What a Book Tells You

By the time evening came around, Mila finally returned. After sorting things out for the rest of the day with Covin, Ava had rather successfully made herself scarce, buying time by being completely unfindable. Poor Jin could have gotten lost in his own castle with how he has wandered around for the past hour or so after finding that Ava had apparently gone out for a walk around the grounds. But unfortunately, Mila came back empty handed and Ava couldn't keep up her disappearing act without making it seem like she was purposely avoiding Prince Jin. So she could only give herself up to fate, taking out her personal copy of Withering Winters that had definitely seen better days. She ran her fingers over it, utterly reluctant to part with the book but she still plastered on a seemingly carefree smile as she held it out for Prince Jin to take.

Jin had been busy glancing around her room, taking note of the bouquets of both real and glowing illusion flowers that decorated the place. He couldn't help being a bit fascinated by the casual use of illusion magic, which was heavily scorned, especially in high social circles. He turned his attention back when the book was held out, offering a smile as he took the book, a look of surprise flitting across his face as he realised just how humble a book it was. He glanced up at Ava who was flushed slightly pink, waving her hand a little as she explained, her eyes on the book now held in Jin's hands. "It was a gift from childhood, I'm aware it isn't very fitting, if Your Highness is bothered, we can have a new book ordered…"

Jin examined the book with a thoughtful look. "No matter, I don't mind."

For once, Ava wished Jin wasn't so laid back, if he was a bit more snob then she would have her treasure back in her hands. But reality wouldn't be so kind, she could only cry on the inside as she watched Jin adjust the book to sit in the crook of his arm, held lightly against his chest. He bowed his head slightly. "Thank you, I'll return it to you as soon as I've finished it." Ava responded with usual politeness. He was about to turn away but he paused seeing how Ava's gaze lingered on the book, although he felt it unnecessary to say, certainly it was not something someone of his status should have to say, he still added, "I'll be careful with it."

Ava's brows rose gently as she looked at him, her gaze remaining longer than the short glances she often gave him. She smiled, responding with a light "Of course."

As he left, Covin stepped forward to lightly pat her back to comfort her. Her expression as she stared at the closed door Jin left through with /her/ book was really too pitiful. Ava sighed, letting her shoulders sink before gathering herself together again. "Let's get to work…" She then seemed to remember something, perking up as she looked at Mila. "Did you bring anything back for the study?"

Mila smiled broadly in response, showing a cute porcelain dog statue that was used to hold down stacks of papers. It wasn't anything special but Ava seemed thrilled. "Perfect! A few more final touches and it finally won't feel so gloomy in there."

Covin huffed, frowning as he signed. 'After I worked so hard to clean it and sneak furniture in, you still call it gloomy?'

Ava didn't look impressed as she signed back. 'I was the one that convinced them to 'throw out' that furniture. It looks better but it's still a gloomy little dungeon room in there.'

Covin rolled his eyes. 'Of course it is, a secret storage room that's been abandoned for how many years, there's not much that will fix it.'

Mila and Ava both gave him a look. Mila raised her hand with the little dog statue while Ava gestured to it grandly. Covin held his forehead in exasperation. It was beyond him how their little nick nacks they were decorating the place with apparently made it less gloomy but he could only sigh in defeat. 'Alright, fine, more decorations it is. We need to get going before the guards swap over.'

---

When Jin finished his shower, walking back into his bedroom while drying his hair with a towel, his eyes fell onto the book that he had set aside on the table beside his bed. He sat down on the edge of his bed, staring at the book for a moment. He had mostly just been using it as an excuse but it didn't kind of sound like an interesting read… After a moment, he picked the book up, leaning back against the head of the bed. The moment he opened it, a dried flower that must have been used as a makeshift bookmark fell out. Jin picked it up carefully to examine it. It was a flower with long petals, a kind he didn't recognise. It must have been a kind native to Yandil as he'd seen most kinds of flowers in Eden as they were used for decoration during events. The colour had also mostly faded, meaning it had been a bookmark for some amount of time now. Interesting… he set the flower aside, flicking through the pages of the book.

There were creases and some small marks, nothing too damaging but the kind that came about when a book had been dragged about place to place instead of sitting on a bookshelf. In the later parts of the book, there were tiny circles of water damage. Jin suspected with some amusement that they might have been from tears and that part of the book might be describing the winter celestial's betrayal and death that Ava had described. As he kept flicking through, a few more other tiny dried flowers fell from within the pages and Jin had to sweep them onto his palm and set them aside as well. The last thing to fall out from within where it had been wedged between the pages was a small paper note. Jin's brows furrowed as he examined it. There was something written on it but it wasn't written in the language of Yandil nor the language of Eden. Prince Jin had no recognition of it. He set this aside to, quietly noting to himself that he would have to ask Avaline about it some other time. For now, he simply flicked back to the first page and started reading.