Bertra kept the giddy smile off her face, wiping it clean just as a snort of laughter emerged and her friends turned to face her, she cleared her throat under the curious and suspicious looking eyes of Inta, and the eyes Bertra was sure 'would' have been suspicious if they could have been.
The elf briefly pounded on her chest, "Excuse me, I have no idea what that was," She didn't quail under their doubt, instead she pressed fearlessly forward, "but I would suggest we head back. Since we are in the capital, why don't we see if we can get some runepressed wine and go back to your home, Inta?"
She wore the brightest smile that she could and spoke with great enough volume and enthusiasm that the two somewhat reclusive figures could not help but notice the many people who stopped where they were at with the suddenly loud suggestion, nor feel the many eyes questioningly looking at them all.
Caught at the center of attention, Entoma could only be grateful for her mask and yank her hand back, embarrassed and her little appendages behind the mask waved back and forth with nervous energy.
"Yes!" Entoma exclaimed while Inta looked down with a moment of disappointment at the now empty hand.
The strangeness of her singular exclamation was almost a plea to his ears, and when he saw Bertra wiggle her ears a little, he caught on and reacted shortly after. "Right, let's do that."
The return was all but a blur, accelerated by the swift usage of a carriage for hire that was waiting on a public street, and they sat in relative quiet, stretching out the time in which they were uncertain about just what to say.
'Thank goodness for wine.' Bertra had to think, watching the city race by as her companions sat awkwardly not really looking at one another.
'How long was I holding his hand for? When did that even begin?' Entoma wondered, 'I can't go farther than this, I don't really 'know' anything… I convinced myself that I liked a goddamn puppet! I thought it liked me! I convinced myself that my best friend could be 'more'. How can I possibly…?'
There was no answer that she could find, grasping in the darkness of her mind in the quietness of the carriage they shared as it rattled and bounced along the cobblestone roads, only the noise of the outside intruded into the four walls that surrounded the trio.
Entoma poured over the advice given to her by others with more experience than herself. 'It's different with everyone.' She recalled the paraphrased advice of Cocytus and Bertra alike, and as she thought about the pairs of others she knew, it seemed to be the case. 'Neia and Skana are very different from Demiurge and Vanysa. The same seemed to have been the case from what my sister said about Nua and Raymond, before his death. So if it's different for everyone how am I supposed to know what it's supposed to be for me?!'
It was a vexing, vexing problem. So vexing and all consuming that she didn't even notice the carriage stopped until Bertra cleared her throat.
"We're here." Bertra said and snatched up the little brown cloth sack with several bottles of wine that clinked off of one another as she exited. She held the door, dropped a silver coin into the outstretched hand of the carriage driver and waited till her companions were out.
"Now which way is your flat, Inta?" Bertra flashed him a pearly smile of encouragement.
"This way." He said and turning around, he pointed to a building that was only a stone's throw away, it was a fairly simple one, almost a copy of the one where Entoma lived except that it was obviously somewhat older.
A short set of a dozen stone steps led up to a double door of thick oak in a gray stone building that was quite long and within sight of the major office and class buildings of the academy.
The trio made their way in and followed Inta up to the fourth floor, a long hall led to room after room, but they didn't have to walk to the far end to find where Inta lived. A few doors down from the entry to the wide hall on the upper floor, he was unlocking the door and opening the way within. He gave an exaggerated bow worthy of Pandora's Actor and waved them toward the interior.
"Welcome," he said, "to my humble abode."
It was more or less what Entoma expected of a humble postwar professor of blood magic. With themes of black and red, simple, inexpensive furnishings that had no great name behind their making. A round table with four chairs, a small space for preparing meals, a little workspace in a corner that consisted of a desk, a chair, and various writing materials. A bookshelf that had only the walls of the shelves to keep the books from toppling over on their sides sat in a corner.
It was a cozy but not an elaborate layout with no more than twenty paces in any direction with a single room set off to one side which Entoma assumed was his bedroom.
Bertra carried on her self appointed role as the driving force of engagement and set the wine down on the table. "You have glasses, don't you?"
"Of course!" Inta's grin was more relieved than anything, he practically scurried to a small freestanding cabinet with a glass face in the corner and bending down, he withdrew a few stone goblets. "They're not 'glasses' of course, just 'stone' but it'll do just as well. Glass breaks too easily and I'd rather not have to replace it. Stone is far more practical."
"Mhmm." Bertra raised an eyebrow at him and when he set the small round goblets on the table, the wood elf took the first bottle, opened it and poured the dark red liquid into each cup one after the other.
The sloshing sound was the only one in the room until Bertra pushed them forward by picking up her cup. She put a hand on her hip, held out the cup to the center of the table and said, "If I can be so bold, I'd like to make a toast?"
"Be my guest." Inta said with a polite nod.
"To many new beginnings, new friendships, and new lives." Bertra proposed, and her friends echoed her toast then brought their cups together before taking a long drink.
Entoma reached for her mask with her free hand when Bertra was busy pouring refills. "Do you mind?" She asked of Inta, watching him carefully with all of her bright red eyes.
"No, not even a little." Inta said with passionate enthusiasm, which only made Entoma think one thing while she pulled off her mask and turned it upside down to keep it from crawling away.
'I wish I could smile back at him.'