[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/JbyCTAZ.gif[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/9qIY4OK.jpeg[/img][/center][table][row][center][cell][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019da8f2-ff75-7460-a849-f9930a44c6ee.webp[/img][/cell][center][cell][img]https://i.postimg.cc/Hx6VyXLK/generated-text.png[/img][/cell][/center][cell][right][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019da8f2-1c3f-709e-a9d7-7c7f502dc258.webp[/img][/right][/cell][/center][/row][/table][table][row][cell][justify][indent][indent][indent][indent][color=#808080]The servant came and went, filling her goblet with the quiet efficiency of someone who had done this ten thousand times and expected no acknowledgment for it. Zahara offered one anyway in the form of a small incline of her head and a brief smile. The servant’s step faltered, almost imperceptibly, as though courtesy had arrived from an unexpected quarter. Then, he moved on without saying a word. She lifted the goblet and let the wine settle on her tongue before setting it down. It was good. Richer than what they kept at home, where wine was imported across the dune-sea at considerable cost and therefore poured with restraint. Here, it simply flowed and was refilled before the cup was half empty, as casually as the water that practically wept from the living rock above them. She was also beginning to understand that this was how things worked in Thornvale. Abundance as architecture. Excess as atmosphere.  A tiny, disloyal part of her liked it. 

Zahara’s gaze moved along the table, and she found Raelan first, distant at the end of the table as he drank his wine. She had meant what she said to him earlier. Every word of it. What she had not anticipated was how much she would need to say it until the words were already leaving her mouth. It had been less advice than admission, she supposed. A thing she had been circling for months, finally spoken aloud in the time it took them to walk the length of a table. She hoped he would sit with it too, but Raelan had a habit of leaving things for later consideration rather than acting on them immediately. It was usually a quality she admired in him, except in those cases where ‘later’ became ‘never’ without her noticing. 

The frontier had taken years from him. Their father's summons had taken even more. And somewhere in between, her little brother had become very good at making the absence of a personal life look like a principled choice rather than a slow accumulation of circumstances none of them had quite intended. She wanted better for him than that. It had felt important to say so, even if he had responded by calling himself a lackwit’s equivalent and making her laugh against her better judgment.

Her gaze moved on.

Rhea was not particularly difficult to find; the youngest princess had a quality of presence that drew the eye through a kind of warmth that radiated outward without apparent intention. Zahara had noticed it first in the great hall when Rhea had reached for her sister's arm and pulled her into a proper curtsy, and she had thought, in fact, that she would like to speak with her tonight because of it. Her intentions were also gentle with nothing strategic behind them. Alas, Rhea appeared not available for gentle intentions at present with a suitor Zahara didn’t immediately recognize in her vicinity. A later time, then, she hoped. [/color][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/justify][color=2e2c2c]..............................................................................................[/color][/cell][/row][/table][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/9qIY4OK.jpeg[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/9qIY4OK.jpeg[/img][sub][color=9b9b9b][b][i]Location: Ballroom  
Interactions: [color=#846d49]Dorian[/color] ()
Mentions: [color=#2F5E58]Raelan[/color], [color=10636f]Rhea[/color][/i][/b][/color]
[color=#d8a7b1][b]#d8a7b1[/b][/color][color=2e2c2c]...[/color]|[color=2e2c2c]...[/color][url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019bdf54-4af9-77a7-b385-5133c5eb507a.webp][color=9b9b9b][b]outfit[/b][/color][/url][/sub][/center]