#eh im not too worried about canon at this point
Mayla licked her lips nervously. The first incident didn’t reflect too badly on herself; Nadia hadn’t asked her to look for Julian yet, and not much had happened. The second…
“W-well… The second time was during the test you gave me. I got a bit lost while I was…” Trying to escape. “…searching for the card. And I wound up in a part of the city I didn’t recognize, and I… er… saw the Doctor and…” Her face couldn’t get much redder. “…Fell into a barrel. He noticed and helped me out. And we happened to be in front of a tavern and he… might have kinda sorta bought me a drink, and we might have kind of… talked for a while, and then he ran off before I could learn anything about the case, which was frustrating. And then my magic led me back to you, I suppose.”
She paused to collect herself before describing the last meeting. “Then when I was in town with Portia and the servants, announcing the Masquerade. I took the opportunity to visit my shop. I found Doctor Devorak trying to break in again and confronted him. He claimed he was there looking for answers, and he…” She somehow managed to blush a shade brighter. “He offered to let me search him, to make sure he hadn’t stolen anything. So I did, and he hadn’t. We parted company, and I’m afraid I still didn’t see which way he went.”
Her story finished, Mayla bowed her head. “Please don’t be cross with me, Countess. I didn’t know if… I admit, I didn’t fully trust you, yet. I was… a bit scared of you, to be perfectly honest. And I…” She looked up, finally meeting Nadia’s eyes. “…I’m not so sure the Doctor is even guilty. And you seemed so convinced otherwise… I was afraid to contradict you.”
Nadia is quiet as she listens to Mayla explain herself, mostly because she isn’t entirely sure of what to say. She couldn’t deny that she had had a feeling that Mayla had managed to sneak out during the challenge she had set her, as she had been confident that she would find the guard that had the card on them in only few hours. When it had been almost a day before they met once more, she had gotten the feeling from her that something had happened during that time, and ever since then she hadn’t been able to shake it.
What she had said next, however, certainly didn’t make things any easier: she knew that she should be at the very least irritated that she hadn’t said anything sooner, yet at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to be anything other than mildly annoyed. After all, it wasn’t as if she had intentionally gone behind her back, even if it had certainly seemed that way at first.
“Well…” she begins, unsure of how to go about explaining how she felt. “Thank you for telling me about this: I am willing to overlook your… previous meetings with the doctor if you promise to tell me the next time you should encounter him,” she continues. She does pause before speaking once more, as if she needs to gather her thoughts before pressing on. “I do wish that you had said something sooner, despite how you may have felt. I would have been willing to listen, even if you did in fact contradict me, or if you felt as though you couldn’t trust me,” she then says. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
