Chapter 286: The Thorn’s Sacrifice

Calex Thorn strode past the long winding halls of his family’s castle with a singular purpose. In his hand he held a bouquet of azaleas from his sister’s garden. Lerdea’s favorite were the black roses like the insignia of their House, but she grew all sorts of flowers. His younger sister preferred the quiet patience of gardening over the cold harsh training of magic, though she’d never tell their mother, nor would he.

“Where are you going?” Ophelia called out from the end of the hall.

With a twist of the heel, Calex swiftly turned around and bowed, “Good evening, Mother.”

Ophelia glanced at the bouquet of pink flowers in his hand and then back at him, “What are you going to do with those?”

“I’m going to see Veronica Sientia. I heard she hasn’t awakened from this afternoon’s duel, but I thought I might stop by anyway.” He glanced at the bouquet and shrugged with a smile, “Lerdea tells me azaleas promote healing.”

“Those flowers have no magical properties,” Ophelia clicked her tongue. “You know better than that.”

“It’s the gesture that counts. Showing solidarity to my teammates and their Houses is important, no?”

“Not when they have nothing to offer,” Ophelia said coldly. “As far as I’m concerned, right now the Ebon Aspirant is the only person worth our interest.”

Calex’s eyes flashed a glint of frustration, but he quickly smothered it away and nodded, “As you wish, Mother. I do apologize for my teammates’... failures, these past few days. But I don’t think that makes them unworthy of our time, nor efforts.”

Ophelia shook her head and turned away, “I gave up on your teammates the moment the 3rd Challenge began.”

Calex furrowed his brow, “What do you mean?”

“If we are to manipulate the outcome of this Challenge, then we cannot make the outcomes seem obvious.”

“I-I… I don’t understand… Are you saying you manipulated the…?”

“The matchmaking of the duels, yes. Walk with me,” Ophelia waved him over.

Calex’s throat felt tight. He swallowed back his worry and hurried to catch up to her quick pace.

“It wasn’t difficult really,” Ophelia said with an air of ease. “All it took was a bit of enchanting on the inside of the Selection Vase. After that, it was easy to draw whichever marble I wished.”

“But the Selection Vase is sacred, it is forbidden to tamper with it,” Calex said anxiously. “If the other cities were to find out–”

“They won’t, I’ll make sure of it,” Ophelia patted his back, “Don’t stress yourself out about the small details.”

“But Mother, even if they can’t prove it, won’t the other lords and ladies suspect tampering?”

“Why do you think I pitted your little friends against their specific opponents?”

“What?” Calex stiffened to a halt. His eyes widened, “You wanted my friends to lose?”

Ophelia smirked, “As I said, if we are to manipulate the outcome of this Challenge, then we cannot make the outcomes seem obvious. If Undergrowth would win every match our rivals would suspect foul play. So I made the difficult decision.”

“It was all you…”

“There was no chance Veronica Sientia would defeat a Morrigan. And that Parvus boy?” Ophelia laughed, “As if he could defeat a dire vampire prodigy, and a hecta-manifold one at that. Though I must admit, Heather Navis put on a better fight than I thought. If it wasn’t for that strange magical sword, she might have actually won.”

“You sacrificed my teammates,” Calex narrowed his eyes.

“It’s not as if any of them were ever going to win the tournament.” She caressed his cheek, “That was always going to be you, darling.”

Calex stepped away and frowned, “They were my teammates. They were loyal to us. How could you?”

“Oh, relax,” Ophelia shook her head. “If they were actually useful they would have won, but not a single one of them did. They would have lost eventually, one way or another.”

“Even still…”

“Think of it like this, at least this way your teammates’ losses held actual meaning. No one will bat an eye at tomorrow’s duels,” Ophelia smiled.

“Tomorrow's duels? What did you do?”

“I haven’t done anything, yet. Tomorrow morning our Hollow Shader ‘friends’ are going to find out why they shouldn’t have tried my patience.” Ophelia scowled, “I gave the Ebon Aspirant time to make the right decision, but it seems he has thrown his lot in with the Katags.”

“You’re going to put me in the same match with Stryg?” Calex guessed.

“What? No, don’t be silly,” Ophelia laughed. “The Ebon Aspirant is the only person who could really threaten your victory. No, I am going to match him against the one person he could never win against, a prime mage’s counter.”

“And who is that?” Calex asked, confused.

“You’ll find out tomorrow,” Ophelia winked.

~~~

…The next morning

As usual, House Katag’s head chef busied herself in the early morning hours of the light. The sun’s rays were barely scratching over the horizon by the time the slices of ham were sizzling on the hot iron pan.

The chef hummed a familiar tune as she chopped the onion for the omelets. When she finished, she reached for the basket of tomatoes, and froze, her hand hovering over the basket. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a shadowy figure staring at her from the edge of the doorway. The pair of lilac eyes stared at her in eerie silence.

“U-uh, hello there?” she smiled weakly.

“...”

“Um…” she licked her dry lips. “Are you hungry?”

“...”

“Breakfast isn’t ready yet. But we have cheese in the larder. Oh! And fresh bread too. The baker just finished making it a few minutes ago, it’s still pretty hot tho-”

Stryg hurried across the kitchen with quiet steps and plopped down on a chair at the table. He grabbed a loaf of steaming bread and began to scarf it down.

The chef smiled wryly, “I’ll go grab the cheese.”

Stryg didn’t respond and simply kept eating. He liked the old woman, even if she was an orc. Out of everyone he had met in the Katag household, he liked her most. The other servants always stared at him when they thought he wasn’t looking and whenever he tried talking to the servants half of them would quickly bow before running away while the other half could barely manage to stutter a coherent sentence.

But the head chef was different, she wasn’t scared of him. While the other cooks would scatter at the sight of him, the head chef only smiled and offered him her newest culinary delight.

Stryg never needed to bother using words or explaining anything to her. She somehow always knew exactly what he wanted. Ever since he had arrived he would come to the kitchen in the early hours of dawn. Each morning was the same, the head chef would cook and hum one of her usual tunes while he ate in peace. He appreciated their comfortable silence and the mutual understanding that came with it.

His calm early mornings were his and hers, and no one else’s, and he loved breakfast all the more for it.

Until right now.

Stryg’s mouth hung slack and a morsel of bread fell out. He watched in horror as his perfect morning was invaded. The intruder sauntered through the kitchen without a damn care in the world, completely oblivious to his presence. She reached out, grabbed an apple from the countertop, and bit into it, the crunchy sound echoing in his sensitive ears. The audacity.

Tauri turned and jumped back with a small gasp, “Stryg! Oh, I, uh, I didn’t see you there.”

Stryg stared at her in indignant silence. He slowly reached out, grabbed another loaf of bread, and bit into it, all the while keeping eye contact.

“Where are the cooks?” Tauri looked around awkwardly, “I know most of them don’t start working this early, but Nana is usually here…”

“...”

“You, uh, you come here often?”

“...”

“I sometimes do,” Tauri sat down across the table. “Well, not here. I meant our kitchen back in Hollow Shade. I rarely ever come here to Undergrowth. Most of the house staff here is actually from Hollow Shade, they came with my parents about two weeks ago.”

Stryg finished eating his bread and swallowed, “...What are you doing here?”

Tauri wrinkled her brow, “This is my house, I don’t think I need to answer that, don’t ya think?”

“...Why are you here?”

Tauri shook her head and raised her half-eaten apple, “I wanted to get a light snack before I went out on my morning run.”

“...Why are you still here?”

Tauri sighed, “I’m still here – as you so eloquently put it – because I wanted to apologize. And my parents want us to be friends, whatever that means…” She smiled angrily, “But the more I talk to you the more difficult it seems to do just that.”

“I see,” Stryg nodded casually and grabbed another loaf of bread.

Tauri leaned back and crossed her arms, “Why are you still here?”

“...I’m eating.”

“Uh-huh, two hours before breakfast is served. I was wondering why I haven’t seen you at the breakfast table. You’ve been here every day, haven’t you?”

“...No.”

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” Tauri said dryly. “Let me guess, you’re trying to avoid my parents?”

Stryg coughed and wiped his mouth, “How did you know?”

Tauri grinned, “They’re my parents, I know how much of a hassle they can be, especially my mom. You’re lucky my dad’s other wives stayed back in Hollow Shade. You think breakfast is bad now? Hah, wait until you see my dad trying to please four different women, three of whom are terrified of my mom.”

“Is it that bad?” Stryg asked curiously.

Tauri took another bite of her apple and nodded, “Whoever said polygamy was a good idea has clearly never had more than one spouse. Not that my dad ever listened, the big idiot.”

“You don’t like your parents very much, do you?”

Tauri shrugged, “I mean, they’re my parents. You love ‘em, you hate ‘em. It’s just how it goes. Now, did being a scion of one of Hollow Shade’s Seven make that worse? Sure. My parents have a bunch of expectations and whatnot. But I can’t complain, at the end of the day family is what matters most.” She grinned, “Plus, as a Katag, I can basically do anything I want.”

“Sounds nice,” he admitted.

She sighed, “...Sometimes it can be, other times… not so much. You have no idea how much people can value ‘honor’ around here.”

Stryg’s lips curled in a sad, reminiscent smile, “I do. Honor is everything where I’m from. To be strong and bring honor to your tribe, that was the greatest privilege one could ask for.”

Tauri made a look of disgust, “And I thought my family was bad. Your parents must have been the worst.”

Stryg shrugged uncomfortably, “I don’t know. I never met them.”

“Oh, right. You’re an orphan, right?” Tauri winced. “Do you wish you could have met them?”

Stryg stared at his claws, “It used to not bother me… but now? Sometimes I wonder, I guess…”

Tauri looked him over thoughtfully, “You know, you always were distant from the rest of your classmates and you almost always refused to do any kind of group activities. You were definitely my most annoying student.”

“Is that right?” Stryg glared at her.

She smirked, “Yup. You always acted like you were better than your classmates and you always came late. I would have failed you…” Tauri sighed, “But every time I was going to you would perform well above any of your classmates. I couldn’t fail one of my top students, even if I wanted to.”

“Good to hear,” Stryg smiled proudly.

Tauri rolled her eyes, “Let me get to my point you cocky brat. Whenever I look at you I just see another arrogant prodigy going through the academy… I sometimes forget what you were like when you first arrived. How much you had to go through… I wouldn’t haven’t been able to do it.”

Stryg stayed quiet, his mind filled with memories of the past three years. So much of it seemed like a blur now.

Tauri chuckled to herself, “You were so small, so unsure of yourself. Sometimes I wonder, what changed? What happened to that timid goblin boy?”

Stryg clenched his chest where a spear had once been, “He lost what mattered most.”