[PRV] S.H.M & Aphrodite

"Of course you would" Jacen keeps his eyes on his father, trying not to look away and focus what the man is saying."I will do what I can to make certain that she is well" he says , the mention of his harsh Lady Mother makes him worried. The way the girl , Sienna had behaved, she must have been either more injured than Len could see or she was simply a commoner or peasant who was unaware of the etiquette at a castle. "Father, I am not certain how well she knows our ways, if she is a peasant or something akin to that , she will not know her place or how to behave. She could barely walk when I found her," A slight frown appears on his face, his mother was very unforgiving, even to him.

Clara smiled softly at Sienna when she hears that she can not read. "That is nothing to be ashamed of, I can teach you, if you wish" she said with a wider, warmer smile. She moves the chair closer to Sienna. "And after that I can show you around the garden some more, you seem to enjoy looking at the flowers, I've read too much so I think I know every flower" she giggles softly. "It's so calming to be here, the pretty colours and sounds, they're wonderful, aren't they?"

As Jacen shifts nervously at the mention of his mother, which she would not approve of, that is something only children and fools do. A harsh reminder of that is still fairly fresh on his mind since he was reprimanded a few days ago. She does love her children but the woman can be difficult and not very fond of anything resembling fun. He really did wonder how she would take to Sienna, as she does not fit in here, it might make his mother go mad, one never knows.

Lord Richard looked at his son.
"She's your responsibility, I suggest that you speak to her about how to behave. Dinner is served soon, and if your mother is going to let this girl eat, she better make a good impression" he said. He made a gesture with his hand, showing his son that he was now dismissed. Lord Richard grabbed his maps yet again and placed them in the centre of the table. He was determined to find something that could help his daughter.

Sienna looked up at Clara and felt a bolt of relieve through her body. This hadn't been a disaster, she hadn't been discovered. Clara even offered to teach her how to read. Sienna wondered if it was hard. Probably, it looked very hard.
"That would be very nice of you" Sienna said with a smile. Not that she knew what she would ever need reading human language for, since she wasn't going to be one for long. It just felt rude to not accept Clara's offer. Clara leaned forward in her chair.
"Good! We need to start from the beginning with the alpha-". She was interrupted by a voice behind her.
"Lady Clara!". Both Clara and Sienna turned around, and saw one of the girls dressed similar to what Alys had been wearing walking towards them.
"It's time for your exercises, my lady" the girl said and Clara sighed. She looked at Sienna.
"I have to go, but I promise that I'll teach you to read!" she said with a smile before the girl pushed Clara away from Sienna, leaving her alone.

Sienna looked over the garden again. It was filled with flowers, and slowly, slowly, she stood up. She took a few wobbly steps towards the flowers, and started to look around for the specific flower she was looking for. The thing that she needed to save her kind. After a few steps, her legs gave up and she fell into a heap on the ground. She groaned as she landed on the stone path between the flower beds, and inhaled air as pain shot from her knee. She lifted the dress and saw a small scratch-wound. It wasn't bleeding, but Sienna looked at it with shock. Not because she had been hurt, but that the wound didn't close up and heal. A realization hit her; her mermaid healing powers didn't work as a human. Here, she was more vulnerable than ever. She swallowed and stood up with difficulty, looking over the flower beds again. She needed to find this flower soon, before she got hurt even more.

He bows and leaves his fathers office with quick steps, now in search of Sienna, hoping to find her before the girl gets herself in some trouble. Jacen makes his way to her chambers, knocking a few times. "Sienna?" after a moment of no response , he decides just to check and see if she is asleep, taking careful steps along the stone floor. There is no sign of her in the room. "Damn! where could she be?" Luckily one of the guards have an answer. "The girl went to the gardens with Lady Clara. M'Lord" he bows. Jacen gives the man a curt nod before heading towards the gardens.

A voice calls out to her, Jacen is close by, wanting to find her. "Sienna? are you here?" he did admit that calling for a girl he barely knows must be strange but she is a guest and he had a great deal to teach her in a short amount of time. Finally he finds the girl. "There you are, are you here all alone? are you alright?" he asks worriedly when he notices a slightly pained expression on her face.

Sienna was observing each and every flower she saw. If she found the one she was looking for, she could get out of here and never have to return. A big garden like this had to have what she was looking for, right? She bit her lip and looked at the flowers before she heard her name being called. She looked up and to the right. Jacen was coming towards her, and he sounded worried. Sienna nodded.
"I am alright. Sorry for not staying where you left me, but I found your sister and she wanted to go out here" she said, gesticulating to the garden.
"But someone came and got her and left" she said, feeling the need to explain that she hadn't been alone for the whole time, in case Jacen thought that she was up to something. Well, she was, but he didn't need to know that.
"It's a beautiful.... Garden" she said, having trouble remembering the word Clara had used for the place she was now standing in.
"And she is very sweet, Clara" she added with a smile. Sienna realized that Jacen might have been angry with her, since she had just been wandering around without permission. Sienna hadn't been here for long, but somehow she got the feeling that she wasn't acting like she was supposed to.
"You're - you're not angry, are you?" she asked carefully, taking a small step backwards.

"That is nothing to apologize for, if you met my sister then I assume she urged you to go with her" He chuckles and takes a step closer to her. "She has her lessons and exercises now, or should have them, keeps her wits sharp and such" Jacen continues speaking , hoping to make Sienna feel more at ease around him. A small smile forms on his lips. "Thank you, we have very good gardeners to tend to it with love" His expression turns into one of confusion "Angry? I have no reason to be angry but I would prefer it if you had someone with you, since you may not be well enough to stay on your own" The worry in his voice seems genuine.


After a short pause he speaks again, pressed to do so by his fathers request. "Before the dinner tonight, you and I may need to go through some ..etiquette , to see what you know. Forgive me if that offends you but I must insist. We do have certain ..rules here." 'Unfortunately' the word sneaks into his mind as an afterthought an unwelcomed one

Sienna felt her stomach drop. Rules? Were they rules - and was she supposed to know them? She had a feeling that she indeed was supposed to and that she had failed to do so. It didn't seem like Jacen was suspicious though, maybe there were humans who didn't know of these rules. Sienna sure hoped so.

When Jacen mentioned dinner, Sienna looked up at the sun. She still had time until the sun went down, but she couldn't be with humans when it did. Either she had to go back to the sea or find another water source to stay in during the night. She cleared her throat.
"When - when is dinner?" she asked, trying not to look worried as she looked at Jacen. She had a feeling she couldn't deny this dinner, but if it took place after the sun had set, she would have to.

"It's uaually set around sundown, but as for the rules, we should go over them to be safe" Hoping she won't fuss too much about them, he would rather not anger his mother, that won't end well for anyone.

"I don't mean to sound..rude but we do need to go over them" He smiles warmly , hoping she won't find offence in his words

Sienna decided to take care of the dinner time later - these rules seemed important to Jacen, and of course she had to go with what he did. She was just afraid that she maybe was supposed to know these rules. But on the other hand hadn't Jacen commented on it, just that they had to go through them. Maybe humans had different rules in different families? Sienna hoped so, that would make more sense to why she didn't know them. She scratched her neck.
"If we need to go through them, it's best that we do" she said, looking around.
"Here?" she asked. She had no idea what these rules meant, and if it was possible to talk about them out here. She wondered if it was important for her to know all of these rules instantly - if they were many, it would be hard for her to remember considering she also had to pose as a human, something she had limited knowledge of.

"Here?" Jacen echoes back to her with a slightly amused smile on his lips. "If you wish. I'll have someone fetch the cutlery and we'll get started on your lesson" He motions for her to sit at a small stone table with intricately carved benches to match. He waits for Sienna to sit down before he joins her, sitting opposite of her as the cutlery is being layed down in it's proper way.
"I know that there might be too much but it's truly simple, I promise" he smiles again, and in the sunlight his hair seems to have a hint of red to it. His clothes seem to be more formal, a fine doublet in moss green sammite with some silver coloured embroidery around the buttons and cuffs over a regular white shirt, the same as the pair of pants that seem to fit him very well and dark boots.

When all of the cutlery has been laid out properly the lessons begins as he lists the different forks , spoons and knives , smallest to largest. Jacen stops and looks at her. "Is it confusing?" he asks. "I suppose the easier way is this, always start with outside going in, that is how the dishes are served and if you're in doubt , watch me" he jokes and smiles

Sienna looked at the amused facial expression of Jacen. Apparently, whatever he was about to teach her was not something that usually took place outside. His expression also told Sienna that these rules weren't something he was just going to tell her - and her hunch was right when suddenly, she had things in front of her. She tried not to look surprised when she looked at the Jacen as he explained in which order she was using the little things lying in front of her. He was talking about her using them to eat. How in the world would Sienna use a little trident to eat? The only trident she had seen was the big, magic one that their King or Queen had. These were tiny, and definitely not magic. The way Jacen spoke told Sienna that she was to know how to use these things to eat - of course every human knew how to eat. She looked up at Jacen, realizing that he was dressed differently than when they had met. She wondered why. Sienna nodded.
"I think I understand, outside - in" she said, pointing at the little trident on the far left, and then to the one furthest away from it. Why in the world would humans eat with so many tridents?

Sienna turned her head as she heard a sound behind her. Clara was coming back, but she didn't look happy this time. In fact, she looked both sad and angry at the same time. Sienna could see traces of tears that had fallen down her cheeks. She was also dressed differently, in a red dress and her hair was no longer hanging along her back. She rolled past them.
"Stupid walking exercises" she muttered before disappearing behind some of the flowers and trees. Sienna looked to Jacen again. She wanted to say something, but she felt like it wasn't right.
"Is this everything I need to know?" she asked instead, hoping that the answer to that question was yes.