85 Zi'da 717
It wasn't an idle whim though. The young woman intended to extract certain information from him. Over the course of a single season, fool that she was, she'd placed her trust in him, her feelings and opened herself up to pain again. More than that, she'd allowed deeper feelings access to her, giving them the chance to put down roots and began to set in. Yanking it out now would be agonising but it would be nowhere near as bad as if she left it and then had her heart broken later down the line. Either way, if there was going to be pain, it was better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. Especially as she'd been unable to think of anything aside from the Talius scion since he'd kissed her on the Aranaz Estate, how his mouth had felt on hers, how his touch had tingled on her skin for quite some time afterwards. It wasn't something that could be readily dismissed from her memory and so she'd come seeking answers.
Maebella hadn't simply wandered into the Viridian Wing with the object of coming across the young man by chance but had researched his schedule. It wasn't the only research that she'd done. In fact, she'd taken the liberty of finding out his birthtrial too, finally affixing an accurate value to their age difference. He would turn 31 on the 16th day of Cylus. In truth, there was little between them in arcs but the number was a significant one. The next season in a little over 30 trials away, he would be a man while the female Eídisi would remain a girl. Worse, he would truly come into his own as the Talius heir and thus, she couldn't see how she would fit into his life then. The young woman had no desire to be used and tossed aside again; her heart was no play thing.
When the medical students filed out of class, the scholar had to stop herself from chewing on her fingernails, fearing that in spite of her double checking and triple checking that she'd somehow gotten it wrong. Perhaps Virikai wouldn't be here and it wouldn't be his last class of the trial as she'd thought and she would be left standing in the corridor like a fool with curious eyes upon her. She had those looks all the same, an unfamiliar face hovering close at hand in an attitude of evident expectation; the way her gaze darted back and forth over the students could leave them in little doubt that she sought someone specific.
As soon as her white orbs spotted the tall Eídisi, she sighed with relief, feeling something within her loosen and relax, even as some other part tightened in nervous anticipation. The young woman suddenly felt as if she lacked the mettle to do this but straightening her spine, she forced herself to take first one step towards him and then another, seating a soft smile on her features as she approached the aristocrat.
"Good trial, Lord Virikai. Imagine finding you here," she commented, bobbing a shallow curtsy, lightly spreading out the charcoal-grey skirt that she'd purchased solely for his benefit; the scholar had never been keen on either dresses or skirts but she'd made some effort for him. "I decided that I would come to you for a change. I wanted to talk to you actually, if you have the free time, of course."
Credit to Rose Greenwood