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"The Delario House" (Muse) Annallee got back a short time before the others. They gathered in a sitting room, just the trio until dinner. "Where were the two of you today?" she asked. Pico gave an exhausted sigh. "Mother decided to parade me around the city, spending at least an hour at the house of every wealthy person she knows. I think she plans on having me wed off before we manage to escape Muse." He looked up at Annallee, "And you? I think I might just try that trick of disappearing before she catches sight of me tomorrow." "Busking," Annallee replied. "With the lockdown of the city, people are becoming more eager to reward anything that keeps there mind off of the war. No new performers can get in, either, and those who are here are leaving before the war reaches Muse's gates." She frowned. "Shouldn't we do that too? I mean, on the border of an enemy country can't be the safest place." "Muse is the safest place we'll find east of the Grasslands," Alberto replied. "It's well defended. That's why it can be the capital so close to Highland. Never in the history of this city has it been taken." Annallee shrugged. If he said the city wouldn't fall, he was probably right. He did know a lot more than she did about war time. "Where were you today, Alberto?" she asked. "Checking in with some old friends," he replied. He didn't elaborate further. Muimumui suddenly looked up from his napping spot on the couch. A few seconds later, the door opened. "Dinner is served," an uptight butler announced. He briefly glared at the rodent on the couch, mentally calculating how long it would take to properly sanitize the furniture it had touched. Breakfast was a happier event than the previous meals Annallee had been to in the Delario household. "Mother finally found something she'd rather do than torture me," Pico explained as they sat down at the table. "Where's your father disappeared to?" Alberto asked, "I haven't seen him at all this time through Muse." "Probably on another caravan trip to the Grasslands. He expects to find something valuable some day," Pico replied with a shrug. "He used to own the biggest trade company in Muse," he explained to Annallee, "But several years ago he started losing money and was bought out by a trader named Shu. Hard as it is to imagine, mother wasn't much of a pain before that. Losing money did that to her, I think." Annallee picked at her food a little, some odd concoction of egg, meat, and little unidentifiable bits. Fancy food sure wasn't appetizing. "So are we finally going out to busk as a group today?" she asked. "I'll be glad to get out of this house," Pico said, cracking his knuckles. "I have something else I have to do," Alberto replied. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to join you two performing. In a few days, if nothing happens." Pico raised an eyebrow in inquiry, but no explanation was forthcoming. Alberto soon left on his own, leaving most of his breakfast untouched. "I wonder what that's all about," Annallee mused. Pico just shrugged. "If it's anything important, he'll tell us. Until then, it's not really our business." Annallee decided to let it go at that. Sometimes Alberto would get like that, and neither of the younger musicians knew why.
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