Events of 27-9-1266 TGR - House Affairs - Meeting Rooms Available
Dinner with Mr. Silver 27-9-1266 TGR
Events of 27-9-1266 TGR
Finally feeling clean after their midday excursion in the sewers, Branwyn applied a small bandage to her scraped shin, got dressed and headed over to the dining room.
She was happy to find the others already milling about getting drinks and settling in for the next dinner event at the house. “Everyone remembers Mr. Silver, yes? He is the one who requested we set up a meeting for the Order of Purity in return for quite a large sack of gems and our discretion, which I’m afraid I have rather violated of late.”
At that moment the door opened and Phillipe brought Mr. Silver into the dining room, announcing his arrival.
“Mr. Silver, it is so good to see you again. Thank you for coming. Please, have a seat. Dinner shall be served shortly. Joseph, please pour some wine for our guest.”
Branwyn and the others took their seats at the table while Phillipe guided Mr. Silver to his chair. Joseph circled the table making sure all the glasses were filled.
“Thank you, Joseph,” Branwyn said, and then turned her attention to her guest.
“Mr. Silver, it was indeed good of you to come. I was disappointed not to have seen you at the Prince’s Ball. I was looking forward to speaking with you again now that I am more settled here and you do not have urgent business on your mind. Do you like parties, Mr. Silver? I believe that we are planning several between next month and year’s end.”
He nods with a smile, "Thank you for inviting me to dinner. I do not often visit the Palace at Hightowers. I was pleased you chose Ashcroft Manor House as your residence here in the City. If you are hosting a party here then perhaps I might attend. Not for lack of quality of company you understand, " smiles and raises a toast to Branwyn, "I do not often come to the City and so would not promise something that I will not fulfill. Perhaps if there are interesting things happening..."
Twirling the silver goblet in his hand, "Your staff does a nice job of keeping to the proper themes. Are you adjusting to them? Have they adjusted to your ways after how things were run under Mistress Waverlyn?"
"How much of the City have you explored? Have you decided on a course of action to take at tomorrow's meeting?"
Branwyn laughed lightly, but silently wished she could somehow be in a place where everyone did not know her every movement. “I am considering it a learning experience. I plan on listening and doing as little talking as possible at the City Council meeting. I have no interest on choosing sides in local matters. To do so on issues that are not of grave importance is only to cause irritation amongst the members and that is not my intent. I wish only to show my support and interest in their successful management of city affairs.”
Branwyn continued, “Thank you for taking notice of the fine job of my staff here. I cannot tell you, or them,” she said glancing over at her trio at the back of the room, “how much I appreciate what they have done to bring order to the chaos that we bring wherever we go. I would be quite lost without them. You would have to ask them how well they have adjusted to us. I know that the sheer size of our entourage must have been overwhelming, not to mention that I have a very different style than the late Mistress Waverlyn. I do believe that some of my comments and views are quite shocking to poor Phillipe and Atribella, who are used to more … professional diplomats. But I’m sure they will have me whipped into shape in no time.”
“Perhaps some of my friends could share their views of the city. I have seen some of the main sites, but we only get out when we can and we have barely managed to scratch the surface of everything Dryads Lair has to offer," she said with a bit of a smirk and a slight nod to Ilero and Imari. "I must sound like a terrible tourist, but I do wish to see the frozen dragon shrine the next afternoon I have available. But I was not aware that you and your family did not reside in the City. I did not mean to burden you with a long trip to come to dinner with us. Where is it that you live?”
Shurkural takes a small drink from her cup. "Dryads Lair is big. Much bigger than any place I seen before. It's fun and a bit scary at the same time sometimes. But I like it. If'n you feel like it, you can go see something new every day." She glances over at Ilero, who's just sitting quietly observing and listening. "'Course, some people have a harder time adjusting to it than others, don't they?" she says with a small smirk. Ilero responds with a noncommittal shrug and tilt of his head.
Mr Silver smiles at Shur, "This is a good sized group of people. Sir Ilero if you are more of a country person there are some interesting things to explore and if you stay south of the wall are mostly safe."
Looking towards Branwyn, "I am pleased to come visit again with you, it is not an arduous trip for me. I have had longer ones. I am certain that your staff can help you find appropriate places in the city for you to be entertained."
He takes a sip of his wine, "For your meeting tomorrow I wonder if you are prepared for how many things that the council feels are important and have a wide ranging impact for you. Taxes for instance. Should there be a higher tax rate on goods coming from Drillian than there is from Gold Hills? Or from Domvile?"
Noting that her last question was deflected, Branwyn doubted that this dinner would be of any use in furthering her knowledge on anything but the City Council. “Different taxes for different kingdoms’ imports? Is there a sign over their heads saying, ‘Bribes accepted here’? Why else does one do that, except hoping for payment to obtain more favorable terms? Thank you for the warning, Mr. Silver. Now that I know I am going into battle, I shall make sure that I walk in there heavily armed,” she said with a smile and lifted her glass in salute.
Seeing the agonized look on Phillipe’s face, she laughed. “This meeting tomorrow could be more fun than I had imagined. But, if you don’t mind me changing the subject, when I received your scroll, my curiosity was piqued. With such a cryptic message, I admit I attempted to read up on this Order in the books I have at my disposal, but my attempts at research were highly unsuccessful. Then I thought to myself, if Mr. Silver was kind enough to let me know how things were progressing, then it might be far simpler just to ask him rather than have this mystery pulling at me. What exactly has begun, Mr. Silver? Is it something that I should enjoy?” she asked.
Mr Silver smiles at Branwyn and raises his glass in return salute.
"I am rather cryptic I suppose out of habit. Knowing you and your tenacity I suppose I could wait and you would find out anyway with enough digging."
"As an aside I do not know if you would enjoy or not the debates and such but I believe that you would be on an opposite side than I am in several of the discussions."
He looks Branwyn in the eye, "You understand what I tell you has to be in strictest confidence. You cannot tell anyone, not your friends not your staff. If that is acceptable then we can retire to a private room together and I will explain further. "
Branwyn put down her glass and took on a serious tone. “You are quite correct that I do not let go of things easily once they have my attention. I will say this here so that all may hear and my friends and staff shall know not to ask. I give you my word that what you wish to disclose to me will remain with me alone. Now, I have a small meeting room downstairs where we may speak privately.”
Branwyn stood up from the table and looked at her friends, “Will you please excuse us for a bit? I am sorry for breaking up the evening. Phillipe, can I get a bottle and two fresh glasses that I may take downstairs?”
Mr. Silver takes the bottle and glasses from Phillipe and follows Branwyn down into the basement below the residence.
He looks around at the stonework and nods approvingly as Branwyn opens up the door to her laboratory.
"This is nicely equipped. Quiet and removed from the rest of the household it makes for a nice retreat." He smiles as he pours out two more glasses for the two of them.
He offers up a toast, "To new friendships and blood oaths."
Branwyn smiles and offers up her palm to him as she takes a drink with her other hand.
Mr Silver chuckles, "No not that sort of blood oath. Although your time with the vampire lords might make you more immune to casual threats that most people that try to pierce our veil of secrecy."
Taking small drink he sets his glass down on the tabletop next to the stoppered bottle holding a green liquid sludge.
"I will not threaten you needlessly, you gave your word and I know you currently intend to keep it. If you do change your mind in the future you should tell me before acting on it to save the lives of others who I would have to eliminate."
Branwyn frowned a bit but before she could speak he continued.
"The Order of Purity is an ancient organization and we do not take in new members lightly. Once you hear this there is no going back. " Branwyn opens her mouth to protest and he holds up a hand. "I understand I am just ensuring that you know full well and if anyone ever does try to divine what happened to you the final words I told you are there. "
He then gestures with a hand and a multi-colored bubble of light encircles the two of them.
"We are now protected from intrusion and detection."
He stays quiet for a moment to let Branwyn speak but she sets her mouth daring him to continue.
"To make this as quick as possible. The Order of Purity is an organization that ensures the purity of the race. We seek out those that would pollute by mixing with others or by the abomination of choosing a lesser race altogether. We are too few and the dangers against us too great to allow for such degradation of the blood lines. The meeting that you helped arrange was to hold a trial for one such creature. It was dealt with appropriately and thanks to your assistance and the properties of The Mist of Drillian no one will know what happened to him. Preserving the Order's secrecy. I thank you for your assistance with that."
"The Order is virtually the only common ground that dragonkind has anymore."
“So, you’re a dra … Oh!” Branwyn exclaimed with a huge sigh of relief. “This is good news. I was afraid that this was some sort of Order that wished for the eradication of another race, like dwarves or elves or something of that nature. And then I would have had to stop you. There would be bloodshed and a great deviation from my diplomatic duties. It was something that I was not looking forward to at all.”
She paused for a moment and then looked up at Mr. Silver. “If your numbers are indeed few, I hope the results of this trial did not lessen your numbers further. But then, that is really none of my business. Thank you for sharing this with me. You have my word that I will not speak of this to anyone and I will keep it.”
"We did not lose anyone that was pure. We did eliminate one that would have further diluted the blood."
"Shall we rejoin the rest of your group upstairs?"
