“Do you have any proof of these claims about my father?” Alyssia asked Adeline, her tone just a shade shy of belligerent. Oliver’s eldest sibling bore a noticeable resemblance to him, with the fine, angular features of their mother, though Alyssia’s training regimine and time as a sentinel had further honed the lines of her face to an almost razor sharpness that well fit her spring-steel build. She kept her brown hair short and functional, though even that was enough to show off its natural waviness.

Oliver sighed. Of course that was his sister's first question after he finished his story. “I’m not sending him to the magistrates or challenging him to a duel, Aly,” he told her. “I saw his face. That was enough for me.”

“And we both know Father didn’t leave any evidence lying about, in any case,” Olan added with an eye roll. “Say what you will, the man is thorough.”

The middle child of the Dennan family had much more of his father’s blood in him, giving him a rounder face and weaker chin than either of his siblings. His skilled hands and sharp mind had also spared him the hard training Alyssia and Oliver had spent their teenage years dedicated to. Now in his early twenties and working as a professional artificer, he had begun to gain some comfortable weight. His brown hair was a shade lighter than his siblings, and much more curly. He wore it long and messy, but boasted enough casual confidence to make it look relaxed rather than disheveled.

Alyssia gave her middle brother a fiery look. “Are you telling me you believe this?”

“That our father set Oliver up to earn a favor from the Gerrots? Yes. I absolutely believe that.” Olan’s voice shook with a barely suppressed laugh at how obvious the answer was. “And if you’d stop being so defensive, you’d realize it's obvious too.”

Alyssia pursed her lips and looked from Olan to Adeline with more or less equal amounts of distaste, then her face softened as she turned to her little brother. “Even if he did… Are you really just going to turn your back on the family, Oli? On us?” She gestured at Olan, who held up a hand in disagreement and shifted away with a little shake of his head, earning another of Alyssia’s characteristic glares.

Adeline stayed carefully quiet, as interested in Oliver’s response as his siblings were. At that moment, the insecure young man Adeline had met the day prior did not look very insecure, or even very young. He simply looked… tired.

“It’s not because of this, Aly. Or at least it’s not just because of this. You know that.” Oliver watched as both of his sibling’s faces slowly turned somber, eyes clouded with the memory of the incident with his journal. Their parents hadn’t made any secret of their disdain. “Father set me up for the same reason he refused to let me be a sentinel. The same reason mother didn’t bother to even come to my duel. You both…” Oliver stopped, catching himself before his voice could crack. He took a long, slow breath, and when he spoke again, he was pleased to hear that his voice was even and resolved. “You know I don’t belong with our family.”

“Oli…”

Olan put a hand on his sister’s arm as he met Oliver’s eyes. “I unde-” He stopped, and shook his head. “No, I won’t say I understand. But I see why you made your choice.” He gave his sister a meaningful look, and Alyssia eventually nodded, the motion stiff.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course Oli. I get it,” she finally said, her voice soft.

Adeline looked between the three siblings, but stayed very carefully quiet. Despite that, Alyssia’s eyes returned to the knight.

“I still don’t understand your part in this, my lady.”

“Please, Adeline is fine,” she told Alyssia. “I never was one for titles.”

“Adeline, then. What’s your interest in my little brother?

Adeline rolled a shoulder in what was increasingly becoming a familiar gesture to Oliver. “No special interest,” she claimed. “I had caught wind of what your father was up to and decided to put my thumb on the scale. Make it all a little more balanced.”

“Is that something your order normally does?” Alyssia asked with blatant suspicion.

“Sometimes,” Adeline admitted calmly. “We believe, first and foremost, in defending those who cannot defend themselves. Yesterday, that included Oliver. And afterward…” Adeline gave Oliver a small smile. “Well, I didn’t plan that part. But when I saw the way your father was treating your brother, I felt compelled to offer him another option.”

“He does get like that,” Olan acknowledged. “This tea is excellent, by the way.” Oliver smiled a little at the casual words. As always, his older brother’s relaxed energy undercut Alyssia’s perpetual intensity.

Alyssia rolled her eyes, but didn’t bother to tell him off. “I looked into you, you know,” she told Adeline.

The blonde knight nodded calmly, as if she had expected as much. “I thought you would. What did you find out?”

“No small number of my peers among the nobility seem to dislike you and your order. They consider you unreliable and untrustworthy.” Oliver opened his mouth to defend his new mentor, but Alyssia continued. “However, I know better than to trust the average noble’s opinion on most things.”

Adeline lips curled into an expectant smile. “Oh?”

“I received very different opinions from people who I actually respect. Fellow sentinels, a couple Emerald Order knights I’m on good terms with. Those who have heard of you seem to admire you a great deal.” Adeline nodded graciously, though that had, technically, not really been a compliment. “You’ve spent time in the Wastes, haven’t you?”

Adeline nodded. “Of course. All of them, in fact.” She shrugged one shoulder idly. “I do quite a bit of traveling.”

“Enough to have reached Adept level?”

Adeline blinked in surprise, then her smile grew a step wider. “Well, well. You really did look into me, didn’t you? Yes, I’m an Adept. Vanguard and passion gifts.”

Alyssia narrowed her eyes. “To be an Adept you’d need a third gift too.”

“I noticed that too, yes.”

“But you only mentioned two.”

“Mmm.”

Alyssia continued glaring at Adeline for a moment, who maintained that same measured smile in return. Finally, his sister rolled her eyes, grumbling something under her breath.

“What about you?” Adeline asked, unperturbed by Alyssia’s frustration. “You’re approaching Initiate now. Have you begun to consider your third gift? Have any of the archetypes offered one yet?”

Alyssia sighed, and finally picked up her own tea, relaxing a little bit. “A couple. The Noble and the Arbiter.”

“Prestigious indeed,” Adeline commented, still pointing that sunny smile at Alyssia. It seemed even Oliver’s fiery older sister couldn’t keep up her temper against the perpetually serene knight. “And yet, you don’t seem that pleased.”

“The Arbiter offered the gift of the jailer, but that would mean joining the Watch. Which they are thrilled about, but doesn’t much interest me.” Adeline made a polite sound of interest, and Alyssia explained, “My skirmisher and earth gifts make a trap augment. Instant pit traps.”

“Ah,” Adeline acknowledged. She gave Oliver a brief look, and explained, “The Arbiter is the Archetype concerned with enforcement of the law. A trap power like that, combined with a gift like the jailer, would make your sister an extremely valuable asset for catching outlaws and the like.”

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“And why exactly would getting an Arbiter gift require you to join the City Watch?” Olan asked.

“The Arbiter is one of the more politically active archetypes,” Oliver explained to his brother. Olan, due to his trade skills, had skipped the political education Oliver and his sister had been forced through. “It’s associated with law and order. A gift like the jailer is great at catching outlaw gift bearers, but would be pointless in the Wastes.”

Adeline’s eyes sparkled with approval. “Just so.” Oliver noticeably preened under the acknowledgement from the knight, blissfully unaware of the knowing look his siblings shared. Adeline looked back to Alyssia before continuing, “The Noble seems more closely aligned with you though, especially as the heir to house Dennan.”

Alyssia blew out a breath. “Maybe, but I know I only got offered the gift of the cavalier by dint of blood. The Noble likes having heads of house among its ranks.” She chewed her bottom lip for a moment, a gesture so uncharacteristic of her that Oliver blinked in surprise, then she added in a rush, “I’ve actually been thinking about trying to get the gift of the hunter. That would be a really good match for me.”

Adeline’s eyes widened slightly with her own surprise, and Oliver couldn’t blame her. Not only was that ignoring the rarer gifts that could only be obtained with the Initiate slot, it was a gift of the Elder–a frontier gift, used by village hunters!

“Well, well, well. It seems your father’s strict upbringing succeeded mostly at raising a family of nonconformists,” Adeline observed dryly. Alyssia flushed a little bit, and Oliver couldn’t help but feel that if his sister kept surprising him like this, he’d just fall off his chair all together.

“I’m impressed though,” Adeline acknowledged. “That’s a brave choice, and one I think will serve you well. If you wouldn’t mind, I actually have some connections with a few of the local hunter chiefs. I’d be happy to connect you to a village where you could spend a season or two.”

“Well… I still need to get my gift of earth over the line to Initiate first, before my third slot will open.”

Adeline waved a dismissive hand. “Easy enough. You just need to find some cave systems to clear out, that’ll get you the necessary experience in no time. I know just the village, they’ve been having an issue with some cave blights.” The knight looked around at the surprised looks all three siblings were giving her. “What? I’ve helped plenty of people get over the line to Initiate.”

“They’re surprised you’re doing it without asking for anything in return,” Oliver explained with a chuckle. “We’re used to everything being exchanges and favors and deals that you just have to hope work out better for you than the other person.”

Adeline rolled her eyes. “Nobles,” she muttered. “I promise, you’ll all get much farther in the world if you leave all that behind and just try to help people.”

“Speak for yourself,” Olan added with a small huff, even as he waved down a passing waitress for a refill. None of the others had done more than lightly sip their tea, but Olan had already finished his cup. “Some of us need to participate in the economy to make a living. Though I’ll confess to preferring cold, hard gold over favors any day.”

Adeline smiled at his insouciance. “Fair enough. Oliver was telling me you're a craftsman?”

Olan nodded. “A jeweler, specifically. Gifts of the artificer and the smith.”

“Oh!” Oliver gasped and fumbled with his belt. “That reminds me! Look at the blade Adeline gave me, Ol!”

Olan raised an eyebrow, but took the sheathed sword from his brother. He kept it low, his dexterous fingers handling it with the care such a dangerous weapon demanded. He made a soft grunt of interest as he slipped the first few inches of the runeblade out of its leather sheath, exposing the first few intricate engravings on the blade.

While he inspected the weapon, Alyssia asked, “So this is the sword that let you defeat Allid?”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah! It gave me this ranged attack that threw him off balance.”

Olan nodded with the description. “I see… That’s what these runes are. One to store kinetic energy, one to release it?” He turned the sword in his hands to display the slightly different runes engraved on each side of the base of the sword blade.

Adeline nodded in confirmation, watching the way Olan carefully examined the weapon.

“And this material… shimmer steel, right? I’ve made a few pendants of the metal, but a full sword of it seems exorbitant.”

“I bought it in Terase,” Adeline explained. “There are several villages up there that mine the glowstone used to make it, so it’s much cheaper. The Legion smiths love it.”

“I can’t blame them,” Olan remarked idly. “Shimmer steel is tremendous at storing potential energy.” He slipped the blade halfway from the sheathe, and gave a soft sound of surprise at the second row of runes, again repeated on each side of the blade. “Are these… I recognize light runes, and some sort of conversion runes?”

“Force to light,” Adeline explained. “They-”

“Use some of the stored kinetic energy to create light, yes.” Olan finished her sentence for her, nodding in understanding, then his brow furrowed. “But why are there two?”

“There’s four actually.” Oliver interjected. “There’s another on each side above those two.”

Adeline reached out a warning hand before Olan could go any farther. “Ah! I’d prefer it if you didn’t bare the full weapon in the middle of the cafe. You’re already drawing enough looks.”

Olan looked around casually, noted that Adeline was correct, and quickly sheathed the sword. Next to him, Alyssia sighed at her absent-minded brother’s antics.

“They’re very weak runes individually,” Adeline explained. “Each of them generates a very small amount of light, but by using more of them at the same time…”

“The light increases. That’s clever.” Already, Olan had a distant look in his eyes, as he began to consider ways to adapt the design for his own creations.

Alyssia rolled her eyes. “Okay, we’ve lost him,” she announced.

Oliver grinned, the familiar rhythms of his siblings helping him relax–until Adeline prompted him with an elbow to his side. The knight gave him an encouraging smile.

Alyssia noticed the exchange and arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “I assume we’re getting to why you actually wanted to see us, Oli?”

Oliver clenched his jaw, and nodded. “Well… part of it was that I wanted to tell you what happened. With dad and all of that. I didn’t want you to just hear his side of the story.”

Alyssia nodded. Her gaze flicked from Oliver to Adeline and back. “I figured. But there’s more, isn’t there?”

Oliver nodded seriously. “Well… Adeline offered me a place in her order. Just as a squire while I’m training, but either way, I’m going to take it. And that means tomorrow, I’m leaving Elliven.”

Olan’s eyes refocused, and he and Alyssia turned towards each other. They had a brief, silent exchange of facial expressions that Oliver could only make out pieces of. His brother’s encouragement was as obvious as his sister’s trepidation.

Nonetheless, Olan turned back to Oliver and tipped his chin in approval. His voice was uncharacteristically serious when he spoke. “Of course you are. I’m proud of you, little brother. Alyssia and I… we had it easy, in some ways, compared to you. Father approved of the paths we decided to walk. But he was always trying to set your feet on the path he wanted for you. One you didn’t want. He never really understood why that was a problem.” Olan met his brother’s eyes, and very slowly held his hand out across the table. “Good luck out there, Oliver. And know you’ll always have a place in my home, whenever your path brings you back here.”

Stunned by his brother’s serious words, Oliver took Olan’s hand and shook it. Then he was even more surprised by Alyssia standing up, and pulling him into a tight hug. “Stay safe, Oli,” she whispered in a voice tight with tears. “And just know we love you.”

Oliver found his own throat suddenly choked by emotion, and didn’t trust himself to answer. Instead, he wrapped his arms around his sister and hugged her back. For a moment, he remembered the offer Adeline had made the day before, to help him get his feet under him. He could be a sentinel, like Alyssia. He could stay with his siblings, he could learn to put up with his father.

But he knew that wasn’t his road. Not anymore.

So he returned Alyssia’s hug, and silently promised himself that he’d come back to see the two of them as soon as he could.

Adeline stayed quiet through the emotional exchange–until a teary eyed, red faced Alyssia took a step back from Oliver and pointed a threatening finger at the knight. “And you! You’d better keep him safe!”

Adeline held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he’s ready before he goes out on his own.”

“So where to first?” Olan asked, wiping one eye, his tone curious despite the hoarseness in his throat. “Terase or Arsilet? The Twin Cities?”

Adeline scoffed and waved a hand. “Nothing like that. You need to be an Adept before anyone will take you seriously in Arsilet, and Terase is a little too rigid for me. I need to relax this little piece of iron.” She rested an affectionate hand on Oliver’s shoulder.

He glared up at her, the familiar expression on the teenager’s face drawing a chuckle from Adeline and his siblings alike. “You haven’t even told me where we’re going yet,” he grumbled.

“Oh, calm down. I’m thinking about Correntry.”

“The trade city?” Alyssia asked, surprised.

“Mmm. The trade cities are excellent places for low level gifted to get some experience,” Adeline explained. “And the trip there will give me plenty of time to get Oliver’s swordsmanship into shape.”

Oliver narrowed his eyes. “Really? I thought I was rather decent with a sword.” He admitted.

Adeline patted his shoulder consolingly. “I know you do. And so does everyone else your age. So I need to start with beating that out of you.”

Olan and Alyssia burst out laughing at the knight’s mock-sympathetic tone. “I take back my reservations,” Alyssia managed through a fit of giggles. “You’re just what little Oli needs.”

Oliver rolled his eyes–then he grinned, finally feeling certain that he had made the right choice.