A court of Night and Fire

inner circle family dinner round 2

Asterin POV

Emerie leaves to go back to the Illyrian camps and Gwyn and Nesta walk with me to the dining room for dinner. Surprisingly, Gwyn offers me a seat between her and Azriel. Nyx and Ash smile at me when they see me so I smile back. Azriel catches on and turns to look at me "I take it you enjoyed Velaris then?" he says, his hazel eyes watching me. I can basically feel Rhys's and Nyx's attention on me. "I fucking loved it" I say, grinning. Azriel chuckles. "I'm not suprised. It is beautiful" he says. "so how was Valkyrie training?" asked Cassian "pretty good actually. It's like learning how to settle into a killing calm"

"what's a killing calm?" he asks, looking interested. "it's what we call that sense of absolute clarity that descends over you, usually when your anticipating a fight or death. It's like the world makes perfect sense." Azriel nods in agreement "I know what you mean." he says. "she's doing rather well at it" Gwyn says "better than you Cass" Nesta adds, smirking. Nesta and Cassian start bantering with each other. Azriel turns and fixes his hazel eyes on mine and says quietly "Earlier on you gave me your blades, I still have them"
"thank you. They mean a lot to me."
"they are beautiful. I'm guessing they were designed to allow you to use your magic"
"yes, sometimes my magic likes to follow the engravings on the blades"
"I saw earlier. It was mesmerising. Who does the fire come from?" 
"my mother. She's a descendant of Mala. I got the gifts of water, ice and wind from my father"
"and what we saw earlier was you mixing the two?"
"yes, I think that the it was only the initial reaction that caused what we saw, but now it has already occurred, I think it will be just as easy to summon the joint power as it is to summon the other two"
"alright, but how are you after that? I mean, it looked like it drained you" Was that concern?
"I think what happened was that I was drained of my energy rather than my power. Joining the two took a lot of strength."
"and you're okay now?" Is the dreaded shadowsinger and spymaster of the night court concerned for me?
"yeah, I'm absolutely fine. I just needed to eat and replace the energy I'd lost"

"so how did you learn to fly?" he asks. I'm aware that everyone around the table seems content to leave us out of the conversation to allow us to talk. From what I can tell, Azriel doesn't seem to talk much.
"my father taught me"
"How long did it take you to learn?"
"a couple of months, but he taught me when I was very young so I don't remember much about it but we go out flying together quite a lot"

The wind ruffles my feathers as I glide along side a white - tailed hawk. It's a beautiful day and the forest below us is blanketed in mist. Together, we bank right, following a stream that runs far below us. My father turns to look at me, a challenge twinkling in his predator eyes. He rushes ahead and I follow, racing him back to the castle. My lighter, smaller form means I can fly faster through the castle. Together we land on the balcony and my father clicks his beak in annoyance at my evident victory.

"you're such a sore loser, buzzard" comes my mother's voice as she walks out to the railing we landed on. My father shifts in a flash of light, laughing. "says you Fireheart" I shift into my fae form and smirk at my father "she's right. Your Jealous of the fact your own daughter beat you. He smirks at me "wait until the winds change. Being small and agile won't help you then little phoenix"

"For Illyrians, flying is part of who we are. It's one of the very few things I like about my heritage. Any Illyrian loves to fly. Take away their wings and it's worse than cutting of a limb, it's like losing a part of your soul" I don't ask any of the questions now flying through my head at that. He revealed a little more about himself and I will not push him further. 
"I can only imagine what being unable to fly would be like. I hope I never have to experience it" I say
"I hope so too" Azriel says, quietly.