Change of Plans|Aegestrom, Maelstrom

[adris]

Vortai left the palace and went straight to the house where he remembered Aideen lived. He was excited about the trip, and was very happy to see his friend again. Aideen has already made a little place for herself in his head for being one of his first friend not under the obligation of some familial bond or another, and it meant a lot to him. Calming himself down, as there was a good chance her mother would answer first, he gave the front door a polite knock and waited with a sort of strained patience for an answer.

[Northen Light36]

Neither Aideen or Tavia are the one to open the door. "I'll get it," a male voice calls and a minute later Tavin opens the door. "Hello," he greets Vortai curiously. "Are you looking for a healer?" he adds, assuming Vortai's there to see Tavia.

[adris]

Vortai didn't recognize the man who opened the door, but at the same time assumed that he was indeed supposed to be there. With Aideen's extended family he could never actually question someone's place in the household. That made things easy though, especially with his kind disposition.

"Actually, I'm here to see Aideen if she's in. Tell her Vortai is here to see her if you could sir."

He made sure to stay proper, he never could know what sort of nobility from what corner of the world he was speaking to. His talk with Aideen did instill within him a sort of caution when speaking too plainly around her family and their friends.

[Northen Light36]

"Oh really?" Tavin chuckles. "You must be the young man my daughter's been talking about at a mile a minute. I'm Tavin Star, Aideen's father. Please, come in." Holding the door open for Vortai, Tavin calls, "Aideen! There's someone here to see you."

"Coming!" Aideen shouts back.

"Aideen! Tavin! Indoor voices!" Tavia calls from some other part of the house, just seconds before there's a loud THUD. Tavin's only reaction is to roll his eyes.

"Aideen Eden Star! No flying in the house!" he and Tavia shout together.

"Aww, but it's faster," Aideen protests as she runs downstairs. Spotting Vortai, she grins. "Vortai! I was about to come see you. My dad's home."

"I think he noticed," Tavin chuckles.

[adris]

His first thought in all this was simply 'she's been talking about me?' He found it amazing that he made any impression at all, he more or less just blended in with the furniture during the talk, or at least he thought. At any rate he was happy to hear she didn't mind mentioning him to her family. He also couldn't help but chuckle at the family moment that ensued before Aideen got to the door, mostly because it wasn't too far off from something he could see at his household.

"Hi Aideen, it's good to see you. And of course it is good to meet your father," he gives Tavin a bow of his head he realized he neglected up until now, "I hope you haven't gotten yourself into too much trouble since I saw you last."

More then the negatives of flying through the house, Vortai wondered how it was possible with such small corridors. One would have to be pretty seasoned to make it through without running into everything. His face lit up with a smile when he saw his friend though, although he had to tell her his plans this was still just a casual meeting. The trip to Naurorod was just an excuse to see her again to start with.

[Northen Light36]

"Not too much," Aideen assures Vortai with a grin. "What about you? Triggered anymore firespark blow ups?" she adds teasingly. Tavin chuckles softly at that before excusing himself and leaving. "Do you still want to go to Naurorod? Daddy's a bit too tired at the moment, he's been teleporting a lot lately and he needs some time to rest, but he said he'd take us when he's up to it."

[adris]

Vortai nods his head to her assurance, the joking back and forth being good fun and all. He gave Tavin a brief wave before the man walked off, a sort of thanks for being so pleasant.

"Well, actually its the trip to Naurorod that I wanted to talk to you about. You see, the queen wants me to go to Fira and pick up the princess who has been there since the beginning of the Maelstrom occupation. Of course when I heard I would be going that direction I thought of you and wanted to see if you would want to come along."

He doesn't think she will be all to worried about who their traveling companions will be. She seems to be very familiar with Ann and through her connections probably has a small connection somewhere to Damien as well.

[Northen Light36]

"Really?" Aideen asks. "Just you or is anyone else coming? No offense, but I don't think I'll be allowed to go if it would only be you and me." She blushes and gives Vortai an apologetic look.

[adris]

Vortai notices her blush, and it takes him a second or two to really understand what the problem would be if it were just the two of them. When it does kick in go his face progresses swiftly from a grin to him beginning to blush a little himself.

"A-actually I am traveling with others. I am to go back with Ann and Damien as they go back home now that the recent campaign has subsided. I hope that would be all right with you?"

He had to take a moment to get his face to pale back to its normal color. He seriously hadn't even thought about anything like that until she brought it up, which of course means it is now going to cycle around his thoughts for a while.

[Northen Light36]

"Honoured Leader Damien will be with us?" Aideen asks, then grins again. "Then I'm sure it'll be fine and I'd love to come. Come on, we can ask my parents now." Taking Vortai's hand, Aideen pratically pulls the boy into the kitchen then lets him go in order to flutter over to Tavin and hug him then turn around and hug her mother. "Daddy! Mama! Vortai's going to Naurorod with Ann and Honoured Leader Damien. Can I go too? I'll be good and it'll save you teleporting me. Please? Aunt Tres could have the baby any day now and I want to see her." Tavin laughs and puts a hand over his daughter's mouth.

"Slow down there," he chuckles. "Firstly, Tres' child isn't due for awhile now. Secondly, how do you know it'll be another girl? Thirdly, does Honoured Leader Damien know about this plan? He may not want to watch over another child, sweetie."

"However, if you have Honoured Leader's permission, you may travel with him to visit your aunt," Tavia adds.

[adris]

Vortai allows himself to get tugged, for the simple fact that he does enjoy it a little. He bows politely to her parents once again right before she starts her inquisition, which he watches with amusement. His eyes tend to wander their way to whoever happens to be speaking at the time.

"I work directly for the queen sir, if that means anything for you. I will be sure to watch after Aideen during the trip. Besides, with Honoured Leader Damien its not as much as I'm going to be traveling with him as much as it is we happen to be going in the same direction to be perfectly honest. He has enough to worry about, I don't want to force him to worry about me and my guests during the trip more then he has to."

It probably isn't saying much to say he is working for the queen, he really hasn't done anything phenomenal yet. At the same time it is in his interests to keep his work out of the spotlight. You don't make a very good shadow if everyone knows you exist.

[Northen Light36]

Tavin and Tavia exchange looks, neither seeming too thrilled about this. "Please, don't take offence to this, young man," Tavin begins. "But I'd simply feel better about sending my child off if I knew an adult would be looking out for her. That's no slight to your abilities, just the feelings of a paranoid father. So, unless you can gain an adult's acknowledgement that Aideen's permitted to accompany you, I'll have to refuse."

[adris]

Vortai lets out a small sigh, knowing from the beginning his assurances probably wouldn't be enough. Damien is probably still in the palace, so if he hurries he might be able to talk to the man before the hour gets inconvenient.

"all right, I'll go speak with Damien, I'm sure he won't be far too adverse to all this. See you in a little bit Aideen?"

Vortai is ready to go only so he can get the news and come back faster. He really couldn't tell what he was going to say, but even with planning he wasn't the best at social graces. Whatever he did figure to say now would probably be thrown out the window once he meets with the fire leader.

[Northen Light36]

"all right," Aideen agrees, looking both disappointed and hopeful at the same time. "See you soon, Vortai."

---

Damien is still in the palace. A servant directs Vortai to the fire leader's room, but it's Ann who opens the door when Vortai knocks. "Oh, hello," she greets him. The little girl was clearly in the middle of getting ready for bed, since her pants are still visible under the hem of her nightdress. "Uncle Damien, it's for you I think."

"Yes? What is it?" Damien asks, coming to the door.

[adris]

Vortai is sure to bow his head politely to Ann and of course give Damien a deep and respectful greeting when he came to the door. He decided that the best course of action would probably be to just come right out and ask the favor rather then holding the man up any longer then he had to be.

"I was wondering Honored Leader Damien, if perhaps I could have your permission to bring along a guest for our trip down. If it makes the decision any easier the person I'm referring to is a relative of the Elder of Clan Fira."

Speaking so formally took a lot of mixing up important sounding words in his mouth until they came out making some sort of sense. He could act proper but actually speaking like a noble felt kind of clunky as he actually did so.