Aenlilea made a beeline for a busy-looking tavern and went inside. I followed him closely, lest we lose him. As we cleared a table for ourselves, Levent began to gather some gazes.
“Are you sure we’re alright here?” I said to Kewyn.
“For the moment,” she said. “I wouldn’t stay here long though.”
As we sat down, a horrendous sound reached my ears. It resembled music, but it also resembled the sound a cat would make if strangled.
“What is that?” I hissed, flattening my ears to my head.
“That, my fine lady, is something called a ‘bag pipe’,” Rio said, pointing through the busy tavern. In a corner, a man with a furry beard and horns was blowing into the strangest instrument I had ever seen.
“Satyr,” I said. “Figures.”
“I’m going to order a pitcher of mead,” Aenlilea said. “Who’s with me?”
Kewyn, Rio and I made agreeing noises.
Two hours later we were still sitting at that table. Even while we ate, Aenlilea rambled between bites. For as possessive as he was about his creations, he certainly did enjoy talking about them. He also managed to drain a pitcher almost entirely by himself.
Levent stayed quiet for most of the night. He seemed to disappear into the walls, as no one objected to his presence. He did not partake in the ale, yet he stayed and listened to the rest of us, adding only the odd comment to remind us that he was there.
We wandered back to Aenlilea’s house slowly. Rio leaned on me as we walked, and we found it incredibly difficult to manage a straight line. We ended up grabbing onto Levent’s cloak to guide us, for he was the only sober one among us.
Once we arrived, I crawled onto the couch in Aenlilea’s living room. Rio managed to find the floor and decided to stay there, sprawling out on the rug to better trip everyone else. Kewyn stood in the doorway, a mild smile on her lips as she watched the half-blood mumble into the floor. As soon as he looked up, she made the smile disappear. She glanced at me, fidgeting a little when she found me looking back.
“That’s no place for a bed, Mortimer!” Aenlilea said as he entered the room.
“It is a perfect place!” Rio mumbled.
“Oh, well. Sleep there then,” Aenlilea muttered. He turned to his daughter.