Game Log

The Feast of Santa Sophia

Game Date: 01/13/06
The feast day arrives and marriage seems to be in the air.

The ladies went out early for their ride. Donna Francesca struck up a conversation with Lady Ellen about the education of women in Vodacce; the Avalon was sympathetic. She could understand - although she did not indicate that she agreed - with the practice of keeping strega ignorant, but didn't understand why it was applied to Senavista as well. She also expressed some concern about the fate of any daughters she might have, if her marriage to Father Donati were to go forward. Gianina rather desperately tried to change the subject to something less dangerous and Marco supported her in that; Francesca obligingly turned conversation to Ellen's home of Avalon. Ellen told a story of a haunted island, beset with gremlins and hobgoblins lurking under every other toadstool, just waiting to do harm to unwary passer-by. The horses were turned toward home when a rabbit spooked them; Ellen hardly noticed and Marco and Gianina kept their mounts under control, but Francesca's horse bolted. It galloped wildly away until Marco managed to come up alongside and bring it back down under control. If hearts were racing, surely it was from the fright and danger of the sitation...

Back in Monfalcone, Salvador waited until Don Tigran was finished "refreshing" himself from his travels (a process which apparently required three serving girls) and then wandered off to find one of them. She hadn't seen or heard very much, having only brought water for washing, but the lord had said something about "seeing the sights" of Monfalcone.

The festival parade was very beautiful; the procession of floats was inspiring as always. Except perhaps for the float sponsored by the church of Sant' Ambrogio, which looked strange and ungainly because it was made out of food. Also, it showed the saint kneeling before the First Prophet, when all the others had her fully upright and distributing blessings to the world. Members of Sant' Ambrogio dismantled it while the service was performed inside Santa Sophia. Father Donati's sermon was very well received; it was moving and entirely appropriate for the day.

After the ceremony, people mingled in the plaza before the church for a while, exchanging pleasantries and playing at the Great Game. Antonio felt that he should speak with Don Tigran, but instructed his wives to stay a good distance away. Gianina used the opportunity to drift off a little, looking for her mystery letter man. She found him - which was very good, as he was suddenly realized that while a strega couldn't read his letter, picking one black-clad and veiled woman out of a crowd of them was a very difficult task. He thanked her effusively for her aid and didn't try to keep her overlong when she mentioned that she had to get back to her husband - and saw Teodora stomping closer. He disappeared into the crowd as the older strega laid into Gianina - for not reading Antonio's strands while he conversed with Don Tigran. She herded the younger strega back toward Antonio to do a reading. Gianina saw Tigran's Ruthless Arcana very clearly, and he was near to bristling with Rods strands, owing his authority as a relative and favorite of Prince Mondavi. There was a thin, new Swords strand between Tigran and Antonio - one of them must mean the other some harm. And as long as she was looking, Gianina curiously looked at Teodora's primary strand, her Cups - that went straight into the mostly-empty church of Santa Sophia.

Francesca, meanwhile, caught snatches of conversation between her husband and the visiting lord; there were some pleasantries exchanged, and she heard Anna's name mentioned. Tigran laughed at something and Antonio made to go, inviting Tigran to their house that evening as he went. Francesca quietly told Anna that she'd been a topic of discussion; Anna, not knowing the first thing about Don Tigran or his reputation (and entirely missing his Arcana), wasn't automatically upset. After all, Tigran was handsome, looked about 25 and was clearly someone important. She could do much worse.

At the alms table, Gabrielle tried to make some sort of connection with Father Donati and received a stretch of charity work and a sermon on "what Theus needs from you" as her reward. When she was finally able to make her escape from that, she left, making one final reference to Father Donati's status as Unbound and how wonderful that must be. Ellen stepped in to take Gabrielle's place in the bread line (and performed with significantly less squeamishness) and broached the subject of a talk with Father Donati. He agreed that they should converse later, after dinner. Ellen was introduced to Pietra, who attempted to intimidate the lady with her "scary little girl" routine; Ellen typically failed to notice.

Dinner started out inauspiciously, with Cristoforo arriving drunk with a bunch of rowdy friends. Teodora glared him into a seat; Angelo said grace, highlighting the importance of temperance. Amazingly, Cristoforo picked up on the implied insult and hassled his older brother for it; he even spotted an attempt to distract him from matters with an offering of food. Later, he danced with such uncommon grace that Angelo wondered if one of Lady Ellen's fairy folk had somehow replaced him with a duplicate.

Don Tigran arrived; Antonio reluctantly introduced his wives. Luckily (?), the sight Tigran was apparently here to see was Lady Ellen. He conversed with her in her native tongue on appropriate academic topics, ever the gentleman. Salvador, having used nearly the same approach to also get into Lady Ellen's good graces, knew where that could very well be going and appointed himself her unofficial guardian for the evening, until Angelo returned from the church to have his talk with her. That might have been sufficient, if in the course of conversation, Tigran hadn't brought up his alchemical studies and Ellen hadn't outright laughed at the notion. The dark look was only on Tigran's face for a moment, quickly smoothed over, but Salvador saw it. This wasn't going to be over.

Other connections made over the course of the evening: Antonio mentioned to Salvador that he was considering sponsoring Cristoforo as a Lord's Hand for Mondavi; would Salvador be interested in captain of the guard? Salvador surprised his half-brother by showing more interest in the position of Lord's Hand; Antonio hadn't thought the soft-looking, young courtier would have had sufficient grit for the position. Bernardo was rattled by Tigran's appearance; Salvador asked Lucia what the matter was and she said she didn't know; Francesca asked Bernardo directly and he blamed bad fish. Francesca also kept an eye on Anna, who was quietly watching Tigran. Tigran, who had laughed at the entire idea of marriage when he first came to dinner, later said that Antonio had made some good points and that he'd be back to look at genealogical charts. The musicians from the food disbursement had been brought in and, as promised, the lead violinist was allowed to play a piece especially composed for Lady Donati. It was a vibrant, passionate piece - too passionate, in Don Antonio's opinion, and the musicians were dismissed.

Angelo, who had left partway through the festivities to wrap things up at church, finally returned for his talk with Ellen. Taking her out into the courtyard, he told her every dirty little family secret that he knew - the plots against Antonio, Pietra's history, his suspicions about his mother - and explained that as his wife, she'd be expected to collude with him on these matters. Ellen did not immediately bolt, but was certainly taken aback by all of this. Perhaps even gaining some insight into the Great Game, she even pondered aloud that this could also all be a test, to see what she did with this new information; she also quickly realized that Angelo's dire predictions of her speech or silence condemning people to death was already true, since now she could either inform her host and her father's would-be ally, Don Antonio, of these plots against him and cause Angelo's death, or keep silent and perhaps be partly responsible for Don Antonio's. She retired for the evening to give the matter due consideration.

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