Xoris

Chapter Twenty Nine

"What? Why can't we stay up and play too?" Asim whined over the dinner table, poking at the meat with their fork.

The action made Xoris feel sick. All the same, he tried his best to push the feeling away, dipping his own plain heel of bread in honey before taking a bite. Despite having had several rolls already, he didn't feel much more full, but he decided to keep that to himself too. After all, he already owed them so much, and he didn't need to trouble them further just because he hadn't eaten much in the past tally.

"Because this is adult bonding time, meaning you need to be an adult," Merkos concluded, starting to clear away the dinner plates as he brought them over to the water basin.

"We're almost adults! One Wither isn't going to change that much," Ifeh argued, tossing a lock of black hair over her shoulder with a huff.

"Actually, the laws of the kingdom would beg to differ. If you're under nineteen, you cannot drink, nor can you be drafted. That's a good thing though," Xoris was quick to point out.

"And what if we want to drink?" Ifeh pressed, nudging Asim in the side as they nodded eagerly.

"Well..." Xoris trailed, looking around. "I can't recommend it really. It messes with your mind, and I've never seen anything good come out of it. But we're getting off topic. You were both asked to go to bed."

Ifeh shot him an annoyed look. "I can't believe you got to go on fights and adventures and you're still this boring."

"I guess he only changed on the outside." Asim chuckled, standing up to brush off their white skirt, the only thing they were wearing with the intense heat.

"Right? It's infuriating, but fine! We'll go to bed so the rest of you can have fun." Ifeh rolled her eyes, but, taking her sibling's hand, they at least listened as they headed up to their room.

A sigh escaped Xoris as he rested his head in hand. "I fear for when she turns nineteen."

"You're one to talk. You should have seen the trouble those two have gotten themselves into while you were away." The Warden laughed heartily as Merkos brought out the same game he had suggested earlier.

He glanced up at Xoris, now the only one with a plate as the Warden removed a deck of cards to shuffle. "You'd better not soil the cards," Merkos warned. "I can't exactly go out and purchase another copy if they get ruined."

"Oh! Don't worry, I won't," Xoris promised, wiping his hands on his tunic, blushing a bit as he made eye contact with Luina's disappointed face. The glare quickly faded though, becoming replaced almost with a look of concern.

"Dear Clesydra, you're certainly eating a lot more than usual. Did you finally break your horrible eating habits?" She tilted her head a bit as her husband handed her a stack of cards, dealing out the rest.

"...I don't know if I would say that." Xoris bit his lip. He didn't want to specify that he had constantly felt this empty ache ever since he'd been Stained. Besides, he was sure if he ate enough, the feeling would go away, however many rolls that took. It didn't matter, really. He accepted the final pile of six cards, taking a glance at them.

It wasn't a terrible hand per say, with a decent mix of soldiers and monsters allowing for offence and defence. At least for this game, he preferred to balance both equally anyway.

As he took another bite of the coarse bread, a bit annoyed that he couldn't tear through it easily with his teeth currently being so flat, he tried to scan the rest of the table. Alaina looked rather smug as she glanced at her hand, Luina seemed confused, while the Warden wasn't even looking at his cards, making him difficult to read. Xoris frowned for a moment. As always, Merkos was his competition. Knowing his common tactic of having every card memorised and measuring out the probability of who had what card, he was going to be difficult to play against.