With a click, the door closed behind Annette. The main guest had left halfway through the party which ought for the rest to discuss the impression she left on them.
The party's host sat down with the intention of not moving for the first time since the start. Sofia felt like her previous task had ended and a new one had begun. Lady Siri might have left but that just invited Sofia to become as invisible as possible and listen to what everyone had to say.
Lady Siri probably hadn't expected that a cup of tea would be spilt on her but for some reason, the youngest scion of House Junker felt the pale fingers hanging above the room still puppeteering everything for her unknowable plan to work out. She couldn't put a finger on why she felt this way, the only way Sofia could describe it was by watching the assembled nobles.
The Oriri woman had left, her face stuck in a savour expression as if she had been forced to eat a lemon. It was rather amusing to watch Isha's face as Lady Siri's kind motherly gestures aimed toward Aoife who was entirely at fault caused the wickedly amused smile to dip into an unsatisfied frown. The rest of the nobles could be split into two groups, those disappointed at the tea ceremony resulting in nothing and envying the Oriri's ability to leave without consequences and those who saw Lady Siri's silence as a tool for something they needed to guess.
"Sofia?"
From behind her, a familiar voice made her head swivel toward it.
"Vilkas, what do you need?"
"I need to go, could you send me off?" The man with a stubbled beard asked.
Unlike the natives of these lands who led themselves as gods, the Faithfull observed the courteous customs of the days go by.
"Just don't drown Sandwich," She whispered as she saw the noble gripping the sack given to him by Lady Siri which regularly pulsed with a deep blue light. "I dismiss this Faithfull to return to thy obligations." She stood up and ceremoniously gestured toward the door.
"Toward serving you and the Dove Throne." The navigation officer bowed down putting his hand on his heart before leaving, Sofia noticing a large grin as he closed the door.
"May we also be dismissed?" The scions of Fischerg and Flussherz stood up in unisons.
Alicia and Adolf were firmly in the camp and considered the entire occasion a waste of time so Sofia quickly dismissed leaving the number of people at table four minus the maids of honour who continued to provide everything the nobles needed.
Sofia found it a bit odd that the average age of the remaining nobles didn't cross into the twenties. She always imagined tea parties like this to be filled with older women who knew their place in the world, maybe that was because her teacher was the head maid.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Elfreda Eldrede was seated with crossed legs staring into the wall with her eyes closed. She didn't look to be browsing her status sheet so that must have been her thinking pose. Next to the pointed-eared noble from Sargos, Lassie dar Wolfee tried her best not to stare directly into Sofia's eyes she secretly glanced at her golden hair stroking her slightly blue hair and kicking the air. For a person not even two years after adulthood, Lassie fared well although some of her childhood habits seemed firmly rooted.
She must have had an infinite amount of energy... poor maid.
"So, what were your opinions on Lady Siri?" Sofia said loudly trying to not spend the next two bells in silence.
"Not much to say." Elfreda, the oldest woman albeit not by much answered. "Is she like that normally?"
"No, not at all she can be... an inconvenience with the amount of questions she can ask," Sofia felt a warm sensation pulse through her heart as she began to speak similar to what she felt when her brother John used Lion's Hearth on her. "She just doesn't like being surrounded by strangers. She will warm up if given enough time."
"If she is like that," The woman nodded toward Aoife who was curled into a ball on one of the seats looking incredibly sagely even at her age. "Then I think I might enjoy these odd teas."
"From what shop does Lady Siri buy her clothes?" The Milli blessed woman sprang up into her conversation.
"I bought Lady Siri clothes on Cloth Street but she has a really specific taste in clothes." The Junker replied.
"Did you also spill tea on her?"
"No, I did not." Sofia replied remembering the clumsy state the alabaster girl left herself in without her maid.
"Oh."
"Do you know why Lady Siri dresses so strangely? She was staring at my dress like I was wearing a cape made out of human skin but it's not like she dresses like a conservative." The half-elf asked pulling on her crimson dress.
"I don't really know. She is a very chase and pious woman and I'm always surprised how much skin she is showing." Sofia pictured Siri's usual dress which completely exposed her arms.
"Maybe she is trying to say something." Lassie wearing the most fashionable dress among the four chimed in.
"Say what?"
"I-I-I..." She stuttered, intimidated by three pairs of eyes looking at her.
"Don't be afraid of saying what's on your mind."
"I-it's just that when I was reading about fashion..." The young girl stopped as if telling an embarrassing secret. "I read that people can state things with just the way they dress. I'm probably wrong on this but I think that Lady Siri's sudden arrival into the city at this time in addition to the way she dresses carries with it a message of neutrality.
"Could you elaborate on this?" Elfreda leaned forward, an odd twinkle shining in her eyes.
"Well... Lady Siri is from Firmusa which is neutral in the conflict going on between the Anglas and Catalina. Her dresses all appear to be a complex combination of conservative and forthright ideas with her neck and legs completely covered while her upper torso is tightly wrapped around her body and her arms are left naked. In my mind, I figured that she wanted to show her country's neutral attitude" She said before adding in a much quieter voice. "I would really want to see her tailor work, her clothes construction is head spinning. I can't even think of a way to make cloth appear so tight around my neck without a visible seam on the back."
"That's a very good observation but everyone coming here already knows that Firmusa is neutral. I don't see a reason to send a heiress to the second most powerful House in the country to point this fact out?" Elfreda remarked causing the idea to die.
"Maybe she is showing her country's openness and kindness?" The scion of Antel sat leaned across the table as if animated by some unknown source.
"I understand why would you say that but I don't think the Firmusian expected to-"
"Elfreda that makes perfect sense." Sofia blurted out interrupting her fellow noble. "We, all scions of the entire nobility from the Tip to Flinter worth investing into are stuck here in the land of the Oriripol and the north is always in need of people to reclaim their vast frontier."
"And she is the beacon of their openness regardless of opinion to encourage us to move north? There are those who are looking to move from here given the situation in Oriripol is becoming tense."
She is such a liar. I was played like a fiddle by her. Sofia screamed internally at the ice mage who had tricked her for information. She had told Siri about the temple service because she had thought that the girl in her isolation never experienced being in the temple and there are many things impossible to learn about the religion without being part of it. She was so wrong in her assumption as with the help of the three nobles she uncovered a small part of Lady Siri's masterful scheme. As expected of Siri.