"Be my guest" states the Countess at the Teprorian. She snaps her finger, and a servant in clothes embroidered in gold, wearing a red scarf around his waist, rushes forward with a platter of fruit.
"As you wish, then" The Countess nods her head, and the two guards that surround her open the heavy wooden doors.
The hallway gives way to a garden. Arches surround a long, rectangular pool of crystalline water, filled with lillies and lillypads. The arches, etched into stone with complex geographical patterns, are also home to varieties of flowers, from bouganvilles to angel trumpet's. All around the garden, carpets, rugs and cushions serve as gathering places for nobles who laugh and toast from bottles of wine, the air around them thick with smoke from hookahs. They pay no mind to the guests who have entered, seemingly too entranced in their conversations to give any attention to the newcomers.
And at the end of the long garden, sitting in a large chair woven from wood and wicker, a tall glass of an clear green liquid in her hand, is the Duchess of Ambers. She wears a long yellow dress, embroidered with amber and pearls, the tail of which almost reaches the pool. Her dark brown hair is held by an elaborate headdress of marigolds, and she wears gold dust as her makeup, contrasting with her dark skin. She seems disinterested in what's going around her, instead listening to the man next to her, a tall, thin dark skinned man in a silver suit. Surrounding the both of them, strange puppet like beings made of porcelain and brass carry rifles, their vacant expressions similar to mannequins. They'd be confused easily with them, were it not for all the moving cogs and the slight glow in their chests.
"Remember" whispers the Countess to the Teprorian "Mind your manners. Let me speak first."
The Countess approaches the Duchess, and the man stops talking, seemingly to the Duchesses' annoyance. As the Countess whispers into Her Majesty's ear, her expression seems to brighten, and for a second, she seems almost whimsical. The Countess takes a step back
"Your Everlasting Majesty, may I introduce you to Theater commander Amos?"
The Duchess looks at Amos from head to toe, seemingly waiting for them to talk first
