Having been forbidden to join Tonio for his meeting with his pretend adventuring group, Eleni had spent the rest of the afternoon being scrubbed down in boiling water that almost scalded her to the shade of a boiled lobster, been fitted for a rather tight fitting blue slik dress with long, trailing sleeves that caught at every little ornament and door handle that was littered throughout the Colson estate as if they were there for that very purpose, and then was forced for hours in study with that strange blond haired woman servant, who called herself mistress Zana, the head of the estate servants, who recited every little bit of trivia and history of the Colson family from its inception when Waterdeep was just a pirate's port to its current holdings and business dealings and how the Colsons fit into the grand scheme of the city's bright and prosperous future.
Eleni was repeatedly tapped awake by the woman, who took it upon herself to do this, even though Tonio's grandmother, or as she advised the elf girl to call her, Grandlady Colson, had wanted to send Eleni to a tutor in the House of Nobles just up a few blocks from the estate to be taught both proper grammer and letters, of which she already knew since she was in the business to know these things due to her profession, and the complete history of Waterdeep as it pertained to the Colson family, of which special emphasis was to be placed in the roles and duties of the lady of the noble household. In any case, after what seemed like hours and hours of mistress Zana babbling on and on about how great the Colson family was and how extremely fortuitous and undeserving a mere provincial like Eleni was to be a part of it in not so many words, the head mistress' voice had finally given out, and Eleni was finally given permission to be released back to her room to prepare for dinner with the family.
The elf girl groaned inwardly when she noted that the sun was already hanging pretty low on the horizon to the west, but yet had not touched upon the white walls that surrounded the city. When the maidservants entered with her to ostensibly to prepare her hair and dress for the evening's dinner, Eleni shooed them away with the pretense that she was constipated and needed some time on the bedside commode to clean herself out, which seemed to have done the trick since the maids all made faces at her tactless comments and left her alone in her room. Tactless comments or not, Eleni breathed a hugh sigh of relief, finally having been left alone and given a chance to sort out her thoughts of this terrible day. Then, she saw that the rope that Tonio had put up was still left alone, and hopped on it, grabbing the iron bar that was left beside the bedpost. Trying to concentrate on being on the tight rope without falling seemed to do the trick for the elf girl, as all her troubles and worries seemed to vanish, her mind focusing on the task at hand. Even in her blue dress with its long sleeves and round, golden buckles around her waist did not dampen her balance too badly enough for her to keep herself on the rope, as Eleni's sandaled feet started to make little headway along the length of the rope, her balance being helped by the metal bar she used for counter balance.
"What are you about? Are you from the circus?" A voice asked from somewhere behind Eleni. What really bothered her about the voice, Eleni decided much later, was the cold casualness of it more than the sudden violation of her space.
"Don't you know how to knock? This isn't your room!" Eleni replied, hopping off the tightrope, supporting herself with the metal rod as she spun around to face her accuser. There stood by the doorway a sandy haired young man with wavy hair, and the coldest blue eyes that Eleni had ever seen, which definitely upset the man's rather delicate and refined features right down to his full lips and the smooth arch of his nose. He was dressed in those puffy sleeved silken shirts and navy blue pantaloons that Tonio was always fond of wearing, saying that it was all the rage this year, that particular ensemble. Yes, Eleni thought as she glared back at the man, the eyes ruined a perfectly good face that would have been otherwise handsome.
By the time Eleni had analyzed the stranger's features, he had apparently recovered from the shock of being talked back to, and he stiffened his glare a bit more, retorting, "How dare you talk to me this way, do you know who I am?"
Eleni walked over to the man, shouldering the iron rod as she swayed her hips in a mocking fashion. The elf girl's dander was finally up. She was getting sick of being prodded and pushed around by these so called nobles and this young nobleman's rudeness was the last straw. "No, do you know who I AM?" Eleni asked, getting into the man's face, groaning inwardly when she realized that he was at least a full foot taller than she was and she had to raise her head to look up into his face. But look into his face she did, with glare to match her attitude!
"Well then, who are you?" The young man demanded, not backing down either as he crossed his arms across his chest and stared insolently into her face. Eleni wasn't prepared for this outcome, and was flabbergasted as she stammered and then caught herself when she saw the look of triumph enter into the man's cold eyes.
"Why I am Eleni, of course. I am a musician. Currently, I am the songmistress at an establishment!" the elf girl answered haughtily.
The young man snickered and then replied snidely, "A bard hmm? How come I've never heard of you I wonder. Where is this fine establishment you play? The Green Flagon? The Gilded Crown"
Eleni faltered once again as she heard the names of the establishments, all exclusive clubs and hotels that the nobility and young men and women of good breeding were known to frequent. All places that Eleni had hoped to be able to play but dared not. "Well, currently I am playing over at the Green Griffon...looking for inspiration and source material...waiting for my next break..." Eleni let out, already looking deflated and trying to avert her eyes away from the man's gaze. She winced as he started to laugh.
"The Green Griffon! You have got to be kidding me. Isn't that one of the dives of the Dock Ward? Where the drunken sailors and down and out beggars drink away their sorrows?" The man replied amidst his laughter.
Eleni's yellow gold eyes flashed green as she replied with anger, "For your information, it is in the Southern Ward and is quite a respectable inn and tavern! And there aren't that many beggars because Mr. Jensen keeps their ilk out! Well, most of them anyway. There is this one couple that comes in every night that I help support. They're very old and the lost their home, and I can't let them"
The man rolled his eyes at this and cut Eleni off by saying, "I get you. You do not have to tell me your life's story. It is obvious that you are nothing more than some scum weed that grows in the gutters somewhere. Yet you dare presume to talk back to your betters." The young man then cast Eleni a second look and added, "Not bad looking, I will grant you. Broken many a peasant's hearts I bet with that dirt smelling mug of yours. A weedy flower, that's what you are methinks. Shall I call you a dandelion?"
Eleni narrowed her eyes, and then stomped hard onto the man's foot, grinding his toes into the carpeted floor. "Even weeds have pride, you...you...high brow hobgoblin!" Eleni retorted with all her might, feeling disgusted that she was only wearing those stupid strappy sandals that Tonio's grandmother forced her to wear and not something more substantial, like a steel toed boot. "I may not have been born to a noble family like you, nor have my daddy and mommy pay for whatever my addlebrains desires, but..but.."
"You have your beggar pride." The man stated matter of factly as if finishing Eleni's sentence, yanking his foot away, for it did not hurt in the least. "And no manners to temper them either. What is your family name anyway? As if I cared...Or did you just spring up from the ground like all weeds do. In any case, aren't all elves fond of claiming relations to nobility in one way or another? I am betting that this is where your impudence comes from."
Eleni stared at the young man in silence as he looked at her with impunity, with a crooked smile playing on his lips. When she replied, she was angry that her voice was shaking like a leaf. "I don't have one. I never knew my parents." She replied, the flood of emotions she had thought she had gotten over washing over her like a rogue wave, catching her totally off guard and vulnerable. Try as she may, Eleni was helpless to keep her eyes from glittering with tears as her mind, unbidden, fell upon the roads of her past that she thought she had mastered. "I may not have had loving parents that pampered me like you have had, I am sure." Eleni began, keeping her tears in check and hoping that they didn't start escaping from her eyes. She wasn't sure if she was more angry with the fact that she suddenly seemed to be an emotional wreck, or at the young man who seemed to know how to push her buttons with just a few words here and there. "And you're right. I did grow up in a circus. I may not have had parents that pampered me like you did, but I had friends. Life long friends who took care of me and were there for me when I needed them. And you know, if your manner that you speak so highly of comes from living like you do, then I'm proud that I live my life the way that I want, without being so false and so deluded that one thinks money and position actually gives someone the right to demean and look down upon people that do not have as much as you do. So go ahead and call me a weed all you like, but this weed is proud of who I am, and don'twrap myselfwith lofty titles or money to make myself feel better."
The young man turned his gaze away without a word, and then walked out of the room as Eleni watched, her words still hanging heavy in the air. The elf girl felt then that perhaps she had overstepped her bounds with the stranger, and let her temper and her current situation take advantage of her already swirling emotions. Afterall, it wasn't the young man's fault that a potentially deadly stranger had been stalking her without her knowledge all this time, placing her in danger, nor was it his fault that she had, with very little thinking involved, agreed to continue playing along to this ruse with Tonio's family, much to Eleni's annoyance and anger upon reflection. Perhaps all these thoughts and doubts of her words were evident on the elf girl's face as the man suddenly turned his gaze toward her. No words were exchanged this time, however. Instead, the man and Eleni stared at each other, the man's face unreadable, for several silent, wordless seconds until he turned around and resumed his steps down the hallway.