Menan smiles with approval. "At the castle."
He looks to the cleric for her guidance of getting out of the temple.
Merileth gets up and leads Menan and Arawyn to the secret exit. "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts. Let's make this a great play."
"So we shall."
The couple heads to Persephone's house looking for the girls. They keep an outlook for spies.
There are no spies after the Variels that are bad enough to be seen on the way to Persephone's house.
With another day off, Persephone is ready and considering what to do with the day as there is a knock at the door.
She opens. "You here? What's up?"
Faerveren looks out from the kitchen door to get who's there.
Menan fills the girls in on what has transpired and what is about to happen. He tells Persephone how the duke feels about his armor being worn before he makes his appearance. "After that I believe he will put you to work in it. So, I need to get the gold from father Grimborrow, purchase an entire floor at the Golden Knight. I have no idea how much that will cost. Then speak to the city guard, then head to the castle. I can spread the rumors after that. Are you in?"
"Finally something happening! Meet you at the castle then." Persephone replies.
She gets back inside to throw over her nice armor and get the mace. Then she leaves, locks the door and is on the way to the castle.
Persephone sits on the stairs already. "Took you long enough."
Half the way to the castle her patience comes to an end. "I'll go ahead. See you at the ruins."
Menan gathers the coin and informs father Grimburrow of what has happened and what will happen. "It is not every day you get to see a duke make his appearance. It should be quite the show."
At the castle Dearil is waiting together with four hooded companions.
"Hello, good to see you. Where is the other gal? Are you ready to give me a tour through the interesting part of the ruins."
"That sounds like fun. I'll be there to watch." Father Grimburrow tells.
Menan and Arawyn make their way to the Golden Knight. They enter in their fine clothing and make their way to the counter.
"I would like to rent your top floor beginning this evening and until such time as we inform you otherwise. It will most likely be for weeks if not months."
"Welcome at the Golden Knight. I'm Margaret. We'll be pleased to accommodate you. How many people shall we expect?"
She informs that the top floor has one large suite and four additional rooms to house the entourage. And all of that would be 25gold per day including a butler. A banquet could be held for 10 gold per person.
Looking around, you notice, that there is a certain lack of guests in the house. One man that looks like a rich merchant or something alike dines in the salon. And all but one key are hanging at the board behind the receptionist.
Menan counts out 100 gold and hands it to Margaret. "That should get us started. Thank you, ma'am." He stores the keys in his backpack and the couple heads to the city watch. When there he asks to see the captain.
"What is it? Will it cost me money?" Kasadei inquires as Menan greets her.
Menan chuckles. "No, no. Not this time unless you are just handing it out. I have been asked to inform you that royalty will be entering the town tomorrow with full guard at noon. It is just those royals showing out but they wanted you to be aware of what is to transpire so that there is no alarm on your part and any measures you may want to take to clear the streets or whatever it is you do for rare events like this."
Meanwhile at the castle ruins.
"She is on her way here. But we can start with the tour." Faerveren triggers the staircase from the guard room and leads Dearil inside the basement.
"Here to the left we have the vault. This is a most useless place, as we don't have the key, the lock is incredibly hard to operate and everything of value is gone. Well, some empty chests are left."
"Here to the right is the armory." she presses the combination of the lock to open it. "There is some equipment from the old days. I don't know if that is all, but it is all we found out."
"The dead duke is in that coffin, as you can see on the plaquette."
Dearil produces a magical bag and hands it to one of the helpers. "Put everything in there. Make sure to wrap up all pointy ends first to not damage the bag."
"Next we'll take a look at the old duke."
Everything sharp or pointy is wrapped up in cloth first, before disappearing into the bag. This looks ridiculous, as the long pikes disappear in the small bag like a bunny into the magicians hat.
Lifting and turning the lid of the coffin is again no easy task and only succeeds after finally Persephone arrives to help. Again the lid is only turned to not break it and be able to close it afterwards.
Dearil takes out the sword, the crown, the signet ring and hands it to the helpers for cleaning and fixing. "The cloak you need to fix first before we remove it." he orders and the helper starts casting a spell on the robe.
"I hope this can be made look good again. And smell good. To have proper garments made will probably take weeks. Though, ... you know who, might come up with a magical solution for this."
"You mean pink eyes?" Persephone comments. "You also don't get a name, or are you only not allowed to tell it."
"Pink eyes? Interesting. Much catchier than 'The one whose name shall not be spoken'" Dearil jokes.
"But onto the further planning. Are you two coming along? We're going to ride to the next village, stay a night, and return tomorrow at noon as a parade of me with the Variels and up to a dozen guards wearing the armor with the crest. It depends on how many we find to hire there."
"You mean wearing that heavy metal suits? I can't move in that." Faerveren objects.
"I'm already in costume. But I can't ride." Persephone replies.
"Riding summoned mounts is a walk in the park. And on the way back it will be walking. Also it is only for decoration. If you can walk in a straight line without toppling over that is enough." Dearil encourages the girls.
The Variels eventually make their way to the castle. "Top floor of the Golden Knight has been acquired. It will need to be secured as will your route there. I could sure use a few more warm bodies but we will make do with what we have. The watch has been informed of your appearance. Rumors will be flying like lies when we return to town. How goes it here?"
It is a wonder what magic can do. After a quarter hour the sword, the crown and the ring are back to old glory. Even the crimson cloak in the coffin looks almost good again. The fabric is repaired, but a corpse lying on it doesn't improve the coloring. Also it is much more susceptible to smells as the metal objects.
"That's good to hear. It's going ok here." Dearil replies.
The an idea comes to his mind. "You can do magic. Can you do a magical cleaning of that cloak, so it looks and smells less like someone shat on it and a little more like royal garb?"
"Sorry. I did not prepare for dry cleaning this day."
Suddenly, Merileth walks in. She casts prestidigitation on the cloak while starting to talk.
"I see you're ready. Besides you two, you need to wear those grey hoods too to hide your identity for the ride."
"Menan, Arawyn, I assume you'll ride your own horses? That would add the luxury of not walking on the way back. Please buy a horse for Dearil, that is worthy for a duke from Lady Adelaide. And make sure she knows who it is for. Can't take chances and have him ride on an old mare, from the next village."
"If there are no further questions, I'll summon the horses outside."
"Menan, the security protocols..."
Menan smiles at Arawyn. "None for now. We will begin when we arrive at the Golden Knight. Appears we have some schooling to do for our new nobility. We will return with Adelaide's best horse and tack."
The two head for town.
Menan and Arawyn make their way to Adelaide's estate. "Good day Lady Adelaide. I would like to purchase your best horse and tack. It is important it be of highest breed and the tack of highest craftsmanship. It is for Duke Dearil who will ride it through town at noon tomorrow with full guard. Can you appropriately equip royalty with what you have here?"
"How good a rider is the duke? I have this wonderful proud stallion I could sell you. Or is he more the gelding kind of guy?"
She leads Menan to the enclosure. "See, there is the stallion. Three years old and full of power. He is trained, but very spirited."
"And over there we have Anton. Twelve year old and behaves like a lamb."
"As for the gear, you're out of luck. Of course you'd get all the high quality gear that belongs to either horse, but that is everyday use gear. Nothing to parade around by royalty."
The horses are both beautiful, healthy and strong with a good gait. Though the stallion prances proudly around with the tail lifted high.
"The stallion is perfect. Where can I get tack worthy of royalty?"
"Today? Not a chance. I can tell you who makes mine. But it takes weeks to create a good saddle. And then it still hasn't golden applications which my saddler doesn't do. And you can't just put any saddle on the horse. You'd ruin the horse."
"And just to drive that point home: Don't put any other saddle than the one I got on that horse tomorrow. The saddle would cause pain to the horse, and your duke would go flying, no matter how good a rider he is."
"Your duke probably has some fancy brocade blanket. Throw that over the horse. Makes it look fancy."
"Good advice." Menan pays her for the stallion and tack. They head to the stables to get their horses. Menan hands the smith 4,160 gold pieces and says "I need a rapier exactly like the one we crafted before. Can you make that happen?"
He and Arawyn saddle their horses.
Once outside Merileth starts summoning magical mounts until everyone got one. Then she hands Dearil a pair of sleeves and tells him a elven commandword.
"It'll help with the garment until we get you set up with real clothes. And try not to screw that up tomorrow. Let the others do the work, and concentrate on looking noble. You get no second chance at first impressions."
The only thing missing, is that she'd take a handkerchief, spits on it and wipes that speck of dirt out of his face.
With all said and done Dearil, the four hooded people from the temple, Persephone and Faerveren ride off to be in Faversham for the night.
"Sure can. Put the coin over there on the shelf." Torbin replies while he keeps hammering the piece of iron, that shall become another horseshoe.
"Wonderful! Thank you Torbin." Arawyn smiles at the dwarf as she slips into the saddle. Menan mounts his horse and takes the stallion's bridle. They work their way slowly to Lady Eleanor's estate. Menan constantly talks to the frisky stallion trying to keep him calm and in check with the reigns. Arawyn guides her horse to the other side of the stallion.
"Lady Eleanor. We have news for you. Tomorrow at noon Duke Dearil will enter town with full guard. A once in a lifetime occasion. I hope you will be there. Turns out that spy...well that was the duke! Imagine that being followed by a duke."
"The duke?" She voices, eyes wide. "Do you think he is into dinner parties?"
"I know he is. We have an entire floor at the Golden Knight reserved with no end date. I am sure he will want to meet everyone and will do some entertaining there as well. He is quite charismatic. I believe he is unmarried. If so, I have no doubt he will be the most sought after bachelor in town."
"He seems to have an eye for Arawyn. Should he not be a quick study he will suffer the same fate as his father."
"Thank you for the heads up. I need to prepare a dinner party and our daughter."
Menan and Arawyn make their way to Faversham with the stallion.
Faversham is a small village three hours away from Abadon. It is two large farmsteads and some houses in between. The tavern in town name The Crown is a house with a stable next to it. The beds are just linen put over hay bales on the rafters over the boxes for the horses.
The usual customers would be seasonal workers that help out during the harvest. A large party riding into the village and disappearing into the tavern and stables is unusual this late in autumn.
That the horses disappear after a few hours adds to the confusion of the owners.
And it is evening and it is morning a new day. This time without the ringing of a bell. The new day greets all with the perfect weather for a parade. Blue sky and sunshine.
The whole party leaves in the morning still in disguises. Halfway to Abadon, a short break is made to switch garments. Dearil tries the sleeves of many garments on the horse, but the horse lacks the brain, the interest and the imagination to make proper use of that. Even though someone cast share language on it.
And so the parade is set up. Two rows of guards in pairs ahead, then the duke, then Menan and Arawyn and last Persephone and Faerveren as another pair of guards.
Dearil takes off his hat of disguise and changes his garments to something appropriate with the sleeves of many garments. The jewellery he uses is real though. As is the crimson cloak.
"That is a pity. I need a lot of stuff once we're settled in. Fake it, til you make it. But right now even the faking is lacking."
Looking behind him and back forward he concludes "But it is a nice start. Let us see where it goes from there."