un: wisdom | audio | the night of the auction

[mashiara]

( muffled voices in the background, and then a clear voice speaking directly into the pendant: )

I need at least one person to run distraction while I invite myself into this study, who's here? At the auction, in this House of Commerce nonsense.

Comments

[beitangmoran]

Have some faith.

[And indeed, the extra time is to distract... and also to engineer the problem. Soon voices are raised from where he was sitting and a very visible wine stain now on his beautiful silk robes.

Have you ever seen a prince throw a tantrum because someone dirtied his clothing, Nynaeve? If not, you're about to, and Moran plays the part to perfection, demanding to see every waiter in the room so he can identify the culprit and refusing to be pacified until he's seen all of them.]

[mashiara]

( She watches all this begin before she... attempts, and eventually manages to get into the office through the simple expediency of funding her way through the door. There may or may not be a lock submitting to her will, but the door closes again behind her as she mutters to herself and looks for the rune or whatever key thing makes that active beacon work.

Light, can they not ask just get home already? She has people to literally find!

When she does find one, in a desk drawer, she grimaces and looks back towards the door. )

I have it, keep them distracted for a little longer.

( She has to figure out if she can just slip back out the door, or if she'll need to arrange some other nonsense. That window might lead to the roof, or the ground, but it's hardly a first choice if she can just slip back into the hall unnoticed. )

[beitangmoran]

[There us no verbal acknowledgment on the other side but the noise level seems to go up considerably for a while.

Don't worry Nynaeve, he's got you covered.]

[mashiara]

( She manages to slip back into the hallway, sharing looks when back in the main hall with other guests watching Moran's performance and giving her best nods of "some men are just like that, aren't they? Utterly foolish way to behave."

Enough so that when she grabs refreshments and heads toward one of the open doors, commenting in passing with a stiff expression easy to attribute to what horrors have been visited on her eardrums with someone throwing a royal fit, no one questions it: she's far from the only one less enchanted with the display.

When she does eventually send a message, it's now text: )

Retrieved.

(voice)

[beitangmoran]

[It will take a while for another message to come, after Moran has staged his flouncing exit from the House of Commerce.]

Very efficient. I trust no one paid attention to you?

[mashiara]

Nothing lingering that I noticed, but I didn't stay around to see if anyone had. What nonsense did they give you for that dramatic fit?

[beitangmoran]

One doesn't give nonsense to person with the biggest purse in the room, my lady. It will be fine.

[mashiara]

You were actively bidding?

[beitangmoran]

Of course. I needed to keep up the cover story after all.

[mashiara]

( Light help her. She looks skyward for a moment, simply shaking her head. )

Who'd you leave hanging on the high bids?

[beitangmoran]

I didn't take names, and ultimately, it doesn't matter. I wasn't planning on closing any of them from the start, simply give them something to hang onto.

[mashiara]

Now that's the most sensible thing I've heard tonight.