Lori was bored, she watched as Lord Eter ate his meal, a decent cut of venison and several vegetables with a few other minor food items, it could have been cooked better, and Lori could tell the butcher responsible wasn't incredibly experienced, but it was fresh, red meat, so Lori had devoured her own plate of meat in around a minute. She didn't understand why humans took so long to eat.
At least she could sit near her master and actually eat, she was wearing a forest green mask emblazoned with the crest of House Erenvloth, the tri-rune of evocation, strength, and wit. A gift from Elz, it was made of some kind of grass found in the fungal swamps far West of the magocracy, lands untamed. Whatever it was, it smelled like spearmint, strongly. Strong enough that it blocked out everything else worn as a mask.
A few days had passed since her first night at the estate. Every member of staff heard, either directly or secondhand, her escapades with their lord that first day, of course many other rumors spread of her, though she was quick to stamp out any misinformation that worked against her. She had become slightly fond of the groundskeeper, Ale. He was an honest man with a surprising love of nature for a human.
She still had trouble reading Gabriel though, he hadn't done anything antagonistic, from the many conversations she had overheard, he even stayed out of rumors mostly. He either was a genuinely respectful young man, loyal and devoted to his lord and accepting of his new mistress, or he only had such as a facade, scheming to advance or at least maintain his own position in truth. For now, it didn't matter.
Elz had also integrated herself into the staff, almost everyone was terrified of her. She maintained a detached distance from everyone else for her part, polite but cold, alien. Besides with Maddie, and her younger brother, Sam. Lori supposed it made sense, that the dryad would be somewhat fond of a druid, but they were closer for more than that. Elz had confided in her an incident involving Eric and Maddie, it had made Lori exceptionally pissed.
She was still curious about the gardener, her knowledge of circle magic dwarfed Lori's own, and Lori had determined that she was cunning, intelligent, perhaps brilliant. Not only could she read, Lori had noticed that she remembered almost everything she did read, perfectly. Each night Lori had visited the garden, and they had spent some time speaking to each other. There, near the magic circle and away from hostile eyes, Maddie was confident and willful, not submissive to Lori, not beyond what was only reasonable anyway. Lori knew she was an ally, potentially a friend. Her brother though, was quite hopeless. He was young, barely more than a boy, he was probably somewhat strong for his age, but that meant little. He had no scent of magic, besides occasionally the residue of his sister's, and presumably no training in any particularly useful skill.
Of course though, Lori understood Maddie's care for him. She was not a demon, and while she had no love for her own family, she was in part a spirit of passion, of love. The way Maddie's aura flared to a sparking life when she defended him, Lori knew they were close, not aurabound like she and Eter were, but arguably just as close regardless.
Her ears perked as she heard Eter cough, catching her attention. He was looking at her expectantly, he had probably said something. Lori had lost herself in thought, and sat up straight, looking at him with a mild tilt of her head, a small expression of curiosity on her face. He let out a sigh, exasperated, and repeated himself. "Gods you can be insufferable. I was asking if you were alright, you clearly weren't all here." he spoke with a tone of annoyance, but Lori could sense the stifled amusement behind it.
"Lori was just thinking about all the other things she could be doing instead of watching Eter eat." She replied with a teasing, though slightly dry tone, drawing another sigh from the lord. She looked down at her hand, bringing it up and licking some of the juices from her fingers. She may have been a mistress, but she still wasn't human, and refused to slow herself down with human instruments like silverware.
"We'll be having company tomorrow. You are to be on your best behavior. Lord Zahle and some of his entourage will be visiting." He spoke with a more serious tone, taking another infuriatingly small bite of his meal afterwards. Lori recognized the name from when she first arrived. The master of house Azari would be present then. She smiled at the chance to make an impression on him, she knew of his house's distaste for those like her.
"Lori will not disappoint her master. She knows how to handle herself. Lori would like to be dismissed, Eter takes too long to eat." She more announced than requested, quickly rising to her feet with a still pleasant and polite smile, her tail swaying behind her. She had an idea to have some fun tonight anyway, and knew Lord Eter had business to attend to that he wasn't willing to let her distract from after dinner. She didn't wait for his reply to leave the small private dining room and enter his office, but did hear the grumbled and tired sounding acknowledgement through the wall anyway. After she left his office into one of the many hallways in the manor, she reached around to the back of her head, muttering a single word to untie the knots of plant based thread that kept her mask on, taking it off.
