Isadora found her by the window at the tenth hour.
She appeared at her side with the same quiet efficiency she applied to everything — not intruding, simply being present, the way someone moved through their own house when they knew every room and had somewhere specific to be.
"Lady Elowen," she said. Her voice was direct without being impolite. The voice of someone who had stopped performing indirectness as a default some time ago. "I'm glad you came."
Zolani looked at her.
Seventeen. Two years running a household. Clever eyes that had been watching her all evening.
"Thank you for the invitation," she genuinely replied. "Happy birthday."
Isadora acknowledged this with a slight smile.. real, she noted. Not the Sera kind. Not the Countess kind.
"I wanted to meet you," Isadora said. "Since the.. since the news of your recovery. I wanted to see if you were.. I wanted to see for myself."
"And?"
A pause. The pause of someone honest enough to say what they found rather than what was polite.
"You're not what the stories suggest," she said. "The stories suggest something frightening."
"And?"
"And you're of course frightening," Isadora's lips lifted up in mirth. "But for different reasons than the stories say."
Zolani looked at this girl, at the careful clever eyes and the direct voice and the exprienced gaze of someone who knew how to wield power for the two years she had her house running and the seventeen years of observing things she found useful.
"What reasons?" she asked taking a sip of the wine still in her hand.
Isadora looked at her properly for the first time. Full eye contact. The specific directness of someone who had decided the conversation had reached the point where performing social distance was wasteful.
"Because you walk into my home," she said, "and the noble society likewise myself don't know what to do with you. And you know they don't. Yet you're enjoying this and making notes." A pause. Zolani's eyes subtly widened at the crude accusation.
"And whatever you're going to do with those notes, I don't think anyone in this room has accounted for it yet."
Silence.
Outside the window the grounds were dark and the torches had burned lower.
"You're also," Isadora added, with something in her voice that was almost dry, "the first person at this party who asked me a direct question. Everyone else has been talking to my father."
"You run the house," Her father was just a faux.
"Yes." Isadora stared at her a tad bit longer "Your gaze are rather sharp."
"Then you're more useful to talk to than your father."
Something shifted in Isadora's expression. Small. The specific shift of someone who was deciding something.
"Come and sit," she said. "I'll have someone bring tea. There is an expensive brand my father got from the neighboring country. It is rather rare." A pause. "Unless you prefer.. that strange thing they told me about — the grounded bean addition."
Zolani looked at her.
"Who told you about that?"
"You may be surprised on how fast rumors spread by the commoners."
The maids? Zolani wondered. Unless they were Isadora's spies?
" Yes, your thoughts exactly. Your maids may have been buying larger quantities than usual in the market and may have spread information on how it keeps them awake when they worked. An exaggerated elixir of some sort, I tried it out likewise few nobility who were filled with curiosity. And I must say it is extremely unusual but genuinely excellent, which I found both plausible and intriguing."
Zolani was dumbstruck on how something she personally made became such a sensation. She only deeply regretted that she couldn't monetize it. The Count would disapprove she didn't want unnecessary attention either.
"Yes," Zolani heaved a sigh. "I'd like that."
"I was also hoping to form a business arrangement with you.."
Is it what I think it is? Zolani paused, suddenly on high alert.
"The special tea you made will cost a fortune. An exaggerated elixir that can cause you to not sleep especially when you are tired or worn out. The nobility and commoners will fall prey to such scheme. Are you perhaps interested. Lady Draveth?"
Isadora suddenly looked like a pile of gold under Zolani's vision.
"Let's find a room where we can discuss business... I have a feeling we would be best of allies Lady Alrvane."
"Hmm.. that's surprising, so do I"
Isadora giggled.