Dazzling Charm

The holiday is over, things were relaxing. Too relaxing in fact. Wednesday came and went, the preparations were made and I found myself curling up with a good book. I should have seen it then, when do I ever have time to read with my life anyway? There was a knock. By now one would suppose that I'd stop answering knocks, after nearly getting stabbed by the psychotic neighbors or dragged into the underworld, one would expect an aversion to answering the door. Now that I think about it, why am I always the one answering? Why doesn't the Rotting Corpse Boy do it? At any rate, I answered it and boy was I surprised. In through the door burst my bold, yet charming half cousin Basil Sterling. Basil spends most of his time traveling the world procuring various fine quality teas. Sometimes I am quite jealous of him. The other thing about Basil is that he seems to be the master of charm. If anyone was dividing up shares when we were born I would have accused Basil of stealing the charming shares of at least eight other people. Bandits have sidearms and daggers, rulers have armies, Basil has charm. At once I was seeing little stars appearing all around him as he flashed us his dazzling smile. Sometimes I doubt that we are even half cousins. “Dearest cousin...” He started. “I have returned for some time from my travels and will be needing a place to stay, would you be able to spare a bed?” I sighed, of course this always seems to happen. Why do I have so many empty beds in my house anyway? I really should look into that. “Yes Basil, there's a bed open for you.” Basil bowed his head. “Thank you so much, I appreciate this.” He launched a small satchel of tea towards me. I caught it and he smirked. “That is some very rare tea I managed to...procure while on my journeys, There is quite a story about it indeed...”