“Oh, but you will my grumpy friend. You’re a magnificent beast.”

“Beast?” The dragon’s nostrils flared threateningly.

“Oh, forgive me,” Lilith smirked. “It’s just a saying.”

Though they appeared externally calm and happy, Ruby and Lilith shared a spark of uncertainty and a twinge of fear. Though Delath talked and was a companion to an old friend, there was something primal about standing next to a dragon made of the earth itself.

“We’ve met once before,” Ruby confided. Her hair was only red in the glare of the dying sun, cast ablaze by the encroach of time. “In another life.” Ruby considered wherever now was the time to recount that unfortunate incident in a brothel in Salvar, but decided against it.

“I speak fondly of you to my sister as well, you’ve developed quite the reputation.” Lilith bowed, and gestured at the foot of the tree next to where Philomel had been found writing. “Since fortunes brought us together, would you object if we took tea here?”

Philomel glanced over her shoulder at the mossy hassock and frowned. When she turned back to the siblings she put her questions aside for one more pressing.

“Ermm, tea?” She gestured to the air as though she expected cups to rain down. “With what?”

Lilith took that as a yes and walked around the faun. Delath snorted again, but watched the assassin with simmering discontent. Between every long exhale, if you listened closely, he muttered about how un beast-like he was and how much he hated strangers. She bowed at the foot of the tree and drew a series of symbols in the air. Philomel would recognise them as kanji, but not their meaning.

“You didn’t think we were going to carry it all here, did you? We've a well-rehearsed system for times like these.” Lilith chuckled. “We’re ladies.” She sighed. “Sometimes.”

Ruby took Philomel by the arm and walked her to the newly formed table, snapping into existence from behind a veil of Akashiman lore. As if by magic, several cups and a teapot did appear mid-air and float down to settle on the black lacquer table top. Ruby gestured at the north end of the table, traditionally reserved for honoured guests and rummaged in her pouches for the tea leaves.

“What were you writing, out here in the heart of darkness?” Her neck bristled with goose bumps, genuinely intriguing by something for the first time in days. She jabbed a finger at the notebook as she dropped the pouch on the table. The evening air soured a little, but the presence of a dragon and the whorl of excitement brought about by reunions did away with the cold and filled the peninsula with a blissful autumn exuberance.