Once they were done studying Katy dragged him out to do some sparring. He had wanted to study the runes for a while, but he supposed that could wait. It was rare she insisted on anything after all. After they had left the passage which was luckily in a mostly unused section of the castle they began walking towards the training grounds. Since the path there was more crowded she had to fall into step behind him once again.

“Ah young lord may I have a moment of your time?” He sighed but turned to regard the man. He was a commoner that much was certain given his bedraggled appearance and clothes that were barely more than rags sewn together. He had gray hair and a small salt and pepper beard. His dull brown eyes shown with some emotion Azura couldn’t distinguish. His hands fiddled nervously together. All in all he could easily fit in among the servants, but something was off Azura was sure of it.

“Of course, how may I be of assistance.” His polite smile looked as real as it was fake. He watched intently trying to figure out the game of this stranger who was not a servant.

“Thank you my lord. I wouldn’t normally do something like this I swear, but I’m desperate. My son needs help and I’ve heard that you are a reasonable man.” He spoke well for a commoner, but not well enough to be suspicious. The dirt on his clothes appeared to be from years of wear and not as if he rolled in dirt to appear dirty, and he seemed to be willing to admit he snuck in. Azura decided to hear him out though he would be cautious.

“I see you must be quite resolved if you snuck in here to aid your son.” The Man seemed surprised if only for a moment before resolve filled his face.

“I would die for my son, so please I’ll do anything. Just help him” the man fell to his hands and knees begging him to help his son. Azura bit his lip, his father would have the man's head for being here and a stern lecture for Azura for even hearing the man out.

“Ok I will do what I can, but healing magic isn’t my forte, so I make no promises.” He exchanged a glance with Katy; she nodded and walked down the hallway before disappearing past a corner.

“Thank you, thank you. I... Words can’t express how grateful I am. I’ll take you to him” He jumped to his feet and started walking quickly towards the exit. Azura still had a bad feeling but followed the man regardless. He was confident he could defend himself, and if not well that’s what backup plans were for.

He followed the man for a while still after they exited the castle. There were fairly dense woods between the castle and the town to the south. The town was a straight shot just over a mile away. Which is why he was so uncomfortable going slightly more east than the town should be. Their direction was still primarily south though perhaps he lived on the eastern outskirts. His thoughts darkened. Even if it was, they would still have to pass the gates.

“Are you sure we are going the right way? The gates are that way.” He pointed a little right of their current bearing once he saw the man face him. Azura jumped back. The knife aimed for his throat missing by a scant few inches. He turned his head in every direction and sighed. So that's how it was. “Quite the group to assassinate one noble.” After he spoke no less than 20 men in cheap looking armor came out from behind trees and under dense foliage.

“My apologies young ‘lord.’” The man who led him here, likely the leader spoke, his voice laced with sarcasm. “But it would seem that someone wants you dead, and badly at that.” He looked confident, and why wouldn’t he be, even Azura wasn’t confident 20 on one. Especially when he didn’t know if any of them could use magic, or how much. He smirked, good thing it wasn’t 20 on 1 then. One of the men surrounding him suddenly fell, like a puppet with its strings cut. The rest turned towards him drawn by the sound of his brief yell.

He moved quickly, sending mana throughout his muscles. He was in front of the leader before his eyes left the falling man. He grabbed the leader by his throat having to reach up on the taller man, and proceeded to push with far more force than a normal person could muster slamming the man into the ground. The man was out, no magic training at all then. “I guess I didn’t really need to be here then.” Katy spoke, appearing at his side. Azura stood up wiping off the dirt that got on his clothes when he slammed the bandit into the ground.

“Not really but I appreciate the help nonetheless. It might have been hard to incapacitate them all without killing them if you hadn’t taken them by surprise.” Azura turned towards his friend, not a care in the world. Her face darkened considerably.

“But who would want you dead enough to send assassins?” She looked worried until he laughed it off.

“Assassins, please. I’m not even sure they are dangerous enough to call bandits. In other words whoever did this is either a fool, or my death wasn’t really their goal.”

“You sound sure that they aren’t a fool?” She sent a questioning glance.

“These bandits weren’t skilled in the slightest. So how do you think one managed to sneak inside the castle.” She paled.

“A traitor inside the castle, but who would want to hurt you?” She looked frantic.

“They don’t, if anything I would say they are either trying to steal something or kill my father. They just wanted me out of the way.” She sighed in relief.

“So are we in any hurry to get back then?” She had relaxed quite a bit though he supposed he had to.

“Not really, I mean we are already most of the way there. You want to go into town for a bit?” She shrugged “Sure sounds fun let’s go.” They began walking in the direction of the town. He needed to buy a few new shards anyway. They chatted marily on their way to town, leaving the 20 or so unconscious men.

***

The town was big, honestly town probably wasn’t the right word, but if there was a better one he didn’t know it. The walls were brick but they weren’t very tall, only about 3 meters high, but he guessed that made sense, they were inside the grand city after all. There were much bigger walls surrounding the city of Delford which this town was technically inside of. Actually, though he had never seen it personally he didn’t think the wall was far from the castle.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The town was about 2 miles wide with brick buildings scattered around it haphazardly. There were colorful tarps here and there, some for shade and others to be put up when the shops were open. The village itself wasn’t wealthy, and that was obvious just by looking around. Many people were going about their business all dressed in sewn rags except for the few semi wealthy merchants who wore slightly nicer clothes.

The guards at the gate had let him and Katy through without issue. The crest of Silver did help out on occasion, even he could admit that. “I like it here. It's kind of sad we will be so far away at the academy.” She looked down, ears following her eyes. He could see why she would like this place. The people had been nervous around them(him) at first but after he showed that he was willing to help out and do commoner work, they started to accept him. He was sure giving out his father's coin to those who needed it more than him helped too.

It was funny to him how in a sense it was a bribe but they reacted differently than nobles. Their eyes didn’t light up with greed or disgust, but with hope. They returned his kindness not with favors but with kindness of their own. He hadn’t been able to do anything like that since he vowed to stop using his father's money but their kindness never receded. They were simple people, too busy for ulterior motives. “Yeah I like it here too.” His initial smile was as genuine as the frown that took hold a second later.

“But the academy isn’t even in Delford much less close enough to be able to come by and visit.” They shared a melancholy smile. “Guess we’ll have to have our farewells with the people here soon.” Alright that was enough self pity for now. They weren’t even leaving yet. He smiled and perked up. “We still have some time till we leave so we should come down here often to tell everyone what we're up to.” She perked up and smiled too.

“Yeah that’s a good idea.”

“For now, follow me. We are going to the mages association building. I’m guessing you never have been if you didn’t even know what shards were.” She pouted but followed him regardless. It didn’t take long before they were at a building much like any other aside from the royal blue tarp with a mage staff emblazoned across it providing shade in front of the building. They walked inside.

“Welco- oh Azura, it’s good to see you, and I see you brought a friend.” The huge muscly man that looked like he could crush boulders with his hands sat behind a desk that looked comically small compared to him. His head was bald but he had a small black beard, and dark brown eyes. Azura rolled his eyes, but he smiled anyway.

“Katy this is Mark, Mark this is katy.” He gestured to each of them in turn. “We came to buy some shards for practice since the trials are soon.”

Mark nodded, face turning serious from the jolly expression he had held while shaking Katy’s hand. “Oh yeah I suppose it is about that time.” He sighed “It’ll be a shame to lose my favorite customer though, and I’ll have to do the magic demonstrations for the town since you won’t be around.” Azure twitched, the bastard was complaining about having to do his own job instead of having him do it. His gaze softened; he didn’t mind demonstrating the childish awe on the kids faces was a fair reward, he would miss that too.

***

They spent far longer in town then he meant to. As a result the sun was setting leaving an array of colors on the horizon as the brilliant star sank further and further. “I can’t believe he roped us into showing off our magic, no I can believe that it’s that we got stuck doing it for 3 whole hours.” Even ranting as he was, his smile was honest. Katy was smiling too, despite the exhaustion that was obvious on her face.

“You don’t get to complain, you just got to show off some cool spells. My only real spell is physical enhancement, so I was running around and doing tricks the whole time.I’m so tired.”

She wasn’t wrong. But it was hard to take her complaints seriously when she was smiling like that. “Look on the bright side, when has training ever been that fun?” She glared at him for a second before softening. “I guess but we better get to actually train tomorrow, you promised you would show me the weapons you worked so hard to make before we left.” Oh so that’s why she was so excited for training.

“And I will. I have never broken a promise, and I don’t intend to start now.” She smiled again and nodded.

The castle was in view now, silent as the grave. “Something is wrong.” Katy gave him a questioning look. “Remember the bandits that “attacked” us? If that was a distraction then the castle should be buzzing with activity now after the ring leader was caught.

“Maybe you were wrong and they were just hired by an idiot.” Katy ever the optimistic one suggested.

“Possible I guess only one way to find out.”

They ran for the castle entrance. He pushed open the grand doors, and was surprised by what lay behind. “Not only did you fail my test you even made me wait as you gallivanted around town with your servant.” Somehow in the huge entrance hall with 2 grand staircases on either side and a chandeleur even bigger than the one in the dining hall, his father still was the most eye-drawing sight. All though that might just be his fear of the man who looked as imposing as ever.

“Ah father I don-” The man cut him off.

“I don’t need your pitiful excuses. You know better than to trust the commoners, if that had been an actual assassin you would be dead and I would have lost another heir.” Azura was sure the second part bothered him more than the first.

“I was not unprepared; I had Catherine follow behind out of sight.” His father only looked angrier.

“Oh excellent, your life was in the hands of a common servant, I suppose that’s fine then.” Katy clenched her fists no doubt about to come to his defense.

“Catherine, return to the servant's quarters.” His voice was cold as ice and every bit as demanding as his fathers. She looked at him but the protest died on her lips at how angry he looked. The calm, even cold rage of the nobles could only be seen from their eyes and slightly drawn expressions. She didn’t respond, merely bowed and went on her way. He waited for her to be out of the grand entrance hall.

“You are correct I failed to read the true intentions of that man, no actually that isn’t true I knew something was off, my failing was that I was incorrect about what that was. I admittedly thought it was simply a distraction so something could be stolen and I knew full well that wouldn’t happen regardless, so I played along on the off chance his child really was sick.” His father let him speak but it was clear his words were going ignored. Ignored but not unheard, should be the noble motto.

“Even if it was true you would have gained nothing but lost time, but the risk you face if it wasn’t was your death, or let’s say you were right and he managed to steal something then our reputation would have been deeply damaged.” Azura barely managed to hold his tongue. An argument would gain him nothing, he just needed to play along a little longer.

“Very well I won’t allow my sympathy to cloud my judgment further.” He hated everything about this place, why should caring for others be a trait that needs to be culled.

His father gave him a glare that would have killed a lesser man. “Fine I will allow this travesty to pass. Once, and only once. If you disappoint me again, I will withhold your right to go to the academy.” His heart nearly stopped as his father turned to leave. He stood frozen, unsure how to proceed. Scared in a way he hadn’t been for a long time. After standing for several minutes he finally worked up the will to move.