It had been nearly two months since the incident with Melor's disappearance. She had been seeing less of her mother. Not that she wasn't making time for her, but Anastasia noted that she was working more and decided to not bother her as much. She knew the woman would abandon her work to be with her but she didn't want to start getting the way. Her lessons had changed from mainly ettiquette to mainly reading, writing, and language. Anastasia was not unhappy with this change. She sat in the garden, writing a letter to Gerald, as he had given her the task to do, in a less than elegant scrawl under the watch of Amul. Samsul was off running with Melor, as per her request. He was taking time off to himself but not as much as she had wanted. So every once in a while, she asked him to play with Melor while she was busy with her studies. This way he got to goof off a bit and Melor got excerise. She wasn't sure if Samsul had caught onto her scheme, but he wasn't one to reject orders, no matter how meaningless they were. It was good for them anyways. 

She closed her journal and looked up at Amul, "How long has it been since Samsul and Melor left?"

Amul thought about it, "Nearly an hour."

Anastasia smiled, glad that he had been gone for so long, "Good."