"We apologize for our rudeness," said the butler, for it was hard to think of him as anything else. He tipped his head toward me, just slightly.
Liora bobbed her head in a quick, uncertain bow. I was just glad she hadn’t prostrated herself again. That was awkward the first time, and it would be worse with a crowd. The green-haired boy glared, arms folded. He was looking down on me -literally, given how much taller he was.
“Young master, please….” the butler said. His voice sounded resigned.
The boy clicked his tongue, looked away. “Thanks I guess. For finding her, I mean.” It sounded like the words had been pulled out of him by force.
"It's fine," I said, resting a hand on Sere's shoulder. “Don’t lose track of her. She seems a little….” I looked at Liora and tried to find the word. Something like ‘ill suited to stepping outside’ was probably too rude to say, wasn’t it? “Just try to be more careful next time,” I said instead.
The butler bowed deeper, then straightened. The girl scrambled to match him -was she copying him?- and then the three of them were making their exit.
Sere slid out her notepad towards me. She’s strange.
I smiled and ruffled her hair. “I think we’re stranger. Come on, let’s head back.”
"Where the hell have you been?" Violet demanded the second we got back to our seats. She had her braid in her hand, and she gave it a tug. It seemed we’d been gone for longer than I’d realized.
“There-” I paused. Did I really want to explain everything right here? Besides, I had my suspicions about this ‘Liora Stone’ I had seemingly rescued, and I wanted the chance to confirm them first. “Things happened, and it took a little longer than it should have.”
Anias and Damian were staring too, along with our guard, and Violet's gaze dropped to my cloak, to the spot the whip had bitten clean through. She stood, planted both hands on my shoulders, and shook me. “You had fun without me didn’t you?!”
"I didn't try to!" I said, tugging the cloak tight. It had come dangerously close to coming off entirely.
“But you still did,” Violet protested. She finally stopped shaking me. She looked from me to Sere. “So…you’re both okay, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “And I’ll explain everything on the way back. Assuming you’re done?” Now that I paid attention, there really weren’t that many people left in the stands.
“We are,” Damian said, rising too. “We were just about to go and find you, actually.”
The rest of them rose, and we left the coliseum behind. Only when it was well in the distance did Violet speak up again. “Hey when are our matches and stuff gonna start? We haven’t even registered yet!” She was walking on my right, close enough that we repeatedly bumped into each other. I was convinced she did it on purpose.
“In ten days,” I said. “Or eleven? We’re going to register after we get back. Though, I think your ceremony comes first.”
“Oh…” Violet stopped in place. I took a few steps, before I realized she was no longer at my side. I turned back to her. Everyone else had stopped too.
“You okay?”
Violet smacked both her cheeks at once, one hand for each. “Yeah yeah. Just had some whiny thoughts.”
“So you…slapped yourself?”
Violet nodded. “Yep, gotta beat stupid thoughts away sometimes.”
“And this works for you?” I asked. Had I ever done something like this? Gods I hoped not.
Violet gave me a grin. "Hell yeah it does. You should try it sometime. Bet you need it more than I do."
“Violet if you don’t want to do it, I’ll never make-”
Violet reached over, grabbed my arm, and hauled me down the road. I let her, though I suppose I could have planted my feet. “I already made my choice. Come on, look at that!” She was pointing at a food vendor, one who was selling something in tiny brown plates. I couldn’t see what he was selling from the angle, but I could smell it. Something earthy and faintly…spicy?
The others followed behind. Well, I supposed I could do with another distraction. For Violet’s sake. The fact that I was curious too was completely accidental.
“Are you sure, My Lady?” Anias asked. She walked just behind me, half a dozen bags floating around her in purple light. Violet had really liked the food, to the point where she wanted seconds. Thirds, and apparently even fourths. All to eat another day.
It had grown late. The sun had been setting when we’d left the coliseum, and by now, the only light that shone above came from the stars. We walked in contented silence, mostly because everyone had eaten more than they should have. Even Randell, though he had been almost insultingly quiet the entire time. I think he was just looking forward to when he could go back to being a guard, rather than walking with an ‘escort’, as strange as it was.
“I think so,” I murmured. My voice carried as we walked. “It was close enough to the pictures I'd seen. I'm sure it was the same shade.”
“What are the odds of that?” Anias wondered. “To think that you might have run into-”
"Well, I'm not entirely sure," I admitted. “I just have a pretty good hunch. Will this be a problem?”
“I can’t see how it would, My Lady.” Anias confirmed. That was a relief.
The streets should have been less crowded, this late in the day. They certainly would have been in Aelheim. Half of that was because things in our District simply weren’t as safe as I would like when the sun set. Half of that was because there simply wasn’t much to do the darker the day ran.
It didn’t seem like that applied here. Everywhere I looked, Magical Implements glared down and bathed the streets in light so bright that only the sky told me it was night at all. And then there was the festivity of it.
People played music on street corners to small crowds of watchers. A man coaxed a little dragon of light into the air and a knot of children shrieked with delight, none of them so much as glancing over their shoulders. Back in Aelheim, I’d had to make an orphanage myself, because nobody else would would build one worth the name. Come to think of it, I was fairly sure I’d seen maybe three beggars since I’d first come to this city.
It was annoying. But…maybe it didn’t have to only be annoying. I would have to study this place more extensively, to see if we could use some of this. Assuming it wasn’t stupid expensive.
I told them the short version of what had happened as we walked. Violet's reaction came three streets later.
“So there’s another one,” Violet said, staring very pointedly ahead, where there was nothing to stare at.
“What?” I looked at her.
“You said you saved another brat didn’t ya. And she was a girl.” Violet’s voice had gone surprisingly low for her, though it was still most people’s normal volume.
“Well…yes.”
“Another one,” Violet said again. She muttered something so low even I didn’t hear it, punctuating it with a brief tug on her braid. “You can’t go ten minutes without saving someone, can you?” As she said this, her face colored, just faintly.
“It’s not like I go out of my way to do it,” I protested. “It just…it just has a way of happening. What was I supposed to do, not help her?”
“Sure.” Violet muttered. “Just a way of happening, huh? Can’t let you out of my sight for two seconds. Who knows who you’ll run into next time.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. “I just,” my own voice was low. “I like to help, if I can. And if it’s….”I gestured vaguely, in a motion that took in me, Violet and Sere at the same time. “If it’s someone like us, I want to help even more, you know? Because nobody else might, and someone has to.”
Violet let out a sigh. We walked, and she said nothing for a time. I got the distinct impression that both Damian and Anias had purposefully fallen behind. That was considerate, though what they were considerate of exactly, I couldn’t say.
“It’s not like I don’t like that,” Violet muttered.
“What?”
“When you do things like that,” Violet said, a little too quickly. “It’s not like I don’t like that. It’s a good thing. Some bastards need to be kicked in the teeth and we have too few people willing to do all the kicking. So it’s not that I don’t like it.”
“Then…then what’s the issue?” I asked. I had thought for sure this was going to be something about how I “shouldn’t put myself in danger” for other people. It seemed like I was rather off the mark.
Violet’s face went redder still. “It’s just- how many are you- like how long until I-” She shut her jaw. I almost heard her teeth snap. She said nothing. She looked at me, and looked away again.
Think. I blinked. That was Vaelin. The Godblade had chosen now to speak up. And the impression I got from the blade was that it was…amused. What reason did it have to be amused?
So I thought. Violet wasn’t upset that I had put myself in danger, however minor said danger might have been. She was upset at something else, something that was to do with her. How long until I-
Oh. I was an idiot. She’s upset I didn’t ask for her help, she’s just not saying it. Vaelin hummed in agreement, or at least, I think it was agreement. I looked at Violet. Her jaw was set, and she was very plainly trying not to look anywhere but straight ahead. I stepped closer to her, hooked her arm through mine.
“What are you-”
"Shush," I said. “You’re going to listen to me, do you understand?” Violet’s mouth slowly closed. Whatever she’d been about to say died in her throat. "You're my friend. You're someone important to me," I said. My heart was hammering. “That’s not going to change or anything. So if you’re-” I struggled for the words. Why was this so hard? I’d rather fight Vyranthos again. “So if you think-”
Violet sighed. “I get it.” She met my gaze. And her red eyes stared into my own. “I get it. It was just…a phase. Yeah, let’s call it that.” She pulled me closer, and stepped forward. I had to hurriedly match my pace, or stumble.
Footsteps came from behind, and then Sere grabbed my other arm. The two of them fell into perfect step. I was the one left struggling to keep up.
It was not long before we reached the quarter where our manor stood. It took even less time before we saw the guards. They stood out badly, in a city where we'd seen so few people armed at all, let alone clanking around in full plate. They stood at seemingly every other intersection, growing more frequent with each block we passed.
"What the hell's the big idea?" Violet grumbled, eyeing a man who stared back without blinking.
“Maybe something happened?” Damian offered.
Anias was the only one who seemed to think the same thing I was. “My Lady, is this….?”
“Perhaps.”
We finally reached our manor, and sure enough, it was surrounded. A full contingent of guards stood outside its low walls, their gazes going everywhere at once. Just past the gate stood a carriage. Though perhaps calling it a carriage was too insulting. The thing was twice again the size of the largest carriage I had ever seen in Aelheim, covered in intricate patterns of gold and green. A green in a shade I recognized, for I had seen it twice today already.
We stood a few dozen paces away. None of us said anything. My mind was racing. So those kids had been who I had thought they were. And somehow or another, saving that girl had led to this. It sounded almost silly, but I had a very good suspicion of why there were so many guards, and of who might arrive in a carriage this fine.
I’d wanted a deal between House Veyne and House Solaire. I’d wanted to slowly work my way up the chain, through proper channels. I’d wanted to-
One of the guards noticed us. Perhaps he had a Gift that helped him. He pointed, and half a dozen more guards followed his pointing. Well, damn it.
They took our weapons. Everyone gave theirs up freely. I had none to give. Violet took some persuading, but even she eventually gave one of the guards her warhammer. The man stumbled when he held it, but at least he didn’t drop it. I didn’t want to know what Violet might have done if he had.
Then, we were walking into our own manor, though it seemed to have slipped out of our grasp over the course of a single day. More guards lined the way in, these in finer armor, and eyed us as we passed.
We were through, into the main room beyond the entrance. I recognized him at once. How could I not? I had committed the man’s face to memory long before we had ever stepped through the Farstep Circle.
Directly ahead of us -flanked by a butler who tipped his head again- sat Serac Solaire. Duke Solaire. One of the most powerful men in the Kingdom.
He eyed our procession. His gaze slid past Randell as if he didn’t even exist. It settled on me. I would have pulled the cloak tighter, had I thought it would do anything.
“Welcome,” he said. “You’ve kept me waiting.”