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Chapter 12 - Emerald The Assassin

"Wakey, wakey, sleepy heads," Margoth had said while tapping Elbereth lightly on the forehead. Neither Sia or Elbereth had heard the audience trio knock or the servants drop off their lunch.

Elbereth flicked his emerald green eyes open ever so slightly to take a gander at who on Oriande was disturbing his rest, only to find a blurry silhouette of Margoth standing above him. He'd guessed Sia would've been the one to wake him up when their food arrived, but alas, she was still curled up next to him with her face nestled in his armpit.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey," Margoth repeated, side-eying the plates of food prepared by the castle chefs sitting untouched by the bed.

"What if I'm a vegan?" Elbereth mumbled, barely drifting out of unconsciousness.

"Then it's wakey, wakey, vegetables and sadness," Rhistel said sternly to him. Margoth was half-expecting him to dump their lunch on their faces or just scoop the mixed vegetables from the plate onto their faces, making it feel like warm oatmeal waking them up. Rhistel may have been a cocky, impudent, aristocratic bastard but even he wasn't as bad as his parents in that respect. Mostly, it was something his father would do to wake him up in the morning. His mother was more overprotective compared to the audaciousness of his father. Lord Evenwind, frankly, was just mean.

"Your lunch is getting cold," Margoth murmured into Elbereth's ear, making the internal hairs stand on end as her cool breath filled his eardrum.

Sia yawned as she heard the sound of more voices and stretched her arms above her head, almost punching her lover in the chin. "I forgot about lunch."

"I forgot we were expecting food, too," Elbereth yawned as he stretched his arms. He guessed their food would've gone cold by now. He was semi-accurate. It hadn't been much longer than half an hour since their plates arrived, and about forty-five minutes since they fell asleep.

"Is it too cold in here?" Valka asked upon noticing Sia wrapped in Elbereth's assassin cloak. He gazed around the room, realizing there was no hearth.

"Little bit," Sia said as she sat up, picking crust out of her eye.

"I could've sworn there was a fireplace in every room of the castle," Valka suspired in the face of the unforeseen circumstances. Despite being alive for a little more than half a century, King Valka had never seen all of the six hundred and twenty-four rooms and what they had to offer in the Castle of Glass. The royal family had only ever utilized a few spaces, and the rest remained untouched but kept tidy for guests.

Rhistel shrugged. "I've never even seen every room of the castle."

"I don't think anyone has," Margoth said. "I know I certainly haven't."

"Nor have I and I live here," Valka reiterated to the group.

As Sia and Elbereth stretched and yawned, continuing to wake from their unexpected nap, they both noticed that Valka's tutor hadn't returned with them. Sia didn't sit up, instead, stayed lying down, wrapped in the warm cloak her lover had offered her.

"Where's Ms. Eirana?" Sia asked Valka, Margoth and Rhistel—but mostly directed her question at Valka, who probably knew her whereabouts better than anyone else.

"She said she'd like to stay to hear the extraordinary tale of Emerald the Assassin...but she noticed how uneasy you already feel with the four of us listening in, so she said she'd just read the book when Rhistel's finished recording," Valka explained.

"Ah." Sia hung her head. She wanted to ask Eirana about the striking emerald green dress she wore and who'd made it. It'd matched the woman's eyes perfectly. She found the stitches to be flawless yet not made by the Va'úhl family. A small part of Sia kind of wanted to know if her family finally had competition.