Lordling Parcel was too talented, and never devoted the hours of work to grow through the patches talent didn’t cover. He had excelled early, and then froze there, never having the ambition to grow again.

Daniel and Parcel hadn’t gotten on.

This could be interesting.

The group of Lordlings sauntered over, and Daniel and his counterpart moved to open the door. The sounds of easy conversation drifted through the doorway. There was no announcer, indicating the low formality of this meeting. Perhaps this was the first official meeting between the two groups, or the last of the informal meetings before a deal was officially struck. However, the group of Lordlings stalled, right before they were to enter.

Lordling Parcel made eye contact, and dropped something to the ground. It fell with a distinctive soft flutter. A handkerchief.

“Pick it up.” Lordling Parcel ordered.

The gaggle of lordlings behind him started to giggle.

“Good Lordlings,” Daniel said, with a smile. “Apologies, this humble servant wasn’t listening.” It was a good thing Daniel had practiced with the goose boy that morning. He was aware of how his bindings felt when it seemed he disobeyed, and he had learned how to...side step them for greater clarity.

The giggles paused.

“Servant, pick up the handkerchief.”

The Glasbin fae looked like he wanted to run and hide. "Servant Branch, do as you are ordered." He said, eyes huge, face becoming pale. The other hall attendants were watching, and even stepping away from their posts to get a closer view.

Daniel made a very embarrassed face, and held up a placating hand.

Things could be said in threes without becoming trouble.

“This humble one apologizes." the Servant Branch was not disobeying, he was clarifying. The Law of Fae paused and considered. "Please, speak once more.” Daniel said. He was being cheeky, but he would not be trampled over without showing teeth. Not when he would be trampled over regardless. “And slowly, as well. Servants, as the good Lordlings know, are such silly deaf creatures.”