Closed Finding Work.

[Diara]

The 14th Day of Autumn.

As Diara sat in a tavern, drinking a glass of ale with a hand under her chin, she couldn't help but feel sorry for herself.

She had arrived in Lhavit with aspirations, a dream, and confidence at the beginning of the season. The first couple of days she had found a temporary home, wandered the city to get to know it better, and made the proper steps to complete her stay in the city. It was all fun and exciting, especially when she learned about the Dawn Tower and how they offer reimancy classes. All her plans were seeming to come together, one by one. That is, until she hit the real roadblock. Kina.

Visiting the Dawn Tower to inquire, she learned that if she did take classes there, she'd come up broke at the end of the season. Yes, she thought about the issue of supporting herself, but she didn't realize classes were going to be so expensive. It was a wake up call, for sure. Embarrassing as it was to admit, she had never fully supported herself. She always has had a meal to come home to and a bed to lay her head at night. Relocating to Lhavit was more than just a culture shock... it was the first time she had been by herself. Alone, with no one to fall back on except for her Gods. The notion scared her more than she cared for.

It seemed that all establishments were already well-bodied with employees. Lhavit held their services to the highest degree, probably for good reason. There was no doubt that's how the city ran so smoothly, making it feel more like an exotic getaway. Diara grew so desperate she even visited the local taverns to inquire there and still no luck. This is how she ended up in her current situation, sulking in a corner, drinking. She was never the one to drink, but in this case she needed something to take her mind off the irritation.

What would she do if she couldn't find work? No one wanted to hire a girl with no other experience save for odd jobs and the like. She had skill in reimancy, but had never actually put it to use except inside a classroom. She refused to busk as an entertainer because first, she was an awful dancer, and second, she felt like reimancy was too sacred for her to be flinging water and earth everywhere like it was nothing. In her mind, it was reserved for making her closer to her Gods, and in some cases, self-defense.

Diara came out of her trance of self-pity and looked around the small tavern. She couldn't even remember what the name of the bar was called. She didn't really care at the moment. She saw only a couple people socializing among one another. There was a lone man, what looked to be a male and female couple, and two girlfriends gossiping. Diara had a bad habit of eavesdropping, and picked the conversation with the two girls.

"I just can't believe that Nickolas would pick her over me." one girl started. "I mean, I'm just pretty as her, correct? I'm so intelligent. Anything she can do I can do just as well! I don't understand him. Never will."

As she went off on her tangent, he friend kept nodding, agreeing with everything she said. It was quite humorous, but Diara dare not laugh in fear of getting caught listening in. She was just about to zone out again until she heard something else.

"Oh, you'll never guess what I figured. Alses is hiring maids at Elysium Hall."

"Really?"

"Yes! It's a pity I already work here..."

********************

Diara didn't know who Alses was, nor what Elysium Hall was, but she was about to find out. She randomly stopped someone on the street and asked. Apparently it was a relatively well-known place, or estate as she was soon corrected to. He gave her directions on how to get there. As she made her way there, she couldn't help but pray to her Gods in her head. If they had any mercy, they would grace her with a smiling face and smooth tongue.

It wasn't a long walk. When she came upon the residence, her eyebrows raised and her mouth formed a small 'O'. It was a mansion, to say the least, and it was beautiful. The architecture was prime. The marble and skyglass stood out from each other, but in a most pleasing way. Even though most of the vegetation was hibernating from fall, you could still see the skeletons of the flowers and trees, especially the traces of roses. Diara was scared to touch anything, even the gates, but did so anyway. Everything was so strong and refined, it would probably be hard to break.

She finally reached the front doors after a winding stroll through the pathway. Someone lived here, so it would be rude to just barge in. Instead she rasped on the door, hard, three times and waited patiently for an answer whilst mumbling prayers under her breath.

[Alses]

The heavy boom of the brass knocker meeting the polished wood of the door echoed through the entrance hall, still high and cold and without much in the way of decoration. Rolling waves of sound, all untrammelled by rugs and tapestries, bounced from the Ethaefal caryatids holding up the magnificent sweep of the double staircase, crackling off their icily arrogant faces and ringing down from the dome overhead.

Distance, however, ate all things, and by the time the sound had found its way down the mansion’s broad hallways and through the thick doors into the literal and figurative heart of the house, it was barely more than a whisper, and certainly not enough to alert Alses.

The Councillor Radiant was buried in books and scrolls and paperwork overflowing all across her desk, grimly forging ahead with the work at hand, one hand wrapped around a quill whilst the other was in almost constant motion, shifting from book to scroll to sheaf-bound paper and back again, continually retrieving information and facts.

Sustaining that level of concentration, where documents flew under her fingertips and the whole world seemed – for a little while – to be an orderly and comprehensible thing, was very difficult, and never lasted long. That said, though, for the moment she was dreaming on a bureaucrat’s wings, soaring through her workload.

As such, it was doubtful that, even had the knock echoed through the whole of the house, Alses would have heard it, still less recognized its significance.

Happily, that was what butlers were for.

Indeed, in his well-hidden pantry, Silver was well aware of the knock the moment it sounded. Putting down a particularly fine specimen of an amethyst geode he’d chipped out of the rocks in the Misty Peaks a few days ago – carefully, so as not to disrupt the delicate crystal arrangement – and laying aside his large magnifying glass with a small sigh, he tilted his head to look out of the discreetly-placed window that gazed out at the front door and covered portico.

It wasn’t an entourage of people at the doors, at least – but then again, it was rare for the lords and ladies of the Towers to take a train of hangers-on wherever they went. Even Talora and Aysel suffered their Shinya escorts but rarely.

It was the work of a few moments to push his plush chair back, and a few more to open his door, pad across the hall and slip into the discreet network of passages that hid the servants from view.

Well, from normal view, anyway. Silver had had to come to terms with the fact that Alses could see him wherever he was in Elysium Hall, whether hidden by shimmering skyglass and marble, exotic wood panelling or gilt decoration…none of it made the slightest bit of difference to her powerful auristics: if she wanted to find him, there was nothing whatsoever he could do to hide.

It was the work of a moment for Silver, moving in the deceptively-speedy manner of the portly and well-fed, to open one of the discreet little doors that blended seamlessly into the panelling and let himself into the coldly grand entrance hall.

Internally, as he was crossing the marble expanse, and with no hint of it showing on his face, he made a mental note to raise the issue of soft furnishings for the entryway; it really was far too austere, especially when compared to the bits of the house that Alses actually used on a regular basis.

Before another barrage of knocks could assail the air, Silver straightened his already-immaculate swallow-tail coat, adjusted his fob-watch and chain and then opened the double doors, getting his first proper glimpse of the caller.

Very noticeable – indeed, the first thing to be noticed, overshadowing everything else, was the hair. Bright red, the fiery shade of the Inarta, was a noteworthy thing in and of itself, but the sheer volume of it, too, on skinny Diara’s head, that was something not to be ignored.

Indeed, it stood around her head like a corona, a burning halo with a life of its own, almost overshadowing the face that peeked out from between its strands. It was quite a tanned face, to be fair, although that seemed to be fading with the summer, allowing a whole forest of freckles to pop up and colonise her features with reckless abandon.

Bright eyes, shifting from green to brown and back again in the changing light, looked up at Silver as he stood in the doorway, and a straight mouth opened to frame some sort of question or greeting.

The butler pre-empted her, though, with a short half-bow and his voice smooth as silk and rich as butter. There was nary a ripple or an intonation to betray his own thoughts on the unexpected caller in the practiced greeting.

“Good day, miss. I am Silver, the butler of Elysium Hall. Do you have business with the house?”

It wasn’t entirely beyond the realms of possibility that the Councillor Radiant knew the girl, after all; she kept some strange company, at times.

[Diara]

Diara was never good at judging people based upon their looks. Most times she would guess a personality, and be entirely wrong. That didn't necessarily put a stop to her antics, though. As the massive doors promptly swung open, she looked up to see an older man. Her first impression was that he must be noteworthy. His clothing was fine, and they way he held himself suggested wealth. Perhaps he was even a little pretentious? He looked important, like he had some sort of serious business he had to attend to in the city of Lhavit. Diara wondered if he was some sort of leader. Was this Alses? The name didn't seem to quite fit him but, to each their own, she thought. She opened her mouth to finally speak, but was interrupted by his own greeting.

“Good day, miss. I am Silver, the butler of Elysium Hall. Do you have business with the house?”

His voice was a warm tone, very inviting. Upon hearing it, she dropped the idea of him being pretentious, and thought of him more like courteous. That would be fitting, considering that he was a butler, rather than a leader of the city. Once again her guesses were dead wrong, per usual. Instead of keeping the man from his duties while she tried to pick him apart, she quickly spoke.

"Hello, sir. Yes, I do. My name is Diara, and I've heard that the Elysium Hall is looking for help?" she stopped there, but the butler didn't reply immediately, so she gave specifics. "I heard that you were hiring maids. I'm here to inquire about a job."

Her eyebrows raised expectantly, hoping for a positive reply. She brushed a long poofy strand of hair from her face, a nervous tick she had a hard time getting rid of. Thinking of her hair, maybe she should've put it back in a braid? Did she look too unprofessional? Was this butler man silently judging her as she was him? Was she going to get turned down just because of her hair? Perhaps this is why she couldn't land a job. She couldn't even tidy her hair throughout the day.

Diara had no knack for auristics, but if anyone could read her aura currently, it would probably be showing signs of intense nervousness. If she couldn't get hired here, she was afraid for her future in Lhavit.

Silver didn't look nearly as concerned as she did, and beckoned her inside of the lavish home. She took a step in, and was taken aback, again, by the structure's beauty. In her opinion, it wasn't as nice as the outside because it was lacking in things such as furniture and pieces of art to decorate the walls, but it was still wonderful. She couldn't even imagine working in a place like this, but could get used to the notion. She waited for more information from Silver, her fingers crossed together and a light smile shown on her face.

[Alses]

Silver smiled. “Indeed we are,” he replied. “The Hall is rather too large for one person – or even two – to manage. Come in, please,” he added, gesturing into the entrance hall and stepping back, welcoming the girl into Elysium Hall.

He hid a smile as Diara gazed in momentary awe around at the glittering entryway, at the icily beautiful Ethaefal caryatids that held up the staircase, at the vaulting and the gleaming chandelier overhead and much else besides.

“Follow me, if you would,” he murmured, sailing across the marble floor towards a gleaming pair of doors that led deeper into the house. “Ordinarily, I’d interview you myself, but her grace is most interested in her staff, and she has certain…special requirements.”

Silver kept his pace quite slow: easy to catch and keep up with, as well as allowing him ample time to at least do a preliminary vetting. Quite aside from any…adjustments…that might be necessary in terms of skills and temperament, the girl would evidently need some brief instruction in keeping a presentable appearance; that nova-cloud of hair, as vibrant and unusual as it was, would only get in the way of a servant, especially a maid tasked with dusting and cleaning and the perennial business of laying the fires Alses was so fond of in the winter months. A discreet ponytail or something, that would be more appropriate.

Not that that was a particular barrier; Silver was no stranger to newcomers to domestic service, and what really mattered was diligence and a willingness to work. Rough edges could be buffed off, given a little time.

“So you wish to be a maid here?” he echoed, half-turning and raising an eyebrow. “Do you know anything about the Councillor Radiant, or this house?” There was a soft click as he set his hands to the doors and opened them, shimmering through and into a rather more plush hallway, brightly light by skyglass glowglobes and with the occasional piece of dark furniture standing solidly along its length.

“This way, please,” he added, already progressing magisterially ahead. “Normally, I’d not bring you before her grace straight away, but she’s still unused to the concept of staff, and as I said, she has a few special requirements that she needs to meet you for.”

He looked over his shoulder for a moment, mouth quirked in a wry smile. “Nothing to worry about; she’s just a powerful sorceress, and that comes with a few quirks.”

“Now,” he continued, “Her grace – do make sure to address her as such – will be in the library at this bell. It’s just around the corner.” He paused, turning solemnly in place. “Just a little advice, before I take you in?” His voice was low and earnest, soothing even though what he was saying wasn’t precisely reassuring.

“Don’t lie to her, no matter how uncomfortable the truth makes you; she’ll spot it and you’ll be out on your ear.”