Dafni was not really the person to dwell long on negative feeling. Usually she was quite adept at getting herself out of any moody situation and just pretend it didn't exist until she felt better. Usually. But for whatever godsdamned reason this time her mood had stuck, so she did the only thing that always worked: Shopping. And what's better then shopping alone? Shopping together. Of course not with some servant or anything, Dafni felt a bit adventurous. Some days ago at a festive outing she had briefly met an intriguing girl and by the powers of influence bestowed to her mother, gotten her name: Imeeya of Drakos. Appearantly she was even somehow connected to their house or Fotios or something, but Dafni did not really care about this.
Imeeya seemed like her age, had some intruiging aura around her and was pretty, but not too pretty: So in theory a perfect match. Dafni had send her an invitation to meet her at the agora today and around this time. She even mentioned a specific place. Melina had told Dafni once a story that involved to lovers that met that way, but Dafni figured that possible friends, could date like that, too. At least she hoped that she had not tumbled into another social faux pas.
Dafni had chosen a white epiblema with the emblem of her house on it. She did not want to impress or outshine Imeeya, so she has chosen to keep her hair open and hardly wore any jewellry, safe a necklace that Melina gave her once with beautiful, but not too expensive, green stones, that matched Dafni's eyes, whenever light hit them.
With a servant close by her side Dafni felt the nervousness creep in. She had been here longer than she cared to admit and eventually started pacing a bit, until the servant gently reminded her that it looked silly. "What if she does not come?" She realised she had spoken out loud to herself and sighed a bit. Looking at her servant she asked: "Maybe it was a bad idea?"
The servant - having known Dafni for way too long - mustered nothing but a shrug and so she continued to wait.
Since coming to Taengea, Imeeya hadn’t had much opportunity to have an extensive social life. Her head had been swirling ever since she had arrived in the country. They had barely gotten to the country when Vangelis and Nike had decided to go off and fight on behalf of the Taengeans. While Imeeya had had a chance to go for a horseback ride with her cousins and Selene of Leventi, the tension between her and Asia had ended up with that encounter being less than relaxing. So when she was sent an invitation to go shopping with Dafni of Leventi, Imeeya was happy to jump on the occasion to finally relax. At the very least, she was too polite to decline such an invitation.
Imeeya dressed that day to make a good impression on this potential connection. She wore a fine silk peplos in light green, with deeper green embroidery around the sleeves and hem. Wanting to impress, Imeeya wore simple gold bracelets on each wrist and a necklace of finely worked golden leaves around her neck. All of these items were made from the gold mined in her own province and worked by the goldsmiths of Dolomesa. Imeeya never liked to miss an opportunity to show off the wealth of her family. Imeeya twisted her hair back away from her face, tying it all at the nape of her neck with a green ribbon that matched the embroidery on her peplos.
More confident in her way around the city since her last outing, Imeeya made her way to the agora, picking her way through the crowds of people. As usual, Imeeya traveled without a companion, oblivious to the risk she put herself in. Luckily she quickly spotted Dafni along with her servant, who seemed to be quietly chatting amongst themselves. Imeeya quickly strode over, greeting Dafni with a perfunctory smile. “Good afternoon Lady Dafni,” Imeeya greeted the woman. ”Thank you for inviting me out to shop today. I had been looking forward to socializing here in Taengea.” Imeeya avoided bringing up any of the recent news. Surely she was already aware of it, and the grim topic didn’t make for great conversation between women, even as successful as the attack had been. Instead, Imeeya directed the conversation towards lighter topics. ”Have you seen anything of interest at the market so far?” she asked. Imeeya was curious if there would be any goods here that would be different than what she could find in Colchis.Dafni of Leventi,
At a certain point Dafni took a deep breath and just tried to calm down, until Imeeya came in sight and blew away her mind. From head to toe, from the hair to the golden embroidery, she just oozed confidence and perfection and Dafni immediately felt like a little girl way out of her league. In the back of her head Dafni had spun the tale that Imeeya was this backwater province girl in desperate need of some fashion lessons, but now it seemed the other way around and it took her some time to regain her smile and composure.
Good afternoon Lady Dafni. Thank you for inviting me out to shop today. I had been looking forward to socializing here in Taengea.
"Lady Imeeya, what a pleasure that you could make it." The tone of her voice was just a bit too polite. In a way she was tired of these formalities, almost ready to skip them entirely and just talk from the bottom of her heart, but that would not have been the way she was taught. Dafni was aching for a real connection, a real friendship. She hated waiting and she hated taking her time.
Have you seen anything of interest at the market so far?
"I was waiting for you to arrive before making my usual rounds. There are some peddlers with quite exotic taste, but I would not consider every item suitable. Sometimes they lean a bit to the tacky side." Dafni gave Imeeya a gentle smile at that judgement. Then she mustered her from head to toe, nodded slightly and complimented: "But I don't think I have to warn you or give you advice. You seem to have impeccable taste." Dafni bit her lip slightly after this, pondering if such a compliment was already too much or could be interpreted as sucking up, but she left it at that and started taking the lead, showing Imeeya the first few stalls, explaining a bit about their wares or sometimes their peddlers, where to buy and where not to.
"But there also some hidden gems. There is this one peddler. You are sooo going to like him." Obviously Dafni was taking about the looks of the snake handler she led Imeeya to. He was a tall, dark-coloured man flashing the two girls a white and wide smile. He was quite aware that they would surely not purchase a snake, but decided to charm and entertain them nevertheless. Something about him revealed quite easily that he was experienced in this sort of game.
Dafni's reaction to that was to become shy and introverted. She suddenly seemed stiff and a bit awkward for someone having gone voluntarily here and for someone having praised this man as some sort of attraction. She laughed in the wrong moment and pushed herself slightly against Imeeya.
The handler put on a little show for them, trying desperately to make eye contact with either of them. Dafni gave a little "eek"-sound, when the snake got to close to her and generally avoided looking into his eyes. Both the handler and Dafni were so engulfed in the show or the avoiding of it, that they did not realise that one of the snakes was about to escape directly into Dafni's direction...
In a strange city, Imeeya was glad to have someone to spend time with. Or at least she hoped that it would be entertaining. Imeeya could take a while to warm up to people and she still wasn’t sure whether or not she liked Dafni or not. Still, it was an interesting way to spend a day, either way. It didn’t hurt that Dafni started off her greeting with a compliment. It spoke to Imeeya’s pride in a way that she greatly appreciated.
Imeeya followed Dafni from stall to stall, inspecting the items that Dafni shared with her. She ran her hands across some expertly died fabric before moving on to some glazed clay bowls in the next stall over. The stall after that the skipped at Dafni’s insistence. Apparently, he was known to cheat his customers. Imeeya was impressed by her new friend’s knowledge of the market and its vendors. They browsed a few more stalls, one jewelry, one colorful spools of thread, one shoes before suddenly Dafni got a bit of a glint in her eye. Imeeya knew that glint; she saw it often enough in the eye of her cousin and closest friend Asia. It meant things were about to get much more interesting.
She found herself being led towards the stall of a foreign man who had a basket of snakes. Imeeya watched as the man charmed the snakes, putting on a show for them. Imeeya found herself leaning forward, fascinated by the power the man seemed to hold over the snakes. He somehow had the ability to make these dangerous wild creatures do exactly as he bid and Imeeya was curious to understand the magic of what he did. She watched the man’s subtle movements as the snakes seemed fixated on him.
While Dafni seemed scared as the snakes approached, Imeeya was not one to be intimidated. She never had the fear of creepy crawly creatures that many women seemed to, and she didn’t have much patience with those who did. But Imeeya was too engrossed in the performance to give much heed to Dafni’s squeals of fear. Then she glimpsed it, out of the corner of her eye. One of the snakes had slithered free of the group and was heading straight towards Dafni. As much as the snakes seemed harmless under the control of the snake handler, Imeeya knew they could be dangerous if they were provoked to bite.
”Dafni, watch out!” Imeeya yelled, attempting to alert her friend to the danger she was in. Imeeya grabbed her friend’s arm and pulled her away from the snake, pulling Dafni behind her.