The Paladin's Shadow; Scandalous

Cast; Petra,

Petra was barely aware of the fact that her shoes had come unlaced thirty minutes ago and that she had stepped out of the right one nearly a block later.  She wouldn't have been aware of it at all had she not trodden on a broken wine bottle only moments later.  But it was little more than a trifle compared to some of the abrasions, bruises, and cuts she'd experienced in the past.  She could recall times when she'd been in more pain just from breathing, several in fact.  So it was that as she reached the dark stone portal to her mother's house she brushed the fragments from her sole and pulled the other shoe off as the wounds sealed seamlessly. 

"Hello Mum, I hope you made it back alright."  She winked a light into the chandelier as she stepped inside.  Her mother being what she was, the house was never well lit.  Wasn't right for the house of Death to be bright and cheery, even if Death Herself was.  Not that she was bright or cheery anymore, Petra missed when she was. 
"Awful frightening, but I'll be fine.  Been a long time since I saw anyone quite that bad.  What kept you out?"
"I had to see..someone about a book."
"It's nearly five in the morning.  Better have been a good book."
"Wish I could say, I wasn't really listening."
"Oh? Someone read it to you then?"
Petra cursed under her breath, the quiet sound of the house's censoring enchantment covering her exclamation.  "Yes, I just asked one of the other teachers if he could help.  I'm very tired.  I ought to go up to bed.  Good.."
She was interrupted by the rush of displaced air and the popping of her mother's teleport. 
"Oh? It wouldn't happen to be that nice young man I saw you chatting with in the halls earlier?"
"He's just a friend, there was coffee, it was good."
Zink laughed.  Petra could feel the warmth of a deep blush filling her cheeks. 
"You're cute when you're uncomfortable.  I shouldn't have taught you to be so calm and composed all of the time.  You'd probably do much better socially if you'd relax."
"Mummy." Petra complained.  She hated being teased like this.  A grown woman, especially one as acomplished as she was, wasn't supposed to get teased by her mother.  It was embarassing. 

A situation substantially compounded by the sudden appearance of Shad.  She didn't have a chance to run before he saw her.  Here she was blushing, shoeless; It was a complete scandal.  And there was no way to escape now.