On the Proper Timing of Questions for a Lord of Chaos

I have learned that meals in the Tavern are not only meals. This is becoming a theme.

A meal in the Tavern may appear, at first, to be a meal. There may be plates. There may be cups. There may be adventurers attempting to fit themselves, their armor, their weapons, their shields, their staffs, their bags, their stories, and their elbows around square tables designed for fewer complications. This is misleading.

A meal in the Tavern is also a place where conversations move like small boats between tables. People sit, speak, stand, cross the room, join another group, leave again, return with a different thought, and somehow everyone continues eating as if this is ordinary. I am beginning to suspect that adventurers do not believe in stable seating charts.

On this particular Sunday lunch, the Tavern was full of these moving conversations. The square tables could each seat four to six people, but in practice they held three or four adventurers at a time, because armor and weapons are also guests, though they do not answer questions when asked. Though I am not entirely sure I tried with this crew.
I was eating, observing, and trying to determine whether crumbs should be documented if they came from interesting bread.

Then Vale entered.

The room changed. Not loudly. That is important.
Some people enter a room and the room changes because they announce themselves, or stomp, or shout, or bring smoke. Vale did none of these things. Vale entered quietly. Regally. And everyone noticed.

I noticed first because everyone else noticed. The shift moved through the Tavern like wind across tall grass. Conversations did not stop entirely, but they became aware of themselves. People looked. People measured their words. People made space around the fact of her arrival.

This is a very interesting thing to witness.

Vale wore white, with white eyes, a white robe of elegant cut, a hand fan, and a flat hat. She spoke little, and when she did speak, it seemed to be because a specific matter had earned a specific answer.
This is so very different from her husband Jingo, who speaks like a cabinet opening into twelve cabinets. Vale speaks like a closed door deciding whether you have knocked correctly.
I had been told that Vale is a Lord of Chaos. I had also been told to be polite. These facts seemed related.

Naturally, I wished to ask her my Top Questions immediately.
Also naturally, I did not.
This is called growth.
Instead, I waited. Other adventurers had matters to discuss with her. Some approached carefully. Some asked questions. Some received answers. I finished my lunch, because it is easier to be brave after eating, and because approaching a Lord of Chaos while holding half a meal seemed like poor form unless the meal was intended as a gift, which it was not.

I had not brought a thoughtful gift.
This should be corrected in the future. I will need to source some specialty teas.

Eventually, when others had had their chance and the moment seemed less crowded, I approached with proper enthusiasm.
Carefully proper enthusiasm.
There is, I am learning, a difference.

I introduced myself. “Hello! I am Ledger! May I ask you some questions so I might document you here in Ledger’s Ledger?”
I believe I may have shaken her hand. I also believe I did not shake it too vigorously. I hope this is true.
Vale allowed the questions.
This was very exciting. It was also terrifying in the clean, bright way of holding a glass object over a stone floor.
I asked the proper questions: What is your name? Can you spell that for me? What is your favorite color? What is your favorite snack? What is your favorite weapon? If your colleagues were talking about you, what would they say is your superpower? What else would you like me to include in the Ledger about you?

Vale answered.
I wrote carefully.
Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite snack is tea. This is the second time tea has proven more important than I originally understood.
Her favorite weapon is herself.
I paused after writing that because most people name a sword, staff, dagger, bow, spell, shield, or possibly something sharp hidden in a boot. Vale named herself. This is either confidence, accuracy, warning, or all three.
For superpower, she said rifting. I wrote this with great care because I have already learned that Vale uses Movement Magic and Pattern Magic, and rifting sounds like movement that has stopped asking permission from distance.

I do not yet understand it.
I intend to.

Then came the last question.
“What else would you like me to include in the Ledger about you?”
At this, Vale did not simply answer from the table. She pulled me away.
This is the point at which public documentation becomes difficult.
There are things one may write for the Ledger. There are things one may write in the Ledger but not yet copy for everyone who should ever read it. There are things one must hold carefully because a true fact placed in the wrong place at the wrong time may stop being helpful and start becoming sharp.
Vale told me something privately.
I recorded it.
I will not record it here.

Please understand how much discipline this requires. My whole purpose is to document things. My hand wishes to document things. My ink wishes to document things. I may need to get it checked for consciousness. The page is practically leaning forward.
But proper documentation is not the same as careless disclosure.
I am learning this too.

Important conclusions from Sunday lunch:

1. Tavern meals are not only meals.
2. Square tables become more complicated when armor, weapons, and moving conversations are included.
3. Vale can change a room quietly.
4. A Lord of Chaos may answer questions if approached with care and timing.
5. Favorite weapon: “myself” is a complete answer and also possibly a warning.
6. Tea may be a snack.
7. Rifting requires further study.
8. Not all true things belong in public reports.
9. I should bring thoughtful gifts before approaching certain people.
10. It is possible to be excited and cautious at the same time.

I remain very excited. Also cautious. This is a new combination and I am still labeling it.
With careful ink and respectful curiosity,

Ledger