Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [25]
The bard called out, "Hello!" His words echoed throughout the building. For several moments there was no reply. Then, from somewhere behind the staircase, a young woman appeared. She wore a simple short-sleeved smock of pink covered with a thin film of white-gray dust and several black smudges. She had blue eyes and long, thick, light brown hair, which she wore pulled back in a blue ribbon. She was small and slender.
There was something vaguely familiar about the woman, but for the life of him, Joel couldn't recall ever having met her.
"Welcome to Fermata," the woman said. "I'm Rina. Lord Finder has asked me to bring you right in to the morning room." Her voice was soft and husky.
They followed Rina through the doors on the right. She led them through several large empty rooms until they arrived in a room with windows on three sides. Chairs and settees covered with cushioning and pale yellow fabric were grouped about the room. In its center, on a small round table covered with a quilted cloth of shades of green and yellow, someone had laid out a breakfast worthy of a king. Ham and sausages, fish and fowl, bread and muffins, strawberries and raspberries, milk and cream, butter and cheese, tea and wine, custard and pies filled the table Three places had been set with shiny white dishes, cups, and saucers decorated with tiny blue flowers, silver tableware, linen napkins and shiny blue bowls filled with water and rose petals.
Finder rose from a chair by the window and crossed the room in long strides. "Welcome, my Rebel Bard," he greeted Joel as he embraced his priest.
"It's good to be see you again," Joel said. He had been friends with Finder long before he'd known the older man was a god. He was comfortable in his god's presence and happy to be reunited with him.
Finder turned to Jas and Emilo. "Jasmine," he said with a nod. "I'm glad you've decided to come. And Mi. Haversack, welcome to my realm."
Emilo bowed low, sweeping the marble floor with his top knot. "Pleased to meet you, sir," he said, his brown eyes as wide as saucers.
Finder nodded. "Thank you, Rina. You may go about your work now," he said.
Rina bowed quickly and left.
Finder sat down at the table and said, "Please be seated and help yourselves to breakfast. I'm a little short of all kinds of staff at the moment, let alone waiters. Don't much care for the magical kind."
"Who's Rina?" Joel asked curiously as he took the seat to Finder's right and stabbed a slice of ham and a slab of bread. Jas and Emilo followed suit.
"She's a petitioner," Finder replied.
"A what?" Emilo asked.
"A petitioner. Someone who worshiped me in her life, so she ended up here after she died."
"You mean she's a ghost?" Emilo squeaked.
Finder shook his head. "No. Ghosts are people who, for one reason or another, never come to the Outer Planes when they die. They remain undead. Rina is one of the only two petitioners who have come to Fermata so far. She was a potter in Tilverton, working on uncovering the secrets of how the Kara-Tur make porcelain. Her skill went beyond mere craft, however. She created works of art from porcelain, encouraged by a speech Joel gave to some artists in a tavern once."
"She looks familiar, but I don't remember her," the bard said.
"She was a shy thing. Sat in the back, listening quietly but intently."
"How did she die?" Jas asked.
"She worked late at her master's shop every night to do her designs," Finder explained. "An enemy of her master's, intent on his murder, poured smoke powder into a chunk of coal that fired the shop's kiln. Rina was the only one in the shop when it exploded."