"Oh, Lucahn!"
As she left the room in company of the blood elf, Tristessa saw the boy with one foot on the first step of the stairs. His red, swollen eyes from crying over Gaal's passing broke her heart, even more so when Lucahn barely met her gaze and, without saying anything, continued down the stairs.
"…"
"Did you also have a harsh encounter with him?" Severus asked, leaning so that his head was almost on her right shoulder, whispering in her ear.
"Ah! N-no… Maybe he thinks I'm bringing bad luck," the girl sighed. "After all, I came into their lives, and then Gaal died."
Saying that made the elf straighten up again and look at her with a sour face.
"Young lady, such way of thinking won't get you anywhere. If you're one of those people who thinks that walking past a cemetery in the middle of a funeral procession has some cause and consequence with the deceased… You're not showing guilt, but rather the size of your ego."
Severus walked past the red-faced and pained girl, his hands behind his back.
"Why are you standing there like a flower vase? Come on, walk, I'm hungry," he said from the stairs. With a quick gesture of his right hand, he made a small glyph appear near the girl's bottom, which began to release small bursts of electricity, harmless but strong enough to do its job. "Move those little legs, or will you start crying in the middle of the hallway?! Waaa, waaa, the baby wants to cry, someone change her diapers!"
"Alright, just stop electrocuting me!"
The dining room was absolutely disproportionate in relation to the family living there, as was the house in general. From the large table that could easily seat more than twenty people, two candelabras, and a fireplace, it was evident that in the time of the kings, the Royal Hunters held a more than dominant status in society. Now it was difficult to keep that place free of dust and cobwebs, and less than half of the table was actually being used.
Jin and Lucahn sat side by side, and Tristessa and Severus sat facing them both. The hunter whispered something to his depressed son and massaged his back with one hand. The boy nodded, head down, wiping his eyes and nose with a cloth handkerchief.
"My my, Lucahn, you're grown up so much! Or I'm the one who got older!" Severus exclaimed, purposefully trying to get the boy's attention. "So, how are your studies? Is your mom teaching you well, or do you need to learn from the best? Which is myself, of course."
"Uncle Severus..." Lucahn managed to say, his voice beyond tired and riddled with sadness.
At that moment, Tiara entered the kitchen pushing a cart with several trays filled with steaming food, which made Jin quickly get up to help her.
"Stay there, I can still do it myself!" she scolded him, before returning her attention to her culinary masterpiece. "Finally, something other than spinnarak meat for dinner! You went overboard with the salt, Severus, but after an entire month of eating wild meat I appreciate cooking a good fish fillet."
"Ha! And it's not just any fish: it's a black-scaled demon's head, my friend," added the excited elf, rubbing his hands together as Tiara placed the largest platter on the table: a strange-looking, dark fish, split in two and emanating a delicious, distinctive smell alongisde that of the roasted vegetables around it. "Violent as the waters it lives in, but so delicious it's worth losing a finger or two!"
"But not yours, eh?" Jin asked, after happily accepting a plate from his wife and a kiss on the forehead. He took his guest's glass and filled it with the freshly uncorked bottle of wine, so old that even the dust covering the glass was impossible to remove. "If I read correctly, it's a Stormhall vintage from 3771, right at the end of the Age of Kings. You'd make a fortune selling it on the black market."
"You've made it worthless by opening it, so it's a no can't do." Severus studied the color and then swirled the cup around a bit to release the volatile aromas. Smelling, his eyes threatened to roll toward the ceiling. "Oh... I can even taste the rain, it's incredible."
Tristessa, on the other hand, after separating several small, sharp bones, tasted fish meat from Nekrom for the first time, and it was love at first sight: lightly salted, with that whole mix of vegetables combining the range of flavors that burst harmoniously in her mouth.
"Yes, it was worth both SJs," said the elf, his mouth full of fish. As he swallowed, he looked at Jin with a bloody smile, some fish bones painfully sticking out of his gums. "What?"
"…nothing. You said the demon's head was worth two soul-jewels?" asked the hunter. "Isn't it a little expensive?"
"It hurt more to carry it on my shoulder from Entrana. And a swarm of palkuriae tried to steal it and eat my intestines."
While Jin and Severus chatted about economics and near-death experiences, Tristessa felt someone's gaze blatantly upon her: it was Tiara, her disturbing, unblinking eyes sending daggers; sbrought her fork to her mouth and savored the piece of fish, her gaze never leaving hers, and with entirely adverse intentions.
"Miss Tiara, it's delicious!" Tristessa offered the compliment, smiling at the woman she had insulted that morning.
"…"
Completely ignoring the comment, the woman took a drink of water and, aware that the two men had decided to pause their conversation to look at them, turned to her son.
"Eat before it gets cold, Lucahn."
"I'm not hungry," the boy said, without even touching his cutlery.
Both mother and father exchanged silent messages between them, oblivious to the elf who wiped his mouth with a napkin and placed his cutlery on his plate.
"Lucci," he called to the boy. With that adorable nickname, he got his attention. "I'll be frank: you're ruining my meal with your lame attitude."
"Severus!" Jin admonished instantly, but with a gesture of his hand, the elf asked him to be quiet, and a confident grimace that said trust me.
"It's alright to be sad, Lucci. You can cry, vent, and grieve over the loss of your furry, smelly friend. But it's also alright to smile while remembering the good old days, yes? Like that time Gaal was so excited to see me arriving at the house that he knocked me down and peed on my chest. It wasn't funny to me, but you couldn't stop laughing."
With that ease, Severus made Lucahn giggle.
"Gaal will like you to remember him in the best possible way, and I'm sure he'll like it so much that, so you won't cease to be happy, he'll guide a new friend from your Family Halls to this house to keep you company. After all, love is repaid with love. So smile and let me eat in peace, you crybaby."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Lucahn's response was strong, revitalized, and with a big smile, even though he still had several tears left to shed.
"And don't you stand there silently looking at me like a lovesick apprentice priestess," the elf replied to Tristessa, who was still reeling from her sudden amazement and admiration, which were quickly replaced by the embarrassment manifested in her ears and red-hot cheeks. "Make peace with Tiara, will you?"
"You're right." Inspired and embarrassed in equal measure, the girl gazed at the woman, giving her no option but to be ignored in the face of the onlookers. "Miss Tiara."
"Girl, are you sure you want to do this now?" the housewife asked, like a challenge that, in the presence of the two men supporting her, she couldn't refuse.
"Yes. I said some very horrible things to her today. I was totally disrespectful, and I don't want to be that kind of per…"
Her words were overshadowed by the clinking sound Tiara made as she dropped her cutlery on her plate.
"Tristessa... I'll accept your worthless apologies the day Nekronomika returns to life. In other words, fuck your apologies."