the golden age

[deepest_magic]

When the party has died down, Isabella, for one, is well and truly exhausted. She explores the palace until she finds a room with a bed in it, and into this bed she flops, still in her clothes and holding her staff and carrying the cordial in her pocket. She sleeps late, because the party kept her up so late and she hadn't really slept the night before; but around noon, she stirs, and gets up, and goes looking for James and wherever her backpack may have got to. The backpack she finds in the great hall where the principal mass of the party was; some enterprising creature took both bags from the battlefield at Beruna up to the castle for them, and she only wishes she knew who it was. She takes her bag to her room and carries James's with her and continues looking for her friend.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"I think if it was something really, really important, he'd do better than if it was something moderately-but-not-obviously important like kissing monarchs."

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah, I suppose so."

[neverbeatme]

"That's my take, anyway."

[deepest_magic]

"You know about these things. Sometimes I wish I had a practical specialty like your knowing-things-about-people - I mean, outwardly practical. I have my knowing myself thing but that's not the kind of talent I'm talking about."

[neverbeatme]

"If I had any idea how to teach it, I would. But it doesn't seem to be teachable."

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah. I don't really want it to be the same thing, anyway. There are monarching things that I handle because I might as well, but there aren't any monarching things I handle because only I can."

[neverbeatme]

"I see what you mean."

[deepest_magic]

"It's not a big deal. I just think about it occasionally," Isabella shrugs.

[neverbeatme]

"Okay."

[deepest_magic]

Lunch lunch lunch.

Dessert.

Dispersal of household.

[neverbeatme]

"So we could go somewhere comfy where we aren't likely to be unexpectedly interrupted and try kissing now," says James.

[deepest_magic]

"We could. My room?"

[neverbeatme]

"Sure."

[deepest_magic]

To Isabella's room they go.

Isabella closes the door.

[neverbeatme]

And...



...kissing?

[deepest_magic]

Kissing!

It's nice. Isabella approves.

[neverbeatme]

James approves too. The experiment is a tentative success.

Further trials may be needed.

[deepest_magic]

Wouldn't want an inadequate sample size to ruin it.

[neverbeatme]

Indeed.

[deepest_magic]

Kiss kiss kiss.

[neverbeatme]

Hmm. Yes. James is definitely developing a sense that this could become a regular pastime.

[deepest_magic]

So is Isabella!

[neverbeatme]

It's good that they're on the same page there!

[deepest_magic]

Mm-hm. Otherwise it would be kind of awkward, just as Isabella feared. Admittedly, she was mostly fearing awkwardness at an earlier stage of the proceedings.

[neverbeatme]

James is definitely past any fear of awkwardness at this point in time.