The Cair Royals

Potions Should Exist in the Real World

"Can you shut that grinder off for a moment?" Lilith asked Louis, one of the cooks in her Kitchen, as she leaned her head against the cool metal of the fridge.

"Overindulged, Chef Moore?" He asked teasingly, but did as she'd asked.

"Yeah, on wine which costs more than all our pay checks put together." The redhead retorted, wishing there was some Hangover Potion or something- aspirins could only help so much.

"Whoever did you party wit-"

"It's 5 minutes to 7 am!" Mrs. Beazley announced as she walked in. "Waitpersons, get in, the table is spread, we just need the food items placed there- Chef Moore!"

Lilith started and nearly hit her head on the fridge.

"Yes?"

"Is today an a lá carte day or a buffet?"

"Er-" The woman thought back to the routine, which she had thankfully memorised. "It's a buffet day today."

"You heard her!" The elderly woman told the waitpersons in her shrill voice. "Lay out the food accordingly."

A moment later as half the kitchen emptied, Louis turned on the grinder again and Lilith DID hit her head on the fridge.

-

"Food not to your taste, Ms. Reza?" Susan asked as she saw the small amount of food on the younger woman's plate.

"Oh no, I just don't eat breakfast generally."

"That's not at all healthy." Peter told her, frowning, abandoning his perfectly baked egg Danish and bacon for the moment.

"My mother says so, too." Sanya shrugged, taking a bite of the vanilla toast- she had never even KNOWN there was anything called vanilla toast.

Edmund laughed. "Appropriate comparison, M- Sanya."

Lucy giggled as well. "Peter is quite definitely the 'mum' out of all of us."

"Well, what about Susan?" Peter asked, ears as red as his Head Chef's hair- and that was not a strange comparison at all. "SHE would be the Mum, I'd say."

Susan gave a gentle shrug of her delicate shoulders. "I am, but you're more the Helicopter mum, so."

Peter decided he shouldn't have abandoned his food at all and quickly set back upon it.

"Are you catching a train back, Ms. Reza?" Lucy asked, after thinking that asking her questions related to her novel so early would not yield very satisfactory answers.

"Yes, there's one at 10:20, and please call me Sanya, Your Majesty."

"I'll call you Ms. Reza, if you don't mind, your first name is rather difficult to pronounce rightly." The High King told her, half apologetically.

"That's ok-"

"You've been pronouncing her last name wrong too." The younger King told his brother. "It's Ray-za, not Reh-za... or have I been saying it wrong?"

"No, you're right, just Edmund."

Susan raised her eyebrow at the journalist calling her brother by name but instead said, "We shall have someone accompany you to the station, Ms.- Sanya, just in case."

Edmund was about to say he could do it, completely forgetting about the piles of work he had waiting for him in his study, when Lucy piped up.

"I can do it! We have writing things to talk about as well."

Susan and Peter nodded, Sanya gave the young Queen- well, almost a Queen- a small smile, Edmund frowned into his mozzarella toast and breakfast was resumed.