Velvet spent the rest of the day and the night in the room, resting.

She even used one of these new fancy things called ‘Telephone’. It was like a wooden stick, with two iron disks in the extremes, with one having some sort of expanded tube, like a trumpet.

A cable that got lost in the walls connected Velvet to the staff, so that she could ask for anything she needed.

That's how she ended up getting food and some bath salts.

And now she was inside a bath filled with bubbles to the rim, eating from some plate filled with an array of chopped fruits with a long and thin fork. There was also a long cup filled with some non-alcoholic beverage.

“I sooo deserve this.”

“Hyde look, this one looks like a star!” She lifted a piece of orange fruit.

Hyde had finished breaking down the formation part, and now had gone back to the hat.

“You only want me for my cursed dreams!” She fakely weeped when the spider didn’t answer her.

“That’s a persimmon.”

“What a fancy name, I like you, persimmon!”

…

Gertine was dealing with some inner turmoil.

Velvet hadn’t contacted her after the fae stuff.

Did she mess around and got killed? She couldn’t be that dumb, right? No, if she had survived that train thing, she wasn’t THAT dumb.

Did Gertine guess wrong? Velvet wasn’t interested in becoming her friend, only using her for some extra benefits? She didn’t think so, breaking the connection to the only magician family that she knew was even dumber.

Then she had probably messed up some of the spells Baraviodos gave her. Maybe she had gotten too immersed in them, that was the more possible answer.

A part of her wanted to go to Velvet’s room and check, but they weren’t close enough to do that. Velvet was the one supposed to take steps to get closer to her, not the opposite!

“We can wait until tomorrow.” Her familiar, Vouloire, said to her.

“You’re right. Maybe she wants to try to be mysterious.” Taking a sip from her glass of rum, she went to focus on other things.

The day and night passed like that.

“She is still not coming for breakfast…” Gertine complained, before seeing Velvet going through the buffet, her eyes shining with interest towards the food.

Gertine made no motion for her to come and sit down, waiting for her to do it on her own. After Velvet decided to stop walking laps around the buffet!

“Gertine, you are rattling your fingers on the table. You can’t look anxious!” Vouloire said.

She stopped, choosing to drink instead. “Who needs so much time to pick breakfast?!”

But Vouloire was right. She needed to act wise and patient, like a mage from a family should look. Even then…

Stop looking at the fruit… You don’t need a whole mango!

…

“Hmm… I can’t find the persimmon… But this one looks close enough.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Maybe you ate them all already. That’s a mango, they don’t even taste similar.”

“I said look, not taste. Anyway, it’s mine now.”

She also picked some orange juice, bread, fried eggs and bacon. She then went to sit in front of Gertine, who was busy reading the newspaper.

“Hello~” Velvet started. “What a nice day we are having. The skies are clear, the orchestra is playing beautiful music, the food is smelling grea-”

“Alrai! You rotten, pig-brained imbecile!”

“Aaand the kids are fighting.” She wasn’t expecting a mage fight to break down while they were inside an airship, on the air. Emphasis on those two points.

Are they stupid? Both Velvet and Gertine thought.

“Shouldn’t you back up those claims? I am innocent.”

Velvet looked at the two stupid ass mages. One was the guy with curly hair and the wolf that she saw yesterday. The other was a guy with long hair tied in a thin braid. And Velvet knew him.

Not from her memories, of course, but from Siberina’s familiar.

Alrai Siberetti. The Siberetti’s selected.

“You put a poisoned apple on the buffet, knowing I was going to pick it!”

Obviously, he was a gambler, so doing that was possible. Velvet agreed with the wolf guy, even without knowing him.

The wolf next to the guy growled, threatening Alrai..

“Again, you have no proof.”

“Fuck your proof, I’m gonna rip your throat out, I only need your brain for checking the truth!”

Please do it, I don’t want to deal with another Ropperti. Velvet knew she wasn’t being impartial, but hey, she wasn’t a judge!

“Do you crave having a brain so badly? You should start by growing a few brain cells first.” Alrai provoked him even more. Still, Velvet saw him reaching for the knife next to him, slipping it under the sleeves in a way the other guy couldn’t see.

Velvet looked at Gertine, but she just shrugged slightly her shoulders.

The wolf guy curled his fingers, hair and claws growing in his hand, but, before he lunged himself at Alrai, someone interrupted, grabbing him by the shoulder.

“Nereus. Fighting is prohibited here.” Velvet saw the new guy mutter something to the other guy.

It seemed something like .

Arhontissians? Those were the only ones with a queen.

“Igern! He poisoned Mars!” Velvet guessed that was the blue rat’s name, since it wasn’t here.

The Igern guy seemed to have some magical creature ancestry, since his ears were pointy. He also had some long black hair and green eyes.

“I am being framed. If you stopped to think for one or two seconds, not that you can think.”

“I won’t tolerate insults towards Arhontissian mages.” Igern interrupted him, to which Alrai shrugged. “How do you know it was him?”

“Ethra Graham told me.”

Velvet choked on the mango piece she was eating. It seemed even Igern was surprised… not as much as offended, his eyebrows frowning before he could stop them.

Are you stupid?! Both of them thought, for different reasons.

Letting yourself be used like a muscle brained idiot for a Graham! You’re picked by the queen, you cannot do this! Other mages are looking at us! Igern thought, the hand that was holding Nereus shoulder tightening.

Aren’t you from magic families?! You’re supposed to have some inside info for things like this! Also, who believes some guy without proof! Oh, maybe he used pride magic… Velvet thought, trying to get the mango piece out without coughing too hard. Gertine patted her back softly.

Igern turned towards another mage. “Do you have anything to say?”

The mage, Velvet recognized that blonde hair and red eyes combination very well, said with disdain. “Why? I just guessed, it's your dog… and your dog’s dog fault for jumping straight to murder.”

“He is right about that.” Alrai said.

He is right about that. Velvet echoed in her mind, before adding. You idiot, why are you agreeing?!

Being ganged up by the two mages, Igern flinched a bit. “You could’ve used magic to convince him.”

“Aren’t you also jumping to conclusions now?” Ethra said. “Didn’t you learn anything?”

“Someone poisoned my familiar.” Nereus repeated. “If it wasn’t you, then who-”

“Well, someone did take too much time picking fruits.” Ethra interrupted him. “That mage over there. I guess it was her.”

He had just pointed at Velvet.

Just when I got the mango out…