[Job Thread] Shame and Fortune (Colombina)

[Thalia]

Timestamp: Season of Summer, 1st Day, 512 AV - Evening It had been four seasons since Thalia became aware that her father had fallen into debt. "Debt." It was too simple of a word for something that had so insidiously destroyed her life. The woman she loved? Lost. The engagement she’d had? Finished. The control she felt? Minimal, at best. She’d spent the past year swathed in an aura of anger, guilt, and contempt. Drink and Mirage, fucking and fighting… They made her numb for night, maybe two. But then the feelings, those petching feelings, would seep back in. She was so sick of feeling. It didn’t help that she’d been spending most of her time at her father’s sister’s house. Thalia’s family had moved in with Hara re Khatro once it became too clear that they couldn’t afford their home, although “an inseparable family bond” was cited as the public reason. Within weeks it soon became clear that Thalia and Hara despised one another. Hara put up a polite front at first, but her attitude soon disintegrated to match Thalia’s blatant animosity. Thalia’s dark thoughts were interrupted when, from a sofa in the sitting room, she discerned Hara’s only slave approaching her father in the hallway. "There's a Sym... Symenestra man at the door, s-sir. He's asking for... for you.” Rhakel re Khatro’s worn face went pale as he listened to the Kelvic slave girl stutter out her words. The girl’s hands were shaking uncontrollably from fear, and Rhakel’s own hands had clenched tightly into white-knuckled fists. Thalia frowned, and felt troubled by her father's reaction. The Kelvic was an idiot, so her reaction the Symenestra was to be expected. Her father, however… Thalia had watched her father change from bold and jesting to anxious and exhausted over the course of a year, but she’d never seen him react like that to any visitor. The re Khatro family did have some pride left, after all. Rhakel sent the slave back to the front door, urging her to hurry and let the man in. He then turned and looked through the door of the sitting room, spotting his daughter. "Thalia, I need you to go to your room," he said quietly, his voice laced with apprehension. “Am I twelve, father?” she scoffed in reply, but the sickly paleness of his face convinced her to argue no further. She haughtily smoothed her red linen sheath and proceeded to leave the room through its second entrance, stopping out of sight just beside the doorway. From her hiding spot, she could hear the visitor being asked to join Rhakel in the sitting room. If he’s going to treat me like a child, then I’ll eavesdrop like one.

[Colombina]

"You have a fine home, Rhakel." The handsome voice was tempered with a dose of genuine admiration, and the compliment seemed given without agenda. "I thank you for receiving me in it. It is a courtesy I am not often rendered." Thalia's father mumbled some sort of acknowledgment. When a silence accrued, the visitor politely cleared his throat. Rhakel then hastily invited him to sit, remembering a sliver of good breeding. "Can you...ah do you ah drink tea?" For all the dread her father betrayed, he was treating the visitor poorly. But the other voice responded smoothly. "I can. I do. And please." Hurried footfalls and the clink of tray and glasses in the Benshiran style gave Thalia a sketch of what was transpiring in the ensuing quiet. Rhakel's throat felt collared in fear, but he was still a Gilded, able to compose himself amidst Inkaras and Nobles. He would not be destroyed by the gray wisp of a creature across from him. When the servant's tread died away, he summoned his first strike. "Your visit can only--" Rhakel's bold crescendo was choked by a gesture and slight word from his visitor. "One moment, please, Rhakel." Symenestra were rumored to be fast, but it took experience to realize how quiet they could make their motions. As a pale-haired Symenestra leaned out of the doorway to look at her, Thalia was treated with a new understanding of the race. "Would you care to join us?" he asked. "There's tea." He lifted the narrow painted glass in his hand as demonstration. "And I suspect this conversation affects your interests."

[Thalia]

Thalia's breathing became noticeably heavier and more shallow as a wave of embarrassment washed over her. She could tell, even without the use of sight, that her father was betraying his earlier uneasiness to the visitor. The awkward conversation, the belated formalities... And what was this business about "can you drink tea"? Every Eypharian could drink tea; her father should have known that. He's acting like a petching commoner. She wasn't exactly sure what a "Symenestra" was (her best guess being that it was a membership title for a strange religious cult), but the man seemed to be perfectly reasonable and polite. From what she could hear, he wasn't at all the intimidating figure that she had expected from her father's initial reaction. A long, frustrated sigh escaped Thalia's lips, and she realized too late that it had been much louder than expected. She winced and clamped her mouth shut, cursing her lack of focus. Silently, she listened for a sign that either the visitor or her father had overheard her. All she could hear were the sounds of glasses clinking together, and she assumed that the Kelvic girl had distracted them with tea. Thalia briefly acknowledged that this was the only time she'd ever been the tiniest bit thankful to have the girl around, and then relaxed against the wall as the conversation started up again. Safe. Or was she? Only a moment after she congratulated herself for not being caught spying, the visitor's head peered around the doorway. "Would you care to join us?" he asked nonchalantly, causing Thalia to nearly jump out of her skin in surprise. What is...?! Who...? Is that a Symenestra? She had never seen anything like it. It.. er, he, looked nothing like the Eypharian man she had imagined (and he certainly didn't look religious). His singular pair of arms immediately indicated that he was off an entirely different race, though the rest of him looked like nothing she had ever seen before. He had distinctive pale hair and peculiar ash-coloured skin, but it was the long black nails (claws?) on his hands that convinced her that he wasn't some strange breed of human. Thalia forced an expression of composure onto her face. Her father's earlier discomfort was beginning to take on new meaning, and so she also kept an air of wariness around her as she compliantly stepped into the sitting room. "Thank you for the invitation," she responded, matching the man's polite tone. After pouring herself a cup of tea, she took a seat opposite the visitor and pointedly avoided her father's disappointed glare. "I was just coming to... to get tea for myself," she lied, and offered the Symenestra a tight smile. Ugh. I really hate being caught, she thought, as feelings of resentment and grudging respect for the man battled for positions. Thalia took a sip of her drink, and raised the question that was on the forefront of her mind. "Now, if I may ask, Mr... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." She paused expectantly, and then continued on. "How might my father's personal business affect my interests?"

[Colombina]

"Mister Spider suits," he said with a mild expression. The Symenestra stirred mint and honey into his tea, as if nothing pressed on his mind. It was a pleasant concoction during the midday heat. Even after years, the climate still did not agree with him. Widows were built for the shade and cool under the mountains, not the relentless golden gaze of Syna. "I am always surprised by the family dynamics in this city," in Kalinor blood was everything, "I would assume his economic success ensures your livelihood and future holdings." After leaning back into his seat, he observed, "Your family is in debt to me and I have come to encourage payment..." He looked at Thalia with a passing flicker of interest. Then spoke directly to her father with a deceptive lightness to his words considering the implication of his eyes. "...Or trade." OOCApologies for brevity. I wanted to leave space for you to write her father's reaction.