[center][b]Intermission; Andrea and Draza[/b][/center]
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Two days prior, the evening after her agreement with Alicia and the lawyering she had to do to make it stick, Draza rubbed her eyes after putting on her night gown, the few candles in her room giving it light in the early night that had fallen after her time with contractual obligations. Hopefully tomorrow would be good and fun, and the time would fly until her dress was done. With little left for her to do but sleep, she moved to blow out the first candle, until she heard a knock upon her door. “Oh tiddlies,” she muttered to herself, “I’m coming.”

Andrea frowned and looked at the scene, she was still uncomfortable with these things… she placed a hand on the surface of the door. This was wood, something of an oddity in the Underdark, some Drow nobles bought it as a matter of prestige and show off their wealth to be able to gain such treasures from the world above. Ah well, when she heard the voice of the occupant answer her she waited, making sure to soothe the snakehead of her whip to not eat her, thinking it might be a mouse, assuming the tales of her size are true.

Draza’s room was normal person sized, despite her own size. Sure, there were accommodations for her to use the door, and furniture and stuff, but it was otherwise originally intended for a full sized person, making most of it unused at the moment. She put her hand on the trigger of the device to open the door, but did not yet open it, “Who may I say is welcome into my room at this hour?”

“Andrea, Priestess of Lollth and fellow Queensblade. We have not yet met in person.” She responded curtly, expecting the door to open.

“Lady Andrea,” Draza paused, lacking a surname, “Well, Lady Andrea, what may I ask are you doing here? I’m all but in my bed covers for sleep.”

“A matter of… well a request really, there is a grand ball approaching and I admit, I do not know how such things are done on the surface, my guard and servant Ceann, knows much of the surface but nothing of how to interact with the surface nobility and royalty, but we gathered you are a… diplomat, yes?”

Draza was a bit curious about the request, “You want… tutoring on courtly behaviours from me because I’ve had time in the courts as a diplomat amongst other things?” Well, that was certainly a first. But she was truly flattered with the request, and while tired, she was awake enough to humour the request for now and set up a proper session at another, more quickened time. “I’m not sure if I can do a long lesson now, but if you want basics… I can probably tell you enough to not embarrass yourself. Or at least enough to not make enemies.”

That said, Draza triggered the device of the door, and with the grinding of small and larger gears, the apparatus opened it and welcomed the priestess in. Draza gave a curtsy, “Your holiness is welcome into my home, however meagre and temporary it may be.”

Now able to see her she saw the tales were true, how pitiful to ask the assistance of a lesser creature but she would be damned to ask that heretic drow for assistance. “Now there is no door in the way, allow me to introduce myself properly.” She bowed, “Andrea, my… gratitude for seeing me, even if it is late. The darkness that night brings gives me more comfort so I am more active at this time.”

“I understand completely. May I offer you something to eat, or drink? I do not have much of either on me, but what I have is yours if you wish it,” Draza offered, before catching herself, “Oh where are my manners, how am I to teach you if I cannot even present myself despite my nightly dress.” Draza scurried to the side, gesturing her fullest invitation before curtsying again, “I’m Draza Zorya, and it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintanceship. I am honoured by your visit and to be a member of the same group graced by yourself. If you will find it do more honour for you, I will make haste to dress myself more presentably for you,” she said, gesturing to her gown before skittering off to close the door behind the priestess.

She let out a dry chuckle, “No need, I realise that this hour is somewhat late, but I do appreciate you offer of help and understand if you wish for more… formal lessons to be undertaken in the light of day. But right now you can perhaps give me some basic understanding, for example.” She grimaced and narrowed her eyes, “Are we expected to bow down before these… foreign dignitaries that come here? Do they make us fetch drinks or something similar?”

Draza blinked up at Andrea, “No, they won’t want us to ‘bow down’, but a polite bow or curtsy as a sign of respect is always appreciated… well, not always, but generally speaking,” she pinched the bridge of her nose as she remembered some of the more aggressive surface cultures she had to deal with that wanted her to slay something ‘grand’ before they talked. “And you of course won’t have to serve them drinks, you’re not… making yourself lower than them,” Draza thought about how it’d work exactly, “You’re making them higher, and there’s a difference. A servant would bow and kiss the ground before them before fetching their drink, but you would do neither such thing.”

She raised a brow, “I see… I miss the Underdark, so much easier, show reverence to the matron mother of your house and ignore the others.” That or kill them, without witnesses of course, but she did not say that out loud. “Am I correct however that this ball… is mainly for the queens to show us off to these visitors?”

“Show us off, try to convince them that ‘saving all life from the armies of doomy death doom’ is a team effort, stuff like that,” Draza nodded. “If we do more lessons after tonight, I must ask you of your culture. I would love to learn more, and you would be doing me a great favour in doing so. Enough that I wouldn’t dream of asking for anything else for the lessons. Learning for learning, lessons for lessons. Does that sound fair to you?”

She cocked her head, considering it and then slowly nodded. “I suppose I could teach you some, but the culture of the Drow… is from what I gather from my servant rather… chaotic compared to some of the surface realms.” She snorts, “I have no idea what she means but perhaps it is, but back to the matter at hand, yes I find that a acceptable agreement.”

“Marvellous,” Draza said, having already procured a parchment and quill with ink by a small table near one of her candles, “I’ll begin writing up the agreement immediately.” Her fingers quickly began to scritch and scratch across, dipping the quill back into the ink before continuing on again, “Now, refrain from things with these dignitaries, like… don’t insult them unless you’re particularly clever and they insult you first,” she stops before adding, “And if they were clever about it. Some banter could be nice if the wit is sharp enough, and earn you respect for it. If they’re otherwise being polite then do not engage them in such a way, meet sharp wit with respectable sharp wit, and kindness with polite kindness.”

Andrea blinked, “What? Wait… write this down? What are you doing.” She looked suspiciously from Draza to the piece of paper she was scribbling on.

“Written things are… a standard that I picked up from the courtly circles. If you want to have more security in an agreement, you wrote it down. Now, I write most every long term agreement upon something,” Draza explained. “It’s also good for helping to remember things! If you go, ‘oop, I forgot’ and you have it written down, it’s great.”

She frowned, “I see… I would prefer not to, the ball is soon so there is no long term teaching you could give me and, while I do manage to have some understanding of your script it is still difficult to me and I have no idea what you intend to write down.”

Draza stopped in her tracks, “Oh,” she set down the quill, “I… yeah,” she mutters. She begins to put the stuff back away, “I do apologize, it’s become habit. For the duration of our arrangement, verbal should be fine. I don’t believe either of us will forget our culture or the exchange of it so quickly,” she laughs nervously, and stops making noise for a bit once more. Finally having put things away, she turns back to Andrea, “So, what would you like to know more about?”

The next hour or so Draza informed Andrea somewhat of what to expect at the grand ball and even a few shocking tidbits, but it was late, for Draza anyway and as Andrea left after making an appointment on the aftermorrow for more lessons she turned back, confusion still on her face. “This… this is just… there will be, under no circumstances, at any governmental function, at least here in Renalta… no orgy afterwards?” She shook her head. “You surfacers… where in the hells do you get your fun?”

Draza looked a combination between flabbergasted, tired, and mystified, “Not with…” she pinches the bridge of her nose, “We’ll talk more about the time and place of surface sex at another lesson,” she said. Drow culture was [i]weird[/i] and something that some of her more risqué friends would say they’d love but then wouldn’t be able to deal. At least she was honest up front with her incapability of dealing up front… right? Regardless, she wished the priestess… she was a priestess. That was such a weird thought in the back of her mind considering the religious she was familiar with, and her own faith… but she opened the door for her, and bade her good night; hoping to Lada that she’d not have dreams she couldn’t handle.