A note on the stylings of the great Admiral's hair: One thing that has survived the archives into relative public memory is the Admiral's striking presentation. While the woman was known especially for her often revealing- yet not TOO revealing dresses and other fine apparel, that has been discussed to death (and in some long since penalized circles, turned to SLANDER). What is not often mentioned is her elaborate hair styling. The woman had a great deal of long, beautiful hair, and at many times, she wore it down, allowing it to flow and fill our her silhouette, as if evoking a great siren of the sea looking down upon you from above in the water, backed by the moonlight. But there were also times she would wear it up. And often, it was kept in place not by traditional hairpins, but strange fixings reminiscent of *fish hooks.* Barbed, and painful looking. What does this say about the woman? Such fixings would not be manageable on her own, they would require the help of a servant to put them in place safely, lest they tear at her hair or injure her scalp or prongs. And yet, working with them as a servant would also mean endangering yourself greatly. Hook yourself, you could give yourself a nasty wound, or worse, spill your blood in her hair. A death sentence, stamped in your own lifes essence. Even worse than that, you may injure her, tug on her hair, even draw her blood. Such would earn you far worse than a culling. This paints an elaborate picture of the lady and her Handmaidens. A very strict expectation of precision, perfection, obedience. One slip up, and the servant dies. And yet, absolute faith, to allow them to put her in such a vulnerable position, with capacity to harm her both intentionally OR by accident. She did not even consider it worth THINKING that they would not perform their work without flaw. But she knew it sent a message, of the quality of her servants to all her peers in the Violet naval and noble community. To have servants, armed nightly with the tools and means to mangle and maim you, and to emerge unscathed by them each and every time. To make this very clear, both at the time AND in the modern day, that is simply something Violets do not do without much more significant precautions. Servants allowed that near to a noble in such a position are often watched at the end of a barrel. Not her handmaidens. They seem to have had freedom in the hivehold second only to the Admiral herself. And even the higherblooded servants, the Indigo scribes and document managers, harbored fear of them. The mystery drives me mad. Who were they? Why were they trusted so deeply, where did they go upon her death? And were they responsible for her assassination?