Gala Ball; Rheinfelders and Draza
It had felt like so long since Draza had seen so many important people, and almost never so many of them at once. This was a global stage, the big leagues, and as other people meandered and spoke after the grand entrances and speech, Draza had to keep deftly moving for those less accustomed to avoiding someone of her size. Her dress flowed around her form as she did so, restricting her but not too taut until she made her way to her native brothers and sisters, friends, allies, countrymen and those whom she didn’t exactly have the best of relations with always politically or personally. But, they were her people whether they or she liked it, and she was going to do her best to greet them with all due respect before she made her way through the ranks of any other aristocracy, nobility, plutocrat, or otherwise.
Amongst the several various Rheinfelders the republic’s finest sat on the floor together in a circle, each wearing a blue ribbon around an arm or a leg, or in a rare case, a waist or a forehead. They were drinking like most Rheinfelders do, a fine mead or beer. Alida Spiegel watches the approaching Draza with a large, warm grin on her face, though part of that was probably the alcohol doing its job of loosening up her usually tough veneer. “Ah! There’s my favourite sprite!” She says with a jovial tone of voice. Raising her drink, she motions Draza over. “Come! Did you bring any of your wonderful cakes this time? Or just that everlasting cheer of yours?”
“Sweet rolls well enough for you, my most gracious lady, friend, leader?” Draza said as she slipped her shouldered purse a bit forward around the sides of her dress to pull out one such roll. There was a special wonder to her snacks, as they never could spoil a dinner given their relative size. Well, not a normal person’s one at least. The roll was a soft bread made woven with sugar, cinnamon, and pears brought to such softness that a babe could chew threw it using only its gums. The other specialness of the treats were because of the size, she usually had enough to share, and as she skipped over her deft fingers retrieved a collection of them for the pleasure of those around her. “I hope you all have had fair journey and pleasant mornings despite any unpleasantries with the uh,” she leaned forward and lowered her voice as she glanced around for anyone with the defining marks of a Templar, “Riff raff.” She almost bounced off her feet as she shot back to standing and began to hand out her treats proper to those who would partake.
With a roll of her eyes Alida grabs one of the sweet rolls and starts munching away, in quite the unsophisticated manner. So much so that the nobles near her decided to steer clear of her, meandering in different directions. Her men, however, merely laughed, though one blushed and took the chance to stare luridly at her. She either didn’t notice, or didn’t care as she looked to Draza once more. “Naww... The Schwine gave us no problems. Davian maybe, but he’s just jealous Taigyn isn’t nearly the noble manchild he is.” She says with a soft laugh, before looking around the crowd. “Huh. I wonder where he went.”
Draza craned her eyes to look through, well, mostly the legs of the crowd but through the crowd still and found the form of Taigyn off elsewhere, preoccupied at the moment. “He’s with someone else, probably important world saving things. Y’know, like the rest of the ball. Hey, speaking of,” she turned back to Alida, “How’s my favourite part of the world doing?”
Chuckling and grasping the top of the small sprite’s head, she ruffles her hair and then lets go, rolling onto her back and laying down on the stone blocks. “Not so good I’m afraid.” She says quieter. “The papacy has been sending mercenaries at us more so than the Order.” She grimaces. “We’ve been taking casualties.”
Draza shuddered, “I hate knowing that I used to work for and help those guys…” she sighs, mumbling about her own naivety. “The Papacy is being just as bad as the whole ‘armies of doomy demon’ patooy that we’re going to be dealing with globally. Talk about a heel turn…” She really wished that the Papacy would shape up, and stop being so… well, what they are now. “We need to get Rheinfeld sorted out before all heck breaks loose. While it’d be nice if the Papacy could stop being the bad guys and like, reform like the Templar are trying to do, but if that’s not an option, they need to be stopped by some means… even if it’s just cutting off funding to their mercenaries,” Draza thought back to how extravagant the Papacy was, and therefore how deep its coffers likely could go, “Or buying the mercenaries out. I don’t get much from his gig but what I do you can consider yours to any effort of peace.”
“It’s impossible to purchase away the rotten souls of men sold to another when you offer merely an idea.” Alida says with a slight hint of sorrow in her voice. She then looks out into the crowd again, but this time, towards specifically Kouri. “Her idea of a council... That people pick candidates to represent them..." A little bit of a smile reaches her lips. “It is inspiring. We are a country with no royalty. No king. No queen. It has always been the papacy... A military dictatorship holds little appeal... Imagine... Imagine a nation, of people, who ruled themselves.” She stares up at the ceiling, a dreamy look in her eyes that was inspiring to her men, who all sat around eagerly. “The Imperium calls it the senate... But we don’t need an eternal empress. We’re the longest lived nation in this world... We will take the first steps. We are ready for it. For a... A republic.”
Nearby, the sounds of a pair of mailed hands clapping disrupts some of the nearby people, who stop to stare at the situation. “Bravo, wonderful speech.” Davian states, looking at Draza and bowing his head respectfully. “A nation run by commoners who cannot read, and who when faced with the supernatural, turn and flee like... Heretics, to the sword. How impressive our nation would look when vagabonds were done thoroughly looting her, no?”
Draza was quick to retrieve a sweet roll from her pouch and offer it with a respectable bow of her own in return to Davian before even speaking in response to his interruption. She’d mince words with him after offering him his due respect, even if others would disagree with it being due in the first place, “I hope you have found yourself in good spirits on your journey here, most regal Templar Davian, and that you will honour me with accepting my offering of food, however small.”
“Like he would dine from the commoner’s trough.” Alida sneers, her men chuckling. Davian glares at them and then snatches the sweet roll from Draza’s hand. He sniffs it, then eats it in one bite, chewing, his face goes from discontent to surprise. Finishing, he looks at her and nods in appreciation. “Well made! But then, prior to everything falling apart, the papacy even did comment that your food was utterly divine.” Alida’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “You are complimenting someone?” Davian looks at her with a smug expression. “When someone does something good for a change, certainly... Ex-Templar.”
Draza looked back and forth between the two and and quietly huffed as if watching two children, before turning her gaze up to Davian, and then down respectfully as she curtsied, “Your compliments are most gracious,” her eyes while low quickly shot again to the seated group around her as she wordlessly mouthed something along the lines of “Please don’t fight right now”. Quickly, her face resumed its referent respectful nature as she turned back up to the Templar second in command, “And,” Draza considered her words carefully, “You do have a fair point about the dream of Republic. While it is a dream I share, I cannot deny that as things are it would not yet function. The commoners are a bread basket, not a legion of scholars, nor a powerful force as the Order.” She quickly put up a hand hoping to Lada that someone would see it and not speak up from either side about that, for now at least. “But, this is not the time for such a matter,” she added an “I think” to that quietly before continuing, “This is a ball, not a war room or diplomatic meeting for specifically our issues. So, Templar Davian, I beseech you a courtesy not for myself, or Rheinfeld, but for everyone present; that we minimize… er… unnecessary conflict for this occasion. As a man of such lineage that could fill a tome of deeds marvellous and grand, let this not be the place for a squabble for you, or anyone else.”
“Heh.” He looks around the ball room, and steps back. “Then you will excuse me. I have little need for conversation with this woman.” Without adding anything further, he leaves and enters the crowd. Turning back to Alida and her men, Draza would notice that her attempt at finding middle ground only serviced to alienate the people sitting with Alida. They were very much commoners, as were most members of the Republic. Alida, too, seemed disappointed, but at least appeared to understand what Draza was trying to do. “... I think we should speak another time, Draza... People don’t like to be reminded of how much others doubt them.”
Draza waited until the man was removed from the conversation before suddenly relaxing immensely. Never pleasant to be around someone who thought themselves so much better. With a turn, she turned to the others. The ones who for all intents and purposes she had just insulted, and did something that she did not do often. With one last gaze cast to make sure she was not being watched by the man, Draza slipped her purse off from her shoulder, placed it on the ground, and got down on the floor to bow as low as she could, messing her dress just a tad as she got onto her hands and knees and her face touched the floor, “I did not for a moment mean to imply that the Republic cannot or will not happen. The commoners,” she stopped shaking her head, “Are not common. I am a commoner, and yet here I am, a Blade and bowing to you.” She turned her head up, “I have only the greatest respect and adoration for the ‘commoner’ because unlike the noble who has been set on a course and is set in their ways, a commoner is not so limited. You provide food now, but with food you provide people. With people, potential. I am not well because of blood or birth or rank, I am well because like every commoner of Rheinfeld, I’m uncommon. We may not yet have the sword of the Order, but the weapon of the Republic is being forged today, and it will cast a shadow upon those who doubted, and slay those who dare attempt to crush the commoner. We may not have their ancient libraries, but we can and will build our own. I know that I have in my attempt of peace slighted you and I do not expect an ‘atta girl’ for civility, but I do hope you understand that while he’s right in some ways, he is wrong in almost every other. You do not run as heretics from the sword, and you do not hide behind your name. You’ve stood strong against many forces that others would contend you not capable of doing so.”
She lowered her head once more to each of them, “I’m sorry that I misspoke, and made any of you feel less extraordinary than you are. You may be commoners, but you are anything but common,” she stopped to breathe deep, and sighed out soothingly as the passion in her words calmed, “Please, I beg your forgiveness.”
There was a moment of silence between them all before Alida merely shrugged and raised her glass of beer. “To the commoner then! Replaceable, but never forgettable!” The others join her in drinking to their heart’s content. There was not much else left to be said.
And that was all Draza needed. With an exaggerated huff, she bounced up as fast as she could without damaging the dress. “Lada de da,” she mumbled as she tried to make herself be more presentable. Her voice turned up to normal volume and tone, “Don’t suppose you’ve got one in a small size.”
“No.” Alida says sharply as she looks at her men. The one who was earlier infatuated with her stared dumbfounded as she looked at him. “Get us another drink.” He nods, and bolts into the crowd. “Funny young man.” Alida says with a chuckle as she pats the ground beside her. “For now you can share my glass, Draza.”
Draza reached a hand out in the direction of the man as he went before lowering it, “He didn’t… oh well, I’m sure uh, he could use the exercise?” She shook her head, “You do me a great service by sharing your drink with me so personally. I’d wager some would be jealous.” She couldn’t even say that with a straight face, as she immediately broke into giggles as she sat down next to Alida.
“Maybe.” She says as she drinks a little more. Though her men drank far more often than she did, already stumbling about and laughing. Alida, on the other hand, kept alert. Maybe due to training. Maybe not.
Draza enjoyed her time with her people for a bit, doing better, so she hoped, to not step on toes until finally after some time she excused herself to go seek out and converse with others.