Roxy:
I was sitting in the front room when the others arrived a few days later. Avery entered eagerly, her hair a little redder than before, proudly sporting her new signet ring - proof that she had passed. Her mother - my aunt, Emberlyn - rushed to her side, full of admiration and approval. She reached out to touch a few of the strands of flaming red hair that made her own brown locks look weak and insignificant by comparison.
Cinaer sauntered into the room a few moments after Ave had, his own red-brown hair looking ruffled and his eyes glinting. My mother drifted forward to meet him. "Cinaer, it's so good to have you back with us."
"Thank you, Seraphina, it's good to be back." Cin looked more at home than the palace than any of the rest of us as he lounged back into one of the armchairs, like a King surveying his subjects from a throne.
"How were the last few days?" I asked from my own perch by the window.
He shrugged his shoulders, leaving it to Avery to respond: "More tests. You wouldn't believe how hard they worked us. Plus we had extra history and etiquette lectures. Did you know that-"
"Surely you have something more interesting to share than some random fact about the Sephan Realm," Cin cut across her. "Roxy doesn't want to know every detail of your week."
"Sorry, Cin, I hadn't realised that you were the source of knowledge on what Roxy does and doesn't like. The wed-" I cut her off abruptly with a look, my eyes burning into hers.
Cin, on the other hand, laughed. "I was merely trying to save her from the boredom your conversation usually induces." His tone was lazy, as if teasing Ave was too easy to command his full attention.
"Really, Cin, I don't think that was necessary," Emberlyn said indignantly.
"Calm down, Em, the children are only having fun, he didn't mean anything by it." Of course not, golden boy Cinaer could do no wrong. Now if I had made the same comment... "But they should really realise that now is not the time for fun. As Protectors they now have a much more important role to fulfil. Delegates from the Sephan Realm will be arriving tomorrow morning and the Brizans a little after that. The King needs to know that you will be ready to receive them. You will address the Sephan delegates with their appropriate title - no matter how amusing you might find it." She glared at me as she said this, as though I were the person she was most worried about.
"Try your hardest to treat them with politeness rather than ridicule. However, that advice is more important for the delegates of the other Realms than the Sephans - we don't want them to forget their place. Behaving should be quite straightforward, but I'll be keeping an eye on you, as you often turn even the simplest tasks into disasters." Her eyes rested on me once again and she stood up and went towards the door, followed closely by her sister. Pausing in the doorway, she added: "That will be all for now. You can do as you wish until dinner."
"What a welcome." Cin grinned. He got up from his chair and walked to my side. "It's good to see your mother still likes me." She liked Cin a little too much in my opinion.
"Where are we staying?" Avery asked at once, eager to get out of the room.
"Third floor, I'll show you," I replied, already walking towards the door. "We're going to be on the same floor as the Arcans. The King wants us to keep a close eye on them while they stay here, to make sure that they don't go looking for trouble."
"Other than the sort we'll be dealing them." Cin laughed wickedly.
I left them at the top of the landing after telling them which room was which. "See you at dinner," I called as I went into my own room. "Seriously," I added in response to the bemused looks they gave me. "Don't be late."
The Sephan Delegates arrived at day break, much to my mother and aunt's displeasure. They had to heave themselves out of bed a whole four hours before they had been planning to and get dressed in record time to then trundle downstairs and pretend to be awake.
They were an interesting pair (the Sephan Presidents, not my relatives, although they were rather odd too): the female was tall and hawk like, with cropped, spiky green hair and keen amber eyes. She was wearing a flowing dress as green as her hair that could have been pretty, except it didn't fit her right. The man had curly blonde hair, longer than hers and green eyes that sparkled weirdly when the sun hit them. He looked more like an oversized toddler than the leader of a whole Realm (even if it was the pathetic one) and his speech suggested that his mental age was no higher.
They joined us for 'breakfast' - which my mother seemed to be pretending was a normal family occurrence - and were amusing to watch. The man, Nolan, seemed completely at ease; he either didn't know about our fearsome reputation or didn't care. The woman on the other hand, Erica, was permanently on edge. Although I got the impression, from what she said and the way that she forced us to make eye contact with her, that she was trying her best to appear un-intimidated by us.
The King didn't join us for breakfast, sending down a message to request an audience with the Presidents in his study after they had finished eating. This seemed to annoy Erica, who I supposed wasn't used to being treated so offhandedly by other Realm leaders. She rushed to finish her own food before trying to hurry Nolan up as well, though he was quite content to sit at the table and try and make conversation with the rest of us.
He was an idiot, but in an amusing, rather than annoying sense. Eating with him was an interesting experience, which I didn't mind the thought of repeating. It was especially fun to observe the way Erica treated him: as though he was an aggravating little child rather than her Co-President.
She won in the end though and hurried him upstairs to be received by the King. They returned before any of us had finished eating - Erica had turned pink and her hands were shaking slightly as she seethed over being so ill-treated. But what did she expect? She was a Sephan after all.
The Brizans arrived later that evening. There was a delegation of ten, but only three of them were anyone of interest, two girls and a man, all with identical cerulean blue hair and pearly white skin. The only difference between the two girls was their age: Lorelie looked very young, she couldn't have been more than a year older than me and Euphrasia was a few years older than her. Other than that, they could easily have been twins they looked so similar. Rowan, the man, was much older than either of the girls and fiercer looking as well.
Like the Sephans, the Brizan delegates were made to wait for before meeting the King, though when they did go up to his study, they remained inside much longer than the Sephans did. From the way Erica kept glancing at the clock every few minutes while they were in there, I could tell that she noticed this and wasn't happy.
Dinner was frustratingly uneventful. The entire court attended, but nothing interesting was said as the King was waiting for the Arcans to arrive before beginning the summit. Tomorrow, there would be a traditional Helian banquet and a dance to 'immerse the visitors in our culture' and to provide a busy enough environment for the first test to be carried out. Vincent had told me about it yesterday. The three of us were not being included because they wanted us to keep the Arcans entertained. The King also wanted to begin with the smallest number possible, more of us would be used next time if it was unsuccessful.
The next morning we gathered in my room. Although we all felt that the evening, with the Arcans arrival, couldn't come soon enough, it was nice to have the chance to discuss the targets already available to us.
"We can have some fun with the Greeny." Avery laughed.
"Mm, she'll be nice and easy to wind up; she's far too self-important. Still a few weeks here should put her in her place," I added.
"What about the blonde guy who's with her?"
"We'll leave him for the time being. He's not as ridiculous as she is and he's funny enough anyway without us needing to interfere."
"And the Brizans?" she asked.
"They're more difficult. The guy especially is going to be hard to get to. He's keeping his emotions concealed for the time being, which is strange for a Brizan. It might take a while to work out all his buttons. The two girls, on the other hand, are going to be more emotional I think. Watch them carefully tonight and see if you can work out what's going to annoy them. Once we have that figured out they shouldn't be too tricky."
"All that's left are the Arcans," Cin added. "And we'll make their stay here the most interesting of them all."