Chapter Text
Noelle rushed down a long pearly hall that wove through House Silva. Upon arriving at her destination, she skidded to a stop, her shoes slipping against the tile. Face twisting in a grimace, she straightened and stepped through the doorway. “I’m here!” She fussed with her top and smoothed her skirt. “I’m late! I’m sorry! Finral was busy with...”
The room was generously lit by two open windows, which flooded the room with warm late-morning light. The tea table, chairs, and divan had been moved to the walls, and were replaced by a lone padded chair, decorated with velvet and studded with semi-precious stones. In front of it, an easel with a covered canvas sat. Several standup lights sat near the windows, turned off. Nebra, sitting in the chair at the center of the room, smirked at her. “Relax. Everyone is running late. You’re fine.”
Solid, who was leaning against the back of the chair, cocked a brow. “Did you run here? You really have lost your manners in that den you call a squad base.”
Noelle lifted her chin and pouted at him, her cheeks darkening. “I have not. I was trying to be considerate. Anyway, I am not the reason I’m late.” She set a paper box on a table near the door and crossed the room to lean against the chair with her siblings. “Why is everybody else running late?”
Nebra sighed as if being made to wait was more than she could bear. “Nozel is finishing up some things in his office, and Aurelius does what he wants, I guess.”
“Oh.” Noelle pursed her lips and considered the box that she’d left on the table. “Maybe if we have to wait a while…”
“You won’t.” Nozel stepped into the room, smoothing the fabric of his deep blue button-down. “I passed Aurelius on my way. He’ll be here in a moment.”
Noelle smiled. It had been a couple weeks since she’d last seen her eldest brother, so it was still such a delight to see his health improving with each visit. His cheeks, sunken and ashen after he’d been rescued from the ruins, were now nearly back to their normal fullness. His skin had finally and completely regained its healthy sheen. There was no sign of the sickly dullness that had darkened his eyes for so long. “Good to see you, big brother.”
As he passed her, his hand rested on the top of her head for just a moment, and Noelle’s smile bloomed into a toothy grin. He didn’t let the gesture slow him in his approach, however, and he came to a stop in front of Nebra. “You’re in my chair.”
“It’s not your chair until Aurelius gets here,” Nebra protested.
“Ah, so we’re not going to circle back to what’s in the box?” Solid jabbed a finger at Noelle’s box, eyebrows raised.
Nebra and Nozel followed his gaze, but theirs didn’t linger long on the box, because Aurelius Glissando Poutine walked into the room. The tall, stately man strolled to the easel without acknowledging that he was fashionably late. He set down his briefcase and pulled aside the tarp covering his canvas. Wordlessly, he began to mix his pigments.
“No greeting, Aurelius?” Nebra chided.
“No, my lady. We all know each other. We know why we’re here. Why not get directly to work? I can finish today if we are not bogged down by pleasantries, hmm?”
The siblings exchanged a peeved look. No one else in the court could speak to the royal family that way. But then again, no one else in the court could be trusted with the task laid out for Aurelius Glissando Poutine.
They shifted into position before they needed to be told; Nozel taking Nebra’s place in the chair and crossing his hands in his lap, while Nebra, Solid, and Noelle positioned themselves behind his chair. They straightened their formal clothes and smoothed their hair while the painter prepared his pallet.
Naturally, their preparations did not satisfy Aurelius. When he had his paints prepared, he pointed with his paintbrush and listed off orders. “Lord Nozel, turn a hair to the left. Lady Noelle, smooth your hair along your shoulder and take a step closer to Lord Solid. Lady Nebra, move a step to the right-- no, too much, take half a step back. Lord Solid, bring your fingers closer together-- not those ones, the last two.” His adjustments went on until the siblings were positioned exactly how he wanted them, and then he settled into satisfied silence while he painted.
The minutes ticked by. Noelle, the only one with the luxury of hidden hands, played with the fabric of her skirt. Solid’s mouth opened unsettlingly wide in a bored yawn. Nebra twitched when she could feel the air shifting around the room on her eyelashes. Nozel remained unaffected by the passing time, his pose as still as a porcelain statue.
When the boredom in the air was palpable, He broke the silence with a casual, “Guess who brought me another apology gift today.”
Nebra, Solid and Noelle turned to him, their lips curving into a scandalized O. When Aurelius cleared his throat, their heads snapped back to their proper positions, but their eyes craned toward their elder brother, eager for a story about their favorite penitent fire mage.
“Wild-caught honey maple smoked salmon,” he said airily.
“Oooh,” his siblings gasped.
“Was it good?” Nebra asked.
“It was amazing.”
“Will you share?” Solid asked.
“No.”
Nebra and Noelle giggled, earning them a glare from Aurelius.
“Do you know what he said when he gave it to me?”
Nebra bit her lip. Noelle broke into a grin. Solid looked like he sincerely didn’t know if he wanted to know.
“‘I’m sure that they’re feeding you enough, but you still look thin.’” His deep-voiced, serious lilt was such a faithful imitation that Nebra and Noelle couldn’t help but giggle. “‘I brought you this as a precautionary measure. It should fatten you up.’”
Despite his reluctance to lean into the gossip, Solid couldn’t help but snicker with his sisters.
“Does he expect you to fluff up like a whipped egg? You’re nearly back to normal,” Nebra giggled.
“He’s just looking out for me,” Nozel said, his voice low and humble to the point of parody.
Solid let out an ugly snort that sent his sisters chortling. Nozel’s stoic deadpan cracked into a smile.
Aurelius’ throat clear burst into an angry cough. He leaned around the easel, fixing them with a glare that chastised them back into a struggled silence. Their giggles were effectively smothered.
“Is that why you were late?” Noelle asked.
“He left quickly enough,” Nozel replied. “But I did eat the salmon before I left.”
“All of it?” Nebra gawked.
“Why?” Solid guffawed. “We were waiting.”
“If there was any trace of it tomorrow, Nebra would have sniffed it out like a bloodhound.”
Solid and Noelle burst into laughter. Nebra’s cheeks colored, her brow twitching in offense. Aurelius’ cranky glare was starting to look homicidal.
“I don’t know why you get all gifts from him,” Solid sighed, hurrying to return to his portrait posture. “All I got was a measly apology. He practically ditched me! Where’s my salmon?”
“I bet he’d let you punch him again if you asked,” Nebra offered.
Nozel did a double take without moving his head. “ Again?”
“Ah, yeah.” Solid grinned, eyes shining wistfully. “I’ve got to ask him.”
Aurelius was, to a magnificent degree, a master of his craft. No one else could have performed with such a short temper and dynamical models. In the late afternoon, he set down his brush and threw up his hands. “It is complete!”
The Silva siblings’ heads swiveled toward him like they were drawn by a magnet. Nozel rose, but his siblings beat him to the canvas, crowding around the exasperated artist to take in the fruits of his labor. Nebra, Solid, and Noelle’s eyes softened. Their silence was almost enough to make Nozel worry, until he joined them and saw it for himself.
There they were, Nozel sitting regally in the expensively upholstered chair, with Noelle on his left, Nebra on his right, and Solid directly behind him. The shading and colors the artist had chosen for their skin gave them a dignified yet youthful glow, and their faces were soft with smiles unique to each of them, yet so similar. Despite the painting being started weeks ago-- before the siblings had fully healed --not a single hint of injury touched any of them; no raw, rosy wrists for Nebra, no bruises for Solid and Noelle, no hollow cheeks and sunken eyes for Nozel. In the painting’s image they were perfectly pristine, frozen in a sanguine moment in time.
“We’re all smiling,” Nozel noted, his eyebrows raising in surprise.
“Of course you are!” Aurelius huffed. “You were smiling the entire time you sat for me!”
Unanimously satisfied with their portrait, the Silvas decided to have dinner. They ate in relative quiet, occasionally broken up by a comment or quip. Enjoying their comfortable silence, their meal carried into the night.
When the lateness of the hour dawned on him, Nozel turned to his youngest sister. “Are you going to spend the night?”
She glanced at the clock on the wall, and seeing the time, pursed her lips. “Yeah, I guess I will. I’m leaving for a mission tomorrow, but I can fly back in the morning.”
Nozel’s expression hardened in a look of concern, but Solid interjected before he could protest. “Hey, you never told us what’s in your box!”
“Oh! This?” Noelle picked it out of the empty chair beside her, where she’d placed it while she ate. She opened it up and fished out the contents. “Charmy and Vanessa taught me how to make lollipops! I brought one for each of us.”
Her siblings eyed the translucent, colorful candies with poorly masked curiosity. Noelle almost always brought treats when she came home; a perk of living with a woman with a bottomless stomach, endless supplies, and a charitable nature. It had taken a lot of insistence for them to give food made by a commoner in a filthy castle a try, but now they couldn’t deny that the sweet treats were always as good as they looked. When Noelle held them out, they plucked up the lollis in a violent and refined game of first-come-first-serve. They eagerly tore the paper off and stuck them in their mouths. Noelle sat back with the remaining lollipop, smiling triumphantly.
Once they’d gotten them in their mouths, however, they didn’t seem to know what to do with them. Noelle watched, fascinated, as her siblings’ eyes shifted around the table, their lips clenched tightly around the stick. Feeling the responsibility rest on him, Nozel pinched his thumb and pointer finger around the handle and pulled the round yellow candy out of his mouth. It separated from his lips with a pop , and he put his fingers to his mouth, embarrassed. “There is no dignified way to eat a lollipop.”
The room dissolved into relieved chuckles. Now that the expectation for some sort of etiquette was demonstratively abandoned, they sucked on their lollipops however they saw fit. It didn’t take them long to whittle them away, and one by one, they set their sticks on their napkins. Servants scooped them out from under them with the rest of their dishes.
“When will the painting go up?” Noelle asked, steepling her fingers and leaning her chin on them.
“When Aurelius says it’s dry,” Nozel replied. “A day or two.”
“The frame is already picked out, I take it?” Nebra guessed.
“Yes.”
“Aah! I can’t wait to see it on the wall!” Noelle trilled. Her smile thinned a little. “But… I guess I don’t have much reason to come here, now that our portrait is done.”
Nebra, Solid, and Nozel frowned. They exchanged awkward looks as the realization dawned: their obligation to meet had ended. Nebra curled her finger to her lip, her brow furrowing. Nozel frowned at the table. Solid crossed his arms and sat back.
When the silence became definitive, Noelle sank into her seat, forgetting for a moment to hide her disappointment. She corrected herself immediately, straightening and flicking her wrist. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll finally get some things done at the black bulls base! They’re a mess without me.”
“Naturally,” Nebra agreed, half-hearted.
“I don’t know how half of them tie their shoes in the morning! It’s really a shame that they don’t know better. I have to keep them from blowing each other’s heads off half the time. Last time, when I came back from here, Magna had set Luck’s back on fire, and Luck didn’t even try to put out the flames. He thought that me dousing him in water was an invitation to fight!”
“Hmm,” Nozel murmured, more convincingly faking concern.
“And Asta-- idiot! --gets lost constantly. The castle layout changes all the time, but that’s no reason to not know where you’re going! He’d probably never find his way out if I wasn’t there to lead him.”
“Pathetic,” Solid said, lips curving into an authentic scowl. “You must have more stories than you could fit in a day.”
“Yeah!” she said, throwing up her hands. “They’re all ridiculous! You wouldn’t believe what goes on there, especially when I’m not around.”
“You should tell us.”
Noelle stammered to a stop, thrown by the comment. “Huh?”
“If it’s as bad as you say, we should know about it.” Solid looked to Nozel. His lips curved into a conspiratorial smile. “It’s the superior squads’ responsibility to know what happens in the inferior squads, in case they need correction.”
Nozel’s eyes lit up like a struck match. He crossed his hands on the table and nodded very seriously. “Solid is right. You should report to us the goings-on of your squad regularly. For quality control.”
Nebra, catching on, feigned concern. “Noelle! If they are doing anything that would disrespect the title of Magic Knight, we should hear about it. Regularly.”
“Oh…” Noelle’s eyes trailed to the table. When she looked back up, she was smiling. “Okay. I can give reports. How often would you like them…?”
The siblings exchanged a thoughtful look. “Monthly?” Nozel offered.
“Unless, of course, something can’t wait,” Nebra added.
“Obviously,” Solid scoffed.
Her smile stretched into a grin. “Okay. Then I’ll come by at least once a month with a report, if that’s what you want.”
“Yes.” Nozel nodded, his eyes shining. “That is what we want.”