Chapter 24

Lilith and Celeste bowed to the Regent and excused themselves from the room. They then promptly had a freak out session for two completely different reasons.

The resulting sounds were unintelligible even to a planes walker such as Lilith, despite her making half the noises.

Celeste was saying something about shoes and asking if Sharl would be there and where they would sit.

Lilith was screaming something about being in an actual real life tavern on the sword coast. Then something about arm wrestling and drinking contests.

When they both settled down they looked at each other and said at the same time “We need to get changed!”

They didn’t waste a beat. Both of them heading for Guest Room three.

It was turning into an odd room sort of room. There was the three dresser drawers filled with nothing but bras. Each drawer containing a different size. There was the dress of death that Lilith was saving for a special occasion as well as the pretty red and white dress with an orchid and humming bird across the front. It had been a gift from her best friend in this world and it was hanging up waiting for her.

Lilith first took her new ring out of the ring box before she also retrieved 4 gp from the large coin purse and placing them on her dresser. She then hid the ring box and the large coin purse on the top shelf in the closet where it couldn’t be seen from below. With Celeste’s help she quickly changed into the red and white dinner dress they had purchased earlier. It was fastened from behind with 8 small buttons and she could only reach the top three and the bottom two by herself. It seemed zippers were not a thing here.

“Ok now your hair.” Celeste said as she pointed a finger at Lilith’s face her finger straight in line with her arm like it was a weapon.

Lilith recognized this motion and knew she was going to cast a spell. So she closed her eyes hearing the expected rune word for Thaumaturgy. She then felt a steady cool breeze of air going across her face that got faster as Celeste poured more magic into the spell. Her hair was all blown in the same direction, up and back over her shoulders. Once it was all aligned Celeste dropped the spell and got to work with a brush.

“Do you want me to get you some dress shoes from the guest closet?” Celeste asked as she continued to brush her hair with practiced precision but surprising speed.

“How high is the heal on them? Lilith asked.

“Maybe two or three inches.”

“Don’t you think I am tall enough already?” Lilith asked as she really didn’t know if she could walk in heals and was glad to use her height as an excuse.

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“Ya, better keep the flats. No one will be looking at your feet anyways.” Celeste said with a smile that her friend could see in the mirror.

Lilith knew a compliment when she heard one but there was a lot of truth to it. She was cutting quite a figure in this dress and she filled out the top quite nicely.

“Done.” Celeste said before Lilith turned her head a bit to look in the mirror at the side of her head. Her hair was still crimson red and curled slightly at the tips but it was 10 times less chaotic than it had been just a few minutes earlier.

Celeste made for the door opening it with a start. She then leaned back in the room and grabbed her spare bra off the dresser.

Lilith tried to put on her new ring finding that it fit her ring finger on her left hand. ‘At least my fingers are still a normal size’ she thought to herself. She then grabbed the small coin purse with 6 gp and placed it the pocket on her right hip. The pocket was on a seam of the dress and the weight of the coin purse also pulled the pocket closed. Lilith couldn’t help but be impressed with the design.

The tow girls walked out of the Ducal Castle together but Lilith stopped at the end of the stone path arriving there slightly before her friend.

“Celeste, I don’t want to walk too fast across the dirt roads and get this dirty. Would it be alright if I jumped us across the field to the tower?”

“You can grab and lift the dress you know?” Celeste stated flatly.

Lilith, in fact did not know this. She didn’t know a lot of girly things but had been learning them as she went from Celeste’s example. How to get dressed, how to use magic to clean yourself. And just recently how to use magic as hair dryer set to cold among many other things. Her friend had been the perfect person to learn from and Lilith had gotten good at making excuses just like she did with the shoes. So she made another excuse. “I know I just want to get there faster too.” Lilith said in an even tone.

“Ok sure.” Celeste said as she held out her hand for Lilith.

“Here we go.” Lilith grabbed her hand and in three jumps they arrived just a few feet from the guards at the tower entrance in a puff of mist and fog.

“Halt! Who… oh its just you.” the guard asked then sighed.

“Yes I need to change and we are in a hurry.” Celeste didn’t owe him an explanation but she hoped it would set him at ease a little. The guard gave her a nod before he unlocked the door and opened it so the two ladies could go inside.

Quickly heading up the stairs they didn’t even bother to curse at the succubus. They had Celeste changed in under 7 minutes with Lilith’s help before they were again back outside giving a few words of thanks to the two guards.

Celeste stuck out her hand again expecting Lilith to want to jump them down the road towards the party as quick as they could. What she didn’t expect was for Lilith to jump them up to the top of the City wall and then down along the top of the ramparts. Lilith had found that when making multiple jumps in a row you tended to get dizzy unless you went in a straight line. Luckily the ramparts gave them that straight path with only two turns along the way. Along the wall they hopped in and out of smoke with almost no delay, making good time. More than a few men on guard duty were graced by the presence of two well dressed ladies before they suddenly disappeared not sure of what they had seen. Once at the top of the Caravan gate house they made one last jump down to ground level.

They had just covered a quarter mile but not even a bit of wind had gone by and messed up their hair.

Celeste was impressed at how much time Lilith had saved them so she decided to do her a favor. “Lil would you like it if I went in first and announced you and your new title?”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather make something funny up and announce that instead.”

“I don’t’ know Tany seemed pretty attached to it.” she teased.

“Ya, he even gave me a ring.” Lilith displayed her ring finger and wiggled it a bit. “It should be fine I am supposed to have some authority tomorrow so I might as well get used to the stuffy bits.”

Celeste gave a nod to to her friend and began walking forward to the doors pushing them open with both of her arms. Looking around briefly she saw the familiar forms of Wendel and Sharl standing at a far table. Celeste’s face lit up with a big smile as she activated Thaumaturgy. She took a small step to the side and then with a much louder voice than the 5’-4” woman seemed capable of speaking the words sounded out. “Announcing the noble lady, Lilith of Devine, Defender of Daggerford.”

As the word Daggerford sounded Lilith jumped forward inside the doors using Thaumaturgy herself to close them with a flicking her wrists. She had been using the spell to open and close the bathroom doors without touching them and had gotten quite good at it. As far as she knew, it was a spectacular entrance all 6’-6” of Lilith, in her red and white dinner dress and glowing red eyes, appearing out of a pool of mist. A small round of applause went over the room and every head looked her way. Lilith gave a wave and began to move over to Wendel and Sharl with Celeste at her side.

They really did make a good team. And Celeste had made an excellent guide in the town of Daggerford. But being from Waterdeep and only having been in town for six months she had no Idea what she had done on Lilith’s behalf. Unbeknownst to both women, there was a social custom in the town of Daggerford. If you were announced at a party it meant you were important. But if you were announced at a tavern it meant you were available.