CHAPTER 21

As the door to the Tyrrith family opened, so did the door to the Theandor family. However, instead of seeing someone off, they welcomed the family standing in their doorway. Lyvia opened the door with a smile, and welcomed them.

“Hey Celeria, thank you for coming so early! Oh! Dalarius, I didn’t know you would also come along!”

Dalarius looked away for a second as he scratched his neck, before saying: “Yes, I wanted to apologise for the behaviour of my daughter. I hope we can change her perspective of humans.”

Lyvia smiled at him before saying with a mischievous tone: “I think I have a solution for that, but first, come in. I have some refreshments so we discuss her punishment together.”

Both Celeria and Dalarius were a bit surprised at her statement, while Ania and Ayda had not even picked up the conversation between the adults, as their attention was directed towards Daelyn.

Daelyn stood next to Lyvia as he smiled at the girls staring at him. Ayda was already hiding behind her sister as she tightened her grip around her sister’s trousers, while peeking out from behind her and looking at Daelyn. As Ania was apprehensive of Daelyn, she remembered her father’s words. A race is not good or bad, individuals are.

The words of her father calmed her down, but as she once again directed her attention towards Daelyn, he was suddenly standing right in front of her. She flinched at the sudden movement, and tried to take a step back, but as her little sister was still gripping her trousers, she could not hold her balance, and fell. With both hands flailing in the air, she tried to grip anything to support her before her inevitable impact on the ground. As she was about to close her eyes so the impact was lessened, she felt a tug. She felt her body slid forward, until her feet felt something obstruct their path, causing her to be suspended in the air at a 30-degree angle. As she opened her eyes, she saw that Daelyn was holding her hand, and she saw him try to support her with all his strength, but it was clear that it was quite taxing on him.

Seeing this, she quickly regained her footing by planting her feet firm on the ground, and using Daelyn’s arm to pull her up. However, as she used his arm to pull her up, she came face to face with Daelyn. Their faces were only divided by a few centimetres of air, as Ania saw this, she let out a small yelp, and quickly took a step back, taking care this time to not trip over her sister. Pushing Daelyn away in the process.

As Daelyn fell on the ground, he could only say with a slightly irritated voice: “Why did you do that?”

Before he could further question her, or even await an answer, she shouted at him in an embarrassed tone: “W-wh-why d-did you do that?!”

Her face was quite red already, and was becoming more and more red by the second. Daelyn was a bit surprised, and asked with a confused tone: “What do you mean ‘that’? Catching you before you fell?”

While she could finally form complete sentences without stammering, the colour of her face had not changed, as it was as red as a ruby.

“No! Why did you grab my hand!?”

Daelyn was even more confused now, and looked at her with a stumped expression before saying with an unsure voice: “You tripped, so I grabbed your hand to make sure that you didn’t fall. If I didn’t, you would be lying on the floor right now”

Before Ania could continue her charade, Celeria interrupted with a small smile on her face.

“Now, now, dear. Daelyn helped you, and you’re going to judge him for being the first boy to grab your hand? Thank him!”

Ania was stumped by her mother’s scowl, before she accepted it, turned to Daelyn, and said with a soft and nervous voice: “T-thank you.”

Daelyn smiled, before saying with a soothing voice: “It’s a pleasure helping such a beautiful lady.”

While both Celeria and Dalarius were taken aback by Daelyn’s silver tongue, Lyvia started to laugh as she saw Ania’s face brighten once more.

The two parents turned towards Lyvia with questioning looks, which she answered with a snicker before saying: “He reads a lot, and he came across a book with a bard as the protagonist, and he was amazed by his ‘silver tongue’.”

Celeria and Dalarius were a bit apprehensive about the answer, but Lyvia wasn’t going to say anymore so they didn’t fret about it.

As the little charade came to an end, Lyvia guided the guests towards the dining table. She and Daelyn quickly went to the kitchen to serve the refreshments and tea they had prepared. The refreshments were some cookies, roasted mushrooms, and roasted nuts. These kinds of foods are quite common in the forest, as they are easy to get, and they’re quite tasty. While the cookies were made by the local bakery, the roasted mushrooms and nuts were gathered by Lyvia. There are a lot of different mushrooms and plants in the forest, because of the mana saturated atmosphere.

The tea was also a product of local forest plants, consisting out of a type of moss, a flower, and some basic herbs found around the house.

Lyvia was quite pleased as she heard the praise she got from the Vitafius family as both the parents and children enjoyed the tea. She took quite a bit of pride in making it, and could only be happy as her friends enjoyed the tea she had made with hard work.

While she did enjoy the praise, she quickly hushed it, and brought the attention towards their original goal.

“Okay, so, how are we going to punish Ania?”

As Lyvia said this, the atmosphere turned serious as both Celeria and Dalarius steeled their expressions and their hearts, while Lyvia still had the same smile on her face.

They were a bit baffled by this, but they still started the conversation, with Dalarius at the lead. He stood up from his chair, and bowed to Lyvia, as he started with an honest and nervous tone, but ended with a steadfast devotion.

“Again, I want to apologise for the behaviour for my daughter. I was unaware of her views on humans, and that resulted in your son getting hurt, I sincerely apologise. I already heard the story from Celeria, and while the wound is already healed, I would like to offer you my future services as both a father, and a guardsman. You have my sincerest apologies.” Dalarius said with the sincerest tone he could muster, as he stood up from his chair, and bowed to Lyvia.

While Celeria had the same genuine expression, Lyvia had a large smile on her face. She saw the shock in little Ania’s face, she saw the nervousness on little Ayda’s face, and she revelled in the scene that was going on in front of her, as it was quite amusing.

As entertaining as it was, she wasn’t going to let her friend stand there, and said with a stern yet soothing voice: “Apology accepted, sit down. We still need to discuss the punishment. I would love to know what you guys have brewed up.”

Lyvia showed a smile as Dalarius sat down. He looked at Celeria, and signalled her to start with a light nod. Celeria adjusted her position, coughed a bit, and started her plight.

“We had a long conversation last night, and we tried to get to the bottom of the incident. We found that Ania had been influenced by the guards, with influence concerning handling threats and having concealed weapons on her, she was influenced by her peers, and mainly Minos at that. She had heard the stories of his father during their training sessions, and his views had rubbed off on her. The punishment we had in mind involved stopping her guard patrols, and having private training sessions with Dalarius to combat further influence from her peers.”

Lyvia had a pleased look on her face, until the end. Her face changed from pleasure to disbelief, as she said with a questioning and cold tone: “That is it? She stabbed Daelyn, and she doesn’t get to go on patrols anymore? Having private training sessions with a senior guard? That is a reward, not a punishment.”

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Celeria sighed at hearing her statement, since she knew it was true, and said with a concessive tone: “That’s part of the reason why we’re here. We thought about giving her a strict training regime, but we fear that might only worsen the situation. We were out of ideas as we don’t know how we can change their opinion of Daelyn, and humans in general.”

Both Dalarius and Celeria were a bit ashamed at this, and it could be seen in their expressions as they failed to meet Lyvia’s gaze. They were ashamed of their inability to give their daughter a fitting punishment for her behaviour. Their expressions betrayed the helplessness they had felt as they tried to, and they could only hang their heads in shame as they felt they had failed to raise their daughter.

Lyvia quickly brought them out of their gloomy mood, and said with a delighted voice: “I know a punishment that will make both parties happy. Well, except for the punished, of course.”

Both Celeria and Dalarius looked up in surprise at her statement, she claimed that she had been able to come up with a fitting punishment where they had failed, and they were eager to hear it.

“Please do tell.” Said Dalarius with a grateful and anticipating voice.

Lyvia smiled once more, and said with a warm voice: “Simple, we do the two things you proposed, and they come here every morning, for a week, to play with Daelyn. He is quite a lonely child, as we’re quite isolated, and he is quite introverted by nature. The mornings will suffice, as he does not like extended social contact, and he is eager to go to a place where the two girls can’t really follow. It might be possible, but I doubt they would like it. What do you think about it?”

The family of four sitting at the other side of the table all had different expression on their faces.

Celeria had an expression of relief and gratefulness towards Lyvia. She had already expected something from Lyvia, but was still thankful for her proposal.

Dalarius had an expression of respect and approval on his face. He thought it was a wonderful idea, as the girls would see it as a punishment at first, and hopefully, at the end of the week, see Daelyn as a person, instead of a human. He truly hoped that his daughters would change their views of Daelyn if they were to play with each other.

The two daughters in question, were less enthusiastic about this solution.

Ayda showed a nervous, yet slightly happy expression. She would get to play with someone her age, and with a boy such as Daelyn. She was still a bit spooked about him. She knew that he was a nice and cheerful boy, but she had also seen his magic after her sister had wounded him, and it still irked her to this day, causing her to be very anxious and nervous around him.

While Ayda was quite accepting of the punishment, Ania was less approving. She would much rather train those mornings under a hard regime, than just play with some three-year-old. She might have understood that there is no good or bad race, she still didn’t like the idea of playing with a three-year-old child she barely knew instead of with her friends.

As she was about to voice her disapproval, she saw her father’s glare. She immediately back down as she saw it, she knew from her father’s expression that voicing her concerns would only lead to more trouble.

As the adults decided on a punishment everyone sighed. As they had finally got that load of their shoulders, Celeria pressed harder on the load on Lyvia’s shoulder.

“Lyvia, you were going to tell us a bit more about Daelyn’s power, right?”

Lyvia’s expression faltered a bit, as she tried to retain her composure, and the smile that she had been able to conjure up, until now.

“Power? Daelyn? What could you possibly mean? Hahaha.”

Celeria looked at her with a cold expression and said: “Lyvia, I did not get out of bed well before sunrise just to get told off. Please answer the question, okay?”

Lyvia sighed, and answered her question with a defeated tone as she plead for mercy: “Can’t we talk about this another time, please?”

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

“Lyvia, tell me now, otherwise I will tell everyone of your past.”

Lyvia suddenly paled, and quickly complied to Celeria’s wishes as she heard her threat. She was almost panicking and she seemed to be very nervous, until Celeria withdrew her threat with a friendly smile.

Both the children and Dalarius were shocked by Lyvia’s reaction to Celeria’s proclamation, and were very curious towards what they mean with ‘your past’. However, before they could ask, or even contemplate further, they were interrupted by Lyvia.

She sighed, raised herself up, and sat with a straight back in her chair. Her tone had changed from pleading, to serious and steadfast, which surprised almost everyone sitting at the table. She placed her hands on the table, as she had an a cold and serious expression on her face.

“Before I say anything, I need some reassurance to make sure that you don’t tell anyone. I can’t have you tell anyone what I tell today, what happened yesterday, anything you see, and anything either I or Daelyn tells you, okay? If you can’t, leave now.”

The air seemed to pulse with tension, as Lyvia looked at each of the members of the Vitafius family. She seemed to look into their soul, as her gaze penetrated their mortal coils and infiltrate the essence of their very existence. They could feel a tingle in their spine as they tried to meet this woman’s gaze. Even Dalarius, a senior guardsman with at least a century of fighting experience, was stunned as he met her gaze.

None of them moved, and Lyvia adjusted her position to a more comfortable one. The gaze retracted, and the family breathed a collective sigh as they were finally released from that all seeing gaze.

Lyvia continued with a relaxed and assured tone.

“Now that none of you have left the room, we can start. The power you have seen Daelyn use was his magic, he formed his core early, supposedly because of the blessing of a strong monster, however we do not know for sure. The magic you saw him use yesterday was blood magic, specifically blood warlock magic.”

Within two sentences Lyvia had already shocked the parents sitting opposite of her beyond belief, and was met with the questioning gazes from the children. Ania had some suspicions as to what it exactly meant, but she couldn’t hold her curiosity, and asked with a soft tone: “What is a blood warlock? And what do you mean with forming a core early?”

Lyvia sighed, before answering her question with a snicker: “Well, you know that you form a core at your seventh birthday, and with that core you can use magic, right?”

While her parents were still in shock from the first two statements, she answered with a soft voice.

“Yes.”

“Good, now for humans the normal age to forming a core is five years old. However, Daelyn is only three and he has already formed a core.”

Ania was shocked, but her curiosity still wasn’t sated.

“Okay, I get that, but then what is a blood warlock. I have heard of some warriors and mages, but never of a blood warlock.”

Lyvia snickered, before saying with a defeated tone: “There is a good reason behind that. You have never heard of a blood warlock, because there are only a few select people that are insane enough to choose the path of a blood warlock. The magic a blood warlock uses is fundamentally different from most other types magic, since firstly, it is blood magic which utilises blood mana, and secondly, a blood warlock breaks their core to let the mana flow through their blood. A blood warlock uses a combination of his own blood and the mana in his blood, to create powerful spells. The only times when blood warlocks popped up, were times of war and destruction. Those times put survival above anything else. In a time where power is priceless, is a time when blood warlocks will emerge.”

The family opposite of her was completely stumped, as even little Ayda had understood what a serious thing this meant for Daelyn and his future.

The first to regain any kind of reason was Celeria, whose curiosity pulled her back from her numbed state of mind.

“You said he was blessed by a monster, which one? How? Why?!” She asked, as each passing moment more and more questions were popping up in her head.

Lyvia snickered, before shrugging her shoulders, and saying with a calm tone: “I don’t know.”

Lyvia’s answer did not satisfy Celeria’s curiosity in any way, and she voiced her concerns.

“What do you mean you don’t know? How did that monster bless him?”

Lyvia once again shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know, since I wasn’t there. I also don’t know if that monster blessed Daelyn, but the thing said it itself, and there isn’t really a reason to disbelieve it, but there also isn’t a reason to believe it. So, I simply don’t know. I also don’t know why his core was immediately broken, I don’t really know anything about my son.” Said Lyvia as her voice became weaker and weaker with every word she spoke, resulting in her almost sobbing at the end.

Celeria finally understood the situation Lyvia was in, and pitied her. She had to endure her son suddenly forming a core, gaining blood magic, and having another family discover it, because their daughter stabbed him.

As Lyvia was about to cry, Daelyn grabbed her hand, and squeezed it. She looked at him, and smiled, before looking up and seeing if the Vitafius family had any more questions.

Celeria spoke up before Lyvia could ask.

“I think this has been long enough. I would like for both Ayda and Ania to prepare for the afternoon, and seeing as the morning is coming to its end, I think we should go home.”

The rest of the family agreed, they stood up from their chairs, thanked Lyvia and Daelyn for the refreshments and the tea, and headed for the door.

While Lyvia and Daelyn bid them farewell with a smile on their faces, Lyvia’s red eyes betrayed her feelings. Her eyes were very clearly bloodshot, as it seemed she had just cried, there was moisture forming in her eyes, ready to leave it in a fit of helplessness, but such a fit never came. She felt the warmth from her son’s hand, and calmed down. He may be a blood warlock, or whatever he was, he was still her son, and that is all that mattered.

It took several minutes for Lyvia to rid her face of the marks that betrayed her sadness, and as she was about to walk over to Daelyn to play with him, there was another knock on the door.

Lyvia briskly walked over, assuming that it was the Vitafius family that had forgotten something.

Unbeknownst to her, it was not a simple toy or piece of clothing that had been abandoned in a moment of ignorance, it was something else in its entirety.