"No. Simply no." Faerveren replies. She seems to have taken roots in the couch.
"I can do that. But so far I got mostly walking out of the honor to belong to your guard. The least that is due is a meal now. After that I can go and find out who is in charge of the orphanage."
"I got threatened to be put there every now and then. Might as well find out how it would have been there."
"Dinner is a good idea. Salon, or here?" Dearen asks.
"What exactly would I hire you for? You don't like the armor of the guard, you don't respect me and you don't want to work. It looks like you're just here for the furniture."
"Yes, mostly. You just have no interesting jobs yet. No doors to open that are thoroughly locked. No secrets to snoop out. No one to charm into betraying their masters. You could send a paladin to do your work so far."
"Then how about you see if you can find some dirt about the mayor and his family. Find out whom we are dealing with. But don't get caught and make sure your failures don't fall back on me."
"Okay." Faerveren replies and leaves.
F@&+. It's not like I'm good at that. Faerveren decides to go home first to think it through.
"I'll leave to. Maybe check on the orphanage already."
Persephone leaves the hotel and walks to where she things the orphanage is. Worst case she asks around.
The orphanage is in the old part of town. Persephone is pointed to a large but run down building. A dozen of kids of all ages up to ten are playing in the yard.
A woman comes out of the building. "Come in kids, time for supper."
Persephone approaches the woman. "Hello, I'm Persephone. Are you in charge of the orphanage?"
"In charge." Grelod chuckles. She repeats to hear the words again. "I'm Grelod. Those aren't the words I would use, but yes."
She looks with a friendly smile at Persephone waiting to hear her what she wants.
"I'm here for two things. The orphanage is mentioned in a testament and some money is coming your way. I shall inquire how the orphanage is funded to find out if that money is a big deal or peanuts."
"The other thing is personal. I lived many years in fear of being dumped at the orphanage. And I'd finally like to know how that would have been."
"Join us for supper." Grelod suggests.
She turns and walks in after the last kid hurried past her inside. It is a large room with an open kitchen and a huge table. There is a young woman, stirring a stew in a cauldron over the fire. The kids all take a wooden bowl and a wooden spoon from the cupboard and line up at the cauldron.
Grelod lines up there too. "The orphanage isn't funded. Everything we got are gifts. Those you see here standing in line, as well as what's in that stew. I send the kids on the market asking the farmers for food."
"Some of the older kids work already and they bring some goods from work, and some money."
"At every holiday that offers itself for it, like Market's Door or the Taxfest."
"Or Merrymead - you take what you get."
"The temple sends some gifts every now and then. Tools of some trade. And of course Alendru who teaches the kids. That is a great help."
Persephone stands in line too. "I guess ten gold a month is a big deal then." she thinks aloud.
Looking around it seems to be a happy place to her. It's not a nice place. It has to be horrible in winter with all the obvious places where the wind blows in. Everything is old and used. The floor, the clothes on the kids, the furniture. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
But what's past is past. She receives her sharing of the stew and takes a seat with the kids and Grelod at the table.
The stew is a crude mix of all kinds of vegetables, pearl barley and lots of water.
"Ten gold is a lot. It's new clothes for all. We could buy coal. It would even allow some repairs to the building. Who was it that mentioned us in their will?"
"Fallon, Duke of Seacrest" Persephone answers. "I know, he is dead for a while already. But his will was recently found and there is money left so that mention is actually worth something."
"That is indeed a long time." Grelod agrees.
"It is not you who got that inheritance, is it?"
"No. It's Dearil Duke of Seacrest."
"Dearil." Grelod repeats.
"So that little brat calls himself a duke now." Grelod smiles a happy smile while lost in thought.
Persephone opens her mouth to ask, but closes it again. Of course she knows. How is it to be hundreds of years old and remember the things, I haven't even heard of in tales?
"Would you tell me about that little brat?"
"There isn't much to tell. A woman came one day and brought her baby. She said she'd lose everything if she kept the baby. I took that little bugger in."
"About two years later Merileth from the House of Flame showed up. She demanded I hand over the baby and put a bag of coins on the table. And that was it. I never heard of him again until today."
"You gave him away for a bag of coins?" Persephone is shocked.
The kids are mostly done with supper and start flocking around Persephone. Asking nosy questions and tucking at her dress.
Grelod smiles a knowing smile. "I would have given her the toddler for free."
"It was one mouth less to feed. And a life for the kid where he'd never have to sit hungry in a cold drafty room again."
Persephone blushes. Way to put my foot in my mouth. The kids are a welcome distraction from that.
She plays with them and chats some more with Grelod about this and that until it is time for bed.
She leaves and walks home. There she looks through the closet and puts out all the clothes of her brother. Tomorrow she will bring them to the orphanage. And her stepmother's clothes too. She will for sure not wear any of them, but it would be a shame to burn them. Even though she'd really like to do that.
The night is clear of clouds. The moon is almost full and casts it's cold light on the streets of Abadon and overshadowing the stars.
The new day dawns, but it isn't the sound of the bell that wakes the city. The sound of a large explosion echoes through town.
The ship that left early morning after high tide can be seen a half a mile off the coast on fire. It belches out billows of smoke that hide half the ship.
Startled by the noise Persephone jumps out of bed and 'runs' to a window to take a look. From a window in the upper floor she can see the upper third of the ship and the smoke. Damn.
She puts on clothes and leaves the house to go to the docks, to see what happened.
The docks are full of people that stare at the catastrophe happening on the sea. It is all of Abadon, not only the usual people at the docks that stand there to gawk at the spectacle.
One can see that she ship's boats are lowered into the water and the crew leaves the ship. The ship starts to list to the right.
"I guess we will hear all about that later. Now, we are going to spend a great deal of time with the horses until race day. The idea is that we become one and they know our wishes better than usual. We will bathe and groom them two days before the race. Let's go."
"Someone is going to have a really bad day." Dearil comments as he sees the shipwreck from his hotel room.
Faerveren decides to go for a stroll. She likes darkness better for that, but a good distraction works too. Or a disguise. First she'd need some intel on what that council is. Definitely it is something nobles are involved. So why not asking the nobles directly.
Faerveren takes out her best dress and sits down to forge a recommendation letter from her mother, requesting to take her in for a schooling of proper etiquette and how to host social events. The letter is basically buttering up Lady Eleanore about her reputation for being the best far and wide for that. Fold, write 'To Lady Eleanore Vanderbuilt', wax, seal, done. The originator of the letter is finagled, but the rest is genuine.
With that done, she washes herself with that soap smelling of flowers, brushes her hair, and beautifies herself to pass as noble. Her rapier can't come along, but a pair of daggers can be hidden in the dress. Prepared this way, she leaves the house and walks to the estate of the Vanderbuilts. She walks up to the door and uses the knocker.
A servant opens the door. "Good morning. How can I help you?"
"I am Faerveren Deverin and I have a letter with a request for Lady Eleanor Vanderbuilt. If you'd be so kind to hand it to her? I'd wait for her answer." she tells the man and holds out the letter.
"Yes of course. Please come in." The man accepts the letter and leads into the foyer to a row of chairs at the side. "Please take a seat."
He moves up the wide flight of stairs and disappears from sight. The foyer is mostly in white with a dark wooden parquet floor and a heavy carpet on the stairs. The walls have several mirrors framed by stuc and the ceiling too has stuc and a painting of Shelyn.
A few minutes later an excited Lady Eleanor comes down the stairs, together with the servant, the opened letter in hand.
The servant does the introduction. "Lady Eleanor Vanderbuilt, Miss Faerveren Deverin."
Faerveren gets up from the chair when the lady walks down the stairs. As she is introduced she does a curtsy, looking at the ground. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Milady."
"It's very nice to meet you as well."
"I'm flattered what your mother thinks of me. But I'm not sure what it is that she requests of me. Could you please elaborate?"
While the introductions are going on, a pale Lord Vanderbuilt comes down the stairs and passes without greeting and leaves the house.
"My mother was hoping, that I could follow you around, learn from your example and maybe if you don't mind ask a questions where I don't understand why you are doing things in a certain way."
"You almost wouldn't notice me being around."
Lady Eleanor ponders a while what to answer. "Why not. This will be a nice change. Of course you'll have to help me with the things I'm doing."
Follow me. "It is not the best time to learn things here, as this weeks social event is a horse race. Can you imagine? A horse race, how undignified. As if a lady would race on a horse. But we need to be prepared for that. It will be a horse race and an extravagant hat competition. I hope you have a budget to have one made. William will come this evening. I wanted him to come yesterday already, but he wasn't available. Someone must have beaten me to it. You need to be fast! If you're too late you'll get the lame ideas that no one else wanted."
"Maybe I should introduce you to my daughter. I need a proper hat for her too. She needs to draw some more attention. She has the right age for marriage. But this town has a serious shortage of handsome unmarried lords."
As the chatterbox finally has to take a breath Faerveren uses the opportunity to guide the conversation away from hats. "This William, would this by chance be William Fioravanti? Because I saw him yesterday at the Golden Knight. He visited this duke that arrived around noon. And I'm sure it wasn't about extravagant hats. That duke looked handsome, but he isn't from here, is he?"
Hearing about William pleases Lady Eleanor. "Ah, you met the duke? Yes, yes, that is a very interesting turn of events indeed. But it's not clear yet what will become of this duke. He is of noble descent and Lady Margaret has mentioned that his inheritance is quite a sum. But his castle here in town has fallen into ruin and the gods know where he lived before showing up here. But he is indeed handsome. He might be an eligible match, if not a bit old, but we have to see if he can live up to the name. If he will have his seat of the family here in Abadon, then he needs to be accepted into the noble circles. If he ends up a pariah a marriage with him wouldn't help us any. If on the other hand, he already has a family seat somewhere else and just rebuilds his legacy here in addition, that would change things. I seriously asked him the wrong questions. I need to invite him to get to know him better."
Lady Eleanor moved up the stairs and along the corridor to the east during the talking. She knocks at a door and enters. "Miss Faerveren, meet my daughter Lady Christine. She is my oldest. I have three more children. All boys. But as you're here to learn about how to be a lady, you don't need to meet them now."
Lady Christine gets up from her ottoman and does a curtsy to greet Miss Faerveren.
Faerveren does a curtsy too. "What decides who is accepted and who is a pariah? Bad manners?" she inquires.
"Well, one should show the attitude of noble descent. And Duke Dearil has that air of distinction. But they are squabbling if they should let him join the council. I say why not? If he wants to talk boring politics? You know, the council is the most important assemblage when it comes to decision making in Abadon. And every family gets a seat on the council. They meet every Toilday and Oathday and hold a meeting from the afternoon into the night. Most of it is confidential and my husband can't even tell me what it is about. I think they might not trust the duke with all those secrets."
"Anyway, we were talking hats. If they shall be extravagant, what are the limits? High and wide, and any theme? Has it still to look like a hat, or could one wear a kind of nest with exotic birds? Or a flower bouquet? Have you ever been to an occasion that was about hats?"
"No, Lady Eleanor, that motto for an event is new to me." she replies and wonders if in the history of man, there has been a case where someone was talked to death.
At the docks, the spectacle of the burning ship comes to its climax. After listing more and more, the ship finally capsizes. The masts and the sails plunge into the sea and the fire is quenched. White steam clouds rise shortly and then it's over. The billows of smoke disperse and only a dark spot in the water and two booms that stick out of the sea give a hint where the ship is.
As the show is over Persephone leaves and checks if Gorm is at the office.
As Persephone wants to enter a distraught man rushes out of the door of the office.
Gorm sits at his desk as usual. He sits over some papers with a satisfied smile on his face.
Persephone wonders what happened right there.
"Hi. The ship sunk. Is this a problem?" Persephone inquires.