Moon on the Water

[Tatiana Ivanov]

A dark nondescript carriage pulls up outside the Jewellery shop "Lune Sur L'Eau" and a woman alights.

Tatianna pulls a bunch of keys from the pocket of her cape and lets herself in the front door. She carefully latches the door after her, the shop may still be open for business but entry is not permitted to just anyone.

A tall, attractive gentleman rises from behind the counter. "Good Evening Madame!" he calls out the very hint of a French accent evident. "You are back early?" the question hangs in the air unanswered.

Tatianna is fussing with part of the window display, adjusting a necklace so that the light catches it just so. Once it has achieved the required perfection, she replies "Yes, you know how boring funerals are!".

Her black gown rustles as she crosses the plush green carpet to the counter.

Reaching over the mahogany slab, she picks up the brooch the man has been working on and takes into the light in the middle of the room.

A slight smile plays on her lips. "This is nice Raul, I like it!".

She returns it to the small workspace behind the counter. Raul is doing his best not to beam with pride at the kind words of his Mistress.

Tatianna continues into the back of the shop and through the door towards the kitchen. Pausing momentarily she calls over her shoulder "Raul, I'm going down to the workshop. I'm not to be bothered unless it is someone very important"

Finally alone in the safe confines of her shop, she breathes a small sigh of relief.

A brief stop at a wardrobe down the hall has her dressed simply in a shirt and dark blue skirt. If anyone were to see her, she'd probably look more like a poor shop girl that the fashionable creature that stalks the world upstairs.

Satisfaction washes over her as she descends to the workshop below stairs. The lamps all lit in their adjustable fittings bathing the whole room in soft warm light, her equipment all laid out neatly with niches and pockets housing tools all around.

[Stephen Maturin]

There was a great deal of shouting in the streets, but of the festive kind - Bathonians were out in droves tonight, celebrating the new year. Or perhaps it was Christmas, still; Stephen had not paused this month, and he wished for all the world that things would halt. He came quietly to the door and only knocked.

For whatever he was to the Kindred, Stephen did not, on the outset, look like someone "very important" - he did not look like anybody: the man was thin, ill-favored and stooped; unshaven, even, and with untidy hair. His fingers and wrists were bare, only the two thumbs adorned, and he looked thirty if he was a day.

The glass was frosted, and although he could see the fellow inside, Stephen only waited patiently. He was not prone to using any power on another's mortal - indeed Stephen preferred using no disciplines at all on mortals, unusually so for a Ventrue - and he had set aside the night. He was in no rush. And - oh! -distantly, he could hear her: a Nightjar. Oh happy, happy Bath, to have such a song, even amid the hubbub of holiday life.

[Tatiana Ivanov]

Raul was roused from behind the counter by the knocking on the door.

His journey across the thick green carpet punctuated with stray thoughts. He hoped very much that it wouldn't be some rich idiot with a harlot on each arm, come to lay waste to the family coffers. No, the knock was too soft for a man deep in his cups and there was no laughing or conversation. Yes, someone refined and polite, maybe someone who had committed a faux pas that could only be rectified with gems and sparkle. Guilt and pride made some of the best customers.

Committing to the security protocol of night-time opening hours, He opened the door on the chain, his foot firmly placed behind the door to prevent ingress.

Adopting the haughtiness that only a Frenchman could muster he eyed the scruffy man on the doorstep with great suspicion.

His hopes of an easy customer had been dashed.

"Good Evening Sir, how may I help you?" he inquired, more than a little disdain colouring his tone.

[Stephen Maturin]

"Good evening to you," Stephen said, in excellent and clear English, despite the Irish-Catalan mix. "I hope not to intrude by the hour, only, my schedule leaves little availability in the day. Glad am I that you open late."

Stephen paused, thinking to hide his left ring from the man; it was hard to do so now without being rude, but the fellow was clearly a ghoul and, rightly, likely besotted by his Domitor.

A moot point; the man was a hawk for his eyes, and the ring was now catching the light. Stephen sighed. "Miss Ivanov gave me this -" he said a little diffidently, not liking to seem as though he was showing away, but realising it might be the only peaceable means through. There was very little point crying over spilt milk. "In a gesture of good will. I had hoped to speak with her - if I may? I am obliged, of course, by your courtesy. But she has invited me."

[Tatiana Ivanov]

Raul blanches at the sight of the ring and sways a fraction.

He knew the ring well, he polished Madame's jewellery for her.

It was as if a cold hand had gripped his chest, the jealousy rose and was washed away with bitter sadness. It had been just the two of them for a year now and while he knew it would never last, he had always hoped that it would. Her beautiful world that he existed in, his Queen, his muse, his raison d'être.

Not wanting to be beaten or eaten, Raul changed his tone immediately with this strange, rough fellow on the doorstep. Fiddling with the chains in a hurry until he could open the door completely and admit him.

"Do come in good Sir! Madame is in the workshop, I shall fetch her presently?.......... Would Sir permit me to take his hat and coat?

Perhaps a drink, Sir?

[Stephen Maturin]

"No drink sir, I thank you," Stephen says softly. "I am quite sated."

He took no particular pride nor any false modesty in the reception; Stephen had no appetite at all for another's fear, and even now could scarcely conceive of taking a ghoul on himself, that anyone would pay so heavy and permanent a price in service. But even Jack kept Killick on, for all Stephen's fury, and he had learned not to begrudge others of their species their blatant enslavement of the human race.

It helped that Tatiana was astonishingly capable, prodigously skilled, kind-voiced, handsome in her turn about any room and that... Stephen was more than capable of rose-tinting anybody from a position of attraction.

Now that he had shucked his coat, and muttered a kindly thanks, the pleasure of seeing Tatiana mounted in his breast. It helped that this meeting was twofold for purpose: Jack needed new aquaintenances, direly so, he needed anything beyond Stephen. Jack needed to connect to the real world beyond his sails, the longevity of his sanity - and his humanity - demanded it. Jack had expressed desire of company with only four Kindred from Bath, two of which Stephen found palattable. And so, here he was, with perhaps, an outrageous suggestion.

"If I may, I will not trouble you further. I have desire of nothing but an audience."

[Tatiana Ivanov]

"Please, take a seat Sir" Raul indicated to a lavish green velvet chair next to a display of Tatiana's more practical objet d'art.

*A lavish silver Quaich inlayed with Amber and Agate cabochons may catch Stephen's eye*

Raul scurries off to the back of the shop and disappears through a door.

Some moments pass and the door opens again.

Stephen can tell Tatiana has entered the room from the delicate, yet complex perfume of Rose, orange blossom and some oriental woods *that he may not be able to place*.

When she finally arrives in front of him, she's without all of the lavish trappings of her craft and clan. Tatiana is dressed simply in a dust marred shirt with the cuffs rolled up to her elbows, simple dark blue skirt and slightly shabby leather slippers. Her hair is coiled in a simple plait around her head a little like a halo.

"Stephen! So good of you to come and see me!" her french accent accentuating a distinct fluster.

It is only once she has spoken that she remembers that she is so poorly dressed and begins to launch into a wave of apologies.

"I'm so sorry, I get so distracted when I'm working!............ I, Ummmm"
"Please, let me change.............!"
"Oh what must you think of me........"

Tatiana has not noticed that Stephen's dreadful appearance in the slightest.

[Stephen Maturin]

Stephen is very much taken up by the Quaich, though more for its craftsmanship than its monetary worth. As an astonishingly familiar scent catches his nostrils - detonating out of no where, the dark orient, and places far-flung - Stephen looks up, and immediately rises.

"Tatiana!" He is equally as flustered. Meaning the words, the Alastor adds emphatically, "It is so good to see you. I can only apologise for my tardiness, but the red lister you see..."

He winces, entirely unsure whether she would have him speak on work. "I can elaborate, if you wish. But I make no excuses, it was poor form. Please: you needn't change, I have arrived without ceremony, and never in life would not ask if of you. Indeed, you are a vision. Do not trouble yourself on my account."

"I had hoped to see you work, and perhaps talk a while. I have a curious invition, too, should it suit you."

[Tatiana Ivanov]

Tatiana is, of course, intrigued by the tale of the Red Lister Hunt. It was spoken about so much during the last Elysium and so many Kindred had died as a result. She would not force Stephen to speak on the subject, but should it arise later she's happily let him talk for as long as he liked.

She smiled broadly at Stephen, "Of course, please come down to the workshop".

Once Stephen was standing, she led the way down the shop.

"I don't normally entertain in the workshop so I'm afraid all I can offer you is one of my tall stools" there was a considered pause. "I can get Raul to bring a comfy chair down for you if you'd like?"

It is dark in the passageway at the back of the shop, but Stephen will be able to see into the kitchen at the back of the house. The doorway to the workshop is immediately obvious from the warm spill of light from a small doorway.

She leads him through the doorway. There is a wave of warmth that hits once through and a metallic smell in the air that is nothing like the copperiness of blood.

"It gets a bit warm down here with all the lamps, I hope that is okay?" there is a pause as she starts down the very steep, narrow steps. "We can snuff out any number and just light the bench that I'm working at at the moment if you find it uncomfortable."

There is a distinct and confident bounce that she does as she takes the treacherous stairs as if they are nothing. It is obvious that she knows the place well and could likely navigate it in utter darkness.

[Stephen Maturin]

"A tall stool will do me handsomely, thank you."

Stephen moves like a duelist, light on his feet, up and down through the dark, easy with his footing; he chances a look to Tatiana when he thinks himself private for it, impressed by her dexterity. He is not used to seeing it outside of swordmasters.

"Warmth is good. It is not as though we generate any of our own naturally," he mutters dryly. "Not without burning blood. And.. well, blood is quite precious to me, to anyone with particular restrictions, in their sustenance. I appreciate the lamps."

He's smiling benignly at the bounce in her stride, can even feel one in his own. Yes, this was a very good idea. And as they enter the workroom Stephen looks thrilled by the space, absolutely thrilled.

He settled himself on the stool as indicated. "It is black news, about the hunt. I do not know how close you were to any of who passed, but I will provide the details should it suit you. All was otherwise successful, as well you perhaps know, but at great cost."

"If you wish not to start there, I have pleasant news, too. Or we may speak on something entirely out of topic. My choice to you, dear Tatiana. I would just as easy sit here with you in the deepening twilight of lamp and ingot, this is a veritable mineral world, and breathe deep of the company, and the warm, clean air." He slumped as though a load had been lifted from them. "Never mind the world above."