[center][h1][b][color=9354FF]Fritz "Ryn" Hendrix[/color][/b][/h1]
[color=9354FF]Interaction(s):[/color] Nala [@13org] (Collab)[/center]
Ryn took the opportunity to wander around the ballroom and greet people he had yet to properly converse with. When he wasn’t talking to someone, Ryn surveyed his surroundings, carefully observing the movement of people as they went about their business. There were many guests so the process was slow, but not entirely fruitless.

The more people he talked to, Ryn began to question how many Caesonian nobles fully supported King Edin. Not a single soul was blatant enough to vocalize it, but the signs were there in their body language, in their voice, the words they chose to use, and the timing in which they decided to use it whenever the subject of the king came up. Small, subtle things that said more than the person intended to. The alliance of the Caesonian noble circle appeared to be a flimsy one, barely held together by loyalty gained primarily through fear and money, and not much else. Though, if there was something else, Ryn was interested in finding out what it was.

While King Edin’s precarious position made Ryn’s life a lot easier, it came with its own set of problems: his children. In comparison to their father, they were viewed in an infinitely favorable light. First Prince Wulfric garnered the most support from the nobility while the youngest Prince Callum was more popular amongst the disenfranchised commoners. Prince Auguste and Princess Anastasia seemed to be liked by people from all walks of life, but old-fashioned values made many regard Princess Anastasia as an unlikely candidate for the throne. Underestimating the influence she had. Ryn would not make the same mistake; he wasn’t allowed to make such a mistake. They were all a potential threat to him and he should treat them as such. He needed to remind himself not to focus all his attention on the children, however. For many species of snakes thrived in Caesonia.

[i]The smell of strong wine filled Ryn’s nostrils as Duke Vikena stared at “Caesonia's beloved count” with disdain. A dash of apprehension crossed his face when the snake slithered his way to Lady Vikena. His whispers sucked the color out of the young woman’s face. The delight he derived from messing with the Vikenas was evident. Yet others seemed blind to it. Did the count’s family know that he liked to play with his prey?[/i]

Based purely on what Ryn could observe, whatever happened between Count Damien and the Vikenas remained between them. While he interacted with his wife and daughters, Count Damien was as many described him to be. A charming, well-mannered man who loved his family immensely and was not ashamed to express it out in public. Was the light playing tricks on Ryn’s eyes when he saw that cruel smile? Even so, the impact his presence had on Duke Vikena was undeniable. Taking into account that Count Damien seemed to have some sway on King Edin, he may be more dangerous than people realized.

The other thing Ryn noticed during his periodic people-watching was the presence of a masked individual. At first, the mask caught his eyes only because there was no one else wearing one. Ryn then witnessed the masked man passing out envelopes to a select few guests, which piqued his curiosity. When he saw the envelope in Prince Callum’s hands, Ryn excused himself from the present company and left the ballroom as nonchalantly as he could.

Past the ballroom doors, down the hall, and away from the hustle and bustle of the constantly moving castle staff, a group of servants from different noble houses, except Alidasht, were standing around, drinking, eating, and chatting amongst themselves. Even though the ballroom was large, to avoid overcrowding, extra servants who were not needed in the room were asked to be on standby somewhere near the ballroom. There, the servants waited patiently for Danrose’s servants to inform them that their respective masters were requiring their service.

Amongst the group of people, Ryn spotted two familiar faces and walked toward them. He removed his ostentatious tailcoat to not alarm the other servants as he made his way to the two figures drinking next to a service cart that was reserved for the guests’ servants.

Karleen was a giant of a woman, taller than the average man in the Northern Kingdoms, with muscles that any warrior would envy. She had hazel eyes, shortly trimmed bronze hair, and countless scars from her days in the fighting arena etched on her limestone skin. When standing next to Karleen, Peter looked much smaller and lankier than he actually was, but he was a man of average height and a body built for acrobatics. He was a ginger with amber eyes, and pale ivory skin covered with freckles. He was smoking a pipe when Ryn approached the duo. As soon as they noticed him, Peter greeted him with a wide smile, smoke escaping from his mouth through the gap between his teeth.

“Ain’t it a bit early to call it a night, Boss?”
[color=9354FF]“That it is. How are you two doing? Not too bored I hope.”[/color]
“Eh, we’ve been entertaining ourselves. I just came back from my ‘walk’ and was about to trade places with Karl so she can take her ‘break’.”
Karleen hummed in response.
[color=9354FF]“Anything happened that I should be made aware of?”[/color]
“Aside from the fact that every other servant here is spying on everyone else? Not really.”
Ryn didn’t expect any less. It would have been more surprising if there weren’t some amount of snooping happening.
Karleen cut in, “Masked man.” She took a sip of her drink.
“Oh yeah, there was this one dude who must’ve gotten an invitation for the wrong party cause he was wearing a mask. This isn’t a masquerade party, right?” Ryn shook his head. “Thought so. Uh… aside from that… Uh… I guess if you know a woman called Helga then I can tell you that she's really upset about something.”
[color=9354FF]“Oh? What happened?”[/color]
“We were hoping you’d tell us. She came out from the ballroom complaining about something the princess did.”
[color=9354FF]“Huh. I must’ve missed it then.”[/color] Ryn lowered his voice, [color=9354FF]“There is so much going on at once, it’s hard to keep an eye out for everything.”[/color]
“I bet it is. You sure you don’t need one of us in there too?”
[color=9354FF]“As much as I would like that, I need you all to stay focused on what you’re doing…”[/color] He sighed, [color=9354FF]“I said before immediately contradicting myself… I need some help with some other things.”[/color] Ryn looked at the two apologetically. He didn’t want to distract his companions with additional tasks, but he could not ignore what he saw.

Karleen pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning against and walked past Ryn to face the service cart, conveniently hiding Ryn from the other servants’ field of vision. Peter remained where he was, but turned his head to face the other end of the hall, keeping an eye out for any passersby. “Whatcha need, Boss?”

Ryn whispered, [color=9354FF]“I need one of you to tail Calbert Damien and Callum and Anastasia Danrose after they leave the ballroom tonight.”[/color]

There was a pause before Peter asked in a quiet voice, “You sure you want to do that, Boss? This might be the only time this place is as unguarded as it’ll ever be.”

[color=9354FF][i]And there are only five of us.[/i][/color] They were both aware that their resources were limited here. It was a conscious decision on Ryn’s part. It made coordinating easier and a large group would have been too conspicuous. It also simply reduced the number of lives that would be at stake should the worst happen. This, of course, meant that Ryn had to be careful of who he deployed and when.

[color=9354FF]“If I’m being entirely honest. No, I’m not sure at all.”[/color] Ryn rubbed the bridge of his nose, [color=9354FF]“But that masked man you saw? I saw him handing out envelopes to people and one of them was Callum. I also thought I saw Anastasia handing a similar looking envelope to another man. I’m not sure if they’re related, but if they are, I think if we follow one of them, they’ll lead us to the person who sent out those letters and the people who received them.”[/color]
“Super secret people giving out super secret letters for a super secret meeting? With one, maybe two, Danroses involved? Does sound super secret. I’ll get Udo to follow them.”
Ryn nodded, [color=9354FF]“As for Calbert… There seems to be something going on between him and Lorenzo Vikena.”[/color]
“I thought they were friends.”
[color=9354FF]“Do friends usually do long-distance glaring contests across the room every chance they get?”[/color]
“Sounds more like they’re checking each other out.”
[color=9354FF]“I–... Huh… the thought never crossed my mind.”[/color]
“Star-crossed lovers,” Peter waved his hand slowly to gesture an arch, “the forbidden romance between a recently widowed Duke and a Count, the supposedly devoted husband.”
Karleen sighed wistfully as she collected petit fours onto a plate.
[color=9354FF]“Ah, so we have a scandal on our hands and blackmail to boot. Splendid.”[/color]
“Blackmail? [i]Oh, Boss[/i] I love it when you talk dirty.”
Ryn shook his head, but the smile that grew on his face remained as he warned Peter like a mother would to her child, [color=9354FF]“Behave.”[/color] Ryn adjusted the coat in his arm so that he could stick his hands into its pocket, [color=9354FF]“I better go back before I miss out on all the action… and the animals.”[/color]

Karleen returned to her original position and popped the petit four into her mouth. “And for a hot second, I thought he was busting his a** working like the rest of us.” Peter grabbed a tiny cake off of her plate and shoved it into his mouth with his fingers, “Have fun.”

[color=9354FF]“I will. Before I go, though,”[/color] Ryn pulled out the papers from the pocket. [color=9354FF]“Do you have any idea where the dustbins are? I walked all over that damn ballroom and there’s not one dust bin in sight.”[/color]

Ryn could barely hear Peter through his chewing, “Aren’t you supposed to throw it on the ground?”

Ryn knocked his head back and let out an exasperated sigh just as Karleen placed the fork on her plate and reached her open hand out. “I'll take that.”

[hr]
[color=9354FF]“Common sense would dictate that there should be at least one dustbin in this room, yes? Or has it come to the point that the nobility are so detached from the mundane world they don’t know how to use a dustbin? Do they know what a dustbin is? Do [i]I[/i] know what a dustbin looks like? Is that why I failed to find one?”[/color] The count turned his head to the black tigress who sat a few feet away from where he stood.

After the incident with Duke Vikena, Ryn had been somewhat hesitant to approach the Alidasht corner of the ballroom. He had thought it would be better to wait until everyone had calmed down, and now that the tension had returned to a level where the countries were at no risk of going to war, for the moment at least, Ryn decided to do what he had wanted to do ever since he first stepped into the ballroom. Get a closer look at the animals.

He approached the Alidasht animal handlers and was successful in buttering them up enough to the point where the friendlier of the bunch began to show off their prized beasts. Though he was only able to touch the docile creatures, he was more than satisfied to be able to observe the animals up close. The one animal the handlers advised against getting too close to was the black tiger, Nala. There was only one person in the entire world she trusted, and that was Shehzadi Mayet. The best thing anyone else could do in terms of positive interaction was to feed her something that was not themselves and avoid getting mauled by her. So, obviously, Ryn asked if he could feed her.

The count slowly inched his way towards Nala with the plate of food provided by the animal handlers, striking up meaningless conversations with the big cat. The handlers started to place bets on whether he would survive the encounter. Evidently, they thought the odds of him leaving unscathed were stacked against him, but Ryn wasn’t deterred by it.

Eventually, he managed to get close enough to the tiger to place his offering of sliced raw meat on the ground and take a couple of slow steps back. He knelt down and waited with anticipation.

Nala, who was laying down and patiently waiting for Mayet to finish dancing, simply looked towards the strange man who was approaching her. While she didn't display any hostility towards him, at least not openly, the piercing gaze she gave to the man, watching every single movement and step he took was more than enough of a warning for him to be careful with his movements.

Nala was relatively used to life at the royal castle in Alidasht, but that was only because she was basically raised there by Mayet. She considered that place her and Mayet's territory. She had seen the servants that worked on the castle long enough to know their scent and to be sure no one of them would harm her or Mayet, especially since they all knew the correct manners to enter Mayet's room and approach her and Nala.

With that said, that wasn't the case here. Not only was Caesonia a completely unknown place for Nala, but the people here were complete strangers to her as well. More than a few times, Nala had to give a low growl to warn some overconfident nobles who tried to approach her while she watched Mayet and the other man whom she was dancing with. Fortunately, this particular noble seemed to be different than the rest. Nala could feel the scent of meat coming from the plate the man got from one of the servants that had come with them from Alidasht and the way Ryn approached her was slow and careful. Despite that, Nala still gave a low growl the moment Ryn got too close to her, just before he offered the raw meat and took a few steps back.

Curious, Nala leaned forward, without taking her eyes from Ryn as she carefully sniffed the meat. After confirming it was safe, having felt no different scent and the faint scent of the servants she knew from Alidasht on the meat, Nala lowered her head, her eyes still locked on Ryn's as she took the entire meat in her mouth, eating it in a single bite.

While it was definitely difficult for anyone but Mayet and those who were very close to her to know what exactly went through Nala's head, the huff she gave to Ryn seemed to be one of approval, before she turned her head towards Mayet once more and continued watching her.

Ryn watched the black tigress with keen interest, as she accepted his humble offering and resumed her vigilance. He grinned before retrieving the empty plate and returning to the group of Alidasht servants. [color=9354FF]“So… if no one wagered on me [i]not[/i] getting hurt, at all, does that mean I get the money by default?”[/color] He teasingly asked them.