[Suzerain of Sheol]

It was an encouraging sight to see her soldiers mingling among the staff of the keep on her way back, already looking like they belonged. Hopefully they would keep the drunken recreation to a minimum, now that they'd gotten it out of their system, but Astra had the suspicion that more than one of her officers would be exercising their pregnancy leave in half a year or so, given the plethora of young men they'd be working with. That was preferable to them dying bloody deaths on the battlefield in the next six months, of course, but still a logistical concern she'd as soon do without. Maybe they'd surprise her and exercise restraint.

She'd completely given up on doing anything about her hair in the near future, resigning herself to tying it back in a low bun of begrudging surrender, vowing to give it the care it'd require the first spare moment she found. She certainly wasn't looking her best for this dinner, but, well, Lord Yorant hadn't hired her to be his courtesan. Affecting a certain gruff indifference might make her seem more serious about her position, as much as it galled her sense of propriety.

The fact that she hadn't bumped into Dafie on her way into the keep was at once both concerning and in no way unusual. She paid the girl to be hard to locate, after all, but that unfortunately came along with an inclination towards the nefarious that made leaving her to her own devices a perpetual poor choice.

Speaking of concerns, the lack of security within the keep struck her as just one area where Lord Nosya's seeming comfort in his own seat of power left him quite vulnerable. Not one guard or castellan stopped to question her as she proceeded inside, and that definitely wouldn't do going forward. She made a mental note to put Krystelle in charge of training up an honor guard to defend the keep; she had experience as a lieutenant of the Palace Knights in her homeland of far-off Eksanavarre and could likely put together a respectable unit within a month's time.

Given her apparent freedom to wander the grounds as she saw fit, Astra didn't bother asking anyone she passed for directions to the dining hall, taking her time to learn the layout of the keep before finding herself at her destination, a warm glow coming from within the wide doors.

Entering with a pleasant smile, she realized she should probably have made it a point to arrive earlier, given that seemingly everyone else was already sat down to eat. She noted Dafie, seated one spot down from Lord Nosya, next to what must have been Astra's reserved place, and on the other side, Karamas and a woman whose diaphanous garment and myriad of jewels seemed to mark her as a fellow spellcaster. Either that, or she was horribly overdressed compared to everyone else.

Pausing only briefly to greet the lord with a bow, Astra made her way to his side, giving a sidelong look to Dafie as she sat down to join them.