“Hey,” a whispering voice called out to me, sounding familiar. “Alex. . .”

I mumbled something intelligible and pulled the sheets over me, turning to my side.

“Don’t do that,” I recognized Alice’s voice as she spoke a bit louder, letting out a chuckle while shaking me awake.

“Just five more minutes. . .” I mumbled, yawning deeply before glancing toward her with my blurred vision.

I found myself in a large comfy bed, which I hadn’t enjoyed in at least a month, reminding me that I was in Thysa.

“I’m glad to see you’re comfortable.” She smiled as she watched me struggle to get out of bed.

“You’re not going to let me sleep, are you?” I whispered, rubbing my eyes. “What time of day is it even?”

“Morning,” she said, leaning back on her arms. “My dad invited you over for breakfast if you wanted to join us. If not, you can keep sleeping as long as you want.”

“The King invited me to breakfast?” I jumped out of bed, realizing I’d been keeping him waiting. “Should’ve told me that first.”

“So if it’s him inviting you, you won’t refuse, but if it were me, you’d ask for five more minutes?”

“What? No,” I looked confused.

“I’m just messing with you.” She snickered.

“Ha, ha. . .” I sighed before realizing I was shirtless in front of her. The first thing that came to mind was to get dressed as soon as possible. They did me the courtesy of providing me with fine clothes. Well, more of a fancy robe that made it easy to move around. “Mind turning around?”

“Huh?”

“I want to get dressed?” I pointed out, a bit embarrassed having her staring at me.

“You’ve undressed so many times in front of me, and now you’re shy?” she teased, smirking before turning her head around. “Guess I could do that.”

“Didn’t know you wanted to watch, pervert.”

“Pervert?!” She turned around, seeing me dressing down to my underwear. “Who you calli-. . .” Her eyes went wide, quickly turning back around. “Sorry.”

“I knew it,” I teased, trying to hide the fact I was flustered.

While I changed in front of her before, it was somehow different now that we were in a bedroom. Maybe asking her to wait outside or her leaving on her own would’ve been a better call, but I didn’t want to stop talking to her.

“I only turned around because you made fun of me. . .”

“Sure you did,” I kept teasing, focused on putting on the robes. “I hope your father isn’t waiting for us.”

“Don’t worry about that. Besides, he knows you were asleep.”

“How come you didn’t sleep in?”

“What do you mean?”

“You slept so little during our journey together, so I thought you’d enjoy sleeping longer once we got here.”

“I know what sleeping in means. It’s just that I didn’t know that you had no clue about elves needing less sleep than humans.”

“For real?”

“Why do you think I always woke up first?” The robe fitted me perfectly, and the soft fabric made me want to keep it on forever. Walking over to Alice, I sat down on the bed, glancing at her with a smile. “Looking good,” she complimented.

“Thanks.” I looked over at our patterned robes that closely resembled each other, except hers left her left shoulder exposed. “So, how long do you need to sleep?”

“About four hours more or less,” she said, standing back up again. “Ready to go?”

“Four hours? Damn,” I said, getting up while yawning again.

"Are you sure you don't want me to let you sleep longer? Had I known you were so tired, I would've just told him no."

“Your father personally summoned me over to have breakfast together. That’s not something I can just refuse like that,” I explained, but that wasn’t the whole truth.

“But you could. . .” she commented, letting out a sigh. “That’s why I asked.”

“Well, you already woke me up, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“I’m sorry. Probably should’ve assumed-”

“Okay, okay. . . Jeez,” I interrupted Alice’s doubtfulness, after which I sighed in disbelief. “I would’ve accepted regardless. So stop stealing my excuse to join you for breakfast and just roll with it.”

“I see. . .” Alice chuckled, finally understanding why I was so agreeable. “You should never need an excuse for something like that.”

“Yeah, yeah. . .” I sighed again, poking her side, making Alice jump in place.

“Hey!” she protested, but we both laughed it off.

While she led me through the halls, we were greeted by every household servant on the way, all elves as expected. Eventually, we reached the dining room with King Elwyn Kelthyra patiently waiting for us to arrive. He was wearing a different robe, one appearing darker and noticeably more noble-like.

“Ah! Our guest has arrived,” he said, sounding as jolly as the first time I’ve met him. Still hard to get used to him being a figure of authority when comparing her to the Elder and my father. “Seems both of you are in a good mood, making all this food all the more enjoyable.”

Following Alice’s lead, I sat next to her at the gargantuan oval table that occupied half the room. The food presented failed to disappoint as it was nothing short of what I’d expect to find in the capital of Raveryn, if not better. What surprised me was the meat, as I often heard that elves had plant-based diets, but then again, I was wrong about so many things that it was best to assume I didn’t know anything about other races.

“Thank you for being so welcoming,” I said, grabbing a cup of water.

“Nonsense, you’re our guest. Now let us enjoy our food.” He gestured to the table. “Selvastia.”

“Selvastia,” Alice said before putting various lavishing food on her plate.

“Sel. . . vastia,” I tried repeating what they said, assuming it was something customary before eating or me just sounding stupid. Alice couldn’t help but snicker at my poor pronunciation. “I butchered that, didn’t I?”

“It’s fine. Just sounded funny.” She smiled, glancing over at me. “Selvastia,” she said again. “It basically means have a good meal.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Selvastia,” I repeated, giving her a nod.

We didn’t end up talking much while enjoying our meal other than the occasional compliment about the food. However, considering how little the two ate, I drastically reduced my portion as I felt self-concious despite not eating even half of what I’d typically have. Alice noticed and took it upon herself to put more on my plate, shaking her head at me with a disapproving look. I smiled tight-lipped and put more on her plate as retaliation for embarrassing me a bit, which made the King laugh out loud.

“Why do I have to eat more?” Alice looked confused. “You’re the one refusing to eat normally.”

“You know very well why I did it,” I whispered. “You better eat it all now.”

I pretty much doubled her portion with one scoop.

“You just want me to get fat.”

“Is that even possible?” I asked but realized quickly I was getting carried away as we still sat next to her father, the King! However, all was forgotten the moment I felt pain after Alice stepped on me under the table. “Ough. . .”

“You were saying?” She smiled devilishly, warning me that she’d do it again if provoked.

“Compliments to the chef,” I mumbled, returning a pained smile.

“I’ll make sure to pass that on,” she said, cutting the food I put on her plate in half and handing me the other half.

I refrained from complaining and just continued enjoying the food in silence.

“So Alex,” King Elwyn called out to me as we finished up with the food. “There are a few things I wished to discuss before you ran off to have fun. Would you care to listen?”

“With all due respect, I don’t believe you need my permission.” I chuckled, intently listening to everything he had to say.

“So well mannered.” He smiled, taking a cup of wine. “But as I said, you’re our guest and should feel at home.”

“Thank you again. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Please do,” he said, taking a sip. “Now. . . The first topic I wanted to talk about was your eyes. Our healer will come later today to give you a checkup and see if he can cure your problem. Considering she’s the best around, I’m sure she’ll have a solution.”

“That’s wonderful!” I yelled excitedly before lowering my voice. “Sorry. . . I’m not sure I know how to repay your kindness.”

“No need to apologize and you’ve done more than enough, wouldn’t you say? My daughter’s freedom is incomparable to healing a mere poison. If anything, I should be looking for a way to repay you still.”

“She saved me as well, more than once. I don’t think owing each other for that is quite right, nor should it be considering I think of your daughter as a friend, despite not knowing her for long.”

“Well said.” He smiled, looking at Alice who just gazed at me placidly. “However, that’s not all I wanted to talk to you about. We wanted to offer you to stay here for as long as you wish.”

“Thank you for your offer, but I wish not to cause too much trouble. Besides, I’m sure my family would like to know I’m safe.”

“Before you give me an answer, I’d like to tell you the whole proposal,” he said, stealing my attention. “Firstly, informing your family that you’re staying with us is as easy as snapping my fingers, and I too wish for your family to be at ease, same as I was when I heard my daughter had returned. There’s nothing worse than a parent worried about their child.”

“You could do that?” I looked wide-eyed, stunned that I hadn’t even thought about it.

“Of course, and it doesn’t matter if you accept my offer or not as I’d do that regardless. Now, what I wanted to ask you was something far more serious. Would you, Alexander, be interested in becoming my student?”

“What?” I looked baffled.

It wasn’t just me. Alice was also staring wide-eyed, stunned by his proposal.

“It doesn’t take a lot to realize how much potential you have, and the fact that you have a frozen core means you were willing to risk it all for the sake of coming home. However, that power will devour you if you don’t learn to control it, so allow me to teach you. You’d be training with Alice, meaning it’ll be fun for both, and with your talent, I’m sure you’ll do great.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I mumbled, drinking a whole cup of water to regain my composure. “Why would you want to teach an outsider?”

“Because the moment I saw you, I was intrigued by how far you could go with my guidance. You may call it a selfish desire to satisfy my curiosity, or you could call it kindness. It doesn’t really matter as my offer is all the same.”

“Alice?” I looked back at her, unsure how she felt about it, but her shocked expression quickly softened as she gazed back at me with the brightest smile.

“That’d be awesome,” she said, excited at the prospect of us training together.

“Thank you for the offer,” I said, looking back at the King. “However, I’ll still need some time to think about it.”

“Take as long as you’d like.”

“Will you at least stay for a bit if you end up declining dad’s offer?” Alice asked, hopeful I’d say yes.

It was becoming clear that our friendship had gotten much stronger, but that just meant that leaving was going to be that much harder the longer I delayed it. However, I couldn’t just pack up and go, and I also had to stay at least until my eyes healed.

“As long as you can help me inform my family that I’m alive and well, I’m sure I could stay a bit.”

Hearing me say that, Alice just turned to her father.

“Very well,” he said. “I shall see to it that it’s done by nightfall.”

“Thank you.”

“Would you stay at least for the Moonshine Festival?” Alice asked. “It’s at the end of the month, and while I know it’s far, I’d love for you to see it.”

“It’s hard to refuse when you ask me like that.” I smiled, nodding in agreement.

Spending a few weeks in Thysa gave me enough time to solve my issues and rest before heading home. Traveling tired could get me killed, and I still wanted to explore the city.

“It’s settled then.” the King laughed, drinking more wine. “Besides, it’d be rude not to meet the Queen.”

I froze in place imagining what her mother was like, deeply hoping she was as goofy as he was. Well, at least I knew that she loved him, so she had to have a high tolerance.

“Oh, right. When’s mom coming back?”

“She should be here tomorrow or the day after. You never know with your mother.”

“Does she leave often?” I dared ask.

“My mom goes on political meetings with other Elven Kingdoms and she’s in charge of many druidic tribes that are joined with Thysa.”

“I see. . .”

“However, that reminds me. . . Father.” The gaze she cast on him was penetrating. “How did you know Alex and I were here?”

“I was informed,” he said, awkwardly smiling.

“So you went to see him before seeking me out?”

“I wanted to meet the person that brought my daughter home. Is that so bad?”

“Of course not. But you knew that the Elder dragged me away to nag me and you didn’t say a word about it.”

“A fitting punishment for running away from home, wouldn’t you say?”

“Is that how you see it?” She grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Alice?” he asked again, but she just smiled sweetly.

I decided to stay out of it.

Our breakfast ended with much uncertainty within the King’s heart, allowing Alice and I to walk away laughing. She was pleased to learn that I was staying in Thysa longer, and honestly, so was I.

“You’re not actually going to get back at your dad?” I asked, looking at her skipping steps on the way to my room.

“No, but I want him to believe otherwise.” She giggled, holding her hands behind her back. “I’m guessing you’re going to write a letter to your family now?”

“Yeah. It’ll take some time to think about what I want to say.”

“I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear from you regardless.”

“Hope so.” I awkwardly chuckled, not knowing what their reactions would be.

“Stop worrying about it,” she said, having been told about my family during our travels. “I’m confident they’ll be overjoyed to hear you’re alive.”

As we reached my room, I opened the doors and gestured inside. “Want to come in?”

“I’d love to, but I have stuff my father wants me to do. Besides, a healer will be coming to see you today and you have a letter to write, so how about we explore the city together tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about the upcoming festival?”

“Sounds great,” I said, helplessly smiling at the idea.

“Good. Now go write that letter and have fun with it. Stop overthinking.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

She waved goodbye and skipped away.

Closing the door behind me, I looked to the desk before letting out a sigh, preparing to finally let my family know I was safe.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.