all we need is a little bit of a momentum
Being summoned to meet the queen of Elenia is ordinarily quite a stressful circumstance, especially when you're rather personally connected to the man who betrayed the Pandion Order years ago. Regardless, Maryani doesn't show any sign of nerves--on the contrary, she seems cheerful about it. It's hard to tell what she thinks if she's attempting to ( Read more... )
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Martel makes a faint noise of agreement as they enter. He's dressed...slightly more appropriately to be in the queen's palace--the fact of the matter is that he looks more at home in these surroundings than most of the knights who are still knights, and he's fairly sure it's grating on everyone as much as it does himself.
"Ah," Stragen says, from his place between Ehlana and Platime. "There they are."
Reining in his automatic response for the sake of not being run through for impudence ('impudence', Martel, really) in front of the young monarch, Martel just gives his odd friend a bland smile and directs his attention to Ehlana. "Your Majesty," he says, low and polite, but almost perfunctory. He suspects she'd be taking cues from Sparhawk about them if it weren't for how opposed he is to the meeting in the first place.
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Maryani politely and fortunately--courtly manners are, for obvious reasons, not exactly her thing--seconds Martel's greeting, but she grins at Ehlana instead. "I hope we didn't keep you waiting for long; I'm not as quick as I usually am, you see."
The hand on her stomach, which isn't showing hardly at all yet (Martel has probably only noticed because he knows her body a lot, ah, better than anyone else), is indicative of what she means.
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"Not at all--please, sit down," Ehlana says, smoothly, examining them both with obvious interest. "Milord Stragen made an interesting suggestion that I believe we should discuss."
"Did he," Martel murmurs, shooting the blond thief a yet-undefinable look while he takes up a place to the side of whichever chair Maryani prefers to seat herself in. Protective, partially, and partially about as uncomfortable as Sparhawk is with this, unwilling to sit down himself. He can guess what it is Stragen had to suggest, and...for now, he's reserving judgment.
"There are preparations to be made, Sir Knight," Stragen says, mock jovial. "I'd hate for you to feel at all left out."
"This is your knight, Stragen?" Platime looks Martel over. "His woman looks friendlier."
"She is," Martel says, blandly.
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"Oh, I'm the friendliest," Maryani informs Platime, leaning forward while wearing a playful little smile.
"Not a brothel girl, are you?" The question would probably offend anyone else, and Platime clearly doesn't care who it offends (Ehlana looks like she wants to roll her eyes, definitely), but Maryani just shakes her head.
"I'm not opposed to the profession, but I possess a certain disinclination to subservience toward the opposite gender," Maryani says, with mocking seriousness, "And according to Martel I have a violent streak. But that's irrelevant, isn't it? What's this idea Milord Stragen has for us?"
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