Inn 57

Mrs Auregarde grinned. Only the teeth and eyes were reminescent of her father, apparently. Well, aside from the obvious... "Why, thank you, Wil," she said with a pleasant smile and more than a token look at the servant, whilst Serpentine just grabbed his bottle as quickly as possible and showed it to Wil plaintively. He looked a little discomfited, but sniffed and squinted when Nico showed up. A nod was about as much of a greeting as she'd get.

Argilla of course met Nico's greeting with a smile before turning to Weft. "My, I would quite like to hear those at length at some point," she... not quite giggled nor chuckled. Something in between, perhaps. "I do have one story of him, well, just perhaps two. One of them I was part of, the other -- well, let us say my mother was a part of it and I, naturally, the end result. I do believe, however, that my mother's version may be somewhat too detailed and intimate," she said, not the least coy. But teasing... yes, very much so.

Well, this is awkward. A friend of Weft's had managed to show up just as this fascinating new acquaintance sprang her offer to tell him about her own conception. Weft, naturally, choked and blushed bright red.

"Purrghhaps we might stick with the furrst, ma'am?" he managed in a voice thick and congested from sudden milk inhalation.

He couldn't catch Nico's eye right at that moment.

"Excuse me, would it be all right if I joined you, instead of pretending not to listen from the next table? I've got a weakness for stories." Nico's smile was directed mostly at the storyteller-to-be.

"If you so wish, good brother," Argilla said sweetly, sipping her tea and giving Nico the permission to join the company with a simple movement of the wrist.

Serpentine was looking at Nico in the way a dog looks at an empty bowl of food. It was almost heart-shattering, the way he looked like he wished something was different. "Hi," was all he said. "They're talking about the jester. That's his daughter," was all the harried, winged man said.

"Oh, Serpentine!" came the slightly amused response. "I have a story to tell, yes?"

Nico smiled and tilted her head curiously, not entirely sure he was talking about Sebastian. Now that might be fun. She took a seat between Serpentine and Weft - closer to the latter, what with the wings, and kept quiet, apart from ordering a Djew at the first opportunity.

Weft gave Nico the look of a moth that was developing belated suspicions about that enchanting candle flame. "Nico," he said by way of greeting, and added "ma'am" as a failsafe. He couldn't remember how they'd left things last time they parted ways.

Another sip of tea later, Argilla began the short but amusing tale of how she met her father the first time. Serpentine, who knew the story, sighed but kept quiet.

"Well, let us see, then. It so happened many years ago that I had the fortune of falling in love with a man and marrying him. Admittedly, his mother was a bit of a troublesome one, and my mother was equally troublesome -- albeit in very different manners.

"Whereas my dear Lukian's mother was a shrew, my mother had been widowed in her youth and consequently ruled over two estates; this matter, of course, was the real reason my husband's mother agreed to the marriage. However, my mother, being a prankster and quite the beauty in several manners, had quite decided that she would not see this shrew rule over the estates she held then and which I would hold in the future."

Argilla looked everyone present in the eye, smiling, sipping tea. "She invited my father over to the wedding. I had never seen him, nor had my mother told me of who my father was. It was quite scandalous, actually, but rest assured that it turned quite more scandalous when the ceremony was interrupted by a man of long hair the colour of grey, a quite embarrassingly large hat and an behaviour to match. Once questioned why he chose to be there, he said: 'Well, a father ought not to miss his daughter's wedding.' Or so I recall. Bah, it was something to that effect. Nevertheless, it left my mother in throes of laughter and my mother-in-law in distress. She died soon after."

Having said this all, Mrs Auregarde emptied her cup of tea. "Why, Wilhelm? Might I have another cup, please?" she called.

Serpentine was pressing his hands against his face.

Nico returned Weft a nod and a bright grin for his greeting.

She found Argilla's phrasing a bit hard to follow and concentrated on listening. At the end of the story she looked a little amused and a lot weirded out. "I wonder if that means your mother committed a murder using Sebastian as a weapon."

Argilla raised both eyebrows. "Why, that is even more scandalous than my veritable bastard background!" she said in warm tones, smiling broadly. "No, I believe my mother's intention was merely to show her where she could, ah... place her arrogance and pride." Serpentine, on the other hand sighed.

"Seb never struck me as someone who'd be happy to be used as a murder tool," Weft volunteered. "He's the kind of twisty weapon given to rebounding on the wielder." It could have been taken as a criticism were it not for the obvious admiration suffusing the words.

It was perhaps the greatest difference between his friend and Weft himself.

Argilla decided this was a perfect moment to glance into her tea cup, then back at Weft. "I see. You have found him a tolerable partner in certain ways, then?"

"If I can add," Serpentine said, finally, "he's shifty but not a total assh--" Argilla's look caused him to shut his mouth.

"Much better than tolerable," Weft said, simply and sincerely, "even considering his occasional moods. Which, hey, it's not as if I'm not far worse when it comes to those." His thoughts wandered off for a moment into a pleasant haze of reminiscence.

"Sounds like you've got a story or three about him, too." Nico grinned at Weft, eyes nearly closed..

Argilla nodded. "I would think so, too, mademoiselle. Pray tell, brother, a story or two?"

"Not again," Serpentine moaned.

Weft licked his lips and ordered his thoughts into a version that was differently slanted from the heavily edited version he'd given his principal, and different again from the truth. "So, right, this one time, Sebastian was attacked by a sorcerer he was housebreaking and robbing at the time, very rude way to treat surprise nocturnal guests if you ask me. This guy wielded a magic amulet that could imprison people inside it. I never understood how that magic stuff works.

"The sorcerer cursed Sebastian into the amulet, where he found a village of people descended from the thing's original victims and preyed upon by bandits, more of the same. The villagers took him for the avatar of their lover-god of luck in war, and insisted on following him around in awe, begging him for blessings, adjudications and generally worshipping him." Weft giggled, an eerily grating, oddly coy sound.

"After slaughtering half the bandits to make his point, Sebs manipulated a half-competent hedge wizard he found among them into doing what was necessary to bring the entire remainder out. After that... it got bloody. First the sorcerer had to be dealt with. Then the amulet. The villagers had to be carefully relocated and explained things like traders, rivers and roads. Seb didn't stick around for much of that. Their priestess had a crush on him and ambitions with it."

That had been funny. Weft occasionally wondered what happened to that girl Jillis. His order didn't exactly sponsor its members on adventurers' reunion junkets.

Nico stifled a laugh at the comment about rudeness of treating burglars.

"Ah, I thought you had a story you'd been involved in," she said.

"Why, but I think it quite a tall tale. Quite suits my father's reputation, although, I am certain at length there may have been more to tell," she said, smiling broadly at Weft.

Serpentine excused himself -- politely, which happened only when he was around Mrs Auregarde -- and then, to the terror, horror and general dismay of the staff... he headed for the wine cellar, promising to stay there until he woke up in a pool of red vomit.

"Tall enough to be true!" Weft insisted, grinning. "Of course, I can embroider it some if you like. I'm good with needles."

He eyed the departing winged man, wondering how soon he would be required to eject him. It was all good to Weft. He hadn't bloodied his blades in a little while. Three or so days, maybe. He didn't bother counting any more.

"Ah! I am tolerably acquainted with needles myself. Perhaps we ought to trade techniques at some point?" Argilla asked, her tone polite and cheerful. She utterly ignored Serpentine running off.

Nico looked at Serpentine's wings until he was gone, wondering what prompted that. She vaguely remembered him hanging out with Sebastian at one party... maybe he had heard so many stories already he'd gotten sick of them?

She sipped her drink and listened to the converstion.