The Ort-Selucid estate was an unusual one to say the least. While most of the estate buildings were constructed from crafted stone, the material here seemed to be small rectangular blocks positioned to overlap one another. Princess Adageyudi had experienced her share of masonry, but none assembled in such a way.

"It's known as 'brick'." A tall, well-built man dressed in traditional merchant's fashion approached. Aside from his yellow cat-slit eyes, the one visible indication of the draconic heritage Selucid carry, he looked looked like any other merchant scion. "It is one of the oldest styles of building; many ancient ruins have walls made the same way."

"Ort Lendril?" Princess Ada kicked herself the moment after asking. So much for not implying she couldn't tell the difference between them.

"No." The man chuckled. "Well, yes, but not the one you're looking for. That would be Father. He's waiting for us in the family hall. And to whom do we owe such auspicious company as Commander Celeste brings us? Some of my mothers suspect a ruse. Father agrees, but he says he is bored and hopes the ruse might be entertaining."

Ada smiled, as much in relief as anything. "I hope I don't disappoint." She slipped into the role of merchant banter with ease that came of years of practice. "I am Princess Adageyudi na Tyr, and this is my advisor, Arin." She gestured to Arakash's current form, chosen to resemble a typical Tyras citizen. "And it seems you're already familiar with Lady Celeste, who is serving as an escort while I'm here. But please, refer to me as Ada. We are trying to keep my presence here secret."

Ort Lendril nodded to Celeste and 'Arin', who nodded in return as was custom, then he spoke. "Tyras, now there is a tale I'm certain Father will find well worth hearing." That Tyras was breaking its two decades of effective silence was news enough; but to approach his family, and he felt confident in assuming they did so first, was unprecedented. "Come along, please. I doubt he would want me to keep a princess waiting."

"Speaking of tales, your father has some fascinating tastes in architecture." Ada gestured at the 'brick' of the walls. "This must have cost a fortune to get crafted to such an intricate level of detail."

"It wasn't all his idea, but the nature of brick reduces costs by a significant amount. You see, it can be crafted by anyone who has access to clay and a good furnace to bake it in. Not unlike a loaf of bread. Then, it is stacked as you see here." Ort Lendril kept his smile; he loved the look on the faces of royalty when they learned there were means to accomplish great things without sorcery. "Not a single earth mage need be involved in its creation or assembly."

"Incredible," Ada said. She reached out and touched the rough stone. It was so unlike the smoothed stone worked by mages. She pulled away when her fingers began to go numb. "Nullification?"

"Ah, yes, I'm not surprised you'd notice." The strong ones always did, in his experience. "It's not much, but in some ways brick is much like glass or quartz, and so it can hold a magical charge. Since it's already difficult for mages to transmute, Grandfather felt it was wisest to make use of the crystal to generate small nullifying fields. No single one has much power, but when overlapped they grow more resilient than any fortress wall."

Ada would have asked more questions, but a pair of women approached, then froze as if they got caught doing something wrong. They were beautiful, though she was more concerned about the only clothing they wore being body paint.

Their faces were painted like pale blue dolls, and they kept their expressions neutral enough to hold that illusion of delicate frailty, but for a moment they looked confused and afraid, and remained paralyzed by their uncertainty.

Arakash caught quite a bit more information; the confusion and fear was genuine, but there was a great deal of jealousy and resentment as well. These women despised Ada and viewed her as a threat to their own well-being. The only thing they seemed to hate more than her was each other.

"Mothers, it appears our guest this luncheon is this young lady." Lendril nodded toward Ada. "Please, go inform Father."

"Of course." "Our apologies." The pair turned and walked as fast as required decorum would allow. Arakash picked up on their frustration and regrets; it seemed to him that they spent some social capital to be the ones to meet the guests first, and it had been wasted on Ada.

"Do your... mothers... often greet people in this manner?" Celeste asked. She was aware that Selucid customs were unusual, and like most of the island peoples had a relaxed attitude toward nudity, but she hadn't thought it was to this extent.

Lendril chuckled again, trying to hide his embarrassment. He had hoped he could alert one of his brothers or sisters and send them ahead to give warning, but it was not to be. "My apologies. Father has something of a reputation. It's rare we find ourselves entertaining female guests. I hope our faux pas won't discourage you."

Princess Adageyudi kept her face neutral. She could guess the sort of 'entertainment' that would be put on under normal circumstances, and was willing to give them time to adjust for circumstances. "They seem to get along better most consort-wives I've known." Polygamy was not uncommon among the noble castes in Tyras, and Ada knew of numerous rumors about her own father's relative lack of partners which ranged from vague insults to absurd stories of high romance.

"That may owe itself to the unique nature of Selucid bride-price custom." If the princess thought his mothers got along, then Lendril wasn't going to be the one to correct her. "You see, on the Selu islands, it is customary to give the bride-price to the bride, rather than her family. It seems someone caught wind of the practice, and Father has been inundated with offers ever since. Some less sincere than others."

"Then I must compliment your father on his excellent judge of character," Ada said.

Lendril fought down the urge to laugh. Knowing that one of the city's most famed and upstanding peacekeepers was standing nearby, listening to him describe what could be interpreted as a form of slavery, made it easier than it otherwise would have been. "I'm certain he'll be pleased to hear it."

Minutes later, a different pair of much younger women came out wearing elaborate dresses of silk and precious metals. "Elder brother, we are here to inform you the banquet hall has been prepared."

"Thank you, younger sisters. Please lead our honored guest Ada to to the hall." Lendril turned and nodded to the princess. "I beg your forgiveness, but I must attend to some matters."

"Such is the lives of all children to powerful men." She accepted the apology by giving a compliment, one more traditional mercantile practice.

"Writ in the stars." Lendril hurried off to tell his father about the numerous ways this situation had come within a hair's breadth of disaster in the last few minutes.

"Please, this way," the elder of the two young Selucid girls stepped up to Ada.

Her sister approached Arakash and Celeste. "If you have need of anything, simply as and I shall be happy to give it to you."

"That is quite alright," Celeste said. She glanced at Arakash, as if to dare him to disagree. "We have need of nothing right now."

Arakash smirked; sometimes, the best statements were the ones left unspoken. "As she says."

The banquet hall itself was quite impressive, covered from wall to wall in tapestries of red, purple, and gold. Interspersed with numerous magical torches, glowing with the power of sarite crystals rather than flame. Along the walls stood a total of twenty nine girls ranging from between ten to twenty years of age dressed in similar finery to their specific hosts. It was a show of opulence which rivaled any she'd grown up witnessing.

"Please, sit and enjoy some snacks before Father arrives."

"Thank you." Ada sat at the far end of the table, where the girl indicated. Arakash and Celeste took positions on either side of her.

"And as if that wasn't enough, I had to explain why your wives are wandering around naked to the Third Commander because these idiots had to break protocol." He gestured at the two women from before, their heads bowed low. "We're lucky she didn't accuse you of... of... everything!" Elsewhere, the younger Lendril had just finished his rant. "Any leverage we may have had is gone!"

"You worry too much." The elder Lendril laughed at his son's panic. "If anything, I think we now know our leverage runs deeper than we ever suspected. As you said, the princess was quite gracious even when she had every reason to walk away. They're desperate."

The younger hesitated, but now that he was considering it he couldn't dismiss his father's ideas as false. "You don't know that."

"I knew Sorda back in the day." The elder chuckled at his memories of the man. "A manipulative weasel of a man, with the eyes of a hawk, the nose of a Silmid, and the fangs of a viper. He's discovered something important and now he needs me to get it for him. And he's willing to sell off his only daughter for it."

"Father, you can't be serious!" The younger shouted again. "She's... she's no use to you, anyway. All the peasant girls are one thing... at least their children are still Selucid... but this girl is royalty. She furthers none of your goals."

"My boy, as you get older you'll learn beautiful women are a fine goal in their own right."

"You haven't even laid eyes on her, yet!"

"But I know her lineage, and if she takes after her grandmother, she'll be breathtaking." Once again, the elder dismissed all his son's concerns. "Mark my words, by the end of this dinner, that princess will be your new mother. That is, unless you'd prefer to have her for yourself?"

Younger sighed and lowered his head in defeat. "I can see there's no getting through to you. Let's go out there and see what she's asking for, before you announce your claims."

"What sort of fool do you take me for?"

They left the room, ignoring the two still-naked women who had heard the entire conversation. The pair glanced at one another; much as they hated each other, they knew what they needed to do.

Out in the banquet hall, Ada enjoyed a small snack of crackers and a unique, spiced cheese that she had never encountered before. It was then that the leader of the Ort-Selucid clan came in from a side room followed by his son. To her eyes, the two looked more like brothers than parent and child. The elder Lendril still had the features of youth one would expect of a boy on the cusp of manhood, rather than a man nearing his second century of life.

"My apologies for keeping such illustrious company waiting," he said without hesitation. "I admit, when I first heard claim that Lady Celeste was bringing an esteemed guest to my estate, I dismissed the claim and assumed it was an attempt at a clandestine meeting. An embarrassment for my family, I assure you."

"It is quite alright." Princess Adageyudi nodded took one small nibble of her food. "My arrival is something of a unique situation for all involved."

"Ah, but of course it is. So rarely do we Selucid get to sit at the table with foreign guests. I'm afraid we're quite beneath notice."

False humility, another tradition of the merchant class which Ada was well aware of. The appropriate response was, as always, a compliment. "I assure you, you've been noticed by people in every corner of the world I have been to." Technically true. "But, perhaps underappreciated by many. I think I may be able to help you change that."

Father and son glanced at one another for a moment; one triumphant and one of resigned. "I have little doubt that you could, but I'm curious about your plans."

"I was thinking of buying your bricks."

For a moment, Lendril's mind experienced the death of all thought, achieving through shock and disbelief what monks spent their entire lives seeking via meditation and fasting. "Bricks?"

"Yes." Ada stopped for a moment as a drink was sat down next to her. "Your son told me about them when we arrived, and I think they have fascinating properties. As I'm certain you're aware, we have very few earth mages up in the north, which can render construction expensive. And their potential for securing vulnerable locations is no doubt significant. If you extended a branch into Tyras to sell them, I'm certain they'll be popular and beneficial to us both."

Taking over for his now stricken mute father, the younger Lendril had to ask a question. "I thought you didn't know about bricks before I told you?"

"I did not," Ada admitted. "However, I was sent to reopen trade and economic relationships between Tyras and the various nations of Karana. Specific details were left to my discretion. And, as my father likes to say: the only wasted opportunity is one not taken."

Ada took a drink of her newly offered wine. It was a strange flavor, both bitter and sweet in a way that she couldn't quite describe. And in the next moment, she had doubled over and began emptying the contents of her stomach on herself, the floor, and the table. "I'm sorry!" She gagged, and choked down her body's reaction.

Celeste reacted first, jumping to her feet and rushing over to the ailing princess. She flooded the girl with a spectrum of healing magics. They didn't seem to help the poor girl.

Ada gagged again, then swallowed down long enough to speak. "I don't know what happened!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Arakash remained sitting, and didn't bother to hide his amusement. "You've been poisoned. Something really nasty, by the looks of it." He hid his own gut pain; it wasn't as bad as Ada made it seem, and more than worth the price of learning that in spite of Ada's immunity to poisons, her reflexes would still respond in such a way. He couldn't think of a means to exploit that trait right now, perhaps something to do with drowning, but it was a lesson worth learning.

The younger Lendril reacted first, and jumped to his feat. "Brothers! Seal off the entrances! Nobody goes in or out of this building until we find the assassin!"