Sera quickly found that she thought it all was rather interesting; seeing little pieces that made up ancient history, or the texts discussing things in a way that made it all come alive. It wasn’t long until she started losing track of time, eventually no longer needing Iankas’s guidance in order to know what to do. She enjoyed learning and, when she got stuck on something, he was more than willing to explain it to her.

Suffice to say, neither of them paid attention to how much time had passed until the maid from before walked up to them.

“I believe you can see that we’re busy,” Iankas remarked, looking up at the maid. “Is it something important? If not, then I’m sure whatever it is can wait a little while longer. I think we’re nearly done here—either that, or we’ve barely scratched the surface.”

“I suppose it’s not that important,” the maid replied casually, “if you don’t want to have dinner tonight.”

“It’s that late already?” He pulled out a pocket watch and poked it a few times. He paused. “Thinking on it, I don’t think this thing has moved at all since we got here.”

“That’s because it doesn’t work,” the maid said with a sigh. “That was your grandfather’s, remember? It never worked when you got it.”

“I must’ve forgotten, with how invested we both got. Ah well, I guess it doesn’t matter too much now.” He looked at Sera. “Would you like to come with me? I’m sure it won’t take too much work to get you something to eat, too.”

At first, she wasn’t going to think twice about accepting. Then she realized she probably shouldn’t and said, “I don’t want to be too much of a bother…”

“Oh, you’re certainly not bothering anyone! I quite enjoyed our time together. Besides, I have another preposition for you, and I think you’ll like it.”

“Couldn’t you tell me here?”

“Well, where’s the fun in that? Also, given the look we’re being given, I don’t think waiting much longer is going to lead to anything worthwhile. We don’t want the food getting cold while we’re talking.”

Sera nodded. “Alright, then. I can stay for dinner.”

Not like she really had anywhere else to go when she left. She just didn’t want to burden anyone here…

The maid left as soon as she had proper confirmation from Iankas, but they didn’t follow her; they put away some of things they’d been working on in the library first. Once they’d finished—or at least cleaned up a few things—Iankas led Sera to the dining room.

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She found she wasn’t actually as surprised to see it as she was at the library. Perhaps just because she’d already gotten used to the fact that he had quite a lot of money and wasn’t exactly shy about flaunting it.

A butler came and served their dinner, then sat some instrumental music on the phonograph and left.

“Have you enjoyed this afternoon?” Iankas prompted as they ate.

She had to remind herself not to eat too quickly—she was afraid of coming off as impolite. Still, that didn’t keep her from stuffing as much of the good food in her mouth as possible without being improper. She almost didn’t recognize his questions at first.

When she did acknowledge it a moment later, though, she nodded. “Mhm!” She waited to swallow before continuing, “I had fun, actually! A lot more than I thought I would. I was kinda afraid I wasn’t going to be able to understand any of it, but I felt this kind of… connection to it. I liked it.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. I think it’s time now that I ask that question I mentioned earlier. Would you like to stay here? Longer than just the evening—however long you want to. I enjoyed your help, as well, and I feel that you’ll be able to quickly find yourself at home.”

She almost spit out what she was eating. “I couldn’t do that! You’ve probably got other things you’ve got to worry about, I don’t want to trouble you or anything. Not any longer for another day or two, anyway—after that, I should probably keep going.”

“But would you want to stay?”

“I guess, maybe… I don’t think I should, though. I don’t think this is where my purpose is—not really. And it’s not going to get me any closer to remembering my past or my siblings, either…”

“I think that’s where you’re wrong.”

“Huh?”

“You said that you enjoyed what we did together. Already, that could relate to your purpose. Perhaps it’s not specifically what you’d like to strive to do, but it could be close. If you stayed with me, I’ll be able to show you some other things I did in my old line of work. One of those might just be the key that you need in order to understand what you want to do.”

“What about my siblings, then?”

“I already said that I’m familiar with the royal family. King Tibrel might’ve died, but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely lost contact with them—I’m sure Queen Talaya would talk to me, if I asked her to. We might be able to learn something about your family through the throne’s resources.”

“Really? Wouldn’t that be hard? I don’t really want you to have to rely on favors or anything weird…”

“Oh, no, it wouldn’t be that kind of favor. It’ll be more like a request from one friend to another. I’m certain it won’t be a problem at all.”

“You’re… sure..?”

“Certain.”

After a moment, Sera nodded. “Alright. I… don’t think there’s any reason not to try.”

Iankas smiled. “And you’re by no means obligated to stay, if you don’t want to. If you decide that you’re ready to go, just let me know—I’ll make sure you’ve got what you need to keep traveling. I just can’t let you go without trying to help first. I really do feel like you’ll find at least a couple of answers here.”

Sera smiled, too. “You know what? So do I.”