“Yes!” breathed Seriss through gritted teeth.
Kael chuckled, and he was not the only one, “Patient is not quite the word I would use.”
Some sat, some stood, some paced. Kael leant against the wall with his fingers laced over his flat stomach; flirting with the present company only served as a worthwhile pastime for so long before they eventually told him to bug off, or he got bored. Seriss was sitting against the wall beside him picking dirt from under her nails with a small carved wooden blade she’d had in her boot. Why the girl deigned to carry a weapon was beyond him when she could unleash talons and fangs on a whim. At least she was wearing boots today. Something about the crispness of the morning and heating the air being a waste of mana and heating the skin making the cold worse like a having a fever.
“Do you think we will have to make formal introduction when we report?” Kael asked no one in particular as they all milled about in the courtyard.
“Like what?” Seriss inquired.
“Like, Kaeleb of the house of Balor, son of Enrick son of Dermir, heir to Westmount Hall…”
“Didn’t you renounce your claim to the inheritance when you joined the Guard?”
“Not really. I may not be my father’s only child but I am his only son. He was disgruntled by my leaving the household but deemed a position in the guard honourable enough a vocation not to disinherit me. If I do not return to make my claim the hall would fall either to my little sister, or to my father’s brother’s son, my cousin. Or I can appoint a reagent and still claim ownership while remaining in the service of the Guard.” Kaeleb slid down the took a seat next to his partner."
“Huh. Sounds complicated to me.” The volume of her voice dropped, “My introduction would be, Seriss of the house of that-tiny-little-apothecary-in-that-city-in-Lorthus, natural daughter of Meganna. Heir to nothing.”
“Wouldn’t it be Serissa…?” he teased, avoiding the more painful topics in her statement.
“Shut it. On every page of paper I have ever signed since I could write my name has been Seriss.”
“What of your father’s fortune?”
“Who?”
“Sorry, yes, I forgot. Step-father’s?”
“Alas for elder step-brothers. First to inherit by blood and age and gender.”
“Not everyone holds to the old rules of inheritance.”
“I will not rely on inheritance. I have survived without riches thus far, and can continue to do so. I will live ‘til I die upon the generosity of the Guard, and upon the rewards of my own labour. Or until I get bored, abandon my human skin for good and fly as far as my wings will carry me.”
They remained silent for a while.
“I don’t think formal introduction will be necessary, we’ve been here seven years after all.” Kaleb murmured. Seriss got to her feet, tucking her knife back in her boot.
“How long are they going to keep us waiting?” she was back on the defensive. Nothing made her more grouching than feeling like she’d revealed some vulnerability, even to him after all these years. To one of few she had revealed her history to before.
“I mean, we could be training, or resting. Do I have time to fetch a book or something, or do you think we will actually be let in some time soon? If they weren’t ready to receive us they shouldn’t have called us. Or if they’re waiting for all of us to all be present, they should have just let us in when we first arrived and let the late-comers reap the consequences of their tardiness.”
“Firstly, take care how speak, little bird. Secondly, you can’t talk of tardiness, remember that first year when you overslept and then got lost despite your ‘keen dragon sense of direction’ and ended up arriving to that lesson as we were being dismissed to lunch.”
She waved a hand dismissively but her complaining ceased and she continued to pace in silence. Kaeleb sighed.
“Hey Eshe dear,” he called turning his attention to one of the other occupants of the courtyard. “Have I said how ravishing you’re looking today?”
“Patient is not the word I would use.”
Seriss scowled briefly at her partner and at the amused older knights but then turned her attention forward. Having them at her back made her edgy, and she tried to keep a sense of where they stood and moved, but the doors were before her now and the Masters were just beyond them.