Mother Dearest
The job had been clear. A guild member needs some informal assistance with demons harassing his family.
Dolan had explained the situation in more detail on the meeting, and had provided air passage to Selentia. His fiancee's mother, a Selentian noble, had shown up at their family farm and stolen a hairbrush while there, but when Dolan and Andelena arrived, shadow demons had attacked and threatened his family. Andelena's mother has no reason to be there, and her doing so is _entirely_ out of character for her. They are paying Andelena's family a visit in hopes of learning more.
The direction had been to dress as well as they could afford.
If the weather in Alexandria is bitterly cold, the weather in Selentia is... atrocious. Snow several feet deep covers everything, and it's cold enough to make those without the benefit of cold weather clothes consider walking right back into the airship. It's snowing none too gently. Adding to the already deep snowfall. Selentia itself is quiet. Which is perhaps not surprising considering how terrible the snow is. There's not much to do during a snowfall this heavy except wait it out.
Challenge accepted.
If Andelena and Dolan thought Telamon was overdressed -before-, well, now he's pulling out all the stops. He's wearing a gorgeous dark blue silk tunic, long sleeved and knee-length, over white breeches with a deep blue stripe down the outside of each leg tucked into his polished black boots. Whenever Telamon moves, the color of the fabric seems to shift from that deep blue to a darker violet. A heavy fur cape is tossed over his shoulders, secured with a silver chain. His hair is combed back, and his circlet is polished to a high shine.
"Any idea what we can expect?" Tel inquires of Dolan and Andelena quietly. "Selentia can be a bit... persnickety sometimes."
Patch sees no issue with her clothes of choice. Maybe they are on the more proper side for riding clothes, but still fashionable! More so because it gives the small elf a chance to wear something for warmth and heeled boots. A cloak of maroon is tied over one shoulder a pack carried half obscured by the draping fabric in one hand. "Don't worry, Dolan. Remember, I mentioned making preparations for times like these." she assures the man with a grin. Her free hand even flaunts at two rapiers upon her hip that's not obscured. "I came because I mean business. I said if you're in trouble, just ask."
The bard just stands near Telamon, an eye rising to flick over him with a raised brow. "I am starting to think I need to peek in your closets for ideas." Patch murmurs, letting others talk of tactics.
Andelena shows up in something that she knows her mother would begrudgingly accept: her Sunguard armor and cloak. She had left her dresses behind in Selentia years ago, and none of them would likely fit her now anyway. Deliverance is sheathed on her back, and the redhead woman's steel-grey eyes are trained on the snow that's falling.
"Expect her to be sweet and belittling all at once," Andelena replies to Telamon. "She'll probably think you're the hottest shit that's ever walked into the manor, but she's probably going to call /me/ by name maybe once or twice, if we're lucky."
She turns to Patch. "Nice to meet you. I'm Andelena, and I apologize deeply about the turgid old bint we're going to visit. If it weren't for the fact that she's fucking around with demons and stealing shit from Bry's family, we wouldn't be here. But we are."
The sword on Andelena's back buzzes a little. "Deliverance, please," the Sunguard murmurs. "You're about to meet my mother. You're going to understand /why/ I cuss so damn much."
In Selentia, there is simply no such thing as overdressed, and Dolan knows it, to his sorrow. Like Andelena, he has polished his armor, replaced laces, and paired it with a wool shirt in a harvest gold and doeskin trousers. His boots are polished, his hair clean and trimmed, but he has made no effort to conceal the scars down the right side of his face, or the topaz gem in a ring of bronze and steel that serves him as a right eye. More attention-grabbing still is the white and gold mantle he wears around his shoulders.
Over all is a fur-lined cloak, again in the harvest gold with white embroidery along the edges. "We don't know that she is messing around with demons - but I think it likely. That shadow demon was lying through its teeth when it claimed it had no master. I just have to prove it's her."
"It's a pleasure to meet this 'Andy' that Dolan keeps going off about." Patch muses, offering Andelena a toothy grin. "I love this kind of stuff. I met Dolan because I was chasing werewolves. This is my kind of story, Honey. Let's see where it goes." she assures.
Dressed to the nines, and looking fine, the group of you heads directly to Andelena's childhood home. It's a house befitting a noble of the station that her family comes from. Perhaps a touch more... fancy than it needs to be. You are welcomed into the house by the butler who leads you immediately through the house to a small 'reading room'. There's no one inside, but the butler leaves you with a maid to serve you tea and mulled wine while he fetches his mistress.
She makes you wait.
Once they've crossed the threshold, there's a certain, subtle shift in Telamon's mien. He exudes confidence, the kind of confidence that comes from knowing you're the gods' gift to the people, to lead them around. Having doffed his fur cloak, he looks far less like an adventuring sorcerer and more like an elegant, poised man of good breeding.
Holding a goblet of mulled wine, he inspects the accouterments of the 'reading room', his expression set in that vague look of interest so many nobles aspire to use.
Removal of snow is a thing, and Dolan is quite careful about it, but then settles down to wait, armor and all. As the wait lengthens, he cradles a cup of mulled wine in his hands, looking just a little out of place. It is then that he turns to Patch. "I appreciate the support. Patch was one of the people who spent the night in Dirk's cabin," he says carefully to Andelena. "Just be careful with this woman. I need to get the truth out of her without getting thrown out in the snow."
GAME: Telamon rolls bluff: (11)+23: 34
Ah, here she is again. Andelena greets the butler with a pleasant enough, "Hello, Sagird," and takes a seat. Nostalgia is supposed to taste sweet, but neither the tea nor the fact that Andelena's sitting here measure up to that taste, judging by the expression on the Sunguard that's somewhere between contempt and trying to maintain her composure. "See mother hasn't updated her porcelain lately," she remarks quietly to herself.
She looks to the maid with a look like sympathy. But otherwise, she remains silent. She sits up straight, but it's been quite a few years since Mother's attempts at 'housebreaking' her wild horse of a daughter, so the etiquette lessons never fully took root.
Patch doesn't bother putting on an 'air', feeling most welcome wherever she goes, even if she's not. She at least dusted clean. She selects the mulled wine, a goblet sipped as she keeps it away from any books and furniture, smirking at Telamon in amusement at the antics. Something seems to nag at her, an ear twitching as she looks back to Andelena with a slight flush. "Most call me, Patch. I'm sorry. I got hung up on the excitement. Though in this situation you may call me Siofra. If proper must be due. Siofra Galakir."
"It's a lovely spot, but I have to wonder is it cultivated, or paid for?" Patch legitimately wonders. The rich love it when you critique their shit. Or, she thinks, her eyes then roaming on the selection of books. "I'd hate to think they sit here unused."
GAME: Andelena rolls Perception: (5)+10: 15 GAME: Patch rolls perception: (7)+10: 17 GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (13)+23: 36 GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (17)+13: 30
An hour.
The waiting is at least made less of a burden by the mulled wine that is offered by the maid. She ignores any and all efforts to talk to her with smiles and ignoring you.
With the passing of the hour, Andelena's mother enters the room. She looks... different than Andelena remembers her. In good health and smiling. She doesn't let her eyes roam over the room, but rather takes you in as a whole for only a second before offering her hand limply to Telamon. "You must be the one that is responsible for this little... group." She also offers a disarming smile. "Such a fine young man, how may I help you?"
Telamon takes Lady Calogref's hand in his, his gaze meeting hers. Studying her face. "Enchanted, Lady Calogref. I am called Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon. It's been a long time since I was in Selentia, and it pleases me to see a familiar face -- though we did not meet. You were pointed out to me at the time, and," he laughs softly, "I was still a stripling dangling along in my father's wake, learning the trade."
He bows over her hand, but does not kiss it, as a Rosalian might do. "I must say, Lady Calogref, you're as enchanting as you were when I first saw you those years ago? What is your secret, so I might bear it to my mother in Ylvaliel?"
Having expected treatment of this sort, Dolan merely smirks and stands, then removes the pendant of the stylized dragon from inside his armor, kissing it before murmuring to it and letting it drop. If she is stupid enough to ignore that a Corona is calling on her openly, then let her be that stupid. He shoots a glance at Andelena, and raises a hand to her that would seem to be a quelling gesture.
That done, he fixes his gaze firmly on the woman while they talk. His flesh-and-blood eye narrows, but he does't move, or tense. Instead, he takes to listening closely to each word said, parsing them in great detail.
GAME: Dolan rolls diplomacy+2: (10)+13+2: 25
Patch goes quiet, her smile falling into a thin line as she sips the last bit of mulled wine from her glass before setting it quietly aside. Telamon is the perfect 'face' in this situation, and she will allow it. Plus, it's fuel to tease the 'Prince' with later. Dolan earns a smirk, and Andelena is given a curious glance, but really she is using it as an excuse to continue to scan the room and listen to the words being spewed. A small hum and bit of magic collecting in her throat. To some, a noise of boredom? No, a performance to give them competence in this time.
There is the slightest twitch of Andelena's steel-grey eye and the tension of her fist. Dolan can hear, as he's closest to her, her breathing in a little heavier through the nose--just once. It's like a wound, although better characterized as a wound reopened. Here is the woman's own flesh-and-blood daughter, sitting here before her--and she is not acknowledged. Only the man with the finest face and the finest clothes.
After all, what gardener would acknowledge the weed pulled from the garden that began to grow higher than the flowers that the gardener prized, once she realized the weed was what it was?
But she maintains her silence. Andelena's not good at being silent. But she's trying. This is like a scene that has played out before, but this time... there's more than one ally in the room.
GAME: Telamon rolls talky: aliased to diplomacy+8: (20)+24+8: 52
The Lady Calogref twitters - actually giggles - and smiles comfortably at Telamon. "Oh my. You simply MUST call me Maelynn. You flatterer." She touches a hand to her own cheek and then lays it on her chest in a manner to suggest that she's possibly faint with praise. Her eyes do flicker toward Dolan however, and her smile fades slightly. "And much as I appreciate the pleasantries, I am very curious as to why you brought a Corona to my home. It's most... unusual."
Even as she speaks she pulls back slightly, holding her hand out for a glass of wine which her maid hastens to hand out to her. She takes a sip of it, and though she seems utterly bespelled by Telamon's presence, there's some keen intelligence in her eyes. She's no fool, even if she plays the part of one.
"So soon to business, Lady Calogref?" Telamon says with a touch of apparent regret in his voice. "But yes. Maelynn. There has been a most curious turn of events in far Alexandros. Many things happening, which may change the shape of the world yet. I myself am caught up in them, if only by circumstance." He sips from his wine as well, but he doesn't drink much of it. Just to wet his throat.
"There was an incident, you see, and my friend here, a just and noble Corona of the Highest One, Eli, is investigating it. Someone," he drops his voice as if to impart a -secret-, "is playing dangerous games, wearing the guise of others while committing nefarious acts, Maelynn. Such deeds must be stamped out. And it seems someone had committed such an act while wearing your appearance."
This time, Dolan decides not to beat around the bush. "Lady Calogref, I will not presume to waste your valuable time," he begins, assuming the stern, no-nonsense gaze of the inquisitor. "I am investigating the matter of shadow demons that are harassing villagers in northern Alexandros. You, or someone who closely resembles you, spent some time at a farm in the area just prior to the first arrival of the demons that now threaten the farming family in question. It seems - unusual - to me that one such as yourself would travel in that direction, and thus did I ask Master Lupecyll-Atlon's aid, along with the aid of the temple, to understand the truth of the matter."
At Telamon's smooth words, Patch's humming ceases. Even she flushes at the smooth handling of this awkward, and strange situation. It's a good thing the benefits of her song carry for a while longer, because that kind of diplomatic display was stunning. The bard can appreciate dancing, even if it was with words. Skill is skill.
No, she focuses on other things. Lady Calogref and her words. Patch's focus there now that the words and war begin.
Andelena's gaze is fixed on her mother, her hands still clenched, her jaw still locked. Everything frozen in place, like she's waiting for something. A single disdainful sneer, a word her direction. Anything. /Anything./
But then Dolan speaks. Her steel-grey gaze slides over to him. She doesn't move a muscle in her neck to turn her face to him, but her eyes do. Before she can even realize it, she breathes again--that heavy breath, like before, that only Dolan can tell is different.
Then her gaze returns to Lady Calogref.
"The Corona speaks true," the Sunguard Andelena remarks. "I am aiding him on his investigation as a representative of the Temple of Daeus." Her name is unsaid. Andelena is not here. The guard of Daeus's light is. The white cloak is a comfort and a shield.
Maelynn's mouth tightens into a thin line of disapproval. "I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Both of you." She nods once to Dolan without really looking at him. "I can assure you both that I have not left Selentia in some time, and if my word is not good enough to assuage your concerns... My staff can verify that I have been home most of the last month. Particularly my butler and my handmaidens. Why I have held a social function here nearly every week over that duration. There are several prominent families who can attest to my whereabouts."
She smiles at Telamon. "My sons and husband can each verify this information. Children are a blessing are they not? Though it behooves them to learn early when they should speak and when they should not. After all _chilren are to be seen and not heard_."
GAME: Patch rolls perform/sing: (18)+13: 31 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (7)+20+3: 30 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (3)+17+1: 21 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (6)+17+1: 24 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (11)+11: 22
Telamon fixes Maelynn with a stern stare. "Then someone seeks to blacken your reputation most severely, Lady Calogref. The penalties for consorting with powers of darkness are notoriously blind to status and wealth, after all." He sets his cup down, steepling his fingers. "However, your word -- and your alibi -- are both easy enough to verify. Which leaves us with a new direction. Who might benefit from such an act?"
His hand snaps up. "Think before you speak, Maelynn," he says quietly, his eyes swirling with stars. "For 'tis true a child should speak less and listen more -- gods know, I had to learn -that- lesson. But there comes a point where the child is no longer a child -- and one must -accept- that. Do not speak hastily or in anger."
Patch sighs, shaking her head. "You speak very bold and honestly, Lady Calogref. However, I did notice that not all the pieces fit. Are you sure there isn't some small detail you missed?" she asks, a hopeful tone and smile. "Apologies, I know this visit must be stressful, but we are here to help you. At no cost." she adds.
"We are not saying it was you, but would someone like to be using your good name?" Patch coaxes after Telamon's words. "Worries lead to wrinkles, and we can help eliminate both for you." not the diplomat that Telamon is. She just senses something more to all this.
Dolan inclines his head. "Master Telamon asks the exact question in my mind," he begins. "I am certain that I need not tell you that the penalties under Myrrish law for consorting with or summoning the denizens of the Hells are very serious. All the same - I am certain that a busy social schedule such as yours is quite taxing. Some days it must feel as though it takes more than one person to manage it all. To have someone seeking to besmirch your name and your families on top of that is no light matter."
There is nothing on Andelena's face. If the woman in front of her is hoping for a rise, she isn't getting it. They have have the same red hair and bear a resemblance to one another, but the blood that runs through their veins might as well be different colors.
The Sunguard smiles.
"Thankfully, Lady Calogref, there are no children in the room," she says. The steel-grey eyes are as bright as the flash of a sword. "Where are your husband and your sons currently? They may be useful to the investigation."
GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (3)+17+1: 21 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (3)+11: 14 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (5)+20+3: 28 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (17)+11: 28 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (12)+20+3: 35 GAME: Patch rolls perform/sing: (17)+13: 30
She does in fact start to answer immediately, but Telamon's warning causes her to close her mouth around the edge of her glass and she sips from it instead. Maelynn seems to think for a long moment and then sighs and shrugs. "Who would do such a thing? This business... is wholly unsettling to me. As you said, you can easily verify that it was not me. Whatever you were told."
Here she frowns and her eyes flicker disdainful toward Andelena. Then purposefully away. "I consider it no light matter that someone might try to bring dishonor to my family. Nor will I allow anyone to question my husband nor sons unless you mean to bring formal charges against me." She draws herself up to her full height and firmly gives her glass of wine back to the maid.
GAME: Patch rolls Knowledge/Local: (14)+13: 27
Telamon's eyes glitter like the night sky. "You are being reticent, Maelynn. I sought to prevent you from speaking in haste and foolishly, for I have seen -far- too much of families damaged by words thrown in anger." There's something inexorable in his face now, and hard, hard as diamond. "But perhaps 'tis related to your wondrous face. I must admit, I've never seen makeup worn to look -older- -- save by the young debutantes to appear much more worldly and mature."
He leans in closer to Maelynn. "Please, Lady Calogref. These games take me away from my wife, whom I adore. I think you know far more than you speak."
"If it would not be an issue, Master Telamon." Patch says, turning to touch the half-elf's shoulder. "We should drop some of our pretenses, and let her know we don't suspect her, but of this Lady Aza." Patch bringing up some street gossip she'd heard. It's strange to save it for now, but the bard can't give away all her secrets, can she?
"See, Lady Caogref. I've heard she consorts with demons, and I was trying to not have her connected to your house." a glance then flashed to everyone in the room. "We would not want there to be a connection, yes?" the bard leaning on her hunch a bit. Mixing it with some embellishment for flavor.
Dolan merely remains exactly as he is, or where he is. "No one is accusing you of anything, Lady Calogref." He seems about to say more, but turns his gaze to Telamon and Patch as they speak, and holds his peace instead. He’s missing something here that Telamon caught, and he knows it. Better that he remain silent, the better to hear.
Andelena's eyes are trained fully on her as the Lady rises up to her full height. The woman is smaller than her own daughter, even with age accounted for. The weed in the flower garden, indeed, but Andelena's no weed.
"Yes," she agrees with Patch's assessment. "This is an active investigation with more than one avenue to consider. Any information you can give us about other actors could be helpful."
The Lady Maelynn Caogref pulls away from Telamon, her eyes hooding with displeasure, and then Patch steps forward and she takes the opportunity to step away from everyone and motion for her glass of wine back. She freezes there with the glass almost dropping to the ground. "I'm afraid there is a connection." She says, blinking and then swiping the glass from the maid. She drinks her wine down a fair measure. "After my daughter abandoned her duties to this family, I was forced to look for other accommodations for my sons. Lady Aza Derwes has a daughter who is currently engaged to my eldest son. She had nothing to do with this however."
She waves a hand at the group. She looks incredibly discomforted.
GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive: (8)+17: 25 GAME: Patch rolls perform/sing: (4)+13: 17 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (16)+11: 27 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (10)+20+3: 33
Telamon doesn't back away though. His eyes are cool and distant. "Really, Maelynn? You offered to marry your eldest son off to the daughter of a random woman? No noble family in Selentia would do?" He keeps staring at Lady Calogref's face. "I must admit, the work is marvelous. I just don't see why you'd bother." His lips curl into something that could only be loosely called a smile. "While a gentleman does not speculate on a lady's age, you really do look only as old as your daughter -- if not younger. Such a feat requires powerful magic... or something else."
Patch makes a strange noise, akin to 'Eeee' as she turns to face away as the connections are mentioned. She's done. No more ideas. It's been a weird dance to witness, but there is something foul afoot. Something more than being spoken of, sadly, she did her part. It's up to the others now.
"Dealing with those who deal with demons. Is still dealing with demons." Patch whispers while not looking at the Lady, using magics usually left hidden to carry a message to her friends. "I'm not for sure about this Lady Ava, but the words on the street is poor." informing them of some of the things she knows.
"A youthful look is a thing to be proud of, it's true." Dolan smiles very thinly, not even the least bit the boy who had once come courting. "And yet - Master Telamon is right." He stares at her with that unnerving, artificial gaze for a long time. "Yes. I don't get why the matter of a child disowned is relevant to this matter, but, nonetheless, I am concerned for you, Lady Calogref, knowing now that you have an enemy who has yet to show themselves. Would you permit me to offer you Daeus' blessing?"
The Lady Calogref can wave hand off all the concerns she wants. But the daughter that she claims to have abandoned the family tree is sitting right there. But she's not angered by the accusation.
The horrifying truth of the matter is, in fact, that the weed has come back. The gardener may have believed she was free of it, but here it is again in her flower bed, looming behind the flowers she dotes on and behind the carefully laid fences of her plans. The red hair that streams out and rests against the back of that white cloak is proof of it.
"Mother." The word is said like a steel weight, for it is delivered by a woman wearing steel-grey eyes. It's a word that cannot be ignored, cannot be batted off, cannot be torn out of the family book no matter how hard the Lady Calogref tries. "You are truly so desperate that you'd marry Gale to the daughter of a woman with only disgrace to follow her name? Gale, who once bragged he could walk into a ball and pick out the woman with the brightest spoon in her mouth?"
A laugh leaves Andelena--Andelena of Selentia, Andelena the Sunguard, Andelena Calogref.
"Mother, you expect me to believe for a moment that I forgot /your face/?" Another laugh that leaves the lion like a roar, her mane of red hair behind her. "I am your daughter. I remember every wrinkle on your face. I remember every damned spot on your head. I remember it all from the day that you wrote me out of the family tree."
The steel-grey eyes flare as the smile widens on Andelena's face. "Mother, you had best start telling us everything, or I will be the one to carry you to the Temple of Daeus, and I will /watch/ as they sentence you to the Knight's holy judgment."
"I think you mean me insult Mister Lupecyll-Atlon, the way you keep bringing up my age. And I think you mean me even more insult... Whoever you are." She waves a hand at Dolan and pushes her wine glass off again on the maid. "To suggest that I _need_ such a blessing, and can not receive such a thing. Go. All of you. Go away and do not return."
She turns blazing eyes on Andelena lastly of all, her gaze scornful and full of something dark. "You threaten me outright, as if you have any evidence of wrongdoing. But you don't." She seethes. "If you _must_ know Gale loves the girl. He's infatuated and refuses to see anyone else but her. But me? I have been _here_ not galavanting off in Alexandria like some peasant-blooded child. You can go too my one-time daughter. But you will get nothing further here."
"Or what, Maelynn?" Telamon asks with a bland expression. "You'll write a harshly-worded letter? Have me run out of Selentia? File a complaint about my boots?" His eyes glitter as he steps closer to Lady Calogref again. "Insult? Oh, we've gone beyond insults, Lady Calogref. I think you are nose deep in whatever games are being played, the price of your son's marriage the wiping away of your years. Your husband must've been thrilled, of course -- assuming he still lives. After all, when you're young and fresh again, why not go fishing? Why be bound to an older man?"
His eyes flick to the maid. "The inquiry will be far ranging, and the Temple will not be keen to let any member of the cult go free. It might be best to hope for mercy."
GAME: Patch rolls perform/sing: (18)+13: 31 GAME: Telamon rolls detectbs: aliased to sense motive+3: (16)+20+3: 39 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (16)+17+1: 34 GAME: Telamon rolls intimidate: (5)+21: 26 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (19)+11: 30 GAME: Dolan rolls intimidate+1: (8)+17+1: 26
"I thought you might refuse." Dolan seems - not pleased, but - satisfied. Vindicated. His stare at her is hard, and icy. "Most folk of the world do not refuse the blessing of the Light, without good reason. You have told me what I came for, whether you meant to or not, and you were the first to offer insult. You have my thanks." With that, Dolan deliberately turns his back on Lady Calogref, and starts towards the door.
Patch is hiding her glance as things escalate around her. "So much said, and so little revealed." she says, sighing as she rubs at the bridge of her nose as accusations, blessing, and temples go flying. "A shame this is a family matter, or I'd be a bit more brash." a glance cast to the maid as she is shocked by Telamon's words. She's too enthralled in the drama to really add to it. Chronicle and snort over? Yes. Fight? Not unless she must. "Even if in bits, at least truth is free." enjoying that no one pays her enough mind so she can have her commentary as she moves to follow Dolan.
"Really? Lady Maelynn Calogref, doting mother who adores her sons more than anything, who will tend to their every need, has /no/ clue why her oldest son is in love?" Andelena barks another laugh at her. Her steel-grey eyes shine so much brighter, full of the wit that the father she inherited them from doesn't possess.
Maybe that's what she inherited from her mother, and now the knife is being put against her throat.
"No, you're getting something from this. Just like you wanted to betrothe me to the first nobleman with two unmarried daughters you could find, and then have Gale and Seb married to those daughters. Who cares if my brothers have to call me 'mother-in-law' when you get to pad your purse with the dowries of your new daughters-in-law? Who cares if the man turns out to be an ill-advised fit for your daughter, when you get to benefit from the prestige of three well-made matches? You've never once given a single /shit/ about love, mother."
Andelena grins brightly.
"But I do. That's why I'm with him."
She goes to follow Dolan out.
"I-I... Will have my butler escort you out!" Maelynn utters, playing the part of the frightened party as Telamon advances on her, but it's Dolan whom her eyes flicker toward, her worry evident.
"She IS younger. At least thirty years! I do her makeup so I've seen-" The maid's words are cut off by a short smack as Maelynn slaps her across the face with fury. The maid holds her face and keeps talking. "I don't know how she's done it, I swear! I have not consorted with demons but maybe she has!"
"How dare you speak against me!" The lady is furious and she turns lightning eyes on Telamon. "You can not prove a word you've said! Nothing!"
Telamon stares at the maid, and a faint smile appears on his face. "I see. Perhaps--" There's the slightest snap in the air, like it suddenly got colder around him. He stares at the Lady Calogref and the smile is gone. "Don't do that again. I'd hate to wreck the place."
His eyes suddenly flick back to the maid. "I suggest you seek shelter with the temple, miss. Come with us, if you like. There may be... more to say." With that, though, he turns almost languidly to follow Dolan.
It is the sound of the smack to the maid that makes Dolan turn around, finally, and _stare_ at Lady Calogref. The light of the room lamps spill shadows across the furrowed and melted flesh, glinting off the golden gem. "You're not improving your case, Maelynn Calogref." He drops the Lady pretense with one icy statement. "Master Telamon, there's no need to wreck the place. Innocents still live here, and there is one in this room." He nods to the maid. "Miss, you may not be safe here. Come with us."
Patch turns as the others do, eyes narrowing at the actual violence. Some actions don't need to be guessed about, and that escalation didn't earn Lady Calogref any sympathy. "I would be warned, Lady Calogref. I have heard whispering of those whom you consort with. It doesn't take the bard a bit of tongue waggling to tie you to it. Worse, if it turns out to be true, and your conspired? All the better. The heat is on you. And you dare hurt those who would save your house?!" the bard's chord having been plucked. The abuse, it was too much for her. It's all bluff, but she's angry. "This is why I ran away form home. And your daughter? I don't blame her either."
GAME: Patch rolls perform/sing: (16)+13: 29 GAME: Andelena rolls Intimidate: (3)+1: 4
The sound of the slap stops Andelena in her tracks, too, and she spins right around, putting herself between the maid and her mother. She's one imposing guard, too, her height towering over the older woman (even if the older woman is wearing a younger face). But she's not focusing on being imposing--the concern is fully on the maid.
"Mother, I could have you arrested for battery right here and now, but I won't," she informs Lady Calogref. She looks over her shoulder at the maid. "Go with my fiance. You are /not/ safe here. She's going to fire you anyway--she went through hundreds of maids when I grew up here, and she'd fire them at the drop of a copper. We need your testimony."
"It is none of any of your business how I discipline my staff!" Maelynn utters harshly.
"Then I quit! You're terrible anyway!" The maid utters bravely - from behind Andeleana - then runs for Telamon, Dolan, and Patch.
The lady Calogref looks toward Dolan, her eyes narrowed. "Now I see. Fiance. This was all a way of getting under my skin so that you could spread rumors about me! Get out. You have what you came for, but my family will stand strong under these accusations. You will see!"
-End