The Night After The Party We Don't Talk About

[Posh-Tim]

Upon Dukes and Herminas exit Keane immediately sharpens his sense to try and heat what is going on before realising he doesn't care. Instead he finishes attaching the bead and listens politely to Aurelia's discussion on the Cup.

[L .]

Aurelia looks up with that same distracted look, but it clears rapidly, she equally as relieved to have something new to turn her mind to.

"Hn, I don't know where it came from," she admits, trying to remember how Mithras phrased it. "But it's... how to put this tactfully... disproportionately powerful a prize - neh? - for the simple game to win it. I am not questioning, I am just... observing."

"Lupercalia existed in different iterations before the Romans gave it that name. Funny, everyone thinks that Romans were very... Nn... liberal, with nudity and touch? Not so. Lupercalia was so scandalous and exciting because it was the only time, once a year, when the women could be nude even in the streets, and there was contact between the sexes. There was the silly man with a big flogger who would go around hitting anyone who wanted to be struck. It was said to give you better fetility."

"So of course, all these naughty boys on the streets would come out in droves, watching as mothers, daughters, lovers ran after thie little old monk fellow, trying to get spanked. It was a very odd festival."

"This cup predates all this, though. It fell into the hands of the Roman Empire I think in the early two hundreds, during Britain's occupation. But then it vanished in the four hundreds."

She considers her own words carefully. "By enhaning magic I mean that... These are just stories, neh? Don't quote me on them. But: this cup fills an area, when it awakens. It changes the place while active. It is one of those artifacts that is powerful enough that it affects the local environment, just slightly. It's mostly famous among Nod-ahh among people who care about these sort of trinkets, because it appeared one night in the dark ages, when a powerful sorcerer was trying to disrupt a particular event. The cup created ripples in reality around it, it's how its magic works. It plays on the impossible, tweaks the laws just so, to make things become possible, for one night, every thousand years. If you time it right, and if you know how, then you can make use of those distortions. Magic is given uncanny depth and strength, in the presence of such an anomaly."

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina's aura brightens a little when Aurelia takes to her question and she listens with rapt attention.

"That does sound a very, very strange festival Elder."

At the mention of the sorceror and ripples of reality, her eyes widen and her aura pulses with an indescribable mix of longing and fear.

"And this is the one night? Out of a thousand years worth of nights?" She carefully doesn't mention the sorceror, doing her best to keep her tone light and conversational.

[Posh-Tim]

Keane listens with interest, a lot of what she says confirms what he suspected or already knew. Except one bit:
"I'm sorry, did you just say the cup itself can be won?"

[Jean-Jacques]

jean-Jacques is someone rapt at Aurelias telling, his mouth slightly agape giving away his thoughts, he is fairly stunned at the revelation

[Laurence]

Laurence taps his finger on his chin, listening intently to what Aurelia is saying. A frown crosses his face for a moment, quickly smoothing away.

"It will be a night to remember then."

[L .]

"It was a stupid festival, but it was quite funny. Mithras likes to go on and on about Roman festivals so, I have to 'watch' quite a lot of his special moments, when he won such-and-such on date-and-time, and my, how impressed his audience were."

"Neh?" she glances to Keane. "Yes I did say that. The cup can be won."

Her aura - for the first time that night - is suddenly rich with worry. Aurelia keeps her expression blank. "Be cautious. I imagine it will paint quite a target on the head of the winner. But it can be won."

[Madam Zaragoza]

Hermina reenters the library, looking slightly less annoyed. She obviously has something serious on her mind though.
“What did I miss?”

[Valentina Audley]

"How does one win the cup?" Valentina is curious, though not sure that's a contest she wants to partake in.

When Hermina reenters still clearly irked, Valentina quietly answers "we were just discussing the Lupercaulia Cup Elder Zaragoza."

[L .]

Aurelia seems to be almost as annoyed at Hermina as she is that Valentina brought her back into the conversation. She sits stewing a moment, deciding whether it was worth holding onto that anger or taking it out in some other way.

She compromises, by staying silent.