CISLUNAR DHASANT: THE CITY OF GARGOYLES

Philip's birthday party coincides with Winter's Eve and the 25-hour curfew set by Shrike. The prospect of the Black Rose Company spending over 25 hours locked in the Ilzimmer main house with each other struck some members as daunting at best, but nevertheless, everyone gamely showed up, including guests Thacarias Pelindar, peering somewhat shyly around him, and Nicholas and Amandiel Thongolir, both looking in good spirits. The household itself included Pip, his sister Vivien, his aunt Ketlavna and uncle Baroldan, and cousins Aurelie, Emile, and Blandine and Edmund, with their children Brice, Emeline, and Mireicle. The little aseku founding Kay joined the children in rampaging around the house getting underfoot, and despite Baroldan having dismissed most of the servants for the holiday, the small staff that remained, plus the few musicians hired for the occasion, still served to fill up the last spaces in the household.
Lady Ketlavna and Baroldan spared little expense for this party, combining Pip's birthday with the traditional Winter's Eve festivities. The house was nearly afire with candles on every surface, holding even more protective symbolism as, outside, Shrike's mages and templars carried out their mysterious, dangerous ritual magicks. A huge breakfast greeted all the sleepy guests at 10 a.m., and around 1 p.m. people were gathering in party clothes to give Philip his gifts and enjoy good conversation and family games. The wind whistled fiercely outside the tightly shuttered windows, but nobody dared open them to peer outside into the magic-laden winter tempest. Instead, everyone gathered around the huge fireplaces with champagne, wine and ale, fresh fruit juices (undoubtedly brought in at great expense, and the last of the season), heated ciders, and hot spiced teas, and entertained each other.
At 6 p.m. Baroldan and Ketlavna opened their modest ballroom, the musicians having set up on one end, and the servants having laid out the night's feast on the other. The music served to drown out the last of the storm-sounds from outside, and soon the party was in full swing, friends and family cheerfully dancing and eating. By 9 p.m. the children were asleep in the brocade-upholstered chairs along the ballroom walls, and around 11 p.m. things were quieting down, with storytelling, illusionry, and song taking the place of dancing, the servants and musicians having retired to the kitchen for their own dinner. On the stroke of the dark hour the bells rang and the curfew was lifted ... although it took some time before anyone dared open the shutters to peer outside into the unchanged streets. Finally, everyone went to sleep. Despite some apprehensions, the party had gone smoothly.
Whatever it meant for Cislunar to be "linked to the Matrix," the changes in the city have, thus far, been small but striking. New races are now seen on the streets and around Shrike's palace. Most unusual are a towering, daemonic-loking people in Tarin Tor uniforms, skin ranging from dusky charcoal to deep blood-red, hair worn extremely long and bound back in circlets and braids held together with jeweled clasps and golden rings. These peoples, called the Malachaim but instantly dubbed "the devils" by the populace, seem to be officers in the Tarin Tor, and most Cislunarites give them wide, superstitious berth. They seem satisfied to be left alone, striding arrogantly through the streets with a look of faint dislike on their sharp, alien features. With them have come a huge, monstrous breed of hound they call Kethu, but which have been dubbed "hellhounds" on the streets. These they seldom exhibit, holding penned somewhere in Greypinion Palace.
Less unusual, but still exotic, are the ebony-skinned Saarai peoples who are becoming increasingly noticeable on the streets. Until their appearance, the only black-skinned humans most Cislunarites had ever seen were the rare island Cappadocians, or the tall, thin Haansi from the south. The Saarai are a well-built, handsome people often dressed in deep blue or bright crimson robes, black hair worn cropped short, or braided and beaded, or in numerous other foreign fashions. Some of the men wear veils that cover all but their dark eyes, but all wear a great deal of jewelry, including ear- and nose-rings, and gold and silver bangles that jingle at the hems of their robes. They seem to be employees of Shrike's government, perhaps engineers, often clustered together with maps and strange mechanical instruments, talking in a lilting foreign tongue.
The Malachaim usually keep to themselves, mostly seen around the palace proper with the aseku and Dargonath human Tarin Tor. The civilian Saarai seem to be more at ease with the Cislunarite populace, and over the next week or two the Company begins to get accustomed to seeing them pacing through the Markets or drinking mulled wine in small groups in local taverns.