Zeke followed his mother through the long hallway on the first floor. Soon, he could make out the figure of David standing next to the door of the conference room. His body was visibly tense, and his usually relaxed features had a tinge of nervousness now.
“Who is our mysterious guest?” Zeke questioned as he arrived in front of the butler. “The way you’re acting, I’ll be disappointed if it’s anyone other than the emperor of Arkenheim himself.”
“You shouldn’t even joke about that, young lord.”
“Fine, now tell me who it is,” Zeke demanded.
“I think it would be better if you just met them,” David hedged. “I don’t believe that our guest arrived with hostile intentions.”
With a grumble, Zeke passed the butler and entered. His gaze was immediately drawn to the sole figure occupying the room. He could make out the silhouette of a woman in front of the window. She had her back turned toward him, but her brilliant golden locks almost glowed in the early morning sun.
“Excuse me for the delay, miss. I didn’t intend to keep you waiting for—”
As he spoke, the figure started to turn, allowing Zeke to get a good look at her. First, he noticed her golden eyes — almost the same shade as his own. However, compared to Zeke's cunning gaze, her golden orbs reflected only depth and confidence. Her complexion glowed as if touched by the essence of radiance. The soft, rosy lips that graced her face were poised, bearing the whisper of a knowing smile, revealing a lifetime of experiences and unspoken mysteries.
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The stranger was undoubtedly the most stunning woman Zeke had ever seen. She easily triumphed over the likes of Viola or Sofia through her mature charm alone. However, this fact wasn’t what had stopped Zeke in his tracks. His eyes opened wide. He knew this face well, in fact, he had seen it dozens of times.
“Mara Sonnenstrahl?” Zeke asked incredulously. “How…?”
The smile vanished from the woman’s face, replaced with an expression of frigid coldness. “And how is it you’ve come to know this name and face?”
Silence descended. Zeke was unable to answer, his gaze reflected only shock and confusion, while the woman’s brows remained furrowed. The tense atmosphere was only broken when David cleared his throat. “She is Lara Sonnenstrahl, Mara’s younger sister.”
This managed to snap Zeke out of his stupor, his brain slowly waking from its momentary lull. “Lara… Sister… Yes, of course, apologies,” he mumbled as he dove into his mind’s library to retrieve any and all information about the woman in front of him.
Now that he was reading her entry, he realized why he had not recognized her. The woman in front of him was far better known under a different name. His eyes skimmed over the pages, scouring the book for all it was worth. Lara Sonnenstrahl was a light mage from the Equinox kingdom, hailing from the prestigious Sonnenstrahl family. She had managed to become an Arch Mage at the age of 84, putting her on the list of the 100 youngest Arch Mages in recorded history.
After the death of her older sister, she had taken it upon herself to fight the empire in her stead. Her relentless presence on the battlefield earned her many nicknames, but it was her achievement of killing an enemy commander on the other side of a battlefield with a single shot that earned her the Mage name ‘Aurora’. For the last two centuries, Aurora had remained one of the most feared commanders on the continent. Only narrowly giving up the first spot on the empire’s most wanted list to the Berserker — Tristan Bloodsword.
Zeke's posture straightened. Now that he knew who he was dealing with, he couldn’t afford to be negligent. “My deepest apologies for the lacking reception, Miss Aurora. If I had known you had come, I would have received you personally.”
“I think I’ve asked you a question,” Lara insisted. She was visibly unimpressed by his display of courtesy. Zeke realized that the woman in front of him would not be swayed by honeyed words.
“Get the picture,” Zeke instructed David telepathically. The butler bowed and left the room, putting Lara even more on edge.
“What did you order him to do?” she asked.
Now that his first approach had failed, Zeke tried something else entirely. “What? Afraid of the scheming of a puny True Mage?” Zeke teased.
His taunt managed to throw her off, unable to adapt to his complete shift right away. But soon after, a wicked smile emerged on her face. “Wanna try me, brat?”
The effect of his new approach was evident, but what now? He had no idea how to follow up his brazen first challenge. Zeke could only sigh, this is what he got for overplaying his hand. Now that he had already gone this far, he might as well go all in…
With deliberate slowness, he looked the woman in front of him up and down, hungrily drinking in her generous curves. When his eyes returned to her face, he even dared to wink at her flirtatiously. “Try you? I’m afraid I might be a bit young for that?”
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Lara was visibly dumbfounded by the sheer audacity on display. For a moment, she didn’t react at all. Then, all of a sudden, she burst out laughing. It wasn’t the laughter of a noble lady either. Instead of a reserved giggle, she broke out into a full-on belly laugh. “The… the balls… on you… you… shitty… brat,” she forced out between bursts of laughter.
Long gone was the mirage of the refined beauty Zeke had met only a few minutes ago. In her place emerged Lara Sonnenstrahl, the real Lara. A woman who had spent the last couple of centuries on the battlefield. Zeke decided to take advantage of her momentary cheer to finally get the ball rolling.
“Jokes aside,” he started, “I sent David to get something that will answer your very first question.”
“David? Is that the butler?” Lara questioned.
Zeke nodded.
“His face looks familiar,” she said. “Where is he from?”
“That’s a question you better ask him directly when he returns,” Zeke said. “I’m not in the habit of divulging something like that without getting permission first.”
Instead of getting angry, Lara nodded approvingly. She didn’t ask anything else, content to wait in silence for the man’s return.
However, it was Zeke’s turn to get curious. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
“Why? Should I? Are you famous or something?” Lara responded with a raised brow.
Zeke couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across his face at her blunt attitude. “Why did you even come here, then?”
“I was ordered to meet some noble kid who managed to flee the empire recently…” Lara’s words trailed off. Before continuing, she looked Zeke up and down. “The hair and eyes are a match, but he’s only 15,” she mumbled, completely uncaring if Zeke overheard. “Say, do you have a younger brother?”
“I am 15,” Zeke said with a smirk.
Lara’s eyes narrowed. Her gaze traveled over his broad chest, stopping on each of his toned arms and then returning to his shrewd eyes. “Yeah, right,” she said in a dismissive tone.
“You didn’t happen to learn this kid’s last name, by chance?”
“Is there more than one kid who fits the description here?” she sneered.
Zeke didn’t respond as he could already sense David’s return. It was only a moment later that the butler entered the room again. Lara perked up, her gaze fixed on the wrapped bundle he had brought.
Without further delay, Zeke unwrapped the painting. The portrait had been one of Maximilian’s most precious possessions. Zeke took a good look at the woman it depicted, before slowly rotating it to face his guest.
Lara froze at the sight of the image. For a long moment, she remained perfectly still. She was not even breathing. Then, with a sudden exhale, life returned to her form. “So it was you after all. How are you related to the old man?” She asked in a tone that was neither warm nor cold.
“He’s my mentor,” Zeke said.
“He was your mentor, you mean,” she corrected. “I heard he’s been captured.”
“A bond like that is not so easily severed.”
“That so?” Lara asked. “You don’t seem very distraught about his fate.”
“I prefer effort to grief,” Zeke stated. “I can’t help the old man by crying my eyes out.”
“You can’t help him — period. He was done the moment they threw him into that hole,” she declared in a hard voice.
“You don’t know that — you can’t…”
“Of course I do, and you do too. There has never been—”
“ENOUGH!!!” Zeke bellowed, his eyes blazing with uncontrolled fury. At this moment, his gaze was evenly matched with hers. A look of surprise crossed her face, but the expression was gone as fast as it had come.
Even so, Lara’s countenance softened considerably over the next few moments. “Apologies, kid. I should not have said that. Seeing my sister…”
Zeke’s hand was gripping the pendant over his wildly thumping heart. It had been a while since he had an outburst like this. However, after a few deep breaths, he could feel his temper slowly calm. “My name is Ezekiel, not kid.”
“Fine,” she acknowledged.
Zeke hesitated, his attention drawn to the portrait that was still in his hands. He had noticed that Lara was glancing at it from time to time. It was obvious that each glimpse pained her. Even so, she couldn’t keep herself from looking.
With great care, he wrapped it up, passing it back to David. “You can call me Zeke if you’d like.”
Lara threw one last longing look at the painting before returning her attention to the boy in front of her. “I don’t see much of Maximilian in you, you know?”
“Did you know him well?” Zeke asked instead of replying.
“Don’t get confused by this,” she said while gesturing at her face and body. “I might have been a little squirt back then, but I was already around when that portrait was drawn eons ago.”
Zeke nodded. He was aware of it too. In fact, Lara wasn’t much younger than Maximilian himself, a century at most. Her ridiculously fast ascension through the ranks was the only reason for her young appearance.
For a time, nobody spoke. Lara was content to have the silence linger until Zeke answered her previous question. “I’m aware I’m not much like him,” he finally confessed, “and I feel like I’m drifting further away from his ideals with each day.” Zeke didn’t know why he spoke so candidly to a complete stranger. He hadn’t even been this open when talking to David.
“Why not change direction, then?” Lara inquired.
“I… I don’t want to be like him… not anymore.”
It was not Lara, but David who was most shocked by the admission. Through his sphere of awareness, Zeke sensed how the butler’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the back of his head, unblinking.
“Why not?” Lara questioned calmly.
Zeke sighed deeply. “Don’t get me wrong, there is nobody I respect more. Maximilian is the greatest man I’ve ever met. He saw the best in people and lifted me up when I had nothing. He was never afraid to stand up for what he believed in, no matter the odds.”
“…but?” Lara prodded.
“…But the world isn’t made for people like him,” Zeke finished. “For all his life, Maximilian struggled to stay clean while wading through a river of shit.”
Lara’s eyes hardened. “What are you getting at?”
“What I’m getting at,” Zeke said pointedly, “is that you won’t get anywhere in life unless you learn how to swim.”
“Even if you managed that, you would still be covered in shit,” Lara responded without missing a beat.
“Doesn’t matter,”
“I think it does.”
“No. It was never the skin that mattered, but your heart,” Zeke stated. “As long as your heart remains clear, the dirt under your nails means nothing.”
Lara remained silent, and even David had a contemplative frown on his face. This time, it was Zeke who was content to have the silence linger. Lara's face went through a myriad of expressions before finally settling on something that looked like grudging acceptance to Zeke.
“You can call me Lara,” she eventually said. Zeke nodded. “Well, Zeke, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time for today. I guess I’ll leave you alone for now.”
“…Didn’t you come here to ask me something?”
“I’m not in the mood anymore,” Lara said flippantly as she made her way to the exit.
“Wait,” Zeke called out, causing her to turn halfway. “You can take that if you want,” he said with a nod toward the painting. “It deserves to be with someone who appreciates it.”
The woman hesitated. “I think the old man would miss it.”
“Didn’t you say he was done anyway?” Zeke asked with a raised brow.
“Who can say?” Lara responded with a small smile as she left.