I look at Iustina - and around the kitchen. Jars of preserved and pickled things here, barrels there, likely local crockery on a shelf. I notice a heavy cabinet with a drip pan under it; if I didn't know better I could swear it was a fridge. But they don't have that kind of tech here, do they?
I snap my attention back to the housekeeper and offer a palm-up hand. "I think," I say, "there's a lot about your position we'll need to understand. And a lot about the people who work on your lord's land. The hornet's nest was always there - if we're going to kick it over we should make sure no one else gets stung, you know?"
Iustina does not pause from her dishwashing to sigh. "Why send outsiders at all, for a local problem?"
"It's 'cause we don't know what you think is normal?" Ace guesses.
That gets Iustina's ears to turn onto her, and for her to glance backwards. "How does that follow?"
Hikaru coughs. "It is because we have outsider's eyes that we might see what the people here do not," he says. "Every community has things they take for granted, things that are done a certain way for reasons no one remembers, sleights of mind."
"Things it takes someone not used to life here to notice," Alesha says.
"Let's go with that," Ace says, blinking at Hikaru. I suspect she didn't think Hikaru would have her back, and that's something to bring up with her, isn't it?
Iustina shakes her head, but speaks. "Of the Lord and his family I can speak much, and of my parents, Senor Cabello and Senora Al'mez. But I try not to involve myself in the comings and goings of the other families," she says. "Still, I will say what I can, and hope it will help you find what you seek."
I nod, and after a beat, my companions give assent.
"Tell us about the Lord Orlando and his family," I say. "And what you can about what you and your family does for him."
"I am the Lord Orlando's housekeeper and chambermaid," she says, stiffly, pivoting on her heel with a stack of clean porcelain on each arm, to deliver to the shelves. "I hire and direct the other maids in cooking and cleaning, clean the Lord's chambers and make sure his laundry reaches the washerwoman, and tutor his children in reading, writing, maths and the Art."
Gods, that sounds busier than the worst jobs Sekh has ever taken. "Reading and writing in Yberian?"
"And Qemetic, and Omphalan," she says. She smiles, slightly, as she slides one stack of plates to the back of the shelf. "As I say, I am indebted to my Lord for many things."
"The Art... you're a breathworker?" Hikaru says. "A mage?"
"I would not put myself on that level," she says, ears flattening as she returns to the kitchen. "I know some orisons and cantrips useful to my work, that's all, as any daughter of an Al'mez should. But it's enough to tutor the House Molinaro in breathing and shaping exercises."
Sekhmet whistles. "Between reading Omphalan and 'good enough to teach spellcraft,' you could go to any college in the world to learn the big magic."
Iustina's flat look was enough answer. It was evident to me that this was her plan - though she was loyal enough to her family and to Lord Orlando that I imagined she would return with what she learned.
"Are they apt pupils?" I ask. "Senor Orlando's children?"
Iustina smiles. "Young Prince Velasco is more interested in throwing flames and hail than the Art's subtler applications, but he's always had dreams of martial glory. The young Princess Carina is both wiser and more pious, and blessed by the Empress of Wheat and Our Lady of the Oats both."
"I've not heard Dawn's Mother called the Empress of Wheat rather than the other thing since I left home for a mercenary tent," Siobahn remarks - for the party's benefit. Iustina shrugged, as if to say this was more proof of the madness of city folk.
"Does it run in your family? That talent?" I ask.
Iustina paused, ears flicking, a moment of worry flickering on her face before it returned. "In my mother, the lady Jatu Bin'inpew Almez," she allows. "She is, ah. Quite pious and devoted. To the goddess and flock she tends."
Which wouldn't be something to be embarrassed of, normally.
"She leads the rites to Flamma?" I asked.
Iustina nodded.
Ace blinked. "That makes her important as hell, right? Uh, in a town that does so much... Viticulture? That's the word, right?"
"She goes to all the apothecaries to oversee their work, yes," she says, smile brittle. "To bless our crop and the products of them."
A meddler, in other words. "I'm guessing that with so many vintners and brewers here there's plenty of argument to go around about whose is the best, and on 'proper' technique," I say.
"The lady Bin'Inpew Almez is both very talented and very opinionated on how to properly honor the Black Cat of the Cauldron," she says.
"To the point of having enemies?" I ask, softly. "Real enemies, not rivals or arguing partners."
She hesitates.
I don't think this occurred to her. I don't think this wanted to occur to her.
"Do not repeat these words to anyone not of my family, not even the lord Orlando and his family," she says.
I put a hand over my heart. "May Sylphan scatter all my belongings to the four winds if I do so without your permission. Can we all swear to that?"
"The situation may demand it," Alesha says, frowning. "But I'll swear on - on seeing another dawn," she says. Not comfortable with swearing those kinds of oaths - at least not to Mundane gods.
"I don't snitch," Sekhmet says, calmly. "None of us do."
Ace nods, and the others put hands over hearts.
Iustina takes a deep breath. "Many of the families resent a clan of Ubastim, and with Qebulani names at that, for having the success and wealth they seek - for being the right hands of the Castellan and in charge of the milling," she says. "Especially the Quinyones, who hate us all the more for revering Aurora and Eranda above the witch of wine."
"Ah. Racism." Ace folds her arms. "Great. Love it. Can't escape it even here."
Iustina's snort is, at least, amused. "I am sure the Quinyones blame us for their poverty, when they are not sneering at the ben-Kosmas for having more fields and merchants for sons, or the Robledas provisioners for having less than one human for every Robledas of another kith."
"Do the Kosmas and Robledas not indulge in that prejudice?" Alesha asks, expecting to be disappointed in them.
Iustina looks out the window, right at the windmill. "They seem ashamed to say so half as baldly," she says. "The Kosmas family are even on friendly terms with us - but they are a richer family, such as villeins can be, and are also distrusted for keeping private counsel with the Gods."
"Hold up," Ace says, one hand up.
Siobhan frowns. "Would you not call a freeman or cottar of a village a villein?" she asks.
Ace puts her hand - and head - down. "Right. Course. Forget I said anything," she murmurs.
I take a deep breath. "I've heard someone call them Shepherds," you say. "The Kosmas family, I mean. They seemed to mean it as an insult."
Iustina's ear twitches as she quells a grimace. "Certainly the Kosmas invite drovers to stay with them when they bring their flocks here, and the drovers are resented by those who plant," she says. "If they have drovers as distant relations I could not tell you."
Which is good to know. But also a dodge - a misdirection. I frown, but nod, and don't press further.
"This has all been tremendously helpful," I say. "You have our thanks and gratitude; let us know if there's anything we can do to make our stay at the village and visits to your master easier on you. I know we're imposing on hospitality."
"It is my pleasure and duty to serve," she says, curtseying. "If we have need of you, I've no doubt we will let you know."
"I don't think there's anything else we can do without seeing the damaged vineyards in question," Alesha says. "I'm very interested in talking to your mother, and the other local clergy as well. Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone; could she show us the way, and the wards?"
"I would like to examine the wards as well," Hikaru says, his hand over a studiously expressionless mouth. "We do not have enough facts to go on, yet, and those are of keen interest to me. A local authority on them such as your mother would be all the better."
"I think she would be interested in meeting you," Iustina says. "Name your tavern, and she shall find you there after the midday siesta."
That's a lot of time to waste. But there's a lot we can do on our own between now and then, so I nod agreement, and my friends seem to follow my lead.
"I look forward to meeting her," I say sincerely. "Until then... may the wind gently take the sweat from your brow."
Iustina purrs - Ubastim laughter. "Can you have him wick the water from our clotheslines instead, godbotherer?"
"I'll give him a call," I say, grinning.
"See that you do," she says, and with a final curtsey she leads us out - with an armful of things to think about.
