#leafyiage

        She gestures wildly as she speaks. Her volume, thankfully, manages to capture even more attention.

        ❝ Do you need a guiding eye? Do you feel that your future is shrouded in doubt? ❞

        Oh, if only Grannie could see her now.         How would she feel, knowing that her own grandchild was hard up for cash?         Would she rush to Zinnia’s aid?         Would she beg her to return home?         Years have passed since Zinnia’s exile from the village and with Aster’s (the real Aster) sacred duty completed, she was finally allowed back home. But she didn’t want to go back – not after the cold reception she received prior to her banishment. While her grandmother tried to convince her otherwise, Zinnia just didn’t feel up to it.         Not yet, anyway.

        She wanted to travel the world – discover what her true purpose was after her gods had given her a second chance at life. Unfortunately for her, corporate never smiled fondly on wandering vagabonds. Whatever odd job she could scrounge up would only be enough to tide her over for a few days. And with her recent sum of cash nearly depleted, Zinnia had no choice to turn to simple cons again.

        It had been a long time since she had posed as a psychic.

        Her eyes once more travel the crowd. Her expression lightens as she finds easy prey – the face of someone who has been looking at her for quite some time, mouth slightly agape. Behavior like that, as Zinnia had come to discover, suggested naivety. And hopefully for Zinnia, that meant that this person was loose with her cash, too.

        Zinnia grins. She points her slender finger at Leaf:

        ❝ You there, young woman! 

With a sigh, he places his pen down, gently rolls his wrists before leaning back in his chair. Lance takes off his reading glasses so he could easily massage his temples, which is beating a steady throb. Understandable, given that he stayed up pretty late last night just so he could finish the rest before noon. It had been tougher than he expected, in the sense that it’s a lot more word heavy, thus requiring him to really read things through as opposed to just skimming the important bits.

At least, he’s finally done with it. Lance still has half of Saturday and the rest of Sunday to relax and rest up. This is something that he’s personally working on. With how hard he works, he’s often left stressed and exhausted, even if he’s able to power through it most of the time. With his recent therapy sessions, coupled with an earnest desire to practice a healthier life style for real this time, he’s now staying away from the League during the weekends. 

Unless there’s an emergency that requires his immediate attention, Lance would try and not think about work. It’s still a work in progress, for he doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable in just dropping everything, but he’s doing much better than he has in years. Lance now makes more visits to his mother figure in Blackthorn, but rarely stay for more than a few days since he doesn’t want to stress himself out with clan matters.

Aside from Blackthorn, his other real retreat is his private home in Ecruteak City. Only a handful of people know that he owns one of the traditional style houses within this city. Whenever he comes here, Lance often dons a disguise, so it still remains away from the media’s eye. A place he could go to for peace and quiet. Now that he’s free to do his own devices, Lance had been thinking of training his younger dragons in the big yard at the back of the house.

At least, that had been the original plan, until he heard loud knocks coming from the door. Lance is immediately wary, for he could not recall anyone informing him of a visit. It could be Green, but it’s not exactly his style, so to speak. The knocking continued, so it’s not like he could continue to ignore it either. With a deep sigh, he heads downstairs and towards the front door. He takes a moment to peer in through the peephole. 

Well, what do you know?