Kalie Rana

Upon my acceptance of Lord Marcroft’s “invitation” the three of us, our porters and the guards that had accompanied us from the docks on horseback were lead deeper into the manor. While smaller than the palace at Cerith, it was not by any stretch a small mansion. While it was missing the black basalt stone that was signature to the palace, there was one similarity that I noticed immediately; they both shared the same purpose. While the palace at Cerith served to inform visitors of not only Cerith’s past, but of its power through casual shows of majin strength, the lord’s manor of Scuttleview did something very similar. On almost every wall were portraits dating back what seemed to be hundreds of years of not just men in expensive looking uniforms and robes, but also, most surprisingly, in crowns.

That is of course, until they weren’t.

As we arrived near the guest apartments, which were located at the back of the mansion, on the second floor, we reached the newest portraits that I had seen. The two that caught my eye were firstly the newest painting, of Lord Marcroft. Crownless, and almost sneering, the artist caught his essence almost perfectly. Beside him, and perhaps more importantly, was an older man. Wrinkled, but eyes that radiated intensity and fire. Dressed in a similar uniform to that worn by the Admiral and Lux, the man wouldn’t have looked so out of place, had there not been a golden crown sitting on top of his gold and silver curls.

The first king in a long time, followed by… well, not a king.

The guards were posted at the end of the hallway, watching the way into and out of the apartments. Lux was shown to his room, and beside him, we were ushered into our rooms. Seething, Lux entered and closed the door behind him silently.

Once we were inside, Maria, seemingly knowing more than I did, hurriedly began to strip me of my more comfortable clothing, leaving me in my underwear, then she began searching through my luggage. While she preoccupied herself with that, I found the nearest chair to collapse into.

“Ugh.”

Maria, used to me by this point, didn't even stop her search for a moment before piping up. “What is it my lady?”

“You know what it is. This is all going to be, well, very exhausting.”

“It was, it is, and it will be, that is for certain.” Finally deciding on a dress, Maria brought over the bright red hoop skirted number that she always tried her best to fit me into.

“I’m only going to wear that because even just thinking about the conversation I’m about to be subjected to, I don’t think I have the energy to argue,” I said standing to meet her.

“Well, Leona already knows that I am more than happy about that,” she said as she got to work fitting the dress over me, “would you mind it much if I mentioned how horrified I was at the prospect of the Lord himself coming to meet you and you were wearing that farmer’s outfit you insisted on wearing?”

“I feel like you did just mention it.”

“Oh? Would you look at that, it seems I already have. While you know this already, my lady, I care for you greatly. But, I think it would serve you well to listen to me on this. The mainland is not Cerith. There are many things that are different, and many battles that you will face soon enough. But, these are not the sort that you and your grandmother would feel more at home in. These are the sorts of battles where this,” she said, pulling the corset of my dress tightly, “is a much better weapon than any sort of majics.”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind, Maria. Thank you.”

Although, I’m fairly certain that if a certain uppity baron decided to bother me, I could probably solve the problem pretty swiftly with a single ice dagger thrown his way.

Dressed, and my hair styled by Maria, the two of us left our rooms for dinner. While I would’ve preferred to eat in my room in silence, or near silence, the realities of medieval cooking was that a hot meal in one’s room was nearly impossible, so, at the very least, while I may be subjected to boring, inane conversation, I’ll at least be getting a nice hot meal.

Daydreaming about what sort of fantastical sounding but relatively mundane tasting meal they were about to serve me, I practically walked into Lux as I turned the corner, heading back toward the central hall.

“Kalie, a moment.” His tone was low and conspiratorial, obviously his issue was with the guards who had taken to following us around ever since we arrived.

“Of course. But, give me a moment to give us some privacy. Maria, would you be so kind as to inform the gentlemen back there that I will be performing a little majic?”

“Is that truly wise?” Maria asked. I didn’t particularly care what the pair of guards thought, but I turned to Lux to see what his thought was. Truly, I knew it wasn’t exactly necessary, regardless of what he said, but on the other hand, there was this nagging, girl-ish glee that I felt at the idea of Lux being impressed by my skills as a majin.

Anyway, if all he planned to tell me was that he wasn’t happy with his accommodation or something, then I wouldn’t. But, there was something about his expression that told me that what he had to say was a tad more treasonous. With a nod he confirmed my suspicions.

“Of course, I haven’t had a chance to today, but I suddenly feel a bout of mana sickness coming on. I’m sure Lord Marcroft’s men could understand. Or at the very least, you could make them understand. Can’t you?” With a sigh, and a shrug of her shoulders, Maria broke away from us, and walked back to the guards who had taken post at the end of the hallway.

“If you’ll give me a moment, I can give us about a minute or so of privacy.”

“On second thought, maybe something—” But his protest was too late, and I began to sing the song of creation. A short melody, only a few seconds long would be enough. Just enough for me to shape the air around us, holding it in place for a few minutes by the power of a tiny wind spirit that I happened to catch the attention of. With the spell sung, there was a wall of silence between the two of us and the rest of the world, the wind spirit holding the barrier of silence in place. “I… I assumed it would’ve been louder.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you created wind barrier did you not? I’ve… seen these used before. And they were loud, deafening in close proximity. But yours is silent. I guess, assuming that it actually worked,” he said, looking towards Maria who was silently explaining to the guards what I had already done.

“Oh! How weird, I guess it must just be luck, or maybe the spirit is particularly powerful?” Lies, of course.

The spirit was a lesser one, and not even close to sentient. As it went about performing my request, keeping the barrier stable, it greedily sucked away my internal mana, like nothing more than a newborn. The true difference I’d wager, was how I formed the barrier itself. Rather than a wall of wind rushing around us, deafening anyone who tried to listen in—and protecting us from physical harm—I opted for a more subtle approach. All I did was separate the air between us inside the “barrier” and outside of the “barrier” creating a small vacuum that was then held in place by the spirit. To a mundane, without sight, it would appear as nothing, but to those with sight, they could see it as the tear it was. There was an immense amount of power being used to create and maintain that vacuum, that the science nerd in me knew, but the majin in me knew as well, that the power of physics was nothing in comparison to the power of magic.

“What was it that you wanted to speak about?” I asked, snapping Lux’s attention back to the matter at hand.

“Right, of course. I just wanted to give you a warning,” despite my reassurances that he would be unheard, Lux still leaned close. Feeling the heat of his breath on my cheek, the hairs on the back of my neck rose as he spoke, “don’t let your guard down. Marcroft is not an ally to you nor to the Ravencourt.”

“I appreciate your warning, but I think that I’ll be fine, there’s little that I can do that would be worth worrying about. At most, I’ll listen to his schemes and power plays, then promptly disregard them. Maybe I can manage to gain something for Cerith in the process.”

“Don’t take this so lightly! These men that you’re disregarding are not in the positions they are because they are simple, or easy to maneuver against.”

“Then I’ll keep my defenses high! As of this moment I am a representative of Cerith, and I will do nothing that will harm my people, no matter what that man convinces me of. If he can.”

“Fine, then, Princess, please do keep my warning in mind.”

“I will,” I said, watching Lux cross the threshold of the sound barrier. Dispelling it, I followed behind. Seeing our conversation over, Maria, and the two guards followed behind us as we headed toward the main hall. A few awkward minutes later, we finally arrived, and to both my surprise and delight, there was another guest of honor at the feast, Admiral Hark.