Matriarch
Jaina Kadnessi moved with careful intention along the periphery of the open-air ballroom, her presence unmistakable despite her deliberate retreat from its center.
She wore the colors of her House deep indigo silk threaded with silver at the collar and cuffs, fitted with the precision of old money and quiet pride. A sash of palest ivory wrapped her waist, pinned at the hip with a eight-pointed star brooch the sigil of Kadnessi rendered in miniature. Her hair, blonde and lustrous, was pulled into a long braid that swept low against her back, bound in fine cord and secured in place with two thin silver clasps.
To most, she was precisely what they expected: a young noblewoman bearing the weight of heritage, freshly confirmed as Head of House, and still learning how best to wear the title. And yet there was a calm in her bearing, a subtle undercurrent of discipline that kept her steps deliberate, her posture composed. Not aloof never that but distant enough to observe, to breathe, to endure.
She took a glass of something sparkling from a passing server and let her gaze travel over the crowd. There were more people than she preferred, though nothing near a state function. Senators, industrialists, junior dignitaries from a dozen Core systems all weaving in and out of quiet power plays. If this wasn't quite politics, it was the pageantry that preceded it.
Jaina paused near a marble column that overlooked the garden not the best vantage, but one that gave her space. She sipped lightly, feeling the cool bite of the drink slide across her tongue, but let none of it show on her face.
She didn't come here for business, not tonight. But business had a way of finding you on Kuat, especially if your name meant something again.
Her presence had been noted, no doubt. There were already glances polite, measured, speculative from those who remembered her House only in whispers or footnotes. But no one approached, not yet.
That suited her just fine.
Let the evening unfold on its own. There was always someone watching. And always something worth seeing.
TAG:
Kaela Verrin