[((___jade___))>]

Curtains tightly sealed shut, the room was dark as night, and deathly silent. Through this silence, there was, however, a small noise breaking through the null; a soft snore. The owner of the noise was face-down on the bed, a small trail of drool accompanying the sound coming from his throat. The Elf was completely unaware of all of this of course, eyes closed softly in his peaceful slumber, back rising and falling slowly with his resting breaths.

The stillness was disturbed by the door swinging open, which revealed the fact that it was not night, as the black suggested. "Master Thayne...?" A thin Elf stood at the door, clothes tidy and neat though not too fancy, suggesting that he was a servant. The butler of the house, to be exact. "It's time to get up. Or past time to get up, rather..." Rayl, the family butler, was quite used to having to deal with the Caeryll family's spoiled brat of a son. He had been the main one in charge of the boy ever since Thayne had been born. It also did not surprise the older Elf that his young master was still asleep at one in the afternoon.

"You need to wake up..." Rayl goaded further, striding over to the bed and placing a cold, clammy hand on the younger male's bare shoulder and giving it a good, hard shake. The Elf moaned, swatting at the other as if he were an annoying fly. "Master Thayne." He said in a sharp, commanding voice. He shook his shoulders harder, which eventually worked.

"Wha?" Thayne asked as he pushed himself off of the bed, question cut off by a yawn. Turning himself over, he rubbed at his eyes for a moment before trying to tame his tangled hair with a few pets. This was unsuccessful, but he hardly noticed.

"It's past noontime. Our guests will be here shortly..." The butler said sharply.

"Guests?" Obviously Thayne was rather fuzzy-headed from sleep. The last thing he had discussed with anyone last night was exactly this.

"Does the name "Esatag" ring any bells?" Rayl was quite good at saying such things whilst remaining inferior to his master. "You are to meet your fiance today. They will be here in an hour or less." The butler had already left the side of the bed and was rummaging through the drawers. He soon returned with a pair of black pants, an off-white dress shirt, and a blue patterned vest.

Thayne let out an annoyed sigh as he dropped his feet over the side of the bed and accepted the clothes. He was not at all looking forward to being married, but it was coming up in a little over a week now. Of course, it would have helped if he had known about this sooner. Maybe he could have prepared better. It had only been a year ago that his father had decided to impart the knowledge of the promise to his son. As expected, the brat had thrown a fit at first, but know he accepted it a little better. Although he still disliked the idea of getting married, he did now realize the benefits. His father was making him do this anyway; he knew that he could not say no to him.

A few minutes later, Thayne had his clothes on, face washed, and hair combed. Taking one last look at himself in the mirror, he could not help but throw himself a mental insult for his fat lips before following the butler out the door. "You have a few minutes to eat some lunch. It's already waiting in the kitchen." Rayl informed him. Thayne nodded slightly, though he was off in a world of his own now. It was usual for him to zone out like that. His father hated it and tried to make him stop, though there were few people who could make him do it. Rayl had tried in the past, but had grown weary of having his head chewed off.