Artem distractedly watched Marcus leaving the training hall. He waited until the other boy closed the door before checking his connected bracelet. With the network only working inside the school, Galen couldn’t send him any updates. However, students could buy an amplifier to upgrade the range of the connected bracelet. It was ridiculously expensive and still limited to the Center, but the Ruh Family bought it for Anan – although not for Mahlon apparently. Thanks to it, Anan had kept in touch with Artem throughout the day.
Artem received Anan’s last update during his training with Marcus. It was written in military shorthand, but Artem easily read it.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Lyra grumbled.
“I trust you, Lyra.” Artem went to the wood column arrays to train his blocks and parries. Galen and the other pharmacists were on the mini-bus, so he had time. The moves were so ingrained in him that he could use one part of his concentration to answer his CSI, “I have several reasons for doing things like that with Anan.”
“Which are? I don’t understand what you could gain from this. Now, you owe Anan a favor. What for? You know that you can’t trust the Ruh.”
“Yes, but since I know, it isn’t a mistake but a calculated risk. Moreover, only fools would ignore a source of information. Logistics and information gathering have won more wars than force ever did.”
His father had insisted a lot about that, and he had taught Artem how to find reliable information. The few lessons Artem got from his mother were also on this subject, which might explain why he put such importance on it.
Tana’s lessons included how to bargain with information brokers, so Artem didn’t promise Anan anything disadvantageous for him or his brother. His only obligation was to help them once with carefully specified limitations. Moreover, making these kinds of deals was also a way to build up his network.
Instead of explaining himself to Lyra, Artem teased her. “What I do understand is that you weren’t sincere this morning. Using Anan was your idea. Were you only indulging me?”
“What if I did?” Lyra answered haughtily. “Anyway, I’m sure your spy doesn’t know what I do!”
“Well? Do tell!” Artem said in a haughty tone matching Lyra’s.
“Not telling!” Lyra childishly stuck out her tongue even if Artem couldn’t see her.
After some back and forth in good humor, Lyra relented. She needed to inform one of the twins, and she didn’t want to hurt Galen with her news.
When Galen was taking care of his business with Mahlon, Lyra had heard someone talking to Beren after the reward ceremony. From the conversation, she confirmed that Beren Yaratilis had not only manipulated the second trial to give Galen a tricky case, but he had also bought out other members of the jury so that Galen ended up at the fourth place and received no valuable rewards. When the person with Beren had grumbled that they didn’t think it was enough to push down the Eos Family’s heir, Beren had boasted about his scheme. The insufferable man had added that this was altogether more satisfying than keeping Galen from competing.
Sadly, Lyra understood why he did it. He let Galen have hope before taking it from him at the last moment. Shaking herself from her memories, she told Artem, “Anyway, I think it’s obvious that Beren has hard feelings against the Eos Family, but he isn’t the only one. I didn’t catch his interlocutor’s name, but it sounded like it hadn’t been hard to convince them.”
She could have tried to hide this from Artem too, but the youth had a strange instinct about these kinds of things. He surely would have known that she was hiding something.
Artem frowned when he heard Lyra’s news. He needed to protect his brother, but what could he do against Beren? Not much in fact. Artem was no schemer, and it was evident that strength wasn’t the answer.
As he pondered this dilemma, he saw Ayden training. Seeing her gleefully detonating her “spark” on moving targets while playing hide and seek on the special training ground – the boy had splurged a bit on the machine, using up the credits he got from his exam’s results –, Artem remembered that one of her evolution called her a Trickster.
Artem knew a good officer needed to know about strategies like traps, ambushes, and feints. His father had trained him to follow the path of a front-line fighter meant to draw attention to him with his giant pet and lead from the front. Artem’s straightforward way of fighting wasn’t only due to his personality, he was also trained in it.
However, Artem didn’t have a giant pet, he only got a pet who could be a trickster. That made him question his strategies. He had thought he should switch to tactics more appropriate for a scout or a special operative. Was it possible to keep his role as a front-line fighter while Ayden acted as a skirmisher using ambushes and subterfuge tactics? He had trained her marksman skills since it was one of the basic training for a scout, but she might enjoy this path more.
To make sure of it, Artem called the Fire Fairy to him. When he shared his thoughts with her, she showed great enthusiasm. A slow smile spread on Artem’s face. He would make it work.
Lyra refrained from pointing out that fighting sneakily wouldn’t help to face schemers like Beren Yaratilis. She didn’t want to douse Artem’s enthusiasm – from what she had learned about her host’s character, she suspected it was his way of coping with the situation.
***
Artem went to the front of the school on time to welcome Galen back. As the pharmacists climbed down from the bus, Artem politely nodded at Anan. Galen rejoined his brother, and the two boys silently walked through the school.
Galen guessed Artem was informed about everything that happened during the competition by Lyra and Anan. As the heir, Galen knew about Artem’s training and obligations. Galen still shook his head when Artem didn’t even pretend to ask how it went. But he wasn’t angry. It was so much like his brother that Galen could only smile.
Though he enjoyed the silence, Galen spoke with Artem about his idea to use poison. Artem took the matter seriously and asked precise questions to understand its advantages and disadvantages to guide and train Galen correctly. The conversation went on as the twins went to eat before going back to their room. Galen sought solace in his brother’s confidence and tried to mirror his optimism by focusing on what he could do instead of dwelling on his failures.
***
On Sunday, Artem kept Galen away from the library and forced him to have a lot of physical activities. Even if Artem didn’t ask about the competition, his training program showed he cared about his brother and wanted to keep him from overthinking. That didn’t keep Galen from feeling frustrated. He had so much to research. Some of his researches were even meant to help train Lucia.
The Light Fairy had learned the rare skill “light shield”, but Galen also had the rare skill “illusion” to teach her. The problem was that this rare skill was peculiar, and Galen was unfamiliar with it. Galen wondered if it only used light spiritual element, or if it needed some psychic spiritual element. Moreover, teaching such a skill directly from the rare rank was hard. So Galen wanted to look for common or notable skills that may lead to the rare skill “illusion”. However, with Artem’s interference, Galen was stuck in the training hall.
“Stop moping around!” Artem scolded him. “Anyway, Lucia had just learned the ‘light shield’. You should be training her in it until she mastered its usage instead of rushing to teach her something else.”
Galen had to admit that he was impatient. So he practiced his shield forms while Lucia trained her “light shield” and experimented to see if she could replicate some of the forms. Meanwhile, Ayden trained her accuracy, and Artem guided his brother and the fairies through their practices.
As the twins switched to training their cooperation with their fairies, they suddenly heard the door opening. Glancing over, they saw Crystal haughtily walking toward them. Her Gray Stone Wallaroo was trailing behind her. Its reluctance was obvious.
Galen and Artem exchanged glances, tacitly agreeing to stay silent. Crystal came to a stop in front of them. She waited for them to greet her until the silence became too awkward.
Crystal pursed her lips and forged ahead. She raised her head and declared, “I see you’re still arrogant. Well, be glad. I’m allowing you to work with a rare pet instead of wasting away with your common weaklings.” She waited for the twins to react, but they maintained their impassibility. She could only clarify her meaning. Once they understood what she meant, she was sure they would be thankful to her. “I’m doing you the favor of letting you train my rare Gray Stone Wallaroo.”
“I don’t know what she’s smoking, but she should stop. It’s destroying the few brain cells she got!” Lyra exclaimed despite trying to keep quiet as long as the twins.
“Why would we train your pet?” Artem ignored Lyra’s comment and retorted to Crystal with a heavy frown.
Artem’s question threw the girl off for a bit. Who wouldn’t want to work with a rare pet? Especially when one was forced to make do with a pet as weak and creepy as a fairy. But she understood his meaning when she remembered their monetary situation. “Don’t you need money? I’ll pay you for it.”
Artem flatly refused her. He didn’t even need to think about it.
“Why are you refusing? You’re tutoring Marcus!” Crystal hotly answered.
“I’m not tutoring Marcus. We’re friends. We’re helping each other,” Artem slowly explained as if talking to a simpleton.
“Don’t lie to me!” Crystal pointed a finger at Artem and said in an imperious tone, “You’re a tutor, so tutor me too!”
“I’m not allowed to tutor third-year students.” Artem saw that Crystal was stubborn, so he repeated himself using his best deadpan voice to show her that she was annoying him. “When I’m with Zane, Marcus, or my brother, we train together. I don’t tutor them.”
Crystal wanted to protest. Artem spoke louder and faster to keep her from answering. “Moreover, I don’t train pets, I train students in fighting skills. I doubt you want to learn how to fight.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Crystal clenched her teeth in anger. Why were the twins always demeaning her? Before she could find a way to retort, Artem went on. “If you are looking for a Beast Trainer, you should speak to Naila. It’s the career she chose.”
“You just don’t want to help me.” Crystal accused Artem, but she also looked at Galen. He was supposed to be the more reasonable twin, but he hadn’t said anything.
“We don’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t,” Artem answered while Galen kept quietly looking at them.
Crystal saw Galen’s indifferent eyes. He wouldn’t help her convince his twin. She wanted to scream in frustration, but it would only damage her image further. She struggled to control her emotions to leave the room in a hurry. The Gray Stone Wallaroo looked at the twins without moving until Crystal screeched at it to follow her. She slammed the door on her way out.
“She’s doing it on purpose, right?” Lyra said afterward. “She can’t be that stupid.”
“I think she is,” Artem said unkindly.
“You think she was sincerely asking you to train her pet?” Lyra didn't like how the girl was treating her wallaroo so she wondered if Crystal was doing it for her pet or her pride.
“She’s a schemer, but she has no subtlety,” Artem answered, recalling when she had tried to use Orsella. “What I’m wondering is why she’s always around on Sundays. Isn’t she living outside of the school?”
“I don’t know,” Galen said. “I think Zane told me that most beast-tamer students rent a room at the school dorm to use the facilities more easily. Crystal might be from a rich household, but she is a first-generation beast tamer. I doubt they have any training equipment at home.”
Artem thought quietly for a moment. When he remembered who had sat next to Crystal during his fight with Orsella, he added, “She became quite close with Cecelia. I don’t remember them speaking with each other before.”
“You’re right. That might be because they united in their hate for us,” Galen mused. He wondered if they should be more wary of Cecelia.
“Or they’re roommates!” Lyra chirped. She didn’t want to think about Crystal since seeing her behavior frustrated the CSI, but Lyra would make an exception if she could entertain the twins by making fun of the girl. “Maybe even lovers!”
“Cecelia is just coping with her father’s death.” Galen scolded Lyra. “We can’t hold that against her.”
“Whatever!” Lyra dismissed Galen’s comment, giving up on trying to be funny. “You better go back to your training. Your reservation time is coming to a close.”
Artem agreed with Lyra. Crystal wasn’t worth their time.
***
The twins went back to their routine the following week. Like he had planned, Galen spent most of his free time in the library. He quickly finished researching the roots and mushrooms that could be used for the fairies’ super-evolution.
Galen had given up on trees since they were too expensive and bothersome. Trees naturally took a long time to grow, but it was worse for spirit trees. They required a lot of cares until they produced fruits and any other parts that could be harvested, and the harvests were few and far between.
That was one of the reasons their price was very high. The second reason was that the Louloudi Family had recognized this business opportunity early on. Now, they had a monopoly on spirit tree cultivation and a lot of precious spirit plant cultivation in Olympia. With the precarious situation of the Eos Family, Galen didn’t want to depend on the goodwill of one Family to get the required ingredients.
After careful studies and considerations, Galen concluded that using only spirit flowers might be best. Nevertheless, he wanted to cover all possibilities. So Galen decided to add some roots with earth spiritual element to his selection for Ayden. Galen played it safe since he couldn’t determine if air or water was more appropriate for the Autumn Court, but he was sure that earth was fitting. Indeed, Autumn was the season for hunting and harvesting, which meant taking food from the earth. That fitted nicely with Ayden’s and Artem’s path as hunters.
Despite wanting the best ingredients like the twice-revived bitterroot, Galen ignored the roots and plants from far-away Cities-States regions. He focused on those more accessible, like the breathy dark licorice that had some earth and air spiritual elements. After careful comparison, Galen found two roots that shouldn’t lower the quality of the pill.
Galen selected the root of the earthy sun-soaked topinambour because it had fire and earth spiritual elements, was harvested in the right season, and was easy to get in the Mediterranean Cities-States region. His second choice was the root of the invigorating maroon chicory. Not only was it used for food, but it was also an ingredient recognized for medicinal purposes. Harvested in Autumn, this root seemed even more fitting to Ayden’s ever-lasting energy.
For Lucia, Galen studied in more detail several mushrooms. Despite his interest in the honey-crowned bulbous cep for its luminescence and strong vitality, it had an earth spiritual aspect that Galen wasn’t keen to use for his Light Fairy. In the same way, Galen felt that the shadowy war-helmet trumpet didn’t have enough light spiritual element and was too dangerous. So he turned his attention to the sunset-lilac mycena. This mushroom produced a purple light that shined more brightly at dusk. This indicated spiritual elements of light and shadow. It was also known for being linked to the psychic spiritual element. Moreover, it was from the Baltic Cities-States region. The fact that it came from a place near Avalon encouraged Galen to believe he was on the right track, even though he added only one mushroom to his list of ingredients for Lucia.
With that, Galen had his main target ingredients, as well as backup ingredients for the super-evolution pill. The troublesome part would be procuring these ingredients. Galen missed his Family’s gardens. The Eos Family actually had two of them. The first one was under the care of the minor branch of the Family and contained the plants his mother and the other pharmacists from the Family often used to equip their members with basic potions and evolution pills.
The second one was Tana Eos’s private garden. The spirit plants inside were so precious and delicate that none of the twins had ever been allowed inside. Tana had made a deal with the Louloudi Family to tend and nurture them. As things stood, Galen wasn’t sure that the Beast Tamer Association allowed the Louloudi Family to fulfill their obligations.
Galen didn’t know which spirit plants were in his mom’s garden, but he was sure that they were at least rare or higher-grade spirit plants. Galen felt pain at the thought that the plants might die because the Association didn’t properly take care of them.
The youth considered contacting the Louloudi Family to ask them about his Family’s garden. However, he didn’t have the money to pay them to carry on with the deal, and Tana had long warned her son about this Family. They were part of the Balkan Families, so they were technically allies, but they valued business much more than politics.
So it all went back to their lack of money. Galen knew how to super-evolve his fairy, but he couldn’t do it because he was too poor to afford it. It was a new feeling for a young master like him. Several feelings battled in him – frustration, sadness, discouragement – until Lyra interrupted him.
“I see you need a new quest,” Lyra said in an exaggerated, wise tone. “Let’s see what I’ve got. Hmm, I suppose it’s time to look at the coordinates your parents left with the recipe. Want me to make it a system announcement?”
As usual, Lyra was right. His mom had promised to help them, so the twins had to have faith in her preparations. Asking Lyra to read to him the notes she took for him, Galen began to work on identifying which place the coordinates referred to. It rapidly became obvious that the numbers given didn’t lead to real coordinates.
This left Galen at a loss for a time. He switched gear and searched for anything he might have missed to decipher the coordinates as the cipher he got from Melia’s account book wasn’t enough. This left him quite busy for the whole week.
Lyra forced him to take breaks from time to time, arguing that if he didn’t take his mind off his problem, he would become narrow-minded and miss a solution. Galen did it by going over every information about renowned spirit plants gardens around the Baltic and Mediterranean Cities-States despite Lyra’s grumbling that this wasn’t what she had meant.
Galen argued that this was his hobby. The fact that he hoped to find some places where the twins could acquire the spirit plants needed for their fairies by using unusual channels was just a bonus.
This time, Galen chose an old diary written by a mundane pharmacist who liked to travel around for his pleasure during his downtime. This man’s hobbies laid in botany and long walks in parks and gardens since going on a trek outside a City-State was particularly unwise for him. Galen quite enjoyed the book because his mother had recommended it to him. She had said that she had found the man’s comments amusing and his description of the gardens accurate. Each garden was accompanied by realistic drawings done by the pharmacist.
As he was browsing the book, Galen admired the drawings. The gardens were beautifully reproduced. Lyra couldn’t understand what there was to look at. It was just some pictures.
She was bored out of her mind. Artem was tutoring some spoiled, first-year student, and Galen wasn’t doing anything interesting. She looked around the library mindlessly. Her gaze stopped when she noticed Silas and his nymph.
The boy had been coming to the library at the same time as Galen the whole week. Of course, Lyra had warned her hosts about him. The twins had judged Silas harmless, but Lyra didn’t like seeing him lurking around Galen. She turned her attention to her host. Feeling his quiet contentment, she refused to stress him with another warning. Her being watchful was enough.
Bored again, she let her gaze fall on the garden pictures, searching for anything that could grab her attention.
“What are these small numbers under the pictures?”
“These should be the picture references,” Galen answered distractedly without glancing at the numbers.
“But they’re not in numerical order.” Lyra looked some more and blurted out, “Don’t they look like coordinates?”
“No, they -”
Galen cut himself off as his mind caught up with what Lyra had said. He was on the page for a famous ornamental and medicinal garden in Olympia. Galen was quite familiar with it because the pharmacist elective class had went on several field trips there over the years. It was quick work to check the actual coordinates of the place.
They didn’t match the numbers under the picture. Was the author using another system? Were these a string of random numbers? Galen refused to believe so. There was a mystery there.
Coordinates depended on the center chosen. Intrigued, Galen checked several gardens in a row. All the numbers written were different from the actual coordinates. Feeling that he might be on a lead, Galen hurriedly checked all the garden pictures from the diary, looking for a string of numbers matching the ones left by his parents. And there, he found them under the picture of the Hanging Gardens of the City-State of Babylonia.
“You can thank me whenever you feel like it!” Lyra said smugly. “We only take cash. Please proceed to the counter to pay up!”
Galen was too astonished to respond to Lyra’s nonsense. His feeling of accomplishment was toned down by the realization that this wasn’t good news. He had to speak with his brother.
Galen organized his findings and shared them with Artem in the comfort and apparent privacy of their room. While Lyra could ensure that there were no beasts listening in on them, they still wasn’t sure about their connected bracelet.
Galen concluded with the discovery of the day. “It’s pointing us toward the Hanging Gardens, but as minors, we won’t be able to go the City-State of Babylonia.”
Artem stayed quiet, digesting his brother’s news and ignoring Lyra, who was demanding recognition.
“You’ll have one opportunity to go there. The New Year Party is in Babylonia this year, isn’t it?”
Artem was talking about the party organized each year to gather all the Families of the Mediterranean Cities-States region. All the heads and the heirs were supposed to go. It was a big event. Galen had been going with his parents since he had turned fifteen.
“I don’t intend to go.” Galen saw his brother’s frown, so he added, “It feels too dangerous.”
“If you go alone, yes. But with me to protect you, it should be manageable.”
“They won’t allow you inside.” Galen had become quite cynical since his parents’ death.
“Well, you’re technically the head now. Since you have no child, I’m your heir. So they should let me in.”
“I’m not officially the head yet. And I’ve more than one reason to not go. The Third Elder’s schemes, for instance. Or more importantly: the two of us alone are not enough to guarantee our survival.”
“Hey! I’ll be there too!” Lyra interjected.
“Well, since the New Year Party is in January, we have time to prepare ourselves.” Artem continued to counter his brother, keeping his calm and logic. “I also think that Dad and Mum wouldn’t leave us something impossible to get. They knew we’d still be minors.”
“Or there is another layer in this information you have yet to decipher,” Lyra mused. Wasn’t that often used in spy’s movies?
“I see where you’re going with this,” Galen answered. However, Artem and Lyra didn’t relieve his worries. “It’s true that even if we somehow got to Babylonia, the access to the Hanging Gardens is quite restrictive.”
“You got a lead?” Artem asked his brother, confident in both his parents’ plan and his brother’s skills to decipher their intention.
“Not at all.” Galen smiled to hide his despondency. “But like you said, we have time until the New Year Party.”