The place was warm; the streaks of light breaking through the curtains were bright yellow, and in this spacious environment the sounds of a mellow melody, struck away from the piano keys, sounded. In a distance of more than ten paces away from the piano, where a young boy dressed in clerical attire sat — was a large oak desk, and it was filled atop by documents. 

A knight in silver armour, solemn, looked over at the one he was meant to guard, his face not covered by a helm. The last to be counted in this room — an auditorium turned personal office — was a woman of fair skin and clean, white and short hair; they barely did not reach her shoulders. She wore an array of cloaks and robes, one smaller than the previous, the white coming down below her knees and the black, as if a short cape, covered her nape and shoulders. The woman was sitting quietly, her face encrusted by a slight smile, the expressionless eyes gliding across the words on the paper, the leathery gloved hands taking up the familial stamp and a pen in determined succession without break.

The boy who was playing the piano dipped his head at times, perhaps he's been playing for a long time, such that it tired him slightly, or only served to make him drowsy. "Marriott." The woman's voice turned to a silky texture to the ears, interrupting the boy from the diligent mission of providing pleasant ambiance to the scene. His fingers froze over the keys the second she let out a sound, sliding down from the white levers as the echo dissipated in the walls of the office. 

Marriott turned his face around to look at the woman, who slowly blinked while her gaze was posted against the paper. Withdrawing her attention from the many documents, she let her left hand lift to support her chin from underneath. "Don't you think that Liebestraum is a bit gloomy for the weather?" Marriott’s eyes glanced back and forth between the woman and the wall behind her, thinking for a moment.

After a bit of a detour from the usual pace of things found in this room, the boy spoke up. "Your Excellency?" Marriott turned his entire body to face in that direction, but the woman moved her gaze back down to the documents. That made him hesitate, though eventually an answer to her question would be required, "...Indeed." He finally replied, "Then, what do you think would fit our occasion the best?" Her eyes rose and pointed to the cabinet near the window, behind the boy. 

“Oh... Mhm.” In this affirmation, Marriott stood up and went over to the window to open the cabinet: a compartment full of neatly organised, alphabetised pieces slid out, and he slowly went over each of the paper files, pulling one out with a minute idea. With the file lifted up in the boy's hand, her Excellency didn't take long to recognise the piece, "Czardas?" The woman asked, tapping her pen twice on the table, her smile staying the same without a minuscule change. That only worried Marriott. However, she lowered her eyes back to the documents soon enough, "Wonderful choice."

Marriott did not show it outright, but on the inside he sighed profusely, but the first notes quickly began to ring out through the room. It started with a brief nod to the side, then to the other — next thing the knight saw was the woman's left hand following the sound, as if she was playing along, hitting the table gently, the placement of the imaginary keys correct to the script.

The knight looked at her Excellency playing the imaginary piano, but also trying not to seem intrusive with his staring. "Josyf." Now the knight raised his attention at the sudden mention of his name, snapping that attention away from watching her hands to her face. "Yes, your Excellency?" Without lifting an eye from the paper, nor stopping the pen or her free hand, she continued: "Don't you think this song is so fitting of our current affairs?" This question made the man fall silent, as such cryptic and well... More abstract questions were not quite his expertise, but nonetheless, he had to keep her next words in mind — he thought. 

"I think it is." The woman went on without a hitch or stutter from the silence she received, Josyf nodded even though she wasn't looking at him, "The somber intro is the current state of the island..." As she derived that analogy, drawing some interest from within the man, the pace rose gradually, and the second part of the song got to a more hearty, energetic mood.  "...while the rest of the song is cheery, I'd go as far as to say that it is grand." Josyf listened, waiting a couple moments before speaking up, just to gather his thoughts. "But... Are you sure of the bright conclusion to our “intro,” your Excellency?" 

As the stack of documents thinned, the woman's hand went towards some letters arranged in a fine line near the documents. It was one of said letters that mattered most, the most schick, made from thick purple paper and interlaced with gold string, the familial crest rather familiar to her. "Bright, you say?" She sliced it open with her extravagant letter knife, taking out the contents, her head swaying to the downplay of the song. "It might not be bright, but it will certainly be entertaining, Josyf." Just a few seconds and the cheery tones of the melody came into play again.

"If your Excellency says so, then..." — "Indeed, Josyf, it must be right indeed." Her smile turned a grin for a brief moment, her hands put down the paper after folding it several times. "Burn this in the evening." The knight nodded and took the extended letter. 

The woman closed her eyes, not touching a thing on the table, leaning into the cushion of her chair. One over the other, her hands were planted on her lap. She listened to the tune in complete silence, right until it ended.

She stood up, the hard soles of her leather shoes creating an echo from clashing against the oiled parquet. The boy stopped, already preparing to hide the script into the cabinet that he took it from after sliding it back into the file. Josyf trailed behind the woman. "Marriott." Her voice rose again, "Arabesque." — Another request came for the boy, but this time she sorted through the cabinet herself, not a second passing until she pulled out the needed file with the script. Once again, the room was filled with the sounds of the piano. Both the knight and the woman observed Marriott playing from a three-step distance. 

The knight breathed slowly, but deeply, his right hand gliding over the short but thick hairs of his beard. "Does this calm your mind?" She asked, not turning to face the man, "Oh..." He only pulled at his beard, the question evoking a bit of a tour of his memories. "The first time you heard Debussy, I could tell that you enjoyed this piece in particular." 

“But, your Excellency. I find neither of those pieces somber at all.”

Without voicing his thoughts, Josyf skipped past them without paying too much mind, "How long ago was it, your Excellency?" He asked, trying to stay still and watch the boy play, "Quite some time ago, I was quite young then, wasn't I?" She added, and the knight lowered his hand from his beard, leading it behind his back. Their first meeting was trivial, one could say that it was mundane. That one was the knight himself: "I was still in training at the Kunzeg Dispanseria, if that's the time you're referring to, your Excellency." Her head slowly tilted to the side, not turning to look at the man, but her eyes did shift in his direction, "Exactly that, I remember it quite well. It was the year I was officially inaugurated as the head of this territory by the latest king." She held her voice for a brief moment, "You weren't that young, however. You aren't that much younger than me to begin with." The knight nodded, stifling an involuntary chuckle... Forbid he insults her Excellency. "But in your case, you are far more preserved in appearance than I am." The song was slowly coming to an end, and Josyf tried to spark up the atmosphere with some humour. Her Excellency didn't laugh, and her monotone reply was all the more a point to end the eccentrics, as even her monotony had an edge to it. "That's the benefit of my race."

The woman turned away before the song ended. "Marriott, practice Hungarian rhapsody No.2, Josyf, you're coming with me." The sudden change in demeanour made the young man jolt, while the knight obediently traced her footsteps out of the room and into the lavish hallway. 

Surprisingly, it was far more decorated than the main office of her Excellency itself, the carpets were soft and almost combed in appearance, the hairs sinking, turning to shallow grooves and then rising after the foot left its surface. No more clanking, just the muted thumps of two sets of feet, though the sabatons of the knight did create some subtle sounds along with the rest of his armour as he moved and the joints flexed. Each turn made the layout of the building seem more like a maze than a proper estate, which, technically, it was, since it wasn't any ordinary building, but an entire fortress converted into an estate that houses the Excellency herself, an entire knight order and all the main administrative organs. Mellanegi truly had the best defensive structures of all the cities in Ranesairan.