After saying their farewells, Alistar led the girls back to Caedmon’s estate where they were quickly summoned to dinner by a frowning house servant. Although none of them were hungry, they made their way to the dining hall with collective apprehension. During this walk, Alistar resolved to take quick action in order to assuage any anger that his cousins might have been harbouring toward him.
The only people in the dining hall upon their arrival were Edmun, Calum, and a few house servants. His uncles, including Caedmon, were currently walking through a distant hallway, having just left a more discreet sitting room that was rarely used by the inhabitants of the house. Alder and Mr. Albeck were also on their way over from the library, while Lessa’s parents were just being admitted to the estate by Rayson and Herald. Johan and Priscilla were sitting on a bench in the outer gardens, with no indication of movement.
“Seems we got here at the perfect time,” commented Anice as Mr. and Mrs. Silvus entered the room from the other doorway.
“So it seems,” muttered Alistar. “You two go and pick your seats. I’ll be right there.”
Without waiting for a response, he quickly broke off from the two of them and walked over to where his cousins were standing by one of the windows. They didn’t seem too happy to see him, both sipping from silver chalices of wine that they had snatched from the table.
“Cousins,” said Alistar, holding his hands up in a gesture of placation. “About what happened earlier, I’m sorry for butting in. As an apology, I’ve brought you some gifts that I think you’ll like.”
Edmun glanced at him though didn’t turn away from his brother. “What could you have that I would ever take?”
Alistar answered by holding out two of the three coins that Vanessa had given him, her aura apparent on their surfaces. Seeing this, both of the brothers turned their focus on the objects with wide eyes.
“Is this…?” said Calum, grabbing one of them without ceremony. “How did you manage to get these?”
Edmun grabbed his without saying a word and began to look it over with excited fingers.
“Well, I was lucky enough to end up talking to Vanessa for a while and it seems that her companions were just jealous of your fine clothes and good looks, so they tried to shoo you away.”
Calum nodded along as if everything had suddenly fallen into place, while Edmun raised a dark eyebrow.
“Vanessa? That’s the Silent Swordsman’s name?”
Alistar nodded as if he’d already known her alias. “It is. She wasn’t too keen on giving out energy imprints, but after I told her of how capable you two were and that you were both to become great lords of the kingdom in the coming years, she happily handed these to me and made me promise to deliver them to you.”
Calum stored the coin away in a pocket with a greedy smile. “Alistar, was it? You’re a decent fellow in the end, aren’t you?”
“I’ll have to thank you then,” said Edmun, flicking his head to shift some dark, wayward hairs from his face. “I didn’t think the rest of them would be so petty, but considering the Silent Swordsman’s beauty I can hardly blame them.”
“I can’t wait to return to the arcannia. If I make a necklace of this, I’ll be the envy of the entire academy.”
“A good idea, that. I think I’ll…”
Edmun trailed off as Caedmon, Antoine and Daniel walked into the room, the eldest immediately taking his seat at the head of the table. Seeing this, Alistar and his cousins quickly took their seats, leaving him separated from the girls by the two brothers as he sat on the outside of the group. Mr. Albeck and Alder arrived shortly after, soon followed by Johan and Priscilla, at which point Antoine announced the commencement of the meal.
Alistar glanced at his eldest uncle as servants began to pile food onto his plate. Is he ever without his sword?
Sitting at the very end of the table, Alistar didn’t have much of a chance to talk to anyone and so settled for observing those around him, starting with Antoine. Something he had noticed about the man was that every step that he took was perfectly symmetrical to the last, meaning that even his most basic movements were fluid and well-practiced.
The only ones at Alistar’s side were Edmun and Calum, who as usual were entirely focused on Lessa and Anice. As for the adults, they mostly kept to themselves throughout supper, neither of the dukes appearing at all interested in how their sons had enjoyed their first day in Distan.
Dinner passed in due time, at the end of which both Alistar and Anice promptly excused themselves and retreated to their respective rooms for the remainder of the evening. He declined an invitation to accompany the girls to his counsin’s room, his mind already set on how he would occupy the coming hours.
After locking his door and getting settled at his work desk, Alistar cracked open the weathered book that he had just dug out from beneath his pillow, yellow pages aglow from the surrounding candlelight. The ink inside was quite faded, requiring him to strain his eyes in order to enjoy a reliable read.
Haussen Scuff?
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Reading the name recorded on the first page, Alistar was surprised to see that the grimoire’s creator had either been a bastard or an orphan. The date listed after the author’s name, which was usually penned in upon completion of the work, set the time of the grimoire’s completion at NE 356, the 356th year of the New Era. Since it was now NE 511, this meant that the ratty old book was 155 years old and that its writer was long dead.
Excitement tickled Alistar’s gut as he scanned over the first few pages, a strong sense of satisfaction setting in as he saw that the very first spells on record were simple ones that he already knew. The first two pages detailed how to gather water and also how to freeze it, the well-organized notes going on to describe a third spell of simple origin, a crucial one that Alistar had been trying to replicate in private over the past several months.
To manipulate the shape of water, imagine molding clay with your hands, keeping the image of the desired shape well-preserved in the mind’s eye…
As he was trying to follow the logic of Haussen’s notes, he noticed Caedmon’s aura moving towards the staircase that separated the basement from the main floor, which warned him of his uncle’s intent to pay him a visit. Noticing this, he shut the book with steady hands and returned it to its hiding place just beneath his pillow, excitement preserving the light grin on his face. If he could arrange water into specific shapes before freezing it, then the simple household spells that he had learned would gain far more utility. So long as he mastered the shaping process, he would be able to create all sorts of weapons and projectiles, and could rely on his swordsman’s aura to protect his hands from the cold while he wielded them.
“Alistar?” came Caedmon’s voice, jostling him from his daydreams. “May I come in?”
Standing, Alistar unlocked the door and opened it wide before walking to his bed and taking a seat. His uncle entered and shut the door behind him. Pulling the desk chair over to the bedside and settling down onto it, Caedmon fixed Alistar with a tired yet caring stare, his silver circlet gleaming in the candlelight.
“Did you have a good day in town? I hope you’re getting along with your cousins.”
“I’m doing my best to,” he said honestly, “though they’re a bit exhausting to be around.”
“Seems like we’re in similar situations then.”
Sharing a smile with his uncle, he recounted everything that had happened in town today aside from the small fact that he’d treated Team Tempest to some drinks while they were at the tavern. Once he finished speaking, Caedmon let his lips fall in a frown.
“I wonder if I should impose some sort of limitations at the guild. Too many people are coming here these days to tackle those cursed tunnels, and too few are returning.”
Recalling the little crevice where he’d found his translucent crystal, Alistar said, “I don’t think that would accomplish much. People will still be curious enough to go there, guild or no.”
“Even so, I doubt complacency is the answer. Ah, yet another predicament to mull over once my brothers have concluded their visit.” The count seemed a bit thinner than usual, his complexion a bit gaunter.
Wishing that he had more positive news, Alistar put on a sombre expression and met Caedmon’s gaze with a bit of anxiety. “I think Johan knows who I am.”
“What makes you think that?”
Alistar filled Caedmon in on the conversation that the two had shared in the art hall, which instilled an odd hesitancy within his uncle. After thinking things through in silence for a time, the count shook his head and put on an honest, bittersweet smile. “If anyone in the family would recognize you, it would be him.”
“What should we do? Do you think he’ll tell his father?”
Caedmon shook his head. “Antoine’s anything but a loving parent. He treats his sons more like disciples than anything else, and he hardly had a hand in raising them. Johan’s not even eighteen, but he’s spent the past eight years living at the arcannia in Valay.”
“Is it true, what he said? That he used to spend a lot of time with my mother.”
“Oh, your mother and I basically raised him for the first four or five years of his life. His own mother passed away in an accident shortly after he was born, and since his father was too preoccupied with his duties as a newly appointed duke to spend more than a few hours a month with the boy, we wound up caring for him. Your mother and I were kids ourselves, but we felt a connection with him, all of us having fathers that didn’t care for us.”
“Can we trust him not to say anything?”
“He won’t mention it to anyone unless he’s compelled to.” Caedmon put on a melancholic smile. “It’s endearing to think that he still remembers her so vividly, enough to see her eyes in yours.” Looking at the ceiling as if looking into the past, he continued, “You know, aside from myself Johan was more distraught than anyone else when your mother was sent away. After that he was put under the care of some of his father’s house servants for a while, and then he was sent to the arcannia. No, I don’t think he will tell anyone.”
“Is it true that my uncles only met my mother a handful of times?” After all of the sacrifices that his family had made for him, it was difficult to believe that his mother came from such a cold and uncaring household.
Caedmon nodded, though he didn’t seem intent on exploring the topic further. “She was better off because of it, so don’t worry over that. Such is the way that most daughters are treated in our clan.” He stood up with a deep breath, dusting off his pant legs out of habit and then returning Alistar’s chair to the work desk. “I’ll be off to rejoin your uncles, now. Somehow or other they’ve learned of mine and Mr. Danper’s work, and they’re quite intrigued as to how the printing press works. If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to explain it in as boring a manner as possible, which will all but guarantee their loss of interest.”
Leaving with a caring smile and an assuring wink, Caedmon closed the door behind him as he left the room. Once he was well on his way up the staircase at the end of the hallway, Alistar returned to his bed and retrieved the grimoire once again, leaving it sitting on his pillow as he quickly hid Vanessa’s copper lucet in the corner of the bottom drawer of his dresser. Once it was safely stowed away with his mother’s locket—which he didn’t dare wear in the presence of his uncles no matter how oblivious they were of their late sister’s life—he crawled onto his bed and leaned against the headboard, pulling a misshapen quilt over his legs for warmth. The flower sisters had knit this quilt for him as a Name Day gift three years back, and since then he hadn’t slept without it.
Pushing all thoughts from his mind, he began to reread the first few pages of the grimoire, all the while denying his instinctual desire to put the lessons into practice with the water that sat in his wash basin. Four hours and a quarter of the book’s contents later, Alistar smothered the lights with a thought and then retreated to bed.
That was so fun!
He wished more than anything for his relatives to return to their homes so that he could resume his lessons and begin a bit of private experimentation with the grimoire for reference.
Eyelids drooping and mind shutting down, Alistar breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that he had safely navigated his way through the first day of the family visit. So long as he kept a low profile and continued to placate his cousins, the rest of the week would pass in a smooth, casual manner. At least, he could only hope that this would be the case.