Chapter 182: Conversation Partners
After fetching two mugs of chilled juice, Ashlynn and Heila continued their circuit around the perimeter of the masquerade ball. With her first night in the High Fen as a lesson, she was trying to be conscious about how quickly the alcohol that seemed to flow freely could get to her head and opted for less intoxicating drinks whenever the opportunity presented itself.
As the ladies moved around the great hall, they avoided the pockets of conversation that seemed deeply rooted in local events or discussions about Nyrielle’s visit to the vale. She couldn’t participate much in the former and she’d heard more than enough of the latter.
Instead, she sought out lighter conversations. A group of ladies had gathered to admire and compliment each other’s dresses and jewelry. While it was more the sort of conversation that Jocelynn would have delighted in, Ashlynn still found it interesting to hear how much planning had gone into some of these outfits or how far away some of their materials and jewels had come from.
The picture that began to form in Ashlynn’s mind of the lands beyond the mountains was one that was incredibly vast with rugged terrain, dark forests, more mountains even further west and at the farthest reaches of Eldritch lands, another sea.
Trade networks seemed to stretch across the entire length of the continent, from places like the High Fen in the east to cities she found difficult to pronounce in the west. Some people even wore furs taken from beasts in the frozen northern sea or carried walking sticks crafted from exotic woods found only in the humid swamps to the south.
"Honestly, I don’t know how you manage it," a woman from the Clan of Painted Masks said, addressing the serpentine woman who seemed to be dominating the conversation "We’re hundreds of leagues from any of the seas, and yet you show up with a necklace of shells and pearls, and rings to match. I could never..."
"I tried once," a slender woman from the Glass Eyed clan wearing a mask painted in intricate gold and silver patterns said. "It took a year just to transport the shells all the way here and when they arrived, half of them were broken. Within a year of wearing them, all of them were chipped badly enough that I was too embarrassed to take them out of my collection and wear them in public."
"The key," the woman said, fingering her exquisite necklace of miniature conch shells and pearls delicately. "Is that you can’t just bring shells and pearls from the sea. I hired a skilled jeweler from the Dancing Water Clan to come all the way here, just to care for the treasures my husband brought back from his trip."
"Pearls are challenging," Ashlynn added, sipping her chilled fruit juice. "I’ve never seen them strung with more common shells like that. The pearls are so delicate that it’s easy to mar their surface if they rub against anything with a sharp point like the tips of those shells. I coldn’t bear the anxiety of wearing such a piece of jewelry."
"You’ve worn pearls before?" the serpentine woman said in surprise. "They’re a very difficult treasure to obtain. Very few jewelers are even capable of working with them without cracking or shattering them. Who designed your jewelry for the evening," the woman asked, trying to find a way to reclaim some of her edge. "Perhaps I could loan them my jeweler to craft something with pearls for you."
"Truthfully, I know very little about any of it," Ashlynn admitted a touch bashfully. She had been slowly noticing that the specific craftspeople involved in creating an item could matter as much as the item itself but this wasn’t something she was really prepared to discuss.