Edric and I were seated in his father’s alcove, on the first floor of the tomes. The ground floor was rarely busy, and that was more so true on the upper levels, which made it good for studies. The place looked barren: A few rows of bookshelves, some recessed reading areas, and a wall filled by a map was all that adorned it. Both floors together were barely larger than three or four houses, nowhere near as lavish as the templar or the church, and certainly nothing to challenge the buildings of the cities.

"Close, the northern frost regions are ruled by the Kingdom of Ice. They have no ruler and their people do operate under anarchy but it’s basically the peoples’ consensus, any major issues are usually resolved by duals to the death. It's a core part of their culture."

"then how are their armies so strong Los? There’s no rule, there’s no order. Surely anyone with some balls and half decent troops could kick the syon out of them?” Edric whined to me, showing more emotion than he had the whole night.

He was quick to memorise but also often quick to forget. I'd set up a regime to cover material on First Sun and review on the Seventh Sun of the cycle. Midcycle he'd often have sage arts with his mentor or father, leaving him no extra time to study.

I had already explained this to him, "The Kingdoms don’t compete Edric, we share resources. And if there was ever a war, we’d be fighting with them, not against. That’s why the Holy Sage made the Academy, he wanted all the leaders of the Kingdoms to be capable and learn to co-operate.”

Edric took a second to consider my words, “But father... and the king rules over all the Kingdoms, right?"

“what did… Yes.” There seemed to be something there. His father would sometimes be caught questioning the leaders of the Ember Kingdom, those of Rigmor House. He may have spread it to his family. I wanted to know what was there, maybe Edric knew why, but it was too risky. Much like trying to talk about the incident at Randy forest this morning. I didn’t know how Edric would respond, I’d just use his engagement with the topic to drive his learning.

“But the great Sage is the king of the kingdom’s, not any of the lords of the embers.” I continued. He would sometimes talk about the king and Great Sage as though they were just lord of the likes like his Uncle. I always tried to emphasise, how great the King and Great Sages power was, or at least as best I could. To be honest being so far from any of the great Cities, there was not much I knew other than any news we got to put in the Tak.

Edric was beginning to pay less attention to me. He would rather even arithmetics to studying too much politics. Although I heard from Lunar he told her he wanted, ‘to make the Kingdom a better place’. To me the words sounded foolish coming from him, but from the rosy look she had when she told me, I could tell Lunar didn’t agree with me.

With his exam coming up it would have been wise for him to spend more time reading but whenever I mentioned it, he'd just dismiss it, saying he'll make up for anything he forgets with a faster jab or quicker step in the combat trials. Problem being he had to pass the written exam first.

We ended up finishing what I'd planned for the day and he done well on the oral exam I gave him. I earned a few grunts from him for each mistake I corrected, each one forcing me to stutter. He'd likely forget most of what he’d learned by the end of the Cycle- replacing it all with ways to bloody his foes.

Around eve his father came to take him home. Edric was sixteen, a young man capable of travelling between villages alone, let alone through his own streets. But the church had recently significantly raised taxes for the villages, leading to increase in prices and thievery. Making nobles like Edric prime victims for looting. Heliar, however, was one of the few ascetics within the village. Few would dare cause him trouble.

Had he heard about the fight? He must have by now with Benlor and Gruf going to find him I thought.

But when Heliar came to pick up Edric, it was the usual noisy entrance. There an edge to it this time though. From the upper alcove I heard him cleave the door wide, followed by the sound of what seemed to be a dragon learning to climb stairs. As soon as he appeared from the stairway the atmosphere changed, he was still decked in his usual red robe and wooden sandals but an aura of silent thunder clamoured around him. His brown hair was now bound into a tail by green animal skin and swayed as he walked like a whip being cracked impossibly slow.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Father, the stame… what happened?”

"Where's Velle?" cut Heliar. His voice raspy, the words strained by alcohol and anger.

His state was typical, but the stame on his head wasn’t. It was probably the most valuable thing in the whole village. It was bestowed to Heliar from a Duke of the Church when he had to retire to village life. I had heard it had belonged to the People of Ringer, a powerful tribe in the Earthen lands. I heard the stame was Ringer’s vine. From the gossip of noble children, I knew stories about it. With it, Ringer performed unusual craft- the kind of which the church could not understand. They said he never used pyre. Which I could not understand. What was craft without pyre? I never knew the pyre to differ. He had somehow managed to match one of the churches ascended in battle with it without it though.

"With this many book around her? Only the dead know where she is father. But father, you wouldn’t wear the band unless-"

It was always impressive how quickly Edric could annoy his father. I didn’t know if the interaction was atypical of father-son relationships. When I was in the orphanage there was no room for annoyance- anything and everything was a call to a beating. But this time it was worse. Within a second Heliar’s eyebrows had sharpened to a cross. “I told you to watch her boy. There’s no time, where’d you leave her?"

Edric’s head shirked in, much like a turtle’s would. "It was her first time, I wanted to let her explo-" he started, but Heliar had grown angrier with every word he said.

"I'm here." The same girl I'd bumped into earlier, sans book-pit, appeared at the door. She was carrying a stack of three hefty works, making me instinctively jerk towards her to help. But she done it with ease, if only looking a little disorientated. You would have thought she’d just awoken if it wasn’t for how alive her eyes were.

She might have been adjusting to all the extra light the upper floor had from the big windows. “Father, you’re wearing the stam, what’s happened?”

Heliar loosened, releasing a sigh. He was more concerned than I had realised, he was probably worried for his children knowing the recent events then. So, he must have known what happened. I realised I had been starring a bit to intently at Heliar. He casted me a quick scrutinising, enough to scare me, and then turned away.

“You’re both safe.” He softened his look towards his daughter. "Nothing for you to care for. Did you find anything useful child? And why are you such a mess? Your mother raised a lady, not a trull."

Velle looked disappointed but didn’t press the matter. “No, not really, I still don’t know how to progress… and I was reading father, we are in the tomes,” she complained. Then with a hint of hope she tried, “It’d be useful to get one of the ascetics to-“

“I’ve told you none of them can guide you well considering they all took decades to gain the same insight you have dear, you can just come with us when your brother fails his testing in the city. Besides, they’re all… busy right now.”

Her look of disappointment made me break, then I hated myself for being so weak. Merriam had said men to be like grand floral arrangements like the ones of Yerebia. Though I had yet to see any, I begun to hear the idea as true. I imagined us loud and decadent; maintained only by our women. Then I thought how deeply I wanted her to maintain me. And when my shame came once more, I used a breathing exercise to clear my mind- It only working mostly.

I noticed Edric’s head dipped slightly at the mention of the testing and further still at his sister’s talent. It felt bad seeing him like that. But I was concerned with what the ascetics where busy with- It seemed the news had spread after all.

Heliar’s head snapped to me again, his look pinning me like nail in plank. And for a second I questioned if I had ever read anything about mind reading in the tomes. “Where’s today’s Tak?”

I almost sighed relief. He used to not care what was happening in the city, the only times he’d care to read it would be a flick through, and he’d often jump to the divinations for the weather. I think it helped him decide when and when not to wear his sandals.

But things changed a few weeks back. I always had it ready for him now. it had become a daily routine. Heliar yelled at me once for ‘forgetting’ it and then it became ritual. I couldn’t understand why he cared so much before, the cities news rarely affected anyone from the village, but he was an ascetic.

I gave Heliar the Tak I had with me.

“Let’s go home.” Heliar said.

“But I was meant to go meet Tim and some friends for a few games of tempest.” Edric said.

“Boy, say another word and only the dead know what I’ll do to you.”

Velle was apathetic to the drama, though her eyes stayed hard on her father. Heliar ushered his children to leave before him, following right behind.

I couldn’t help but gravitate my focus once again to her as they went, just before disappearing past the doorway she looked back, sneaking me a smile. Heliar had copied her, looking back too, just in time to catch a dumb expression painted on my face. A whirlwind of emotion stirred in me, not least of all being fear.