“It’s just a small thing.”
“To master such a skill in just a few short months is nothing to scoff at. I’m very proud of you.”
He wondered what his uncle would think if he knew that Alistar had mastered the spell within two weeks, and had since gone on to study other spellwork. Uncle needs to take a break from his duties. Maybe I should ask him to spend a day with Anne and I?
Caedmon was dressed in a similar outfit to his own, though his uncle’s included a silver circlet atop his long-haired head as well as a shiny pocket watch of the same shade. The chain of this watch was fastened to one of the many polished buttons of his sable tunic, leaving a hanging string of silver between the button and his breast pocket. There were deep bags below his eyes, as well as a few stress lines that hadn’t been there in recent years.
“How are you holding up? Not too nervous, I hope?”
He could tell that his uncle was the nervous one, but he saw no sense in pointing this out. Instead, he said, “Not nervous, but a bit uncomfortable.” Looking down at his clothes for a moment, he added, “I can’t wait to change out of this outfit for today’s practice.”
“Practice? You won’t be having practice for the next five days, unfortunately. Tramon didn’t say anything?”
Alistar recalled the conversation that he’d had with his master about his curriculum for this week. Tramon had said that, under no circumstances short of death itself was he to miss one of his classes during this time, and if any of his uncles had a problem with this then they could come take him back by force. Having sensed that the old sword master would have liked nothing more than for such a development to occur, Alistar had simply assured him that he would attend the lessons as usual and had forgotten about it up until this moment.
“I don’t think Master will like that…”
“I suspect that there’s not much the man likes, even on a good day.” Glancing at the main table, which was laden with all sorts of dishes and refreshments, Caedmon’s eyes settled on Alder after a quick scan of the room. “Go on and join Anice, now. I need to go speak with my dear old chamberlain about some last minute things.”
If only it were so easy, thought Alistar, sighing as he approached the dining table. He could only imagine the sorts of spars that awaited him in the following weeks. His lessons in general had become much more intense after he’d managed to cut off the tip of Tramon’s cane, which his teacher blamed on the fact that he’d had one too many sips of whiskey before the lesson. Regardless of the reason, now that he was doomed to disobey the man’s words, Alistar could only shiver at the thought of the eventual response.
He found a seat beside Anice midway down the table, noticing that Janine, Patricia and Madeline weren’t around.
“If you’re looking for the women, they’ll be staying in town for the next week.” Anice was absentmindedly poking a grape with one of her forks, as if she expected it to wake up and walk away due to her efforts. “I wish we could go stay with them.”
Many months had passed since Patricia had become pregnant with Stason’s child, which meant that it had been quite some time since Alder had pulled Alistar aside and described to him the process of conceiving a child. That conversation had ballooned into many other related topics, which Alistar had then studied extensively from relevant books that he’d found in the collegia’s library. By this point he was well aware of the poor reputation for lust and lasciviousness that House Silverkin had garnered over the years, a trait that he had failed to perceive in many of the guards back in Crystellum until reflecting upon specific moments in hindsight.
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“Is it really that bad?” he wondered aloud, before a sudden seed of worry was planted in his heart. Caedmon had invited Lessa’s family to join them throughout much of the week, as they were also members of House Silverkin, though not of the main branch. “They won’t bother Lessa, do you think?
At fourteen, Lessa had been maturing a lot in recent months and she was now quite the beautiful young lady. He had been painfully aware of this during all of their recent interactions, for after his long conversation with Alder this past winter, he had realized that the reason for the air of awkwardness that usually took hold of the two whenever they were in one another’s company was simply because he found her attractive. It had been very apparent that he’d felt a certain way about her beforehand, though in his ignorance he’d had no idea why.
“I wouldn’t put it past them. Those scoundrels, why do we have to share the same blood as them?”
Feeling clouds growing over his consciousness, Alistar narrowed his eyes in displeasure. A second later, he abruptly moved his head and caught a walnut that Anice had just flicked at him.
“Now you know why I hate them so much. Well, we can always run away during the day and just come back for meals.”
Picking up a piece of fried beef from one of the many platters in front of her, she was reprimanded by her father from across the room not to touch any food until their guests arrived.
They spent the next hour talking to various people, having long conversations with Mrs. Dawn and Alder. The local Silvus branch of the Silverkin family arrived shortly after, consisting of Lessa, her elder sister Priscilla—one of the young women that aided Mr. Herst with his lessons on the Hanging Hill—and their parents. All shared the same shade of hair, that of a healthy heap of hay. With the exception of the eldest daughter, whose irises were blue, his friend and her parents had silver eyes just like his family.
Lessa took a seat beside him, her family going off to speak to the other adults as she leaned forward to stare into his eyes with wonder. “That’s amazing, Alistar. I can’t believe you actually learned the spell!”
He shrugged but said nothing, conscious of her close proximity. Her hair was smooth and shiny, a bit curlier than usual with two thin braids of silk-bound strands framing either side of her flawless face. Her lips were glossed with some sort of sap, her dress a marriage of silvers and light blues. As she leaned in to look at his eyes, he was taken by the aroma of sweet fruit.
“Why do you need to be so close? Are you going blind?”
Blushing slightly, Lessa turned to Anice and fumbled with a smile, “You seem to be in fine spirits. I’m glad to see it.”
“Yes, this might very well be the best day of my life.”
Hearing the sarcasm in Anice’s voice, the other girl could only send Alistar a helpless glance as if in a plea for help.
“Worrying about it only makes it worse. The way I see it, by this time next week it’ll all be a memory.”
“I want it to be a memory now.”
Alistar really hoped that Anice collected herself before the guests arrived, since she tended to blurt things without thought whenever she was emotionally distressed.
A pleasant distraction came in the form of Mr. Albeck, who stopped by to wish the three of them a good morning. Once he’d greeted everyone, he turned to Alistar and patted him on the shoulder, examining the shade of his eyes with pride. “Wonderful. Not only did you learn this spell, but Anice also learned how to freeze small amounts of water just last week. Both of my pupils are doing such a great job with their studies.”
“Of course we are,” smiled his cousin, who inflated a bit at the praise.
“Ah, teacher, I no longer need those trinkets you lent me. I’ll return them to you soon.”
“No rush, Alistar. It can wait until next week.”
He was referring to all sorts of everyday objects that his teacher had gathered in order to help him master the ocular alteration spell that his uncle was so dead set on him learning. These were basically just knickknacks of all sorts of colours that he’d relied on to help him visualize the desired changes to his irises during practice.
“Okay, I’ll bring them with me to our next lesson.”
His teacher glanced at his fingers and raised an eyebrow. “You’ve only removed one ring? You should be able to lose another one so long as you sustain that spell indefinitely.”
“I’m just being cautious,” he said quietly. “My energies are still growing, so I don’t want to risk misjudging how much of my aura I can conceal.”