Winter Fire <Private>

She could sense him coming from a ways off. It was not hard, given the sensory magic she had set up in the sage dormitory around halls that could get to her room. That, and she could detect the aura, usually cold but now hot, of the very atranoch she summoned into the world. He burst into her room without knocking, which was quite the bold move. What would he have done had she been changing? He slammed the door behind him, which briskly was coated in crystallized ice, one of the many forms from what she recognized. Before he had made his way in, Inglisse had been seated at her desk, studying a page of the Book of Baskerville, the unique tome that she had inherited from her family.

He came in making demands, but after briefly seeing the door slam, Inglisse first turned her attention back to the page. She read the last few sentences of the paragraph, deciding it was a good stopping point. The book was kept open, as if closed, there would be no telling if she would be able to find it again or not. Once she found the appropriate stopping point in a matter of a few quick seconds, Inglisse turned her attention to her loud and disruptive summon. “Oras,” she greeted in a calm manner, her expression for the most part neutral with the slight inklings of a friendly and warm smile. “Firstly, don’t be rude. Knock before you enter a woman’s room, you never know if they could be changing. Second, greet someone before you begin making demands to talk. Third, that is a perfectly good door with a lock on it. There was no reason to freeze it. Fourth, would you like some tea?” she said, at first stern before her expression lightened with a sigh on the fourth point. “We can talk over tea, and if you so wish for crumpets, I bought some just for you. I was actually hoping you’d come back by before long.”

Inglisse went ahead to turn the warmer on that would boil the water in a little red teapot for the two of them. If he was going to argue against her points or demand they talk before tea, he would not have her full attention or eye contact, as she was busy fetching a couple boxes of teabags and preparing two delicate and ornately painted teacups.

He certainly did seem on fire, if that were even possibly for a frosty being like him. As expected, the next stream of words to come were roared in anger. Despite that, Inglisse still quietly focused on making up her tea. The water boiled quickly much to her luck, and she chose her favorite rosebud tea to place into the teacups. After that, the water was carefully poured into each cup. She was playing no games; anyone who knew her understood her preference for formality and hospitable habits. Nevertheless, she could respect if he wanted no tea. “There’s tea if you want it,” she said more abruptly, gesturing to his full teacup before moving towards the tiny sitting area she had set up for Esialeth and herself. “Have a seat.”

Inglisse took a seat on a small sage-green sofa and placed her teacup on a similarly decorated saucer on a coffee table-- probably more accurately referred to as a tea table within that dormitory room. “Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?” she would ask once she was seated, and hopefully Oras was too. If he chose to stand, well, there was little she could do about it.

Inglisse listened in silence to his loud words while she sipped on her rosebud tea. If anything, it sounded more like the words of a butthurt individual than anything with much logical sense. Yes, he wanted to accompany her, but why? Surely he had seen there was no danger in this time and age in the two months he had spent in their world. She was perfectly safe in the academy, but he still had this obsession to stand by her side. It was an odd thing; was this typical of atranochs?

“It’s not that I don’t understand your request,” Inglisse began thoughtfully, taking another sip of tea. “It’s just that I see little logical reason behind you being in my presence every hour of every day. You may claim it’s to protect me or bond with me, but you fail to miss the fact that the academy is relatively safe, and seeing someone for so long doesn’t create a good bond, but cabin fever in a sense.”

She spoke matter of factly, eyes staring at her tea before gazing back up at him solemnly. “Do you not trust me to take care of myself? What is your obsession with being around so often, anyway?” Inglisse asked politely, no trace of malice in her voice; only curiosity. “Besides, I have a very good reason for having ditched you these past two or three weeks too.”

Inglisse listened in silence as he continued, speaking of how the world was corrupt and not peaceful. She was no idiot; she knew that much. But she like anyone else in the school would rely on their security, and if needed, she could fight herself. It was not like she could actually die all that easy either. Nevertheless, she gave him the benefit of the doubt for not knowing. After all, she had not yet revealed to him just what she was capable of. Still, there was one thing on her mind for sure with his statement. “You should think before you try to invalidate the pasts of others,” she said in a low voice, her words like venom, amber eyes gazing coldly at her tea. The rest of his statements were more or less either fair or not worth paying attention too. Still, she would not just let the fact he assumed she was some innocent princess slide that easily.

She allowed him to continue after her words, him stating he did not know if she could handle herself in a fight. He really was a clingy person, it seemed. Finally, he demanded to know the reason for her ditching him, which made the cold glare melt away into a lighthearted smirk. Standing up, the blonde walked over to the foot of her desk and picked up a small gift bag decorated with shiny red and green. What was inside was hidden by fluffy white tissue paper. To anyone who understood the color symbolism of the holiday, they would see it was a Christmas gift.

Turning, she brought the gift back and handed it to him before sitting down. “For you. It’s a few days late, but Merry Christmas.”
When he opened the bag, he would find a powder blue stylist scarf, freshly knitted. However, the scarf would feel quite frosty to the touch, emanating a cold air. She had knitted it herself, and obviously during times when he was not around. “I magically infused the threads with frost and cold energy,” she would begin to explain with a smile after he opened it. “That was why I couldn’t have you around. It’d ruin the surprise~”

At the very least, the embarrassment and surprise she could sense from him along with the quick backpedaling of his words was satisfying. It made up for his striking of a small nerve with her. Besides, any reaction to a gift being given was always satisfying to the giver. She only hoped a small part of him would like it. Typically something such as a freshly knit scarf could be seen as ‘girly’ or not well appreciated by men, but it varied from person to person. He apologized once again, which was not surprising given the realization of the situation. Inglisse accepted it silently with a nod and warm smile. She would not mind them getting off on a better foot, only, would he bother trying to be wiser and less foolish? His display when touring the school and dorm had been rather irksome, to say the least, as well as his general attitude towards others and her. If this was really going to work, he would have to quickly realize that a bit more respect and decency towards her and others alike would be needed.

He chuckled at the gift she had given him and made a couple comments, before and after putting it on, both of which she identified as more playful banter, as opposed to his use of full on snark. “It looks good on you,” she complimented, sitting herself back down.

Once seated, she retained her smile but moved back towards their original conversation. “I don’t mind starting again. I just need you to understand that this is not like the last time you were summoned, and you can’t force it to be that way again. I’m not like your last summoner,” she explained simply, reaching down for her teacup to take another sip of tea.

She truly failed to care too much about the bond he shared with his previous summoner. While she could empathize with the idea of losing someone and them no longer being around, there was nothing anyone could do to replace someone they had lost, be it a family member or close companion. Expecting someone new to fill that gap was far from fair.

“I believe it’s fair to expect you at least abide by this school’s code of conduct and show some basic courtesy when meeting others. Whatever you do still represents me in the eyes of everyone else, as I summoned you here. We are judged by the company we keep. Don’t make me regret keeping you at my side,” she said after a long sip of tea. Her amber eyes held Oras’ gaze solemnly. Surely what she was asking was not unfair. She would be able to judge the claim that he was not childish based on his response. Stubbornness to continue behaving in a way that was really just flat out embarrassing and immature was not something she would accept. She could not risk being expelled or suspended over a poorly behaved summon of hers.

“Why I care is simple. I’m at this academy for a reason and can’t risk being suspended, expelled, or given poor grades because of a summon of mine,” Inglisse answered truthfully, pleased to see the atranoch finally indulging himself in some of the tea she made, despite him chilling it instead of having it heated. It made sense, seeing as he was a being of ice and likely found that hot substances did not sit well with him.

Inglisse heard out his reasoning, despite him not wishing to disclose some of the details. She could respect that much. Finally, he smiled with a small flush of blush coming to his face, confirming one of her suspicions. “No kidding, captain obvious” she joked back, mirroring his grin. “Well, as long as your ‘trying’ doesn’t land you or me in any trouble, I’ll try not to ditch you for no reason,” she responded with a smile.