She smiled at his comment about how he could have used someone like her there in Tertium. Truth be told, her elders, all of them. would have absolutely have lost it on her if she has been there and had been so bold to approach, much less speak to, someone of that birthright. But in the market, she hasn’t known just what rank he was, but the Elf was a Dominus all the same. She had a feeling he had probably seen some of that here, the way most Vasti would have diverted their eyes away and been much more careful with how they spoke, but they were having a good discourse, and Hilana’s brand of hospitality was simply very different from what was expected and impressed upon most.
When he said he liked both sweet and savoury, Hilana knew what to order. But she had wanted to make sure he had, because she knew some people that were not the biggest fans of deserts, and as someone with a sweet tooth... But she took a seat at the table with him, to the side of him rather than across so that way she could see things, too, without craning her neck all over, especially if someone approached. Besides, she didn’t want to interrupt his view of the cozy little restaurant. “Of course, Dominus,” she nodded her head.
Hilana listened with keen interest to his take on Tertium. Her own views of the place were sour, simply because of what it represented to her, but she could certainly acknowledge the beauty of some parts of it. Her eyes got quite wide at the mention of the Crownwyrm, and by the excitement there, it was apparently a very favourable omen to this girl. “That is incredibly favourable, yes! Are they not exciting? They are beautiful,” the Vasti agreed with him. “There is a Museum about the dragons in the Palatine District, if you have not yet been,” she added.
“That is so, yes. Vasti traveled long before the Elves came, and eventually, Vastium was built. But we still had those who traveled, there were tribes that never stopped. Those tribes have gotten fewer over the years, but the desert calls, and when it does, we must answer. Some of the paths that those clans follow are the original ones, my elders told me. They are passed down, the routes and places, from generation to generation. Each generation teaches the next, honouring the old knowledge and expertise of our ancestors, while adapting to the Sands as they change,” she added. “The Expanse is not always as cruel as it seems, and Vasti are often comfortable with it. It is where Orks would not go, and so we adapted to it, and we learned it.”
At the mention of such a story, her head bobbed again in the affirmative. “Those stories are very much true. Such things happen, but it is not as common any more, thanks be to the eternal strength of our Founders. I have seen them before, too. We were making a trip far along the River to meet up with another clan for the Frost Festival, which is a very big event for the tribes that live in the far country. We come together, we trade, we talk, and sometimes, we are paired off. But it is important for us, and many attend if they can. But the Orks came upon us, and there was a fight. They are vicious, horrible monsters. I do not think they know what soap is, or maybe they just prefer the stench of sweat and dung. But they attacked us, and we fought back.” She leaned in, her brown eyes completely serious. “They smell even worse when you burn the bodies,” Hilana told him soberly, in a relatively hushed tone.
At that moment, sensing an opportunity, the serving girl came by, looking rather nervous, and bowed low to Arvaelyn. She was visibly relieved when it was her fellow Vasti that spoke up, and what followed was a rather rapid fire exchange in the official tongue between the two girls. He would surely catch some of it, but there were some words that did not make sense as Hilana gave the names of the dishes until the serving girl bowed again to him and hurried off to bring the order for the table to the kitchen, and to get their teas steeping. Hilana settled back in her chair, the menu set aside as the serving girl brought a tray of tall glasses full of an icy-looking red liquid, along with an assortment of accoutrements to the table, spreading them out. Milk, sugars, both clear and a rich, dark brown… “To start, this is an hibiscus iced tea,” she told him once the serving girl placed his glass carefully by him. “Hibiscus flowers are steeped with proper black tea, but because of the hibiscus, the normal tea flavour is less pronounced. We often drink it in the morning, after making it the day before to let the flowers steep in it all night. And to go with it, this is something we call paxamas. It is a twice baked bread, of sorts, kind of like a biscuit. They can be either sweet or savoury; this one is almond and orange.” The cold drink was sweet, though not to the point of making teeth twinge, but the hard, crisp biscuit with the almond and orange helped to rein it in and counter it. “May I ask where you are from? Are there monsters like Orks there?” She asked him, then. She would wait for him to select from the plate first; that was simply natural.
