16 The Art of Basic Etiquette

Racing down the halls, the boat swayed back and forth as the clouds turned grey above the sails. With every step, Scotty dodged each passerby while barely keeping his balance until he got to the end of the hall. Stopping in his tracks, he caught his breath and straightened his wrinkly shirt out before quickly knocking on the door. A few moments of silence rang around him, making it feel like years agonizingly passing by.

Then, slowly but surely, Venus creaked open her door just enough to see who it was. When her eyes met Scotty's she looked down the corridor quickly before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him inside.

He looked around to see different colors flowing across the ceiling and walls as if they were underwater with a light show. With a snap of her fingers, the water froze in the air and the different colors faded away. She turned to him and asked, "what are you doing here? I told you not to come today unless it was important!"

"Well, Captain asked for you…��� He trailed off then quickly asked, "what were you even doing to have water floating around your room?"

"I was trying something out. Anyways, what does your captain need?" She stood there impatiently tapping her foot as the water drifted around them waiting to be put to use.

"Well," he picked at his nails as he nervously tried to scoot away from the center of the room just in case it started to drip. "He didn't really say," he mumbled.

"Ugh!" She threw her hands into the air making the water above her turn into ice shards stabbing the wood. Turning on her heel, she stomped out of the room leaving Scotty tailing behind her. "Why does he think of himself above me at times like this. I'm not helpless nor weak, can't he bring it upon himself to, in the least, tell me what he wants from me?" She swung around the corner and then the next before getting to the stairs that led up to the deck.

"I'm sure he has his reasons!" Scotty tried to mediate.

"It���s not like he's telling you something he wouldn't want you to know!" She stomped up the steps as she realized what she just said, 'they've been friends for years yet he can't even relay a full message through Scotty to me? I hate to admit it but there must be something big going on for him not to even tell his trusted friend.' She took a peek at Scotty slumped behind her. "He must've been too lazy to tell you the full message, that sounds more like him," she mumbled loud enough for him to hear.

With a grin spreading wider than the distance the sun's heat travels to warm the earth, Scotty beamed and her words. With a jump in his step and a glimmer of trust back in his eyes, he hoped, "it's probably nothing serious!"

Slamming open the door before Scotty could knock for her, Venus strode into Caspien's room and hollered, "I thought I told you I didn't want to be disturbed today!" She slammed her bottom down into a chair as he hurriedly dressed his half-naked body.

"W-why didn't you knock?" His flustered expression didn't break the stoic girl.

But made Scotty wince, "I was about to but she…" He trailed off not daring to upset the harsh yet oddly kind half woman, half siren in front of him. He knew she was already fuming and didn't want to make it worse. With his gaze drawn to her, Caspien followed and surmised the ending in his head with a sigh.

"Well," he slipped a shirt over his head and huffed, " I called you here because I've realized over the past few days that you have a lack of Arlanian manners. I didn't want you to hear it from Scotty so, I only told him to bring you here, my apologies." He gave a flimsy bow before taking a swig of rum.

She sat there not knowing how to answer him without contradicting herself. Taking a deep breath she coaxed, "I have manners. I was believed to be the well-reserved child." She crossed her arms and slouched in the chair trying her best not to lose her temper.

"She's straightforward with her words and actions but does that really make her mannerless?" Scotty, being raised as a blacksmiths son in the slums, didn't quite grasp etiquette, as well as Caspien. Though her actions made him bashful, she never made him feel disrespected or rude in an extreme way.

Caspien thought about what his friend said, 'the times they've been together were in dire situations so he must not have noticed her blunt way of speaking coming off as rude or even the way she carries herself. She takes longer strides than any woman should, runs and jumps around everywhere she goes, and wears out of date clothing from who knows what century. Her way of speaking, while it would be fine in any other country is reckless for Arla. There's no way she could meet the king like this and have a serious conversation with him.' He placed the glass back down on the table and sat across from her trying to find the right wording before making her more upset than she was obviously trying to hide. "In Arla, you can't expect to waltz into the country and meet the king on the spot. There are steps to take and people you have to meet first."

She waved her hand in the air wiping his words away, "I won't be there long anyway. There's no need to meet more than the king."

He looked deep into her eyes trying to pull her in, "what's so important that you can only discuss with him? I'm sure anyone from back then could answer your questions." Tapping his fingers one by one against the wooden table, he waited for an answer he yearned for since she mentioned talking to the king in the first place.

But he'd never get the answer. She dodged him and asked, "what do I need to do?"

Scotty left the room without a word to leave them to practice a skill he had no expertise in. The air in the room grew heavy as Caspien counted the different things she needed to learn in such a short amount of time. His expression grew dark while his eyes shined like the moon in the night sky. He tried his best to cut down the list to the basics but found himself overwhelmed for her. "Well, that's a good question."

"That's why I asked it."

"Ha…" He didn't even want to scold her for being so blunt but knew that he needed to break her habit now while he had the chance. He didn't want to push her but the pull of his promise broke through his mind. Thinking over what she needed to do, he promised himself to get the harder concepts done now instead of dealing with it at the last second, 'plus she'll have more time to practice dancing and table manners before we get there.' "Stand up."

She blinked but followed his order, "what are we starting with?"

"I'm going to teach you how to dance. In particular, for a welcoming ball. You'll only have to learn two dances just in case anyone asks you to join them."

"I'd just say no," she rolled her eyes and made a face that read, 'what else did you think I'd do?'

Caspien sighed and rubbed off the fact that she won't always be able to refuse. "You still need to dance at least once so we'll go over the most commonly known dance. It's similar to the waltz so I'm sure you'll pick it up in a few days with amble practice." He bowed to her and humbly asked, "may I have this dance, my lady?"

She raised her eyebrow at him and lifted her hand, "no, you may not," and twisted around to the door.

He chuckled and grabbed her arm to whisper in her ear, "you may not be able to say no in the moment." Grabbing her waist, he began humming a swift tune to lead the way. "Look down at my feet for now and follow my lead. It'll be tricky at first but after some time, you'll figure out the pattern." She didn't answer and instead looked down questioningly to see his feet moving with harsh precision every beat. Caspien thought it better to turn on the magic crystal his father gave him before he left to control the music so that he could still coach Venus.

After some time of stepping on toes and cursing the legs they both were given by the gods, they finally shifted into a slow swaying motion to calm themselves down. She hadn't realized it then, but her head lay tasting on Caspien's chest as the magic crystal in the background played a soft violin beat.

With the sun sunken in the sky, showing off its vibrant oranges clashing with the dark night sky, Venus took one wrong step and tripped on her dress only to topple on the ground landing on her rear. There was a moment of silence between the two before Caspien scrambled to go help her up. In the moments after her fall, she laughed with humor she'd lost in the years looking for even a trace of her old happiness, "right when I get used to everything, these legs throw me off one last time! It's like trying to swim on dry land right now!" She chuckled as she grabbed his outstretched hand and laughed some more at her own mistake.

His worried expression melted away into gaping amazement at her smile. Fresh and clear as if born anew from a flaming past into something new and inspiring. She was smiling more genuinely than anything he'd seen from her before when she'd make her snarky remarks or even taunt him by seductively whispering to his friend of over a decade about nonsense. It wasn't her snickering in a corner thinking to herself about who knows what but instead, she was laughing and having fun with learning something new.

As he picked her up, his hand wrapped around her waist as he lead her back to the center of the room. She wriggled out of his grasped and sighed, "can we do something else? All this dancing and swaying is making me, uhm...What was that word again? Exhausted?"

"Tired?"

"Yes, yes! Sleeping is so weird and such a hassle. Having to miss so much time in a day seems like such a hassle. Especially for humans like you that don't live very long anyway." She sat down at the table and put her feet up to sit back.

He tilted his head and asked, "humans like me?"

"Yeah. You're not a mage nor part of the holy land ruins and it's pretty clear you're no vampire either. You seem too confident to be anything more than a sailor. More specifically, a Captain." She downed the rest of the saltwater she scooped from the ocean earlier and basked in the taste of home she'd been missing.

With her cup empty and slammed back down on the table, Caspien flicked her bare feet off of the table and sat across from her. "Back to what we were doing."

"Right, of course." She crinkled her nose as she straightened up for the next lesson.

"Besides dancing," he sighed, "you'll need to know your table manners for eating every meal when you arrive in the kingdom." He pulled out three spoons, two forks, and a knife and placed them in front of her. "Besides sitting straight and using the proper speech, you'll need to know how to use the silverware put in front of you." Caspien went on to explain what each one was used for and when it would be used. Venus, on the other hand, listened quietly and absorbed all of the information she could.

Moving on, he asked her to stand up and introduce herself like she would if she was meeting another siren, "I am Venus, daughter of Queen Minerva and King Livida, third to the Baian thrown and…" she trailed off realizing she had a new title as well. "And, the last lone siren of the sea." She looked off into her own mind as the waves crashed into the side of the boat making the light above them shake uncontrollably.

Caspien cleared his throat and carefully treaded, "that was good. Except that's too much information for you to be giving away. Try just your full name."

"I am Venus," She bowed deeply making Caspien choke on his rum.

"Why are you bowing?"

"That's what you did! You told me to introduce myself, so I tried to copy how you did it!" She straightened and put her hands on her hips more crossed about the situation than she should be.

He rubbed his temples and held back from scolding her, "women down bow, they curtsey."

"There's a difference in how each gender introduces themselves? Why?"

Caspien went to answer but realized the excuse wouldn't make much sense for her so he glazed over it and just decided to show her how to curtsey. Wrapping his hands around hers, he led her fingers to grip her dress and asked her to bend one knee in the process. At first, she began to lose her balance but over time she got the hang of it. "That's much better," he clapped at their little victory.

"Thank you, sir." She gave him a small and swift curtsey before straightening back out.

"Now, when introducing yourself, you only want to say your name and the family you come from. For now, you can claim you're an envoy from the Isle of Grenley. Most people don't know about the countries there so you should be fine." He gave her the green light to show him her introductions. As she did, he realized that she had been wearing the same dress the whole tike since they met but it wasn't dirty nor tattered.

"Was that alright?"

"Oh, yes! I'm sorry but," he hesitated knowing it wasn't his place to question a woman's wardrobe. "You can't keep wearing the same dress while in Arla, people will think you to be a madwoman."

She didn't quite understand but didn't question it, "what would you like me to wear then?"

Caspien started digging through drawers of papers and pictures until he pulled a small booklet out that contained the latest fashion for women. Flipping through the pages he found a green high-rise skirt with a white button-up long sleeve blouse and showed it to her. "I'll have to get the tailor to make you something for when we dock but it'll look something like this for your everyday traveling clothes." He went to look for more examples but noticed a shift in color out of the corner of his eyes.

The Meditteranean blue dress that Venus had worn since they met shied away to reveal a dark green skirt that matched the picture with the same white blouse. She grabbed the book from his hands and skimmed the pages herself to find different necklaces and earrings only to have them form on her as well.

"Or you could do that. Whatever works…" He didn't want to ask how she did any of that seeing that the sun was completely gone from the sky and the deck had already quieted down. The night was growing older, pushing the two of them two separate to sleep the remaining day away.

She turned back to him and curtsied, "have a good night, Captain." He bowed to her and nodded his head as he watched her porcelain skin disappear into the night. Leaving her lavender eyes lingering with him for his dreams to chase.