The night was spent taking more notes and reviewing her previous ones. Sofia fell asleep confident that she could impress her mentor the next day.

As dawn broke, Sofia was up showering and preparing for her moment of glory. She was early to rise and thought that this would be most impressive to Cedric! She skipped through the halls at record pace, jogged up the worn tower stairs, and burst through the door wildly exclaiming she could recite word-for-word every annotation made in her text.

There, standing in the center of the workshop, was Cedric, sans his robes and wearing only his trousers. He was knelt down in a ritual circle, a look of pure surprise on his face.

Sofia knew she was early and, in all of her excitement, forgot to knock. 'What a silly and stupid mistake,' she thought to herself. She couldn't help but notice Cedric's bare chest. He had almost tribal looking markings on his upper arm, part of his chest, and on his back; they were not quite like tattoos, as they seemed to emit a faint glow. Sofia was so entranced by these markings that she didn't hear him call to her the first time…

"Princess. Are you listening to me?" Her face started to flush as Cedric rose from his crouched position.

"I, uh, I am sorry… I should have knocked."

"Too late for good manners I suppose," he said as he started to move toward her.

She felt a rush of blood to her head. Was he coming to embrace her again? She wondered what his skin felt like and suddenly had a longing to feel the exposed skin of his chest under her fingertips.

"Are you going to move or should I transport my robes to me?"

Cedric's tone was stern. Sofia looked behind her and sure enough, there were Cedric's robes hanging on the wall. She sidestepped out of the way as he grabbed at them hastily.

"You. Out. Now. Let's try and start this morning over correctly." He held the door open with one hand, his robes in the other, and she quickly ran out before he slammed the door behind her.

He never felt so empowered, his heart was racing. In a way, he was glad she saw him, but he dismissed the thought quickly and put his robes on. A few moments later, a knock at the door; one that was all-too-familiar.

"Enter."

Sofia came inside, head down at first, eyes darting around the room. She grinned sheepishly and stammered another, 'sorry,' before she was cut off quickly.

"It seems as though the learning of all this new material has made you forget the simple common courtesy of knocking! My morning routine has never been witnessed by anyone and I don't intend on gaining an audience now."

Sofia tried to find the right words to say but was still distracted by the image of Cedric crouched on the floor. He had looked so raw, vulnerable, yet so powerful. Her thoughts were interrupted again by Cedric's voice.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Cedric feigned disdain well, but he knew he couldn't keep up the act forever.

"I am sorry Cedric. I promise, it will never happen again. I am so sorry," Sofia was genuine. She truly didn't want to offend or disrespect him in any way.

"Well then, apology accepted."

The day went on in near silence and Sofia reviewed and cataloged supplies slower than usual. Cedric barely looked at her all day and kept himself seemingly busy tinkering at one of his workbenches. Neither knew what to say or how to break this awkward silence and when evening rolled around, quiet 'good evenings' were exchanged and no eye contact made.