She did not see Taife again until the next day - ironically, at tea time. Queen's handmaid as she was, Ari was forced to pour and then watch visitors drink the hated beverage from her corner. Sometimes, however, the visits proved to be more entertaining. Such was the case with Taife's visit.

"Will you have some tea?" Came the standard question from the queen's end of the table. (Round tables were unheard of in the royal castle. Well, not exactly unheard of - there was an outrageous rumor that some old king or other had sat at a round table to make his knights feel just as important as he. The current Queen had dismissed that idea in a hurry.)

Taife smiled that nice smile of his and sat down, fingering the staff suggestively in his hands. Ari fidgeted in her corner, wiping her hands compulsively on her apron and eyeing the broom leaning near her. She wondered if Taife had noticed her, and immediately pushed that thought from her mind. How embarrassing if he were reading her mind right at that moment!

"If you insist," Taife answered in the blunt way that Ari had come to expect of him. He shifted in his chair to look at her, and she jumped to pour the tea. She hoped he didn't notice that her hand was shaking.

But he just smiled and waited for the Queen's cup to be full, then his. When Ari was done and back in her corner, he turned toward the Queen. "A toast!" He exclaimed.

She smiled at him with that Queenly smile. Ari swore that all the Queens looked alike. Black hair, black eyes, pale skin, tall. Like goddesses, if it weren't for that stupid obsession with tea. "Of what?" she asked. Her voice was like syrup pouring from a basin. Seductive to most men, but it made Ari sick.

"Oh. Of toast, of course," he answered quickly. Ari smirked, but the Queen apparently failed to see the humor in his proposal. She nodded vaguely.

"To toast, then, if it so pleases you."

"It does." He held is cup aloft, and she followed his example. They clinked, and each person took a sip. Ari wondered what was up Taife's sleeve.

"An arm, of course," Taife muttered to no one in particular. Ari folded over with supressed laughter and embarrassment, but her corner of the wall was sideways of the Queen's chair and luckily the royal did not notice.

The Queen took a sip from her teacup. Taife paused before doing the same and asked, "Is it good, your majesty?" He looked smug. Again, Ari wondered what was going on.

"Yes, it's fine," she answered as Taife's lips touched the rim of his vessel and took a sip. He immediately turned green, and stood up.

"Excuse me, your majesty," he muttered, and left the room.