Dinner with a friend

When you pass Vatarie's room on the way to the dinning hall you consider sending Edin to get the two books. You decided against it because sending Edin there when you weren't brave enough just seemed mean.

Reaching the dinning hall you were kinda surprised to be early. The food was out but the hall was almost empty. Edin and you grabbed your plate and some food and sat down. There was still way too much meat and not enough anything else but at least it was well seasoned.

You had only gotten a little into it when you felt a familiar presence. You looked at the door and saw Lucia strolling in. Waving at her she waved back, grabbed her food and came to join you. As she sat down you remembered that Edin didn't along with her. You open your mouth to say something to him when he grabs your hand and gives it a happy squeeze. "Full from earlier." He pops the last of his dinner in his mouth and swallows. "I need a bath if," he looks at Lucia's approaching form, "doesn't take long I be waiting for you."

You smile at him. You still wanted the two of them to get along but forcing the issue would be pushing more than you wanted to push. Lucia sits next to you and looks at your plate. It was mostly empty but there were a few untouched pieces of meat. You follow her gaze and roll your eyes offering it to her.

She snags most of it and replaces it with some vegetables. Not a bad trade as far as you cared. "Enjoy." You say as you go back to eating.

"Intend to." Lucia says with a knowing grin in her voice.

You know exactly why, on her shoulder was her dragon, sitting perfectly naturally, no phasing through her shirt as she moved her arm. It was an impressive improvement from just yesterday but the more you looked at it the more you saw issues. While it appeared natural it's scales blurred a little into each other along its underbelly and its rainbow of colours ended between each two harshly, some scales were more than two different colours.

You didn't acknowledge it. Mostly because Lucia was trying to show it without saying anything so you figured not mentioning it would bug her a little. And isn't bugging your friends the core of friendship, either that or buggering and you had that covered with Edin. You grin at the internal joke.

"What?" Lucia asks as she inhaled your traded meat.

"Nothing, just thinking." You wave her off and take a bite of you dinner.

"So, you going to talk about it or ...?" Lucia asks looking at you expectantly.

"Talk about what?" You asked with faux obliviousness.

"Not so Trouble anymore." She looked you up and down and you look down at yourself.

"Right." You kinda forgot you mentioned you were on a sponsorship with her. "So about Vatarie being your first brush with upper nobility."

"Nooo." She looked surprised enough this might need some convincing.

"Yeah, dads a Duke, but I am here on a sponsorship, I didn't want to rely on my dad to pay my way in the capital." That was at least half true so you hoped it would be believable.

"No you're not. You can look the part but you don't move like it." Lucia didn't sound like she believed you for a moment. "I'm a performer I know when someone is acting and you weren't pretend to be lower anything yesterday." She was giving you a flat stare, clearly not happy with you trying to lie to her. Which meant you could double down or be more honest.

"My sponsor insists I pretend." You weren't going to convince her no matter how much you doubled. If she didn't believe you because of a lack of natural physicality, verbal reinforcement wasn't going to change her mind.

"Know that feeling." She answers. "And it's cool, be you around me, not like anyone here would give a fuck what I think or say." She sounded indifferent to it but there was annoyance in her aura.

"They'll change their mind quickly when you become the greatest Incantor the world has ever seen." You say with a smile and she grins at you.

"Fuck yeah they will."

The two of you lapse into silence as you finish off your meals.

"How the courtship going?" She asks as she finished the last of her food.

That was a really good question. "It's going?" You really have no fucking idea, and the mention brings back a whole lot of questions. "I think."

"Upper nobles am I right." Lucia says with a sardonic grin.

You laugh with her and nod at the dragon still on her shoulder. "Gotten better."

"Only a little." When she is quiet the dragon hops off her shoulder and flaps down to her plate. She makes it sniff the left over sauce. With her focus on it the blended and multi-coloured scales clarify. "If I don't keep the image of it, it get unclear."

"You'll get there." You conjure your own dragon and have it land on the plate with her dragon.

"How did you get so good?" She asks as you dragon hops and bounces around.

"Practice." You answer simply. "I had years you've had a few hours. Oh one thing that will make it a bit easier to remember that your magic knows what you want your dragon to look like," you have your dragon sit still and have it flex it's muscles. "you should study anatomy of both birds and lizards, once you fully understand how they look when they move and fly you can let your magic take over that part for you." You hope the explanation makes sense to her.

"What?" She asks looking at you clearly not understanding.

You sit and think of how to explain. "Close your eyes."

She raises an eyebrow at you. "Better not steal anything Trouble."

"I promise only to try." You respond with a grin. She closes her eyes. "Now touch your nose." She does. "How did you know where you nose was with your eyes close."

Lucia furrows her brow. "Where else would it be?"

"Same with your dragon. Once you know how it should look you magic will fill in the details for you." You say feeling confident in your training.

"Right." She didn't.

Her eyes were still closed as if she was expecting further instruction but had taken her finger off her nose. You grin as you raise your dragon to just in front of her eye. "Boo."

"Huh - Woow." Lucia gasps as her eyes open and she sees your dragon. She falls back a little but you put your hand on her back to catch her.

"Got'cha." You laugh. She glowers at you and her dragon jumps for the plate at you face. You feel a soft tingle as it passes through you unphased by the action. "Have to make a more convincing dragon than that spook me." You kinda regret eating all of your food because that is the perfect line to finish by popping something chewy into your mouth.

"Show off." She smirks at you.

"You'll get soon enough."

The conversation lapses back into silence as she re-conjures her dragon and you make them jump around together on the table.