"She's not an easy one to pin down, my Lady." Tira reported, nervously wringing her hands as she stood before Karandreya in the drawing room. Three weeks had passed - three weeks of discreet inquiries met with stonewalling, feigned ignorance, and rare tidbits. Three weeks of sleepless nights worrying that someone would visit in the night to politely, but firmly, ask her to stop making such inquiries about the Lady Starshadow.
"I didn't ask if it was easy, Tira. I asked if you'd found anything out."
"A few things, my Lady. She rarely goes out to drink except at her club. Meals likewise, though there's one small place in the slums I heard she likes. It's the clubs that she mostly goes to."
"More than one?"
"Yes, my Lady. She's, erm, 'eminently clubbable', or so I was told. She's in at least a dozen - probably the most anyone is! But I did find out she mostly goes to two. There's Paradise - " Tira blushed at the mention of the notorious burlesque establishment, which wasn't quite a club but had more social standing than any ordinary bordello ought to. " - and then there's an odd one called the Locks, my Lady."
"I've heard of that one before... On the western end of Churchway, isn't it? Not exactly a prestigious location."
"Yes, my Lady. Lady Dawnglaze's lady's maid worked there for a few years as the - it sounds preposterous, but she was very serious - the groom of the chambers. The Lady Starshadow was there at least once a week. She founded it when the other ones wouldn't let her in."
"Typical. She couldn't take the message she wasn't wanted, so she did it herself."
Dreya shook her head with disgust and raised her cup of tea for a delicate sip. Lady Starshadow was a scandalous woman in every respect - bulling her way into male arenas and clubs, using her supposed links to the city's seedy underbelly to frighten everyone into allowing her presence and her position as a Senator to overrule dissent. That she'd start her own club when being rejected fit every rumour Dreya had ever heard about that most peculiar lady.
"If you say so, my Lady. Dawnglaze's maid told me she'll be there most nights she goes from two in the afternoon until dawn. She sleeps there, apparently - they have bedrooms upstairs. The good news is she assured me women are allowed to join, but..."
"But?"
"...but that the waiting list was three years long when she worked there and she'd be shocked if it wasn't longer now. And there's no way past it for love or money, she said. But if you're a guest you can go into the Stranger's Dining Room and the Petty Bar, so all you need is an introduction. They'll even take it as a written note."
"Do we know anyone who's a member, Tira?"
"Yes, my Lady. Lady Seawhisper is, or so Dawnglaze's maid says."
"Mm. Then we'll have to impose on her hospitality..." Another slow, delicate sip of tea. "Tomorrow, we'll visit Lady Seawhisper for afternoon tea, I think. Her absence at the ball is a good excuse. I'll pretend I'm there to inquire about the health of her little ones and bring her a small gift, perhaps, to celebrate their fortune."
She tried not to show her jealousy as she thought of it. A son, healthy and well-formed. She and Adrene had been trying for years without luck, like so many others among the Republic's highborn elite. The gifts of their blood and their long years came with the curse of long empty nurseries and cribs to taunt and mock them, especially with sons needed in the service of the Empire. It was another way the Starshadow pair could flaunt the norms. They produced children with such ease that half the aristocracy would line up to kiss their feet if they thought it might rub some of the favour of the Gods off onto them and give them even a fraction the fertility that cunt, Bliss, enjoyed.
"And the rest, Tira? Did you find out if she has a type, a scent she likes, anything?"
"No ma'am. She doesn't have a type, near as I can tell, other than not liking men terribly. Very diverse tastes so long as they're of the distaff variety."
"Go and pick out a suitable outfit for visiting the Locks later, Tira. Something that'll fit their dress code but still show plenty of cleavage. She must like tits - she married a woman who could put a herd of prime milkers out of business - so we'll play to that."
"Yes, ma'am."
As Tira slunk away, Dreya let herself sink back further into the plush upholstery of the sofa, her teacup clinking softly on the saucer as she relinquished it. Lady Starshadow's lack of a particular preference was both vexing and an opportunity. She wouldn't be able to disguise herself to suit, but it meant her own natural charms - and they were ample, she thought to herself - might be sufficient on their own, amplified suitably with make-up and a sultry seductress routine. Compared to Bliss they were small, but by any
reasonable
standard they were ample, with creamy peach-hued skin dusted with the faintest of freckles on their upper side to entice the eye.
Idly, her fingers ran over one of them, and she sighed softly, leaning her head back against the cushions. It was something of a thrill to even think about tasting someone other than her husband - someone new and exciting. That she'd be getting one up on the cunt who'd shamed her was icing on the proverbial cake. It was fashionable now to discreetly take lovers, but some stubborn remnant of decency had kept her from it. Now, with Adrene's betrayal a license to indulge, she thrilled to the thought of finally feeling someone else inside her. She'd been virginal when they'd married, and Adrene was perfectly adequate, but she'd wondered before if she was missing out. Finally, she'd have a chance to find out - if she could only persuade Seawhisper...
__________________________________
"It really is lovely to see you, Lady Sunbough."
Seawhisper smiled over her tea as she spoke, and Karandreya obligingly smiled back. The afternoon calling was an old ritual now - a procession from grand house to grand house governed by rigid formalities. Tea had to be served, they must sit in the drawing room at a small round table, and only in exceptional circumstances should any visitor linger more than a half hour.
"And you, Lady Seawhisper. It's been entirely too long - not since before your fortune, I believe."
"That long? Goodness... I suppose I did get a little broody in my confinement! They told me it's not necessary, you know - an old wives' tale - but between you and me..." Seawhisper dropped her voice to a stage whisper, leaning slightly forward across the table. "...I was glad of it, between the sore back and my swollen feet and the unflattering clothes. I know some women flaunt it but I don't think that will ever be me - not like the Lady Bliss."
"A fine tradition worth upholding, Lady Seawhisper."
The tea was a delicate blend from the southern colonies, and Dreya used it to disguise her distaste for the mere mention of that cunt. Seawhisper said it like so many did, with a faint air of awe - as though she'd done anything more impressive than spread her legs and be fortunate in her fecundity. Setting her cup down with a slight clink of porcelain, she beckoned for Tira to attend her.
"I brought something for your little son - a gift for his birth." She explained, taking the package from her maid and placing it on the table. "And for yourself as well. I hope you don't mind they're in the same box - they're a set, you see..."
"Not at all, not at all..." Seawhisper replied, unlacing the ribbon and delicately opening the small card box. The afternoon light struck the inset black opals of the matched necklaces and set them alight with a shimmering fire that flooded the polished cabochon-cut stones. "...they're... Astonishing, Dreya. You shouldn't have."
They'd cost Dreya a pretty penny, bought at last minute from a jeweller - but the look on Seawhisper's face told her they were worth the investment. The lapse into her diminutive, the lapse of formality back into their finishing school days, said the rest. They were elegant pieces, simple white gold pendant frame settings with fine chains that allowed the thumbnail sized opals to do all the talking. One was sized for a woman's neck, the other for a child's (something she'd had their oddman attend to - it was a simple matter for him to open the links and remove some of the chain to shrink it to fit).
"He was born under the sign of the Phoenix, I believe, just like you - so black opal seemed appropriate. It's nothing, really - just a sign of how happy I am for you both."
"Nothing? No, Dreya, they're beautiful and... And I'd thought you must be furious at me after what happened at the ball with Adrene - but I see now I underestimated you. I was such a fool to think you'd blame us for it, when we were such good friends at school. I should have had more faith in you!"
Dreya took another sip of tea to once again hide her disgust as Seawhisper babbled, her eyes moist. It was unseemly, and of course, entirely wrong. She and her husband
were
at fault for inviting the cunt in the first place, and she doubted she'd ever forgive them. But Seawhisper had always been a romantic at heart, and romantics were easy to exploit.
"Think nothing of it. Anyone would think so, but that matter is between myself and my idiot of a husband. I should very much like to resume our friendship, if you'll allow me after so long apart. Is there somewhere less... Less formal, that we might go sometime? Like when we used to sneak off and bet with the other girls on which of the teachers was going to do some silly thing?"
