VIENDA | EARLY MORNING
Lilanee stood in front of the gate, gesturing at the door whilst looking back at Ezre as he exited the carriage that had brought them from the airship docks to her house.
“Built in the twenty six hundreds apparently, father says. It’s a sturdy place, good for research and excellent for shopping opportunities should one be so inclined. I believe mother was quite influential in the purchase, given the size of the gardens. She can’t live without some sort of natural life around her. Even here, maybe especially here, in Vienda. The house in Brayde is almost buried in the woodland, literally you need a map to get to our house. Maybe it was better we came here.” Her finger absently moved to her mouth, pushing her lowerlip between her teeth and frowning.
“We should go in I suppose. Just…well maybe I should go first. No, that would be weird. We’ll go…together yes. Yes together is fine. It’s fine. This is fine!” Inhaling deeply, the russet brunette bent at the knees to pick up her suitcase, still staring at the gate.
Still not moving.
“Tocks.” She exhaled, field fluttering in frustration and nervousness. Her periwinkle gaze drifted to Ezre with a small smile.
“We could probably find somewhere for a nice breakfast first you know, there’s a great—”
“Lilanee Kuleda, why are you standing in the street like some lost sheep? Have you been so far from home that you forget how to enter it?” A stern, direct voice sounded from the doorway of the home, directing Lilanee’s gaze upwards to look at the olive skinned woman who stood there. She was taller than the teenager, by an inch or so, with dark hair that was drawn away from her face in a very simple half up-half down style, curling gently across her shoulders and down her back. Her kohl rimmed eyes were a rich brown, and her mouth was caught in an expression somewhere between annoyed and judgmental. Her outfit was not Anaxi fashion, instead she wore a Hessean garment in a golden beige fabric that swept around her figure and up over one shoulder, splitting to cascade down her left arm almost like a mantle. The dress had sleeves made of a sheer fabric, capped at her wrists by wide gold bracelets. Her ears were adorned with large geometric gold earrings that hung down from her lobes, and her throat by an intricately made golden necklace that looked like a gathering of leaves that grew longer as they got closer to her sternum.
“Who is that?” The woman said sharply, gesturing with her chin at Ezre as she widened the open door. Lilanee inhaled deeply again, before lifting her chin and leveling her gaze at the woman.
“Alethia Kuleda, it is my honor to introduce you to Ezre Vks. Xi is my p—” The older woman waved her hand, tucking it under and making a ‘come here’ motion.
“You will explain inside the house. I’m not a herders matron to be yelled at through the fence. Come. Inside.” The russet haired Hessean exhaled the rest of her words through her teeth, tilting her head and clenching her jaw, field souring with a slight redshift before she pulled it together. Turning to Ezre, she smiled, though it was strained.
“Let’s go then?” Giving the Hexxos a chance to speak before they entered, Lilanee pushed open the gate and led the dark haired student down the pathway that led to the door. On either side of them, a lush and almost overgrown garden grew thick and heavy. It smelt thickly of jasmine and lavender, and whice chattered in the canopy of the trees that grew at the front. The ninth form paused to place her hand on one of the trees, almost reverently, before walking through the doorway that her mother had left open for them.
“Shoes Lilanee! You weren’t raised in a camp!” Alethia snapped from beyond the foyer, deeper in the house, and with a sigh Lilanee lent down to remove her boots at the front door. Walking in her Brunnhold green socks, leaving her bag at the door, the russet brunette waited for Ezre before progressing ahead. Around them, the house was full—too full—of various collections. Ancient vases carefully pieced together placed on pedestals, or fragments of pottery and arrow heads contained in glass cabinets. Early AT paintings, depicting very anatomically inaccurate galdori and animals hung in frames on the walls, and a couple of spectographs of a jovial looking man with round spectacles over a spattering of freckles and curls standing at various dig sites. One sat in a frame by the front door on a beautifully carved stand, of the man holding a much younger, very toothy smiling Lilanee.
Jonathan Emmett and Daughter, 2710. The swirling inked inscription said on the bottom of the frame.
“Father didn’t take on mothers name when they married. Too Anaxi for that particular tradition.” The russet brunette said softly as they moved through the house.
Spears and swords, shields and bows, a collection of various weapons greeted them in the sitting room beyond the foyer, hung on the walls like trophies. And gold.
So much gold.
There was jewelry in cases, and bowls on shelves and artwork in cabinets. It was absurdly over the top, the designs clearly Hessean, and strewn like one would place Clocks Eve wreaths. Over the fireplace in the sitting room was a kenser-head sized drake skull, bleached white by the sun and nestled comfortably between more treasures from Hesse or Jonathan Emmett’s expeditions.
Alethia had seated herself by the fireplace in a deep set olive green leather chair, gesturing to the matching chair and two seater lounge for the teenagers.
“I didn’t expect you to bring luggage.” The Hessean said, her dark eyes flicking to Ezre as she spoke, before looking back to her daughter. Lilanee wet her lips, biting back all the things her mind was bursting to say and instead carefully crafting her reply.
“Ezre accompanied me, because I asked. Because I wanted someone here who could help us find father.” The older woman’s field—relatively dotered and calm before—now shimmered sharply with a flare of annoyance and a cold grey shift. She flicked her fingers rapidly, and from seemingly nowhere, a house passive appeared. He came with tea, steaming hot and unusual in fragrance. This was not chan, and it was not a standard Anaxi Breakfast tea. It smelt like aniseed and spices. Placing the tray down on the table that separated the three chairs, the passive disappeared again as though he was never there and Alethia gestured at them.
“Be seated. You fill up the room too much.” Taking the pot, the older woman poured herself a serve of the rich black beverage, before mixing in a small amount of cream and a measure of golden sugar granules from the small dish on the tray. Sipping the strongly spiced tea, overpowering in its use of Mugrobi cardomons, she fixed her gaze on Ezre.
“What if I don’t need your help, Hoxian.” She said bluntly, ignoring Lilanee’s wide eyed protest.
"Mother!" She hissed, cheeks flushed with embarrassment under her freckled visage. Alethia kept her eyes on Ezre, waiting for his answer.