“Earth Conduit, remember?” she laughed. “Corks are made out of bark. Or something.”
“Convenient,” I said with a smile, taking a seat beside her.
“It’s a neat little party trick. Here’s hoping I learn how to do some things that areslightlymore useful while I’m here, though.”
“What’s your area of focus?” I asked, taking that first thread for potential conversation and artfully weaving it away from myself. “Arcana?”
“Trade,” Laurel replied with a grimace.
“Not your first choice, I take it?”
“I mean, if I had it my way, my only field of study would bewomen,” Laurel said with a sly smile.
“But I’m the eldest daughter of the Ansari family. The eldest child. And so I’m expected to take up my father’s mantle as the High Advisor of Trade to Lord Ymir one day.”
“Oh! You’re from Samhaven, too?”
“Yup. Yvestra. You?”
Ah, it would make sense for the Ansari family to live in the capital city if her father worked in the House of Torrents.
“The Brindlewoods.”
“No shit? Like one of those small villages out there?” Laurel asked, curiosity clearly piqued.
Most people in Sophrosyne didn’t know villages like mine even existed.
“Mhmm,” I said, pausing to take a swig of strawberry wine—pleased to find that it was sparkling. I loved the feel of effervescence on my tongue. “Exactly.”
“Wow. What wasthatlike?”
“Quiet,” I mused. “Slow.”
“Gods, I bet. No wonder you scampered off to Sophrosyne. Did you just need an escape from the boredom?”
Something like that.
Now didn’t feel like the right time to delve into the nuance and complexity of the feelings that brought me here.
“Basically,” I replied instead.
“Well, I’ll drink to that,” Laurel said, pulling the second bottle of wine out and popping the cork with ease. “Cheers to reckless escapism, my friend.”
“Hey now,” I countered. “Who said it was reckless?”
“You followed a strange, charismatic woman on a quest to get drunk on the roof of the Biblyos. I’d say you have a bit of a reckless streak.”
“Gods, Ansari,” I laughed. “Give a girl some warning before you read her for filth.”
But she certainly wasn’t wrong.
“It takes one to know one,” Laurel explained with a wink. “Though, speaking of filth... Have you taken a tumble with the sexy guardsman yet?”
“Who, Kieran?”
“Oooh,Kieran. Of course the bastard would have a sexy name, too. So I take that as a yes?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. I did run into him this morning at the bakery, though. I regret to inform you that he is still devastatingly attractive.”