Who: All the Nobility of the Seven Kingdoms who are present in Kings Landing
When: Evening
Where: The Red Keep, The Throne Room
Kingsguard on Duty: Jayce Walsh, Arthur Winchester, Baron Black. Various Gold Cloaks are present as well as some Stark household guards.
Rating: PG13
Status: Open
The throne room of the Red Keep glittered with white and silver. Even the Iron Throne was draped with streamers in the Stark colors, as was the royal family’s place of honor in its shadow. The walls were lit with torches, and a space was clear in the midst of the tables for the entertainments, and later would play host to the dancers.
Outside the storm which had threatened all day broke just as the first nobles were due to begin arriving. The north wind howled like a direwolf through the stones of Maegor’s Holdfast and the ancient ghosts of the Keep shrieked in answer. Rain fell in sheets and soon enough there came hail as well, some as large as a child's fist. Lightning lit the sky in bursts as bright as daylight and thunder crashed loud enough some swore it might raise the dead and many whispered prayers to the Seven to let the night pass quickly. Yet within the great hall, the music and firelight softened the melee outside, wrapping the guests in a cocoon of silk and laughter. This was a feast of welcome, the beginning of the festival that would mark the beginning of a new reign while giving the king and his men the time to sense the moods and loyalties of the nobles of Westeros, and the storm which had descended upon Kings Landing could not be allowed to intervene.
There were 30 courses prepared for the court, each one a marvel of precious spices, each a delicacy. Seven musicians took their turns at singing ballads and ancient songs in a contest which the Queen and the ladies of the court would decide, though the rumble of thunder echoing through the hall made for poor accompaniment. In between singers, there came pyromancers who danced with living flames, and charmed their flames to take shapes and twist in time to pipes. There were trained monkeys and dogs who danced on two legs. Pentoshi acrobats tumbled and swung through the air, and a company of dancers from the Summer Isles spun across the floor in silks and silver bells.
A company of actors from Braavos performed the tale of Brienne the Evenstar, the beautiful lady knight who had fought a shadow and lost her lover, and undertook a quest of penance for the Lady Catelyn Stark to find her lost daughters. This version ended happily, with the Evenstar saving Princess Sansa and returning her to her lady mother, freeing Catelyn from the curse which had turned her into the cruel Lady Stoneheart. Queen Daenerys made Brienne a part of the legendary Queensguard, and Princess Sansa married King Tommen Baratheon. As the play ended, the final course was cleared away, and it fell to the King to begin the dancing.
Late in the evening several knights of various houses got into a tussle and had to be dragged apart by men-at-arms, and the participants sent to either the maesters for stitches or the cells beneath the keep to sober up.
Outside, the city was in the grip of the fierce storm- ships at harbor were flung about, others had no hope of surviving the maelstrom the Blackwater had become. A lightning strike hit a section of merchants and half the street was in flames before the fire could be contained. The storm was, whispered some, an omen. Others said cleansing flames were just what was needed… And others were far more worried about the announcement that a great hunt was to take place on the morrow.
( seating arrangements )
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