"Areph is quite in blessing to have a lady as yourself at his affair." Vasen turned quickly to see who had entered her quarters. She was relieved to see only the famliar face of her sister, Xaen.
"For Grael's sake, Xaen, you startled me!" Vasen turned back to her small mirror and continued to place the lavish blues and purples on her face, as to show her freckles. The only individual to be seen with their *dahael* showing was the matriarch and her court. Though Vasen had a high reputation, she was no where near the queen. She diped her forefinger in grey and painted her eyebrows that sat just above her teal eyes.
"You were always jumpy, even as a babe, you know?" Xaen said as she sat on the bed facing her sister. They both wore long gowns adorned with feathers from their busts to the ends of their trains. But because Xaen was a married woman holding seven men behind her, her light hair was pulled into a wide braid with seven feathers tucked into it.
"Well, unless you are going to help me, I suggest you leave." Xaen huffed and walked over to sister's vanity table. She admired her own made face then took her thumb and began to draw long lines to border the creme paint Vasen had applied with greys and navy blue. She then highlighted Vasen's cheekbones with violet and rubbed the paints with a sponge to give the appearance of the galaxy that would be ever so visible on this night; the night of lust, or Beafelai.
"Now, sister, you look like a prospective woman. Tonight may be the night you are offered a gift of courting." Vasen looked to her ridiculously attractive sister and wondered why she even dare speak to such an awkward being as Vasen of such matters. Her nose was flat and her lips were pale.She was too tall for grace, and she was too soft spoken to be attractive to any sensible man, let alone the three every woman needed to bore non-bastard child of to even be considered a woman.
"Do not speak of such none sense on the night of Beaf, especially considering the best men there are all Ritemen, and I am just a noblewoman. I am not yet a Ritewoman, like the others attending." Xaen scoffed.
"I was a hand with all of my husbands before I gave birth to Vadel, yet they were all Ritemen already!"
"That is because you were the first born girl, so mother had the power to arrange your marriages. I don't have such priveleges, ma'lady." Vasen grinned as she saw Xaen roll her eyes at the overly pronounced title. Thouh Xaen was, and knew, she was. Ritewoman and on the queen's court-thanks to fourth husban and Vasen's favorite, Olif-she still hated to acknowledge her privelege. Xaen sat on a nearby stool in defeat and cupped her head in her hands. Vasen looked down at her sister.
"I understand that you want me to meet your children and hsubands, but I am not ready to wed, nor have I offered enough hands to do so."
"I have an idea", Xaen said in reply, "You can have my youngest husband. He is too young for me and he smells of bird piss." Vasen smiled and, in her half sister's Dielian tongue, said, "Thank you, but I'd rather not wed any who have an odor." She giggled and began pulling her black hair on top of her head, thouh she was certain advertising her singuilarity would not gain her a courting. Her father was a Czembarian Riteman before he passed, yet her most of her siblings' father was Edran, a Dielian trader and Courtman: a position that only the best Ritemen could claim.
"Alright, more important matters." Xaen stood and closed in on her sister as to nt warm the ears of intruders. "Whom is it that has your virginity in their reach."
"Xaen! Could you be any more frank? I am keeping my virtue."
"But Vasen, this is your eighth Baefelai celebration since you bled. How long will you wait? One cannot halt a courting forever." Xaen stood. "I will be in the foyer with Sister Framelai." As Xaen rushed out of her quarters, Vasen sighed. The Dielian people were a very erotic and passionate group, so the fault for Xaen's audacity was in her father. She washed the last of the paint off of her fingertips and left to join her half-sisters in the main hall.
#
"Sister Xaen, Sister Framelai, it is a pleasure to have you acquaint me on such an important night." Her two sisters nodded in her direction. They were the youngest of the twenty seven Dumbeline children, being as they were all under thirty, so they were the only ones permised to attend. But Xaen and Frameliai would have to leave Vasen in her lonesome, for only virtuous nobles would dare attend the first festival night of the Courtmen with virgins. The only non-virgins would be Courtman Areph and perhaps his sisters to watch over the event to determine who would be courting after the annual festivities.
As they rode their mother's best horses into the central area of town, Framelai began conversation with Xaen.
"Has our sister told you who she wishes to eploy for the evening? There are rumors saying nobleman Gaphen will ask for her hand." Vasen had of course heard the rumors, but would certainly deny if he asked, for his family was poor and his nose was horribly crooked, and to bear his child would be a sin to Beaf, the goddess of fertility and lust, and she wouldn't dare offend her on her night.
"Nobleman Gaphen is not worthy of our sister", Xaen said, though the edge in her voice was still appearant. However, Vasen still smiled.
"Thank you sister." Whilst her sisters spoke amongst themselves, Vasen stayed silent, for her mind wondered on about what would happen if any of the noblemen dared set eyes on the body she would reveal at dawn.
