A Visitor from Terrasen [Indefinite Hiatus]

A Well Practiced Act

This time Rhys explained in Feyre's place, sharing the mental imge of Celaena asleep in the chair, perfectly at ease despite being in the monsters presence.

"She... she saw it too?"

That was when Feyre remembered, Cassian was really the only one who had looked at the creature properly, at least the only one who had lived to talk about it.

"And she seemed absolutely fine with it." Azriel added pointedly.

"She must have balls of steel, balls of steel I tell you!"

"Pretty sure she hasn't." Rhys interjected and smacked the back of his head.

"But why wasn't it hostile towards her?" Azriel questioned.

"I suppose she just complimented its face, she's got a pretty good track record of melting even the coldest of hearts." Cassian shot a pointed look at Azriel then asked Feyre, "You told Celaena about the dinner then?"

"Yes and she seemed most excited." Feyre glared at the three Illyrians, "You all have to be on your best behaviour, she doesn't seem too... shall we say emotionally stable?"

"She has been through a lot that's for sure. There doesn't seem to be any other explaination as to why she ended up in the forest than that she is from another world, though how she got to the top of Ramiel I have no idea."

Azriel shifted slightly and suggested, "Perhaps she tagged along with a group of strong males most of the way, we would never know if they're now dead." It was a rather dark thought in truth, but definitely plausible.

"She's such a mystery, Celaena seems to have suffered so much in her short life." She paused, thinking for a moment before asking, "How old do you think she is anyway?"

The others in the room also stopped to consider until Azriel commented.

"From the humans I've seen, she looks early twenties."

The spymaster had gotten much more comfortable with participating in conversation, Feyre supposed between the three Illryirans he spoke quite openly, and Feyre herself had finally gotten herself within that circle of bastards. The thought made her smile, Azriel had such a lovely voice.

"We should finish up whatever we've got today before we head up for dinner. Personally I'm planning to get pissed so no more work later for me!"

"Cassian..." Feyre echoed in disbelief, "You're planning to get trashed, when we have guests?" The general dropped his head back and let out a bark of laughter, "We have one guest, plus it'll help break the ice! And the Mother knows I need a drink after that horror story."

"Sure pal, just don't burn down any buildings." Rhys patted his brothers shoulder on his way out, "We can meet up at the townhouse in two hours and can fly to the House of Wind together."

The others hummed in agreement and went their separate ways.

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Aelin was so looking forward to this, dinner meant wine, and wine meant a good time. There were plenty of dresses in her room's wardrobe, and she spent at least an hour going through them and trying them on. Feyre had mentioned something about it not being a big occassion, but what other occassions would Aelin have to dress up. No, she was going to dress well even if nobody else did, and Aelin was going to have fun.

The four members of the Inner Circle swept into the House of Wind in a tangle of wings, wind and laughter. Snapping their wings away, they made their way to the proper dining room. One of the shadow wraiths had brought Celaena into the room at the exact same moment, vanishing into the shadow to leave the woman alone in the doorway, looking like... well a queen.