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271 A Night of Gold and Silver

Every year it seems the winters get worse. The grey skies show up sooner, banishing the fading sun with gently falling snow. The winds blow just a bit harsher, their teeth biting more easily through wool and fur that so easily used to keep them at bay. It takes longer for the icy grip to loosen on the land, letting desperate farmers out into the fields to sow the crops that will keep bellies full and famine at bay.

Or maybe not. Maybe things have always been this way and the quiet grumbling rumors are just the old-folks way of imagining how good everything used to be. After all, the flowers still bloom year after year. The potatoes, wheat, and barley still grow and nourish the land. The sun still shines, making its way undaunted past the clouds when they pass. Maybe the grim tidings mean as little as they always have. And true or not, tonight is the winter Solstice, the night to celebrate.

Tonight is the darkest night before the dawn. When the sun rises above the treetops tomorrow, summer will begin to slowly creep in and claw back the days. Tonight marks another year survived, and the turning of the tide in this season’s fight against the cold. What better reason to toast? What better reason for King and Queen, Honor and Belief Gholi to throw the grandest midwinter party in all the land on the Frell Family’s Concerto, a trade ship transformed for the evening into a veritable Floating Palace? Guests and representatives from all the most important noble families have shown up to schmooze, gain advantage, find love, and more than anything else enjoy being alive on the longest night of the year. What could possibly go wrong?