The queen stood stoic on the throne and while her words were not friendly and her tone neutral it wasn’t her that Ajax was the most wary about. That honor would go to the a few members of the group he suspected to be the royal family. There was no defining trend on those that looked at him and the rest of the non-elves with hostility, there were both young and old that disliked them and that were indifferent.

“I would hardly qualify that as an incident, Sylvaris.” the prince responded, his non-respectful address drew annoyed and even hateful glances from everyone in the room apart from their group and the queen herself. “The first time someone awakens their aura it’s always unstable.”

The prince knew he had no reason to hide the fact that Ajax had only now managed to awaken his Aura, it takes people with a weak Aura decades to learn to fully suppress it so Lioriel would know exactly what happened since she hadn’t felt it during their entire trip from the border.

The queen herself was well acquainted with the prince and his antics so she wasn’t surprised by his informality, nor did she really consider what had happened an ‘incident’ she only wanted to get a read on the group. From their reactions she could tell that the boy Ajax was a little worried but trusted the prince’s judgment, the beastkin was slightly worried as well but not because he didn’t recognise her game it was simply because he had no champion from his own country there to back him up. The rest of the humans and the elves all knew exactly what she was trying to do and their social skills prevented them leaking anything.

“While this is a more private matter I am here in my official capacity as queen, you would do well to address me as such prince.” The queen said imperiously as she activated the runed ring she wore that released a wind blade, the attack passed an inch away from the prince’s face doing nothing but ruffling his hair before it harmlessly dispelled as it hit the wards on the walls in the back of the room.

An awkward silence filled the room at that and the queen was happy to let it last for a few moments before her stoic face morphed into a grin Ajax recognised as one similar to the one the prince oftentimes wore. “Or if you prefer a more relaxed atmosphere I’m sure Nimerien Corroder would be happy to catch up with you.”

The prince nearly flinched as he heard the name. Nimerien was one of Deepwood’s current champions, more than that he and the prince were only a couple years apart in terms of age. While the prince had always been a step ahead of Nimerien in terms of strength, Nimeriens fighting style focused on the use of acidic compounds that were a direct counter to the prince’s reliance on runed equipment.

“It would be best that we keep this formal, we are in a bit of a time crunch.” the prince said before adding a delayed. “Your Majesty.”

“Very well.” the queen nodded, a spark of anger briefly flashing in the back of her mind as she was reminded of Ajax’s status as a ‘Marked’ target. While she had planned to use his visit to reinforce her foundations early in her rule by eliminating a few troublesome nobles she had also made it crystal clear to the more powerful that the boy wasn’t to be in any real danger. “I’ll ensure your escort is sufficiently upgraded to make up for the circumstances.”

While the queen and the prince were talking one of the royal family members with green hair so dark it was almost black approached the group, his eyes briefly passing over the humans and beastkin with disdain before finally landing on Arianwyn.

“Arianwyn dear, it has been so long since I last saw you.” the elf said in warm voice.

“Almost a decade, Your Highness.” Arianwyn replied with a bow.

The elf in question was the former king of Deepwood, he was now technically a prince since he stepped down from the throne but only someone politically incompetent would not recognise the amount of sway he still held.

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“Far too long.” the former king nodded. “You’ve even managed to develop a Domain now, not only that but second place in a tournament is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

As the king said the last part he threw Ajax another disgruntled look. “I’m sorry to say that I underestimated the tournament, not only did I lose in the final-”

“Just barely.” the king quickly said, clearly he had been well informed of what happened in the tournament.

“But the semi-final was also much closer than I would have liked.” Arianwyn finished and the king now turned his hostile looks onto Darkclaw.

“It’s nothing that you should let get you down” the king reassured her.

“I’m sure she’d do better now that she won’t be surprised by Baron Heathbound’s unusual fighting style.” one of the guards near them joined in with the conversation.

Arianwyn couldn’t help but wince slightly at the statement. She was fairly certain that she could still beat Darkclaw despite the few extra dungeons floor he had gained in her kingdom but she was now sure the distance between her and Ajax had in fact increased.

The king caught the wince as well as the slightly guilty look she turned towards Ajax for a brief moment before her social skills masked it with the usual noble poker face. During the entire interaction Lioriel had briefly approached the queen to whisper something to her.

“You are quite the bright young man.” the queen said as she rose from her chair and approached Ajax. “More than your talent, even an extremely important discovery is credited to you. One that is so poorly mistimed for my own rise to the throne.”

The queen was finally getting to the point she wanted. She would have assured a meeting with Ajax even without the excuse of an incident but this provided her the best leverage to try and pressure the method of increased stats out of Gryndor so that she would have some extra time to prepare before everything was made public and the noble hierarchy was thrown into chaos.

“That is something that will be shared to all in time.” the prince tried to intercept. “Gryndor will also be making it an official public announcement as a show of good faith so there will be no misinformation through spies.”

“Hmph.” the former king snorted at the prince’s words. “It’s just like you humans. A discovery of this magnitude and the advantage of it being discreetly provided to your royalty and he is barely rewarded with the title of Baron.”

Ajax and the prince briefly traded glances before the prince gave Ajax a brief nod to answer the accusation. “My title as Baron is only the initial part of my reward.” Ajax said and drew the attention of the former king to himself. “As I was the only one to successfully implement my method some more testing was required to prove I wasn't a unique occurrence. Not only will my title be increased to Duke upon my return to Gryndor but the title of Baron was in itself a way to help me and my family lay down solid foundations for my House.”

The former king looked like he had just bit into a particularly sour lemon as he had nothing to rebuke to that, the queen however had latched on to a certain part of his answer. “I very much do believe you are a ‘unique occurrence’. Why I’m told you had an epiphany just by walking into my palace.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees as all the guards zeroed in on Ajax at this new revelation, the prince was quick on the uptake however and tried to intervene. “This is not an interrogation, Your Majesty.”

“It may not be but this could pose a very serious threat to not only my life but also that of the entire royal family.” the queen countered with a steely voice. “What would your father or brother do if they were in my situation?”

For once the prince had no response as he knew very well that if the situation was reversed and he was in her place he would also insist on answers, he wouldn’t actually harm a guest but he would demand some answers.

“I will not be unfair, if the information is valuable he will be fairly compensated. Even if the information is something I was already aware of so long as it is even somewhat sensitive he will be rewarded." The queen’s words displeased her father as he didn’t believe the human to deserve that much consideration but he still kept quiet.

Ajax didn’t say a word to that, instead he turned towards the prince and waited to see what decision he made. As much as the prince would have wanted a chance to curate what Ajax had to say he knew he wouldn’t be given that chance and there was no way to fight their way out of it. With a resigned sigh he simply nodded to Ajax.

“It was the first time I was informed of your mages ability to tap into an additional source of mana from the tree that forms the palace itself.” Ajax said. “I couldn’t help but wonder if it was possible for someone to form a Bond with a plant, like the tree itself for example.”

As Ajax finished his sentence a deadly silence settled on the room. The prince, Ajax’s classmates, Harold and Darkclaw looked at him intrigued by the possibility. Elara, Arianwyn and Aranor looked at him with the same wide-eye look the Queen and most of the elves in the room did. The big shock however was the furtive glances some of the younger members of the royal family were throwing towards one specific guard that had stayed at the queen’s right shoulder when she was on the throne and now followed behind her like an attendant. That in and of itself was enough to answer Ajax’s question.