End of October (Viatroi)

It was not going terribly for them.

She continued to ignore the fact that they were bonded. But at least she wasn’t intentionally pushing him away. Tyler avoided asking about where she was from and focused more on getting to know her as a person, though that was still a challenge. Miza would quickly change the topic of anything that she felt related too closely back to her life before she moved here. It was a pattern he noticed after asking about her favorite color. Then they ended up in a conversation about the latest celebrity beef taking over socials.

She didn’t have socials at the moment.

They were currently in the cafeteria in their back corner booth. After they got back from Fall Break, Chris had invited him to have lunch with them. This was only the third time he joined them, as he didn’t want to overwhelm her. Chris had turned out to be an exceptional ally for Tyler. They had exchanged numbers, and they discovered that they had some of the same interests, outside of Sara that was.

Much to his disdain, he had a pile of rabbit food in front of him. He quickly realized that they were all vegetarians, and Chris had confirmed that it was a part of their culture. Where they were from, no one ate meat. There were no meat production places. Nor hunting. Chris had even recounted a story of the first time Sara had gone to a grocery store here. He had laughed and quickly sobered himself during their last lunch when Chris mentioned that it was not uncommon for house pets to have end-of-life ceremonies and for farmers who had animals that were used for milk and wool to request a visit from the temple when one of their animals were born or died.

Tyler apologized at Sara’s indignant glare. Chris had texted him after lunch to say that Sara was a volunteer with their temple and had assisted in those ceremonies. Needless to say, if eating less meat would get him back in her good graces, then he would. It couldn’t be all that bad. George, Chris, and Greg had muscles. Like they were built, so it couldn’t hurt to add more green to his less-than-stellar diet, he thought as he poked the unappetizing lettuce. His attention was brought back from his thoughts of how Sara acted like salads were a delicious dessert when she would put bits of arugula, spinach, or cabbage in her mouth and wiggle in satisfaction. She didn’t even have ranch. They made their dressing with more plants. He thought about how green their diet was, remembering that Sara said that today she had a blend of avocado and nectarines. Yuck!

“Earth to Ty.” Sara poked him in his side, causing him to giggle at the ticklish sensation.

“Sorry about that. What’s up?” He acknowledged her.

“We were just wondering if you were busy on Saturday.” Sara inquired.

“Not really. My parents love Halloween, so I probably will be roped into passing out candy to kids or something. Why, what’s up?” Tyler asked curiously.

“Do you think they will let you come to my house? We don’t celebrate Halloween, but we do have a thing we do at this time of year. It should be safe, seeing as I live in a gated community, and the guys have surveillance on the house.” She paused, biting her lip nervously. “ We want you to come. Well, um, I want you to come.” Her voice went quieter at the last few words. Tyler peeked over at Chris. He was covertly nodding his head to tell him to agree.

“Um, yeah. That could be cool. That sounds like fun. I’m sure my parents will be chill about it.” Tyler agreed.

“Cool.” Sara said with a gentle smile before going back to her salad.

“Ok, like I was saying, Tyler. I don’t know what is up with these teachers, man. I signed up on the general studies track when we moved here and now the Head Mistress is all ‘Declare thyself.’ Willful shrew.” Chris said, using a mocking tone.

“That’s rude, Chris!” Sara said disapprovingly as she glared at him.

“Well, she is.” Chris tried to defend himself.

“Well, you know they usually only offer a Generalized Track to students that still need time to figure it out, but like, we are kinda Juniors. I know you guys were kinda dropped into this, but I think they assumed you would pick a track by Junior year.” Tyler emphasized.

“I have a job already.” He muttered under his breath.

“No one here knows that.” Sara said, voice thick with frustration. “If ‘dads’ find out that you aren’t cooperating, they are not going to like it, and Greg will not be nice about you ‘blowing’ this opportunity.” She said pointedly, emphasizing certain words.

“Why don’t we go get pizza after school, and we can go over the course catalog and Discipline Tracks? I’m sorry, but I am in heavy need of something not healthy after eating grass.” Tyler offered as Sara scoffed at him.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Sara looked over at Chris shaking her head at his lack of discipline since they left home.

“You are really going to hate when George gets ahold of you.” She informed Chris.

Chris snorted then started laughing loudly as Sara yet again shot him a disapproving look, but this time because he was drawing attention to them. Little did Tyler know that once Sara finally accepted him and stopped worrying about his safety, training would begin, and George would also be his problem. Chevalier training was never easy especially with Donte being at the helm of their training protocol. He turned out Valon, shaping him into a warrior fit to protect an empress even before she was named Goddess Incarnate, and since then, every chevalier in her crew went through an intensive to ensure they were fit to protect her or die trying.

He had absolutely no clue.

~

He really had no clue.

It was Saturday, and after convincing his parents that spending a low-key evening at his new friends' house was way better than dressing up to give candy to kids, he spent an excessive amount of time trying to decide what to wear since this was obviously some important cultural aspect of her past. People dressed up for that, right?

What he was not prepared for was the fortified mini-town at the edge of the city that they lived in. The houses were huge! There were several “Estates” around the town they lived in, but none of them compared. As he drove through the streets, once the main gate security cleared him, he was feeling a bit intimidated.

Tyler had suspected they had money. Unlike the other girls at school in her clique, she didn’t show off her wealth. She obviously had nice things, but holy fuck. Then GPS showed a house at the end of a dark cul-de-sac that seemed pretty isolated from the rest of the estate and had a separate security booth that was operated. He was stopped at this booth and waved through once he showed the pass after calling up to the house. For the first time, he was questioning if he was - worthy.

“How are they on the run and can afford this?” He murmured to himself.

Pulling into the driveway, he hoped to give himself a moment to settle himself, but Chris came out to greet him.

“Here goes nothing.” He said under his breath as he got out.

“Hey, brother,” Chris said as he pulled him into a hug. “Did you find the place ok?”

“Yeah, everything was great,” Tyler assured him.

“Good, good. Let’s head in. Ty, I want to warn you the guys want to chat a bit. So they aren’t, like, going to tell you a lot, but be prepared for some things. It's been a debate since fall break, but I had your back, bro. At least some of this will make sense. I mean, you decided to stick around when you found out the girl you like was engaged and living a secret life with several of her lovers, so, like, you’ll probably do great tonight.” He rambled, which did not make Tyler feel great about the news he was about to receive. Chris was known in school to be pretty collected so if he was rambling, should he be terrified?

“Oh, fuck.” He thought to himself.

They walked in, and Tyler was not being further comforted. This was fresh out of a luxury magazine. From the outside, it was slightly less overwhelming. Clearly a two-story, at least, but when he walked in, there was a sweeping staircase the his left, a large open area, and a closed door to his right. Following Chris, he saw through a doorway on his left that was a bedroom with double doors. From the side that was closed, he could see the ornate carving in the richly colored wood. In front of him, he could see the patio and pool through glass doors. Walking further in he saw a large open area room next to the patio that had several low bookshelves surrounded by heavy wood shelves built into the walls with a fireplace in the center and plush chairs that screamed old style. Turning slightly to his right, he saw a television area with three couches and an ornate wood coffee table. A fully stocked bar sat behind the furthest couch from him. He could see other rooms further and assumed there must be a kitchen and dining in that direction. Greg sat on one of the high stools at the bar where George was mixing drinks when he noticed them and smiled. The atmosphere, despite being heavily decorated in ornate dark woods and deep reds, was still bright a cheery.

It felt like a home. It was clearly way bigger than his house. He swore the first floor was bigger than his parents' whole house. His attention was brought back to Valon as the older man walked towards him, his smile dropping to concern.

“You ok, kid?” He asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Y-y-yeah. I wasn’t expecting any of this.” Tyler stuttered.

“Right.” Valon chuckled. “Welcome to Lesstia Manor, as we call it. I am sure that you aren’t used to this. But if you expect to stick around, this is just one of the things you will have to get used to. There are several properties to recover that are much larger. This is just a quick one we purchased and had renovated so that we could make this our base for now.”

Tyler just stood staring at him. Oh, so they were rich, rich.

“Sara is still getting ready, but we did already decide that George and I would talk with you before the ritual so that you would be informed and able to opt-out. Would you like a drink before we start? George mixed something up, but we also have juice and water.”

“Let me guess, you guys don’t do soda.” He chuckled.

“Rarely. Mostly only if we eat out, which is rare, we aren’t used to it. Though we have been enjoying sparkling waters and experimenting with juices for flavor.” Valon told him.

“A water would be fine, thank you.” He nodded as George brought a tray with a pitcher, cups for everyone, and a chilled bottle of sparkling water.

“Ok, so you ready.” He nodded as everyone took seats on the couches. “ So, first of all, my name is not Greg. My name is Valon. This is Donte, and that over there is Justin.” Valon said playfully, pointing at Justin. “And she is not Sara. Her name is Princessa Mizarmonie Alasmonsette Hyodolshi Lea.”

~