Chapter 69 — A Family Of Murderers

When Ria met up with Keira outside their usual gate, the noble girl looked in better spirits than expected.

“With your Order… are you holding up okay?” Ria awkwardly asked. Had Keira found a way out of the week of punishment?

To Ria’s further surprise her friend smiled a shy smile that made Ria’s heart thump. “Aldri came by and secretly helped me by portaling us around the academy so I could finish the errands more quickly.”

Ria blinked. That would explain why she hadn’t seen the red-haired boy around after practice.

Before she could inquire further, Arthur showed up looking a little winded.

“Sorry, I’m late. I was finishing up a new prototype.”

“Jarrel’s not here yet, want to show it off?” Ria asked with an interested eyebrow raise.

Arthur froze, and Keira didn’t miss it, adding, “You never did tell us what this project you are working on is about.”

“Ah, well, um…”

The usually calm mushroom-hair boy suddenly hedging and not meeting their gazes was super suspicious, and Ria shared another glance with Keira.

“Swordmaster Jarrel’s here…” Arthur lamely tried, accompanied by the sound of a carriage pulling up to the gate.

“Like that’s going to save you, Arthur,” Ria chuckled out. Sure enough, the carriage did have Vorshan colors and Jarrel was seated in it-

Ah-! She missed her chance to ask Orlisi about Jarrel!

“Ack,” Keira groaned, looking in Ria’s direction. “It’s never a good thing when you make a face like that. Does it have anything to do with why Ranger looks so depressed?”

“Woof…”

“It’s nothing,” Ria assured Keira. “I just forgot to do something.”

Kiera gave her a hooded-eyed look before being assisted onto the carriage by her young butler-in-training, Kylen, who joined the driver on the front bench once they were all seated.

“Greetings, Young Lady Keira,” Jarrel greeted. After Keira returned the greeting, Jarrel turned to Ria. “How was your day? Any further trouble with the administrator?”

Ria shook her head. “I sought out Administrator Rente this morning, and he provided surprisingly helpful advice concerning my debut invitations. As for my day…” She hesitated and considered how best to phrase her answer. “There were some embarrassments, but I got a lot accomplished. I might have also impressed a member of House Furren with my martial arts at today’s Grand Games practice.”

“House Furren…,” Jarrel repeated as if weighing the ramifications.

She felt conflicted about hiding things from him again, but whether to tell him about realizing her seed or learning about her royal heritage… There was so much she wanted to ask Jarrel now, but she needed some time to work through and digest recent revelations, and this wasn’t the time or place to ask such dangerous questions.

“Oh, Aldri did say that Orlisi had arranged a special training for you today,” Keira commented, perking up with interest. “It went well then?”

So, Aldri did know!

Ria grimaced and huffed, “It was terrible! Right up until the end, they all acted like I was being tested or punished for something, and Orlisi spent most of the time pretending to be a fickle nature spirit and cruelly beating me up! She was really mean to Ranger too!”

“War-woof…,” Ranger quibbled, not even lifting his head from his paws and pushing through the bond a sense of frustration at his own weakness.

Keira looked down at Ranger despondently stretched out on the carriage floor. “So that’s why…”

Jarrel’s eyebrows sharpened in concern. “Ria, I know you’re proud about winning the Newcomer Tournament—and I’m proud of you too—but are you sure you want to continue pushing yourself so hard? The Grand Games are very competitive every year because of the prestige the event brings, and participating as a first-year is almost unheard of. There are surely other Orders that would accept you without requiring you to compete.”

Realizing how much her teammates sacrificed to give her a chance at a breakthrough did temper her anger at how she was treated, and she did intend to thank Orlisi with an appropriate gift as Hulle had recommended, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t exact her price in the future. Exacting a price and settling accounts was her truth after all.

“I like my Order, and my teammates are important friends,” Ria reassured him. “I want to compete—to test myself against strong mages and fighters and become stronger. I didn’t know it at the time, but the towerkeeper would have protected me if anyone went too far.”

Jarrel watched her expression for expected half-truths before sighing out. “Fine, but promise me you won’t force yourself if it becomes too much. You’ll still get four more chances at the Summer Games. Maybe even a chance to lead your own team.”

That was an easy promise to make. Nothing would ever be ‘too much’ in pursuit of the strength to bring her judgment upon the Revant king and his advisors. But she knew what Jarrel meant, and now that she knew the dangers and inefficiencies that overexerting herself came with, she had no desire to risk permanently crippling her potential—and certainly not for trivial matters of pride.

“I promise.”

She must have sounded sincere enough because Jarrel nodded and let his gaze drift to a servant going about his business and the walled estates passing by.

Thankfully, neither Arthur, who was trying his best to fade into the background, nor Keira pointed out her omission about lunch’s events, and when there wasn’t further follow-up from Jarrel, Keira took the opportunity to resume grilling Arthur about his secret project, an effort Ria happily joined as the carriage pulled into the Vorshan Estate.

Any half-hearted resolve Ria had toward talking privately with Jarrel that evening evaporated upon entering the manor and catching sight of Ana’s eager face as the girl impatiently awaited Ria’s arrival. Her own excitement rising, Ria let herself be led away to her room as usual, but without Ranger this time.

Ranger didn’t want to be idle and was already on his way to the garden to continue working on his fire attunement until Ria transferred the basics of the Beast Arts manual to him through the bond. After meditating at the student lounge, he insisted that they start working on learning Beast Arts soon, saying she had gotten stronger again, and he wanted to continue getting stronger again as well.

While Ana was helping her out of her cloak and shoes, Ria eyed the assortment of boxes and chests weighing upon the low table between her sofas. The display looked like a birthday gift-giving, and Ria might have been as eager to open the boxes as Ana was to see her open them.

“Are you really going to make a statue of the mistress’s grandmother?” Ana asked as they soon crowded the table.

“I was only teasing at first,” Ria admitted while peeking under the lid of one of the larger boxes—containing a gilded chandelier. “But the more I thought about it, the more fun the task seemed. The shopping went well?”

The girl’s nervousness briefly warred with her excitement until excitement won out. “Rallensi borrowed the spare carriage and took me all over the city; I had no idea such shops even existed!”

Ana excitedly spun the tale of her day’s grand adventure as they went through the items. Tyrilenil’s and Martina’s shops had made the largest impression on the younger girl, her arms were expressively moving about while describing the exotic animals and elemental spirits and the mysterious artifacts. Meeting her second elf in almost as many days also had the girl gushing.

Tyrilenil had come through with a small burlap sack of what he told Ana were Malleron’s favorite treats, so Ria had no complaints there.

Sending Ana to Martina’s shop had proved more consequential, providing a lightning relic for Leriah, a recommendation for a daily rough stone auction for jewelers and enchanters, and the locations of several ‘junk’ shops known to provide disposal services for estate stewards.

The item for Leriah was interesting—a pendant made up of a lightning-strike carved from a clear energy-dense stone and set into a bluish metal ring. Tiny sparks of light formed fractal patterns inside the stone, and just holding the pendant made Ria’s hand feel numb. It would be a great gift!

Ria unfolded the note inside the pendant’s box.

Thank you for your continuing appreciation of the rare items our Society procures.

The pendant is a lightning elemental’s heart set into mithril with a chain of mithril-coated silver. The original owner was Jirani Ravelle. She married into House Sorrel and died young due to involvement in some unfortunate politics.

Finding a Golden Dawn related artifact might take some time, but I will give you first option when I find something interesting.

Congratulations on landing Young Lord Phaelys Vesali as your debut escort. From the rumors, it sounds like an event not to be missed.

-Martina

A groan escaped her at the pendant’s history… presenting the gift would need care to not seem like she was wishing Leriah an early death.

That last part though… seemed like a subtle reminder of the favor owed and an expressed interest in attending—which Ria was already thinking would be a good solution to the favor problem. Ria intentionally avoided mention of Martina when discussing the invitations with Administrator Rente. Keira thought the woman and her shop were obviously shady and possibly connected to things better left alone. Consulting with Hulle during their newly arranged outing would be wise before making a decision about the matter.

The daily auction recommended by Martina was the source of the two large chests, each containing an arm-length-sized piece of unworked white jade. The cracked exteriors with substantial impurities had Ria a little worried about how much of the jade would be usable, but a pulse of sensing-sphere revealed that the interior was of a quality that resonated well with her energy and had good purity—Ria didn’t know much about jade or gemstones, but both chunks of jade seemed to be great finds! And, if she could fix the cracks, remove the impurities, and repurpose the waste with crystal magic, that would be even better.

The amount wasn’t enough to make a life-size statue even if she joined both pieces, but if she kept her efforts to the size each block would make on its own, then she would have a spare to make Keira’s birthday present or to use if she messed up.

“Are they okay?” Ana nervously asked. “They are smaller than I thought you needed and looked all damaged, but a nice man with an odd eyeglass recommended to me that they were the two best pieces of white jade at today’s auction.”

Had Xander smiled on her?

Ria ran a finger along the cracked milky surface, further testing the magic resonance, the corners of her mouth pulling up at the result. Maybe drawing the attention of the gods wasn’t all bad. “They are perfect.”

Ana visibly relaxed, a major worry having been lifted from her shoulders.

“This box here contains the crushed sunstone and magicite. The rest of the boxes are broken jewelry and housewares like you recommended…” The cute girl still seemed unsure about having spent so much coin on broken things.

Hopefully, enough people felt the same to push the price cheaper than it should’ve been. Buying used items was a gambit when considering the history that each item would bring to the enchantment, but with the quantity of gold and silver needed for her many projects—and now her nutritional needs—this was the only way she could think of to source it affordably.

The assortment of housewares, ranging from tableware to candleholders and figurines, were marred with dents and scratches as expected, and many were caked with dust and grime to an extent that the items must’ve been forgotten in storage for decades before being disposed of, but the smell of gold among the other metals was unmistakable.

Even with Rallensi’s aid, how the girl had successfully identified so much gold and silver among the brass and other metals of the housewares at the junk shops was curious. While Xander may have assisted with the jade, she doubted the god would have bothered with something as mundane as sourcing gold and silver from junk. Then again, in its way, the task was a bit of seeking a lucky find among the trash…

“It was hard to tell what different things were made of, so I compared them with the coins you gave me,” Ana admitted.

Ah, so that was how.

Encouraged, Ria opened more boxes and was greeted by a further selection of damaged and otherwise well-worn bracelets, buttons, broaches, rings, necklaces, and other jewelry, many with chipped and cracked gemstones. Ria was glad to see the gemstones. Hopefully, like with the jade, crystal magic would allow her to repair the gemstones, or even better, combine and shape them.

Ria pulled out a ring that smelled strongly of gold and started storing everything else using her new vault key.

After Ria stored all the items in her vault, Ana fidgeted with her cleaning apron as she awaited the verdict on her efforts.

“You did a great job, Ana,” Ria confirmed and gave a thumbs up.

The innocent smile that bloomed on Ana’s face made Ria feel like a character in a parable who had done a good deed.

Still giddy at her success, Ana looked closer at the ring Ria was holding. “Is there something special about that ring?”

Ria shook her head. “I don’t think so?”

The ring looked like it might have been beautiful at one time, but the gemstone was missing and the band had been cut through—maybe to remove it from the person’s finger? The thought made her wonder about the history behind each of the discarded items and whether it might be useful to perform divinations on them. Ria had more of an appreciation for the weight of history since noticing the podium in Parthanex Tower’s entry hall and unlocking her affinity, and maybe some of the items would have histories suited for the statue or the representation of her glyph that she planned to make?

But, for this ring at least, she had a different plan and held the ring out for Ana to take. “Ana, can you hold it up for me?”

Ana gave her a questioning look but held the ring pinched between two of her fingers. “Like this?”

“Yep. Now give me a little while to prepare,” Ria told the girl, and summoned one of the library books she had borrowed, flipping to a page with a gold manipulation spell. She filled the template with energy, and Ana gasped as an illusion of the spell’s construct formed above the page. “Now keep your grip tight.”

The look of concentration as Ana stared at her fingers almost caused Ria to laugh. Instead, Ria focused on shaping energy into correct glyphs and structures. Unlike Keira, alteration magic wasn’t one of her best subjects, but it was something she’d have to improve at to be a proper metal mage. Thankfully the spell wasn’t too different from the silver manipulation spell Wendra had taught her.

As she activated the magic, she felt out the gold in the ring and flowed it into her waiting hand below, careful to leave the impurities, and things that made the magic feel sluggish, behind. The result was a thinner ‘c’-shaped ring still gripped between Ana’s fingers, and Ria holding a pool of pure gold cupped in her hand.

Ria released the magic and traded the small nugget of extracted gold to Ana for the leftover bit of metal. “Give this to your mom to shave flakes off and work into my meals.”

“Ah, okay…” a slightly flustered and wide-eyed Ana started to automatically agree then came to her senses. “Wait! You want mom to add gold to your food?”

“Yep,” Ria assured her as she made the waste metal disappear into her vault. “Remember how my eyes changed?”

“Ah-!”

This time Ria couldn’t help laughing at the shocked look on her hopefully future maid’s face and nodded. “It’s like that. But before you go, how about helping me change?”

Ria used the opportunity of another long soak to uphold her promise to Ranger and start reading through the Beast Arts manual. It shared a lot of similarities with the odd manual of multi-element spirit magic techniques in the way it used overly flowery and vague language to describe the concepts but was additionally full of illustrations depicting the combat forms and their use.

Interestingly, the Beast Arts explained in the manual made use of much of what she and Ranger were being taught in their familiar empowerment class and extended the ideas further into a complete system of familiar strengthening and combat arts—combat arts that were specialized toward canines, felines, and other beasts with similar physiology.

Sometime after she was dressed and lounging on her bed alone, manual propped up, Ria completed the chapters on the basics. Other than the techniques making use of bestial nature, the content was an excellent match for Ranger. When she shared the content through the bond, she could feel Ranger’s excitement at finally having a path that could make him strong like the elven master’s beast wolf he had witnessed sparring.

Of course, if Researcher Shadwich’s ambitions bore fruit, the power of a magic beast likely wouldn’t even compare, even one trained by a master of Beast Arts…

It didn’t take long for Ranger to land on the balcony and demand to look at the illustrations himself, and Ria gladly handed over the manual, showing him the desired pages before taking in a few rays of the setting sun and stretching out the kinks in her arm muscles and shoulders.

Rone was right. Training with weight stones and practicing the flexibility exercises and forms Tina had taught her were things she needed to start making time for again.

Promising Ranger to help him practice after dinner, Ria left him to his studies and went downstairs to wait for dinner to be served.

Her nightgown a bit light for the nighttime breeze coming from her balcony, Ria sat at her desk and removed her obscuring ring. There was one more thing that needed doing before calling the day done.

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift as she prepared her resolve.

After dinner, Ranger’s first session of Beast Arts training had gone well, and he was still out in the garden meditating together with Jarrel. Jarrel had helped her teach Ranger the basic stances to the best of their current understanding, and he helped them practice the accompanying techniques, but for Ranger to develop a true understanding of each would take time and access to beast-dedicated training grounds like the ones at Farenthil Hall. For Ranger to make the art truly his would take even longer. And like her own Furren-style martial arts, he would need to find and nurture a truth to truly become strong.

Dinner had been fun with the flakes of gold in her soup drawing surprise from Keira and Aeri, and an eyeroll from Jarrel when she admitted that she requested it. Though there was a troublesome moment where Ria had to rapidly change the topic to avoid Keira mentioning the reason they were celebrating with gold during lunch, directing the conversation to the statue materials she had acquired.

Keira noticed and gave her an eye roll of her own, before asking about the already acquired statue materials Ria had brought up in her gambit. Both Keira and Arthur were encouraged by what had been sourced and surprised at how quickly she had arranged it. Of course, she gave credit to Ana and Rallensi, since then Keira could also share in the accomplishment.

The remainder of the discussion was spent on methods for best achieving Keira’s grandmother’s likeness. With Lady Averlee living in the capital as the matriarch of House Lightborn, arranging a visit to sketch her likeness was a possibility. Ria was also interested in finding a divinatory approach that could also help her with creating better likenesses of her own family, and Jarrel’s as well—an idea that perked Jarrel’s interest.

Arthur never did give up the secret of his project, but Aeri was suspiciously wearing a fancy new enchanted ring that she kept touching like it was precious. The clear gem was a bit large for a simple gift and the enchantment looked complex, which had both Ria’s interest in enchanting and her love of romance stories piqued.

Ria again looked down at the locator scroll that was the start of today’s trouble laying on her desk, ready. There was so much in her new life that she was grateful for, so much that could change if her suspicion bore true, and the desire was strong to put the confirmation off for another day or a week or when she finally felt more ready to face it.

But. She couldn’t keep running.

“Activate #47. Descendant of the king of Revant.”

Ria sucked in a breath.

An arrow.

The arrow was there. Pointing at her. Just as it had in the library.

With a shaky voice she continued.

“R-reactivate #47. G-granddaughter of the king of Revant.”

No arrow.

Was it because she stuttered? She placed her finger on one of the battery constructs’ spiral lines and supplied more energy, reactivating the scroll with a more careful enunciation.

“Reactivate #47. Granddaughter of the king of Revant.”

Still no arrow.

The king was old, maybe…

“Reactivate #47. Great granddaughter of the king of Revant.”

An arrow.

Her breath caught as her throat tightened. It was her worst fear confirmed.

Ria’s hand was shaking enough that she had to place her other on top, to keep it touching the battery construct.

The arrow was still there. Real. Not something imagined.

There was one more dreaded question to answer: her proximity to the line of succession.

“Reactivate #47. Granddaughter of the crown prince of Revant.”

An arrow.

She forced herself to take several breaths before pressing on, her gaze fixed to the mathematically calculated triangle of shadow with morbid fascination, the sound of her heart beating its steady rhythm and drowning out everything around her but the arrow and her whispered voice.

“Reactivate #47. Daughter of the crown prince of Revant’s first-born son.”

No arrow.

“Reactivate #47. Daughter of the crown prince of Revant’s first-born child.”

An arrow.

The sounds of the night slowly returned as her thoughts darkened with purpose.

If that worked the way she feared it might, her mother was next in line after the prince and now that her mother was dead, only her brothers were before her…

Ria pressed her teeth together. That meant she could make her brother king if she killed her grandfather and great grandfather. If like them, she was willing to kill family.