| Log Title |
| Summary: | Camillo collects the reward he was promised. |
| Date: | 9 November 2014 |
| Related: | A Hightower and a Hero |
| Players: |
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The Hightower
The great tower is all of white stone, ancient and beautiful. This lowest tier is quite wide and grand enough for any palace. There are two stories of this widest and lowest one. The tower has a narrower tier above, and a circular balcony-garden on the roof-space left unoccupied.The ground floor is dominated by this grand receiving hall, and the great main doors lead directly to it. High windows let in light that reflects off the white stone walls and makes the space airy and bright. It is here that the Lord of Hightower holds his local court, from a large chair on a tall wooden dais. Both chair and dais are carved with images of the tower itself, and with dolphins and sea-dragons. They are inlaid with stones of white and grey, and decorated with silver-leaf. There's space for the Lord's councillors to sit alongside him, but visitors seeking audience must stand.
Past this grand hall there is a wide gracious stone stairway allowing access to the higher levels. Hidden behind the wall behind it and to and on one side, ramps allow wagon-loads of firewood for the beacon to be hauled up.
Extra precaution has been taken at Battle Island, as have been in Oldtown proper, and Camillo will find himself subject to interrogation by Hightower guards before being granted access to the grand hall in which guests are received. Invoking Lynesse's name will gain him access, though not without remaining under the close surveillance of the guard posted in the hall.
Perhaps a quarter hour after his arrival, in which he's been made to loiter around and, simply put, wait for her, Lynesse comes down the grand staircase and into the hall, trailed by a lady's maid.
Camillo waits patiently, though with his head lowered a bit like a stray dog. He stands up a little straighter when the lady deigns to bestow her presence upon him, however. But he keeps his eyes down. Nor does he speak first.
Upon reaching Camillo where he stands waiting for her, Lynesse says, "Hello, Camillo. Welcome to the Hightower." She is at home within these walls, and portraits of her kin, both those yet living and those long dead, are hung here, there and everywhere. "You look well," she remarks, which is very much the going concern given the state of most of the populace.
"Good day, my lady," Camillo replies, inclining his head. "I've been lucky enough to remain healthy," he acknowledges. "But it is all the dying that delayed me in coming to see you, my lady. Perhaps I ought to have kept off until it all ends, but…"
"But we must go on living, musn't we? Else what good is our health at all?" Lynesse smiles, the smile of someone who likely believes herself untouchable, up in the walls of the Hightower, cowering over the city below. She motions her maid forward, and the girl approaches Camillo, shyly avoiding his gaze when she offers him a purse of coins.
"Yes, my lady," Camillo agrees. He reaches out for the purse he's being handed. He's not much for eye-contact, either. "This is a generous reward, my lady."
Lynesse's smile is a nigh permanent fixture, something she wears like one might a necklace or a pair of gloves. "My cousin, the Lord of Oldtown, was inspired to generosity when I recounted for him the events at the marketplace. I shall give him your thanks, as I give you mine once more for your aid that day."
Camillo only receives the benefit of that smile in brief flashes when he glances at her face. He never lingers too long at that. "You need not thank me, lady," he says. "It's for the good of everybody."
"Well, not everybody. I expect the thief does not thank you for securing him the exclusive company of the City Watch." Lynesse's handmaid returns to her lady's side, standing attentively on duty, at her mistress's whim. But apparently the Hightower lady has not yet exhausted her benevolence. She asks, "Are you hungry?"
"He overreached himself," Camillo concludes, tying the purse to his belt and then looking at the flooring. The next question makes him look up. "Oh, I…wouldn't presume, my lady. You've given me enough for dinner, surely."
"Nonsense." She looks to her maid, who already has anticipated what Lynesse has in mind. She moves away from the Hightower lady in order to escort Camillo to the kitchens. Hey, it's better than an entourage of guards, at least. And on his way there, he may be surprised to find that the maid suddenly becomes talkative, inquiring as to his residence in the city and any employment he might hold. Reconnaissance, naturally, for Lynesse herself, should she have need of him in the future.
Camillo seems surprised by the change in manner and has a bit of trouble adjusting properly, it seems. He tells the maid that he has a room of his own but is vague as to its location. He tells her also that he is idlethat is the word he usesbut that he occasionally collects and sells herbs.
The maid takes this all in attentively, no doubt commiting the details to memory while he speaks, and abandons him in the kitchens, where he is served a generous meal and offered wine and ale alongside. A while later a guardsman comes to collect him and ensure he's off on his way, but not before he's had ample time to enjoy his repast and the company of the kitchen staff, who seem harried and short a few hands.
Camillo is quite manageable. He eats plenty while he's got the opportunity, but goes as soon as the guard comes to escort him off. He does nothing rude or untoward along the way.