Chapter 8: a good wine

Nicholas can't find any people to trick into taking him past the wards, the Transverse network is only connected when Haochen Xia is expecting guests, the carrier pigeons have learned to dodge him, and Nicholas has developed a fear of being chased through small crawl spaces by giant crane beaks pecking through vents because Haochen Xia thinks the scratching in the ceiling is a mouse.

He can’t find any housemaker fairies to bribe either, which is impressive because while they might be useful and help around with cleaning, they still are unconditionally a pest and tend to cluster around magical buildings. Even the Ayad wards have trouble keeping out the sneaky little buggers.

There are several plans in progress as well because while Nicholas can't get into the potion lab yet, explosions are still an option. He's also halfway through a book he found in the library on warding because theoretically if he digs out a warding stone then the whole thing collapses but he needs to know where it is and what it looks like.

(He also found a grimoire in the library that tried to write to him and Nicholas told it absolutely hilarious dick jokes until it just stopped responding because apparently grimoires have no sense of humour.)

Quite frankly, Nicholas thinks that is an impressive amount of plans he's made without a wand to back him up.

On the fifth day of his inexplicable holiday in this manor, Nicholas is flying around on a broomstick he found tucked away, an older model that doesn't take turns well but it's good enough he supposes.

He sits up there to watch the sunset then heads back inside, though he gets distracted halfway back by chirping in the ceiling.

"Hello?" Nicholas calls out, staring upwards. "You…doing okay?"

More chirping that sounds rather frantic, and several scratching noises.

"Are you stuck?" Nicholas looks around and finds a vent near the ceiling. He drags a narrow side table over, drops the decorative vase while moving it but the fancy thing doesn't shatter (pity).

The dried snapdragon flowers fall out of the vase and Nicholas kicks it all out of the way. He's not touching it – he knows some old families place magically connected flowers around the manor to deter (or even hunt down) intruders and snapdragons mean deceit. Nicholas is not getting stuck in an illusory labyrinth thanks.

Nicholas aligns the side table under the bird noises and climbs onto it to start knocking on the ceiling. "Come this way! Follow the noise."

Nicholas gets the bird halfway to the vent but it seems to be caught on something – maybe there's a beam in the way? The bird doesn't come out and flails around in…distress? Anger? Embarrassment?

Nicholas doesn't understand bird.

Nicholas hesitates. "I'll be right back, don't worry!"

---

As Nicholas jogs through the manor, he musters up enough courage to talk to Haochen Xia because, even without the bird, he really needs to leave. Haochen Xia kind of seems like the nerdy type so maybe Nicholas can tell the high mage he’s doing his School Certificate exams this year and that education is important.

Nicholas hears voices and slows down, coming up on what he vaguely remembers is yet another sitting room. He tries to neaten himself up, runs hands along the sides of his head that have been shaved short (he needs a haircut soon), fluffs up the mess of hair on top and takes a deep breath.

He peeks into the drawing room but tries to back out when he sees the high mage has three people for company, dressed richly. Not Crane Sect disciples, not nearly deferential enough for that, and the atmosphere is light-hearted enough for Nicholas to consider it chatting instead of a meeting.

"Yes, Nicholas?" Haochen Xia says.

Nicholas jolts at being addressed. The three are clearly heritage and Nicholas isn’t dressed appropriately to be meeting polite company, he doesn’t even have an outer robe he could wear. Well, a high mage can do whatever the hell he wants, never mind the etiquette.

The man on the left, sitting close to the woman and probably a couple, seems to latch on to the name though. "You wouldn’t happen to be Nicholas Ayad, would you? I'm surprised you know High Mage Xia," he says in what Nicholas guesses is a Spanish accent but it's too light to really pinpoint it.

"Nicholas is staying with me for a few days while his parents are busy," Haochen Xia explains.

Nicholas wants to call him a liar, there's no way his parents would leave him with a high mage - except Nicholas is an idiot, not suicidal, so he says nothing.

"Did you require something?" Haochen Xia insists, eyes starting to narrow.

"There's a thing," Nicholas says vaguely and gestures back out into the hallway. He gets an unimpressed stare back.

Nicholas isn't sure if he's allowed to tell people that Haochen Xia's birds are dumb enough to get trapped in weird places but if he wastes any more time Haochen Xia will probably suck out his soul or something because Lambros says he can apparently do that.

Nicholas hesitates a bit but trots over and ducks down, hand cupped to whisper in the high mage's ear. "I think a bird is stuck in the ceiling outside your hidden trophy room."

Nicholas pulls back and looks at Haochen Xia with the most earnest eyes he can manage because it's really not his fault.

The high mage’s jaw clenches for a moment because that room is locked and Nicholas should not know it’s a trophy room (and oops Nicholas was using it to practice dismantling wards) but he manages to get himself under control.

"Ah," Haochen Xia says and judging by the reaction, this might happen more often than Nicholas thought. "Thank you, Nicholas. Here, why don't you entertain our guests while I deal with the misplaced bird."

Haochen Xia unfolds to his full height and steers Nicholas into the seat with a large, too cold hand over the back of his neck, then the high mage leaves with a swish of his layered robes, long black hair training after him.

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Nicholas looks across at the woman directly opposite and his heir training kicks in, a charming smile flashing across his face. "Truth be told, I saw you from the window, ma'am, and I couldn't pass up the chance."

The woman laughs, loud and rough. "That kind of charm will get you places, boy."

"Nicholas," he introduces himself, reaching across the chess game on the table (Haochen Xia was destroying them) to take her offered hand. "Heir to the Ayad House. Bored out of my mind in this manor without any proper games to play." Nicholas presses a light kiss to her knuckles, looks up through his eyelashes. "Or I was before you arrived."

The man on the left raises an eyebrow but he's smiling. "That's my wife, Mr. Ayad."

Nicholas winks. "And you're not so bad either, mister."

The couple laughs, that look in their eyes like Nicholas is so cute for trying to act like an adult. He gets that from teachers sometimes, and the adults when he's forced to attend larger galas with his parents.

Nicholas knows how to play it up.

The man on the right doesn't seem to be into it but he joins in the conversation regardless, even smiles occasionally at the dumb school story Nicholas immediately launches into because he doesn't want to give them enough time to start asking serious questions that he can’t answer.

"-dropped the mandrake into the lake," Nicholas says airily like that isn't completely against the rules. He's already cut his losses with the third person so he's leaning towards the couple and they're leaning in as well, completely hooked.

"Threw on a rebreather charm and dove down," Nicholas continues. "Stole the pearls from the stunned giant clams and then grabbed the mandrake on the way back up. Blamed it all on the kappas."

The woman has a hand over her heart like she's shocked but she's smirking. "If I was your mother, I would have killed you for that stunt."

"Ah, but you would also have pearls the size of your fist."

"You really know how to bargain," the husband muses.

Haochen Xia comes back into the room after a while, having spent time redoing the protections on the trophy room door, and now it'll electrocute people who try to touch it. Nicholas promptly escapes, hearing the couple cooing over how cute mages in training can be these days.

The third man hums, taps a finger on the table. "I didn't know the InCore heritage families were supporting you."

"A few," Haochen Xia says carelessly, taking a seat again. "Nicholas, be a dear and get us a nice wine."

Nicholas, having gotten as far as the doorway, blinks.

The three are watching closely. And, okay, Nicholas understands Haochen Xia is showing off that the Ayads would 'trust' him with their heir. The three are clearly heritage, most probably NatCom judging by the way the air flows with their movements, and Haochen Xia is trying to recruit them.

Nicholas understands as well that him getting wine like a servant is a huge concession but also he's sixteen, he's allowed to be fucking terrified of a high mage - that Lambros says kills Nicholas himself. Nicholas didn't ask but gods, he hopes he at least put up a fight when it happened.

"Which one?" Nicholas asks. He's already found the wine cellar on his explorations.

"Whichever one you like most," Haochen Xia says mockingly.

Nicholas slips away behind the safety of a wall to flip the high mage off.

He goes to the stupid wine cellar and searches the shelves idly. Skips the section for wines paired with meats. Skips all the paired wines actually because there was no snacking food on the table so it'll most likely be sipping wine taken straight.

The wine needs to be the main course, enough flavour to not get boring, maybe one that has its notes change after exposure to air? Nicholas wants to go for fruits but maybe more earthy instead – that seems like a high mage thing to drink. Smells more solid too.

Nicholas reaches the end of the cellar and backtracks, focuses on one shelf in particular. Dismisses all the vineyards that are still active – not that they make bad wine but it's more socially acceptable to pull out something rare when meeting important people.

Nicholas crouches down and pulls out a bottle, no label but subtle silver etching in the glass itself. He wonders how expensive this is, then realises he doesn't care.

Nicholas trots back out of the cellar, wanders around because he lost the sitting room, but eventually emerges to hand over the bottle.

Haochen Xia takes it, holding it with his thumb in the base like all the snooty wine fanatics do. Haochen Xia scans the label and smirks. "Well done, Nicholas."

Nicholas feels like he passed a test he should have tried to fail.

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