"Lila?"

The young woman turned slowly, keeping her troublesome heart as quiet as she could, despite her immediate terror. Her pale eyes shifted across the candle soaked stone, to a figure illuminated in warm amber, tall, proud, wearing the unflinching mantle of her mother with only the slightest hint of ill fitting. She fixed the new Jarl with a well-practiced steady smile, though her gaze remained anxious.

"It is good to see you my Lady" she replied softly, cautious that her lilting accent should reach no ears but hers, careful that no one would notice their exchange was a familiar one.

Idgrod had the good sense of mind, honed over her long youth of training in the nature of courtly politics, to do the same, tilting her darkly crowned head towards the far corner of the room, where the already low light flickered almost out of existence, shrouding the stones in cool pool of secure shadows.

Lila gave an almost imperceptible nod and walked across to the corner. Once there she leant against the wall, smoky eyes flitting amongst the faces of the guests, their shine the only clear feature in the gloom. No one seemed to have noticed.

Idgrod drifted among the guests for a little while longer, making small talk with no one of consequence or standing, always keeping the shadowed corner at the edge of her sight. Then, taking up a pretty crystal glass with a finely twisted stem, sweet Aldmiri wine held within, she made her way across to Lila.

The stone was cool against her side as she leant beside the young woman. Here they seemed cut off from the room, Idgrod's shoulders set squarely to block the mingling dignitaries from view. "I'm sure you have good reasons for being here" Idgrod murmured, her rich Nordic voice edged with no small amount of suspicion. She lifted her wine to her lips and sipped, watching the pale eyes of the other woman flit about her guarded expression. In the shelter of her own shadow the Jarl reached out across the cool void between them, touching the woven fabric of Lila's dress, pressing lightly at a spot just above the curve of her hip.

There was little indication that the Imperial had noticed, except for the slight shift of her waist as it curved towards Idgrod's touch. "Not my choice of locality I assure you" The very corner of her lips lifted in a crooked little smile that lasted only a few seconds. "I was urged to attend. A little exploration of the embassy's hospitality".

Idgrod's eyes flashed in the gloom. She placed her glass down on the narrow lip of the room's paneling, casting a quick glance over her shoulder. No one was interested in their little corner of the room it seemed, all eyes and all thoughts lay elsewhere. Good. In a single step she abandoned pretense. She grasped the woman's waist with the hand she had placed there, and twisting pressed the palm of her other into the stone beside Lila shoulder, trapping her in the cage of her arms. Idgrod's gaze was hard, cold, but her body was warm, and as she pressed her hips forwards she felt the breath hitch in the other woman's throat. "You're playing a dangerous game" she hissed tilting her forehead forwards, "the Thalmor will eat you alive if they catch you".

Lila could look nowhere else, her pale eyes were forced to meet her dark ones, panic lived within them, laced with a desperation that shook Idgrod's nerve. With a shudder she shook her head, dark curls catching against the rough stonework behind her. "I have very little choice Idgrod. Please believe that I wouldn't be risking… Not if I…".

"Who? Who is making you do this?" the Nord woman demanded on a whisper that pulled the warm air taut between them. How much the young woman had changed since she had taken her mother's throne. How much she would still change if she had to.

Lila drew in a breath meant to steady her, but it did little to quell the hammering of her heart. "I cannot say, not even to you." She cast her eyes down briefly, before glancing over Idgrod's shoulder. "Not here."

"What do you need me to do?"

A thick silence pressed the tight knot of breath between their lips. The Imperial woman did not move, she stared with an open look upon her pretty features. "Not this time." She breathed, voice so strained it might break to desperation in the space of a pointed thought. "I would not have you or Joric harmed by this. I am your Housecarl."

Idgrod smiled softly. Shifting the grasp of her hand to a gentle caress she pressed her fingers to the small of Lila's back, lifting her away from the cool stone just enough that she could lean close and whisper into her ear. "And you are mine." Punctuating her point, the Jarl lifted her clever fingers to draw a tingling line along the lower curve of her spine. A breathless gasp, stifled at once, blew warm air across Idgrod's own ear as Lila involuntarily pressed her body against her. "It's not a choice my darling. You're going to tell me how I can help you, or I'm taking you back to Morthal tonight."

She could feel Lila shake her head, but as she began to dance her clever fingers lower the stubborn woman let out the sigh that had been sitting upon her chest and rested her forehead against her strong shoulder. "Promise me you'll leave the embassy afterwards." She murmured into the warm curve of the Jarl's neck. She slid her arms around her, pulling what little space there remained between them into the warmth of her tender embrace. "I want you safe."

"Not as badly as I want you to be safe." Idgrod held her close, taking a selfish moment to breathe in the scent of her dark, gently curling hair. Mountain flowers, sea salt, a touch of sweet berries. "You have my word."

Lila let out an almost imperceptible murmur of fragile relief. Reluctantly Idgrod released her, stepping back just a little so she could once again look upon her face. "A distraction" the Imperial conceded, her skin slightly aglow with a heated flush, her pale eyes sparkling, "can you keep them occupied for a few moments?"

Idgrod indulged in a low chuckle, "Only a few moments?" she asked, "Oh I think I can manage that".

Lila frowned a warning at her levity, but Idgrod soothed it away with a slow caress as she traced the line of her jaw. She pressed the calloused pad of her thumb to the very corner of her mouth, unable to conceive of all but one thought. It was too soon to love this woman, not with her mother and father, barely a season in their graves, not with Joric so dependent on her. Too soon, and yet, she thought, mother had always schooled her not to fold to other's standards.

Despite the sanctuary of the shadows around them, Idgrod knew that she could not linger here much longer. Sooner or later someone would notice. But Oblivion take them all if she was going to leave her lover to the Thalmor without some parting gift. She kissed her, deeply, blissfully, but briefly, pulling away with a memory of her warmth and softness before she abandoned her promise and ordered her Housecarl home.

A haze of passion washed across Lila's face in the briefest of moments, but she drew herself back from it, and away from Idgrod, enough to clear her mind for her troublesome task. "I have to go." She explained quietly, her pale eyes questing about the room behind Idgrod. Looking and finding something amidst the swarm of nobility and persons of interest the Thalmor had gathered around themselves.

The Jarl caught her sharply as Lila turned to leave, her fingers tight around her wrist. "Come find me in the Blue Palace." It was an order, plain, and simple. Not as a lover to her darling, but as a Jarl to her Housecarl. "I need to know you're safe."

She glimpsed the briefest of conflicts within Lila's eyes, but it was put aside with a gentle loving smile. "If I can, I will be there tonight."

Idgrod ached to kiss her again, but instead she let her slide out of her grasp and into the starkly lit expanse of the hall. She watched her until she came to stand at the bar. She was smiling and talking to the dunmer waiter as the servant polished an unused glass.

Taking a calming breath, the young Jarl of Morthal, Idgrod Ravencrone, no longer the younger, strode out into the party, her eyes focused on her unfortunate target, she already knew exactly what she was going to do.