-----Holy City of Solis----
Ari briskly walked down the bustling streets of Solis with Esti following close behind. Casting a skeptical glance behind she found Arthur wasn't in sight. It seemed she had successfully lost her mind-numbing mentor, at least for the moment.
As the tournament drew closer her guardian's teaching had been ramping up intensely. Although she'd trained with him while on the boat, that training had been a mix of combat and speechcraft, now Arthur had switched out the combat part of her training for doctrine lessons. It had been palatable when Ari had the ability to work out her frustrations with combat training before, but now that she not only lacked that outlet but was also forced to face an additional great foe in the form of the Church's boring history and rules in place of it she found herself flagging far earlier into her lessons than before.
Such a situation was what led to her current predicament where she'd used the lame excuse of going to the bathroom to leave the classroom before hightailing it away the second she turned the corner. As for where she was currently headed?
It was an ideal training area she'd discovered earlier in the week. There she would be able to work out some of her frustrations and energy with some combat drills before resigning herself back to the classroom.
A slight feeling of guilt crept in for ditching Hero training after receiving such an honor in the first place, but the emotion didn't stick with just one flashback of the torturous lectures she'd been subjected to.
Coming up on the alley that led to her training spot, Ari was stirred out of her eagerness by the sounds of metal on metal. The buildings surrounding the dead-end alley were currently vacant as they housed Church staff who worked until the late afternoon, so the sound of metal on metal was unlikely to be simple cookware. As she turned down the alley the sound grew and its origin became clear.
In front of Ari were two young adults around her age. One was Fluma, who was currently holding four daggers, two in each hand with their hilts between her knuckles, while the other was a short and average-looking schoolboy whom she'd never seen before. It seemed after Ari bragged about this spot to Fluma the other day, she'd decided to use it for herself.
The two didn't appear to have seen her yet as there was no change in the continued exchange of blows despite her presence. Ari guessed the boy was Fluma's "Dad." Ari had heard an earful from Fluma's friends, especially Rose about how he'd suddenly shown up and Fluma had accepted him back into her life just like that.
Ari wasn't sure how healthy that relationship was, but at the moment she didn't feel having to untangle that mess without proper planning. Making an executive decision Ari hid herself back outside the entrance to the alley while continuing to observe their duel. If she couldn't train herself she could at least watch some proper combat. Anything to experience something other than Arthur's schoolhouse tyranny of history and speechcraft for a moment.
As she watched the spar continue it dawned on Ari she'd never watched Fluma fight before. The young girl wielding two daggers in each hand was far more ferocious than Ari expected. Her fighting style was reminiscent of a wild animal, her weapons being used akin to the claws of some kind of beast as they seemed to swipe at her opponent's vitals with every possible motion. Her pace only continued to increase as Ari watched, rapidly increasing in speed until Ari found even she was beginning to lose track of the attacks in the sea of afterimages they were making.
Fluma's rapid assault was incredible, but in this instance it only made Ari even more fascinated by her opponent. The person Fluma called her father was not only keeping up with the rapid sea of movements but he seemed to be the driving force pushing Fluma to go faster. He was only armed with a single shortsword but somehow was managing to align his parries to always deflect Fluma's incoming daggers. He moved far slower than Fluma, and his own offensive strikes were far and few between, but to Ari's eyes he was winning this spar handily despite neither side landing a telling blow yet.
Did he train under the same Archbishop Fluma had? Rose had told Ari that they'd come from a temple in the mountains where Fluma had been able to train with the Archbishop based there. Rose said they left so Fluma could try to join the clergy in Solis.
The reason to leave a temple in the mountains for Solis was self-evident for Ari even before she'd listened to all of Arthur's lectures. Obviously, Fluma's friends wanted her to have more opportunities for growth within the Church.
The possible career growth for a member of the clergy in Solis far eclipsed the chances Fluma would receive if she remained at a temple in a remote location. Still for an Archbishop from a backwater temple to develop such a unique fighting style and train a girl as young as Fluma this proficiently there was no doubt that they were an expert far exceeding the various Archbishops Ari had met in Solis so far. Well at least in melee combat that is.
In contrast, Fluma's father's style was far more reserved than Fluma's. Could an Archbishop really teach two such juxtaposing styles without hampering their own ability? Ari determined she would ask the next chance she got. It would be worth it even if she had to deal with their confusing father-daughter dynamics.
"Ah!" A pained cry drew Ari's attention to Fluma's arm where a cut the length of her entire forearm appeared. It seemed her opponent had landed the first strike, only what was this reaction?
After letting out her initial yell Fluma had gone still intently focusing on her wound. On the opposite side, her father seemed to be doing the same. A moment later blood came out of the wound as to be expected, but not to be expected was the joyful smile that spread across Fluma's innocent face as she watched herself bleed onto the ground.
"Look! Look Dad! Do you see?" Ari overheard her friend shouting with a confusing amount of Pride.
"Good job Fluma. Now try to keep fighting while maintaining it."
Not following the odd situation Ari continued watching as the two resumed fighting at an even faster pace than before. Soon two more cuts appeared on Fluma's left lower leg and her cheek, but unlike before the fighting didn't stop. As the innocent spar turned bloody pit fight continued, Ari watched her friend's smile only continue to widen as it bent to match the pride-filled look in her eyes.
"Why do you have to pick the weirdest people to befriend." Arthur's friendly voice came from behind her. He'd snuck up on her while she'd been distracted watching the fight. Not good.
"Oh! Hey, I was just about to go back just got a little lost looking for the bathroom." Ari scrambled to find some excuse while scanning for an escape route. But her teacher knew better than to give her another opportunity to flee as his hair turned golden and a familiar-looking circular column of golden light appeared below her.
"Ah come oooooooooooooooonnnnn-" Her protests faded away as she was unceremoniously flung back towards the Radiance Cathedral's fountain.
Arthur and her companion Esti remained behind as the sparring teenagers finally decided to look up from their bout.
---------
Avior turned away from his duel with Fluma to greet the remaining observers. He hadn't spent the mana to identify whoever the third audience member had been before they'd been thrown like a sack of potatoes, but the two individuals remaining were plenty to draw his interest.
The man whose golden hair was turning back to brown was an easy man to recognize.
Before him stood Arthur Heartsweep. A prodigy light mage whom Avior had befriended in more than a few of his early lives. Arthur was easily the individual who'd influenced Avior's own techniques with light mana the most.
His old friend was so brilliant that a few of Arthur's lessons had even been placed verbatim into Luxia's mind when she was created. Of course, there were many, many more lessons and techniques than just those from Arthur that went into Luxia's mind, but still, it is no small thing to have a lesson he didn't even have to refine once before it was fit for his humonculi's repertoire.
That very same Arthur, who Avior assumed had just launched some Church acolyte that had been bugging him into the nearest body of water in one of his infamous pranks, was now looking at Avior with a dangerous look of glee.
"Hello, Fluma." He walked into the dead-end alley casually ignoring the blood on the alley floor and walls with a large blue reptile trailing behind. "And you must be Fluma's dad who I've heard so much about."
Great, Avior thought, he already thinks I'm a weirdo.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Hello, I'm Avior." Avior tried to just move past the dad thing for a moment with a normal greeting.
"Nice to meet you Fluma's dad, I'm Arthur. Oh, and this is Esti." He gestured to the blue scaled being currently staring at Avior.
Avior's eyes narrowed for a moment as he flashed his Mana Sight to confirm his suspicion about the odd lizard.
Seemingly, oblivious to Avior's interest in Esti, Arthur continued talking.
After seeing its mana circuits Avior immediately recognized what "Esti" really was. Esti was the being that had hatched from the egg Avior made back when he was a four-year-old. Only something had gone very wrong. The thing that hatched from that egg should be far larger than just a few feet by now.
As he continued watching Esti's mana flow, Avior saw multiple points where its growth was stunted. Had something gone wrong during its development?
Using a mind link Avior sent it a message.
[[Esti why is your growth stunted?]]
Avior saw the reptile smile smugly before raising its head to answer with more than a lizard's worth of pride.
[[My illustrious progenitor finally deigns to address this humble one after a millennium of ignorance and said missive was truly your primary focus?]]
Avior was taken aback by the creation's tone. He'd made sure it was purely loyal to Aurora to ensure her protection, but it seemed that idea had manifested in a way that ended up viewing Avior as an antagonist.
Luckily for Avior, he didn't have to respond before Esti continued.
[[My mother thinks I am cute this way so this way I will continue to be]]
Avior restrained himself from exhaling in frustration. He'd made a homunculi perfectly designed to protect Aurora from harm in this final life of his and his creation had decided to stop itself from growing into a being that could properly do so because it wanted to be cute!
[[You're putting your mission behind your personal desire? Are you trying to get Aurora killed?]]
[[You are as short-sighted as you are absent dear father. My mission is my own prerogative. Moreover, thine worries are for naught. My aptitude is plenty to achieve mother's protection and adoration for my cuteness simultaneously]]
[[That's not a risk I'm willing to take to please your ego. Stop stunting your growth or I'll make other arrangements for Aurora's protection]]
To Avior's threat, Esti responded with a blank look.
[[Do you hear me!]]
As a response, Esti brought its forward claw in a cup around its ear in a mocking gesture. To an outsider, it might seem like the lizard was scratching its ear with its forward claw.
"Are you alright?"
Arthur's voice brought Avior back to the conversation he was supposed to be having.
"Yes, I'm alright."
"Oh good you seemed to be gazing off at Esti there for a moment. Hopefully, the little guy didn't give you too much of a scare. Despite his appearance, he wouldn't hurt anyone without good reason. Let alone Fluma's dad."
"You can never be too sure with treacherous lizards," Avior replied.
"Sorry?" Even the glib Arthur seemed at a loss for a moment. Taking the chance Avior made his escape.
"It appears Fluma and I missed lunch while training, You'll have to excuse us as we go get something to eat back at our inn. It was nice meeting you. Hope to see you again at the tournament!" Avior began walking before even finishing his words. Turning around to check that Fluma was following him Avior sent one final glare to his insolent creation who gloated back with a raised head.
A block later Avior glanced behind to check that only Fluma was following and to check his Mana Sight. He'd deal with that lizard later, for now, he might as well search for Prim on the way back to their inn. After searching most of the day yesterday he was pretty confident Prim was being held in one of the Pillars' towers by this point, but it didn't hurt to keep his eyes peeled just in case.
The way Avior took to get back went down the main street of Solis. The street was flush with commotion in preparation for the tournament. The blocky structures that made up the city's robust style of architecture were covered with colorful banners displaying symbols of different Pillars. Like colors were often clustered with one another with gold being the most prominent followed close behind by red and green. Black banners were the rarest by far with Avior only seeing a lone black banner once. It had been displayed outside a tucked-away regents shop down an alley similar in appearance to the one Avior and Fluma had been training in.
Of course, reagents were a polite way to say poisons. In this particular case, the shop catered to the Black Pillar's agents. A similar theme could be seen when looking closely at any of the shops flying banners. Their colors matched their target customers.
A weaponsmith? Flying Red in support of the Church's legions which were no doubt their largest buyer. A bar frequented by Invokers? Showing enough blue to be mistaken as a sideways sky by patrons who've enjoyed their drinks a little too much. A bookstore favored by the Church's diplomats? Expect their porch chairs to be upholstered in a deep purple.
Although...Avior glanced back toward the bookstore in question. Just like a few libraries, debate halls, and research labs Avior had seen the day prior, this building had a few dead zones where his mana sight couldn't easily penetrate. Now that his attention was on the store Avior realized something else about their banners and clothing stood out. Unlike the neighboring debate hall which was flying banners with a rich purple color, this bookstore was flying banners that were undoubtedly violet. An odd oversight if it was just one or two banners, but upon closer inspection, Avior discovered it was every one of this particular bookstore's occupants and banners that had taken on this bluer shade of their Pillar's color.
Something in the back of his mind was telling him this particular shade of violet was familiar, and recently too. The feeling was enough for Avior to detour off the main road to investigate the bookstore further with Fluma in tow.
Entering the bookstore Avior was greeted by a young woman with her brown hair tied in a bun who greeted him with a large smile and very innocently asked.
"Aw what a cute couple! How can I help you? Are you both here to join the Constituency?"
"The Constituency?" Avior asked after recovering from his surprise to make sure he hadn't heard incorrectly.
"Yep the Constituency? Haven't heard of us yet? No worries! I didn't know about them until around a week ago when a bunch of them showed up out of nowhere. And look at me now!" She gestured to her violet robes with pride, "A full-blown member already!"
"A full member?" Avior's mind continued to try and catch up with this conversation, wasn't the Constituency that breakoff organization from Tyrant that was busy playing with monsters in the Gloomrot Marshes? What were they doing recruiting in Solis?
"That's right!" The young woman's enthusiasm remained blinding, "I became a full member in only three days! So far I've signed up fourteen Prospects and participated in six debates, at this rate I'll be a Silver Circle by the end of the week! I just need to sign up six more prospects and participate in four more debates. So how about it? Can I sign you up yet?"
"Fluma wants to be a Silver Circle." Fluma's attention was instantly captured by the artificial ranks.
"Well at the rate we're gaining members with all the new people arriving for the tournament, you'll have no problems doing that. If you join now that is?" The young bookstore clerk's eyes had gained a glint similar to a housecat after spotting a vulnerable mouse.
"Do we have to do anything after signing up?" Avior tried to find a fault to help dislodge Fluma from the marketer's clutches.
"Nope! Nothing at all. Of course, you'll never become a full member or even leave the Prospect rank with that attitude. To increase in standing you'll have to contribute with donations, participate in debates, or recruit more Prospects! The higher your standing the larger the debates you can partake in. At the higher levels you even get a stipend so you can focus only on debating if you want! How awesome is that!"
Paying to upgrade in rank? How had the Constituency become comfortable enough in Solis to pitch itself like a pyramid scheme? Avior's concerns withstanding Fluma seemed enraptured by the idea.
"Fluma will sign up." Fluma signed her name on the Clerk's outstretched paper, in excellent penmanship faster than Avior could react. Maybe making her with superb speed writing technique had been an unnecessary inclusion after all.
Letting out a sigh Avior decided to follow his creation's lead and began moving to sign the Clerk's paper when he found his path obstructed.
"Fluma why are you blocking me?"
Fluma brought up her hand which was suddenly holding its own piece of paper.
"Sign up with Fluma. Please."
"Hey wait a minute, that's no fair!" The clerk realizing Fluma was going to take her other mark tried to protest, but Avior, wanting to leave as soon as possible at this point, quickly scrawled Avior Malim on Fluma's sheet quieting the clerk's objections in the process.
"Fine, well I guess I should take pride in recruiting an early learner. You'll go far with the Constituency with that mentality young lady. Now that I've recruited you I guess I should tell you we're currently aligned with the Purple Pillar. Apparently, the Senator got the Purple Pillar's Aide to back us as long as we help promote the Purple Pillar's mission."
That part at least made a little more sense to Avior.
The Purple Tower struggled to recruit enough people to fill out their ranks since their focus was diplomacy and legislation. Their role involved serving as the Church of Radiance's diplomats and adapting Church legislation as needed. Adjusting tax rates for imported goods, attaining the legal approval for the Church's various Legions to go galloping through other nations, and fortifying the Church's diplomatic alliances were all jobs that fell under their purview.
In most nations, this was a job heavily controlled by nobility or the well-connected since the position had the power to manipulate markets for personal gain; however, in the Church, such actions weren't allowed. Any who were found to be abusing their position in the Purple Tower were met with execution making the position, as Avior once heard, all responsibility no fun.
And that quote was just the tip of the iceberg. A common week for those under the Purple Pillar involved looking over the projected quantities of neighboring countries' rice exports, measuring how much of that export was expected to come to the Holy Nation, determining whether the quantity was too much or too little, and then increasing or decreasing the import tax on rice as desired to push the imported quantity closer to the preferred amount.
And that was an example of one of their more exciting weeks.
So it made since the Purple Pillar's Aide had sought out a way to increase their recruitment numbers, it was just unexpected that they would ally with an offshoot of Tyrant to do so.
It was something to look into once if he had extra time after finding Prim.
While turning around to leave the bookstore with a freshly motivated Fluma the clerk hit them with a last piece of information.
"Oh, and I'll be debating tonight next door an hour after sundown. Be sure to come!"
Avior briskly pushed Fluma out the door before she could commit them to the event. The last thing he wanted right now was to get roped into some social obligation when he needed to find Prim as well as figure out how to fix whatever the hell the lizard who now called himself "Esti" was on about.
Although he hadn't made Esti function as one of his servants, but instead act as Aurora's protector, it was concerning it would fight its predetermined growth path just to fit into Aurora's approval for "cuteness."
Leaving the bookstore, the two continued making their way to the Ghajavelon Inn for an afternoon meal and another opportunity for Avior to convince Fluma's friends he wasn't some creep. Again.