[Center][h1][color=a36209]Aelyeth[/color][/h1][/center]

Aelyeth was rather enjoying her breakfast in the Royal Respite. She would most definitely miss their cooking after today.

Being in Fiuginia was a novel experience for Aelyeth. She had lived most of her whole life inside the confines of the Mausoleum of the Exalted, and afterwards, she traversed the wilderness of the Dominion of Acoscosia—a feat that she shamefully admitted she would not be able to do without Ebthor, considering her cloistered upbringing—before making their way to the Union of Axue via chartering boat from the Dominion of Guinispo so they may lay low. 

Dominion of Acoscosia, Dominion of Guinispo, and Union of Axue were all frontlines nations, there were conflicts of course—there was most definitely conflict in Union of Axue, some of which Ebthor had participated in as a sellsword—but the demon horde was the reality of every day life there, and for the most part took precedent. Comparatively, the Dominion of Fiuginia was one of the outer layers nations, and the stark difference, as Aelyeth immediately noticed was that they had the luxury to focus on disputes that seemed somewhat petty and arbitrary, as evidenced by their escalating tension with Caranepicia and Sihian tribes. In the frontlines nation, tension escalation such as this was rare as they were all too busy contending with the demons. As history has proven, people do unite on a common enemy, these outer layer nations, on the other hand, did not feel the reality of the demonic horde as tangibly as frontline nations and thus had the luxury to bicker with each other for paltry reasons.

Still, it was not all bad. Aelyeth did enjoy the...lighter ambience, for lack of a better word. With the demonic horde not being as much of an issue here, Aelyeth did find the mundanity of life here...rather quaintly charming, despite the rising tension with its neighbour. Yes, despite everything, Aelyeth did rather enjoy her time here. Though it would be hard not to when their employer had them stay in the finest inn in Fiuginia. Looking at the living wood that made up its structure, Aelyeth could not help but imagine what unknown parts of history had happened in an inn such as this. How many backroom meetings before treaty signing had taken place here, she wondered. How many clandestine meetings under the guise of vacationing? Perhaps even a secret tryst or seduction that takes place here before some noble house started feuding? Indeed, throughout her stay here, Aelyeth could scarcely hold back asking the proprietor of rumours and interesting tidbits they had experienced or heard in this very hall. None of what she found out can be substantiated of course, but they were still interesting. The proprietor had been happy to oblige an important guest, besides, Aelyeth could be rather charming if she wanted to.

Alas, the respite had ended and their newest employer had finally asked them to meet in his place of residence. Apparently, they would be working in a group. Aelyeth primary concern was, of course, to make sure Ebthor did not draw unwanted attention considering his...unique circumstances.

As Aelyeth finished her breakfast, she and Ebthor headed out of the inn, finally starting to make their way to the manor. She then turned to her companion.

[color=a36209]"So, let's make sure we get our story straight once more. This Simon guy had wanted to hire you, but obviously, due to our circumstances, I have to be your 'plus 1' so to speak. So our cover story this time is...?"[/color]

Their usual cover story was just that they were a pair of close friends who were travelling together. However, if people did dig deeper, they usually had a 'second layer' ready as a 'false secret' that would explain why they were cautious and wanted to lay low so that when people found out they hopefully wouldn't dig deeper. This second secret had ranged from Ebthor being a former knight who had broken an oath and deserted to Aelyeth being the daughter of a noble who had not approved of her relationship with the 'filthy commoner' before the two ended up eloping.

Aelyeth then quirked one of her eyebrows, waiting for Ebthor's answer.