From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MG] Feasts and Celebrations Date: 10 May 93 17:53:50 GMT The dinner bell rang. It was ignored, the three working on the details of what they were exchanging and how and where, were much more interested in continuing their fascinating exchange of maps and routes and civilizations. The cooks waited, impatiently. Kardia looked at 'Raelf, shrugging. "Are you always this hard to distract when you're working?" "Nah. Watch this." He walked over to his doppleganger, who moved aside unconsciously, still concentrating on maneuvering the map settings through a complicated display. 'Raelf-cook knelt down and put his hands over his double's eyes. "Guess who." "ARG!" 'Raelf-mapping shouted, and shoved off backwards, bowling his other self over backwards. Both of them came to their feet in an identical back-roll, one grinning, the other slightly peeved-looking. Then he started to laugh, and vanished. The remaining 'Raelf, the one who had been cooking, spun and caught the other one as he appeared out of thin air behind himself, and threw the other at the floor. He missed. After a few more exchanges, ar'Elya cleared her throat. "Hey, come on, 'Raelf, stop playing with yourself and get back here." "NO can do, lovely lady. Our guests need their dinner, besides, the decks already have the protocols, they can finish the exchanges by themselves." 'Raelf-cook laughed as his other self swung a fast staff strike over his head, which he avoided by spinning out of the way and countered with his own staff, appearing from nowhere, with which he returned the assault, howling, while across the way he ducked, "Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!" "TOING!" yelled his counterpart, putting his hand vertically by his nose. They began duck-walking across the furniture, whacking at each other with staves in a loud but ultimately ineffective way, at which point ar'Elya looked to Jameson and Kardia. "Shall we dine now?" -0----0- The dining room was set with a pleasant welcoming atmosphere. Lilacs from the garden were glowing in the centerpiece, and four settings were laid, a pale ivory china decorated with hand painted ivy leaves around the rim overlaying a grey marbled ring, no gold trim. There were ivory-and-inlay chopsticks at each table, and large ceramic spoons with flat bottoms. A service cart sat beside the table, laden with steaming towels and a covered tray. ar'Elya accepted a towel from 'Raelf who was standing by the cart in a position of quiet attention, dressed in a tux coat over his hawaiian shirt, which got him a raised eyebrow from ar'Elya. "Please feel free to freshen up before we dine," she said to the others, as a semi-flushed 'Raelf came in behind and gave his counterpart a lopsided grin. He wiped his face and hands with the hot cloth and helped seat the others when they finished. "Oh, menus!" Kardia smiled at the small folded cards in front of each of the four places. hot and sour soup steamed chicken with lily buds asparagus beef ma po bean curd fried prawns in shells duck with imperial sauce fresh fruit The covered tray on the service cart was opened, revealing a large, deep bowl and four smaller bowls in the ivy-china pattern, nested together. 'Raelf-waiter served the soup, a sharply sour, intensely spicy concoction filled with long thin slices of crisp vegetables and some kind of meat. They all enjoyed the soup in relative silence, only exchanging a few politenesses. The sunset waned to the west, visible through a woven lattice window. 'Raelf-in-waiting cleared off the bowls and spoons and set out plates, then presented three steaming-hot service plates with different foods. He quietly moved the service cart into the dumbwaiter and closed it behind him. "So," Jameson asked quietly, while the rice was being passed, "What exactly is the nature of your contract with Dasham?" She was answered by 'Raelf-at-table. "It's kind of complicated. See, as far as I can tell she's under a very subtle kind of geas. She's convinced she's cursed to wither and die of old age before the year ends." Jameson blinked, eyes narrowing in thought. "Is she really?" Kardia asked. "As good as." 'Raelf passed a broad oval serving plate, scalloped edges holding in juices. The plate was covered with walnut-sized chunks of steamed chicken and odd twisted bits of some vegetable, tied in little knots, and mushrooms and bits of a translucent aromatic ginger. "She's been using a drug that prevents aging," he continued, "but it takes special preparations if you use magic, to keep it from turning poisonous. So she can't use it, and her age will catch up with her in about three years." "Are those really lily buds?" ar'Elya asked, pointing to the twisted knots mixed in the dish. "Local variety. More perfumey smell but kind of peppery aftertaste," 'Raelf replied, "but the mushrooms are dried clouds' ears." "Lovely." "The first time I met her she used a mind-ripper probe on me." Jameson said neutrally. Kardia blinked. "Was that what she tried on me?" "Most like," 'Raelf said. "She did the same at me, got snagged in my killer-death wards from hell." "Your what?" Kardia grinned. "wards frin gell," 'Raelf replied around a mouthful of asparagus beef. "Manners," ar'Elya admonished, the glint of a steel ruler flickering briefly in her left hand. 'Raelf swallowed, and took a sip of the tea to clear his throat, as ar'Elya continued. "He uses a system of magical defenses of unusual efficacy, but they have their drawbacks. They consume far too much power, and they can injure anyone who tries to penetrate them. As I recall, Dasham didn't get past them." "Well," 'Raelf said, teasingly, "She didn't want to get too _intimate_, love, and you know I have my scary side. Besides, the memory of dying got in her way." Jameson murmured almost noiselessly to herself, "She's afraid." 'Raelf allowed his teeth to show in something like a smile. He reached for the ma-po bean curd and spooned a portion over his rice. There was a period of silence, while mouths were busy with food rather than conversation, punctuated by murmurs of appreciation. After a few minutes, the first meal course was mostly gone. "Did she ever go after you?" Kardia asked ar'Elya, toying with a bit of chicken. "Ah. Yes." ar'Elya's customary equipoise boke for a moment and a moment of sheer menace showed through. "I went in later the same day, to register as a visiting archmage. By some accident my dragonets got loose and ate all her standing probespells and wards. Very sad, she had to spend a day and a half redoing them. She never did get around to investigating me personally. Rafe talked me out of doing anything else, but if she _ever_ tries to hurt him again, ..." "Raye, please, I wasn't ever in any real danger." He managed to look embarrassed and flattered at the same time. "It's the principle of the thing." 'Raelf-in-waiting returned from the dumbwaiter with the service cart, and cleared away the remains of the first three dishes and laid out clean plates for everyone. Then he opened the covered service tray again and laid out a number of flat bread-pancakes, and small dishes of an aromatic brown sauce next to another dish of green baby onions sliced into little flowers. Then he laid out two plates, each with the boneless carcase of a duck, cut up into little squares but laid out in the general outline of the original duck, with the crisply browned skin on top. They started rolling up the pancakes, anointed first with the brown sauce, then a square of duck, some of the onion, and the crisp skin, made into little tubes like scroll cases, folded on the bottom. Conversation died briefly again, in favor of eating. After a while 'Raelf-in-waiting brought out a platter of thumb-sized shrimp, fried with a mixture of peanuts and vicious dried red peppers and garlic and shredded purple, red, green, orange, and yellow bell peppers and long thin shreds of orange peel. Just enough of them to happily fill in the forgotten corners left after the rest of the meal. "Well, we have a light dessert," Kardia said contentedly, feeling almost more full than was comfortable. A bowl of sliced peaches was presented. 'Raelf grinned again. "You know, if Dasham knew the legend about these, she'd be banging at the door trying to get in." "Peaches?" Jameson asked, tilting her head to the left, blinking, then tilting it right. "Old Chinese saying, `Eat a Peach, Live Forever'" The words echoed strangely, ricocheting off parts of Jameson's mind. She was being pulled in a half-dozen directions, hooks shooting from her flesh, something dark coiling itself through her brain. Quietly, without comprehending, she knew she would be feeling this as agony in a few seconds, but then the sensation faded and she paused for a moment, wondering what she should be remembering. She looked around, curious. She was lying on her back, on one of the couches in the large room. 'Raelf was slipping an amber gem amulet back inside his shirt, and ar'Elya was speaking into her handset datalink. "Are you all right?" Kardia asked, removing a damp rag from Jameson's head, and helping her to sit up. "Yes." Jameson looked strangely at her hands. They didn't feel ... right. She looked up at Kardia, then the others, "I'm not sure what just happened." "Some sort of feedback," ar'Elya replied, "through some sort of magical tagging spell you are carrying. I think it belongs to Archmage Nescie." "It does. He put it there to warn him, in case Dasham tried to follow up on her original assault." Jameson tentatively stood, tensing various muscles carefully before putting weight on them. All systems were within operating norms. "She thinks, or thought, that she could use me. She apparently could tell I was older than I looked." She smiled wryly and rubbed her neck, "Nescie wanted to protect me." "Sensible. Something else must have got tangled into it, because something serious just happened at the Mages' Guild and the feedback knocked you out." "What could have done that?" 'Raelf came over from where he'd been standing by the door. He was in the process of donning a severely modified wetsuit. He paused to pull on his poncho and a pair of hakama, then his visor. His boots flared blue and a set of glowing disks appeared beneath his feet, on edge; he balanced easily on them, gliding backwards towards the doorway. "Supreme Archmage Delalle was just destroyed." He pulled the gloves tight and touched the join-and-seal rune on each. "And I have to go back and make the presentation that may well have triggered events that led to his destruction. And I can't do a damned thing to prevent it." He rolled backwards out the door and vanished. -0 0 0- Kudoes etc. to Kelly J Cooper and Liralen for help with their characters.