A court of water and worlds

Chapter #54

Gwyn woke up to the smell of pancakes.
All other thoughts emptied out of her mind as her stomach grumbled.
Had she forgotten to eat dinner last night? She couldn't remember.
She rolled over to her side Marveling in the silken sheets.
Of course Azriel has silk sheets.
She looked out the window, at the rising sun.
Today was a new day. She felt more clear headed and ready to figure out her mess of a life.
She also really wanted pancakes.
She threw the covers off of herself and huffed a laugh as she saw her clothes.
She was basically swimming in fabric.
She honestly didn't think Azriel was that much larger than her, but she was definitely wrong.
She stood up, and the loose pants almost fell off of her body. She quickly rolled them and braided back her long hair then made her way out of the bedroom.
She didn't understand why she wasn't more concerned right now. She was in a foreign place, but she wasn't panicking.
Maybe she had gotten over her fear?
Gwyn blinked at the thought and smiled. She felt a little lighter.
She continued making her way down the hall and into the kitchen area.
She hadn't noticed how beautiful the apartment was until now.
She looked around to find that the kitchen had marble countertops and lots of windows.
She would have expected the shadowsinger to like the darkness more.
She turned to find a couch and a couple of sitting chairs facing an elegant marble fireplace that matched the counter tops.
The shadowsinger had taste.
She turned back to the kitchen, to the smell of pancakes.
"Good morning," his back was to her displaying those beautiful wings she definitely didn't think about at least once a day.
Azriel was flipping pancakes.
"Morning," she said, taking a seat in a bar stool.
He turned around and Gwyn was absolutely blown away.
Cauldron, if she didn't think he was pretty before...
His hair was all ruffled, and his clothes— he wasn't wearing his leathers.
Gwyn Honestly couldn't think of a time she had seen him in anything else.
He had on soft, black, loose fitting pants that cinched at the end. And he paired it with a dark grey shirt.
This outfit looked almost exactly like the one he had given her but his shirt was short sleeved. Which was good. Gwyn liked the sight of his arms.
Which his shadows were currently swirling around.
And his face was so beautiful.
Obviously, Gwyn thought.
"Are you feeling better?" He handed her a plate of pancakes.
She looked at the pancakes and frowned.
She had almost forgotten why she was here.
"I'm feeling," she paused and sighed in frustration, "I don't know how I'm feeling."
She tried sorting through her emotions last night but fell asleep from exhaustion.
He studied her for a moment.
"Rhysand and Feyre are meeting with Eris tonight. They wanted to give you time but they can't risk the Illyrians' safety. And you don't have to go if you don't want to."
She nodded looking down at her pancakes.
She honestly had no clue how to feel.
"Yesterday, you said Eris is an ass."
"Yes," he said simply, turning back around to flip the last pancakes.
"Care to elaborate?"
Gwyn wanted to know what kind of a person Eris was. Regardless of what Azriel said, she would see Eris.
It's what her mother would have wanted.
She just wanted to know what she should be preparing for.
An Evil sadistic killer, or a nice old man who bakes pies.
Apparently Eris leans more towards the ladder.
"I feel wrong saying this because he is your family and all, but I hate Eris," Azriel said seriously, walking over to the other side of the bar to sit next to her.
"Wow, ok," Gwyn said, blowing out a breath.
"Anything specific about him you hate?"
Azriel took a bite of his pancakes. He didn't even put syrup on it. He literally just picked up the whole pancake and ate it.
"What?" He had the audacity to find her staring at him strangely when he eats pancakes like an old grandfather who can't handle sweet things.
Which is false, Gwyn has seen Azriel eat enormous amounts of cake before.
"Why don't you put syrup on your pancakes?" Gwyn asked, then looked around for the syrup.
She found none.
"Why don't you have syrup in your house?" She was flabbergasted.
Not only did Azriel not use syrup. He didn't even own it!
"I don't like it that much. I've always liked my pancakes plain."
Gwyn scrunched her face in disgust.
"Well, what am I supposed to eat my pancakes with?"
He frowned at her.
"Do you know how high maintenance you are, Gwyneth?" He got out of his chair and grabbed a bowl of raspberries.
"I'm honestly not that high maintenance. All I require is water, food— that includes condiments such as syrup, clothing, and shelter..." she trailed off watching him in confusion.
"What are you doing?" She watched him mash the raspberry in the bowl with a fork.
"I'm making you a topping for your pancakes, you dunce," pointed at her with his fork.
Gwyn glared at him.
"You know, calling me mean names doesn't work if I don't know what they mean."
"It refers to," he grabbed her plate of pancakes, "a child, who has difficulty learning things."
He poured the mashed raspberries on her pancakes aggressively.
His shadows peeked over his shoulders.
"Here," he pushed the plate back towards her.
She studied it, "I didn't poison it. You literally watched me make it. It's just mashed up raspberries."
"So this is what you eat instead of syrup?" She cut off a piece and stabbed it with her fork.
"Most of the time I eat pancakes plain, but sometimes I want something sweet and—-
"You don't store syrup in your home because you are a crazy person. So you resort to raspberries."
He stared at her , "you don't have to eat it if you don't want to."
That sounded like a challenge to Gwyn. She was going to win so she kept her eyes locked on him as she shoved the piece in her mouth.
It tasted... good.
Her eyes widened as she took in all the flavors. The sweet, and fluffy pancakes paired perfectly with the tangy fresh raspberries.
"Better than syrup?" He was leaning across the bar, chin resting on his hand. His shadows lingered at his temples.
She took another bite, "no, I still think it needs syrup, but i'd keep the raspberries as well."
"You're saying you now need both syrup and raspberries?"
She nodded.
He gave her a look that said, and you say you're not high maintenance?
"This is your fault," she pointed at him with her fork, "you just made me more high maintenance by giving me raspberries."
Azriel huffed a laugh and shoved another plain pancake into his mouth.
They both just watched each other completely content for a minute.
Then Gwyn remembered.
"We were talking about Eris..." she trailed off and Azriel nodded.
"Yeah, he..." he paused, looking pensive.
"It's hard to determine how I feel about him with everything that we just learned, but I do know he hurt Mor. And he is just an asshole in general. He is supposedly the heir to Autumn so as you would imagine he is cold and cunning—- the perfect emissary, and courtier, just like his brother—-
"Which brother?" Gwyn knew there were five Vanserra brothers in total.
Shit.
That ment she had four great uncles.
She was not planning on meeting them.
"Lucien, Eris' younger brother. He is emissary to night. He is also an important figure who represents the human lands, and keeps us in contact with Spring—
"Tamlin," Gwyn thought out loud.
Maybe Lucien knew Tamlin. Maybe he could provide her with information about him before she met him. If she met him.
"Yes, he used to be close personal friends with Tamlin Until Feyre."
"What do you mean?"
"You do know she used to be engaged to Tamlin, right?"
Gwyn froze.
"What?! Feyre and Tamlin?"
Azriel nodded, "that was how she ended up saving all the high lords from under the mountain. She went there to save Tamlin, who she loved at the time."
"What happened?"
"He broke her." lethal fury lit the shadowsinger's eyes.
Tamlin, her father, the high lord of spring, hurt Feyre?
"I would tell you more but I'm afraid it's not my story to tell. But Feyre eventually left Tamlin four years ago and has been with Rhys ever since. Tamlin didn't take the break up too well and Feyre kind of tore apart his court.
He and his court have been in shambles ever since."
Gwyn was trying to process all this information. She also had been replacing the word "Tamlin" with "her father" so maybe it would stick.
It was really weird to think her dad was engaged to marry Feyre. She was older than Feyre.
But fae are immortal so.....
Wait, he also said spring court was in shambles?
"Spring court is destroyed?" She couldn't imagine a powerful court to be taken apart by one person.
But the person was Feyre.
"It has always been unstable, but especially in the last four years. Tamlin has been in his wolf form since then."
So Tamlin— her father, preferred claws, and fur?
"Feyre told me she saw him the other day," Gwyn recalled Feyre telling her that right before she told Gwyn he was her father.
Azriel shook his head, "if she has, I haven't heard about it."
Gwyn nodded and added talking to Feyre and Lucien on her list.
"What time is it?" She finished off her pancakes and looked up at Az.
"Noon."
"What?! Why didn't you get me up earlier?"
"You were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you," a faint blush started to creep its way into his cheeks.
That wasn't the only reason, huh?
She stared him down, and he stared back, those hazel eyes cutting through her. But she held out.
He gave in, "I slept in," his cheeks were now a light pink color.
"You forgot to wake up. Wow, I had no idea you were so lenient with your sleep schedule."
She honestly assumed the shadowsinger never slept.
"I'm not lenient with my sleep schedule..." he paused to think, "I just couldn't seem to wake up. And I fell asleep so quickly last night I forgot to open the curtains out here. So I didn't have the sun to wake me up."
"I fell asleep quickly too," she agreed.
Yes, for some reason she found it much easier to sleep in his presence.
She wondered if he felt that same about her.
She Searched his eyes for an answer but found none.
Her eyes trailed down to his cheeks and she spotted a fallen eyelash.
She lifted her hand to his face and he didn't flinch away.
One of his shadows swirled around her arm as she took the eyelash off his cheek and held it up to him.
"Make a wish. And make it a good one," she demanded.
Gwyn watched him give her a lazy smile, "only the best for you Gwyn," and he gently blew the eyelash off her finger.
"What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you that," he teased and she glared at him, Letting herself study his features for another moment.
"Shit, it's twelve and we're meeting Eris tonight," she just realized.
She looked down at her clothes—-Azriel's clothes.
She really needed to get her shit together.
"I'll winnow you back so you can get changed before the meeting," he assured, "though I do love seeing how small and frumpy you look in my clothes," he chuckled.
"Stop making fun of me. You gave me these clothes, your the reason I look like this!" She crossed her arms, feeling offended.
He just laughed harder.
Gwyn succumbed to the smile pulling at her lips.
"I think you look beautiful Gwyneth," he pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek before getting up to put their empty plates in the sink.
She felt something glowing within her at the touch of his lips. So soft against her skin.
Stop.
She needed to focus.
Today she was going to meet Eris, and they would find the location of narben.
She didn't know where her anxiety came from; meeting her grandfather for the first time or finding a death sword.