"No, I just like to smoke standing up," he said, not being able to keep from being sarcastic before his first cigarette of the day, even to Nel. "Of course," he added, stripping back the tone he'd used and just leaving the smile. It wasn't an unfriendly one, either. "I wouldn't dream of smoking in your kitchen, certainly not after hearing what happened to a certain professor."

He made his way to the back step, striking the match on the abrasive paper that came with the book it had been attached to. He wasn't much good at traditional magic, and he didn't quite trust himself not to burn himself, or something else, or everything else, when trying to light his cigarette with it. He'd sacrificed a cuff to his ineptitude in the past and he didn't fancy spending the rest of his time in the palace singed as a result of a second failure. As such, he kept cheap books of matches, something of a rarity, on his person for the purpose instead.

"It looks like it will be a surprise to all of us then," he said, indicating that he did not, in fact, know who was supposed to be turning up either. "It'll be like Hogswatch come early. ...Lucians do have Hogswatch..?"

He really wasn't sure.