Revolting Rose

Chapter 3/Part 2 - Masterful Deception

A few hours after Pagne's arrival at the academy, there was a scream. The scream question belonged to Pagne's mother, Vasherri, but not for the reasons one might expect in such a place with recent company. Rather, Vasherri opened her wardrobe to find nothing where it had been before she started unclothing for clients, and even her most recent attire had been burgled from the very room she had been dispensing her services in.

The twins were the first to the scene in nothing but pair of towels after Vasherri's patron had been sent packing.

"Your mischief is not amusing this time, darlings," she frowned at her boys.

"Our closet is just as empty as yours, Mama," Tonicolo said.

"You think we're wearing these towels for business?" Ginolo added.

"Had we thought you had the same problem, we would have brought a towel for you too," they sniggered together.

Vasherri was about to clip their ears when the fellow with the finest face in Tyrunvern sauntered in. The Master of the Academy, Vrye, was the most magnificent specimen of a Wyverk as far as she was concerned, even if he was as short as a Tyvern. His dark horns curved back around his ears in a sensual S shape, but it was his long, sharp nose that made her weak at the knees.

"How tedious. You've been robbed too?" Vrye sighed a sigh so smooth it sent shivers up Vasherri's spine. "The customers get more tiresome with each passing year." He ran his fingers through his slick, black hair and got himself a handful of hair wax. After discreetly wiping his hand on the twin's towel, he sat himself down on Vasherri's bed.

"Master Vrye, do excuse my indecency!" Vasherri shrieked, remembering her exposed state. In her frantic grab for any sort of cover she could find, she ripped the bedding out from under him but he got pulled up with it.

Silence followed as Vrye slipped down and scuttled out from underneath her makeshift dress. It was not quite how she imagined things would go if they were caught in the sheets together.

"What precisely was taken from you, Master Vrye? Seems to me like the clothes-thief let you keep your dignity," Vasherri murmured once the Master was back on his feet.

She could see her twins taunting her for blushing. A harlot of her experience should be struggling with hot flushes, not facial flushes, yet Vrye could still bring colour to her cheeks as if he were the lost King himself.

"It would take more than misplaced clothing to catch me without dignity," he replied with a proud smirk.

"Tell that to Mister Nibbs." Ginolo muttered mischievously to his brother.

"Did someone say Mister Nibbs?" Vrye cried out and dove beneath a bedside table. "He can't see me like this!"

Vasherri cursed the Tyvern's name under her breath.

"He came in just before supper," Ginolo said, stirring the pot even more.

"But even Mama had clothes when he left," Tonicolo joined and Vasherri murmured a few more words about the fellow.

Master Vrye slowly sagged to the floor. His small but splendid goatee was the first to hit the floorboards. The tuft was little more than a few long hairs, dangling from a delicate chinstrap of black whiskers that accentuated his handsome jawline, waxed to perfection like his sliver of a moustache. Though it may not have been much, Master Vrye was the only native with any form of fantastic facial hair.

"Why did nobody tell me?" Vrye wailed and threw himself about in anguish.

"We try to avoid telling you these things, for...Pagne's sake," Tonicolo said with a look in Vasherri's direction.

She could have whacked him for it. Those boys of hers were responsible for every wrinkle on her face with the amount of stress they caused her.

"How many more times have I missed him? And what does it have to do with Pagne? The boy doesn't love me, does he?" Vrye asked and grabbed Ginolo by the knee. He pulled himself up then shot an accusing finger at Vasherri. "You're trying to keep Nibbs all to yourself, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't dream of it, Master Vrye." Vasherri purred at Vrye and smoothed his exquisite, violet and silver coat in an effort to calm him. "Now, what did you lose, darling?"

"I was in the middle of counting my crowns, I stopped for a moment to admire the stunning fellow in my mirror, turned around, and they were gone. Gone from right from under my nose," as he spoke he demonstrated everything like a true Wyverk, using the most elaborate hand gestures possible.

"You're positive that you didn't spend them like the last time that they went missing?" Ginolo said snidely and Vasherri stifled a laugh.

"Are you sure your clothes didn't get cut to pieces by your tongue?" the Master spat in return. "Oh, Vasherri, it was horrible!" He threw himself against her and wept on her chest warts.

"You don't think it was Pagne's friend, do you? He seemed like the sort to take a little that isn't his," Ginolo suggested in a loud whisper to his sibling.

"Pagne has a friend?" Vrye interjected, lifting his head.

"I'm sure Pagne has many friends. Why shouldn't he?" Ginolo said with fiercely narrowed eyes.

"What? No! He has a friend here, does he? You sounded as though he might, and if that friend is here, and you know he is Pagne's—"

"Actually, darling, he said Pagne was his," Vasherri butted in and tried to keep Vrye with her, but he slipped away and grabbed Ginolo by his bare shoulders.

"Either way, Pagne being his or he being Pagne's, does that mean he's here, in my Academy? Pagne that is, as far as I'm concerned—"

"He wouldn't!" Tonicolo suddenly shouted at his brother. It seemed that dashing friend of Pagne's was going to cause a few family squabbles.

"You barely even spoke to him and you're so sure? Didn't you see his clothes?" Ginolo replied with his nose wrinkled. "If I had to wear that, I'd steal someone else's clothing too."

"Fine. I don't think he would. He seemed like a decent sort," Tonicolo continued to quarrel.

"He was down-right strange, and you know it!"

"Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?"

"Is Pagne here or not?" Vrye asked Vasherri while her sons berated each other.

"He is, but—"

"PAAAAAGNEE!" Vrye roared as he raced from the room.

Vasherri gave both her boys a hearty boxing about the ears to put an end to their fighting. "You two go search for signs of our things. Personally, I prefer to have clothes to take off rather than getting straight down to business, don't you?"