Lavian's Adventure Continued

Lavian wondered about two things as she stood there momentarily. First, people were being announced? How did that work, would the 'announcer' know who she was or? She could not think of what other option there was, she could not remember the last time she was at a formal gathering such as this. Second, everyone was much older then she was, would they sit her at the 'kiddie' table? She was all of the sudden not looking forward to this moment. There were too many things she could not control, too many things that she could screw up. She sighed slightly before starting up again, she would have to think about the 'kiddie' table some more. She grinned slightly as she imagined herself at a little table in the corner with the noble's snot nosed little childen. There was food all over the table and all over the children, she had just won a food fight. She did this to keep her mind off of the situation, she did not mind so much now if she did something wrong. Or if people were surprised by her or her attire. She was having too much fun in her own little world.

Lost in thought, Lavian was brought back to the present situation as the room in front of her quieted. The Baron had cast a puzzled look in her direction and then he turned his attention back to the room, yelling, "Silence!" He glared at the assembled guests, then grinned crookedly. "Esteemed members of the Aldersgate High Council and distinguished guests... Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I'm not one for long speeches, so I'll make this--" He stopped as an aide approached. They conferred. "I'll make this very short. For those who have supported me and especially for those who have opposed me, I have the proof that we are all in grave danger. And my trophy has just arrived! Please, before we dine, come and see what we are up against." He strode out of Lavian's line of sight, the confused would-be diners standing to follow.

Lavian "hrmed", slightly interested. She already knew what he was going to show even if she was not eager to see it. She might as well. She followed the crowd of guests outside as well, yet she stayed more in back. There was no reason for her to push to the front. She would probably see more of them on the battle field.

The Baron eyed Lavian while the elderly council members filed out, escorted by Aldersgate soldiers. "You on duty?" he quipped, not pausing to hear an answer. Lavian followed. In the main hall, soldiers were bringing in a box. The Baron jogged up to them, bellowing over the murmurring guests once again. "What you are about to see is one of the enemies. These creatures have hunted us for years, but the Kingdom turned a blind eye to what they were doing. The King pretended that this would all go away, as the Church has done. I know many of you have supported me in uncovering the truth, and now we have it!" He threw open the box, revealing the deceased wolf creature. He grabbed the head of the monster, pulling the body partway out of the coffin so the gaping masses could get a better look. The mob pressed forward, although some of the members broke away, disgusted.

Lavian was not sure what to think of this whole episode. All in all, it's just another trick to woo them all. She was not interested in politics nor scare tactics. She was just a spectator right now, watching and waiting. She wondered how the rest of the night would go, so far it had been a lot of fun. Yeah. She was not looking forwards to the rest of the night, not at all.

A young woman broke away from the crowd, clearly distressed. A young page gagged and hid away from the group. There was some discussion amongst the assembly, with the Baron boisterously chatting within the throng. People began to return to the dining hall, as if receiving some cue to return to order.

An old man in blue robes caught Lavian by the arm. "Come dearie, you're sitting next to me." He tugged at her, exuberantly making his way to the head of the table.

Lavian did as she was told, not because it was ingrained in her to respect her elders and do as they say. It was more because, what did she care? She had no reason to sit anywhere by anyone, so an offer from an old man, more a demand from an old man, was just as good a place as any. She quietly followed the man and did as she was told.

Seating her next to the head of the table, the enthusiastic old man sat down next to Lavian and looked at her for a long time. "So, my dear, tell me. What do you think of Aldersgate?" The rest of the guests were slowly filing in. Trays featuring leafy greens were waiting to be served.

"Hrm, what do I think of it?" She paused for a moment, reflecting upon her journy here so far. She lost one person when he jumped overboard before she could stop him. Got filled full of holes, then put in custody. Then wasted a day messing around, and then got to see a dead animal. All in all, it was an uneventfull past two or three days.. Yeah..

She did not seem so sure of herself as she answered, "Well, I have only seen it in the morning. I was quite surpised at how late everyone gets up here, it's not a common practice to wakeup after dawn where I am from. Yet it does look like a prosperous city." She was not quite sure what to say, she never gave it any thought before. It was just another city for her to travel through, she has seen quite a few before. She was at a loss of what to say.

He smiled affectionately at her, then accepted a plate of vegetables. As the diminutive serving girl gave Lavian a plate, he declared conspiratorially, "Everyone is looking green around the gills. I won-- no dear, not that fork. The other one. Now what were you saying? Ah, prosperity! No, I imagine most people don't even get up at all during the week, we're so prosperous. Lazy, I tell you. Nobody appreciates poor old Silsby, slaving away." Lavian tried several forks before getting the old man's approval. The guests who had returned had been seated and served, falling into their own conversations. "Housing and industry, taxes, citizenry and soldiery, it all doesn't just happen by accident. It takes work!" He droned on for a while, two courses passing in the meantime. The Baron did not return to his seat at the head of the table.

Lavian was intrigued, sort of. "So, prosperity brings upon laziness? And hardship brings upon hard work and devotion?" She was not quite sure where this conversation was going, nor where it had been. It lost her somewhere around the first few times she picked the wrong fork. She was definitely not used to this, for the past couple of years she had been killing her own food and burning it accordingly. Forks, spoons, napkins, glasses, courses, all of this was not her, anymore. She wanted to get out of here as quickly as she could and get away from all this, whatever. She almost wanted to be on the road again, alone. But she knew she could not, people needed her help, how ever small of an amount she could give.

The old man was not bothering her, she actually sort of liked his strangness. It reminded her of some of the Fighters and Warriors she had met in her travels. Not everyone is sane, nor are they insane, they are a shade somewhere in between. "So, if I am a rich man, then I will be a lazy man? And if I am a poor man, I will be a hard working man?" She did not notice she was calling herself a man. "I'll just stay poor then, thank you." She nodded slightly, using the wrong fork again. She knew what some of the utensils upon the table were for, she really just enjoyed having the old man correct her now, it was more of a game then anything. That and she hated the idea of a different fork for everything. She was extremely tempted to just use her hands, but she knew she could not get away with it so she refrained.

The man nodded with delight. "Absolutely!" Then he looked concerned. "No, that's far too simple. You've grasped the fundamental of it, but failed to address the dichotomy that it presents... you might try the soup spoon for the soup, since that fork really isn't up to the task... no, that's the pudding spoon... no, that's a spork... yes, that's the one! It's actually much more of a bell curve, if I had a chart I could show you, but I really hate them. Give me a good legal document any day. You see, prosperity breeds indolence, but the opposite is not true of difficulties. The poor are poor because they don't work. They have no incentive to work because they don't have anything to work for, just as the rich have everything they need and nothing to work any further for. It's those in the middle who do all the work, because they have just enough to desire more. That's why I've never held any position here... somebody has to do all the work. And that's why Aldersgate is the prosperous place that it is... Everyone has just the right mix of work and reward." He paused, not to check Lavian's comprehension so much as to breathe as he was starting to black out. "*Wheez* Now, the true genius behind the application of this theory... ..." He continued at some length about balance of reward versus detriment to incentive, neglecting to even touch the next few courses, which were more substantial meats and fried vegetables.

Lavian listened diligently at the old man, trying to comprehend what he was saying. It was a concept she already had a grasp on, good enough for her anyway. Even though the old man was going into way too much detail and was off, in her opinion, in a few places she still listened to what he said. She was not really bored, but she was not a willing participant in the conversation either. For some reason her politeness that never shows its face, did.

She was not sure if he was building up to anything, or just wasting time like she was. The Baron skipping out on his own banquet was nothing she was concerned about. She didn't really care if he was there boasting something or another or if he was out doing whatever. As long as it was nothing malicious or unscrupulous she did not care. And she was quite sure of that as well as she listened to the old man's prattle.

Prattle on the man did, though, through to dessert. "... so you see, you cannot allow a baker to own any item exceeding the value of twice the number of cakes he can produce in the time it takes the maker of that item to produce the aforementioned items. Now, that doesn't always hold true for a specialized baker or gourmet." He blinked, surprised. "I do believe that covers all the industries of import, with the exception of council and royalty, and believe me, you do not want to get me started on those..." He wheezed in amusement, looking at Lavian with the hope of doing just that evident in his eyes. He looked down at his untouched food after waiting a suitable amount of time for Lavian to profess interest. The dinner guests were excusing themselves and leaving the table by the time the man had finally wheezed to a stop. In fact, Lavian and the man were the only two still seated. "Hmm... well, my dear, perhaps you will see me to my chamber? It's been a long age since I've had such a pleasant dinner. That peculiar man does tend to spoil them so. Gives me spleen, he does..." He remained seated, despite his obvious effort to stand.

Lavian smiled happily as she stood and helped the old man out of his seat. "I would love to accompany to your chamber, we would not want you to get mugged on the way there." She winked at him before taking a more serious face, "By the way, we have been talking for so long it would seem your name has slipped my mind." She bowed slightly to the old man, "I am the Holy Knight Lavian Vermillion, and who have I had the pleasure of spending my dinner with?" She smiled warmly as she waited for the old man to answer.

He looked at her in confusion, not getting the joke, but smiled at her introduction. "I'm Silsby Sebastion, the kingdom's Steward... I'm surprised you've never heard of me. Oh well, it doesn't bother me at all. I'm just a long-suffering public servant. Well, it bothers me, just a little." He led the way through the kitchen passage. "That was just like old times. Ever-- see, there's my cot for when I don't feel like taking all the stairs. What was I saying again? Oh yes, that blowhard takes all the fun out of banquets! It's all about wars and soldiers and victory with him. If I was on the council, I'd cut his budget just like that..." He made a snapping motion with his fingers as they came to the main stair, but produced no actual sound. He began to painstakingly climb, very slowly. "So, shall we discuss more economics? Would you like to hear about how I revolutionized building permits?"

Lavian smiled at the old man as she gave him a hand walking up the stairs. "Sure, I would love to hear about building permits." She continued to smile at him as she helped, waiting for his speech to start.

She was not tired, yet. She had spent the entire daying doing much of nothing, sleep would catch up with her later. She did not mind entertaining the old man for a while longer. She would live, and she actually found him kind of entertaining. He kept her from thinking about what was going on around her, the battles, killing and anything that had to do with them. She felt almost like a normal person when she talked to him, like a normal commoner. Someone with a family, a place to live, a path in life.

"Yes, of course, I knew you looked like the building permit type. If you would believe it, it used to be in this city that anyone with lumber and mud could just throw together a building! Everyone thought the land was free!" He wheezed in outrage. "Even with our modern laws and civilization, there are still places, far away, very far away, mind you, where people still think they can just build a house anywhere and keep it. Barbaric!" They managed to complete a flight of stairs. He leaned in conspiratorially. "Now you and I both know that can never work..." He went on at some length about building ownership and basically repeated his theories on incentives versus industriousness.

"... and one cannot just have a house or shop. One must trade the equally valued incentive one has for the building incentive one needs. And that is how one carefully balances the values of one's worker's work ethics." They had reached the third landing. He opened his mouth but made no sound, his breath rattling. Nearby, someone was skulking in the shadows, letting out a sigh at the new arrivals. Sebastian looked in the direction of the sigh, closing his mouth. He returned his attention to Lavian. "Far too many stairs. My room is this way. Now what were we discussing again?"

"I believe you had finished with speaking of worker's ethics." She was only slightly disturbed by the skulking shadow, she would be on guard. No reason to ever let her guard down really, she was not a trusting young lady. "So, since the kindom has a lord, it's not only the person who obtains the land from him who prospers, but the lord as well?" She wrinkled her brow as she tried to tie all of what he said together.

"Ethics!" he repeated, enthusiastically, "Of course!" He led the way down a hall. His expression became concerned as he turned to catch her remark. "What? Hmm? Oh no, knowledge rules this kingdom, not some petty monarch! Everyone benefits from clever planning, council, king, or commoner... wait, I like the sound of that! I need to write that down." He paused at the end of the hall, looking at three doors. "Now one of these is mine... yes, this is it! The one with the door open." He shoved his way inside, revealing a room piled high with papers, books, articles of clothing, and other haphazardly dscarded items. He grabbed a paper from a precariously piled stack and searched the room, finally turning up a stylus. "Now, what was it about ethics? Hmm..." he began writing as he spoke out loud, "Councils are inherantly unethical as they would have to approve a code of conduct beforehand in order to have one to follow and no council in session would ever consider proposing a limit to its own power." He looked up from his efforts and waved to Lavian, "Don't just stand out there, come in and make yourself comfortable. I don't often have visitors." Lavian glanced around the small room. There didn't seem to be anything in the way of furnishings, beyond the tables the papers were piled on, much less anything that could be called "comfortable".

Missing post between 12-13 and 12-17

Lavian smiled softly as she stepped in the room, the old man was rather eccentric and more then slightly odd. But it was cute in a wierd old man kind of way, she did not mind humoring him at all. "Thank you, but should you not be ready to sleep? I'm quite sure you are a strong and healthy man, but even they need sleep." She was now not quite sure if she would ever get any sleep either.

"The current occupier of this castle, and ruler. How do you think he is handling this, situation?" She was not quite sure how the old man would take to her sudden change of topic, so she tried to beat around the bush. She did not do that well of a job of it. "You seem to not like him very much for some reason, this place does seem prosperous after all." She was not quite sure where she was going with this either, so she just silently waited for an answer.

He muttered. "Getting tired? But there's so much work to do..." Glancing up, his brows furrowed, he asked, "Are you talking about the Baron? Now there's a tedious individual. Always rambling about fighting and strategy, things only interesting to himself. And he thinks he's such an expert! What a fool!" He smirked and rushed on, "But we do get along well enough, not counting his manner. Even in peacetime, military matters are important. How else does one collect funds? Monies don't just float into the treasury..." He stopped, considering that. "No, it's reassuring to have them. Besides, it provides the much needed stability and discipline that the indolent lack..." He regarded Lavian like he suddenly remembered something. "Hmmm, what were you asking about, again?"

"If you wanted to go to sleep now." She smiled at him again reasuringly, "Work can always wait until the morning when it can be tackled with a fresh mind." She moved towards the door slightly, about to make her exit finally. Even she needed to get some sleep someday, "At the very least this young girl needs her beauty sleep, so if you don't mind I would like to take my leave of you. I enjoyed the banquet, thank you."

Sebastian muttered to himself, then glanced around in confusion. "Hm... oh, leaving? Very well, there's still much to be done up here. I'll let you get some sleep. But be up early, no room for layabouts in my kingdom..." He bent over his writing and scratched a few more marks on the paper. He seemed to stop and think. As Lavian took her leave, she thought she heard the faintest snore.

Getting her bearings, Lavian located the room she had been given that afternoon. Without really bothering to get comfortable, she went to sleep. The morning immediately followed, subdued, with only a small ray of light piercing the one, small window high in the wall of her chamber. In the hall, a woman was busy lugging a large bundle of cloth through the hall.

Lavian was only mildly interested in the woman outside, she gave a moment's inkling of helping her. She had barely woken up and was too groggy to give in to her helping urges. Instead she went about trying to get a bath and some clean clothes. She was almost never without her armor. She was not quite sure what she was going to do today, but it could probably wait for her. She had nowhere to go, to her knowlege.

"Excuse me miss, but is your room ready to be cleaned?" asked the woman after seeing Lavian emerge. Asked about a bath, the woman pointed down the hallway. "The first two rooms in the second hall to the right are bath rooms. But there is no one attending them, as everyone has been pressed into other matters. By your leave, miss..."

Lavian managed to find the bath rooms, although she nearly locked herself in a linens room first. There was a young man in livery standing at the entryway of the first room. "Shall I draw you a bath, miss?" he enquired, looking at her with a disaproving expression.

Lavian idly wondered exactly what pressing matters they were pressed into, but the whole whole ordeal with the linen closet left her annoyed and feeling like a complete retard. She was not quite resolved that she would have her bath, and enjoy it too. "Yes, please." She glared back at him without even knowing it, it was the dreaded 'if you get to close to me right now you will lose some fingers' look that some women have perfected. She was definitely in a bad mood now, this guy giving her a hard time just because she got stuck in a closet. She was getting madder as she thought of it more. She wanted her bath now!

The man looked at her quizzically, but did as he was told. Inside the room was a bathing alcove, several benches, shelves, and racks, a strange looking device, and a stove. With another look at Lavian, the man began to pull the arm of the device. It seemed that nothing happened, but just when Lavian suspected the thing might be broken, water began to pour out of it. He quickly shoved a trough under the pouring water. He shut the device off just as it started to overflow and painstakingly slid the trough over to the stove. He mopped his brow with his cap and managed to light the stove, setting the water to heat.

"So... you a... knight?" he said, conversationally. He prepared another trough of water, this time getting under the stream and nearly soaking himself through. He dumped the first trough into the alcove and refilled it while the second heated. He stepped into the alcove, muttering, "not very warm". He sat down near the heating water, waiting. "So... what's the Baron... like?"

Lavian thought about it for a moment as she watch, "What is he like?" That was a hard one, she did not really spend all that much time with him. And she definetly does not understand him, "Well, he's a tough nut to crack." As if that meant anything. He was brash, overbearing, and had an ego big enough to go around. Or that's what she thought when she first met him. "I suppose he is a good man, he seems kind. I can't really say much about him, I only met him a couple of time. What do you think of him, as your Overlord?" She was not sure how the conversation got started upon the Baron, nor why, but she did not wish to waste to much thought upon the subject. She had a bath to attend to!

The man mumbled something noncommittal, watching a bubble rise in the heated water. "So, who are you, anyway?"

"Me? I'm just a Knight Errant, nothing special." She for some reason did not want to tell this man who she really was. She was not in her normal kind and generous mood, she just wanted a bath, darn it! She didn't want to think about the Baron, the Wolfmen, the peasants, the time it takes to make a bath, how this 'war' will go, or anything. She just wanted to relax in a nice warm bath, was that so much to ask?

The man poured the second trough, bubbling and steaming, into the alcove. "That might be too hot..." He refilled it, setting it by the stove once more. "So... what happened in Ze?"