End of First Cycle, Low Season 20672
“Of course!” Ailith nodded enthusiastically at Yovo. After all, she'd have much preferred staying with her and work on that project, which taught her quite a few things, rather than having lunch with Master Matah. Not that she had anything against him of course, but… Well… She wasn't expecting it to be particularly fun.
When Iriz arrived, Ailith had a small smile for her as she took her place around the table. She was sort of enjoying the food, but could only wonder what this was all about which prevented her from really focusing on it, making sure that she finished at around the same time Matah did. When he finally spoke, she nodded briefly after his praise. She wasn't all that sure that she should really be included in it considering that of the things delivered to the Interlopers, she had at most been involved in sanding, but she wasn't going to mention something like that. Particularly not to someone who believed - and much to her chagrin, rightly so - that it was an important part of many crafts.
With the lock placed near her, Ailith mumbled a “Thank you,” both to the servant and Master Matah, not quite sure she wanted to be the focus of attention. Or more precisely, perfectly sure she didn't want to be. She was briefly curious when Matah announced that he had a good idea of who it was, but quickly forgot about it when he smashed his palm on table, almost jumping in fright.
When he was done, she remained frozen for a long moment, barely breathing and her head between her shoulders, wanting to be anywhere but at the table. She knew perfectly well that she wasn't in trouble, but that didn't make her feel better for a while and she only started to relax when the servant finished cleaning up.
She really started to cheer up when she heard about a new apprentice: finally she wouldn't be the newest one! She was under no illusions that she'd be finally free to do whatever she wanted, but at the very least she wouldn't have to clean every workshop every day, and that was such a good news she almost wanted cheer. She could only offer a commiserating grimace as Zez was told his project would have to be delayed though. But in two weeks, she'd have a lot more time to herself!
While at first she hadn't paid much attention to the news about the new master, barely interested even by the news that it would be an Interloper - which she considered more troublesome than anything else - the very last bit concerned her a lot. It didn't take a genius to know which apprentice would be assigned to that new Master: both Iriz and Helza already had a master and Zez would be too busy for it. Finally, there was no way the new apprentice - Coq - would be chosen for that when he had lots of sanding and sweeping to look for in his immediate future. Plus lots of water to draw from the well of course.
No, that only left her… And that wasn't something she was particularly pleased to hear. Oh, it'd be interesting. Probably. Certainly new at any rate. But… But there was the little matter of her little secrets… Though of course, it wasn't like anyone was going to ask for her opinion on the matter, so she'd have to find a way to deal with it.
“What's the new master's specialty?” she asked carefully, as if trying to judge who was likely to be the selected apprentice. But really wondering what would be expected of her.