Shadow Rituals (Closed)

[Leopold]

Shadow Rituals

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIkyIfBF4U)
2563



A Glimpse Of The Darkness In Love's Midst


They say, that in our world
There's glory to be had.
Twist the viewpoint of mankind,
And in this lie be glad.

For rumour has it fame,
Is but a passing glare
Upon the mantelpiece of God:
A sunny glowing flare.

But fame and glory share a fault,
An unfailing shattered tale,
For like life itself, both fame and glory
Are always doomed to fail.

Cydney Oliver.

[Leopold]

Leopold was a patient man.

Or so he liked to think.

It was a required trait for any man who wished to date, let alone marry Ruby Winchester of Scara Brae. There was no escaping the fact that on at least three occasions a day, you would have to wait for her to make up her mind, her move or her intentions clear. Even after ten years of marriage Leopold had failed to once second guess her. He could literally count the number of times he had managed to do so on one hand.

“Do you wish perhaps to share what is on your mind Ruby? I’ve been waiting here quite dutifully and soberly for nearly fifteen minutes.” This was a little white lie, as he had consumed quite a large quantity of bourbon during the performance.

The grandiose setting of the Grand Theatre House of Radasanth proved a dramatic backdrop to their brewing argument. The gold leaf and ornate moulded dome overhead flickered with life as the many chandeliers and tall, gothic candle stands shed truths unseen onto the cracked ornamentation. Theatre goers swerved around the couple, who stood face to face at the very centre of the chamber, standing on the large marble sigil that covered most of the polished floor.

“No,” it was as much of an answer as he hoped to get. She remained churlish, lip curled, eyes aflame with contempt, indecision marking a woman scorned. Leopold could only slump, his heavy shoulders dragging his neck and top hat eschew.

“You’ve only to decide between Potter’s Bar and the bistro we visited last year on that impromptu business trip. Is it really so hard to choose? Both serve a fine fish dish, and both serve the very same wine from the very same vineyard.” He spoke like a man who had had quite enough. He didn’t know what she wanted, but what he wanted right now was food. It was the least she could do to bring them both closer to eating after making him endure four hours of Salvarian opera.

“I’m not suitably dressed for the bistro, and Potter’s Bar is always full of,” she minced her words, clearly aware of the irony in them, “hoodlums.”

Hoodlums meant bohemians, the sort of arty farty people who said they were into theatre, but never actually went. There, at least in Ruby’s eyes was nothing more leachable on the sacred earth.

“The same sort of ‘hoodlums’ you run with every day of the week, might I remind you. Potter’s bar it is, convention and my sizeable and shameful dowry are damned. This here is my putting my foot down.” He took his wife by the arm, looping his elbow into the floral folds of her elegant ball gown before shunting them both towards the great double archway that lead out into the brisk evening air.

“If you wanted to go there you only had to say,” Ruby said matter of flatly, as if the indecision were Leopold’s fault all along. She had mastered the art of passing responsibility to others, especially onto her husband. Leopold often joked with the other merchants of the Guilds-man Circle that his engagement ring had been enchanted; he had been cursed the very second he felt it’s warmth on his finger.

[Leopold]

He glanced at the gold band on his hand nervously.

Maybe it is cursed after all.

It caught the candlelight and seemed if only for a moment to glow. He wrinkled his lips and smiled broadly at his wife, who smiled back through convention and not through emotion and they stepped out into the street.

“I suppose I will be paying for our meal as well, shall I?”

“Oh very kind Leopold dear, you do know how to spoil me rotten,” and that statement alone made them both smile.

When it came down to it, no matter how frustrated they made one another, their rings, bound in fire of the heart as much as forged in flames that scolded and seared, had never been taken off in their long marriage. Leopold knew that although he would one day die, fade from this mortal coil and leave her behind…she would never take her band off. It would serve as a memento for the red headed leading lady, an eternal memory of their devotion.

As they turned a corner and stepped out onto a long, bustling broad walk that lead from the theatre district down to the docks he half wanted to vomit at his own sentiment. The scent of wood smoke thick in the air combined with the vapours of bourbon which still mingled like dragon smoke on his breath kept him grounded enough to not sleight Ruby in front of so many other established noblemen; all zooming away from the theatre house to something more exciting as quick as their heels and heavy boots could carry them.

They had suffered the culture, and were hurriedly making their way to the after party like all upstanding citizens with an ounce of education.

“I’ve yet to see the dividends,” he replied sarcastically, taking in a sharp intake of the icy air to rouse his senses.

“I said we would have children once things settle down, you’ve no need to keep bringing it up,” she sniped a gaze at him that settled that particular score there and then, though she squeezed his arm and snuggled up to him to stay warm. Though well dressed and spectacular in appearance for the opera, she was virtually naked against the Radasanth night.

“Let’s not fight, let’s talk about something else – how was the opera?” Her red hair bobbed eschew as they walked, and she flicked it periodically at every turn. She was dwarfed by her husband’s girth and height, so much so many couples that passed them made muttered remarks about silver haired gentlemen and grave diggers. She ignored them, as she always did.

“Oh Ruby, you know damned well I can’t understand a word of what they’re saying. Of the many languages I speak, Salvarian is not one of them. It’s too frigid and too guttural and a lot of hassle when I can send Serge to do business there in my stead.”

“Have I not civilised you enough to make you understand what opera is all about?”

“Enlighten me,” he said bitterly.

[Leopold]

As they passed a long row of sailed schooners in an inland canal they made their way along the fair way to the dining quarter. Ruby plucked up a simplistic explanation to put her point across. Though she knew her husband did not understand and certainly appreciate opera, he knew enough to at least discuss it.

This meant he was playing a dangerous game of cat and metaphor mouse.

He was winding her up.

“Emotion in the words, my dear – you should at least appreciate the semantics behind Carlos’ plight and Duala’s cries for his attention?”

“Ha, now you’re being childish. Carlos and Duala aren’t in the opera we just saw – which was Cold Cantor for Crying, not, I’ll have you know, the Coronian classic Heartless in Haida.” He jabbed her in her ribs affectionately and she giggled.

“You were paying attention after all then?”

“Yes, alright, you caught me at my sentimental worst. It was trite, I didn’t understand why he was so honour bound to not ask for her hand in marriage herself and well, the opera we just saw was a direct copy of I Want to Be Your Canary, only, it had a Sasquatch.”

Ruby scoffed. “You could argue the Tantalum’s version has one of those too, have you seen Blank’s feet?”

Leopold rolled his eyes and laughed a deep, heavy guffaw that rocked the foundations of the ships and skipped out across the lupine waters. For a moment, the couple fell into warm silence as they came upon the first of many cafes that lined the busy streets. Top hats, tails and waistcoats were on everyone, and the woman who were in arm and hand and pocket all wore the best dresses a Sunday could muster from long forgotten wardrobes.

“It’s so nice to be away from Scara Brae, so nice to see all this culture at work!” Ruby trailed the patterns of every dress she could rest her eyes on, darting from pinafore lined low cut designs to long, and swish trails quicker than her nerves could manage. “We have to go shopping first thing in th-”

“You, you can gladly go shopping in the morning.” Leopold said this bluntly enough that Ruby snapped out of her fervour. She looked dazed, as if the sudden swell of excitement had stolen her senses away.

“Yes, yes, sorry – it’s just, look at those,” she pointed at a young girl’s pony tails and their elaborate weave, which strapped both lengths of hair behind her shoulder blades together. It was an elegant design, one which mirrored the trails of ribbon laced between hips on the front of her dress. Leopold imagined the girl’s nanny had given her a lengthy lecture about avoiding the puddles of mud and carts innocent well-dressed children always managed to encounter when wearing something worth more than most men earned in a year.

“It is rather pretty, but it might be a tad small on you dear.”

“Oh you’re hopeless; I should have brought Lillith with me!” She broke free from his embrace and sped off through the crowd, leaving Leopold temporarily frozen with disbelief. He spent a few moments trying desperately to second guess wherever she was joking, serious or somewhere between both extremes before he buried his stubby fingers into the gold laced pockets of his waistcoat and trailed after her.

[Leopold]

If she wanted a girly weekend in the city to shop, drink and dance the night away, he had to wonder why he had chosen to bring him instead of her sister. He gave up with that trail of thought no sooner than he started it, weaving through a crowd gingerly. He caught himself off guard watching a man on a box dressed all in white and ducked beneath several conga bars. He proclaimed, as he was surrounded by reed skirt wearing men proclaiming to be from the isle of Corrusack. He blinked, and walked on.

Radasanth, much like Scara Brae, came very much to life at night.

“Ruby, wait a moment will you!” He roared over the heads of the stubby nosed charlatans of Corone’s elite. He could not miss his wife as she advanced speedily through the crowd, being the only red head with feathers in your hair made it difficult to conceal yourself.

“God damn Mrs Winchester, I didn’t mean to upset you okay!”

His cheeks wobbled as he roared louder and louder, becoming frustrated and, despite his usually calm nature, somewhat aggravated. Several people cast him nervous glances, before they turned back to their dates, lovers and steaming cups of fragrant tea. They streamed past tree lined bistros, bustling patisseries and ice cream parlours full to the brim with young dockland workers edging into financial success with the constant demand by the navy for new ships.

“I’ll buy you twenty dresses just like it, in any colour you choose!”

“I’m not falling for that!” She replied.

“Then at least wait up so we can talk it through!” He stopped, almost crashing into her as he veered up behind her and she turned rather suddenly.

“You are far too gullible Leopold Winchester; I can go shopping with Lillith anytime, anyplace, any day of the year.” She leant in and grabbed hold of his lapels. Gold thread sparkled in the dim light of the shop fronts and the gas lamps hanging over head, “I chose to spend this weekend away with you because I love you.”

The words sounded slightly clichéd as she said them, but Leopold’s iron heart melted into a pool of scintillating slag, glowing in the recesses of his ample rib cage. He had tried to second guess her; being lulled into her clutches was his punishment, his torment, his Achilles heel.

“Oh you must think you’re so funny,” he grumbled, scratching his beard and trying not to look awkward.

Ruby stepped up, using her leverage on his clothing to lift her lips to his. They kissed a quick, simple peck on the lips to solidify their relationship in front of the many scores of nosy parkers. He would have been too prudish to let her revel in such a public display of affection once upon a time, but now, he didn’t care a damned inch.

He pulled her up, so that her heels balanced on his boots to give her height and he kissed her back.

[Leopold]

“I will take those dresses though,” she pulled away, devilish smile plastered across her glowing cheeks.

Leopold rolled his eyes. “Red, naturally, though I’m shocked you even considered I might want it in another colour.” That was about the only thing he could say for certain about his wife. She was called Ruby for a reason, and it shone for all to see in the heart of the city.

“You might need something new for a funeral.” He pushed her away and took her under his wing again. The intruding eyes of the crowds stopped their observations and the hustle and bustle of the night life of Radasanth allowed the couple a modicum of privacy as they continued their stroll along the boulevard. Potter’s Bar rested at the very end of the long avenue, on the corner as the road turned left into the wine bar district. It served as half drinker and half eatery, comfortably nestled between affordability and excellence.

“Why, who has died?”

“Me, if you stop mocking me. I’ll die of shame, or perhaps, if you take twenty minutes to decide on where we dine again, I’ll die of boredom!” He smiled, a beaming, half reality breaking smile that brought joy to her heart.

“I can see that these shadows are going to dance about us long into the night before we stop teasing one another,” she said sarcastically, her eyes falling onto the cobbles and the street ahead. Her heels clicked out a gentle, metronome timed rhythm.

“If we don’t take the opportunity to vent our frustrations, worries and insecurities out in one another’s companies, then why did we get married in the first place?”

Ruby rolled her eyes, “Your father insisted.”

Leopold chuckled. He had insisted, repeatedly, for two years.

“Yes, well, about that. I think we proved him wrong, don’t you?”

When they had been brought together, Leopold’s father had demanded they marry for money, convenience and the status of both their dwindling houses in the echelons of the noble families of Scara Brae. In the dusty parlour room of the Winchester residence, there had been no talk of love, of fancy, of enjoying on another’s company. Their engagement had been handled like a normal business arrangement, as if their lives, their very happiness were nothing more than onions and cabbages being batted on an open market.

Nobody had expected them to actually fall in love.

“We had nothing to prove in the first place, Ruby. We were victims of circumstance, but a set of circumstances we came to profit from, don’t you think?” Leopold pictured her extensive wardrobe, lavish four poster bed and life style in his mind, whilst Ruby secretly pictured the long, romantic lavender scented baths they often shared together until the early hours.

“Yes, we did, and our hearts are all the better for it.”

Neither of them made comment on the death of said father, who had left neither of them anything in his will; it had all gone to the relatives they had had to leave behind in order to consummate their marriage – relatives who had disagreed, hated and despised the notion of a merchant family ever coming near one of the ancient and noble houses of Scara Brae proper.

“Our stomachs, not so much,” Leopold grumbled, or rather, his stomach did. Ruby pulled away, chuckling at the strange gargling noise that had erupted from her husband’s wide girth. Though he was fond of food, any food, they had not eaten since first sunlight – and only alcohol had passed their lips since, which had made them both light headed during the opening act, and her half hysterical with tears during the opera’s many elongated death scenes.

[Leopold]

“Worry not my dear, look what I can see!” She prodded a delicate finger through the thinning crowd, who had grown too poor to slip into the wine bar district so early in the evening.

At the end of her declaration stood their destination, enticing and engaging and screaming for their custom, if the empty downstairs bar was anything to go by. Potter’s Bar was a tall building, wedged between a music room and a tea house on a gentle curve in the street’s natural course. Its red brick front and its three floors looked simple and pleasant from the outside, which was braced with a white wooden lattice work and covered in roses trails, jasmine bushes and window boxes filled with flowers Ruby did not recognise.

“It looks rather empty, doesn’t it? I don’t remember it being this unpopular.”

“It is late on a Sunday for luncheon and early for dinner, so perhaps we caught it off guard.” Leopold hazarded a suggestion, but knew Ruby would over react to the slightest change in her plans.

They approached the door and pushed it open.

Sure enough, the cluttered entrance bar, with its dual curved wine and cocktail sections was empty, apart from a long couple by the half roaring fire and a tall, whiskered feline bar man who stood erect and oddly alert behind the centre of the mahogany bar.

“Greetings senior,” he said, with a Fallien accent that was harsh and in stark contrast to the floral décor and the multitude of mismatched chairs and tables. The homely, rural interior of this eatery was one of the things that made the Winchesters keep coming back for more. It reminded them of home, whilst offering them a sinfully delicious taste of Corone cuisine, if there was indeed such a thing.

“Hello there, table for two, if you’ve one available at such short notice?” Despite the obvious, Leopold knew that Radasanth worked on decorum, and he had rules to follow in the catering business, just as he lived by rules as a merchant, husband and politician.

“Of course senior, please, take a seat where you please, I shall bring you your usual whilst we prepare your dining area.” The feline waiter waved over the bar floor to invite them to sit where they pleased before he produced a small note pad, made several hastily scribbled notes and sauntered through a door into what must be the kitchen.

“Have we been served by him before Leopold?” Ruby wrinkled her nose with confusion as they sat at the central circular table, which was festooned with gothic etchings of doves and murder scenes and adjusted themselves in the tall, red velvet wing back chairs that surrounded it.

“I do not think so, but we come here often enough to be on the register. He probably had to learn our appearance and usual orders from a list, I do wonder how many of those we’re in…” he looked down at his stomach and bit his lip.

Ruby chuckled. “It’s an odd sensation, knowing he knows everything about our eating habits when we know nothing of him.”

“He seemed a bit whiskery about us, don’t you think?”

From the expression on his wife’s face, Leopold only assumed his terrible pun had not been appreciated. “Oh alright, I can do better than that I know…”

[Leopold]

She sullenly picked up the simple type faced menu set on dog eared white card and opened it as if it were a first edition of a particularly rare and prized play. She read it in silence for a few moments, making a great deal of show over her choice before she passed it regally to her husband. “You know what I’ll order, so I’ll test you,” she smiled.

“The Sassafras Lobster it is then,” he mumbled, regretting ever introducing her to the local delicacy on the banks of the great river in Fallien on their last anniversary. “I wish you’d try something different every time we came here, it’s not like we get the chance to do it often. Expand your horizon as Duffy would say!”

“I’ve had five hundred years to expand my culinary horizons, Leopold. Right now,” the waiter reappeared from the kitchen with a silver tray and strafed clattering noisily behind the bar as he prepared two drinks. “I want lobster. There is no better lobster than one in a Sassafras sauce, sautéed in spices and left to soak in its own juices whilst it’s roasted in white wine from Raiaera.”

Leopold half wondered if she only ordered it to cause the most fuss she could for the staff.

“Very well, the lobster it is,” he made a show of choosing noisily from the menu, with plenty of hums and ahhs and lip smacking. She grew impatient quickly, only to stop steaming when he snapped the menu shut in the nick of time. They were both coming alive to one another’s moods, and the rituals of sleight of hand kept them both on their toes. “I will have something starkly different in case you wish to try something new.”

“Oh, there’s no need, I don’t fancy anything else.”

He knew her well enough to know she would in fact fancy something new, and she would help herself with a darting fork whenever he let his guard down. He was surprised at how many times she had turned down chips, only to wolf half of his portion down before she had even paid attention to her fish supper.

“Do you think Harvard will be the chef this evening?”

“We could always ask the waiter when he prowls over,” Ruby looked shocked with herself, “gosh, I mean walks…”

Leopold chuckled. Neither of them encountered the feline races often enough in Scara Brae for it to be a normal, everyday occurrences. Though neither of them harboured a racist bone in their body, he found himself catching a stare whenever the waiter’s back was turned, pouring measures of this and that from the menagerie of upturned bottles hanging from the mirrored wall.

“We should be able to tell from the sauce anyway, William always catches the white sauce and leaves it slightly tarred with iron.” By slightly tarred, Leopold meant still attached to the pan it was cooked in.

“I have been looking,” her stomach rumbled mid-sentence to augment her point, “forward to this all day.”

“We will sleep well tonight that’s for sure,” he pushed himself upright in his seat as he saw the waiter slip out from behind the bar, tray held at arm’s length, balanced perfectly on supple claws.

“Here you are senior, seniorita,” he bowed to Ruby and set the tray onto the table’s edge, coming in on her right as was custom in the long tradition of etiquette in Radasanth. “One Rose Garden,” he prodded at the tall beaker in front of Ruby, which was frosted about it and full of a sweet smelling liquor draft, “and one Godfather,” he gestured more bluntly at the pint glass full of dark iced drink in front of Leopold before he bowed and walked off.

Leopold waited to make sure the waiter was out of earshot, though he remained cautiously quite in his speech in case he under estimated those tall feline ears and their strange tortoise shell markings. “I of course say sleep loosely.”

[Leopold]

“Oh Leopold, wait until after you’ve had a drink or two before you start talking dirty,” she smiled, though cringed at the same time. With both hands, she picked up her glass and took a long sniff of it. “Or wait until I’ve had one or two of these before I can stomach it obliviously.”

“You used to be fun,” he tucked his hands under the table and tensed.

“I will oblige you, by all means, but what we do in the bedroom stays in the bedroom.” Except when Ruby brought the velvet under garments abroad with her, in which case, everything stayed in the bedroom except Leopold’s groans of adoration. He was known by voice along by at least thirteen of the fifteen innkeepers in Scara Brae.

He smiled.

“So, let’s get down to business.”

That was the sentence Leopold had been waiting for. As he reached into the shadowy realm where he kept many of his prized possessions and concentrated on the image of two tall golden stemmed glasses, he waited nervously to hear his wife’s demands.

“What are you really up to in all those business meetings with the Guilds-man Council of Merchants?”

A little puff of smoke rose up through the cracks in the table top, and Leopold produced their wedding champagne flutes from thin air. The air about the table smelt of sulphur for a few seconds as the taint of his dark magic faded.

“I am making sure we have a comfortable home and money to explore the world with,” he offered her a flute, which she took gracefully. It would be filled with champagne between courses when they ascended to the dining chamber on the floor above. He could see she was touched by the sentiment, but unmoved from her determination in finding out the truth.

He slouched in his chair, and drank from his glass. The fizzy, root beer liquor was heavy on the bourbon and light on the ice, and went quickly to his senses to do their merry business with them. “You were not supposed to notice I had gone to Fallien.”

He would have gotten away with it too, if she had not returned from the elven kingdoms from her jaunt with Emma Orlougne two weeks early. It was supposed to be a simple business trip to arrange for stronger ties with the spice traders and to help alleviate their issues with rival business and merchants who wished them ill. A war had broken out in the Fallien market, and he had to protect his company’s interests in the desert nation’s capital of Ikkaram.

“I think that I would have found out, even if I hadn’t come back so soon – Lillith was quite keen to tell me about your adventure, and that I should act surprised when I was given the jellied figs and amber wine by a ‘mysterious admirer’,” which she had done, rather masterfully, and eaten them with equal enthusiasm.

“True, secrets are not kept long amongst the Tantalum.”

He almost sounded begrudging.

“What is that supposed to mean exactly?”

“I would like to go about my business without it becoming second nature to everyone.”

[Leopold]

“Your business is my business, Leopold. I turn a blind eye to the debauchery and bitching you partake in during the meetings, but when you swan off to another continent in my absence I am inclined to want an explanation.” From the expression on her face, which was quickly petrifying, she was certain she was going to get it.

“In truth,” Leopold loosened the top buttons of his waistcoat, “I went to Fallien to secure business interests there in the rise of the civil war. With Valeena levying such heavy taxes on any mercantile activity in Scara Brae, I have to look elsewhere to take my commerce to ensure my company stays afloat, my creditors are paid on time and I don’t become bankrupt at a critical time for all businessmen and women.”

Ruby was sharp enough to follow his argument, though it only seemed to make her more interested.

“Why could you not have told me?”

“Have you worried, you mean, every step of your journey of discovery?”

“Do I not have a right to worry after you, when you’re in a strange and hostile country thousands of leagues away?” She seemed shocked, or perhaps she had just discovered that half the frosting on the rim was salt, and the other lime scented sugar. She wrinkled her lips and twirled the glass around to the sweet side with her crafty fingers.

“Yes, but you can’t look after me all the time. I am my own man, and despite my father’s constant remunerations to the contrary, I can fend for myself.”

The bourbon cocktail vanished before Ruby’s eyes, and swooned Leopold’s senses into the first of the seven levels of drunkenness. Euphoria and warm tingling sensations churned his stomach, his lack of rest and famished state sped it up and he soon felt stage two – dizziness. He was an accustomed drinker, so he kept it well hidden and slurred none of his words.

“Was it a successful trip?”

“On all accounts yes. We secured a greater return on our next shipment and we should see the returns on my bartering soon enough. You must not tell a soul I am trading under the embargo, if the city watch catches wind of my activities; well…the Guilds-man Circle can protect me only so much.” He set the glass aside and pulled the golden stemmed flute to his reach.

“Then I guess I owe you an apology for treating you so suspiciously.”

“Given I am breaking the law to ensure of family has a future; you owe me nothing but trust, Ruby. I hope I can do you proud, but we have to remain distant enough for us both to do what we both do without hindrance. If I took as much interest in what you do in the catacombs, temples and battle grounds of the world as you do in my business affairs we’d be tripping over one another day and night.”

[Leopold]

"So you don't take an interest?" Ruby raised her right eyebrow with contempt, only for Leopold to do the same.

He had not second guessed her, but he immediately saw through her attempts to solicit an admission from him. He would not fall for that petty little trick, at least not again.

"Of course I take an interest Ruby, but not so much as to interfere, to be involved, and to be there at the very behest of inquisition."

He shifted his heavy weight in his chair, sitting upright as the feline waiter returned to Ruby's right side. He bowed, waited for them both to fall silent and then spoke.

"Your table is ready sir, madam, when you are ready; please ascend to the dining room." He did not wait around to let them object, and pounced away with a towel over his left arm and their empty glasses, which Ruby had emptied quickly to spite Leopold who objected to her drunken form.

"Are you suggesting," she rose slowly, pushing the chair back with one hand as she picked up the golden stemmed champagne flute with the other, "that I am a busy body?"

"I am suggesting nothing, except for the obvious. I keep a close eye on the goings on of the Tantalum and its dangerous liaisons in the city mark my words, I know more about you and what you get up to than you'd care to realise." He rose after her, careful to wait until she was fully upright as custom dictated. Though angered, and though they both wanted to garrotte one another at that very moment in time, they danced the careful dance of a couple in a posh restaurant as best as they could.

"After you, my dear," he waved to the brightly lit iron stairs that went up in a spiral on the back wall between the two bars, stooping to bow with a tilt of his top hat.

"Oh why thank you, much obliged," she stormed off, not waiting for her husband to take her arm.

"Don't walk away from this Ruby, please," he sighed.

"Tell me what I did last week," she said, her voice trailing off as she skipped up the stairs. Her heels rang noisily out on the intricate pattern of the framework. Her metal stilettos chipped the veneer from several ivy leaves and raised wreaths as she vanished from sight.

In a trail of perfume, and a wake of wrath, Leopold found himself trudging carelessly over the Bar's floor. He wove between the mismatched tables. As he reached the foot of the stairs he clocked a sympathetic shake of the head from the barman, which he returned in knowing kind before taking a hold of the railing to drag himself reluctantly after his wife. His head span a little as the altitude riled his senses and reminded him that perhaps he was not quite as in control of his faculties as he might like. He would have to be very careful how he spoke, how he walked, and even how he breathed.

Ruby Winchester wanted something, and when she wanted something, even a pleasant post theatre dinner could turn into a deadly shadow ritual.

It would be a long time before Leopold got to his bed.

[MetalDrago]

Story (6/10): This was a very basic story of two young lovers, husband and wife, visiting another country's capital. I hear that it's a vacation, and the rising action of them playing with one another is quite interesting. When it finally comes to the "climax" of Ruby finally getting mad at her husband, the thread abruptly ends. I think I know the kind of comedic look you were going for, but it really just leaves the reader wanting more. That's a good thing and a bad thing. Your stories are typically quite driving, and gets you genuinely interesting. I just felt a little disappointed that you ended it there, with Leo there in the doghouse.

Continuity (6/10): You did pretty well here. You gave Radasanthia some life, fit it into your character's history and the history of Althanas as a whole. Now, admittedly I'm not an expert on Radasanth, but you did quite well here. Try to integrate a little more of what the surroundings are like, a little more history, either of your characters and this place or the history in general, and this score will continue to rise.

Setting (5/10): You did decently here. You gave some detail, but you sacrificed a little of the surroundings to keep the dynamic between husband and wife going, which is acceptable, and I think worked pretty well. I know you're good at setting normally, so I'm not going to mince words here. I think I know why there's a lack in it, and I am not particularly sad for that absence.

Creativity (6/10): Slightly above average. I liked the little slice of life between married people, taking a break from their respective businesses. While it was not overly creative, it is not something I typically see you do, and while you didn't think completely out of the box on this one, it was a well handled thread that was out of the norm for Althanas.

Character (8/10): This is almost consistently your strongest area, and this is no exception. The banter and obvious affection between the two characters really solidified this for me, and it works very well in the context of a thread like this. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see a little more of the way the two interacted with each other, in other ways, and perhaps seen a little bit more of how the waiter's personality was. Admittedly a small complain in a very well done character-centric thread.

Interaction (8/10): Might seem like I'm being a little lazy, but everything that I said in the character section also applies here, as in this thread, both sections are very intertwined. Keep up the good work!

Strategy (6/10): Above average. Considering the simplicity of this thread, there was really little going on as far as this would have been able to go. As far as advice goes, showing a little bit more of the talents and skills of your characters in this thread would have brought this score up, but considering what this thread was, you did very well. Bravo.

Mechanics (7/10): A few errors here and there, but nothing a couple of read-throughs wouldn't fix

Clarity (8/10): This thread was overall very clear. I had no problems following the overall narrative. Good job.

Wildcard (6/10): As a fan of these kinds of slice of life threads, I'm glad to have read this. Thank you for the excellent read.

Overall Score: 66/100 :)

Leopold Winchester receives 725 EXP and 150 GP

[Letho]

EXP/GP added.