Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Complications (Part Six)
Alistar woke up in the early hours of the morning to find that he had fallen asleep with only eight more cords of rope left to cut. Shivering, he glanced at the discarded strands that he had already managed to shed. I’d better hurry, he thought, not wanting to be stuck outside in a potential downpour. It was much cooler today, and the sky showed signs of rain.
Without missing a beat, he sat up from where he had been curled up on the grass in the fetal position and within moments he was back to filing away at the rope with a thin, razor-like extension of swordsman’s aura. A few minutes in, he found that the process was much smoother than it had been beforehand. Annoyed as he was with his master, he had to admit that he had made a tremendous amount of progress during this stint of ‘training.’
Tramon came outside about an hour after Alistar had woken up, enjoying a simple breakfast of soft bread and cheese as he watched his disciple patiently working away at the task that he had given him. Alistar found this quite annoying, since he could have easily slipped out of the last few layers of rope and run off home were his master not around. Unfortunately, he was forced to stay until he finally cut the last of the cords away from his shoulders, which took until around noon.
“Good thing you started from the bottom up,” remarked Tramon, who handed him a wooden plate with bread and carrots atop it. “That might’ve been a single rope, but it had several enchantments on it. I’m sure you noticed how it became tougher to cut the higher you worked your way?”
“I knew it…”
Letting out a gruff laugh, Tramon gave him a congratulatory slap on the back that contained enough force to cause some carrots to fall from his plate. “Looks like you’re still my apprentice, eh boy? I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Acknowledging that this was the closest thing to a compliment that he could ever hope to hear from his master, Alistar bowed his head out of respect and then abruptly turned to go. “Don’t speak too soon, Master. I still have to go deal with my family.”
“You’ll be fine. That Alder fellow stopped by this morning while you were sleeping, and from what he told me your uncles aren’t aware of what happened. Seems like those brats were too embarrassed to bring it up.”
“Alder came by? What for?”
“To check up on you, obviously. Seems like those lasses told him what happened.”
Alistar breathed a deep sigh of relief, but before he could say anything else Tramon began to shoo him away with a lazy hand.
“Go on, now.”
“But, the food…”
“Didn’t you want to get back to kissing your uncles’ boots?”
He placed the plate down with a bit of reluctance. “Thank you for the lesson, Master.” Although he was both anxious and annoyed, he knew that Tramon only had his best interests at heart. “I’ll see you—”
“Tomorrow, at the usual time.”
“Yes…I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Alistar left the collegia in a hurry, sprinting all the way to the city’s western gates and then following the pathway that led to Caedmon’s estate. It was a gloomy day, if not a bit cool for the season. Large clouds loomed overhead, all of them with dark grey underbellies, the wind strong enough to shake the treetops of the twin lines of oaks that ran parallel to one another on either side of the pathway.
It wasn’t long before he sensed four people up ahead, all of their auras familiar. He instinctually reined in his own energy signal and continued to focus his perceptions on the group, feeling the subconscious need to hide his presence. Something about the way that they were idling in place made him a bit anxious, so Alistar picked up his pace and ran at full tilt. Anice and Lessa came into view about a minute later as he made his way around the bend where the pathway wrapped around a large hill that had been obscuring the others from his line of sight. They stood facing Edmun and Calum, both of whom wore expressions that Alistar was seeing for the first time on them. What he saw was vehemence and malice.
The four were in the midst of an argument. Dressed in new dresses that Alistar had yet to see them wear, Anice and Lessa were standing about ten paces away from the brothers, who faced them in loose clothes and comfortable cloaks.
“Do you think I’ll forgive you with just that?” Edmun was saying, his voice harsh as if he were speaking to some heinous scum. “You made me look like a fool in front of the entire family.”
“T—that was your fault!” said Anice, clearly frightened from the look in the boy’s eyes. “Nobody told you to sneak into my room!”
Since he and his brother were facing the direction where Alistar was approaching from, the brothers caught sight of Alistar first.
“Tsk, this bastard has the worst timing.” The lower right side of Edmun’s face was raw and sleek with a light layer of puss and unknown liquid, the flesh pink and swollen. “We’ll talk about this later, and I expect you to apologize to me with your full sincerity.”
Both girls turned around as Alistar drew near, the anxiety and unease in their expressions almost instantly turning into relief and hopefulness. They had never stared at him like that, which told him that the current situation wasn’t simple.
“Hey everyone. Is everything okay?”
“Keep on,” said Calum, whose straight, shoulder-length hair was a bit damp from a recent washing. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Anice grabbed his right hand and shook her head with wide eyes, her actions begging him not to leave. Seeing this, he sighed and showed her an assuring smile, squeezing her hand in a show of support. Letting go, he took a few steps forward and addressed Edmun.
“About what happened the other day, I’d like to apologize. I would have caught up to you two, but my master happened to pass by and he wasn’t happy that I’d been missing my lessons, so—”
“Save your excuses. You ignored me, your relative, in front of those strangers and even went on to heal the pleb that I’d been dueling with. You’re barely a part of this family, so you might not be aware, but we Silverkins take offences like that very seriously.”
Alistar found it interesting how Edmun could warp the truth so that he was somehow the one at fault for what had happened. He wanted nothing more than to tell the boy off, but calmly reminded himself of his uncle Caedmon’s earlier warnings and decided to continue trying to appease the two brothers.
“I practice near there, so I see those people quite often. I couldn’t just ignore the injured disciple, so that’s why I healed him. I shouldn’t have ignored you though. I was just struggling to focus on activating my mending spell, since it’s quite challenging to use. Again, I apoligize.”
“Why haven’t you left yet?” snapped Calum, his voice impatient. “We’re trying to have a talk with the girls here, so you should leave. We’re not going to ask you again.”
Alistar suddenly felt the same sense of indignation that had defined much of his life in Crystellum, the sort of hopeless anger that came with being subjected to one-sided humiliation and overt unfairness. Evidently it was impossible to get in the good graces of his cousins at this point, which left him with no other choice but to bow his head and leave the girls to deal with them on their own. That was the only way that he could avoid agitating these two any further, and by extension avoid causing trouble for Caedmon.
Alistar’s frown deepened.
Leaving the girls to deal with this on their own wasn’t a viable option. The last time that he had left his loved ones to their fates had resulted in endless regret, and he saw a shadow of that situation in the one before him.
Meeting the silent stares of the two boys, Alistar walked back over to Anice and Lessa to stand in between them. “What happened to your face Edmun? I can heal it for you, if you’d like.”
“I misjudged him,” said the elder brother to the younger. “I didn’t think he was this foolish.”
Alistar ignored him and looked at the wide, watery pairs of silver eyes on either side of him. “What’s going on?”
Anice suddenly blushed, wiping an angry tear from her eye. “Last night, Edmun snuck into my room after everyone else went to sleep. He…he crawled into my bed and k—kissed me. He wouldn’t stop, and I was scared so I pushed him away, and…and I accidently used a bit of magic.”
Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Complications (Part Six)
Alistar woke up in the early hours of the morning to find that he had fallen asleep with only eight more cords of rope left to cut. Shivering, he glanced at the discarded strands that he had already managed to shed. I’d better hurry, he thought, not wanting to be stuck outside in a potential downpour. It was much cooler today, and the sky showed signs of rain.
Without missing a beat, he sat up from where he had been curled up on the grass in the fetal position and within moments he was back to filing away at the rope with a thin, razor-like extension of swordsman’s aura. A few minutes in, he found that the process was much smoother than it had been beforehand. Annoyed as he was with his master, he had to admit that he had made a tremendous amount of progress during this stint of ‘training.’
Tramon came outside about an hour after Alistar had woken up, enjoying a simple breakfast of soft bread and cheese as he watched his disciple patiently working away at the task that he had given him. Alistar found this quite annoying, since he could have easily slipped out of the last few layers of rope and run off home were his master not around. Unfortunately, he was forced to stay until he finally cut the last of the cords away from his shoulders, which took until around noon.
“Good thing you started from the bottom up,” remarked Tramon, who handed him a wooden plate with bread and carrots atop it. “That might’ve been a single rope, but it had several enchantments on it. I’m sure you noticed how it became tougher to cut the higher you worked your way?”
“I knew it…”
Letting out a gruff laugh, Tramon gave him a congratulatory slap on the back that contained enough force to cause some carrots to fall from his plate. “Looks like you’re still my apprentice, eh boy? I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Acknowledging that this was the closest thing to a compliment that he could ever hope to hear from his master, Alistar bowed his head out of respect and then abruptly turned to go. “Don’t speak too soon, Master. I still have to go deal with my family.”
“You’ll be fine. That Alder fellow stopped by this morning while you were sleeping, and from what he told me your uncles aren’t aware of what happened. Seems like those brats were too embarrassed to bring it up.”
“Alder came by? What for?”
“To check up on you, obviously. Seems like those lasses told him what happened.”
Alistar breathed a deep sigh of relief, but before he could say anything else Tramon began to shoo him away with a lazy hand.
“Go on, now.”
“But, the food…”
“Didn’t you want to get back to kissing your uncles’ boots?”
He placed the plate down with a bit of reluctance. “Thank you for the lesson, Master.” Although he was both anxious and annoyed, he knew that Tramon only had his best interests at heart. “I’ll see you—”
“Tomorrow, at the usual time.”
“Yes…I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Alistar left the collegia in a hurry, sprinting all the way to the city’s western gates and then following the pathway that led to Caedmon’s estate. It was a gloomy day, if not a bit cool for the season. Large clouds loomed overhead, all of them with dark grey underbellies, the wind strong enough to shake the treetops of the twin lines of oaks that ran parallel to one another on either side of the pathway.
It wasn’t long before he sensed four people up ahead, all of their auras familiar. He instinctually reined in his own energy signal and continued to focus his perceptions on the group, feeling the subconscious need to hide his presence. Something about the way that they were idling in place made him a bit anxious, so Alistar picked up his pace and ran at full tilt. Anice and Lessa came into view about a minute later as he made his way around the bend where the pathway wrapped around a large hill that had been obscuring the others from his line of sight. They stood facing Edmun and Calum, both of whom wore expressions that Alistar was seeing for the first time on them. What he saw was vehemence and malice.
The four were in the midst of an argument. Dressed in new dresses that Alistar had yet to see them wear, Anice and Lessa were standing about ten paces away from the brothers, who faced them in loose clothes and comfortable cloaks.
“Do you think I’ll forgive you with just that?” Edmun was saying, his voice harsh as if he were speaking to some heinous scum. “You made me look like a fool in front of the entire family.”
“T—that was your fault!” said Anice, clearly frightened from the look in the boy’s eyes. “Nobody told you to sneak into my room!”
Since he and his brother were facing the direction where Alistar was approaching from, the brothers caught sight of Alistar first.
“Tsk, this bastard has the worst timing.” The lower right side of Edmun’s face was raw and sleek with a light layer of puss and unknown liquid, the flesh pink and swollen. “We’ll talk about this later, and I expect you to apologize to me with your full sincerity.”
Both girls turned around as Alistar drew near, the anxiety and unease in their expressions almost instantly turning into relief and hopefulness. They had never stared at him like that, which told him that the current situation wasn’t simple.
“Hey everyone. Is everything okay?”
“Keep on,” said Calum, whose straight, shoulder-length hair was a bit damp from a recent washing. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Anice grabbed his right hand and shook her head with wide eyes, her actions begging him not to leave. Seeing this, he sighed and showed her an assuring smile, squeezing her hand in a show of support. Letting go, he took a few steps forward and addressed Edmun.
“About what happened the other day, I’d like to apologize. I would have caught up to you two, but my master happened to pass by and he wasn’t happy that I’d been missing my lessons, so—”
“Save your excuses. You ignored me, your relative, in front of those strangers and even went on to heal the pleb that I’d been dueling with. You’re barely a part of this family, so you might not be aware, but we Silverkins take offences like that very seriously.”
Alistar found it interesting how Edmun could warp the truth so that he was somehow the one at fault for what had happened. He wanted nothing more than to tell the boy off, but calmly reminded himself of his uncle Caedmon’s earlier warnings and decided to continue trying to appease the two brothers.
“I practice near there, so I see those people quite often. I couldn’t just ignore the injured disciple, so that’s why I healed him. I shouldn’t have ignored you though. I was just struggling to focus on activating my mending spell, since it’s quite challenging to use. Again, I apoligize.”
“Why haven’t you left yet?” snapped Calum, his voice impatient. “We’re trying to have a talk with the girls here, so you should leave. We’re not going to ask you again.”
Alistar suddenly felt the same sense of indignation that had defined much of his life in Crystellum, the sort of hopeless anger that came with being subjected to one-sided humiliation and overt unfairness. Evidently it was impossible to get in the good graces of his cousins at this point, which left him with no other choice but to bow his head and leave the girls to deal with them on their own. That was the only way that he could avoid agitating these two any further, and by extension avoid causing trouble for Caedmon.
Alistar’s frown deepened.
Leaving the girls to deal with this on their own wasn’t a viable option. The last time that he had left his loved ones to their fates had resulted in endless regret, and he saw a shadow of that situation in the one before him.
Meeting the silent stares of the two boys, Alistar walked back over to Anice and Lessa to stand in between them. “What happened to your face Edmun? I can heal it for you, if you’d like.”
“I misjudged him,” said the elder brother to the younger. “I didn’t think he was this foolish.”
Alistar ignored him and looked at the wide, watery pairs of silver eyes on either side of him. “What’s going on?”
Anice suddenly blushed, wiping an angry tear from her eye. “Last night, Edmun snuck into my room after everyone else went to sleep. He…he crawled into my bed and k—kissed me. He wouldn’t stop, and I was scared so I pushed him away, and…and I accidently used a bit of magic.”
