In her room, Edian sat on her heated bed with a book. Draconis had recommended it to her and she was quite happy to have a fellow romance fan. Especially one much more willing than her to go through all sorts of varying qualities and styles of writing to pick out the ones that appealed to them. She really was quite lucky that his taste was similar to hers.

Raskreia knocked on the door with her heart in her throat. She really hoped Lady Edian would accept her gift. She clung onto the sword tightly, waiting with baited breath for an answer.

"Yes?" Edian had no intention of opening the door if it wasn't someone she wished to see. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Raskreia," she answered. It was hard for her to get the words out; she didn't know why she was so nervous. She'd spoken to her mentor many times before without having a near heart attack.

A small smile formed on her usually impassive face. Her favourite student. Though Raskreia had her magic studies too she never neglected her training. "Wait a minute your highness! I'll be right there!"

It took her a moment to drag herself off of the wonderful warmth but she managed, her tail dragging on the floor as she went to open the door.

Raskreia's heart skipped a beat, hearing her teacher's voice. She took a deep breath as she waited for the door to open. She had rehearsed what she'd wanted to say several hundred times in front of her mirror, and now she couldn't remember anything.

Smiling, Edian's tail started to sway slightly as she laid her eyes upon Raskreia. "What is it, your highness?"

She blushed deeply- "I wanted to give you this?" She held the sword out before her. Her heart was beating so fast that she could hardly get her words out.

Edian took it into her hands. This wasn't an ordinary sword considering all the embedded jewels and the way that it was carved. Decorative then. "Thank you."

"Do you like it?" she asked, almost stuttering on her words. It'd taken her a while to find just the right sword with Karias' help, she wanted to know if she'd made the right choice.

"It's beautiful. Yes." Draconis had given her a few like this, though those ones were meant to be used. She'd have to examine this one's blade first."

That got a smile- "I'm glad." It seemed she'd made the right choice with taking Karias with her and asking for his advice.

"Any special occasion occurring?" She didn't think she was missing any but she didn't pay much attention to the festivals here. "You're not usually one for gifts."

"Ah, it's to say thank you for being a great mentor to me." She blushed deeply again; she couldn't let Lady Edian know how she felt straight away. She didn't want to risk scaring her away.

Edian laughed softly, amused. "Come in. If that's the reason then I'll need to return the favour."

"Thank you." It was great to hear that Lady Edian considered her a great student.

Closing the door behind them, she went to pull out two chairs. "I don't have visitors often so you'll have to forgive me for these rickety old things."

"Oh, I don't mind really, it's quite alright." Raskreia was happy to be able to spend some time with Lady Edian outside of the training grounds. This was a great opportunity for them to get to know each other.

"Is it? Draconis is always complaining about them so he always just ends up claiming my bed."

He did what? How dare he? "Well, I think it's rude of him to complain. This is actually rather cosy."

Edian smiled. "I'm quite fine with it. We're childhood friends and I'm happy he can be truly himself around me."

"As long as there's no malicious intent behind it, I guess it's alright." Still, she didn't like how he could insult her so carelessly like that.

"He may like to play tricks but he isn't that sort of person." Raskreia was too cute when she was being protective like this. "I prefer the bed too; it does get quite cold here."

"If you like, we could sit on the bed, I don't want you to be uncomfortable." She blushed slightly, what was she saying? It was inappropriate for her to suggest sitting on someone else's bed. What if Lady Edian didn't want her on there?

Edian giggled. "Don't worry your highness, it's not bad in summer."

"If you're sure." She didn't want Lady Edian to put herself out on her account.

"I do hibernate in winter when I don't return to my homeland. It's simply too cold then." That and she missed her father. As for her mother... she visited sporadically.

"That's understandable, sometimes I wish I could hibernate in winter too." She wasn't fond of the cold herself, still it didn't bother her as much as it did others, especially the scaled folk.

"Oh no. No, you don't. You'd miss out on everything that happens if you did." Like how the king had apparently disappeared during last winter, and when he'd returned he'd simply said he went on a rendezvous with his spouse. He had been missing for an entire month, and she'd missed all of it simply because she'd been asleep.

"That's true, I guess there is a rather ethereal beauty about it."

"Or your father apparently going off on a date with his husband without informing everybody."

Her face turned red in embarrassment, "It's not my place to talk about his majesty's personal matters."

"Nobody cares that he went off on his trip. The problem was that they were under the assumption that he had been kidnapped." Which was an extremely important matter that could cause a panic in the kingdom.

"Yes, I can see how that could be a problem." She wasn't certain he really thought of the consequences of his actions. He just did what he wanted whenever he felt like it.

"At least it proves that he loves Duke Tradio dearly," Edian remarked offhandedly. "Reminds me of my father with my mother."

"Yes, it does-" she blushed- "What about you? Do you have anyone you love?"

"In a romantic manner? No." She supposed if she ever married it would be to Draconis so that they could both ease the pressure of people asking when they would settle and provide heirs for their respective lines.

That was good, so she was still in with a chance. "If you like, we can go for tea or dinner sometime when you're free. It's nice spending time with you outside of training."

"Of course, your highness, I do enjoy learning about you." All people were intriguing, and she enjoyed it finding out about small little details. Unless they were crazy. Then she avoided them. "I believe your grandmother lives in the city, so it may do us well to visit her too."

"Yes, that's a great idea." Raskreia smiled. Visiting her grandmother would be the perfect excuse to go on a journey with her mentor, even if it was a short one.

Well, that aside- "Since we seem to be in the mood to learn new things, what do you enjoy your highness?"

She wasn't sure, no-one had ever asked what she enjoyed doing. The only one who seemed to ask was Karias, and she had trouble answering him sometimes as well. "I love sitting in the palace gardens, reading. I also enjoy drawing and sketching. What about you?"

Edian gave a devilish grin- "Swords are my hobby and work." Aside from that though- "I enjoy romance novels too, and weaving."

"Can you recommend some romance novels? I usually simply read through my study books, it'd be nice to read something else for a change." Perhaps she'd get more courting ideas from the novels.

"Oh, of course!" Edian's tail swayed as she spoke, and she stood to pick out some books from her shelf, laying them carefully on the table. "These are some of my favourites, they have the most amazing romances."

"Thank you," Raskreia responded looking down at the books, "I'll be sure to take good care of them and return them when I'm done." She'd read every word and commit it to memory. If it was important to Lady Edian, it was important to her as well.

"I know you will." Actually, her taste in romance was slightly strange wasn't it? But she supposed that was what happened when she was used to her father's ways. Perhaps this would make Raskreia look at her differently, but she didn't care much.

Raskreia looked at the pile of books, she couldn't wait to read them. It'd help her understand her mentor better.

Urokai's eyes narrowed as his ancestor's statue informed him of the billowing smoke from one of the kitchens. That was suspicious. Had one of the animated beings attempted to cook again? They had no use for it but they always seemed curious to try things that they didn't have the capability for. Or perhaps someone had broken in. Quickly making his way to the area, he realised it was the one closest to the western wing. Was the asshole who'd broken in trying to cause a commotion? Taking a deep breath and clutching his pendant -the rose in it losing its petals gradually over the centuries- he entered. "What the fuck is going on?"

That almost made Raizel jump- "I thought you might be hungry, so I decided to make you something to eat." He smiled, unaware the food was actually burning. He had no idea how to cook, he'd never attempted it before.

"You'll kill us both before you finish!" Urokai leapt to the food immediately, removing it, and got rid of the fire. Was this man an idiot? "Burning the goddamn place down as if everything here except the stone doesn't burn."

"That wasn't my intention," Raizel replied in a monotone voice. He felt his host was overreacting slightly, he wasn't going to burn anything down. Still, it was nice to have some company at least.

"Not your intention maybe-" he opened up the windows to air the place out- "but it would have been the result."

"In that case, I apologise. I am inexperienced with these things," Raizel explained. He hadn't meant anything malicious by it; he'd wanted to do something nice for his host.

"Then you should have told Chi to get me! You can't just try to cook like this if you don't know jack shit." Seriously! Couldn't he tell that something was most definitely wrong from all the smoke? Did he cast some stupid spell so that he didn't smell it?

"I'm sorry, I'll remember for next time. Would you like me to help clean up the mess?" He asked, he wasn't sure how to clean either, but it had to be easier than cooking.

Urokai was going to kill him in a week. He could feel it. Still, he took out several old cloths from a cupboard. "Take these, put them in the tub of water, squeeze the water out, and use them to clean up."

Raizel nodded, that didn't sound too hard. He put the cloths in the water and left them there, how long was he supposed to wait until they were ready?

The paper bird, Chi, fluttered around the tub chirping. Urokai simply stared at the scene, arms crossed as he wondered how long it would take for this idiot to complete the task.

The bird chirping probably meant it was time to remove the cloths, he took them out of the tub, and wrung them out, the water pooling around his ankles on the floor. The next step had been to clean up, but what to clean? He looked around at the mess. He moved to start with the stove, only to slip on the water.

Deftly, Urokai caught him. He was unhappy with his mask right now, considering that it meant that his glare wasn't visible.

Raizel instinctively held onto him= "Sorry about that, I slipped. Thank you for helping me though."

"Have you never cleaned up before?" He helped Raizel to one of the seats, still annoyed.

Raizel shook his head- "No, I've never done anything like this before." Before coming here, he'd rarely left his room.

"And you still tried to cook? Just tell me if you need someone to teach you next time!"

Raizel nodded. "Yes, I wanted to do something nice to repay your kindness. I'll be sure to ask for help next time." He smiled, he felt like they were becoming friends.

Sighing, Urokai took one of the dry cloths and started mopping up the water on the floor. "I'm guessing you've had everything done for you by servants your entire life?"

"Yes" It's not like he didn't want to help out or learn to be independent, but whenever he tried his brother or mother would scold him for doing work others had been hired for.

He supposed it wasn't entirely his fault that he was so grossly incompetent then. Even if he should have gone against it, it was the duty of those with power to know the pain of those lacking it and teach it to the next generation. "You'll need my guidance then. I'm not going to clean up after you forever."

"I am ready to learn." It'd be nice to have someone teach him how to survive on his own.

"Try getting the cloth damp again. You only need to make sure it's wet and squeeze the water back into the tub." He stood, getting rid of the water absorbed from the floor.

Raizel got up, taking another cloth. The instructions sounded easy enough. He dipped the cloth into the water, and squeezed the water out of it, back into the tub. "Like this?" He asked, wanting to make sure he was doing it correctly.

"Yeah. It's not exactly difficult." Though he obviously lacked some common sense considering that he'd just let the water drip to the floor. Perhaps that was why he was so sheltered.

"Where would you like me to start?" He asked, there was still a lot of work to be done, he might as well start helping, now that he'd gotten his cloth ready.

Urokai looked over the kitchen. The smoke had touched too much. "One of the counters is fine."

He could manage that, Raizel moved to the nearest counter and began to rub at it with the cloth, marvelling as the soot clung to it. "It's working," he announced, happy that he was helping for a change.

"If that one gets too dirty to clean than put it in an empty tub and take a clean cloth." Asking him to clean the cloth... he'd do that later.

"Okay-" that sounded easy enough. Raizel cleaned the counter until it was no longer covered in soot and scorch marks. After another couple of minutes, he replaced the cloth. Another couple of minutes later, the counter top was clean. He smiled, impressed at what he'd achieved. "I did it."

Checking his work, Urokai gave an approving nod. This was good. "Great work. Just continue like this with the rest of the counter."

Raizel blushed slightly, he'd never really been praised like this before, it felt good. He nodded his head, before starting with the rest of the worktop. He was doing something to help someone else for a change, and he was overjoyed it was appreciated.

After a while, they still weren't finished but Urokai placed the cloth in his hand in the tub. All the clean ones had run out. Not to mention his guest hadn't eaten yet. "Go and get clean, I'll prepare lunch."

"Would you like me to stay and help?" He'd feel terrible if Urokai had to cook alone.

"You can help with dinner, right now you need to get clean." So did he, but he assumed Raizel would need a longer time. "Chi. Go take him to his room and tell one of the statues to help prepare a bath for him." Chirping, the paper bird fluttered up from one of the clean spots in the kitchen.

Raizel tilted his head slightly, to signal his gratitude, before turning to follow the paper bird. He was happy that later he would be able to help with the dinner preparations.

Indeed, Urokai did take a shorter time to clean up, simply using cold water instead of preparing a bath. By the time Raizel had finished bathing, he was already done. Of course, only because he had opted for an easier meal. He waited in the dining room, having eaten while he had cooked.

Raizel entered the dining room, with the paper bird nesting in his hair. He took a seat, "Are you going to be joining me?" He asked.

"I'm sitting here."

Good, at least he'd have company this time. Raizel smiled at him. "What's it like living in a castle?"

"Boring." All he ever seemed to do was clean it too. "And annoying considering how every decade someone decides to barge in uninvited."

"Isn't it nice to have company?" Raizel asked, he was often alone and knew he didn't like it.

"Well yeah, but not from complete strangers who seem to think you're going to eat them." He'd only ever done that once, and the asshole had deserved it.

"Why do they think you're going to eat them? Is it because of the curse?"

"By Mother Astra. I swear just, stop talking about a curse," he groaned, laying his head in his hands on the table. He was going to get a headache from this.

"I'm sorry," Raizel said, seeing his distress. "Do you not like to talk about it?"

"Just. Don't mention it again." He clutched his pendant as another petal started to droop.

Raizel looked at the necklace he was holding- "That necklace, it seems important to you. Did it belong to a family member?"

"No. It's mine."

"It's really nice, did someone special give it to you?"

"You could say that." He held it tighter, hiding the rose from view.

"Did something happen to them?" he asked, not wanting to make his host more uncomfortable.

"No."

"I understand if it's something you don't wish to talk about, I apologise, I won't ask about it again." Raizel could see it wasn't something he wished to talk about, so he wouldn't push it further. Although, he did wonder if the necklace had something to do with the curse.

Urokai frowned but didn't comment on it. "Eat up. I'll teach you how to cook some basic dishes after this."

Raizel smiled at that, he'd never cooked anything before and his first attempt had been far from successful, "Yes, I would like that, thank you." He wondered what he'd be taught to cook, it was all very exciting.

Propping his head up with an arm, Urokai stared lazily at his unwanted guest. As annoying as he was, at least he had looks to make up for it.

It didn't take long for Raizel to finish eating the meal that had been prepared for him, it was delicious. He wondered how long it'd be before he could prepare meals like this, perhaps he could make them for his host from time to time, "I'm done, shall I clean the plates?"

Urokai straightened up in horror- "NO!"

"Is something wrong?" Raizel was merely offering to help, he'd helped clean the kitchen only moments ago, how hard could plates be?

"Some other time, I'll clean them up later." He'd rather let his ancestor's statue clean the dishes before he let him do it.

"Alright, do you have anything you'd like me to help with?" Raizel asked, he wasn't good at anything, but he could always learn.

"Didn't I say it already, I'm teaching you to cook." Urokai stood, walking to the doors. "Come on."

Raizel didn't realise he'd be taught right away. He got up and followed his host towards the kitchen- "What are we going to learn?"

"Hmm-" what was something that definitely could not be ruined? Ah- "When we reach the kitchen, take a few eggs and I'll show you what to do."

"Okay." That sounded easy enough and like something he could manage. Eggs were a part of so many dishes from what he'd seen, he couldn't figure out which one he was going to learn first.

Once in the kitchen Urokai grabbed a small pot, filling it with water. After placing it over a fire he waited for Raizel.

Raizel picked up two eggs, gently taking them over to where Urokai was standing, "What do we do with the eggs?" He asked, wondering if they needed to be placed in the water.

"Just put them in, the water isn't hot yet."

"Okay." Raizel carefully placed the eggs on the bottom of the pan, he didn't want to drop them in, in case they smashed.

"Good." At least he was smart enough to know how to handle eggs. Though perhaps it wouldn't be a surprise if he didn't know. Humans didn't have eggs after all.

"How long do we wait?" Raizel asked, watching the eggs in the water. Nothing seemed to be happening.

"The water needs to boil first."

"Alright." Raizel watched, and eventually little bubbles started forming on the bottom of the pan, moving towards the surface of the water. It was working, he was cooking something.

Urokai simply stood there for a little while longer, then sighed. "I'll go get some meat and you can learn how to marinate it. Wait a bit."

Raizel nodded, keeping an eye on the water, as it started to bubble more frequently.

Urokai left the room to go to the cellars. Though it was freezing down there it was the only place that kept the food from spoiling if they weren't already dealt with in some other way. Hopefully nothing would happen in the time that he was gone.

The bubbles on the water became more violent and a lot bigger, Raizel stood there frowning at it, had it gone wrong already? Continuing to watch the water for a while, he realised his host had not returned. He asked the paper bird nesting in his head to show him the way. Had something happened to him?

The bird chirped but didn't move. The master of the castle wouldn't be in trouble, he was simply slow.

Raizel looked around the kitchen, he still hadn't returned, this was worrying. He went to go look for him, if the bird wasn't going to help, he'd find him himself.

When Urokai finally returned it was to an empty room. He could already feel himself twitching and he forced himself to walk away from the knives and out of the room instead, calling for one of his animated servants. With them he tracked Raizel down, scowling heavily when he found him. "Why the fuck are you here?"

"I came to look for you. I got worried." Raizel answered, "The bird wouldn't show me the way, so I had to find you myself."

"Of course Chi didn't. She's a good girl," he said, the paper bird chirping at his praise. "You don't need to worry about me, nothing around here can cause me harm."

Raizel nodded, "Alright." He smiled, before falling into a panic, his eggs, "I forgot about the eggs." They'd be ruined by now.

"It's been maybe half an hour, they're fine."

He nodded, but still he was panicked, they'd have to go back and check. When they returned to the kitchen, the water in the pan was more than half gone but the eggs hadn't changed. He frowned, why didn't they look different?

Taking some thick cloths, Urokai took the pot off of the fire. "Can you place one of those wooden mats on the table?"

"Of course." Raizel did as instructed, watching everything carefully.

Setting the pot down, Urokai went to put out the fire. "Come here. Watch how I put this out. Then we can continue with the marinating."

Raizel watched Urokai douse the flames, it seemed simple enough. He'd try and remember for next time.

"I'll show you how to light and maintain one later." First though, he showed Raizel where all the different ingredients were kept and the basic ones that could be used to marinate any meat. Though he was teaching all of this now, he'd make sure to reiterate it some other time too. If he was going to live with him around he needed to make sure he was self-sufficient.