Calamacy Salaria
I never did like dealing with the Ivy Throne Chancellor. Every time I met him it always felt like he was trying to measure me up and figure out how to manipulate me. He was not the only one that I’ve met who’s tried to manipulate me for their own purposes. But he’s probably the most subtle out of all of them. I only ever had my intuition to go off of with him.
Why can’t everyone be like Gramps, I think to myself. Thinking about the Prior who I refer to as Gramps I like up at the palace looming over the city. Then again, I think, if everyone were like Gramps, there would be no way anything would get done.
At this point I had arrived at my destination in the nobles district. Another 30 minutes had already passed from when I had my run in with Kassari Vandel. I stand before the gate to one of the noble’s houses. The gate is a simple affair for nobles. Two massive pieces of metal in an opening large enough for a carriage to fit through easily. The crest of the family, a winding tornado with two lightning bolts flanking it on either side is carved into the gate itself. The name of the family, ‘Stormcaller,’ is written in big brass letters above the crest. This is the home of my friend Altia. As I stand there looking at the gate, sounds start coming from the other side, and soon the gate opens. Stepping out from inside the compound is Altia’s mother. Her tall lithe figure stops when she sees me.
“Salaria-vim” she says, pausing for a moment to give a short bow, before continuing, “A pleasure to see you child, what with the chaos erupting on this day, I haven’t been able to help Altia with her own preparations.”
At that point several of her aides had caught up to her and tried to start discussing issues with her, but she silenced them with a wave of her hand. Turning back to me she says, “In any case I have several errands that I must run before the celebration this evening, Altia should be in her room and I know she will be delighted to see you.” With that she continues her stride and proceeds down the street her aides scurrying to keep up with her pace.
I walk through the gates and nod to the gate guard as he closes the gates behind me. Walking along the cobblestone path to the main house I take a moment to admire the Stormcaller residence. There are 3 large buildings on the estate. From where I was standing I could only see two of the buildings. The first building being the main residence where Altia and her mother actually lived, and her father too whenever he was back from whichever front he is had been assigned to fight in. That building was a beautiful 3 story mansion made out of a grey granite. It walls were completely covered in rich ivies several of which were blooming flowers. The main path led to that building, but off to the side I could see an equally massive building. This other building while made of the same stone had multi-story glass windows. Even from this distance it had the look of an airy hall or temple. All around the grounds near the building were dozens of people, mostly Ceorn and Dralfey, who were scurrying about setting up decorations..
My arrival at the main residence however did not go unnoticed. As soon as I made to knock on the big brass doors, they were pulled open by one of the family’s guards. Bustling out the door came Altia herself. She quickly wrapped in one of her hugs before moving behind me.
“Save me,” she whispered as she tried to hide herself behind my back. Before I could ask from what, one of Altia’s attendants came out through the doorway. She had what looked like an indigo dress tucked under one arm and several ribbons in her hand.
“Calamacy-vim,” the aide said giving a short bow, “Perhaps you could convince Altia-vim, to return to her room and put the dress on that her mother spent so much time crafting for her.”
“Lies!” Altia shrieked form behind my shoulder, “Mother would never make me wear a dress, she knows how much I despise dresses.”
The aide simply used the hand containing the ribbons to push up her spectacles, “Kassari Stormcaller, has instructed me that you are to wear this dress as is befitting your station of the daughter of a Duchess to the Cinder Throne.”
Seeing the tension building between the two, I slide out from in front of Altia. Placing a hand on her back I gently push her forward while saying, “Altia, you can’t always be running around in pants, and besides I believe that that dress will match perfectly with your silver hair.
After being pushed forward a small look of panic crosses Altia’s face as she looks at me. Before she can get away the aide clamps a hand down on one of Altia’s shoulders and proceeds to pull/drag her back into the house. I follow along and chuckle quietly to myself as Altia proceeds to barrage the aide with all manner of threats.
As we make our way back to her room, I can’t help but notice how much she looks like her mother. She has a similar tall lithe figure, with flowing silver hair, and storm cloud colored eyes. Her skin is a rich brown hue that is most commonly found in individuals from the lands of the Cinder Throne. There lies little to no trace of her father in her features.
Over an hour passes as I sit and watch the aide fuss over Altia. Finally when she is satisfied she steps back from with a triumphant smile across her face. Altia on the other hand is sitting on the chair a pouting look marring her features as she tries to sulk. I reach into my bag and pull out the crystal that I had gotten for her.
Waving the crystal in my hand I call out to her, “Altia I got this for you.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, a smile spreads across her face. She rushes over to me and I hand her the crystal.
“OH! Wow Salaria! You shouldn’t have. You really shouldn’t have. I can’t believe you got me a focus crystal! And one that was fully charged too! This must have set you back pretty far.” Her eye look up at me questioningly.
“Don’t worry about it, I happen to know a crystal crafter and we made a trade for it,” I say trying to dispel her curiosity. “In any case I hope that crystal helps breakthrough whatever block is preventing you from tapping into your family’s power.”
“Possibly, possibly,” she murmurs, her mind having already switched from one thing to the next. Her focus now on the softly glowing crystal in front of her. “Come Salaria, let’s go to father’s meditation room!”
“Altia-vim! Don’t forget that you have a party to attend later this evening.” The aide calls out to her as she grabs my hand and drags me off to the other side of the residence.
We enter her father’s meditation room, which is furnished with several large cushions on the floor and a table against the far wall, in which several containers of incense stand. Altia almost immediately plops down on one of the cushions and holding the crystal in her hand begins to focus. I close the door behind me and watch her for a moment before taking my own spot. Left to myself I retreat into my thoughts
I really do hope that she is able to break through that barrier. Its hard to really guess if she will ever be able to break through whatever barrier is blocking her, as far as I can tell no one really knows how the Stormcaller family is able to connect with the elements. It definitely is not through their mana pools, Altia actually has a larger mana pool than her father, yet her father can create massive winds and gather storm clouds with just the swipe of a hand.
A brightening of the room brings me out of my reverie. Where Altia is sitting I see the same yellow glow that surrounded the crystal now covering Altia herself. Her hands rest on her knees and her eyes are closed. The crystal is floating in the air just in front of her. I notice a gentle hum reverberating ever so slightly around the room. With a sigh I close my eyes and focus inward to my own mana pool.
If only focus crystals worked for me.
In the past I had attempted to use several crystals to supplement my own mana pool and try and call forth my summon. The only reaction was for the crystal to become quickly depleted and crack. The bond itself would be completely untouched, no growth and no response.
Seeing that my mana pool had filled up again over the past couple of hours, I focus in on the bond itself. In my minds eye, I take a hold of the strand and pour the little mana I have into it. Once again the mana disappears along the strand. I wait for several moments just as I always have. Yet the strand just hangs there stretching on into what seems like infinity.
When I bring myself back to reality, I see Altia sitting there, a light frown on her face. She is holding the crystal in one of her hands, and is staring at it in a contemplating manner.
“No success?” I ask
She rests her chin in her other hand and continues to stare at the crystal as she says, “Not yet. But I got CLOSE. There was something there. But no matter how I looked or tried to connect to it, it remained just out of my grasp.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to ever reach it?” I ask again.
“I don’t know,” Altia sighs, “Mother and father have both described what happened whenever they finally awoke to their powers, and in both their cases it just clicked for them, they never had to struggle to find it and connect to it, whatever IT is.” With that she placed the crystal on the ground and turned toward me. “What about you? Any luck?”
I just shake my head.
She gives another sigh, “Two of a kind, eh? Both of us with our abilities just out of reach.” She leans back and reaches out with one hand, as if attempting to make a grab at the source of our yearnings. I see the look of disappointment and yearning on her face for just a moment before it is quickly covered up again.
Smiling she looks at me again and says, “Well at least you get the rank even if you can’t use it.”
I snort derisively at her and throw one of the pillows at her face. Before Altia can retaliate, there’s a soft knock on the door. Altia gets up to answer it and when she opens the door her aide is standing on the other side.
“Altia-vim, your mother asked me to inform you that several of the guests have arrived, and she asks you to attend to them.” The aide says.
Altia sighs, “Very well Vallsea-fe. I’ll be down in a moment.”
The aid nods her head and leaves. Altia closes the door and flops down onto one of the pillows next to me.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Ah how I wish that my mother hadn’t put on this stupid party.” She says, as she grabs another pillow and buries her head in it.
“Now, now,” I chide, “every noble family has a party for their daughters when they turn sixteen. This party is more for the parents to meet and gossip than it is for you. Besides at least you get to have a party.”
She takes the pillow off her face and throws me a dirty look, “I would trade places for you in a second, that way I wouldn’t have to attend to all the guests. They’re all so stiff and formal, and they never mean what they say. Not to mention the ones that are our age.” She covers her face again with the pillow.
I smile at her, used to her antics and the rants that she tends to go off on. “We should get going, no sense in making your mother angry at you.” I say, as we both get up and head downstairs.
Dralfey Altia
Finally done! I breathe a sigh of relief as the last of the guests comes through the gate and I can finally make my way back to the party itself.
In front of me I see the family’s guest hall lit up with a crowd of people making their way inside. The sun was just beginning to set as the last group of guests arrived and the last traces of sunlight still lingered enough to paint the sky a fabulous watercolor of reds and pinks.
Reminds me of the Cinder Lands, I think. The sky had much of the same hues that were present the last time I had gone to visit. The family’s actual lands and history all came from the Cinder Lands, and as such during the academy breaks, my mother often took me back there to visit. If it weren’t for my father being a companion to the Royalty of the Cinder Throne then my mother would never leave the Cinder Lands themselves. Speaking of my father, I think to myself as my footsteps echo on the stone pathway, I wish he could be here, I haven’t seen him in almost a year. If he were here, I know that I would be looking forward to this party rather than dragging my feet about it.
As I get closer to the hall itself, I notice several of the caterers, all Ceorn standing and talking to each other rather than serving or working the tables inside. I stare at them for several moments while I make my way to the hall. At one point one of them notices me and waves for the others to fall silent. He smiles at me and bows. When he is eyes make contact I feel a shiver down my spine. I look away and hurry inside.
Something’s off about those Ceorn. I think to myself as I enter the hall.
My mind quickly puts those thoughts aside as I enter the hall. The hall looks magnificent with the large windows filtering in the last of the sunlight from outside, along with a dozen or so mage lights providing the main source of illumination throughout the building. There are decorations filling all the wills, curtains and draperies in the gray and white that are the Stormcaller colors along with streamers of indigo as a nod to my own rank. The tables themselves are draped in great white cloths with a gray square in the middle. On top of that gray square sits a vase filled with white and indigo flowers. All around the hall the guests are milling about. Many of the guests have the darker skin tones, them being denizens from the Cinder Lands. While others have the lighter tones associated with the other Thrones, including several individuals with the telltale brass rings about their upper arms marking them from the lands of Brunkaalm, a land currently controlled by the Royalty of the Brass Throne, and the one that my father happened to be stationed at.
I have but a few moments to notice all of this before I am immediately greeted by several students from the academy.
“Dralfey Stormcaller,” one of them calls out, “Thank you for inviting us to your party this evening.” He was a taller than average student. His white hair and greenish eyes marking him as a noble of the Ivy Throne. Out of the five students who are greeting her, he is the highest ranked having risen to the rank of Tlassel. All the others in this group were Whasshi.
“Greetings Tlassel Klass. Thank you for honoring us with your presence.” Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew she had made a mistake.
One of the Whasshi sneered slightly as he said, “An honor indeed, if it weren’t for your mother, no one would bother with attending the party of a mere Dralfey.”
The whole group chimed in agreement with the Tlassel smiling triumphantly. He had always done this to me. He liked to pick on those weaker then himself, and recently because of my inability to get out of the Dralfey rank or use my family’s powers I had become an ever increasing target of his teasing.
I started to feel flush in my face. My whole body was starting to heat up, and it started to feel very stuffy even in the big spacious hall. I couldn’t leave though, considering that this was my party. I couldn’t tell if the reason for being so warm was because of my own embarrassment or because of the anger building up inside of me.
Fortunately at around this time Salaria arrived and quickly maneuvered through the group of students towards me. One look at her face and I could see the anger and frustration boiling inside of her. She grabbed one of my arms and made as to move in deeper into the hall. When she had arrived the students had all quieted down and where waiting to see what the Tlassel would do.
As she made her way to move deeper into the hall, Tlassel Klass stood in her way, his arms crossed in front of her chest.
“Move.” Salaria said to him.
He stood there for several moments each moment in obvious defiance to her command. Until finally he stepped aside. The heat in my body continued to rise in tandem to my own anger, frustration taking the place of embarrassment.
As we passed by him he said loud enough to hear. “My father tells me that giving the Calamacy rank to one so young was a mistake.” Salaria paused for a moment as he continued, “He said that if he had been in charge she would have never made it to see the next day.”
Salaria stopped and turned to face him. I could feel her whole body trembling in anger as she stared at him. She simply stared at him, her with the look of cold fury on her face and him with a smirk plastered across hers. Several moments passed as she continued to stare at him. The other students all started shifting uncomfortably. I could see in their faces that they all thought that Klass had gone too far.
One of them tried to break the tension by saying, “Klass-vos, we should go…”
At which point Klass interrupted him, “I’m not afraid of some phony who can’t even call upon her summon.”
Salaria merely stood there staring angrily at him. Her hand tightened on my arm as she replied through gritted teeth. “Well apparently your grandmother was afraid, considering she was one of the one’s who gave me this rank, Tlassel-vi.”
That comment seemed to strike home, not just because Salaria had insulted Klass’s grandmother, who happened to be the current Royalty of the Ivy Throne, but also because she had called him “vi” instead of “vos” implying that he was not only younger him but that he was a child compared to her.
The smirk on Klass’s face disappeared and I could see his own anger building at the two-fold insult. Several of the Whasshi students started coaxing Klass to calm down, trying to diffuse the escalating tension before Klass did something stupid. Which of course he did.
As the other Whasshi were trying to talk him down, he spat out one last retort, “At least I didn’t kill my parents.”
That was the last straw for me. The heat had built up to a pounding in my head and when those words left my lips, I saw the shock in everyone’s eyes, including Salaria’s. The anger seemed to be swelling up inside me, and then something clicked. The whole world seemed to take on a sharp focus. I saw Klass standing there, a slightly feral smirk on his lips, for he knew that that comment had hit home. I saw the widening of everyone’s eyes, and before I knew what I was doing I felt a surge of energy pour through me. Extending a hand out, I could feel the energy focusing in my hand just begging for release.
“Leave,” I whispered. Letting go of the energy I felt a gale wind erupt from my hand, the wind itself slamming into Klass and the other Whasshi. Everyone except for Klass were pushed away, several losing their balance completely so that the wind picked them up and threw them out the open door to the hall. The Tlassel was trying to remain standing against the wind pressure, but was slowly losing ground.
A hand on my shoulder shifted my attention away from the students, and I saw Salaria standing there.
“That’s enough,” I heard her say. Behind her I could see everyone in the hall had stopped what they were doing and were watching silently.
Realizing what I was doing I let go of the wind. As the wind died down I fled from the hall, not wanting to have to face all those individuals, especially my mother. I would have to face them eventually, but not right now. Not with what just happened.
Calamacy Salaria
I stood there in the aftermath, watching as Altia came back to her senses and left the hall. The students who had been provoking us scurried out of the way as Altia passed by. Even that Tlassel Klass didn’t do anything, there was merely a look of not comprehending what had just happened written across his face.
Facing all the students I say, “I think it would best if you retire for the evening.” They merely nodded their heads and one by one left the hall. Giving assistance to those who had fallen completely on the ground. Outside I could hear the sound of raindrops beginning to fall.
I turned around to face the rest of the crowd and saw Altia’s mother staring at me intently. The hall was still fairly silent, many of the individuals still curious as to what happened. Several looked outraged but they seemed to be containing their emotions for the moment. Taking this opportunity I made my way through the crowd toward Altia’s mother.
When I arrived in front of her, I looked her in the eyes and said, “Duchess Kassari-fe, I apologize on behalf of your daughter for the disturbance this evening, but it seems due to discussion with one of our classmates from the academy your daughter has managed to finally breakthrough and call upon the Stormcaller magic.”
Watching her eyes, I saw the understanding dawn on her and also the questions that she wanted to ask. But before she could I ask I gave her a small bow and excused myself from her presence. Walking out of the hall I headed for where I knew Altia would retreat to.
It didn’t take long to find her. Even though by the time I had reached her I was thoroughly soaked at the rain coming down. I found her standing in a small clearing near the edge of the estate. Her arms were out and her head was tilted back.
“So this is what my parents meant.” She said. She continued to stare up at the sky as the rain was pelting down on both of us.
I stood there silently waiting for her to continue her thought.
She finally brought her arms down and looked at me. “No wonder they couldn’t describe how to connect to it, it’s just….. there,” She said reaching a hand out to nowhere in particular.
I spoke up a slight smirk crossing my face, “Congrats Altia, you not only managed to break through, but also managed to assault the grandson of the Royalty of the Ivy Throne.”
A smile broke across her face as she looked at me, “I did, didn’t I?”
“The look of surprise on that jerks face was well worth it in my opinion,” I say.
At that we both burst out laughing. The rain started to lighten up. Since the sun had gone down we could only rely on the lights of the hall in the distance to guide us as we made our way back.
It was silent for the first few minutes as we both calmed down. Finally Altia asked, “Do you think mother is going to be mad at me?”
“Probably not, I already made some apologies for you, and I figure she never really liked Klass in the first place, so you’ll probably get off because you managed to tap into the family power….” I trailed off because I noticed Altia had stopped moving. She stood there for several moments unblinking.
Feeling something was off I stepped forward to touch her, when I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. Something in all black rushed toward me and a small glint of medal flickered at me. I felt a moment of panic as the realization struck home, I’m being attacked.
Then everything went black.