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Paige’s Suite [Nobles Quarters]
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This is a well-appointed suite on the second level of Anvard. A curtained, canopied bed sits opposite the door. An armoire of some dark wood is provided for clothing, and a small desk holds other personal items. Two windows allow sunlight to come streaming in, and also provide a breath-taking views of the countryside. It’s a nice place for Lady Paige to stay in during visits to Anvard.
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Paige sits on a settee that is grouped around a low circular table together with several armchairs and a chaise lounge. She has changed into one of her more customary fashionable gowns, and has washed away any dust that may have been gathered on her face and neck. She is sipping from a goblet of wine and giving some instructions to a servant who stands before her. A plate of light refreshments has been placed on the table.

Tyre’s small shape appears in the unflattering light of the doorway, hovering with awkward energy in the shadowed part.

Paige finishes speaking with the servant and dismisses her. When the servant moves out of the line of sight between Paige and the door, she notes Tyre standing there. “Ah, Tyre.” She sets her goblet down and reaches for a piece of sliced cheese. “Come in–you need not hover like that.” Her tone is a little impatient, but not enough to really be called sharp.

Tyre enters by a few paces. “You are settled, mother?”

Paige nods, sitting upright in her seat, cheese gripped daintily between two fingers. “Yes, everything seems to be more or less in order for the moment.” She glances back up at him and, upon finding him still standing, waves her free hand toward one of the chairs, this time with a decided air of impatience. “Your sister is not here yet, but that does not mean we should waste time. Sit.”

Tyre takes the chair indicated, sitting heavily. “Time, mother?”

Paige arches her eyebrows as she swallows a small bite of cheese. “Did you not read my my letter? I wish to know what has been going on here.”

Tyre gathers his hands in his lap, his head tilting a little. “What did you want to know, mother?”

Paige shoots him an acid look as she takes up her goblet once more. “Your aunt has been able to tell me only that a Calormene prince led a small army against Anvard, and that Narnia managed somehow to help the King in driving them off. You have also implied that Prince Cor is here now, though what precisely he has to do with any of the rest of it I have not been able to discern. I trust that you can do a little better than that now. You have certainly had long enough to discover the particulars.”

Tyre asks, “Ah– well. Which, ah, did you wish to hear of first? The prince, or the battle?”

Paige arches her eyebrow once more. “I would first hear whichever of the events happened first.” She sips her wine.

Tyre says, “Ahh— well, from… from /my/ side it was the assault, but chronologically…”

Paige presses her lips together and sighs quietly, in the manner of those who think they are being longsuffering. She waves her hand for him to proceed. “Then I suppose you may tell it in whichever manner will be the most efficient.”

Tyre rubs between his brows with the tips of his fingers. “Well… Well. That is, well, ah, it seems Prince Cor has been in Calormen all this time. Raised by a, a fisherman, they say.”

Paige parts her lips and lifts her eyebrows high in an expression that could only be described as scandalized.

Tyre says, “Ahh– well somehow he seems to have used the… opportunity to learn of the invasion. And so, he came here to tell his father of it, and, ah, and thence to Narnia.”

Tyre seems to think this a somewhat lengthy summary, and to have reached its end.

Paige frowns, looking both disbelieving and dissatisfied. “The King cannot have simply sent him on to Narnia.”

Tyre says, “Yes — ah, that part is a bit… hazy. He seems to have gone there against his majesty’s wishes. There was something about getting lost, but how that can have brought him all the way to Narnia, I am not fully clear.”

Paige is seated on a settee that is grouped around a low circular table together with several armchairs–Tyre is sitting on one of these–and a chaise lounge. A plate of light refreshments is sitting upon the table, and she is holding a goblet of wine. The door to the suite stands open. As Tyre says this, she purses her lips and casts a pointed glance over her shoulder at the servant who still stands in one corner of the room, ready to wait upon them. The servant startles at her look and is quick to scurry out of the room.

There is a faint knock on the open door. Avery slips into the room, curtseying when her Mother and brother look towards the door. “Ah, I see dear Tyre is much more punctual than I am…” She moves further into the room and sits down beside Paige.

The skittish servant slips past Avery with a brief curtsey and closes the door behind herself.

Tyre shuffles his feet so as to make himself smaller and more out of the way.

Paige purses her lips and arches an eyebrow. “And yet I remain quite uninformed regarding all that has been going on in my absence. Perhaps you are able to be clearer.”

Avery pours herself a goblet of wine from the table. “Mother, we’ve been through a siege. It was no easy thing for any of us…I think we are all sorting out the details ourselves still.” She takes a sip of the wine. “What I do know is that we are all alright and our Prince has returned to us. Tyre was a great help. He made sure everyone inside the castle was warm, fed and safe.” Avery smiles at Tyre and looks back to her Mother. “We are happy to have Prince Cor with us, but I haven’t exactly asked him about all that has transpired over the years. I don’t feel that it is my place to ask. I am glad he is back and that is enough for me. We have had victory over Calormen and there has been much celebration. What exactly would you like to be more informed on? I am sure what Tyre said before was quite adequate…”

Tyre studies his hands in his lap.

Paige’s expression grows indignant as Avery speaks. “Over the /years/? I should think not! Raised by a fisherman! Of course you would not wish to know of such a disgrace. No, you are thinking of entirely the wrong things. It is what has happened since he left there that I must know more of. Your brother has just told me that he went off to Narnia directly after came here–and against the wishes of the King! Is no one concerned over such behavior?”

Avery waves a hand. “We might be concerned or shocked, but there’s nothing we can do about it. He’s the King’s son, Mother, not yours.”

Tyre says, “I believe he was lost.”

Avery motions to Tyre. “See? Lost. A perfectly good explanation, I think.”

Paige lifts her free hand contemptuously in a gesture calling for silence. “You have both taken leave of your senses,” she declares firmly. Her tone grows acerbic as she directs a scrutinizing gaze toward Tyre. “You /believe/ that he was lost? You do not /know/?” She turns next to Avery. “The point, Lady Avery, is not to /do/. The point is to /know/. If the King’s son has returned from no one knows where, after having been raised by no one knows whom, and is doing no one knows what, then we all know nothing at all of a matter that will affect us all very directly.”

Avery sighs, taking another sip of wine. “If it will set your mind at ease, I will ask Lady Aravis. She is his friend. I am sure she has all the answers you could want…”

Paige’s eyebrow shoots up, but she tilts her head just the smallest amount. “Lady Aravis? Lady Aravis of where, exactly?”

Avery gives a little shrug, an amused smile on her lips. “Aravis Tarkheena, formerly of Calormen. She resides here now.”

Paige raises both eyebrows now. “Aravis /Tarkheena/? /Well/.” She presses her lips together, considering.

Avery nods. “She’s quite an amusing little thing.”

Paige ignores this unhelpful information as she thinks. Presently she inquires, “She is staying here because of the invasion? Was she involved in some way? Have the Calormenes begun sending their ladies to their wars?”

Avery says, “She is Prince Cor’s friend.”

Paige rolls her eyes. “Indeed, so you have already said. I can see that I will get no useful news out of either of you–I will simply have to do this, too, myself. Very well; you may both go, if you wish. However, you will join me over breakfast in the morning, Lady Avery, and then accompany me as I pay my respects to his Majesty and the rest of our acquaintance here.”

Avery drains her goblet of the last sip. “I’d be delighted.” She says as she stands, her voice neutral. Lowering in a curtsey, she makes her way toward the door. “The Narnians are also here. You must also meet them. There is one I’d like you to meet in particular.”

Paige’s eyebrows raise in an entirely different sort of interest now, and for a moment she looks as if she is considering calling Avery back after all. She nods, however, and instead says, “Indeed, we shall speak of it in the morning.”

Avery smiles. “Of course. I bid you goodnight, Mother.”

Paige dips her head. “Good night.”

Tyre observes this conversation as quietly as he is allowed, looking relieved to be bidden good night with so little raking.