a furiously steaming, dented teakettle.
“Water’s hot,” he said as if we could not tell.
He seemed to have forgotten the tea part of making tea, not to mention cups. The steaming pot was set on the dirt floor where it rumbling menacingly for a few seconds. Aenlilea returned with tealeaves and chipped mugs for all.
The tea smelled fantastic for have being made by a leaf concoction I could not identify. I sat on the couch and listened to Aenlilea and Rio noisily slurp their tea in some sort of unvoiced competition of who could down the scalding liquid first. Levent stared absently into his mug. After a few minutes my tea was still steaming threateningly, and my mind had turned to the girl upstairs.
“Excuse me, Mister Aenlilea, but do you think your daughter would like some?”
It seemed like a pointless peace offering, but it was worth trying. I honestly felt bad that our antics the night before had affected her so much.
“Possibly,” he said, digging through some parchment on the desk next to him.
“I’ll ask,” I offered, picking up the kettle and heading out the door. Rio and Levent said nothing as I went, but I heard Aenlilea mutter a warning as the door shut.
“Don’t get yourself killed, miss.”
Walking past the flying machine was strange now that I was alone. It was huge, of course, and the balloon meant to hold it aloft had been deflated. The ship was kind of cute for being a deathtrap, but I had no love for heights.
It took me a few minutes to work through Aenlilea’s shop, but I finally made it outside again. The sun was already low in the sky, and I felt slightly disgusted with myself that I slept so late that afternoon tea became my breakfast. I stepped through the narrow path around to the front of the house and knocked on the door.
At first I thought that Aenlilea’s daughter was not going to answer, or perhaps had not heard my knocking. However, just as I reached up to rap on the door again, there were a few soft footsteps and the door moved away from my fist.
“What do you want?” She asked.
“Err,” I said before I held up the kettle and pointed to it. “Want some tea?”
The blonde’s bright eyes turned to the old pot for a second, and then returned to mine. I was certain that she was about to slam the door in my face, but instead she stepped back and allowed it to swing open.