FieryKathy

  Ria brushed her hand through my hair almost continuously until Em was done using the bathroom as well. It worked so rexing that I kinda didn’t want to get up, but Ria prodded me to get up anyway as being a zy bum wouldn’t do when there were still people to entertain.

  Em and Ria both then quickly got me into shape by brushing my hair and Ria even insisted on giving me a bit of a side-braid.

  I tried to protest but as Em also jumped onto the idea, I couldn’t really do anything but accept. That said, it wasn’t the most disagreeable experience ever. Having Ria work on my hair, just like earlier, worked really rexing. The end result was also not bad at all.

  “Nice work, babe.” I smiled and gave Ria a kiss on her blushy cheek.

  “And you do it so fast too.” Em smiled as well while leaning with her back against the bathroom’s door frame. “That takes me a lot longer.”

  “I like braiding hair.” Ria giggled.

  “If that’s so, then you should wear your hair in a braid more often.”

  “Would you not mind?”

  “Why would we?” Em ughed. “If you want to wear them, that’s all that matters. And I think both Auro and I like seeing you in any kind of hairstyle.”

  “Exactly.” I nodded in support of that statement.

  “Hmmm… I do want to try a lot of different braids…”

  “Then go ahead, little munchkin, go live your best life.” I patted Ria on her butt which made her shoot into action, back into the bedroom so she could pick out one she liked.

  This left Em and I alone for about two minutes. The two of us stared at each other silently before I broke the silence again.

  “You are going to stand out not having a braid in your hair, you know?” I grinned.

  Em grinned back. “I’m fine with my ponytail for now, thanks. It does look good on you though. The braid I mean, not that shit-eating smug grin of yours.”

  “Oh really now? I thought that was one of my best features?”

  We both started chuckling and in that moment, Ria came walking back in again. To the surprise of both Em and I already with a Dutch Braid in her hair.

  “Holy shit, Ria. How?” Em replied, outright baffled by the sheer speed Ria had completed this long and complex braid with.

  Ria shrugged. “I thought I was actually being rather slow.”

  “You can’t be serious, right?” I replied. “This would take me hours to do.”

  Ria shrugged yet again. “Practice I suppose.”

  Em and I looked at eachother again as we both simultaneously sighed. Ria was an amazing girl full of surprises. One of a kind for sure, and maybe best, because multiple Rias on this pnet would probably create a sweetness so dense that the universe would implode on itself, and that’s not something anyone would like to see happen. Maybe it was proof of the parallel universe model. So any divine being could create multiple Rias without destroying reality.

  As dinnertime rapidly approached we left our room and made our way down to the foyer. Where we ran into Julie, one of our housekeeping staff.

  “Ah, dy Aurora. I was just about to come and find you.” While the request surprised me a little, from her posture and intonation it didn’t seem to be very pressing.

  “Is something the matter?” I asked in return, halting myself on the bottom step of the staircase while my girlfriends turned around just ahead of me.

  “Miss Epiphania has arrived and Lady Alessia asked if you could come and meet them in the small library.”

  “Epiphania?”

  Julie nodded.

  “Do we need to come with you, Aurora?” Em asked.

  I looked at Julie for a second and then back at Em. “No, you two should probably go forward already. I don’t think it’ll take long. And if it does I’ll send you two a message.”

  “Alright. Come, Ria. Let’s go.” Em took Ria’s hand, which she absolutely didn’t mind. And so my girlfriends strutted off to the dinner hall.

  Julie walked right in front of me as we both headed to the small library. As she opened the door she introduced me into the room. “Lady Aurora is here as you requested, Lady Alessia.”

  “Hey, Julie.” I smiled kindly at our bck-haired maid before I passed her.

  “Yes, Midy?"

  “Aren’t you being terribly formal now?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Aurora. I instructed her to do so. Just to get you into the habit of being spoken to formally. In case we need to visit other high ranking nobles.”

  “Ah…” I looked at Julie who gave me a very kind nod in return. “Then thank you for being part of my education.” I chuckled.

  “No problem at all, Midy. It’s my pleasure.” Julie then excuses herself with a bow, leaving the three of us alone in the room.

  When she had left, Epiphania greeted me with a polite bow. “Good afternoon, Midy.”

  “You really don’t need to be that formal with me, Epiphania. And a nice afternoon to you too.” I chuckled and then looked at my adoptive mother. “Did you call Epiphania over to the castle, mom?”

  Alessia smiled and shook her head. “No, that’s actually why I called you over.”

  “I just came by to stay here for the weekend as I need to be in the neighbourhood.” Epiphania started to expin herself. “But apparently you are holding some kind of dinner.”

  “And as you are the host, the decision to let her stay is up to you.” Alessia continued.

  “I can go to a B&B as well, it’s not really a big issue.”

  “I mean… We have plenty of rooms left, don’t we? And there’s definitely enough space left at the dinner table as well if you want to join. If anything, I would actually like to insist you table with us as well.” I immediately jumped to making a decision which apparently surprised Epiphania a little.

  “Are… you sure?” She sounded pretty hesitant at my invitation. “This is a family gathering from what I gathered, isn’t it?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Besides, you are helping too to get the culprits behind bars. I think everyone from Em’s family would like to thank you for that as well. Plus, it will also give us two the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit more. While you were one of the first vampires I’ve met, I really haven’t spent much time with you at all. This could be an opportunity to do so. But, in the end, it’s up to you if you want to stay or not. I’m not going to force you either way. Just saying that I would very much like it if you joined us.”

  Epiphania looked at Alessia who just stood there silently, smiling with her arms crossed and nodding at my expnation. When she looked back at me she nodded. “Then I will take you up on your offer.” Her smile that followed the acceptance gave me a fshback to the smile she had given me back in school. “Is something wrong? You are looking at me kind of weirdly.”

  “Ah…” I started blushing. “I just had a little fshback to when we first met, that’s all.”

  Alessia chuckled. “Hey Phania, you disguised yourself as one of her uppercssmen, right?”

  Epiphania nodded. “Yeah, luckily that school really has the tendency not to update their school uniforms too often. So I had one ying around from a previous job I was on.”

  “What kind of job requires you to go to my school? Apart from spying on new vampires, but I take it that’s rather rare.”

  “Your school is a hub for the upper css, as you might have noticed.” Epiphania was quick to counter with an expnation. “That means that parent councils and parent-teacher conferences are a rather good pce to gather a lot of information on upper circle social happenings. It’s way easier to blend in as a student if I would get caught. Rather than some other sneaky looking outfit.”

  “I suppose so…” I scratched my cheek. “But don’t you think sneaking around in a skirt is rather annoying? It annoys me at times even if I’m just walking about.”

  Epiphania shrugged. “When you are as old as me with the speciality I have… There’s little to no outfit in history in which I haven’t snuck around in. Just so you know, cloth skirts are still rather easy compared to chainmail anythings when it comes to that.”

  “Sneaking around in chainmail? That sounds very hard.”

  “Very hard, not impossible though.” Epiphania smiled.

  As it looked like we were done, I decided to get the conversation to move along a little. “Are you joining us for dinner then?”

  “I will, but if it’s okay for you, I will first clean myself up. I’ve been on the road for a while.”

  “Alright.” I nodded and looked at Alessia. “Are we going to head off?”

  “Yes, I’m right behind you.” She nodded in return.

  And thus we went our separate ways for the time being so we could go and entertain our guests.

  FieryKathy