Welcoming Committee [20 Hispis 4385]
Having sent a useful and polite letter to the government and aristocracy of
Eigrach, it would be impolite to simply wander around Eigrach on our own. So
we waited from morning until late afternoon. Probably greeting foreigners was
not anyone's most important job, in Eigrach. It certainly wouldn't be in
Vheshrame. We dressed in our finest and most formal clothes, and waited.
The sun was more than halfway out [accurately placing the time at somewhere
between nine minutes and nine hours after noon; Sythyry is being intentionally
vague here. -bb] when a smallish and haphazardish procession passed by the
wicker bordello, out the gate in Eigrach's unimpressive wall. When our
Extremely Assistantful Lookout (Quendry) noticed them and sounded the alarm,
we descended a staircase and formed our own medium-sized-ish and haphazardish
procession to meet them.
The Herald Harulse
was a tall Herethroy woman, brilliant green of shell, with
spark-twinkles tied to her antennae and a sort of caftan of alternating
stripes of purple and shell-matching green. She carried a staff covered with
bells in two hands, and a large bullhorn in the other two.
The Mayor Mmixamk was a pure-black Cani man wearing formal purple robes
and black ribbons that would not have been out of place on a minor official --
a baliff, say, or a minister's secretary -- of the Duke of Vheshrame's court
when I was young. If he came there today, he'd look like a clown. Still, he
wore the ceremonial diamond-and-copper tiara of mayoriality.
The Sorceress Aiziju was a brick-and-white Rassimel woman with tight
stripes on her fur. She was the only one who had not dressed formally for the
event; she was wearing a stained ex-white tunic and a pair of quite revealing
shorts. She is 378 years old last 17 Oix, and looks at least twice that.
She is the only person on Srineia that I have met before.
The Others were a half-dozen assorted notables of assorted species
whose names and ranks I would have to ask Kantele to tell me.
Harulse:"Bow, bow, bow and become mitescent, ye foreigners and
dwellers in pessundated lands! Now approaching you in all dignity and
honor is the grand and unequalled Mayor of Eigrach!" She was using
her ceremonial bullhorn; it was not needed from ten feet off.
We bowed, because that's good manners. Aiziju winked.
Harulse:"Now, by the amorevulous command of the great Mayor
Mmixamk, you-huh-dono are permitted to rise, to stand up straight and
erect for the first time upon the noble soil of Eigrach Mene!"
So we did that too.
Mmixamk:"Ah, yes, quite a pleasure, quite, welcome to Eigrach and
all that, it's definitely, promoting tourism, distinguished, very much so,
highly, Ketheria, extraordinary. Lenkasia, was it?"
Kantele:"We are pleased to present the Ambassador from Vheshrame,
and the credentials thereof, to the most lordly and supreme Mayor of
Eigrach!" She held the parchment out to the Mayor.
Mmixamk:"Oh, Vheshrame, Vheshrame, that's the place, wonderful,
so happy, not very many, but plenty, don't you know?"
Harulse:"The great Mayor of Eigrach deigns to accept the embassy
of the noble city of Vheshrame to the noble city of Eigrach!"
All of the attendants cheered, so we all cheered too.
The formalities continued similarly for two very long minutes.
Mmixamk:"Welcome, happiness, prosperity, all of that stuff, lots
of things, it's about time, don't you know?"
Harulse:"The Ceremony of Bewelcoming is Concluded. Our Visitors
from Afar are officially permitted to place one foot and then another upon
the soil of Mother Eigrach, and, from doing so, to perambulate this way
and that all through our noble country! By which it is to be understood
that visitors from Vheshrame are forever to be welcome in the noble
country of Eigrach!"
Kantele:"Wonderful! Would you-nob care to partake of a modest
repast of traditional Vheshrame delicacies?"
Mmixamk:"Oh, quite important, any time now!"
Harulse:"The noble Mayor of Eigrach respectfully declines your
invitation, but wishes to invite you to a modest repast three days hence
at the Mayoral Palace."
Me:"We are delighted to accept."
And, so saying, the Mayor and two of the attendants wandered back to the city,
and the rest stayed and chatted as several liveried wrongfolk set up folding
tables and chairs on the lawn. They brought forth some of our traditional
delicacies: poptaloops, skewered chub beetles with chili cream, skewered mice
in the style of Mrasteia (which have over the last century become a staple
served at every restaurant in Vheshrame), and this and that and the other.
Nobles and wrongfolk partook, and chatted, and it was reasonably friendly.
Aiziju:"Ah, Sythyry. I-hero am glad you've come. And I do hope
you're here in a professional as well as a personal capacity."
Me:"Well ... which profession do you need particularly?" | 
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