Chapter 251: A Dinner Invitation
“A dinner invitation, once accepted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes place, your executor must attend.”
Ward McAllister
I had no plans on dying, but I was looking forward to finally meeting the local lord Jarl Njord, if only because I would hopefully reunite with Nyx. Our dinner invitation arrived less than an hour later; Xenodochus seemed to derive great pleasure in delivering it to us and promising us a fine feast, all at the expense of the local lord Jarl Njord, who had invited us for the evening repast. I assumed he did not get a lot of excitement if he was this excited about entertaining us or planned on overcharging significantly for the event.
Aware that some formality was required, I spent the hour we had waited for the invitation and the following hour before the dinner began attempting to turn some of the giants' gifts and the profits of my trading into a suitable gift for Jarl Njord. Xendochus had at least helped by informing us that the Jarl was interested in anything that glittered. Gold was not prevalent in the Drangar Valley of Tramontana. Without a war to profit from, his resources were limited to what they could delve from the Lodestone Labyrinth, the North being notoriously difficult to cultivate resources from covered in ice as it was.
With such simple stipulations, I fashioned one statue representing Lady Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck. The lady stood gracefully, one foot slightly in front of the other. Her flowing robes were gilded in gold, and the crown of laurel leaves was equally gilded and shone upon her head. The carved cornucopia she held overflowed with genuine, if small, gems and more gilded gold. I used a carved ice wyrm beast core as the orb of stormy weather above a turbulent sea. As usual, the statue's base was covered in games of chance, dice, cards, races, and wealth above death and destruction caused by weather, disaster or war. She could bring kings to ruin or beggars to wealth, depending on how fate fell. It would make a fantastic gift for the local lord and fulfil my promise to spread such statues throughout the Compass kingdoms, but I did not stop there. Seeing as I had time, I started another.
The second statue felt wrong to gild in gold as entirely as I had covered the statue of Lady Fortuna, but I did highlight the runes, glyphs, sigils, enchantments, and other arcane symbols in gilded gold. I even used a slim stick of Elendil tree plucked from my vault as his staff and blue sapphire to represent the shard of the lodestar that crowned it. They were two masterpieces worthy of royalty and well worth the return of Nyx that I hoped to be able to bargain with their exchange. Having completed the pair, I placed them within my spatial vault to pull them forth at the appropriate moment. I was a lord; spatial shenanigans were to be expected, not hidden as we had when we pretended to be commoners. We would simply be showing off our wealth, a double-edged sword that could open doors or be coveted by our host.
When it was finally time for dinner, we dressed as best we could and walked along the long corridors that made up the Gryfalcon’s Ledge. Xenodochus led the way to another private dining area further past the common entrance room, where a feast was laid out, and Jarl Njord sat waiting.
As we entered, he introduced us, “May I present . . . ” He paused for dramatic effect, “Lord Silversea of the Wester Isles, Azimuth Archipelago, Principality of Ponente and his guardian Namir Jalal, Wandering Warrior from the Kingdom of Ostro.” He beamed as he presented us as if to a royal court rather than a seated local lord. I winced a little at the length of the introduction; we were no longer travelling incognito, at least not in Drangasfjord. However, he was not finished and turned to introduce our hosts for the evening. “Receiving them is his Lord, Jarl Njord, Chief of Drangar Valley, Magistrate of Drangavik, Drangasfjord and Drangaskoll, Warchieftan among the Tribes of Tramontana, his wife, Fru Ingar til Drangar and their sons NJordson, Ingritte and Jor.”