Dinner party and beginnings of a next great adventure

The stirrings were simple enough. They were sitting for lunch. Brody had come home to join his wife and son, something he did when he had something to say.

"There's a party tonight," Brody said. He was a grown man in every way but his voice that retained much of its boyishness. Nobody looked down on him for it though. Even less for his innocent smile that was brightest for his family. "Rian delivered it personally. He was insistent about our attendance."

"The occasion?" Leah asked nonchalantly.

"Eddie got into Hooke University. Aaron and Emi are pregnant too."

"Oh. Kyra must be delighted. She was stupid, so she must be so eager to gloat about her son getting into the finest university. She's going to need me backing her up. And who doesn't love grandchildren. Two wonderful reasons. We must go."

After all these years, Brody still felt conflicted. Leah, however, much more at ease. Asham was like her as well. Brody was still feeling complicated, while the mother and son had moved on.

And so it came to be that Asham would have dinner with his favorite maids while the parents attended the party.

Brody wasn't the only one with the heavy feelings. The maids and the servants of the family, especially the three who called themselves young master's personal maids, felt the same. The trio were Maria, Lily and Nomi. The three decided they had to do something for Asham. Who wouldn't harbor some feelings at least about a party they weren't attending, even more so if they never had attended a party before? And Maria had just the thing.

"Let's get the book early," Maria said to the other two. "Think you can make it happen?"

Lily nodded. "Sure." She was confident despite knowing it wasn't going to be easy at all. But she was Lily and the pride couldn't be separated from her. Such a task of logistics was far from impossible for her. "I'll need to make a few calls. Can I leave the rest to you two?"

Maria and Nomi nodded. "I���ll bake some cookies. Chocolate chip and walnut," Nomi said.

"The favorite," Maria said with a smile.

And so the three got to work. A little after six, the couple were dressed for the party and leaving. Leah had parting words for her darling son.

"I know those three have something planned," she told Asham, making no effort at lowering her volume. The three maids smiled wryly. "Have fun alright? But don't be done before we're back. I want to be in on it too."

"Yes mother," Asham said, hugging her. "We'll be sure to wait for your return before drawing conclusions." He then spoke to his father with a kind smile. "Father, you really must accept it already. I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. You enjoy the party. If there's anything tastier than it should be, grab a bite for me. Bye."

Brody's smile was the same as the trio's. He hugged Asham too. And then, they left.

"Shall we go in?" Asham asked his maids.

They nodded knowing what he meant. Maria led Asham to his room. Nomi pushed in the trolley with dinner next. Lily was last, holding an unwrapped package. "A present for you, young master," Lily said, before handing him the package. He unwrapped it excitedly, and then had the widest grin on his face looking at the old book.

"Ancient Civilizations of Mystery," he read out. "A compilation by Prof Reed Hassings. You're ready?"

The three women smiled. "I think we were ready ever since you said we were," Maria answered. "When was that? A couple of weeks ago? So, yeah, I think we are ready now."

Asham grinned. The book was something he wanted for a while now. There was no reason to get it though because he was more interested in civilizations that had been well studied. Civilizations of mystery were ancient civilizations that had been referenced in texts from other civilizations but there wasn't yet anything discovered about the civilizations themselves. The first civilization of mystery he had ever been interested in was the Fairy civilization. And so, it was only now that the book mattered to him. He had collected and read all the texts with any mention of the ancient civilization. Prof Hassings' book was meant to be the last and also the first step.

"Let's get started then," he announced to the maids' cheers. "Let's discover the Fairy civilization."

They celebrated with cold sandwiches, still warm cookies and iced tea. Their own dinner party before the start.