The Dragon's Workshop

[Lord Dror]

"Last night?" Adis eyes sparkled. "Oh, my. Dror, my brother." she giggled.

Dror looked up at her.

"So you did have a reason for skipping dinner last night." she grinned evily. "What was so eventful I wonder, that you would defy fathers wishes, dinner with your family, and risk getting that scar of yours burned so badly?" she tisked.

Drors heart was racing. He couldn't keep his eyes out of Adi's, he had become trapped in her gaze. The world around him was turning dark, dark like a cave. All he could see was himself and Adi's mesmerizing glare. The room was changing before his eyes, but he could not break the eye link he had.

He was petrified. He shook his head frantically. Please, please dont..

[Sir Ethaan]

Ethaan cleared his throat. "No, not particularly difficult, anymore. I did hail from the golden lands, once upon a time. Every elf does."

He ground his teeth so hard it was surely audible, and his eyes went steely cold. Her father. "I'm afraid I don't see the resemblance," he said.

...At the compounding of Celia's remark, and then Adi's reaction to it, his glare began to practically glitter. "My lady, head out of the gutter, please, this is mixed company," he drawled. "Lord Dror only thought it damnably rude to faff off to a dinner to which his guests were not invited while they stayed at his house." And now he was being damnably rude as well, but hell if he was going to let that slide any which way. And now Adi was on the verge of telling Celia about Dror's scar without his permission, and he was clenching his hands hard enough to make the fractured bone creak.

[Celia Hand]

Celia stared at Dror, horror creeping up in the back of her mind. Risk getting his scar burned? What scar? Was that what passed for punishment in this world? The implications were making her sick.

[Sano YH Splikitt]

Adi giggled at Sano. "Oh come now Sano, let bygones be bygones. You hold grudges as strongly as we dragons do. Do you want to talk about it? Kitty said in the past communication is healthy." she smirked, and leaned herself romantically onto the edge of the couch.

Sanos hair was darkening, his smile struggling to keep composure. "I wonder Lady Adi, why you wanted me to dress you at all today if you plan on being so difficult."

Hearing Ethaan speak like that to Adi made Sano nervous. If Ethaan did something - not only could the elf be banished, but Sano and Celia too if Adi was as silver tongued as she was. Ethaan, calm yourself. he warned in his eyes.

Adi noticed Celia's facial expression, and her smile sharpened into pure delight. "Goodness. And you didn't tell her? Dror, and I thought better of you." she tisked.

[Lord Dror]

Dror looked guiltily at Celia in the corners of his eyes. He wanted to tell her, tell her everything. But not like this, and not in front of Adi!

"My sister please, you're making my guests uncomfortable.." his brow wrinkled.

Adi completely ignored Dror. Slithering her way back into a sitting position, she stared at Ethaan with a confident smirk. "Understandable. It is hard to see the resemblance when you have only met him for a day, and I hundreds of years. But, from what I can tell of you Sir Ethaan, you are just as prone to irritation and grumpiness as he is." she giggled. "Pardon me if I am wrong."

"Gutter?" she questioned with blinking fox eyes. "Oh you are noble of a knight indeed Sir Ethaan. However, my brother has not missed a single summon from my father from the day he actually could remember such an order." she smiled.

[Sir Ethaan]

"I'm just allergic to bullshit, is all," said Ethaan, his voice all hard edges. "Back up a little, you'll start making me sneeze."

He really shouldn't be engaging this woman, but holy ******** if he didn't he thought he'd break something. The bones in his hand were already nearly audible gritting against each other from the amount he was clenching down.

He smiled, all bright teeth. "Has he, now? Hm. Getting worried, now that he has?"

[Celia Hand]

Celia looked at Adi with a cool glance.

"Your ladyship, with all due respect," she said, "Dror's secrets are his own, and he knows best what he is comfortable saying. If there is something he has not told me, it's hardly our place to push him into revealing it." She wished she could squeeze Dror's hand to let him know that she trusted him, but that would be far too overt.

[Sano YH Splikitt]

Sano bit his lips from smiling. He totally should not be enjoying what Ethaan was saying.

"Oh, but its not a secret." Adi said to Celia. "Clearly by the grinding noises Sir Ethaan is making with his hands makes it clear that even he knows about it. Isn't that true my brother? As well as all of my sisters, my step mother, and especially my father." she smiled. "Here, I'll make it easy on you Dror, you've always been too kind for your own good."

Adi stood up, and moved over to the couch where Celia was sitting. She sat next to her, and smiled softly, her blood red eyes watching Dror closely.

[Lord Dror]

Drors eyes dilated. The illusion of the dark room was gone now, but his heart was still racing as he saw Adi walk closer, and closer to Celia. Even his emotionless mask couldn't hold together with what was happening. Dror didn't want to risk Adi doing anything to Celia if he said anything, but his nerves wouldn't stop screaming to act!

Adi laughed cattily at Ethaan. "Then I'll be sure to sit far away. To be as hospitable as possible."

Her face lost some of its amusement. "I am worried, in the way that I think its best for his health to not make my father angry. Isn't that right my brother? He can be such a stupid brother at times." she smirked at Dror.

Dror looked at Adi, and Celia. She knew. She completely knew Drors feelings. He could tell in those eyes. Why wasn't she pointing it out? Why? "It.." he swallowed. "Adi-"

Her eyes suddenly sharpened like flaming blades when he used her name. This silenced Dror completely.

[Sir Ethaan]

Ethaan made a sharp movement, like he was going to stand up, but caught himself on the edge of his seat, his eyes ice cold and still fixed on Adi. He made sure he could still reach around Celia to punch the dragoness if he needed to.

"No, it isn't healthy for him to upset you, is it?" he ground out. "And you would make his father's vindictive rage out to be his own fault. You are all the worst kind of poisonous. This entire realm is rotted and hollow from the inside with it."

[Celia Hand]

Celia sat stiffly, hands clenched in her lap. Her left hand still had the defensive spell wound around it, like a little knot of cobweb, ready to be deployed at a second's notice.

"My lady, if I may," she said, "I am not entirely dense. I believe I can guess." Her eyes narrowed as she put the pieces together. "Your father has, at some point in the past, inflicted an injury on Lord Dror, and is in the habit of re-injuring him when he is displeased. Dror has kept this from me, most likely because we simply haven't known each other that long, or possibly because he didn't wish me to think ill of his family." She smiled a weary smile and laced her fingers. "Or because he didn't wish me to think him weak, because, as sweet as he is, he is still a man. Well, your ladyship? Am I close to the mark?"

[Sano YH Splikitt]

Sanos eyes widened in surprise. He smiled, a little too giddily at Celia.

Adis smile remained on her face. But it was a little more disappointed that she couldnt poke fun at the scar anymore. She laughed. "My apologizes, I was distracted by my father's voice. Sano, Dror, my father wishes to speak with each of you."

Sanos face turned confused. "Why would he want to see me?" he frowned. "Oh the man probably wants to scold me. Again. He knows I work for him for free doesn't he?" he mumbled. He tried playing it as a fool this time. ..Perhaps there really was something to be tense about.

"I dont know, he just told me to inform you both. I am only the messenger." Adi shrugged, and looked back at Ethaan. Her smile turned fantastically cruel, and she shrugged again.

[Lord Dror]

Dror was speechless at Celia's intellect. But, he was so ever grateful for it. That was exactly it, all of it. It was embarrassing, painful, and difficult to talk about. Knowing that she didn't seem to care, and that the secret was out, relieved all sorts of tension, fear and nerves from his heavy body. Dror looked at Celia so ever grateful, and smiled. Completely allowing the sparkles lighten the tension the room.

Until Adi spoke.

His heart squinted cold again, stealing his breath away. He had to go this time. If Dror didn't, then his father would truly come in here himself. "I understand." Dror said in a collected manner. His gold eyes flickered to Ethaan, in a way that signalled he was leaving Celia in his care.

Dror rose from his seat, and cast a smile at Celia again. He bowed, and left with Sano following behind him. He secretly prayed Adi wouldn't do anything rash.


With Dror gone, Adi left her seat by Celia, and chuckled. "Now that he is gone, we can speak more freely. I have no qualms with hearing any sort of insults from two stupid creatures." she smirked sharply.

[Sir Ethaan]

Ethaan bristled up like a cat with all its fur on end, sitting up straighter, a solid brick wall next to Celia.

"I don't intend to insult you," said Ethaan, bluntly. "That would indicate I considered you enough of a person to insult. The difference between your father and I, young lady, is that I would have taken you over my knee for this kind of behavior years ago, to n** it in the bud."

[Celia Hand]

"Ethaan," Celia murmured, pressing down on his hand with a firm motion. Don't let her get to you, please, she thought desperately. If it came to a fight she doubted she would make it out of here alive.