I was about to ask why he had next to nothing on his plate when I realized that among all of this food, there was no meat. Smiling a little to myself despite the kin’s sour look, I sat down. It was the first time in years that I was not the pickiest eater in the room.
The dragon-kin eventually found something to eat and soon I was back in our room. Levent disappeared after dinner, and I had to tie down my curiosity to keep from asking where he was going. I would have not been surprised to find he was going out to find a restaurant more fitting to his taste. Silly meat-eater.
I pulled open an accordion-like divider that the innkeeper left in the room. It was wooden and lined with some Gaussian material, but it gave at least some semblance of privacy. Creeping behind it, I crawled into bed.
I tossed and turned for an hour or so, simply unable to sleep despite my fatigue, then slipped off into a few strange dreams. When I awoke it was morning, the kin had returned and was, thankfully, fully dressed this time.
“We headed off?” Rio asked as I left the room to get myself some breakfast.
“Headed off where?” I mumbled, still only half awake.
“To Aenlilea’s. If it hasn’t already, the construction’s gonna start today. I don’t want to miss out on this.”
I frowned. “He’s not going to let you touch it, you know.”
“Aaah, but that’s the fun of it, m’lady,” he smiled mischievously before walking off. It was going to be another hectic day at the Aenlilea household.
And so it was. Rio pestered Aenlilea all day long, who eventually had to build himself a barrier to keep the half-blood out of his workshop. The redhead had then turned to trying to smooth-talk Kewyn, who resisted admirably.
She warned him briefly that she would punch him in the neck if he did not leave her alone, but I encouraged Rio to keep it up. At least his flirting was not quite as annoying as him just teasing her.
The kin spent most of the day sitting in Aenlilea’s office, looking over his sketches. At lunch, Aenlilea finally reappeared to have a sandwich, and then retreated, locking everyone but himself out of the shop.
Unable to resume his place in the office, Levent spent the rest of the day sitting quietly in the living room, looking at all the things Aenlilea had left spilling over the desk in there. I knew the kin was not looking at these things for their mechanical value, and