Later that evening, after being escorted about the house and its surrounding lands, as well as being given a quick look at our guest quarters, we were humbly invited to dinner. Urien and Bolskar had been left out and given food within the central room of our quarters, and I had the feeling they wanted me gone as well. However, Julius and his sister seemed less bemused at my presence when we entered the dining hall. I had some inkling of other guests on the ground, and it was very much a lesser get-together than the Grand Banquet Hall the other night, but it was still more populated than I had expected. 

Around a dozen business partners of the Lord Ignatius, along with close to ten cousins, uncles, aunts, and perhaps even a son or two were present with their trusted aides. Not to mention the cadre of servants hustling past those that entered to be seated and talk. Six tables had been arrayed within the hall, the heaters above rumbling to regulate the temperature from the cold mountain air. In the distance, there was thunder, and muted flashes in the window promised of rain. The dinner was a type of roast bird, succulently prepared with half a dozen sauces and varying fruits bio-organically bred to be sweet as nectar. The drink was not amasec, but something a bit more fruity and local, though not lacking in strength.   

Emmaline and I had been invited to the head table, though she had the honor of sitting beside the Lord himself. I was across the table, finding myself beside a fat but almost humorously droll banker of some repute. To this day I can't recall his name, but we spoke at length about old histories of the Segmentum Tempestus, obviously styling himself as an amateur historian. He had a very Caietanusian view of the last handful of millennia, likely having just read his more famous work, [i]Scions of the Impenetrable Stars[/i]. It is a volume of three thousand pages, but in brief, it speaks of humanity's ability to take the fallen empires of the xenos, purge their greatest strengths and redirect it into the imperium as true successors, crediting our expansion into Tempestus because of the tools we could utilize from other segmentums. In the theorums, they believe the emperor was never a man, but an agent of a long forgotten species of near-humans super beings who seeded mankind to uplift it. 

A heretical theory, of course. Caietanus had been exiled for his pagan thoughts, and would have been outright killed if not for his staunch belief in the emperor's divinity. It was required reading for my peers to know just how [i]not[/i] to attribute the success of humanity. I had to write a dissertation on the subject. I felt I knew I would kill this man, but at the moment I played my part. Perhaps he did not know of Caietanus' downfall and merely wished to impress a guest, I thought. Kronus would have called me soft, and perhaps I was.

As the evening wore on and our bellies were filled, I placed my third Moldarian drink down, satisfied and at my limit of alcohol before I knew I would lose an edge in matters. I had only spoken thrice to Emmaline, calling across the table to pipe into one of her conversations with the Ignatius family. She and I had been introduced to varying members of the clan as they came to the table, curious on the unexpected guests. It was after meeting the forth cousin that I stood up and bid the banker goodnight, striding over to the head of the table and interrupting Julius who was in the middle of a bewildering tale of a haunted planet called Danubis. I suspect I made my entrance just as he was getting to 'the good part.' 

"My lady, I am quite tired after filling my belly so ravenously. Would you walk with me or shall I go find rest alone?" I asked Emmaline, offering her a hand. If she were to take it, we would talk, and if not, we would go about our duties as planned. I wanted to give her an out in case she felt in over her head. And admittedly, the longer I pondered it, the more uncomfortable I was becoming over her 'role.' If she refused me, at least my guilt would lessen.