"Well, why not?" Cedric asked, pouting and huffing a little at Sofia as she smiled at him. Looking like she wanted to laugh at him. "My robe is warm, and comfortable, and a perfectly acceptable wizard's vestment."
Sofia stepped forward to hug him around the shoulders, and she said, "I know, I know - and you can wear it around the house as much as you like. I just… don't think people around here would see it like that so much as - as a dressing gown, probably. You've said you don't like attention, I know you don't, and I can pretty much guarantee you'd get some negative attention if you went out like that."
Looking away, Cedric huffed again, but said, "Fine. I… can see your point. I'll see if I can't find a more publically acceptable coat to wear." He hadn't counted on not being able to wear the favored robe, though, so they had to find him something of Sofia's to wear - something that managed to be baggy and still, by its cut, emphasize his hips, unfortunately. And it was wool, and itchy… but at least he had plenty of long-sleeved shirts so wearing one underneath the coat wasn't an issue, and he could minimize how much the awful scratchy fabric touched his skin. The sleeves rubbing the fabric of the body of the coat was awful too, honestly, but something he could manage. And at least it was in a decent shade of plum.
They finally managed to make it outside the house, and Sofia held Cedric's hand and it was warm against the cold winter air, pulling his arm towards her and distracting him and it was nice.
On the other hand, who knew that a day spent shopping could be so exhausting? Honestly, it was barely noon before Cedric had had to ask Sofia if they could take a break to sit down on a bench. He shivered in the cold late December air, sitting alone on a bench and feeling like he looked pathetic as he pulled his arms out of his sleeves to hug himself within the body of the coat. Pathetic and silly, probably, but it was warmer this way, even if the now empty sleeves dangled sadly at his sides.
At least it wasn't long before Sofia came back, with her hot chocolate and his cider in hand - and a few other folks in tow. She said something to the two girls and they stayed back as Sofia approached Cedric, offering him his cup, waiting patiently as he returned his arms to his sleeves to take it. "You didn't peek in my bags, did you?" Sofia said as she picked the paper sacks up from the ground next to Cedric. "Ruining the surprise might just leave you with coal in your stocking~"
Cedric snorted a laugh. "Yes, that is what would garner a punishment of coal, and nothing else I have done this previous year is worth such. That is absolutely how justice works." Sofia rolled her eyes and chuckled back at him. Without segue, he continued, "Who're they, then?" nodding at the two girls who still stood a few feet away.
Sofia offered a hand to Cedric to help him stand up, and as he took it, she explained "That's Jade and Lucinda, they're- friends of mine. I was hoping to introduce you to Lucinda while you were here anyway, so this is honestly perfect timing!" She also mumbled something about being in public being nice, but Cedric didn't catch it, and before he could ask he'd been pulled towards these friends. "Lucinda, Jade, this is my- boyfriend, Cedric."
The girls waved and smiled at him, and Sofia continued the introductions. "Cedric, this is Jade," she said, and gestured to the shorter girl in a blue coat with short dark hair, then continued, "And this is Lucinda, and she gestured to the taller girl with long, dark hair. Her bright green and purple and orange outfit would make her easy to pick out in a crowd, at least, and contrasted sharply against Jade's muted palette.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Cedric intoned, falling into his usual script. This was apparently the incorrect thing to do, as the girls started giggling.
"So you've gone and got yourself a rich boy-toy to play with at fancy school, huh?" Lucinda said, eyeing Cedric up and down. "Does he at least treat you right, buy you things with that extra cash? Or does he just use spells stolen from witches and call it a day?"
Sofia's palm went to her face. "Luc-" she started, but was cut off.
"I kid, I kid!" she said, and elbowed Cedric in the side. "I know that's not your fault. I'm serious about Sof, though - you hurt her and my whole family's gonna dance on your grave." At this she grinned and gave him finger-guns.
Cedric… honestly had no idea how to react to the mixed signals he was getting here. "Um, I - I can assure you I have no intention of harming Sofia," he said after a few moments.
A few more moments passed in awkward silence between the four, until Sofia broke it by saying "Hey, so I thought you guys might like talking about magic - since you're both pretty into the study of it, but you study different styles. Like, don't witches have familiars too, Lucinda? That might be interesting to talk about."
Oh, was that so? That was interesting, Cedric thought. Lucinda seemed to be more interested in Sofia's familiar than his, but heard Sofia say, "Look, I'd like to catch up with Jade too, and you and Cedric have more in common than he and Jade do, I'm trying to keep anyone from getting bored." Something about that kind of stung to Cedric, but he wasn't sure what.
Still, it was interesting to talk about magic theory with Lucinda as they started walking to another store - it turned out that Lucinda and Jade had been out on the town (what little shopping district there was around Dunwiddie) doing their Wassailia shopping as well, so that was convenient. Once they got to another shop, the four parted ways to look at the wares on their own, and hopefully have some amount of covertness while buying what could end up being gifts for other people already present. ...Presents for those present, heh. Greylock might appreciate that one.
Cedric stopped to write that down in his journal - carried with him almost everywhere, anymore, since Greylock had managed to find it stuck in the library - and looked up to notice from across the store Lucinda's arm around Jade's waist, Jade planting a kiss on Lucinda's nose.
He was only stunned in surprise for a moment, thankfully, and managed to move behind a display shelf before too long passed, ideally before he was noticed. ...Probably? He wasn't called out after a few seconds, so he sighed. It wasn't like being gay was a huge deal to him, given Greylock - ...given everything about him and Greylock, honestly, but that was beside the point; but given a lot of things, that the girls only could get that moment while 'in public' if that was in the back of a store that should probably have better lighting at this time of year… Cedric didn't understand a lot of social cues, clearly, but privacy was something he could get behind.
He looked around the store some more and bought a fairly decent amount of candy. A perhaps embarrassing amount of it was for himself, but he bought some yogurt drops for his mother, probably-unintentionally-phallic looking suckers that Greylock was sure to get a kick out of, hard maple candies for Sofia, and for some reason the shop sold teas as well so he bought a nice selection for himself and some for Professor Layton too. He… hadn't given the Professor a Wassailia present before, and dried and preserved teas were never yielded as good a flavor as fresh ingredients, but on the other hand spices that weren't easily grown even in Hexley's greenhouses could be found in these blends… And, well, they could be wait to be given until the beak was over and Cedric had returned to Hexley. It might be odd for a student to give a professor a gift, but sending it through the post seemed like it crossed a line somewhere along the way.
Cedric slid his purchases in the the paper bag from the previous shop, making sure to keep the maple candies at the bottom - that wasn't his only present for Sofia, but he was quite as worried as she was about ruining the holiday surprise.
The four reconvened outside the storefront and started off again, with Cedric trailing behind. They weren't leaving him behind, but given he wasn't currently attached to Sofia's hand, well, he always tended to hang back in groups.
Instead, Sofia walked with her arm linked with Lucinda's. They chattered and laughed merrily, and it was… somewhere between nice seeing Sofia happy, and painful seeing how easily she got on with other people, how easily Sofia could drop Cedric like a hot potato and be none the worse for the wear.
Jade spoke up, then, startling Cedric. "So, how is Sofia doing, then? Her leaving was pretty sudden, and she hasn't managed to tell us a whole lot - I guess she's been too busy to care much about those of us she left behind."
Despite the fact that Cedric had been going down the exact same line of thought himself not a moment before, he responded, "Now, that doesn't sound like her at all. ...Honestly, that she's managed to have any spare time at all is astounding, she's having to make up for lost time, you know. I don't know of anyone else that entered Hexley any later than sixth year, and here she is managing to maintain her studies and learn the backlog in eleventh, and only of thirteen total. That's no mean feat." Granted, she had significant help on the magic side of things from the Amulet she wore… On the other hand, base power only helped so much.
"Oh," Jade said, looking reprimanded, "I… guess you've got a point. I don't know, I guess I'm just a bit envious. Sofia hangs out with Lucinda and her family and gets to get out of this awful little town, but they won't teach me anything after the thing with Sofia. I mean, I get it, no one wants soldiers showing up at their doorstep. But magic, honestly. You rich folks have got it easy, honestly."
It was Cedric's turn to look… something, anyway. He blinked in surprise, but before he could answer, Jade added, "Sorry, I don't mean to dump my issues on you. It's just- nice to tell someone who won't be around here long, you know? Get it off my chest but to someone who barely knows me or would care to remember."
She shrugged, and Cedric shrugged back. Cedric wished he could relate, but… the things he'd like to do that with were either too large and involved for his lungs to handle speaking for that long, or too dangerous to share. He'd like to think the similar ways in which society treated gay folks and trans ones would provide understanding, but Sascha had quite thoroughly proved him wrong there, so even knowing that the two were dating didn't allow Cedric to feel safe enough to share - not to mention they had no reason to know that he knew. It was a mess, really, and it probably just ought to be left well enough alone.
...If only the mess would allow itself to be left alone.
After the next shop, Sofia asked Lucinda, "Hey, Luci, I've always had trouble finding things to get for you… and this year doesn't seem to be any better." She chuckled lightly and continued, "I don't want to ruin the surprise of gifting and all, but do you have any ideas you could share? A hint, general direction, anything?"
Lucinda grinned at Sofia and said, "For this Wassailia, the only thing I want from you is to steal a kiss."
Sofia stopped walking to look at Cedric, Cedric had just stopped from surprise and confusion, Jade stopped and put a hand over her face, and Lucinda had stopped as she waggled her eyebrows at Sofia.
"Just one, I swear," Lucinda said, looking at Sofia with wide, probably intended to be adorable eyes. Cedric saw them as conniving, though he wasn't sure if it was just jealousy that was telling him that.
Sofia had looked between Lucinda and Cedric several times before she managed to say, "Uh… is everyone else okay with that?"
Jade still had one hand covering her face, but waved the other in Sofia's direction. "It's fine, it's fine. You're fine, go ahead."
Sofia looked at Cedric, and given he was still quite confused as to what the situation even was right now, shrugged dramatically, including his arms in the motion even, and said, "S-sure I guess? I'm- I'm not going to… stop you."
Sofia gave Cedric a smile which made his heart happy, and she approached him and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'm glad you're okay with this," she said, and returned to Lucinda up ahead, and put her chin out as she expected Lucinda to lean in and kiss her.
Lucinda, instead, grabbed Sofia by the waist and dipped her backwards, far enough that Lucinda's pointed hat slipped off her head - though it had never been the most secure by the looks of it.
In a moment, the two were standing upright again, both a little breathless. "And I'm all set for this year! Though I can't guarantee I won't need another next Wassailia~" she said with a wink. She then bent down to retrieve her hat, and noticed an elder man from across the way openly staring with a look of disgust on his face, destination evidently forgotten.
"Heya mister!" Lucinda shouted, "she's my sister."
Cedric was wondering what in the world kind of explanation that was for such a clearly non-sibling kiss when he heard Jade groan loudly from beside him. "Oh, come on that was supposed to be our thing. At least it's almost believable with me…"
That was the last straw. Cedric was too confused that he could barely muster the effort to care about propriety. "Are you and Lucinda together, then, or not? I thought…" Cedric ended lamely with a shrug. Congratulations on maintaining a wimpy persona, nincompoop.
Jade didn't mention it, though that was partially because she didn't know Cedric tried to cultivate that prickly personality. "We are, she just flirts with anything in a skirt. I wish she wouldn't, but it's fine. Usually flirt is all she does, but I mean - we're both Sofia's friend, they used to date but that was way back when before any of us even hit puberty so it didn't mean much, but I mean I get it Sofia's… always been something else. And I do trust Sofia and Lucinda both, I just wish they wouldn't."
...Yes, that cleared a lot of things up. Cedric wished he'd known that Sofia and Lucinda had had history before being asked, as he felt a bit more raw at that… on the other hand, Sofia had - for whatever reason - ended the relationship with Lucinda, and if either party was pining it was Lucinda. Sofia had chosen to be with Cedric.
...and could easily choose to leave him, and what was the possibility that Sofia knew how he was and was interested in him because she thought Cedric was really a girl after all, or didn't know but could still subconsciously Tell and was into him because he seemed feminine, and honestly even if these things weren't true it still kind of hurt that she'd want to kiss an ex in front of him, and-
Stop. The group had started walking again at some point, and he intentionally hung even a bit further back from Jade as he made a low humming noise, drowning out the thoughts. When that didn't quite work, he mumbled nonsense syllables to himself until he was able to focus on reality rather than these downward spirals of negativity.
A while after all… that happened, Lucinda said that she wanted to bring them - all four of them - back home to her family's holiday celebration. "We celebrate a whole eleven more days of Wassailia than you weird folks do," Lucinda said, "and it would be great to have you guys come along and do the thing. No gift giving until the last day, so no pressure - just fun and good eats."
This trip had been about experiencing new things so far, so while Cedric was tired, he didn't protest as he was pulled along, outside the artificial light of the town's street lamps. The moon, while not full, was at least gibbous, so after a minute or so of adjusting the forest was easy enough to traverse by its light. Thankfully they stayed to the worn footpath, though.
It wasn't long before they arrived, though it took Cedric a moment to realize it - he hadn't noticed anything different at all, in fact, until Lucinda disappeared up the side of a tree trunk. Jade and Sofia followed, climbing the ladder Cedric could now see, only barely lit by a lantern to one side. ...In fact, that wasn't an average lantern, but a stable witchlight, encased in glass. How it had been managed without a caster to keep it active he wasn't sure.
Once he stepped off the top of the ladder, he had to take another moment to take in the sight of everything. Many more witchlights like the one at the base of this tree's trunk hung dotted about other trees, though he was certain that they hadn't been visible from below. People walked across branches without any care for balance, and he saw Lucinda take off where he was almost certain there wasn't a branch. He looked down, and saw there were shimmering spider webs between the branches of this tree, and between the other trees. Cedric gingerly tested his weight, and a magic barrier of some kind held him up, rippling just a bit at the contact but clearly able to bear quite as much or more weight.
The area he was in as he looked around was a little crowded with pine needles and even leaves - odd for this time of year - but once he stepped away from the ladder down, the walls of leaves opened up and he had to work not to be struck by the… the natural beauty of magic, he supposed. All of what he'd grown up with for his whole life was structured, was rigid, tried to stone walls and old spells, applied in very specific ways and only in those specific ways. Of course, there were geniuses who invented new spells or ways of doing things, but actually trying to be different didn't tend to earn one much praise.
Something about the humming feeling of the magic here, though, felt very much like it was working with nature, rather than against it. It was… a little spellbinding. Cedric wanted to note that pun down in his journal to share with Greylock for later, but he noticed as he had that thought that Sofia and the others had been going on ahead, and that Sofia was calling his name.
Cedric waved and followed them, and his dawdling earned a chuckle from Sofia as he finally caught up. "It's really something, isn't it?" she said, grabbing a hold of his hand. "It's nice to see you as awed by it all as I was, the first time Luci brought me here. I kind of thought I might just be a country bumpkin, but I've always thought it was super pretty."
"It's… more than pretty," Cedric said. "I mean, it is stunning to look at, but-" Cedric stopped himself as he noticed that they'd apparently arrived. Probably? A wooden door stood in front of them, which seemed incongruous, but as he looked at the wood he realized it seemed to be naturally grown in that shape. Cedric had no idea how the hinges could function while the door was connected enough to anything to be still growing, even with magic. Of course, the spiderweb barrier baffled him too, so this shouldn't be any more of a surprise.
Inside the… was it a building? Was it even "inside"? Well, there was a roof of leaves and thick webbing, so if a roof and walls were what defined 'inside', then inside they were. So, once inside the room, Cedric realized it was a very large dining room. Like the door, a wooden table that was clearly still living and growing stretched across the room, and several people who were already seated looked up as Lucinda and the others entered.
"Hey!" Lucinda called, and walked to one of the women near the other end of the table. "Mom," she said, then nodded to the old woman at the head of the table, "And Madam Great Grandma Hazel," she said, "I brought a few friends as well as Jade to have dinner with us- Sofia, you know her, and a new friend, he's dating Sofia so I trust him and all - that's cool, right?"
This hadn't been approved beforehand? Cedric watched as the woman Lucinda had called Mom shook her head and… Hopefully laughed. Was that laughing? It was hard to tell from this distance. The old woman scrunched her face up, but after a tense moment, nodded. Lucinda jumped for joy and hugged both women and ran back over to the group, who'd been standing somewhat awkwardly in the doorway, and pulled them over to sit at the table. There werent individual chairs except for the one at the head of the table, but long benches, so while some scooting was necessary, there was no issue finding places for the group to sit.
Cedric was… uncomfortable at how close he was sitting to a stranger, nearly bumping elbows with him at several points, but he was able to push past it while looking at the serving dishes of food before them. Several different things were available, many sweet and savory flavors to be chosen from - but found that most of them had a theme of geese, whether it was the actual carved goose he could see, and goose eggs, to things that had merely had geese incorporated in the decorations. ...In fact, as he looked up and down the table, he counted specifically six carved geese. There was a nursery rhyme, wasn't there, that involved that? Cedric hadn't realized that it had had any basis in reality, given he hadn't ever seen any evidence of twelve days of Wassailia in his own life. And yet, here it was, in its full glory. Familiars, witchlight as even wizards called 'lux' from time to time, and even holidays… Cedric wondered if there had been any kind of investigation of the ways that the witches' culture intersected with Enchancian culture - and the world at large, he supposed, given he was fairly sure that witches were fairly widespread, and kept largely to themselves - sharing their culture (or, as Lucinda said, having it stolen), but picking up little from the places they lived. Cedric was far from certain of that, though, given he'd learned very little about witches in school, and most of that had been from reading in his spare time.
At various points during the meal, several witches and warlocks got up from the table, and returned with refilled dishes of whatever sides had gotten empty. The only things that weren't replenished were the geese, which was both economically wise and probably symbolic, anyhow.
...Actually, it was only men who were doing the refilling, Cedric realized after a while. He turned to Sofia and asked about it, but she just shrugged and said, "That's just how they do things?" Cedric would really have to ask Professor Layton if he had any texts on witches, Cedric decided. His own interest in cultures and archeology had more to do with artifacts of power, but understanding the history and culture surrounding those artifacts had been as much a part of that as what powers those artifacts were imbued with… but being thrust into the heart of a holiday celebration of a new culture was still a bit much for Cedric, even if the food was good. Reading about it beforehand would have been nice, and he thought he might like to return at some point, but most certainly after he'd read a decent amount first.
After the meal, and several of the warlocks were cleaning up the dishes, Lucinda told them to go ahead and to keep leftovers, there were wooden bowls and woven baskets to bring it home in. "I don't know if I've brought you before, Sofia," Lucinda told Sofia as the three were filling their baskets, "but a lot of us are going to the spirit tree after this, it's… memorial. Could you bring some food for that too?"
Lucinda didn't bother to explain what this was about to Cedric, so he had to ask Sofia what she'd meant. "Oh, uh… It's really something, I don't want to spoil the surprise - for right now, take a bowl of something that you know, or at least, think that someone you knew who's passed on would like."
"I…" Cedric crunched his mouth in thought. "I don't know that I have such a person." He hadn't been close to his grandparents, so his dead grandfathers meant nothing to him. Both grandmothers were still living, but Goodwyn hadn't spoken with his mother over something petty going on five years now, and Winnifred's mother had never bothered to care about her daughter's family. There were uncles and aunts in there somewhere, but Cedric had never known them very well, enough that he wasn't even certain how many he had, if he had any cousins, or if any of them were dead.
"If you can't think of a person, maybe a pet or something? Though maybe don't tell them, I don't think that's really… Actually maybe don't do that, forget I mentioned it." Sofia shrugged. "It's definitely just symbolic for us, so you don't have to put your heart into it if you don't want, but since we've been invited to participate, I think it would be rude not to."
Cedric nodded. It was fine that pets weren't allowed, he didn't think he had any to mourn - Wormwood was the closest he had ever had to a pet, and honestly given his trouble remembering to feed himself (when he wasn't intentionally avoiding it anyway) and do… much of anything, well, he didn't trust himself to take care of a pet that needed sustenance.
It didn't feel right to him, however, to participate in something intended to be memorial without actually dedicating it to someone's memory. Who did he care ab-...hm.
No one would care but him, but Cedric took a bowl and arranged a line of whipped cream down the center; then on either side, cranberry sauce - it was red, not pink, but they'd do; and on the edges, blueberry preserves - again, too dark, but he was satisfied with the makeshift flag himself.
Cedric followed Lucinda and Sofia and Jade out of the room at last, each carrying a basket in one hand and their offering bowl in the other. They were led to the other side of the village that they'd entered from - or at least, a different side, perhaps not directly across. It was hard to tell, with all the twists and turns necessary to get around, here. Eventually, they were led to a set of stairs, which made Cedric wonder why the ladder was even necessary… and, at the same time, appreciated their existence, given that climbing a ladder with a bowl in hand would be difficult.
A few metres past the edge of the stairs, the trees opened up into a clearing - with one large tree in the middle. Unlike the mostly pine or otherwise coniferous forest around them, this tree seemed to be deciduous, with a decidedly gnarled trunk and many twisting branches. The fact that it lacked leaves would normally fit this assessment given the time of year, but it wasn't quite bare - as Cedric and the others approached, he could see that it wasn't merely pumpkins that grew from the branches, but jack-o-lanterns. There weren't many, but each had a face apparently carved into the side, and each was glowing from within - and yet, like the city in the trees Cedric supposed, these gourds were clearly alive and growing from the tree itself.
The group gathered, those who Ceric had come with and those who lived here, in front of the tree. The old woman who'd been seated at the head of the table broke away from the crowd and addressed the group, and the witches and warlocks greeted her collectively as "Grand Madam Witch Hazel." The way they put emphasis on the words sounded like 'grand madam witch' was a complete title, and that her name was Hazel, but Cedric's mind found it hard to separate the words 'witch hazel' given he knew that as the name of an herb. ...He briefly wondered whether that was an intentional pun or if the herb's name had unfortunate implications.
"For those that have fallen," Hazel have said, "We remember you in our time of celebration. We invite you to share our joy, and hope you know peace in the uncharted lands. Those whose spirits still reside on this mortal plane and those already in the hereafter - you are not forgotten." After this, there was a brief amount of call and response that Cedric could barely understand and certainly not remember enough to follow along with, but it was over shortly and the group assorted itself into three separate lines. Cedric followed Sofia into a line and waited his turn, watching what those ahead of them did - apparently, just place the bowl of food on the ground at the base of the tree. At least he wouldn't have to do anything fancy.
He barely had time to wonder whether the pumpkin lanterns in the tree were the 'spirits still on this mortal plane' or whatever Hazel had spoken of, but then Sofia was placing her bowl at the tree's roots ahead of him. "I hope you're okay, wherever you are, Dad," he heard her say, and moved out of the way for Cedric to put his own bowl down.
Cedric hadn't realized he'd needed to say words… but as he kneeled down, Cedric thought of the few pamphlets he'd found in the restricted / adult section of the school's library, the back corners behind ropes that had books written by the worst magical criminals in history, the books that were rare and too precious to lose to poor handling of younger students, and a few things about those in 'sodomite' relationships and those who 'pretended to be what they were not'. How some of these had ended their own lives to get out of… all of this, and how some had had no choice in the matter. How many were recorded in these few books, and how many must have gone completely unnoticed.
Cedric gritted his teeth as he placed down his bowl, a poor replica of the crest he'd found in those pamphlets of the 'confused.' He said, mumbled really, "My brothers and sisters… I remember the dead, and I'll - I'll try harder to fight like hell for the living." He'd heard that phrase somewhere else, too, but… it mostly stuck with him for this.
As he left the tree's base, Cedric tried to blink away the tears that had started to form. Sofia approached him, saying, "Brothers and sisters? I thought-"
"It was metaphorical," Cedric said, throat scratchy. Merlin's mushrooms, he really didn't need this ti happen here.
"Oh," Sofia said, and put a hand on his arm. "Who was that about, then?"
Cedric closed his eyes. "I definitely do not want to talk about it."
Once everyone's bowls had been placed, there were a few more words, and then Lucinda said to Sofia and Cedric, "If you guys wanna sleep here tonight, you're welcome too - I just asked my mom, she said it's fine, though boys and girls in different rooms." ...That seemed a bit hypocritical and reaffirming at the same time to Cedric. Passing was nice. "You don't have to if you don't want - I can fly you guys home pretty quickly, though I don't know if Sofia is allowed to fly a broom on her own anymore?"
Sofia shook her head no. "I don't know for certain, and I'd… really rather not risk it."
Lucinda nodded. "So would you guys like to try squishing onto one broom, then, or should we just go the old fashioned way? I mean, I'm bringing my broom regardless so I can fly back, at least, but yeah."
That three people on one broom idea sounded awful to Cedric, and apparently this was evident enough on his face that Sofia didn't actually have to ask, she just glanced his way and said, "I think walking is a better idea."
With a shrug, Lucinda said, "Whatever you say - though the broom would be faster."
"I'd rather not fall to my death, thanks," Cedric said, "I've been thinking about that quite enough lately."
Both girls gave Cedric a concerned look, though Lucinda's seemed at least half amused - gallows humor, if a bad variety of it. Sofia knew better, and Cedric silently cursed himself. "Well, are we going or not?" he said, trying to break the tension. "As you said, it's going to take a while, so we'd better ought to get a move on."
The walk home was… mostly awkward silence, really. This is why Cedric should learn better than to go any place - he could never keep his mouth shut, and made things like this happen.
On the other hand, the forest lit by the light of the moon this late in the night was really a sight to behold. Very different from the bright and lively atmosphere of the witch's colony, it was mostly silent - aside from their own clumsy movement, of course - and soft, and it looked like a jar of molten silver had poured itself over everything.
Eventually, they got back into town, which was still lit by the street lamps but was eerily empty at this hour. A few lights inside still shown, but very few; the footprints and odd hoofprint in the streets were clear evidence that the town wasn't abandoned, but it still felt as if it was as they walked through it.
Lucinda wanted to leave Sofia and Cedric when they got to the door of the shop, but Sofia tugged Lucinda's wrist and pulled her along inside, which Cedric quickly learned was to be as proof for Miranda that she had been safe and in good hands, etcetera. All three of them got reprimanded - but that was it. Lucinda wasn't surprising, Cedric supposed, she was a third party - literally, in this case, but that was beside the point.
Cedric almost expected something to happen to him, given he is older and the man and should have been more responsible, but no, he only got lecture too.
He was sent to another room as Miranda continued to scold Sofia, and Cedric braced himself for - he wasn't sure. Tears, probably, once Sofia exited, and he tried to prepare some words to calm her down after the inevitable. He'd never had to deal with bruises, yet, but Cedric didn't know if-
Sofia entered her room with half a smile on her face. She wasn't grinning, really, but she looked… okay? Her arms were crossed and when she sat down on the bed next to Cedric, she rolled her eyes and said, "Ugh, parents, you know?"
Cedric looked her up and down. "Are you all right?" he asked, still not quite believing his eyes, given how he seemed to misread the situation fairly often.
Sofia gave him a look of… some kind. "Yeah? Why wouldn't I-" and stopped herself suddenly. "Uh, yeah, I'm good. Just, you know, Mom worries about me and I should try to send word at least or something, just the usual stuff. I haven't lived away from her before Hexley, so she's a little more protective since she hasn't seen me for a while I guess. That's all."
It took a bit for Cedric's heart to stop feeling like it was going to pound itself out of his chest, but he nodded. "I… think I'm going to sleep then, if you don't mind."
"It's like one in the morning, I think I'd be questioning if you didn't want to go to bed," Sofia said with a laugh.
...One was hardly the latest Cedric had gone to bed, but he nodded anyway. "Goodnight, then," he said, then, "You're sure you're good?"
A soft smile lit upon Sofia's face and she said, "I promise. Now goodnight, get some sleep."