Chapter 43: A Change in Venue *
It was almost insane how quickly they moved past that declaration from Arlette.
The grey-eyed Professor cleared her throat and looked away from Caius like she felt she had divulged more information than she had intended to and that only made things more awkward. And also a little endearing.
Arlette had her reasons for getting close to Caius. He was aware of that but he also knew that despite that, it was insane for her to be so ready to go to arms for him against someone whose strength she didn’t even really know.
It could maybe have been brushed off as bravado just to impress but Arlette didn’t need to impress Caius. Not in this way anyway. No, that declaration was real.
"Tea?" Arlette suddenly asked and Caius realized that while he had been looking at her face and smiling to himself, she had summoned a stool from her storage ring. On the stool was a tray that held a kettle with two teacups that she filled up.
The sound of the liquid filling each cup was all that was heard in the office and then she lifted one and handed it to Caius who collected it politely.
"Thank you. But not what I’d have opted to drink," he said.
Arlette understood what he meant and it only made her laugh.
"I thought it best to play it safe. Last time you drank my blood, you passed out for hours." She said as she took a sip of tea.
"I think I’ll be fine this time," Caius said with a smile as he raised the teacup to his lips and smelled it. It was calming.
When he took a sip, he found he liked the taste but could already tell he was missing something. There was a ’kick’ in drinks like these as they had been made with ingredients meant to help Mages along with their Magical abilities. But it had no effect on him which made it taste bland. With a start, he realized food was going to taste even worse to him now.