ARI/SELORIA | PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT - COMPLETE
Seloria had gotten there on time and with another very young escort. She’d been taking to cleaning up children from the orphanage and bringing them with her to important events. While she caught some of them taking things, for the most part they were rather well behaved and just happy to be allowed to be exposed to things like this. Tonight, she’d relinquished one of her students to dance with one of the young men who’d decided to take an interest. She’d given Seloria a look as if she wasn’t sure it was okay, but the woman only nodded and off they went.
They’d just swept into their second dance, when she turned and saw the familiar profile of a woman she hadn’t seen since the Bard’s Benefit Gala. As her date was currently preoccupied, she wandered over to where the woman stood, thankfully alone at the moment. “Miss Chiaro,” she said cheerfully. “How wonderful it is to see you here.”
To Ari’s credit, she did better this time; the voice with its distinctive accent was immediately familiar, and she turned to the young woman with a ready smile. Not that it would take much to do better than the last time they had spoken, but she really did feel a bit bad about it. Certainly a little sheepish, now that she examined her reaction in retrospect. It hadn’t been so dire as she’d made it out to be.
At least, not until her mother heard of it, which she was determined would happen on the other side of never.
She extended her hand, then leaned in to buss the air beside each of the blonde’s cheeks, the gesture easy; it was a means of greeting most friendly nobles at these parties, those who would not take poorly to being greeted as equals by a commoner (though honestly, sometimes, she did this to the other variety of noble, too, for her own amusement). “Seloria,” she defaulted to the first name easily before saying, “or do you prefer Lady Cassul, perhaps?” She was not particularly fond of formality, though she supposed for the sake of Aspel’s sister, she could make an attempt at it if it was needed. “A pleasure.”
Ari's beauty never failed to bring a smile to Seloria's face, as did her talent. The fact that Aspel had obtained such a treasure for her own pleased the young woman to no end. In truth, she was only happy that her sister was happy, not that she'd known it was something she'd care about until she'd arrived at Emillion.
While the amiable gesture wasn't completely foreign, she did not return it as smoothly as the Ordalian. She did, however, return it. "Seloria is fine," she assured her. While she wouldn't have objected to Lady Cassul, she would not deny her sister's lady friend the right to call her by name. She hadn't done anything to offend her to the point of denying her anyway. "How have you been?"
“Quite well -- and busy,” Ari replied with an answering smile. “A healthy mix of work and play, one might say.” A healthy mix for her, at any rate; she was aware that she tended to play more than the majority of people, but that was the beauty of her chosen occupations. “And yourself?”
Rictor had mentioned that she had her own projects; he had also mentioned, offhandedly, that Seloria was the sort of woman their mother had wished Aspel to become, and Ari couldn’t deny a morbid sort of curiosity. Aspel and Rictor were starkly different, but pretty, petite, polite Seloria seemed even more removed from whatever standards defined them; it was almost as though they had little in common save the name and the accent.
“I’ve only just arrived, but it seems quite a lovely party. Not that one would expect any less from Countess Albrecht -- either of them.”