So there is the lovely worship of Jayus and party favors have been donated in the effect of flowers. Sure, they have all that Mercier touch to them, but free flowers are good flowers. Natalia Grayson is actually speaking to the priestess with a tip of her head. There are various forms of artwork and beauty through the area. It seems the priestess is making her final notes on the prayer she is about to give.

Carrying with her a rather large painting, the face of it turned so that her body blocks much of the image from view, Sina enters the shrine. Her scaled boots are quiet on the floor. Her tulle skirt sways around her legs with her stride. She sets her artwork down before her, letting it fall against the front of her legs as she seeks to find a place to sit.

Myrinda, certainly, is not taking any Mercier flowers. Instead, she finds a seat on the benches, grumbling about her knees, as her gaze lifts to the priest of Jayus.

Stepping into the shrine with the hopes that she isn't late for the ceremony, pilgrim rather than participant. All cat-quiet and watchful-eyed, expression conveying reverence. She recognizes the spring bouquets as Mercier work, and the sight of those offerings makes her smile slightly. She leaves those, dipping her head low, and finds a place to stand and observe.

There is a pause as Natalia notes Myrinda... out of her shop. In fact, her deep blue eyes glance around for Lazarus, but instead find a Bethany. She glances between those two women before she smiles as well at Sina. The princess will move in an ease of seasilk fashion to attempt to greet each of the women. "It is lovely that you all could come." HEr eyes move towards SIna's painting. "Did you make that yourself?"

Myrinda drops a braided belt of copper velvet with a copper clasp of entwined knots.

The painting is kept turned away, so that Natalia cannot truly see it yet. "Yes," Sina answers, her voice kept quiet; she is a bit out of place in the shrine. "I paint quiet often."

Bethany eyes lower, following the fall of the belt that Myrinda drops. She gapes only slightly - as anyone should, really - to admire such work.

Myrinda steps forward from her bench only after the priest has finished to drop a belt on the altar in sacrifice. Like it's no big deal. That she pushes aside Mercier flowers to leave the coppery velvet belt? Well, also probably no big deal.

The priestess steps forwards then and looks over the crowd. "We are here to offer our prayers of the patheon and honor the Gods that inspire and create us. In times of trouble and when we are looking for direction, we must remember the teaching of Jayus. For there is not just black and white. There is not always just a right or a wrong. It is indeed that we are awash with colors and all that comes within it. The beauty and majesty of red to the soft and subtle shading of the lightest blue. We are composed of colors and strengths."

"In fact, we come forth to bless those that have found a way to allow beauty to grow where nothingness was before. We honor the art that has been crafted by talented hands. We pray that one finds the blessing of that beauty in challenge. That we are blessed to see and be an inspiration around us. We must strive to be better; to be muses. As well as I pray each of you finds your inspiration when it is most needed."

"Better my ass," mumbles Myrinda crotchetily about the priest's sermon. "You try dealing with nobles and Merciers all day and then say that to my face." She attempts to stare down the woman of the cloth for a moment, but it's to no avail. Instead, she turns to join Natalia and Sina. "Missy," seems to be her greeting for the former. The latter gets greeted with a snapped, "Well now you, don't you be some sort of shy wallflower all blushing over your work. Show us."

"I don't blush over it," Sina claims to Myrinda, musing softly, "And I do deal with nobles all day." Finally, the painting is turned, revealing the vivid colors of a sunrise on the eastern horizon as they form the beared face of a blond reaver from the Mourning Sea. Handsome though he is, he lacks eyes; in their place, the canvas she used to paint him shines through: a well-polished mirror. A bit of an unnerving thing to anyone who avoids speaking of the Thirteenth. Sina is not one of them, it seems. She lets it rest against a solid surface.

Sina drops a boldly colored reaver's portrait painted on a mirror's face.

a sly, sidelong glance over when she believes she hears her surname mentioned in the spitfire mutterings of ...oh, well. No, perhaps not... She looks over at Sina's portrait, when it's finally exposed. "Oh, that's interesting."

Natalia checked composure + etiquette against difficulty 15, resulting in 36, 21 higher than the difficulty.

Natalia glances up and smiles at Sina as she glances to the painting. "I fear that I do not have the skills to paint. I have always wanted to do so." Her eyes flick towards Bethany too. "Bethany, have you met Mistress Grayhope?" She glances at Myrinda. "This is Miss Bethany, who serves Grayson." Of course she didn't not say a first name or a last name on purpose. That would be horrible. Her eyes stray to Sina's painting and there is a pause. Maybe it's the mirror or the subject matter. It is just a flicker of something in her eyes before Natalia smiles. "That is quite a beautiful creation of art."

"I don't get it. Why are his eyes mirrors?" frowns Myrinda over the painting, eyes narrowing slightly in judgement.

Gliding over when Natalia has mentioned her by name, she dips a neat little curtsy to acknowledge her, "I do not believe that I have, your Highness." She straightens, offering a slight smile toward Myrinda, inclining her head. "Mistress Grayhope, it is a distinct honor to meet you. Bethany Mercier, at your service ..." her smile quirks at the edges, brightening her eyes.

Sina's mercurial eyes slant to the image she's painted. "It's different. Full of color," she comments softly, "Not like the one Lord Grayward purchased from me on the beach." When Myrinda speaks, the handmaiden allows the subtlest of smiles to surface. "I suppose it speaks to the sin of man that likes behind a pretty face, Madam Grayhope." It may be interperated in many a way, most likely.

"Psh, yes, I know that. You don' "Bah, another Mercier. Are you as short-sighted as that other one, that blind and dimwitted Lazarus?" Myrinda interrogates as Bethany introduces herself, waggling a finger at the young woman. At least Sina gets a reprieve from her attention for a moment.

"Psh, yes, I know that. You don't live to my age without knowing nothing good comes from a pretty face, missy," Myrinda tells Sina dismissively, waving her fingers in a gesture that is supposed to signify-- something, surely. At least Sina gets a reprieve from her attention for a moment, as her blue eyes sweep towards the other young woman as Bethany introduces herself. "Bah, another Mercier. Are you as short-sighted as that other one, that blind and dimwitted Lazarus?" she interrogates.

Her return answer is mild and gentle, "... if that is all you wish to see when you hear my surname, Mistress Grayhope, how better my advantage."

Natalia considers the explanation that Sina provides. She does offer the woman her hand, probably seeing her around Thrax, "Princess Natalia Grayson. That is a wonderful view of art. It is always good to hear the artists thoughts. I find that part of the amazing thing about art in all it's forms is that it is subjective and creates thoughts and feelings that differ person to person." There is a look between the Mercier and the Grayhope though.

"Yes, ma'am." Sina's response to Myrinda is a polite one. Natalia's hand is taken, briefly, in her painter's fingers. "Sina Izetta. I tend to Princess Donella Thrax -- you're the one who keeps inviting me to tea," she muses softly.

"Open your ears, child! I asked if you /were/ not accused you of it," Myrinda counters with a scoff. "Good gods and Jayus, am I surrounded by youth with worse hearing than my own?" She waggles a finger at Natalia, accusing. "Like this one here! You can't even imagine the things she thought she heard from me."

Bethany clasps her hands primly before herself and takes a polite step back, averting her gaze as if to study the portrait on the floor. "Ah, pardon, madame." Addressing Myrinda, her smile blooming back into place, "My answer remains the same."

Nope. Just nope. Natalia is not touching this conversation. She smiles towards Myrinda. "Ah, sometimes we all just hear things. It is a horrible thing, yes." Then she smiles at Sina. "Now that is a wonderful thing. What is better than serving a Voice?" HEr eyes slide over the woman thoughtfully and then she smiles. "You should come to Illusions and we should still have that tea."

"Your answer is ridiculous, girly," replies Myrinda, frowning. And then she apparently decides to dismiss Bethany completely with a wave of her fingers. She points to Natalia, only, offering her, "I will see you later." And then she turns to sweep away, returning back to the rock known as her shop once again.

Sina looks skeptical as she observes Myrinda, but much of her attention is given to the Princess. "I like tea. It will give me time to pick your mind over of your views on my liege House." She watches the Grayhope depart with amusement in her pale eyes. "You seem quite interested in Thraxian ways, after all."

She glances up as Myrinda takes her leave with a dismissive wave of her hand, watching the departing figure with a carefully controlled - and pleasant - smile, "She seems very spritely, your Highness. Thank you for the introductions."

Natalia sighs a bit to that. She just knows that Myrinda 'seeing her later' means she's going to be practicing the most boring stitches of all time until her hands bleed or something. She lifts her hand towards the older woman when she leaves. "She's like spiced candy. It's painful until it becomes an acquired taste, but then you come to enjoy the sensation." Her eyes move towards Sina with a smile. "I am curious on your thoughts on your liege house as well." There is only a smile to her interest in it. Ignore the fact some nights she's found wandering the halls; much to Victus' annoyance. Then she smiles towards Bethany. "Your brother and her had a rather public argument. I do not think there is much love lost there." Then her lips quirk. "Or maybe there is and that's why they argue so much."

Sina lapses into a bout of silence as Natalia speaks, allow the Princess to converse with Miss Bethany once it's been established that the handmaiden and Princess are curious about each other's views of Thrax.

"Ah --" her expression twists, briefly wry, "That may explain much of it, your Highness. A shame, that. Her excellent reputation precedes her. I am only resigned to know that there is a dark mark attached to mine in regard to Mistress Grayhope."

Natalia shakes her head to that. "She will move past things. Her and I had a rather... well let's just say there were bannings of people and insults and things. We are alright, so I am sure that you will be too. She is just very... set in her ways." The princess smiles towards Sina and glances again at the mirrored painting thoughtfully.

"... Most of us are, it seems. That's also a shame. To be set in ways is to allow stagnation, in a sense." Then, bright blue eyes blink, and she instantly shifts her thoughts to sigh. "That belt is beautiful."

"I only see stagnation in the mainlands," Sina comments, looking beyond Natalia and Bethany to the others who populate the sanctum of Jayus on a regular basis. "The ocean keeps rolling. It's only the land that doesn't move."