Lia was laughing loudly, surfing on the clouds, doing flips and jumps while being dragged along by her brother Solren’s personal flying ship, the Dawnstar. It was a slick-looking, lightly armored vessel, faster than most ships the youngsters had ever ridden before. They were flying at a speed that was very close to the sound barrier, and if not for the energy shield surrounding the ship, they could not even talk to each other.

“Faster!” Lia shouted, partially shielded by the Dawnstar, cutting through the air like a hot knife through butter.

“No,” Solren answered plainly, not bothering to look back, standing on the control formation with crossed hands, steering the ship with his thoughts alone.

“Is this a warship?” Sion asked, coming up to him after touring the relatively small vessel with Aurora.

“Yes.” He answered, nodding with a small smile, watching the two as only the four of them were going to the Berisons’ territory.

“We won’t get blown up… would we?” He asked, twitching the edge of his mouth, being elbowed by Aurora when she saw Solren raising an eyebrow.

“No, the Dawnstar is reinforced by multiple formations. We could ram most types of ships with this, and it would remain intact. It is directly designed by me to be a boarding vessel. If my sister would stay put, I could accelerate to Mach 3 and arrive sooner. Well… Let her be a kid.” He shook his head, maintaining his smile, glancing back at Lia, who was constantly laughing while surfing behind them.

“What is Mach 3?” Sion asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“This ship’s maximum speed is three times faster than sound.” Aurora wrote to him.

“No way!” Sion gawked incredulously.

“I broke past Mach 4 this winter,” Solren added, reproducing Sion’s awed look on Aurora’s face while he was proudly grinning. “But I wouldn’t dare do it again. The ship was uncontrollable; I could only go straight… and it was shaking and groaning. Some of my protective formations cracked under the strain, and I could only maintain the speed for four seconds and had to slow down below the sound barrier! The ride back home was shaky, and the ship needed a month of overhaul to fix everything. So it was a pain… But, for now, I am registered as the fastest being alive on Meriath.” He said, clearly happy about it.

“What about teleportation?” Aurora asked.

“That beats the purpose of having speed records.” Solren countered. “So it does not count. Also, casting spells to go as fast as light is a pointless argument. Those things are not considered when we speak about records like this!” He continued in a lecturing-like voice, “I can fly this ship at Mach 1 for hours! No mage can keep up with that with his or her mana!”

“Okay, okay! I was just teasing you!” Aurora signed, sticking out her tongue.

“Teasing your superior officer?”

“Teasing my brother.” She corrected him as both of them laughed at the same time while Solren rubbed her head affectionately.

“Is this going to work?” Sion asked after a few minutes had passed, letting his anxiousness show.

He knew that Solren had come to speak with the Berisons and that the House of Amarin wanted to enlist him. As Sion wasn’t claimed by them but ‘only’ by one of their subordinate powers, the Kingdom of Fedra. That meant he was not good enough to catch the Berisons’ attention, and his future position could be negotiated if another House stepped in. Which rarely happens, only a handful of times throughout the past four thousand years.

“My Mother already decided you are coming with me.” Solren nodded calmly, and his voice was resolute as he said it a matter of factly. “The question is not if it will work but as to how it will play out.”

“That did not sound… promising,” Sion added, releasing a nervous sigh that was stifling him. “Is this worth it at all? I am not that great of a wizard!”

“You are not.” Solren answered plainly, but continued before Aurora could sign anything with her hand, “But that does not matter. I trained many mages who were mediocre on paper but valiant and courageous like no others. Our 4th Branch never picked its soldiers on talent alone. I would only trust my back onto someone who is there in the head and not on someone whose inflated ego would put the whole operation in jeopardy.”

“I…” Sion opened his mouth, but Solren cut him short.

“I know. You were already trained by the Fedras’ Intelligence Agency.”

“Since I was six.” He nodded.

“I read it.” Solren answered, watching his eyes, “I also know you participated in four missions, eliminating Undead and possibly brainwashed individuals when you were only 13. Impressive, that is why you were called to the Academy.”

“And bumped up from being a soldier to being a semen sample.” He sighed, forcing a smile onto his face.

“Well, yes.” Solren agreed as that was the truth. “So, one of our attacking points is that. You are being wasted. Your talent is left unused, so we are going to enlist you in our 4th Branch. At least until the girls finish school, so two years in our army.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“That does sound promising.” Sion smiled, getting a bit excited, but then the smile disappeared from his face, “What about my family? If you succeed, they are still… subjected to, well….”

“Repercussions.” Aurora wrote, finishing it for him, knowing full well what he was thinking about.

“If they want, they can move into our territory. As far as I know, your family is not overly wealthy or influential in your home country of Harren.”

“Um.” He nodded, “Our Lavarentian family is fairly fresh. My great-grandfather rose to a noble status by earning his title after developing a cure for a particular sickness, wreaking havoc in our country for a decade straight.”

“Oh?” Aurora opened her mouth, writing it out with her hair, making Sion chuckle.

“Lauron will go to them.” Solren added, “If they agree, they can move to our country and also start working with your friend, Lorin. He needs people anyway.”

“Lorin?” Sion thought, crossing his arms, “He has a good head on his shoulders, that is for sure. Is he doing alright?”

“Better than expected.” Solren answered, and his voice carried undeniable surprise, “Our little sister knows how to make connections, it seems. He is already supplementing our 4th Branch with some interesting, new inventions. Like a potion that makes us able to breathe underwater for 40 minutes. It preserves a great amount of mana for our water mages!”

“Heh… Just don’t ask him about the ingredients!” Sion joked, but Solren simply shrugged.

“We wouldn’t. Trade secrets are something we are not interested in. All-in-all, it is looking promising, so your family can come and start working for us and with Lorin. That would be beneficial for all parties included.”

“What if they won’t agree to send me to your army?”

“Then we go with my Mother’s idea.” He said, sounding a bit worried and unsure, making them raise their eyebrows, looking at him. “We will announce that she wants you two to marry.”

“What…?” Sion asked, flabbergasted, blinking so rapidly his eyelids were developing muscle pains.

“Hm.” Aurora tilted her head to the left slightly, crossing her arms, thinking about it before nodding and writing into the air. “Logical. I see no problems there. Her wish would trump any opposition. I think only the Head of the Marduks would be able to step up against that idea.”

“Wait!” Sion protested, waving his hands, “Are you not appalled by this? Forcing you to marry someone?” He asked, clearly devolving into a panic mode. This was all about being forced into a marriage… now transferring from one to another? So suddenly? Although… this one sounded much more pleasant, not that he would voice that small thought forming in the back of his mind.

“Hm?” Aurora tilted her head to the other side, not really understanding his worries. “Who said we would marry for real?”

“Yeah.” Solren added calmly, “It would be kept up for a few years as an engagement and then silently canceled. That is all. You may take a bit of loss at your reputation, but that is all.” Solren shrugged apologetically at Sion.

“Eh.” He flinched, freezing into place. “Oh. Yeah. Yes. I see.” He stuttered, now feeling stupid all of a sudden, and his face was turning bright red.

“You…” Aurora stared at him, her eyes enlarging, her eyebrows raised so high they almost flew off her face.

“No! Of course not! I did not think about anything like that! I was just… worried that you would be… you know, protective of your image or something! Okay?!”

“You really thought we would make you marry Aurora,” Solren spoke with a surprised voice, not holding back at all. “Of course, we wouldn’t do that!” He said matter of factly.

“I know!” Sion repeated, but it was not that convincing, and his voice was a pitch higher than usual.

“Huh…” Aurora watched him, crossing her arms, a bit surprised, and she could barely hold back a laugh that was building inside her chest.

“We do not choose husbands or wives for our kids.” Solren explained to Sion, “Everyone is free to choose who they marry, at least in our Branch. Look at our Mother, marrying a beast-folk who was of common background! Even worse, he was a small-time thug!”

“Was he?” Sion asked reflexively, grasping at anything that was not about the fact that he felt like hiding somewhere dark and abandoned for the remainder of the trip would be the best choice for him.

“Yeah.” Solren confirmed it, “So Aurora here will marry who she wants. That is it. Do you have anybody in mind?” He asked, turning towards his sister.

“Ah.” Aurora flinched, reining in her half-amused, half-laughing expression. “No. Not yet.”

“No rush.” Her brother said with confidence. “It is a choice that follows you through your life. It can’t be made easily.”

“I know.” Aurora smiled, glancing at Sion, who was trying to look everywhere else but not at the two, his ears radiating heat that painted his face red as a tomato.

…

….

……

The capital city of the House of Berison was built on flatland, right next to the coast, bordering the Northern Bay. It was built at the place where Erias landed, coming from the Windswept Fields, when they launched the Campaign of Final Light in DA 128. After everything was over, the Berisons made their headquarters here, and their Matriarch, Kelmina Berison, transformed 500 square kilometers of land into a glacier. Since then, the ice fields never melted, bringing an everlasting winter to those who lived in the capital city, Verglas.

Rinzen, the current head of the House, was atop the highest spire of her castle, standing on her balcony, watching the waves of the cold ocean and the distant rumblings of thunder. The sky was black and dark, bombarding the faraway Windswept Fields with a freezing storm, probably raining down chunks of ice on the barely hospitable land that once meant the last bastion for everybody.

“...” She let out a very small sigh, tucking her messy, slivery-blue hair behind her ears; she looked tired and sleepy, amplified by the black bags under her icy blue eyes. She was wearing nothing but a white bra and panties, letting the cold wind cut against her curvy, perfect body that she did not mind. The cold never bothered her; nobody could find goosebumps on her porcelain-white body, no matter where one tried to look. “They should arrive soon…” She murmured, her voice flat and uninterested, looking back into her messy room.

The bed, the floor, and her sofa were littered with clothes, books, parchments, and knick-knacks thrown around without rhyme or reason. Yet no servants dared to come up here and clean. One of them tried before, and Rinzen froze her into an icicle, having to summon four other mages to defrost the poor maid. Since then, nobody dared to try and clean up in her spire as it became off-limits to everyone except her immediate family.

“Haaahh… it should be no problem.” She thought, shuffling back into her room, looking for something to wear, “I will agree to Lady Reyra’s request but, in return, ask them to take me to her to finalize it… um… that should work. Then I could ask her to be my mentor… um, um… yes… that is a good plan. Then I could learn how to get others to like me….” She nodded rapidly, talking to herself in her head, oblivious to the fact that down below, in the main castle, the King of Fedras had already arrived a day before to try and ask for the Berisons’ support in keeping Sion…