Share some wine.

"Ah. It's got a cork. I'm sure we have--"

Before you can say any more, Eva reaches out and grab the wine from your arms. "Pshh. I got it." At first, she tries to grab hold with her fingers, but it's far too slippery and deep in the neck of the bottle. So immediately, she brings it to her mouth. She bites down on the cork, and begins to tug it back like a dog playing tug-of-war. Her face glows red with frustration as she bites and pulls harder, until finally it pops free. Some of the wine shoots out, and covers her chest. Purple droplets run down the skin of her neck, and over the curves of her perky bosom. "Ah, oops!"

"What are you doing?" Malakae barks. "Are you some sort of animal? I'm sure we had a corkscrew somewhere."

"My bad," she says, placing the bottle onto the table. She flicks the liquid off her skin, and then tastes it from her finger. "Oh yum."

You chuckle as you pour each glass full, with yours being last. Then you finally sit down yourself, and look between the three other girls as they pinch their drinks between their fingers and test in them in various ways.

Malakae allows the scent to waft up into her nose for awhile, making her the last one to actually taste the drink. Lalarin sips it gently. Eva, however, takes a large gulp straight away, and licks her lips with satisfaction upon her face.

Lalarin looks to Eva as she lingers the glass at her chin. "May I ask you something?"

She looks over. "Me?"

"I know what you said before, but do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"The spoiled life of a noble's daughter."

Eva rolls her eyes. "My dad was barely around. But I mean, the home was lovely. Fine soaps and candles. Beautiful garments to wear. Sure, there were plenty of times when I wondered whether or not I made the right decision. But Lalarin, I have all of those things again." She then looks to you with a wide, warm smile. "So it all kinda worked out."

"That's lovely to hear, but what if that didn't happen?"

She stares down into her glass. "Uhm. Well, I kept getting kicked out of adventuring parties, until nobody would take me anymore. I wasn't making a lot of progress in any direction actually. So if that didn't happen... I don't really know."

"I think you'd have found a way. You're a strong girl, Eva."

"You're gonna make me blush."

Lalarin giggles. "You always blush."

"No I don't!"

Malakae watches their back and forth as she sips her wine. Then she lowers it to the table and chimes in at last. "I think you would have as well."

They both look over. Eva tilts her head, confused. "A compliment?"

"An observation. You're so far from what a noblelady should be. So your new life was fitting for you. No matter what happened, I'm sure you would have found a way to get through it. I've seen first hand just how frustratingly stubborn you are."

"Oh, uhm... Thank you, Malakae. But honestly, I left my family because of the things I saw. People treating others unfairly. Some hoarding wealth and power over others. It wasn't the world I wanted to be in. But for the both of you, well you were sort of **** away."

Lalarin lays her hand upon the hat in front of her. "Yeah," she whispers back. But she then clears her throat and looks between the others. "There was a darkness that grew within my family. They had ties with the enemy. And though I continued to live with them years after I started being Rabbit's Foot, there came a day where I couldn't go back. The worst of it was when Kyle was there with me. Anyway, I don't even consider myself a Relestel anymore. If it isn't in relation to my family, I don't mind when people use the name, though I'd rather be called Lalarin, Rabbit's Foot, or even Lala by a certain someone."

You smirk at her. "And we'll make sure they never hurt you again, Lala."

"This wine is warming me up more quickly than I expected."

Eva then looks to Malakae. "But you--"

"I don't need sympathy," the dragon interupts.

"Your family had tied with the enemy too, and they also tried to hurt you. So how do you feel about cutting ties?"

Her nails dig deeply into the wood of the table, scratching lines all the way to the edge, where she clenches hard. She stares for a time, down into her half-empty glass. Then with flared nostrils, she abruptly stands, scooting the chair back with a loud squeak. "How do you do it?!" she blurts out.

"... Do what?" Eva asks.

"Both of you. How do you so easily leave it all behind? You asked me how I feel about cutting ties. Who said I have? Am I not still Malakae Vraelion, heir to the most illustrious, powerful family in Tivera? I'm a gold dragon. There aren't many of us, you know. My father is old. Powerful. B-But, then he--"

The three of you watch in silence.

She continues. "How could he? Betray our name like this. The Vraelion family doesn't bend a knee to any master. We go our own way."

"You can't so easily leave behind your name like the others, right?" you ask.

Slowly, she raises her head and looks to you with a piercing golden gaze. "That's why I asked. How do you do it?"

"Maybe you need to do what you just said. Go your own way."

"And what does that mean?"

You take a short sip of your wine and breathe slowly. "Malakae. Your pride is stronger than anyone else's here by far. And to be blunt, your father is weak. Weaker than you. He did betray your family's name, so maybe you should be the one to take control. If you don't want to throw away your name, then take it over for yourself. I'm not saying go back and live at their estate again. I just have faith that you can be better."

"True!" Eva shouts. "You could shine so bright that nobody will even see the other Vraelions as legit."

"And if that eventually leads them all to attack again, we'll beat them even harder than last time," says Lalarin.

Malakae swallows hard. She slowly sits back down, takes her glass of wine, and allows the scent to calm her. But she lowers it back down, and for a long moment she stares at the rising smoke from the candle in the center of the table. "Lavender," she whispers. "It's nice."

"The same colour as Eva's hair," Lalarin says.

Eva pinches her hair and pulls it around for her to see. "I'd say more lilac."

"You think?"

"Lilac is paler. My hair isn't really full purple, it's not dark enough."

"There are pale lavender flowers too."

"Oh yeah. I guess there are."

You look to Malakae as the two others converse.

She smiles back. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh nothing."

"You know, I think there's one thing Eva said that is a point perhaps wiser than she meant. Many nobles are... unfair to others. Cold, distant, caring only for shallow appearances at parties and much coin they can spend on a single bottle of wine. And this is proven by one fact. All three of us were of the same class, in the same empire, yet we hardly knew one another existed until we came together more recently."

Lalarin glances over. "I wonder. If that weren't the case, could we have all been childhood friends?"

Eva sinks back in her seat with arms crossed. "Kind of a bummer to think about. If we weren't all so separated, we could have been an unbeatable trio. Imagine all the trouble we could have gotten into."

"I don't know about that..." Malakae mumbles.

"Well, you're a trio now, right?" you ask. "And I'd say you all cause plenty of trouble."

"Excuse me? I would never," says Eva.

You eye her up and down. "Your boobs are still covered in wine."

"Of course you'd notice that. If it bothers you so much, why don't you come lick it off, huh?"

"Don't tempt me."

Immediately, she stiffens up. With blushing cheeks, she holds her hardly filled glass up into the air in cheer. "L-Let's toast to our trio of nobleladies!"

Malakae laughs. "And Kyle, I suppose," she says before raising her glass as well.

Lalarin smiles and does the same. "I'll toast to that."

The four of you chat for even longer than you expect. It's nearly dinner by the time you stop. Perhaps it's the wine or the good company, but you converse much, mostly about funny stories of their past, or even your own adventures, as each girl has some sort of a tale the others weren't around to see. By the time you all wind down, food is prepared, and everybody starts to funnel down into the galley in order to fill their bellies.