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The House Of Garlands

by MelWong

"Their cook makes the most wonderful freshwater shrimp dumplings, dah-ling, but I do wish I didn't have to rub shoulders with all those so-called actor rentboys on the premises."
- Icefire Jasmine

"Most regrettable, madame, but the proprietess of the House of Garlands bought my entire stock of Dragon Well Tea out again, really sorry."
- Hulvash, Little Market Spicemonger

The House of Garlands is a well-appointed, popular teahouse on the waterfront of the Cinnabar district, a twenty-minute walk away from the handsome edifice of the Players' Menagerie. Luminaries such as Sangurio Destheme and the Playwright Edegar are known to be regular patrons. The teahouse's renowned daylight menu consists of exotic teas from all corners of Creation, and to go with the beverages, tiny hand-rolled dumplings, bite-sized steamed buns, thimble-sized bowls of shark's fin soups, and other toothsome delicacies.

The usual custom is for patrons to enter, be shown to a pleasant table, and as the serving staff bring small covered saucers around on large lacquered trays, to pick a dish as another delicacy circulates fresh from the kitchens. The teahouse charges customers by the cup and by the dish; that is, by the color-coded rims of the cups and dishes left on their table when they send for the bill.

As the sun goes down, the menu changes. The selection of teas becomes more substantial, various fine wines and spirits are also served and the foods served are whole, catered meals made up of ingredients designed to complement each other in flavor and color. Every meal is a treat for the eyes and the palate, but the twilight menu, as it is called, is also somewhat a shock to the wallet.

As deep night moves in the painted paper lanterns are lit, and the twilight menu gives way to the night menu of bitter roasted coffees, robust teas and supper snacks, an inverse to the light teas and savory bites of the daylight menu. It is also then where the actors of the playhouses stream in with their patrons, looking for a bite and a sip and a place to rest their feet while they chat. The House of Garlands provides all these and more.

A year ago, due to popular demand, the proprietess expanded operations to include a converted barge floating on the river right next to the very doorstep of the teahouse. Most walk-in customers are seated there, or on the ground floor. During daylight hours they are also assigned tables on the high verandah built to protect the building from Nexus's seasonal floods. On fine days the busboys place tables out onto the palazzo where the usual overflow of customers can go. It is an unspoken rule of the establishment that walk-in customers are never seated upstairs.

In the evenings and at night, however, the customers who made reservations for private rooms show up, and it is then that they are escorted upstairs into the tastefully-furnished dining rooms. The price for such reservations is somewhat exorbitant considering the fact that the dining experience is exactly the same as it would be if the patron had just walked in and waited to be seated, but the patrons who book such rooms do not pay for the ambience, wonderful though it is.

They pay for privacy and the discretion of the wait staff, who are sworn never to speak of what occurs Upstairs of the building. This special service has been on the menu ever since the teahouse was founded a few years ago by its owner, an outcaste Water Aspect named Weeping Willow. She remains discreetly out of sight most of the time, leaving the running of the teahouse to its capable front-of-house staff, but most who know of her know that she is a great patron of the arts and theater especially.

Those who have seen her describe her as a somewhat eccentric figure, dressed in somber, fine silk robes, with a great chain of black jade knotted about her neck. She wears her hair pinned up with combs, and her face is always concealed by various operatic masks. Weeping Willow occasionally descends from her private quarters upstairs to give patrons the rare treat of listening to her play the sanxian. She is also known to be an excellent dancer, but has refused any and all students.

She will not speak of why she remains masked, or why she is missing the last joint on the little finger of her left hand.

Rumours

• The house earned its name for the seasonal flower garlands used to decorate its balconies and door-arches, and also for the fact that the night-blooming flowers of the lime-lit stage often go there for a late supper with patrons before assignations in the private rooms upstairs.
• The House of Garlands hides secret passages in the cisterns beneath the building, from there you may reach an abandoned manse of old Hollow, and it is there that Weeping Willow truly lives.

Secret

• The truth is that Weeping Willow used to be a member of the Grass Spiders and an assassin par excellence. She had been kidnapped upon her Exaltation and initiated unwillingly, however, and fled them for the sanctuary of Nexus after abandoning a contract she could not bring herself to carry out. The organization took some offense at that and punished her, claiming the smallest joint of her little finger and marring her considerable beauty. They then turned her loose, knowing she would be more useful to them than dead. She now lives in fear of them returning for her with one last mission. Weeping Willow has considerable force of conviction, and it is likely that she would choose to die rather than murder again. The truth of this secret can be proven by unmasking her; the word Traitor is branded into the left side of her face in Forest-tongue. Also, she hides beneath her robes elaborate tattoos on her back and shoulders, which mark her as an initiate of the Grass Spiders.

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