In Which Raia Hears Something Sweet

May 18, 1185

It was Masque Day. More accurately... it was Masque Hour. The first scene opened with Vera and Xeta, Xeta's character reading a letter from Vera's while Vera herself monologued it to the audience from elsewhere on stage; Sister Paulina called it an aside. Then, Vera would make her exit, and Raia and Lonriad would arrive to interact with Xeta.

Cherry's students, with the help of Sister Paulina's, had designed a portable stage that could be taken apart and reassembled elsewhere in less than an hour, complete with trap doors for set changes and collapsible curtains. For the performance, it sat in front of the administrative tower, leaving the entry as a makeshift green room. When she'd first heard of this, she'd wondered how structurally sound such a construction could be, but a few run-throughs on the stage later and it had held up rather better than she'd expected. They would be able to store it for reuse by the Drama students.

But for now, it was their day--a fundraising day, more or less, but still a performance. Vera and Xeta handled the pressure well, just chatting and laughing as they might have done in Nora's sitting room. Something about the frustrations of the students doing their hair, from the words Raia bothered to catch. Xeta's character was supposed to wear her hair tightly in a snood, but Xeta's was too long and thick for the piece Cherry had made; Vera's character had wild and lovely curls, but Vera didn't have a curl to speak of and all they'd managed was a light wave. Though, their costumes both matched Morgan and Cherry's sketches almost exactly--while Raia's and Lonriad's had required some compromise.

Not that anyone was going to be paying much attention to Lonriad's clothes. "I still can't believe you let them glue that thing to your face."

"It comes off pretty easily. Plus, let's face it--someone like Sir Mordred just needs a villainous mustache."

Right. Villainous. She still wasn't entirely sure how comfortable she was with her own casting. Obviously, someone had to play the titular villain--but given the circumstances that had led to the production, it kind of felt like a personal dig. She doubted it actually was--none of the involved were such vindictive people--but it did feel dodgy, especially given her character's life-long rivalry with Ellona's character. Perhaps it was something a little more innocent, like a marketing gimmick. Come see the Chancellor and the Assistant Chancellor square off against each other! And then see the Chancellor in court, where one major patron is the foreman of the jury and another is the judge!

And of course, the general nervousness didn't help either.

Not that that appeared to be a problem for either Vera or Xeta, still chatting away.

But maybe that was why. They were distracting themselves. Further engaging her brother might not have been the worst course of action for the next however-many minutes. "Still. That mustache is almost as bad as Jadin's."

"No, it's worse. I just wear it better." His upper lip wriggled, the chunky sections of beard jerking about with it. "I doubt his itches as much, though."

"Vera, Xeta!" It was Sister Paulina from the door, saving Raia the trouble of deciding on a mustache joke. "We're starting soon. Get in position."

"Right."

Xeta took off around one side of the staircase, and Vera around the other. If they were being called, it wouldn't be long before Raia and Lonriad had to wait in the wings. To think--a few days ago, this still hadn't seemed quite real. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Vera called back, Xeta apparently out of earshot. She took a few more steps and the door shut. Sure as hell felt real now.

"We'd better stretch our legs a minute." Lonriad eased himself forward and took a deep breath as he stood. He seemed to be coping with the stress of the performance all right, but Raia didn't envy him that--not when he still had to cope with the even greater stress of having lost his wife. "You're going to knock their socks off, you know. You've got that intensity under control."

"But you're going to steal every scene you're in. You're just having so much fun with it."

"Well... I kind of needed this to be fun." With Asalaye watching from the clouds instead of the crowd, that he did. "And having so many scenes with you helped a lot, actually. I mean, you know how it is now that we're all adults and we're all busy and we don't live under the same roof any more. I don't know if I would have had so much fun if I didn't get to work with my favorite sister."

A lucky thing he'd waited for Vera to leave before saying that. "That's... sweet."

"Maybe. Doesn't make it any less true that we're an insanely badass dark magic team." He opened his arms for a hug. She obliged; a hug couldn't have hurt either of them just then.

"You know, if I was actually going to be evil, I can't think of anyone I'd rather be evil with than you."

"Likewise, little brother." For the sake of the moment, she'd omit her reasoning that Falidor would make the most ineffectual antagonist in history. "Likewise."

NEXT CHAPTER:

In Which Raia Deals With the Downsides

January 25, 1185

"Sorry about that." Raia took her seat at the head of the table, not entirely sure why she was apologizing. This wasn't a regular meeting. It was the end of the day and she'd left the administrative tower to collect Viridia from the staff nursery, only for one of the assistants to run after her with the news that three of the department heads were in her office, in search of a word. She'd sent the assistant on to the nursery with the news that she wouldn't be long; regardless, she didn't much care to keep her youngest waiting at the end of the day.

"It's fine. We probably should scheduled something in advance, but..." Morgan grimaced. She wouldn't have been here without a grievance, but she'd always struck Raia as the sort who tried to be tactful. "Patience is a virtue, I guess."

"Which makes the three of us less than virtuous--my apologies, Sister Paulina," added Cherry with a wink. "Anyway, guess we might as well get the point. I had Farilon over for tea yesterday, and somehow the topic of departmental funding came up, and... well, you know where this is going."

Damn right she did. "You discovered that his department received more funding than yours did."

And then she'd talked to the others, to find that Morgan and Sister Paulina, at least, were similarly dissatisfied. "Yes."

Raia sighed. She and Ellona had written down their logic that day they'd met at her house, and that scrap of parchment lay half-forgotten in Falidor's sock drawer. Probably should have filed that properly. "My apologies. That said, you must understand that a lot of our mathematics and physics texts have to be translated and imported, and certain other disciplines have to be up to date--anything to do with anatomy, for example, for the sake of aspiring doctors. Given that your disciplines have more room for imaginative components, Ellona and I figured they were some of the safer areas to cut."

Did that sound fair? Hardly. Damn. She tried to be a fair boss. For the most part, she thought she was a fair boss. For this, though... ugh. She didn't regret the budget, but how could she explain that without being insensitive? "You know... there's no price for creativity."

"Fair enough for my composition and rhetoric classes, but I have the analytical classes as well." Still seated, Morgan pulled her chair in toward the table. "I can't always count on the local shops or General Zaahir's collection to have every text my students are supposed to analyze, much less multiple copies. They're on a rotation right now--and not everyone can be counted on to finish promptly."

"And I have my students painting over old work," chimed in Cherry. "I hate to do it, but new canvases are expensive."

"And my masquing students are starting to learn about set design, but there's only so much they can learn from diagrams."

Valid, valid, and valid. Being in charge did not come without its downsides. "Look, there are no rules prohibiting you from seeking independent funding--"

"But when do we have the time to do that? On our budgets, we can't hire people to fundraise for us, and the students are busy enough without having to help."

"If it was a curricular project, sure, but simply asking--"

"Oh." It was Sister Paulina, with that quiet-yet-authoritative voice that had to have been exclusive domain of drama teachers. "But what if it was a curricular project?"

Cherry and Morgan shared a glance. Intrigued, Raia leaned forward. "Oh?"

"A masque, perhaps?"

"A masque?" Cherry grinned; Raia wasn't sure whether to take that for amusement or genuine interest.

"Yes. Morgan can write it, I can direct it, you can costume it, and we can collaborate on the set. I probably don't have enough acting students to cast a whole production, but--"

"--but you could cast some of the patrons and other notable figures in the kingdom." And there they were, the eyes on Raia again. Maybe this hadn't been her place to butt in--though, she was their boss. "A production would require funding, after all; maybe they'd be more likely to contribute if they're involved directly."

"Quite possibly. Featuring notable people would also increase ticket sales, would it not?"

"It would." Actually... depending on the price of tickets...

"And our departments would be entitled to the entirety those profits, correct?" asked Cherry.

"Yes."

"And if the masque is successful, could we expect greater funding in future years if any subsequent masques fund the university as a whole?"

"I wouldn't discount it." The eyes didn't seem too impressed. "Fine. If the masque turns a profit, you'll get more funding. And yes, I'll talk to the patrons about a little extra for the production, so you don't have to. Any other questions?"

"Just one." Morgan turned her way, a tug of mischief at the side of her mouth. "Would you star in it?"

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