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Death by Books [Dragonsong!]

Started by Rhindeer, February 01, 2023, 10:40:27 AM

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Rhindeer

There wasn't a whole lot of speaking going on, but the pointed looks and winces and glances exchanged between them all told a greater story. Hayate pressed his lips together, holding his tongue. He had only known the man for a few minutes, if that, and already he was no large fan of their father.

Worse yet, had he...had he just inadvertently gotten Risa into trouble?

The words were calm, but the man's expression was hard. And there was no missing the flush in Risa's cheeks or the way that look silenced her like a slap. Distraction from his duties? That she had caused? Now wait a minute...!

"Your daughter was actually helping me." It wasn't his place to interfere in family matters, and this was none of his business, and he was in no great hurry to spend more time around a source of great embarrassment—he would much prefer to skitter off to be alone in his comfort zone now! And yet he spoke before he could stop himself, a coil of guilt tightening in his belly. It wasn't fair for her to get in trouble only because she'd wanted to help!

"Without even knowing who I was, she came to my aid when I fumbled." He looked over at her and motioned her to rise. "Lift your head, Risa," he said gently, forgetting his previous mortification as fresh irritation bubbled beneath the surface. Despite it, he was careful to keep his voice level and face smooth. "You should be proud of your daughter's selflessness, not ashamed."
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DragonSong

Kenta seemed momentarily taken aback at Hayate's correction of his assumption, but clearly the man had practice in keeping his expression neutral. "I...see." He dipped his head respectfully. "My apologies for the assumption; I only wished to ensure my children had not disturbed your day too much."

Risa thought that was a little rich, coming from the man who'd specifically dragged Ori to the temple to receive a blessing from someone who, she knew now, clearly had other things to be doing with his day. But of course she couldn't say that--she could barely think it without a new flush rising to her cheeks.

Though part of that flush might have been from the suddenly soft way Hayate addressed her. She lifted her head when he bade her, looking up at him with wide eyes for a moment before she nodded quickly and straightened out of her bow. "I... Thank you, Master Hayate," she murmured, sounding mildly stunned. Her stomach was uncomfortably tight, but suddenly she wasn't so sure that was from embarrassment at her father's reprimand. And--and she wasn't convinced it was a bad kind of discomfort either. It was...new.

"You speak wisely, of course," Kenta said with another respectful nod. "Risa has always been a helpful girl."

Ori, not so well practiced at hiding his emotions as their father, pulled a brief face that displayed exactly what he thought about Kenta's abrupt change in tone. Risa caught her brother's eye and shook her head minutely: Not worth it.

"Thank you for your time today, Master Hayate," Kenta continued, "We will leave you to your work." He turned to sweep from the library, beckoning for his children to follow. Ori slouched after him, with another quick nod in Hayate's direction, and Rise moved to bring up the rear--then she hesitated.

Turning back to the librarian, she started automatically, "It was an honor..."

She paused, reconsidered, then said in a slower, softer voice, "It was--it was really nice to meet you...Hayate." Her stomach flipped nervously as she dropped the honorific; but he'd introduced himself to her without it, and so she thought...maybe he didn't really care for it all that much. At least not when he was working as a librarian.

She did give him another quick bow before she scurried after her family, but her tiny smile somehow spoke volumes of the gratitude she couldn't properly express in the moment. Gratitude that had nothing to do with his blessing.

Rhindeer

"It was really nice to meet you...Hayate."

The words tumbled in his head as Hayate watched them go. And that parting smile. That smile.

Hayate didn't know why that smile lingered in his mind's eye, or why her words stuck with him. But as he retreated into the library to clean up the mess and finish his duties, he couldn't stop thinking about their strange interaction and that...that it had been kind of nice.

Nice? What a strange thought. The whole thing had been obnoxious! He had created more work for himself, embarrassed himself before an audience, had a girl all up in his space, and then gotten said girl in and out of trouble in the span of minutes. He should have hated all that nonsense, and in the moment it had been humiliating, and yet...looking back...he could feel only a strange sense of fondness. Her gratitude. The way she chose to say his name and not just his title.

She saw him.

Oh, you're reading far too much into this, you fool.

Yet as much as he would fiercely deny it, for that brief span of time, Risa had given him something he hadn't known he'd been missing: normalcy and, though awkwardly, some sort of kinship. She hadn't known who he was when she first helped him, and knowing who he was hadn't changed her treatment of him.

It was annoying...and it was nice.

And when Hayate washed up after a day of work and settled down for bed in the monastery just behind the library, he couldn't help but smile wryly as he unwrapped the bloodied cloth from his head.

Fool girl.
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DragonSong

She didn't know why she'd done it. Why she'd stayed up until nearly dawn with a jeweler's knife in her hand, sitting hunched at her workbench in the back of the shop and working by candlelight rather than simply igniting a proper lamp; her father had been in high spirits by the time they'd returned to the house, all his irritation forgotten in the wake of Hayate's blessing, but she didn't want to risk igniting his temper. Technically there was nothing wrong with her staying up late to work, but...well, she didn't want to invite questions about it.

Because frankly, she couldn't answer any. Even standing at the entrance to the temple the next day, a small, wrapped package clutched tightly in her hands, she couldn't answer why she was here. There was certainly gratitude, that was part of it, of course. Hayate didn't have to defend her against her father the way he had, and...yes, she wanted to thank him for it.

But—but she also just couldn't get the whole interaction out of her head. How peevish he'd been at first, how...well, how awkward. Nearly as awkward as she'd been. Nothing like what she would have expected from someone of his station.

And then the way the energy in the room had changed when her father and brother appeared. Like there was a sudden weight on Hayate's shoulders, something worse than an entire shelf's worth of library tomes collapsing on him. She still felt oddly guilty about it, about the way his whole demeanor had changed.

That's all this is, she told herself as she began making her way carefully to the temple library. I just...want to say thank you. And to apologize. That's all.

Because if it was anything other than that, if there was any sort of—of friendly impulse, or something like kindship, that would be nothing but sheer arrogance on her part. Presumption.

So she was just here to say thank you, and apologize. Nothing else.

Rhindeer

It was strange, but as Hayate went about his routine the next day, he couldn't quite shake the memory of earlier events. It clung to him like some sort of fine film: the injustice that girl had endured in such a short interaction, and he knew well that despite his intervention, she still had to go home and live with that man. Might he have made the situation worse by speaking up? He may have embarrassed her father, and he might take it out on her later.

Ugh. Hayate carefully rolled up the old scroll he had just finished transcribing onto a fresh sheet of parchment and returned it to its proper place on a freshly dusted shelf. This was why he worked with books and not people. Books were straightforward and didn't talk back or take things the wrong way. You read them and learned and that was that.

People, though. Navigating social situations was like playing a strategy game where everyone knew the rules except for him.

He raked his hands through his hair, wincing a little as he pulled a bit on his scalp and made the healing wound above his eyebrow sting, and he couldn't help but snort at the memory of all their dumb flailing. Her genuine concern and kindness, his fumbling snappishness. He hadn't been very nice, had he...?

Returning to the table he had been working at, he gathered up the pile of books he had borrowed from another scholar to use as reference, and headed for the library doors, balancing them as best as he could while barely able to see over the pile.

Ah, well, he thought as he opened the doors and stepped out. Not like I'll see her again anytime soon--

"WAH!"

His body collided with something solid but also soft and the books flew into the air with the rustle of thousands of pages. NOOOO! Hayate screamed in his head, because he had landed so hard on his ass that it had knocked out all the air he needed to yell it out loud. The books had barely settled in a pile all around him when his eyes locked on the source of this issue.

"You!" he gasped, pointing.
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DragonSong

Noooooooo...

Risa could only stanned there in stunned, mildly incredulous silence as the books rained down around them. Again.

Goddess preserve me. Was this some sort of divine test? Or just a big cosmic joke? Far be it from her to deny anyone their pleasures, but if Inima could perhaps redirect her attention to someone else, anyone else, she would certainly appreciate it.

There was a very long, suffocating moment where Risa just stared down at the collapsed librarian, wide-eyed, and he stared back. Then he pointed at her, gasping, and she suddenly dropped to her knees.

"Oh sweet watching Goddess I am so so sorry," she exclaimed breathlessly as she started trying to gather up the stack of books--carefully. If yesterday had taught her anything, it was that Hayate cared little enough for his own comfort so long as his paper charges were cared for. "I didn't mean to--I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose, I just wanted to--I thought, maybe..."

She swallowed, feeling her cheeks flush as she bit her lip. She couldn't say it. Just trying to form the words in her mouth rather than her mind made her realize how silly she was being--and now she'd interrupted his work again, and--and dear sweet stars she should just turn tail now and head home with whatever scraps of dignity she could claw off the temple floor.

She was so caught up in her spiraling thoughts that she didn't actually realize that she had dropped the wrapped package she'd been holding in amongst the books when Hayate ran into her.

Rhindeer

Hayate opened and closed his mouth like a fish, groping for words and deciding they were the wrong words each time. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes. No no no, do not say the first thing that comes to mind! Because the first things that came to mind were cranky and unfair and not representative of how he truly felt, and it wasn't like she meant to be in his path. Even before she started breathlessly apologizing, Hayate knew that if anything, this was his fault for being in a rush and not paying attention to where he was going and that his irritation was at the situation, not her--she just happened to be a convenient target.

But sweet Inima, what were the chances that it would be her again, two days in a row, under such similar circumstances?!

With a long-suffering sigh, he shifted onto his knees to help gather up the books, shooing her with a hand to indicate he could take over. "You must be an entropymancer to have this kind of luck," he said at last, then shot a look at her, frowning. "You needn't grovel and apologize so much. You're far too awkward for me to think you'd do something like this maliciously."

...Oops. That came out...a little wrong. Hayate froze for a moment, then cleared his throat awkwardly (pot, meet the kettle) and quickly continued gathering his books. Except when he lifted one book, he spotted something amongst the pile that wasn't his.

Plucking up the package, he held it out to her. "This yours?"
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DragonSong

"Oh no."

Risa's cheeks darkened another shade and she had to fight the urge to just curl up in a ball with an embarrassed groan. "I-I mean yes, that--I brought that. With me. But it's not mine. I mean, I made it, so in that sense it's mine, but it's not--I didn't...I thought..."

She swallowed, closed her eyes, and just accepted that she would remember this moment with mortification for the rest of her natural life. "I wanted...to give you something. To say thank you. For yesterday."

Determinedly, she continued to carefully stack books. It was easier to talk if she wasn't looking at him while she did it. "I noticed that, um, that bracelet you wear, and I thought you might like--I'm sorry, it was silly." She waved a hand at the box he held--which if he opened, contained a pair of jade earrings much like the bone set he already wore, but with a delicately carved lotus relief to match the charm on his silver bracelet.

Rhindeer

It was Hayate's turn to flush several shades darker as he stared at the little box with wide eyes and growing realization. The girl's words were all over the place, but he got the gist of it.

A thank you gift. For speaking up yesterday.

She had noticed his bracelet.

"Oh...uh..." Clearing his throat, Hayate set down the books he'd gathered up in one arm so he could focus on opening the box, his nimble fingers suddenly feeling thick and fumbling. And then his breath caught as he saw what it contained:

Jade earrings with a lotus relief that matched the charm on his bracelet. She had more than noticed what he wore--she had noted the fine details. And a jade pair! That was expensive!

Hayate's jaw dropped, hidden behind the hand he clapped to his mouth in surprise, and much to his horror he felt his face heat until it burned. Shaking his head quickly, he held the box back out to her. "I-I couldn't!" he said. "That's--that's a small fortune, I--you didn't have to--!" Ahh! Now it was his turn to be tongue-tied!
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DragonSong

"Oh, no no, please!" Risa set her own armload of books aside to gently press the box back toward him. "R-really, it's not like--I mean, I m-made them, so it didn't cost me anything more than a late night," she tried to joke, then winced. Was that disrespectful? She wasn't sure if it made her seem cheap, like the idea of the gift had only been palatable to her as long as it didn't put her out any coin.

"Please," she said again, a little quieter, with her eyes downcast, "I...would really like you to have them. You didn't have to--" She swallowed, bit her lip, huffed, then continued, "You didn't have to speak up for me yesterday like you did. I mean, of course your blessing is so deeply appreciated, by our whole family!" she added hurriedly, cheeks dark as she reached up to absently tug at a lock of hair. "But I...no one--no one has ever done something like that before. For me..."

She swallowed again and looked away, rubbing her palms nervously along her thighs where she knelt, up and down the length of her skirt until the fabric bunched. "I know it's silly," she mumbled, unable to look him in the eye, "but I really--I wanted you to know how much I...appreciated it."

She glanced at the mess of books around them and groaned quietly. "And I did not want to make your work day more difficult."

Rhindeer

For what he did?! He barely did a thing! Certainly nothing that warranted an expensive gift like this! All he did was say some mumbo jumbo words over the kid and tell her father to chill, more or less! That's all!

And yet there she went, saying those stunning words: "No one has ever done something like that before. For me..."

Hayate's eyes went wide and he flailed his hands in panic. "I-it was nothing! Really!" he choked, and winced as soon as the words tumbled out because clearly it was something to her. And the implication was as embarrassing as it was saddening, because it was such a simple, basic kindness. Had her own family failed to show that to her? Well...he hadn't been long in her family's presence, but her father certainly didn't seem the warm, affectionate sort and Risa's reaction to his reprimand had been so flinching. Hayate might prefer books to company in most cases, but being reserved in social settings meant he had plenty of time to observe. Risa and her father hadn't needed to exchange words; their expressions and body language (not to mention her brother's reactions) said plenty about their dynamic.

"I-I mean! Ah! That sounded wrong, apologies, I mean to say...uh..." Nervously, he pushed his glasses further up on his nose even though they needed no adjusting, and since that wasn't satisfying enough, he took to playing with a lock of his hair--mimicking Risa without even realizing it. "It's...it's fine, really. I couldn't not speak up. How could I stay silent and let you take the fall for my clumsiness? That wouldn't be right. I--"

He looked back at the box. Refusing again would be rude after she had insisted--and after she had made them for him! Stayed up late at night to finish them! He was fumbling along awkwardly, not quite sure what to say, and bit his lip to stop from babbling more idiocy. Breathe. In and out. Clear the mind. Think.

He let out a breath and, after a moment's hesitation, took the box. "Th-thank you." And then he added, a little under his breath and without looking at her. "It's not silly, either. It's...it's very thoughtful and...um...they're quite beautiful."
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

DragonSong

He couldn't not speak up, he said. As though hundreds of people every minute of every day simply didn't speak up. Maybe she was--okay, she knew she was overly sensitive to this sort of thing. She never doubted that her father wanted the best for her, that he loved her, he just...wasn't always good at showing it. And he didn't seem to realize how much wariness his strict mannerisms had instilled in his children.

But it was obvious that other people realized. Every so often they'd be out, or dealing with a particular customer, and she would make a mistake, and Kenta would snap at her--and she would see in the stranger's eyes that they thought he was being overly harsh. But no one ever said anything, because that wouldn't be proper, it would be overstepping, it wasn't their place.

It occurred to her that Hayate meant it: he couldn't not speak up. And he didn't even realize how extraordinary that idea was to her.

Still a little flushed, she smiled when he finally accepted the box. The expression changed something in her face, smoothing the nervous edges and even turning her embarrassed blush into something softer. "You're welcome," she told him genuinely. "I--I'm glad you like them."

The heat in her cheeks did ramp back up a bit and she added, slipping back toward her initial awkward nervousness, "And, ah, thank you." Any artist enjoyed being told their work was beautiful, and she was hardly so arrogant as to think she was the exception.

Still, the compliment combined with his own quiet, nervous energy had her stammering again as she gestured to the books around them. "C-can I help you with these?" It was her fault he'd dropped them, after all.

Rhindeer

Hayate's shoulders slouched in defeat at her offer. He wanted to say no. He wanted to slink away in embarrassment and hide amongst his responsibilities. And yet, for the life of him...he couldn't say the words. Maybe it was the gift making him feel obligated in some strange way. Maybe it was him just wanting to give her the chance to make herself feel better by helping.

It wasn't either of those things, but that's what he told himself.

"You know what? Yes. Yes, you can help," he said tiredly, and he scooped up two books and handed them to her, while he scooped up the remaining stack of five. "I borrowed these and I need to return them, and they'll be safer in two sets of arms than one, especially considering my current curse of clumsiness." He slid a pointed look at her. "Which seems to have a source."

But even as he said it, his lips quirked up a little.
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

DragonSong

Risa perked up immediately when he handed her the books, quickly standing and cradling them to her chest.

"O-oh, I'm so--" She automatically stared to apologize before she caught the way his mouth quirked up as he said it. Her cheeks flushed, but her own lips twitched into half a smile in response.

"Perhaps I'm whatever the opposite of a lucky charm is," she chuckled, self-deprecating but somehow lighthearted. She let herself fall into step beside him as they started to walk through the temple grounds. "Now, if only I could make it happen on command rather than cursing whatever poor soul I happen to literally run into..."

Rhindeer

"Entropymancy," Hayate said, peering around his stack of books at Risa. "That's what it's called when you can do it on command. Entropy is decay, and luck is just the decay of probability. It's an entire classification of magic that's--" He stopped himself short, realizing he was likely to go on a tangent, and tangents could be quite embarrassing. Especially when the other party had zero interest in what you had to say and you had little ability to tell when they had zoned out.

"I'm not sure where I was going with that. Point is, who knows? Being the opposite of a good luck charm...it's really not as crazy an idea as it might sound. Not that that's the case with you. Your timing is just..." He stopped himself, searching for a word that wouldn't sound offensive.

"...incredible. Maybe even kind of lucky, depending on your point of view? Anyway, follow me. We don't have far to go, it's just on the other end of the monastery."
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

DragonSong

She blinked, not expecting a real, thoughtful answer to her off-hand joke. A thoughtful and clearly well-researched answer. She listened intently as Hayate began to explain that entropymancy was in fact its own class of magic.

But then he stopped abruptly--so abruptly that she almost missed a step, not realizing herself the amount of attention she'd been giving him. "Lucky," she repeated with a quiet laugh. "Can't say that's something I've been called often, despite my mother's expectations."

She picked up her pace a bit to make sure she wasn't lagging behind him, btu she didn't quite have the confidence to walk properly side by side. After a moment of hesitation, she asked quietly, "Do you...know anything else about entropymancy? Or, um, other magical classifications?"

She'd actually been interested in what had sounded something like the beginning of an academic lecture, but she wasn't sure if it might be considered rude to ask him to repeat himself in the hope of learning more as they walked.

Rhindeer

Risa's question drew a surprised laugh out of Hayate--the first laugh he had uttered around her. "Are you sure you want the answer?" he asked, swinging to look at her, since she wasn't quite keeping up. Maybe he was walking too quickly; he tended to scurry wherever he was going because he liked to be efficient and waste little time, but he slowed a little to give her a chance to pull up next to him.

"What I mean is...you may want to refine your question a little, because that's many hours worth of material right there. There are so, so many classifications and schools of magic, not all of them known. I haven't a lick of magical talent myself, but I have a surface understanding of many types. Did you have something specific in mind?"

Oh, yeah, this was right up his alley.
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DragonSong

Hoping she wasn't reading the slight slowing of his gait incorrectly, Risa lengthened her stride slightly so she was walking alongside him properly. "I do! Want the answer, I mean--" She cut herself off and chuckled a little sheepishly before clarifying, "I find most magical theory fascinating, but I suppose I have a certain interest in...the more ephemeral, I suppose. Magic that doesn't impact the physical."

Like her own. But that was a sensitive subject at the best of times--and she never used her earth affinity, so what did it matter, right?

Shrugging a bit, she added with a small smile in his direction, "I mean, if you don't mind sharing what you've read, I'd love to hear more. Once my father realized I had something of a knack for jeweling, he encouraged me to focus my energy on that. I don't have much more than a very basic scope of knowledge when it comes to magical theory."

Rhindeer

"Ah, well, let's see," Hayate said, frowning in thought, his feet carrying him where he needed to go out of sheer force of habit—which was good, because he had stopped paying attention to their destination.

"As I said, I'm not the most read on these subjects, some of my colleagues would know more, but entropymancy...you may have heard it before as the gift our Seam Rippers have. They play a very important role here in helping with fermentation and fertilization, since our climate doesn't exactly produce the best soil for farming. They help keep us fed, and their partners keep them in check because in the wrong hands, a gift of decay could be...problematic, to say the least. The stuff about luck I mentioned? Unfortunately, that's about the extent of my knowledge. I'm not quite sure about the mechanisms of it. Then you mentioned ephemeral magic. Seam Menders would fall under that likely, they're the checks and balances to the Rippers. Soul Speaking is definitely not physical, nor divination...those are all matters that extend beyond our world into wherever it is the dead go. Speakers and diviners merely find the places where the veil between the two is thinnest and bridge the gap, inviting our ancestors to talk—or, in the case of the diviners, they read the threads of fate Inima weaves, I suppose."

He paused, realizing he had been talking for a while and not quite sure if he had actually, ahem, answered anything for her. He cleared his throat.

"I really only know that much because there's so many among my caste who have those gifts. And other magics, well, I suppose I shouldn't really speak on the forbidden ones. The Serenians for example deal with...eugh...a lot of glamours and fae cantrips for example—that is not to be messed with. That's a good way to be lost and never found again."
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DragonSong

Risa was so intent on the impromptu lecture that she didn't realize she'd been trusting his sense of direction entirely until he paused for a moment and she found that she had no idea how they'd gotten to this section of the temple.

She decided not to give it much thought--she'd been following him this far, after all, may as well commit. She nodded emphatically at his assessment of Serenian magics. "My mother used to tell Ori and me mainland stories of disobedient children who were vanished in by the fae," she said with a small shudder. "I know she just wanted to make sure we behaved--and she always made it sound like something that happened over there, but..." She shrugged with a slightly self-conscious little smile. "Sometimes if I think about it too hard it still makes me nervous."

She paused a moment, then chuckled quietly and added, "Granted, my mother tells some fairly unbelievable stories about my own birth. I think she just likes to be dramatic."

The moment the words were out of her mouth her eyes widened and she pressed her lips together tightly. While that wasn't necessarily a disrespectful thing to say of one's parents, it struck her that it wasn't exactly polite either. Especially not to someone she really barely knew.

She cleared her throat quickly. "Well, ah, thank you! That was...very interesting. How often do you find yourself exposed to magical study?" She cocked her head at him a bit. "I mean, is it part of your duties here? Or more...coincidental? If I can ask," she added hurriedly, not wanting to overstep.

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