The next morning saw Elaina wake far too quickly for her liking, as a beam of sunlight speared right through the large balcony that connected her room to her brothers. She had not bothered to close the curtains or barrier before she fell asleep, and she was paying for it now.
Elaina pulled the blankets up over her head and hid from the sunlight, trying to go back to sleep, only to have the blankets flipped up from her legs.
“Wake up!” Her traitorous twin called, as the blankets fluttered back down.
“Nnnnnn.” Elaina intoned, gathering up the to cover her head even more.
“Time to get up.” the turncoat said. “Time to ACTUALLY meet your fiance.”
Elaina laid completely still. Maybe if she played dead he would go away.
For a few moments it seemed to have work.
Then she felt ice cold fingers tickle there way over her now exposed and vulnerable feet.
“EEEEEK! EZRA!” Elaina shrieked as she yanked her feet up and rolled off the bed, flinging a pillow vaguely at the cruel smile her twin was currently beaming her way.
“Oh good you're up! Zoey told me Vincent should be up and eating breakfast, now hurry up and get dressed! Our trip is already behind schedule, as soon as you two are done eating we'll be getting in a carriage to go on that tour!”
“So fast? We aren't going to visit with the family? I was hoping to get a chance to talk to Mira before we headed out.” Elaina pouted even as she admitted defeat and went to gather a dress from her luggage.
“Mira said she will be escorting us for most of the day, so you can chat then. You COULD have chatted to her a few minutes ago when she called to wake you up, but SOMEONE wouldn't wake up.”
Elaina shot poisonous glare Ezra's way as she moved behind a screen and began changing.
“Anything I should know about before we go down there? Any new developments or juicy gossip?”
“Elaina, I just woke up, like, half an hour ago. How could I possibly have picked up any gossip or heard of any interesting developments?”
“Because you are you, and you have had half an hour.” Elaina said, poking her smiling face around the dividing screen as she tugged on her underclothes.
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Ezra sighed, but then smiled back. “Um... well I heard a bit about Vincent's servants. Zoey you already know about, but his other servant... servant feels like a poor word for them, lieutenant? I get the feeling the term meant something different way back in the day. Anyways, his other principle companion is a woman by the name of Penny.”
“Penny... Didn't Mira tell us about someone named that?” Elaina asked thoughtfully.
“The extremely young master of alchemy they have? Yep! Apparently she is trying to teach Vincent about alchemy, hopefully with fewer explosions than when he was learning under their old master of alchemy.”
“Is she any good?” Elaina asked, emerging from behind the partition.
“Well, apparently the alchemy guild is holding off on officially declaring her a master, but the people around here love her. She is less about the high level, rare ingredient type potions and is more at home gathering what is local to wherever she is at the time and seeing what she can make out of that. She apparently has several very lucrative shops in several towns that focus on producing potions from local fare on the cheap cheap, the maid's term, not mine, and it bringing in a lot more clientelle than the normal nobles and rich merchants most alchemist's see as their principle patrons.”
“Alchemy for the everyman... I hate to say it but from what you've told me of this country, with their focus on duels between the nobility, that seems like an unpopular choice, not just for Penny the alchemist, but for Vincent as a member of the royal family.” Elaina said as she gave her hair a quick brush.
“You would be right. He has caught a lot of flak for it from the nobility, but the general populace seems to support him. And the nobles in his inner circle seem fine with it, probably because Penny is in the habit of making 'care packages' of local potions for Vincent and any party of nobles he takes with them. Free stuff tends to make anyone your friend. Ready?” Ezra nodded to Elaina and she nodded back, the both of them leaving her chambers.