In Which Cherry Joins a Fair Competition

May 20, 1185

The official meeting wouldn't be until the end of the school day, but while Morgan and Sister Paulina had classes to get them through the morning, Cherry had nothing until the afternoon. She'd tried sleeping in, but the anticipation hadn't agreed to that. So... why not break her fast and dress early, nod through the window to Sir Nythran in the next house as she never got the chance to on Mondays? Why not head over the now stage-free administrative tower, see if Raia had a moment, and confirm just a little earlier what she already knew?

Because there was no possible way that masque could have been considered a failure.

The audience space had been filled to capacity. The students manning the fenced perimeter had reported no attempts at unpaid entries--and since she and Morgan and Paulina all hammered in the importance of the masque's success to their education, covering for anyone was an arrow to the foot. And the idea that a cast of noted nobles and knights would raise the limit on what people were willing to pay? Stupid and gimmicky, sure--but according to an Economics major with several Literature electives who'd done some initial surveys, it had worked!

And then the performance itself had gone out without a hitch. No missed cues so far as Cherry noticed, no malfunctioning props or effects, nor any stumbling over lines or small, stiff movements. A line or two may have been changed unwittingly, but not to the point of compromising the meaning. Cherry hadn't had a script on her for reference, but the only obviously unscripted bit had been...

...well, kind of enough to merit more laughs and cheers than any other moment. "I still can't believe Florian's timing."

"It was quite... fitting," Raia managed, not quite so amused. But Cherry guessed she couldn't blame her, since she'd had one of the closer views of certain... things. "We find the defendant..."

"SIR BORS!" Of course, Florian had been much more vocal. And wearing far fewer articles of clothing. "You know, he spends the whole rehearsal period trying to derail the story with his interruptions, but what does he go with in the end? A non-sequitur naked dance routine."

"Kind of a miracle we got through the rest of the scene after that. And a good thing Morgan thought to send Vera and Sparron out before my death scene." Morgan, so she'd told Cherry after, had felt that a light reprieve would be needed to better bridge Florian's interruption with Morgause's emotional last minutes, so the task of improvising a fluffy little love scene had fallen to Vera and Sparron.They'd done quite a nice job with it too, all things considered--even if it hadn't quite passed for a scripted scene to those who knew Morgan's writing style. "But that's not what you're here to talk about."

"You know me so well." She was one of the four people in Naroni to have sat through the entire 'why they call me Cherry' story, after all. "The revenue--"

"Yes, the masque made a profit."

"So we get the profit."

"Yes."

"And the budgeting procedures will be revised."

"Yes."

Success! She'd thought so. "Excellent."

"I thought you'd say that." Raia pushed back her chair and stepped around the desk. Up close, the bags beneath her eyes weren't quite so subtle. It must have been a tough job, balancing so many conflicting interests--not that that gave Cherry any less of a right to fight for her own. "Though, I should warn you that future projects may be required."

"Oh?"

"You proved that your department deserves increased funding. The other departments are going to want chances to prove themselves too. It'll be a competition from here on out."

That... could have been expected, Cherry supposed. There was only so much money to go around, and someone had to draw the short end of the stick. That said-- "But it'll be a fair competition, correct?"

Raia nodded. "I'll do my best to make it so."

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