Rhedara had not expected to get an invitation for tea and lunch with Lady Delaney. She remembered that the noble had helped her out of a sticky situation at the ball, but hadn’t heard from her since. Truth be told, she hadn’t expected the noble to follow up with her. Most nobles in her experience were fickle that way. There was no way Rhedara would refuse the invitation…Rhedara had the day off, and Lady Delaney had helped her out after all. It would be rude to refuse…and she’d never been invited to tea before. The closest she’d had was her boss offering her a glass of whiskey which she still thought tasted vile. She remembered her mother talking about having tea with her friends in her former life and wondered if this tea and luncheon would compare at all.

Better yet, what was she supposed to wear? She supposed there was wiggle room with her being a commoner. What she’d worn to the ball and to Othello’s party would be too fancy. She ended up going with her best day-to-day dress and pulled her hair back in a loose plait. Satisfied that she was as presentable as she was going to be, she set off to where Lady Delaney lived.

When she got there, regardless of whoever let her inside, she would give her best curtsy—still a little clumsy, but Rhedara thought she might have been improving a little—to the noble.

“Thank you for inviting me, Lady Delaney.”

Mr Drakos answered the door a 6-foot man in his early 40s answered the door and give a soft smile to the woman in front of him. "Welcome Miss Shannon." He gave a welcoming smile. "Lady Delaney is just in the lounge." He explained as he showed her to the lounge where they would find Valeria.

When She saw Rhedara enter a wide smile on her face. "I am so happy you have arrived. Plus there no need to be formal with me in the house, it just Valeria or Val." It was an honest reaction for Val, "please sit." She guested to the spot next to her. She waited as Rhedara sit down as Mr Drakos started pouring the tea out for the ladies.

Rhedara could not help but return Valeria’s smile. It was difficult not to smile when someone else was so obviously pleased to see you, “Alright then…Val,” it was strange calling someone that ranked above her by their given name. There was only one other person she did that with, but Raff hadn’t been her superior for a while since she got booted from the military.

When Valeria gestured for her to sit next to her, Rhedara did so as she tried to remember the lessons her mother had tried to give her years ago. A lot of the lessons had stuck more or less—her grammar was good for a commoner, though not nearly as refined as her mother’s had been, and she knew basic table manners. Others did not stick so well if only because Rhedara had never had an opportunity to practice, and she was grateful for this opportunity to do so. It may come in handy for her job at some point.

She would wait for Valeria to reach for her tea things first and would take her lead on what to do, “How have you been since the ball?” She looked at the woman’s pregnant belly, “It was…very chaotic, wasn’t it?”

Seeing Rhedara smile made her smile. She knows that sometimes she have to be firm, however a niceness and a gentle touch is never hard to go by. As yes she was born into nobility but sadly not everybody could afford the things she was blessed to have growing up.

"Mostly been resting. It was chaotic to say the least. thankful only came out with a few bruising but Medics orders are to rest." She explained. "How have you been? You didn't get hurt?" There a slight worry in her voice. She doesn't know if it was the hormones in her but she have taken a liking to the young girl, she want to make sure she is well. However, it was more a motherly/older sister vibe going on.

Rhedara nodded. Having a woman who was as heavy with child as Valeria was to rest seemed wise, bruising or not.

“I’ve been well, all things considered,” Rhedara noted the worry in the woman’s voice. It was one part touching, and one part baffling. They’d met the one time and Rhedara wondered what she had done to earn Val’s sympathy, “I wasn’t hurt at all. My um,” she hesitated as she tried to think of a word to call the man she was courting, “Suitor,” that was a good word, “got me out while the soldier was still changing into the wolf.”

Valeria smiled only widen when she mentioned suitor. "Oh, suitor? call me intrigued." The staff put the cups in front of the ladies as another made brought in little sandwiches, cakes and cookies that the cook made. "You should try the cookies Miss Mirza's cookies I swear to the goddesses that they are the best cookies in the whole of Skia." She smiled as she picked up a cookie.

"So whose this suitor of yours, how did he meet? Does he treat your right?"

Rhedara tried a cookie at Val’s suggestion, “Oh these are really good!” She said after she’d swallowed her bite. Nobles could really afford great cooks!

At Val’s question regarding her suitor, Rhedara tried not to giggle as she thought of how she and Raff had met: At a tavern, shamelessly flirting, drinking, and the night being concluded by him taking her maidenhood in an alleyway. There was no way she was going to tell the noble that though, “Oh you know,” she said and took another bite of cookie to buy herself some time to figure out a vague answer, “We met at a tavern and just sort of hit it off right away. He’s Lieutenant @raff.”

When Rhedara said the name of the suitor she remembered him being at the ball with her, were they courting back then if they were that would of looked bad for the Lieutenant, as him courting a private is looked down on. However, she kept her thoughts to herself. It was something to keep in mind though. "I am happy for you Rhedara. He seems to make you happy and that's the mind thing."

"May I ask what happened? I heard you no longer enlisted in the military?"

“He does,” she said without shame. She was mid bite when she realized that she should clarify, “I should say, we didn’t start courting until after my discharge. There was nothing untoward happening,” a slight lie since they’d been very untoward with each other the night before the ball, but neither had really mentioned their ranks until after the fact.

To Val’s question about why she’d been booted, she bit her lip as she thought of how to answer. The captain commander was her father if she was remembering correctly, and children could be protective of their parents, “Lieutenant Abbott accused me of cursing him a second time. As far as I know, there was no investigation, but the captain commander thought that my first curse was enough to make me not belong there anymore considering what happened at the ball,” she peeked up at Val from her cup, trying to read her reaction, “But Captain Woodwick said he’d recommend me in the future if I wanted to reenlist later on—given that I’ve improved my control over my temper.”

Val's eyes looked at Rhedara as she take a sip of her tea. Giving her a reassuring smile. "Just follow your heart and use your mind, you a powerful witch."

She listened to Rhedara talk about what happened and when she explained that Woodwick would recommend her if she want to rejoin the military.It going to be sticky if she was still courting the Lieutenant that is for sure. "My dad is under a lot of stress from the ball. that is for sure..." She takes a deep breath. "Did you curse Lieutenant Abbot both times?"

Val calling her a powerful witch had Rhedara beaming. The woman hadn’t seen her use magic, but a compliment was a compliment, “Of course,” she said, “Can’t go into relationships blindly, right?”

She was sure that the captain commander was under a lot of stress. How could he not be with everything that had happened? Didn’t mean she was happy with him for kicking him out, even if it meant she could be with Raff. She didn’t have anything to say to that, so she just nodded her head and sipped her tea.

“I cursed him once,” she said, “The time I made him cluck like a chicken. I have no recollection of cursing him twice,” she’d wanted to though. She remembered wanting to curse him so badly she could taste the magic in her mouth, “But I was told that the first instance should have been enough to kick me out.”

Valeria sits for a moment as she thought about how to respond. Witches have so much power, they were born with the power to kill somebody, yes it is a blessing to have these and they can be helpful. "I am not going to lie and say and say that it was harsh kicking you out after the first curse, because I feel you are a strong woman who doesn't like beaten around the bush. However, I feel like you are an amazing girl a bit like me when I was your age." She explained.

It was very rare for Valeria to be frank with people but sometimes needed to be done. "Being a witch we can set fire to a building, we can summon beasts that possibly at least ten soldiers tall at least. We can curse people to die a slow and painful death. All this comes from inside of us that yeah it fun to cast like I would be lying if i said i didn't want to curse someone because they made me clean my room. However, on the battlefield where it would matter, we can't always curse someone based on our feeling. Like at the ball for example, a soldier lost his life because a witch who we all trusted didn't think straight and turned someone against his will to his wolf form."

Even though she was being firm with her her voice was still calm and she wants the best for the young lady in front of her. "If Captain Woodwick says that he would recommend you he most see something in you and I do to. However, the question you should ask is once in battle will you be able to cast something based on the situation or because Raff is on the floor dying?"

Val didn’t tell Rhedara anything she didn’t already know. Goddess, Woodwick had given her a very similar lecture the day she’d been discharged. Control was everything, especially when you could summon hell beasts or make people experience unspeakable pain with just a few words. She knew that. As it turned out though, loosing your temper once in public was enough to mark someone as unreliable and ruled by their emotions. Her mother had always said that her temper would ruin her if she didn’t constantly keep it under her hat. Rhedara saw now that she was right—at least as far as the military was concerned. Someone else had seen her potential, after all, and he paid very well.

“I know,” she said, being careful to not sound petulant. The advice was not needed in her opinion, but she saw that it was kindly meant. At least she wasn’t condemning her, “I don’t go around cursing everyone who upsets me,” she shook her head, “I lost my temper. I know I could have handled it better. I just wish that if they were going to kick me out anyways that it was done closer to the incident, instead of punishing me with extra work only to tell me that I’m out after doing all that work without complaint.”

She chewed on her answer to Val’s scenario about her paramour laying on the floor dying, “If he’s laying on the floor dying, then that probably means whatever the situation calls for is related to what hurt him. Off the top of my head, I would say curse whatever caused the harm and stop the bleeding,” it was a simple solution, even though a curse to incapacitate the harm may not last long enough to help, “But if I’m not able to stop the bleeding—either because the cause of the harm won’t allow for it or because he’s too far gone,” she swallowed, remembering another person she cared for laying in a puddle of her own blood. She hadn’t been able to help that time, “I would try and stop whatever it was that hurt him so it didn’t do more harm.”