COF 2: The Soul Spells

7 | Aunt (I)

Cyrdel was smart enough to step between them in the midst of the confusion.

"Everyone," he strode to the woman's side. "This is Airene. She's Ravalee's aunt," Cyrdel scratched his head with a finger. "That means she is your aunt too, Miss Vivenca."

Xanthy's gut swirled with anticipation. Another aunt? Marthiaq did mention that she had an aunt that guarded her. How was this woman different?

She flinched when Cyrdel clapped his hands. "Dinner will be served some time soon. Let me arrange your temporary rooms while we prepare."

He turned to the three of them. "We shall head to dinner in approximately fifteen minutes. You will be my honored guests. Please act accordingly, Miss. Vivenca, Mister Helgase, and Just June."

With that, the prince exited the room. June muttered under his breath. Xanthy caught Airene's eye, but the woman turned away before Xanthy could even open her mouth. Her aunt filed out of the room with Ravalee in her wake.

Soon, Xanthy was shuffled into their given rooms which smelled like cleret poison by brownies dressed in plain, ocher tunics with scarlet bands on their sleeves. Nyxis had pinched his nose and had refused to breathe until enough of the smell had wafted into the corridor.

June and Nyxis shared a room while Xanthy got hers just adjacent to theirs. Xanthy wrinkled her nose, for once agreeing with Nyxis about the smell, and set her things on the bed of her room. Her fingers brushed the bow slung across her torso; her eyes moved to the quiver at her waist.

She shook her head and shrugged, removing both from her person. This was a peaceful city. There's no need to parade weapons around.

She kept her stash of versallis on the pockets of her trousers, though. There's no way she'd let her hard-earned wage part from her and risk a chance of being stolen.

Xanthy headed out into the corridor to join June and Byxis waiting for the "dinner bell" to ring. Shouldn't they eat dinner in their rooms instead? What's up with brownies even having dinner? What happened to the fairy potions thing?

"You really think we should trust these people?" Nyxis aired after a few seconds of silence. He stood in front of a glass case with an elaborate dagger inside it and pored at his face. "Gods, I look like a graspel," he muttered under his breath.

Xanthy rolled her eyes. Leave it to Nyxis to always find something to admire himself in. "They have not hurt us so far, so I guess we could?" She braced her hips.

Xanthy had been wondering about that herself. Why, of all the people she has to meet, would she meet the Alkaran prince, himself. Coincidence?

June snapped his fingers. "You said you are looking for your parents. Who is to say that they are in Alkara? Elred did tell you to look here."

The mention of the shard fairy twinged a strange nerve in Xanthy's neck. Xanthy wasn't angry. Not only had the shard fairy had everyone fooled by being a noble managing a textile production estate by the name of Vikara Sandiega, she had also told Xanthy things that were equally important but not one connected to the questions she had back then.

Elred simply had too many secrets that she kept and Xanthy wasn't big on following a word that woman said. But, looking at it now, perhaps the shard fairy was right. Xanthy found her aunt here. Maybe Xanthy could still learn something.

Though, she hated it that Elred was somehow right.

"Maybe Airene knows something," she shook her head as she reasoned. "Ravalee, too. We are staying until we know more."

"I do not trust royals," June's voice was thick and on edge.

"Well, thank you!" Nyxis pried himself off the mirror to whirl to them.

"Not you," June rolled his eyes, waving his hands vaguely. "At least you do not rub it into everyone's faces that you are one. Go back to admiring yourself."

Nyxis did just that.

June turned back to Xanthy who raised an eyebrow. He put his palms up. "I do not mean to drive you the wrong way, but royals generally have that air of importance around them and that somehow does not sit well with me. It seemed evident in the brownies' case," he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms against his chest.

"You have not even met them," Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. "How can you think that?"

"Well, did you see their houses in Percester?" June inclined his head at her. "That is enough proof."

"You cannot judge a person based on their house," Xanthy matched June's stance with her arms crossed, too.

June sighed. "Whatever you think. But I am warning you. My senses tell me they would not be that open to us the way you expected. I already caught suspicious glances trained on us back at the Temple."

Xanthy pursed her lips. Why was June quick to jump into conclusions when he hadn't even talked to a single one? Besides, these people were her race. They're brownies. Who's to say they wouldn't accept her as one of her own? She should act like she belonged, shouldn't she?

Xanthy chewed her lips as silence dawned around the three of them once more. She couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, June was right or he would eventually be. She'd had those thoughts as well on the way here.

So far, it's because she was with Cyrdel that no one bothered her. What would happen if they knew that she's raised by humans? What if she was somehow identified as a defective fairy?

A distant bell clanged. Dinner has come.