First Meeting II

Deserea sighed, and the room lapsed back into silence, the only sound the scratching of Lyvia's pen and the rustle of pages.

"Enjoy the ball?" Lyvia asked, as much to draw Deserea away from the windows as to break the silence.

Deserea spun, her face lighting up at the memory and the chance to relive it.

"Oh it was wonderful! Young Lord Neuseu was an absolute sweetheart, he was so adorably nervous to begin with, but once I made him feel more comfortable he loved it, just positively loved it! And I got to see Samden again, and he's doing so well, quite come into himself, he just got back from visiting family in Tremredare, so I got to catch up on all of the gossip out of the west, and you won't believe who's engaged! Only Ashlyn Larabeck! I never thought I'd see the day, but apparently her husband is quite the catch…"

Deserea swayed and span as she described the music and the dancing. Lyvia smiled warmly, enjoying Deserea's obvious delight in recounting the events of the ball almost as much as if she would have attended herself.

She made a couple of notes regarding some of the more promising pieces of gossip Deserea provided to follow up on later. Deserea could be a wonderful source of valuable intel.

Deserea dropped back to her chair with a sigh. "You should have gone, too, Lyvia, you'd have had a great time!"

Lyvia suspected that she probably would have enjoyed herself. She didn't get to attend as many social events as she would have liked with one thing and another.

"Sadly, balls are expensive things, and not all of us are as blessed as you to get paid to attend," she said through the corner of a smile. Funds were not the reason she'd missed tonight's event.

But still, Lyvia could scarcely believe it when Deserea had told her how much she could charge a young nobleman to be his escort for the evening and ensure that his entry to Luthadel high society made an appropriate splash, or a Lord looking for a little extra glamor for an important business deal. Not just that there were clients willing to pay, but that there were enough clients who could pay, and keep paying for repeat business.

Deserea laughed. "You could, you absolutely could! Why, I bet men would pay almost as much for you as they do for me!"

Lyvia didn't react, but had to wonder if comments like that were deliberate jabs or just careless thoughtlessness.

"Now that I think of it," Deserea continued, "Didn't you get paid to put on dance performances at balls before?"

"That's true, though not quite the same thing…" After Tanniker had proposed and brought her to Luthadel from Fadrex, but before the wedding, she had made quite the impression on the Luthadel social and performing arts scene. Tanniker used to love her dancing, but had opinions on a 'Lady' continuing to perform. She did once anyway, which had led to a huge fight and… these days she preferred to dance for herself.

Lyvia was snapped out of her reverie by Deserea clapping her hands excitedly.

"That reminds me, I almost forgot… I got paid three times for tonight!"

Lyvia put down her pen and gave a small clap of approval and a rewarding smile.

"Very well done, where did you get the idea for that?"

"Like you did three weeks ago with the Urteau deal, when you got paid for clearing out those warehouses, AND found a buyer for all the leftover goods, AND for delivering the barges you used to transport everything to the new owners once you were done!"

"Hmm, it's gratifying to learn that you are paying attention occasionally." She leaned back, relaxed, the corner of her mouth pulled in a teasing smile. "So how did you manage to pull off a similar feat?"

Deserea basked in Lyvia's genuine pride and approval. So often Lyvia was busy doing three things at once, and while she never missed a beat doing so, it felt great to be the center of attention. When Lyvia gave her full focus to someone, she had a way of making them feel so important, it would make a rioter envious—Deserea would know!

"Well, I got paid by Neuseu of course—or rather by his father Lord Tarnin, who had heard great things about me from Lord Geffenry, so he didn't even argue the price—and so I was going to take him to the Penrod ball, which was the big event tonight, only I heard that Lord Ackroyal was trying to get in favor with House Tarnin, and they had their own smaller event happening—which actually was just perfect for Neuseu's first time anyway—but I had a quiet word with Lady Ackroyal and let her 'convince' me (for a price) that their ball would be the better one to make an appearance at. And then that new dressmaker, Ivanovich, the one from the Southern Islands with the funny accent… Well, I dropped the suggestion to him that for a small fee I'd be sure to tell everyone at the ball where I got my beautiful gown, and that would be sure to drum up business!"

"Very nicely done, and sounds like you actually got paid four times, assuming you didn't have to pay for the dress?"

"Now that you mention it… it was supposed to just be a loaner for the ball, but I convinced him to let me keep it. I can be very persuasive, you know."

Lyvia asked further questions, and they both chatted about the possibility of similarly lucrative dealings in the future. As the minute hand of the clock approached the top of the hour, the conversation fell quiet as both women began to listen for any sign of the arrival of their visitor. The silence grew thick with anticipation.

Then, with one minute remaining, a barely audible scraping could be heard from the window.

In a rush, an indistinct black figure swung in from above the window and landed with hardly a sound. As the figure drew himself up from a crouch, the light of the oil-lamp was just enough to identify him as a masked man, wrapped in a pitch black mist-cloak.

"Good evening," said Lyvia, "I assume you are The Grim Mistborn."