*A Grand Party is thrown in the Docks district. Serving folk and entertainers all in red and gold lay out trestle tables for a celebration on the streets and these tables are laden with food of all types, many in the shape of hearts. Pastry hearts filled with sweet red jam and crusty heart shaped bread rolls filled with meats and pickles. Simple fair with a Hanali flair.
Some of the servers, dressed in less than the rest but still red and gold, pass amongst the crowd looking for couples and families, presenting red roses and blue forget-me-nots to those that look like husband and wife or lovers, and also kissing the cheeks of younger adults not yet settled in their love. Nothing more than a kiss and a smile but a merry smile it is.
Games are organised amongst those willing, and those that can be dragged in to play them half against their will. Some games for the children, Blind-man's Buff, Hide and go Seek and huge sprawling games of Tag with small keepsakes for all the players, the kind of simple street games they always play but on a grander scale and with each child having a gift to remember the day by, rag dolls with embroidered hearts on their dresses and wooden spinning tops with painted heart designs in red and gold.
And games for the adults, some of which the children join in on. Lines of willing and cheerful folk set up in alternating gender and passing a heart shaped cushion from one set of knees to the next down the line, no hands allowed. A more grown up version for the young lovers and couples of the docks on a rare break from their hard working lives, in which a playing card, the Queen of Hearts, passed from mouth to mouth with suction, much laughing from players and servers alike if the card drops and an accidental kiss ensues.
And then a great game of Whispers, folk of all ages lined up and whispered messages passed from lips to ear down the line, with raucous laughter at the mangling such a message receives over its travels and at the end of which with laughter in the air the beautiful, if humble, elven woman Rilia, resplendent in red and gold mounts one of the stronger tables and speaks to the masses.
"People of the Docks: Some of you know me and likely many of you do not. For those of you that do not yet, I am Rilia Dedralle. I have lived in this city since shortly before the Eastlander War. I am not here though to tell you about myself. If you wish to know more about me, then approach at any time and ask, I have nothing to hide, but this is an election that should not be decided on personality or popularity but on Ideas. Meaningful, deliverable Ideas to make the lives of you its citizens easier and to bring to you every day some measure of the joy I hope today brings.
For these many years we have toiled under the hardship of war. I have seen Peltarch suffer through three great conflicts and, like you, hope now to see an era of prosperity, peace and happiness. This is not an election of a supreme ruler. Some despot who can deliver anything he promises. You are electing members of a senate who will each bring something of their beliefs and aims to the mixture, and each of whom must work with the others if there is to be the accord that will take Peltarch onwards into this era of peace. I am certain almost every one of you owes thanks in some way to one of the two great trading Guilds of the Docks. The Seafarers and the Wavebreakers, despite their differences, have both done much for this City and especially for you people gathered here. I am sure they will both work with me to help build Trade and to by doing so increase the income of the City and so alleviate some of the hardship these last years have brought you all. I'm not going to try and tell you I'm better than them. I am a simple woman with simple aims and ideas.
I aim to make life better for those of you whose husbands and wives died in the war and who struggle now to make ends meet. I aim to ensure your continued security by supporting the Defenders whose headquarters overlooks all you fine men and women do here, by demonstrating our gratitude and caring for those men and women who helped us free ourselves and gave their lives doing so. I aim to do both these things by increasing the money coming into the City by cutting some of the bureaucracy from the current trading license system. And I aim to make sure that this era of prosperity is felt in this district. I aim above all to listen to what you want from this new shining future.
You have seen in the games we have played that the key to success is co-operation. And that it is easy for the message of the common folk to become garbled and lost as it is passed up the chain to the Senate. I will be your Ear. I will listen directly to you the people and take what you tell me and act on it within the Senate to do what seems best for you, my people.
I stand for the fun, joy, laughter and love I have tried to bring you today. I stand for those whose love has been lost, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters and lovers all. And I will make today a foreshadowing of the leisure and pleasure I intend to make a part of your lives from now on through all these things.
I will be the ear of the working man and woman, and I will do this without recourse to saying bad things about those I know have done well for, and by, you and your hard work. I will do it with your second vote, if you will give me that mandate. Please. Enjoy the rest of this day.
With a smile and a flourish she motions to the servers who now pass amongst the adults passing out red and gold silk handkerchiefs, unadorned but a small piece of luxury to the hardworking and poor of the district
