<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ccff99"><br/>
Ayla answered, still grining.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#a6ff4d"> “It sat up and asked him in a perfect posh accent why he didn’t love it anymore.” </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ccff99">she watched, laughing as her brother rested his arms on the table and hid his face. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#a6ff4d">“Oh come now it wasn’t that bad…”</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ccff99"> she teased.</span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ffcc">Alexi only tentatively lifted his head when Lucian started addressing him, or perhaps it was because the staff had finally brought in food. By this point, he knew most of them by name, although every now and then there was a new one he hadn’t met before. He smiled, a bit melancholy, thinking back to the conversation he’d been having with the flamboyant wizard.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#4dffa6"> “I was asking him about our mother…” </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ffcc">he said softly, picking up his utensils but not starting to eat.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#4dffa6">“It was nice to hear about her from someone other than our father. Who has his own biassed judgements about the woman he barely knew who died and left him with two children.” </span>