Blood Shaper

Book 4: Chapter 30

As more time and effort went into developing the cliff face into valuable real estate, the higher-up portions of the space became more and more expensive. The actual top of the cliff face was still bare, with the exception of bunkers built around the edge to support the walls that were going up on the mesa itself, and the “high up” regions that were being used or developed into new buildings were only slightly over halfway up the cliff, but that was still hundreds of feet in the air. The new restaurant they were attending the opening of was one of those newer constructions, and the architecture was built to show that off.

Avalon didn’t have the level of infrastructure, and the number of enchanters they’d need to start putting in magical elevators, although working to that point was a priority, so all travel up the cliff was via stairs. To get into the restaurant, you had to transfer from a public staircase into the restaurant’s private one, and there was a uniformed employee standing at a temporary booth on the landing.

“Invitations, please.”

Kay placed the card into the elven woman’s hand and took a moment to look over her attire. Formal clothing similar to Earth’s did show up here and there, the concepts and culture brought over by other Outworlders, but they weren’t the norm, and they weren’t the only fashion brought over from other worlds either. High-end waiters and staff in traditional Torotian restaurants shared the tightness of the fabric to the wearer's body to prevent the trailing fabric from getting into food or knocking over glasses, but otherwise, it looked quite different. Kay thought it resembled some fictional and over-sexualized versions of Middle Eastern clothing from movies and TV. Thin diaphanous cloth draped over her body, wrapping around her neck and trailing down her arms and body until it twirled around her ankles that he could just make out under the podium. It was very interesting to watch because the flowing and shifting cloth was very much not tight to the body and seemed like it would trail everywhere, but with each movement she made, it suddenly tightened around her, making it look like she’d suddenly changed into a latex bodysuit that wasn’t latex. After a moment, the cloth relaxed and began to drift around on its own again. It was very eye-catching.

“Wonderful.” She looked up with a smile, “Thank you for coming, Lord Kay, Lady Eleniah. Mister Davidson will be very happy to hear you could attend.”

“I’m not a lady,” Eleniah corrected her.

The staff member gave her a flat smile. “Of course, ma’am.” She elegantly gestured toward the staircase, her sleeves pulling taut against her. “Please, head upstairs, and someone will direct you to your seats.”

“I’m not a lady,” Eleniah muttered as they started up the spiraling staircase.

“Most people are probably looking at that as not a lady yet.” Kay rebutted, “After all, there aren’t many people who’ve helped me as much as you have.”

“I’ve been a lady; it wasn’t that nice. I don’t know if I want to get another noble title.”

“How’d you lose the first one?”

“My cousin took it away when I left; the person who grants a title can revoke it if they have a good reason.”

“Well, I think being one of my nobles will be a bit different than being one of your cousin's, but I won’t go against your wishes if you tell me you don’t want it.” Kay stopped on one of the landings and looked out at the view. “That is gorgeous.”

A vast majority of the staircases that allowed people to traverse up and down the mesa were completely interior, drastically reducing the chances of fatal accidents from falling. There were a few that had been allowed to circumvent that rule, but they all had to have rigorous safety measures to prevent tragic deaths. Kolm Davidson’s new restaurant had used a physical barrier formed out of the same stone as the staircase, decorated with carved openings that allowed people to see out over Avalon but were too small to get through. The designs were non-representational swirls and flowing shapes of open space that highlighted the portion of the city you could see at any step or magnified the impact of the horizon.

“Is this where you say, ‘But not as gorgeous as you’?”

Kay glanced in Eleniah’s direction. “Do you want me to? You seemed flustered when I complimented you earlier, and I didn’t want to press my luck.”

Eleniah was wearing a different if equally stunning, dress than when her date to schmooze a teacher into joining Avalon’s academy had been interrupted by Kay’s training. The deep green gown had a low neckline that stopped before any cleavage could show but left her shoulders exposed. The long sleeves had oval-shaped cutouts that exposed both sides of her forearms and biceps, showing off her impressive figure. The short train of the dress split at the front, allowing her to walk more easily, while the front of it split into two loose legs that tied around her ankle, exposing the outside of her toned calves.

“You do look amazing.”

She looked away, and Kay secretly delighted at the tiny blush on her cheeks. “I… Thank you.”

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“Shall we?” He gestured up the stairs and held his other arm out. She slowly took it, and then they finished walking to the top.

At the landing, another staff member was waiting for them, wearing the same outfit but in a different color. “Lord Kay, Madam Eleniah, if you’ll follow me?” He bowed slightly before leading them further into the restaurant, and Kay wondered idly if the tightening fabric had ever gotten caught on his tail. He held it quite still as they walked, so maybe not.

The restaurant itself was gorgeous and reminded Kay of a trip to Italy when he was younger. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all frescoes that looked incredibly similar to ancient Roman frescoes, with tiny pieces of stone arranged to make beautiful pictures. There were numerous nature scenes mixed with figures in impressive stances or facing off against monsters and villains, although, unlike the Roman mythology he’d seen, Kay recognized none of these depictions, though he assumed they were memorable or recognizable to someone born on this planet.

The waiter led them past the main dining floor where a few people had already been seated, and the few who noticed Kay and Eleniah being escorted stopped to watch them pass, then quietly began whispering among themselves. Kay recognized a few individuals whom Amanda and Isla had mentioned in the past or who he himself was keeping track of, and he nodded in greeting at the ones who were on his list for positive reasons.

The waiter led them into a private dining room off to the side of the main floor and bowed once more. “Here you are, my Lord, madam. Someone will be by momentarily to speak with you about your meal, and Mister Davidson has asked me to thank you for attending, and he will be by to thank you personally when you’ve finished eating.”

“Thank you.”

“It is my pleasure.” He swept out of the room, leaving Kay and Eleniah alone in front of an elegant table that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the fanciest of French restaurants back on Earth.

Kay stepped behind one of the chairs and pulled it out. “After you.”

Eleniah cocked her head and stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m pulling out your chair. It’s a thing you do to be polite to a lady you’re having dinner with. I know it's a thing people do here because Cindy kept gushing about how charming David was during his first date with Claudia.”

“Oh.” She smoothed out her dress and took a careful seat, watching Kay as he walked over to his own chair. “That’s not a thing back on the Isles; I must have missed it when I came over in this direction.”

“What does one do on a fancy date in the Isles?”

“On a fancy date?” She pursed her lips in thought, “It depends on the date because there are a few things that are considered fancy there that are looked at as weird here, but going to nice restaurants is fairly universal. Hmmm. Water magic displays.”

“Really?”

“Oh yes,” She nodded, “It’s an archipelago. Even on the largest of the islands, you’re at most a day’s travel from the sea, so most people pick up at least one Class for Water Magic, Water Manipulation, or something that’d let you put on a nice show with water. A really fancy date would be getting a private room like this one and putting on a display in between services or while you’re eating. That part depends on where you’re from, though; some places think it's rude to do it during the meal itself.”

“I don’t think that and pulling out someone’s chair are on the same level, but that is fascinating.” Kay glanced around. “I don’t know how good it would be, but I could do something with blood.”

Eleniah chuckled. “I appreciate it, but let's not. It’s something you’d do on a very fancy date, but it's also a common way to propose.”

“Ah. The movers and shakers are already going to be spreading rumors about us going to dinner together, so we should avoid any extra rumors.”

“For sure. Still getting pressured about getting married and popping out an heir?”

“Of course I am! You’re part of it!” He accused her, leveling a finger at her.

She held up both hands, “Hey, I stopped!”

“After I begged you to.”

“Eh, whatever.”

Kay sighed and shook his head, “I still don’t get why anyone’s all interested in me having kids. Everyone’s so insistent that leadership is power-based, not hereditary.”

“Keeping things within powerful families means that the kids get access to good training, expensive resources, and can use their powerful families' knowledge to increase their own power. That and the people to the west are all up in arms about that affinity thing.”

“Speaking of, you brought that up as a thing at the beginning of our training, and then it trickled off. What’s up with that?”

Eleniah shrugged, “I’d just come from out that direction where most people are part of that bandwagon. It’s even decently popular in the Isles. I was just using the teachings I’d been using. Then you ended up being Class Line Progenitor, and it didn’t matter as much because we had a premade plan for you at that point.”

“You knew I was a Class Line Progenitor from the beginning.”

“Knowing something and truly internalizing something is different. I had the knowledge, but I wasn’t really acting as best I could on it for a bit. The affinity thing might be real, or it might just be that some people have talent in things and some don’t. If you weren’t a Class Line Progenitor, we would have looked at what you had talent for and what you wanted to do. Talent is good, hard work is better, and both together are fantastic. Oh, here comes someone.”

A stout dwarven man with a braided beard walked over, wearing the restaurant’s uniform but with the cloth glowing slightly. “Hello, I’m Head Waiter Dussle; welcome to the Gem in the Cliff. For your meal, would you like to order yourselves or trust in our staff’s expertise?”

Kay didn’t know what that meant and glanced over at Eleniah.

“What are your qualifications?” She asked.

“I myself am a tier-four Expert Head Waiter, with a level thirty-nine Meal Service Skill as my highest. Our chef is a tier-five Wizard of the Culinary Arts, with several Skills over level forty-five, and all the rest of our staff are either the students of one f the two of us or were hand-picked by the owner.”

“Fantastic, we’ll be happy to let you do your thing.”

“Wonderful.” He bowed and backed out of the room, “I’ll be back with your drinks shortly.”

Kay stared at the door. “What?”

“High-end restaurants have waiters with Skills that let them pick out what each person would most like to eat during that meal. Cut’s down on time and really hits whatever you’re secretly craving.” She grinned widely, “They have a tier-five chef who uses magic to cook! This is going to be delicious.”