Starday Evening, Fireseek 1, 591 Common Year

On Fireseek the first – the first day of the first full month of the new-year – the Prince-Governor holds a banquet to celebrate the New Year. All those members of the watch not on duty are invited. Master Parwyn, who now acts as though Reece had never been mentioned, says to Aramek, “This is a great honor, and a good way for you to be seen by the powers that be. And maybe make a few friends, eh?” Aramek also figures that this might be a good chance to talk with Rain about his discovery. For her part, hoping to catch site of Sir Jankin, Rain makes sure she is there with the rest of her squad.

Once the clergy and nobles have been seated in the great hall, the men-at-arms are seated together in the halls adjacent to it. In these halls, the floors are covered with rushes only, and the tables are set with pewter dishes, utensils, and mugs. For Aramek, it is his first chance to catch a glimpse of Prince Prospero and his knights and courtiers. Rain has the strange experience of seeing her mentor Lady Sedara again from across the foyer, but now as an outsider. She also sees many of the ladies-in-waiting, knights, and nobles that she once moved among invisibly as a servant, but she must now pretend she has never seen them before except from a distance. They notice that the night shift watch commander, Sir Gorman, is seated towards the end of the Second Mess with other Keoland nobles and clergy and what looks like a Flan priest. The conversations among the nobles seem quite lively, even heated in some cases, but civil.

Rain finds herself seated with the other members of her squad. To her right sits Vaskez. Across from her is Frost. Hadsyn is seated across from Rain. On her left sits Aramek and his ferret Snoop. Hex is seated across from them. On Aramek’s left is Drake. Noch sits across from Drake. Many of the men-at-arms are dressed in their uniforms, though a few are wearing clean and loose fitting civilian breeches and tunics. None of them, of course, are wearing the silks and jewelry of the nobility; and their conversation is, as would be expected, much more boisterous and even crude at times, full of the bravado and black humor that one would expect from the commoner troops.

The Heironean blessings are led by Paragon Muire in the great hall. The men-at-arms in the adjacent halls observe them as respectfully as the nobles, paladins, and clerics. After that, the servants begin bringing in platters of food, a plainer faire than what is served in the great hall, though some leftovers from there do make it out to the adjacent halls in the course of the evening.

Hadsyn turns to Vaskez and says, “Hey, Vaskez, has anyone ever mistaken you for a man?”

“No, has anyone mistaken you for one?” she snaps back. Drake chortles and gives her the thumbs up.

Frost turns to Hadsyn and says, “Hey, Has-been, quit wiping your hands on my end of the tablecloth.”

All around the din of the men-at-arms and other commoners’ increasingly drunken banter rises as they trade similar quips, boasts, witticisms, and ribald stories about visits to the Street of Red Lanterns or the gold they lost, or occasionally won, at the resurgent, yet underground, Church of the Big Gamble. Various entertainers come into the hall and perform for the assembled guests as they converse and the various Removes are brought in, consumed, and then taken away. They start at the High Table in the great hall and then make their way down to the other tables and finally into the adjacent halls. There are troubadours, jugglers, and even apprentice magic users and bards who perform acts of prestidigitation and other minor magical workings for the amusement of the court.

When it’s clear that no one can hear each other anymore unless they are shouting in one another’s ears, Aramek leans over to Rain and says, “I’ve got something I need to talk to you about, but not here. It’s about something I’ve found. Can we talk at some time privately?”

Rain replies, “Heh, sounds like you have picked up on some court intrigue or something. Let’s talk tonight after the feast.”

After awhile, like many others, Rain gets up to go to the garderobe. On the way, she looks for a servant who can tell her who Sir Jankin is and where he is sitting. A helpful page tells Rain that Sir Jankin is a blond knight with grey-green eyes sitting at the Second Mess, third from the end on the left side if one is facing the High Table. When she peeks in on the great hall, she spots him, and notes that he is very fair skinned, blond, green eyed, and probably only in his late teens. He is sitting to the right of a thin but otherwise unremarkable looking man of about the same age with a weathered olive complexion with dark brown hair and eyes and wearing nice clothes but no jewels or other adornment. On that man’s left and at the end of the table is an older man, perhaps in his mid-twenties, beefy and stern looking, lightly tanned, with brown hair, black eyes, and wearing the crumpled hat that indicates he is a priest of St. Cuthbert. Across from that man, at the right hand end of the table nearest the High Table as one faces it, is another young man in his twenties with the deep dark brown complexion of the Flan tribesmen, dark eyes, and black wavy hair shaved in a bowl cut whose only adornment is a small Green Man pendant, probably carved out of mistletoe. To this man’s left is Sir Gorman, the night shift commander. The young woman sitting to his left is probably his wife. She observes that they are engaged in some kind of heated discussion. In fact, it seems as though Sir Jankin is having a vigorous disagreement with Sir Gorman and the beefy looking devotee of St. Cuthbert at the end of the table. But that is all Rain has time to see before she figures her observations will become conspicuous, and so she return to her squad.

Once the feast is over and the guests are making their way back to their homes or the barracks Rain says to Aramek, “Why don’t we head off to some place where we can have a private conversation about this exciting discovery of yours?”

Just then Sgt. Apone sees Rain and the others heading out of the hall and he reminds them all that the night shift begins in less than half an hour. Rain didn’t realize that the feast had gone on so long. It is almost midnight. Quickly, Rain heads back to the barracks for her armor and tabard. Aramek goes with her and puts on his tabard as well, which he had brought with him to put on over his clothes. Together the squad heads out together by torchlight to the guard post on the upriver side of the marketplace.