The food has all been prepared, the flowers arranged just so, and Princess Sabella Grayson is standing in her gryphon green best by the door, beaming at those that are arriving, "Welcome! I hope everyone has been enjoying the brief stay of the snow! It looks like a crystal wonderland out there doesn't it? It's beautiful so long as one does not need to go very far, don't you think?"

Lark sweeps into the dining room in her gray silk with green gryphon embroidery, a reserved smile on her lips. "It is quite beautiful outside. And in here as well, the food looks delicious," she says to Sabella as she goes to take her seat, perching comfortably.

Ian doesn't seem especially thrilled with the winter wonderland outside -- not that he ever seems thrilled with much of anything, but especially this. A little bit of water on his pants suggests he might have lost his balance in the icy conditions at least once between the carriage and the indoors. "Princess Sabella." He greets Sabella in a neutral tone.

Count Orrin Seliki may be the world's most obnoxious proud father, strutting around three inches taller than usual, expression effervescent. That's probably why he's actually in attendance tonight. No doubt Scythia, in a bid to get him to CHILL OUT A LITTLE, evicted him from Seliki manor in order that either she or young Sereia could get some actual sleep. STOP MAKING GOOFY FACES SHE IS TIRED ORRIN. So he's here. He comes to sit. "It is beautiful out, isn't it," he agrees, as he settles.

Peri has spent much of the day at the Hart encouraging everyone to celebrate the birth of her little sister. She enters the dining room and pays her respects to Princess Sabella before joining her father at the table. She has a head start on the drinks part of the menu.

Zoey enters the dining room with Ian and waits for him to find a seat before going to greet Princess Sabella. "It's especially beautiful from the warmer side of the window," she grins. When she passes Orrin she says, "Congratulations to you and your wife! Is the little one happy and healthy?"

Tikva arrives, in russet and white, her instrument case lashed to her back, with a bright, sunny air that suggests a remarkable durability of mood, at least for the moment. "Good evening, everyone!" she carols amiably as she swans in, swarming the plates so that she can pile one high with a rainbow of vegetables and savory meat.

"Count Orrin, congratulations! As a mother of three girls myself I have to say that daughters are the most fun!" Sabella beams at the Seliki Count before turning to Lark, "I can't take too much credit for the food except for picking out the menu I don't actually cook any of it, but our kitchen staff is quite amazing! And yes, I particularly like seeing what sorts of frost patterns are on the windows in the morning as they make quite the perfect frame for the winter settings outside and I'm very glad you and Lord Ian could join us tonight, Lady Zoey!" She nods to both Peri and Tikva as they come in, bouncing a bit on her toes, "Please do save room for dessert we have quite a few cakes!"

Sam, who is a boy and definitely not a princess in disguise arrives, following Niklas.

"I had apple pie for breakfast, on account of today being _technically_ Tiber's birthday," Tikva shares with some regret, scooping ham and chicken onto her plate because-- why wouldn't you. "I'm going to have to start watching my weight more seriously if this keeps up."

"Quite," Orrin assures Zoey. "Though her mother observes that she might be the loudest babe in all of Arvum." He gives Sabella a smile as well, and gestures down the table at Peri, as if perhaps to say that he's two for her three. "Thank you, your highness," he says. Oh yes. Food. Has Orrin eaten something other than a nibble of a slice of... cake-pie, pie-cake, in the last two days? Perhaps not. He rises to fix a plate, returning shortly after. His eyes are precisely as big as his stomach.

"Congratulations to your and your wife, Count Orrin," Lark offers to the man from her seat at the table, reaching for a glass of wine to drag over as everyone else gets situated. "And happy /technical/ birthday to little Tiber, too. How is he doing, Tikva?" she asks with a cant of her head.

Ian fixes himself a plate and settles in silence into a seat. The constant movement of his focused eyes shows that he's listening to the conversation, even if he doesn't seem to have anything to say.

"Ainsley is taking him out on a long snow hike, presumably to wear him out," Tikva says, "and possibly terrify him about bears? This was left unclear." She folds herself neatly down in her seat before her plate, tackling her slice of ham with knife and fork. "Anyhow, he's very excited to see how many people are willing to punch each other for his party, so I'm terribly looking forward to that."

Peri's plate of roasted vegetables with ham is accompanied by tea because she has had plenty to drink today. "I've waited a long time for a little sister," She admits for probably the thirteen hundredth time.

Zoey fixes her own plate and goes to sit beside Ian. "Little sisters can be a lot of fun," she says to Peri. "But then, I have a wonderful sister, so I'm a touch biased."

Lark hides a chuckle behind a sip of wine. "I agree there. Little sisters are a blessing. I'm quite lucky for mine," she notes with a smile that's just a touch brighter for the moment, setting her cup aside so she can work on her food. She flashes Tikva a little grin at the answer about Tiber. "I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun at his party. It sounds like it's going to be quite the celebration. I hope to make it if I'm free."

"Thank you, your highness," Orrin tells Lark, belatedly, after becoming briefly preoccupied with something green and crunchy, falls in love with a bit of ham. "I'll be certain to convey all your well-wishes back to her - she sends regrets, of course." And then: "Delicious," he amends, meaning the food, not the child. (Nor the wife.) He glances sidelong at Ian, quiet, then scans around the table, curious.

"I hope to see you there," Tikva returns with a quick smile for Lark, lifting her glass in her direction -- surely she got a glass at some point -- so that she can take a swallow. "I hope you haven't been too swamped with work since your return!"

Ian nods to Orrin when the count looks his way, but otherwise eats in silence.

Sabella finally stops greeting people, finding herself a plate and a seat, "For those of you that come to these often you know the game we're about to play, but for those of you that don't, we go around the room and share something that we've been up to or some plan we have in the works," She says with a bright smile, "For instance, I'll start and say that I'm currently planning a basket raffle to benefit the Tragedy orphanage in the Lowers! I've already gotten several people to send me baskets and will be setting a date for the event shortly, so there's still time to donate one if you have a mind to!" There's a not so subtle 'hint hint' there. "And now the person that has just shared picks the next person to go and I choose..." she looks around, then points at Peri, "Lady Peri!"

"Oooh, baskets!" Tikva says, gesturing animatedly with a piece of broccoli on the end of her fork. "Sabella, do you think I should offer a private performance in a basket? Or like, lessons?"

"Oh, no, hardly at all. In fact, I was just telling Liara the other day that I needed a few tasks to keep me occupied," Lark says over to Tikva with a small note of a grin. "So I'll do my best to make it, and bring a little present for Tiber too." There's a nod and a smile over to Orrin before her attention slides on over to Sabella, lips pursing thoughtfully at the talk of a basket raffle.

"You can definitely offer something like that!" Sabella beams to Tikva, "Mistress Josephine has very kindly given me a voucher for her services to include in a basket, so there's precedent for it."

Niklas enters with somewhat less fanfare than usual, coming in with a small toddler 'walking' on his feet. A pair of nannies and his timid assistant walk in behind him. At direction from Niklas said assistant goes to get himself a pile of food, while the nannies, well, one watches, disapproving, the other glares, super, super mean. Mean nanny! "Sabella, I have a princess who wouldn't go to bed until she got to say goodnight to her mommy!" Mean Nanny is having NONE of this, but Princess Relara is having even less of Mean Nanny while Daddy's around, so she stumbles off of Niklas's feet and waddles over to Sabella. "MUMBREE!" When she sees Tikva she gives the Inquisitor a piercing glare and says imperiously, "Where Asha?!"

Peri is about to take a bite of succulent ham when she is called on. She sets it down. "Well obviously I have a new sister." She beams at her father. "Which is the best news. Let's see. hmmm..." She pickes something to tell from her many activities. "The portraiture session with the Cardian Tribune and her retinue went without any violence, and after a little exchange of letters Emissary Zulana agreed that sitting for a portrait is not at all a reaching out to the Empire but simply a devotion to Vellichor." She beams, "And I am happy to hear that Lady Ashford is back in town! I sent her an invitation right away." She breaths out a tiny sigh. "It might become more of an event than I planned. I decided it was safest to hold at Whisper House given the Emissaries initial misunderstanding, and that is rather more grand than I intended," she says ruefully. "It will take a whole new continent for me to plan another of these." She looks around the room and Niklas's grand entrance draws her attention. She gestures to him with her loaded fork. "How about you, Prince Niklas?"

Orrin eats thoughtfully, listening to his daughter answer what she's been up to; her doesn't have a lot to say about it here, though perhaps that's because he's deeply distracted by the toddler. It isn't any great mystery what he's about; he clearly loves kids. His own, those of friends, maybe literally any child.

"Oh dear," Tikva says, laying down her fork. "I'm pretty sure he's with his nanny!" she says to Relara, scooting back in her chair so that she can lean forward on her knees and address the small child. "But I'll tell him you were looking!"

"Say please," Sabella coaches her daughter, although her voice is all gooey, her smile overly fond, which draws a big eyeroll from Mean Nanny, "There's no need to be impolite my precious darling! Come here so I can give you a big hug and twenty million kisses before bed!"

Peri narrows her eyes at mean Nanny.

Impervious to (or, more likely, unaware of) the drama of Relara And The Mean Nanny, Ian eats his food with table manners best described as 'mechanical'.

Lark utters a soft laugh at Relara's entrance, wiggling her fingers at the girl in greeting. But then her focus goes to Peri, a brow hiking upwards. "You're painting their portraits for the Archives?" she inquires, sounding mildly impressed. "That is a very good idea." Then, her attention swings on over to Niklas.

"Actually I want seventeen-two kisses," says Relara to Sabella, like she's working out a pretty good deal here. Tikva just gets a withering look, like why are you here if the most interesting thing you have to offer is off in another room?! Niklas walks Relara over to Sabella so she can get her seventeen-two kisses and looks to Peri. "Is that chicken /and/ ham? Gods, I need to trade this kid in for a plate!" He considers the challenge for a moment, then says, "I've entered stage two of a very questionable idea I've had with what I've decided is clearly the full support of the Faith, so that's good! And I've once again narrowed down my next play to three ideas, but also I've had several ridiculous notions about where to go with that, so I keep getting distracted. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but I do know that seared mammoth steaks are pretty good." Relara glares up at him as he does something other than pay attention to her. "Relara, you can play with Asharion to-" She gets indignant in a heartbeat. "DARION!" Which just causes Niklas to make a face. "Darion is twice as old as you are, kiddo. Also, he's got important duke-ing to do."

Niklas points at Lark, "Also, Princess Lark! Your turn!"

Ian is given a message which is, for whatever reason, enough to make him frown, say his goodbyes, and head out.

"I've been exchanging letters with Emissary Zulara. She has...interesting ideas about things," Sabella says with her usual pause to find a nice way to say something about a perhaps not-nice situation. "But that's an incredibly interesting project to be working on, Lady Peri!" When Relara is close enough to scoops her up to pepper her face with kisses and give her the biggest hug before handing her back to Niklas, "I'll look in on you when we're done here, my darling, and save you a cupcake for a treat tomorrow!"

Zoey sighs as she watches her husband go, then goes back to listening.

Peri cuts her ham the same way she would cut a mean person if they came near her sister. Lark's question is answered with a slight nod, "I can sketch and apply some color, but I want there to be /excellent/ art in the archives, which is why I've invited others." Peri answers Sabella, "Holy shi...ny lighting through the window yu have here... She does."

"I'm curious of these play ideas, Niklas, especially if you've narrowed them down to three," Lark says to the man, taking a quick sip of her wine before she offers up: "I'm afraid I'm not doing anything terribly exciting at the moment. I have a few social calls to make. You're on the list, Niklas," she taps her nose and points to him after with a grin. "Other than that, I've a bit of research to undertake. Oh, and Alarissa and I spoke of holding an auction in the near future. I think we discussed auctioning off the chance to cleave a cake with Victus' axe," there's a flash of a grin before her expression grows a touch more reserved as she looks about the room. "Hmm. Count Orrin, you're up next."

Once Sabella takes the burden of carrying the child off of him, Niklas turns to wave excitedly at the departing Ian, but his cousin is gone so he turns instead to wave at Zoey. "Zoey!" And, "Tikva!" Then he walks around the table to drop into his ridiculously ostentatious throne, where he sits up to grab a plate and starts piling it with everything on offer. "I'm here all the time, Princess Lark, and I am too lazy to make my own schedule, so just let me know." Peri gets a nod, "Lady Peri." And Orrin gets a somewhat cool, "Count." before he turns his attention back to his food.

Perhaps anticipating that he might be asked to speak and not wanting to expire from hunger, Orrin had set to his food for the most part, listening to Peri, Sabella, and Niklas, primarily, attention ping-ponging about. He takes a moment to wipe his mouth before he answers. "Well, work is largely paused - though the waters near Pearlspire are quite warm compared to here, it's yet too cold to be about much shipwrightery - but we're at building a caravel. Along with a number of other ships to continue our anti-piracy efforts. There's been a good deal of coordination with other houses on that - a bit with Kennex. The better part with Crovane. We'd like to see those waters safe and hospitable for trade and travel - that's the priority. We're also seeing to a bit of aid for Islander houses transitioning away from thralldom, to the extent we can. Again, everything's slowed since the first freeze." Niklas gets a dip of his head at the greeting, a pleasant smile; if he's cool about it, it isn't apparent. It might be a good mood prevailing today.

"Niklas!" Tikva answers him amiably, waving her chicken at him across the table, and then taking a large bite of it.

"Psst, you need to pick the next person to share, Count Orrin. And it sounds like pirates are going to be fewer and further between considering all the works going in to wipe them out, which is always a good thing." Sabella beams, waving Mean Nanny over to take Relara and when she utterly ignores that summons, Elizabetta comes to take her.

Zoey manages to keep her giggles on the inside at the mention of using Victus' axe to cleave a cake, and smiles brightly when she waves to Niklas. "It's hard to accomplish much of anything out of doors once winter sets in," she says in reply to Orrin before returning to her food.

"Oh yes - beg your pardon," Orrin says, "distracted by the delightful child." He smiles brightly. "Er, Lady Zoey? What have you been about during the cold?"

Speaking up. That had to have been the mistake. Oh well, it would have happened eventually. "Reading and studying, mostly," Zoey confesses with a shrug. "For the most part I have energy for little else. though, I have designed some dresses for other ladies, and even tried my hand at designing an arm for Princess Alarissa's competition." She thinks a moment. "No, I think that's about it. Tikva? Did you go yet?"

"No, although I think I have already told everybody all my business," Tikva says lightly, with a laugh on her breath. "I'm hosting a wrestling event next week in honor of my son Tiber. Other than that, I'm mostly ... I've been working on dreadful musical compositions and, I suppose, sticking my nose into this historical tidbit or that but..." She spreads her hands wide over the dwindling contents of her plate, and then leans forward, cupping her cheeks in her hands. "Has anyone else not had a turn?"

"I actually think that's everyone for this little gathering," Sabella says brightly, finishing up her actual dinner and gesturing for some cakes to be brought over. Whole cakes. "I'm really looking forward to Tiber's birthday, Tikva. The children are extremely excited for it, although I had to tell Relara she's not allowed to challenge everyone she sees. Poor Clark just doesn't know what to do with himself when she starts flinging herself at his knees."

Niklas waves to his retreating child, then sits back to do the hard work of filling his whole face with food. "Oh, I forgot that I'm writing an opera for a thing Lord Rysen is doing at Stormwall. Which I suppose means I'll be going to Stormwall. Just as the snow lets up here, off to the North. Of course, I've been there once before." He spears a big chunk roasted, buttered turnip. "Saved poor Sir Jeffeth's life with my keen eye and quick wit. And now look at him, Grandmaster of the Knights of Solace. I always knew he had it in him."

Orrin glances down the table at Niklas. "What's Lord Rysen up to that you're penning an opera?" he asks, and finishes off the greenery on his plate. He seems curious.

2 Grayson House Guards leaves, following Lark.

Zoey scribbles a note and hands it to a servant. "I must admit to being curious as well," she says.

"I was debating going with you both for that, I'm still undecided," Sabella tells Niklas, deferring to him to answer Orrin's inquiry. "On the one hand I would love to be involved in such a thing, but on the other I am quite looking forward to spring and don't really want to be away from the babies for that long. And I definitely do not want to bring them that far yet."

Niklas shakes his head, now more into his food than into Le Theatre, "He asked me to help him with a thing. I don't usually write for other people, but I like Lord Rysen and it was something he was doing through the Bard's College, so I figured I'd knock something out."

Confessor Imori have been dismissed.

Confessor Warren have been dismissed.

5 Armed Confessors have been dismissed.

William, a taciturn quartermaster arrives, delivering a message to Zoey before departing.

"Mm," Orrin says. "I'll have to ask him about it next I'm that way." He has the last scrap of ham on his plate - truly someone is hoping for spring, with the selections he made - and then once more wipes at his mouth. "Truly a delicious spread, your highness," he tells Sabella. "You must pass my compliments to your staff."

"Secret project. How exciting!" Zoey grins. A messenger arrives with a note and Zoey glances it over before slipping it into her satchel. "Well, I'm sure we'll learn more when it's closer to being ready."

Confessor Imori have been dismissed.

Confessor Warren have been dismissed.

5 Armed Confessors have been dismissed.

"I shall, aren't they just the best?" Sabella's expression brightens under Orrin's praise of the staff as she sigs into a particularly rich looking chocolate cake, "I look forward to this every month, honestly. Not just for the amazing company as I am always happy to see my family and have vassals and friends stop by, but because I get to set the menu and I always make sure to have everyone's favorites on hand."

Her plate is cleared, and Peri is ready to go. She smiles at Sabella. "Thank you for a lovely dinner, as always," She gives her farewells and bows before making her way.

Peri is overheard praising Sabella.

Tikva is overheard praising Sabella: Sabella's dinners are always a joy!

Zoey is overheard praising Sabella: Always a wonderful hostess!

Orrin listens to a murmur from Peri before giving her a curious look when she departs, but then turns his attention back to Sabella. "I think it was my wife's intention to entertain more often on much those grounds," he says. "I might send her around to you if she's in need of any pointers. Perhaps - peoples' favorites." A smile. There's a glance after the (now departed) Peri, and a gathering of brows. "I don't think I heard her properly. I'd better catch her before she's gone far. Do have a good evening, all of you - lovely dinner." And he rises, offers a good bow to prince, princesses, lady alike, then retreats after his daughter.

Diane, a bright-eyed peregrine falcon, Sini, a very fluffy Northland shepherd puppy leave, following Orrin.

Zoey takes a few bites of her cake, savoring every moment of it, and watches the Selikis take their leave. "It looks like the party is winding down," she notes. "I hope Ian thought to send the carriage back for me. As lovely as it is, that is not a walk I want to make after that amazing meal."

"We can always send you home in one of ours," Sabella replies with a smile to Zoey, "I'd never think to have you walk in this weather even if you weren't carrying another baby. And of course since he had to leave early we'll send you home with some of the meal to indulge in later."